neerim to noojee…..vicco ride

gooday bulls,

hooked up with my mate Jay (OBT choppa) and micks brother Ant today for a blatt thru the forest, and onto the pub, and back again.

picked up Ant about 8.30 and headed to the BP at longwarry to meet Jay. it pissed rain all the way there:) i woofed down a hotdog and a couple of dimmos for some energy and to soak up some of last nights tequila. and we were off….

we cruised our way up to latrobe river road in neerim where the DSE have built a bike unloading area. complete with a dunny, a sheltered change area and parking for prolly 40 odd bikes with trailers….brilliant. there were about 10 or so cars there already.

we unloaded and suited up, ready to go. jays bike doesnt like starting with the button from cold, so he gave the berg an almighty kick and SNAP, his kickstarter shaft broke clean off. sh!t…
anyway, team kato (me and ant) of course, were ready to rock as jay pushed it out of the carpark, bloody yellow bikes!!! trying to roll start the 501 proved a little difficult on a greasy gravel road. i went back to get a towrope. ant decided that his legs were too short and toppled over trying to do a u-turn. i missed that one. jay got the berger started and we took off.

jay lead us into the bush. the terrain was mixed from white sandy loam to rocky outcrops to really greasy red clay and even orange slop!
ant had a spectacular off, climbing a red clay hill, ants kato did a 90 degree right hand turn and tryed to climb the embankment:laugh: it was soooooo slippery in places that you were just a passenger….:woohoo:
there were some pretty big whoops on one track that freaked me out and caused me to have ha few “moments” there was only i river crossing but it was rather large and flowing.

ant crossing the latrobe river.

ant and jay and my mistress..lol..

a few of the downhills were a little slippery and rutted and pretty bloody scary.
i found myself passing jay on one. it was good ground for the top bit then it got slimey and i was goin too fast. i managed to stop it somehow and nearly went over the bars. the back wheel was about a foot off the ground. then we fell over sideways.:laugh: nothing broken.
we had 5kms of tar to get to the pub. it was good to cool off. the weather had got better and we didnt get any rain on us all day.
we went to a place called the toolshed in noojee. its a very popular haunt with riders both road and trail.

there is also a nice restaurant too. for the upper classes:laugh:

wicked place. a few beers some grouse food, big open fire.
we sat outside in the sun and had a feed;)

jay, aka choppa, woofing down a billy burger

i had a pizza and ant had some chips and gravy all were great.we lazed around talked sh!t for a while and headed back into the bush.

we came home another way and hit a orange clay downhill. hardpack with an inch of slop on top. ant wiped out the 530. there were a couple of blokes sitting down the bottom and another one waiting to climb it. ant got all crossed up and laid down again and slid down the bottom of the hill. i got to the bottom and was talkin to one of the other dudes. he said his mate “would perform” for me if i could get the 300 up there. i didnt even try. waaaayy beyond my capabilitys, even being a superhero:laugh: :laugh: these young blokes were there to just try and get up it for fun. :silly: we stayed and watched one fella try it twice, but no cigar.

a few more tracks and back across the river. its funny, a lot of people camp at the river and they all come out as soon as they hear the sound of bikes to watch the crossing. there must be some good wipeouts there, it keeps the campers entertained anyway. we all made it ok.
back through the sh!t myself whoops and we hit the forest road and roosted back to the cars.

we only did 90k but it was a good days riding. it was challenging enough that im rooted, but not too hard.
it took us about 3ish hours of riding, including stops.
i averaged 48km/h for the day. jay had 50 something. he was on song all day.

the only casualty was my 300. my R/R indicator melted from the exhaust heat, not from the pipe but from the expelled exhaust. i didnt think it would, it was a fair amount away. i thought id busted it when i stacked, but its melted…

and i lost the wierd looking nut that screws on the end of the muffler…..im dreading what thatll cost:blink:

it was a top day and we all went home spent, but smiling:)

top work by Jay for navigating and leading most of the day