Tuesday Adventure Ride

So it started off a bit sketchy, got a bit rough in the middle and don’t start me on the end but other than that it was brilliant. Only kidding it was all good

Went for a ride on the new (to me) toy yesterday, the weather wasn’t great but i couldn’t let that stop me. The day before I bought a new jacket for summer riding with all the shoulder, elbow and back protection but with mostly mesh material to let the air through so that had to stay in the cupboard today. :angry:

Headed into Maitland then out through Lorn to Dungog where I fueled up and headed out towards Barrington House and up into Chichester state forest. The roads were wet in a few places but I hadn’t actually ridden in any rain by the time i turned for home. Had a couple of moments with 2 calves roaming loose and also with a parrot and a galah trying to run me off the road at different times :huh: but other than that all was going well.

Headed up the fire trail into Chichester on wet and at times very slippery roads on road tyres with the back one having virtually no tread in the middle. It was ok for the most part but there were some slimy clay patches that made it interesting :ohmy: :unsure: :S . After a couple of “oh shit” moments I decided that further exploration would better wait until I got some decent tyres on the big girl.

Started heading back and checked out a couple of side tracks hoping they would come to some sort of lookout but it was getting too risky with the tyres and the leaf litter on these tracks so down the mountain I went. The rain hit about the same time i hit the tar but it didn’t spoil the ride and it came and went, going from light drizzle to pouring rain as I made my way back into Dungog, through Clarence town and into Raymond Terrace. I had lunch at the Junction Inn beside the river, fortunately there was no rain for the last 10 minutes of the ride which meant I was all but dry by the time I got there.

All up around 200K’s for the day and not a bad test for the bike, there are a couple of little problems that need looking at, there seems to be a bit of movement in the head stock which I can feel when hitting bumps, there is a bit of a clunking noise coming from the back end when going slow (but it doesn’t do it when up on the stand) and the clutch slips when I tried to dump it and get the front wheel up but other than that it went beautifully all day.

Fueled up in Dungog

Less than perfect off road tyre