Matt arrived bright and early to give me a lift down to Russell's "Storm boy" ride on the 3rd of April. It was to be the first "real" outing for the new Husaberg FE570, and I was really looking forward to unleashing the beast.
After an hours drive, we arrived at Russell's parents place, which has a great waterfront view, very nice indeed.
We were last or very close to last to arrive, so we unloaded the bikes and started to get ready, introducing Matt around to the other riders as well.
Unfortunately Tony's Husky had a small issue, which made him a "Did not start" for the ride, so he didn't get to test out his new "Bling" from over the summer.
Before long we were on the road heading to the trails, which started with some tight quarry like stuff at first, where we got a bit turned around (geographically challenged), and perhaps this is where Rob got left behind.
The trails from there went into roadside tracks, that are starting to get a bit overgrown, and meant a lot of ducking and weaving, but hey, thats all part of the fun.
We realised then that Rob wasn't with us, but despite Mike doing some k's up the road and back, we couldn't find Rob, and had to assume he was taking the road or had headed back.
Some more roadside tracks and then alongside the railway line for some nice riding was the go. At one spot I had to climb across a little bit of dirt, and after waiting until Matt and Jeff arrived, I started across, and promptly landed on my butt. First stack on the Berg, but does it count if you're barely moving? ;-)
It turned out that some wire got caught in the wheel at exactly that spot, and stopped the bike dead. After some help, we got the wire out in a couple of minutes and back onto the trail towards lunch.
A pie/sausage roll and drink later, and a splash of fuel, and back into the tracks we went. Apparently we missed Rob by only a couple of minutes at Lunch, so he ended up having a ride mostly by himself, and perhaps a bit more road oriented than the rest of us.
The ride back was more of the same, with another stack on the Berg, this time when ducking/weaving amongst the trees. Front hit a small, hidden branch and next thing I was on the ground. Brushed myself off, and off we went again, having too much fun to worry really ;-)
More thick sand tracks where the power of the Berg really shone, with plenty of grunt from almost zero revs right through to the top. This engine has very broad power.
The suspension suits my weight very well, and after plenty of whoops on this ride, should be well and truly broken in now.
Got home just after dark, pretty worn out.
Thanks Matt for the lift, and Russell for leading an excellent ride, Jeff for Tail duties, look forward to the next one.