Bellingen 4 day Ride/Flood report

[Bob DowsettMember]

Hey Corey

Did u get married on the weekend or something ????

If not whats your excuse ……..

Maybe u better change your Avatar :laugh: :whistle: :pinch:

Disclaimer

Haven’t met u yet but hopefully u can take a joke

[Bob DowsettMember]

Aaron wrote:

Great report guys plus pics and vids sweet . Hard conditions to keep your goggles on :pinch: just a tad wet. Great commitment by all.! :cheer:

The only goggles we had on were the smirnoff goggles at the pub

Safety glasses the go won’;t leave home without em again

[corey heatherMember]

Yeah i was going to ride Saturday but after reading thursday and fridays stuff and living right next to where you rode i decied to pull my skirt up and take the kids out for the day LOL

[Alan HeatherMember]

Yep agree with corey when you ride the best trails on the coast when ever you like you do get spoilt bob ;)good to catch up with you guy at macksville on the weekend any how even if it wasn’t on my bike..

[Adrian GaleMember]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEiNmom2Exw&list=UUJtYNVYjLf_tlVqWkR1GpIQ&index=1&feature=plcp[/video]

Galey’s run at the widowmaker. No KTM’s were harmed in this video! Warning: dumbass comment from Bob! :huh:

[Bob DowsettMember]

bigger al wrote:

Yep agree with corey when you ride the best trails on the coast when ever you like you do get spoilt bob ;)good to catch up with you guy at macksville on the weekend any how even if it wasn’t on my bike..

yeh you get a couple of points for at least turning up

better make that one point , you would have got a couple more if u had the bike on the back 😆

[Alan HeatherMember]

Bob wrote:

bigger al wrote:

Yep agree with corey when you ride the best trails on the coast when ever you like you do get spoilt bob ;)good to catch up with you guy at macksville on the weekend any how even if it wasn’t on my bike..

yeh you get a couple of points for at least turning up

better make that one point , you would have got a couple more if u had the bike on the back 😆

you’ll have to come up in the dry bob and do the trails you missed out on ev still done a cracking job to get you where he did on ya ev

[Bob DowsettMember]

C’mon Galey

Where is chapter 3 Waiting , waiting ,waiting

its like waiting for you to get all your bike gear on and on your bike before we go riding
Waiting , Waiting , Waiting 😆 :laugh:

[MARTIN TWINEMember]

Galey you always tell a good story mate,look forward to the next chapters.

Cheers Marty

[Adrian GaleMember]

Nice to have you on board Marty 450! Day 3 almost complete! Stay tuned. :kiss:

[Adrian GaleMember]

Day Three- Macksville

This was my favourite ride as we had more troops, it was dryer, we had a stack of hill climbs and we covered a fair amount of terrain which ensured a long day in the saddle. Gathered at the ride off site was Macca our sweep (WR450), Rossco (WR450) and Adam (Yammie 250). That made seven hearty souls with one DRZ rider MIA!

The word was the first section was as greasy as a banana peel and covered it crappy lantana. True it was so most felt their way into the day in this section. Soon we were headed for the ridges with one nice long single track hill climb which had a peaked summit so that the front wheel was going down the other side as the rear wheel was still coming up! One for the unwary.

We pulled up to have a breather as Ev went to assess the planned trail for dramas. A comms mistake meant that Ev was waiting down trail for us! This happened a few times only Ev would come back with good news that the trail/creek was rideable.

We went down some nice sketchy hills that dropped into flowing creeks, riding in the creeks for a while and climbing up the other side.

Once such hill climb had the lads going in all directions tripping over each other. I managed to gouge myself and Katie on a section of F…ing barbed wire right beside the hill. WTF! Bob must have thought I was mucking about as he went the same line and ended up with more scratches on the beast. Out came the pliers to remove the wire and pile up it up under a far away tree. Best to piss it off rather than have anyone else harm themselves more than what I did. By the time we regrouped Ev was doing some trailside maintenance on the WR but was unsuccessful in putting better teeth on his front sprocket. A plan was hatched to get back to the cars and possibly someone may have a spare with their gear. The chain was tightened and we headed off without drama.

Once back at base, Ev and Adam took off to find a sprocket as none were found in gear bags etc. The nut was also taken to match up with the correct socket. What could go wrong? Bob jumped in and ripped the bike down for quick reassembly on their return. We were paid a visit by Bigger Al who checked in the see how we were getting on.

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It seemed liked three hours had passed when the lads returned and started the repair. Only thing was the nut was left back at home. Macca offered up his nut so Ev could continue and called it a day along with Rossco who had a hot date that evening.

We hot footed it back to where we left off and Ev resumed showing us this awesome riding area. So awesome in fact that he took us down a valley and dropped us into a swollen creek. Ev took off down the creek and left me to find the best line. Travelling to slow on the 300, Katie had a drink of water and stopped. I was in good company as Bob had found a 5ft hole to give his beast a proper wash with the whole bike going under. Bob was lucky he was sitting on the bike or he may have gone right under. LC and Bob set to work on the WR while Adam gave me a hand with the 300. Ev returned to get some pics and video bless him. We both got under way with Ev pointing the way only for me to water the 300 again! Once on high ground and dewatered the 300 was pushed the rest of the way along the creek in the deeper sections. I found the bottom of the air box had a build up of mud in the bottom which would have reduced the water crossing capabilities somewhat.

Back on dry land we hit the ridge line again and had a blast along a winding stretch with erosion mounds and rocky up hills. Once on the fire trail I felt like my rear tyre was flat, but as I run mousses I shrugged it off. Later on LC pulled me up to say to wheel was looking sick. I had another check and the tyre was rubbing on the chain guard on one side for about ¼ the diameter of the tyre. LC had chosen to stop on a bull ants nest so we moved to the fire trail where Bob took delight in kicking the shit out of the KTM to try and centre the mousse. I had to stop him as he was having too much fun. It didn’t move it. The options were firetrail back to base or push on through the singles. I chose the latter and ran a slow pace as sweep.

We came to the last hill of the day and the lads were running over each other and hitting different lines trying to get to the summit. I had to get the camera out for the carnage. Fearing the mousse would succeed in its bid for freedom I found my own way up the hill by going diagonally up through the bush. Once at the top Ev conquered his demon and joined me followed by LC who also made it. Bob and Adam had to take a fire trail around after many valiant attempts. With all the hill climb carnage we were having it was surprising that more damage to the bikes was not had. Bobs bike did suffer from lying on its side more than being upright, with the rear wheel bearings giving up the ghost by the end of the day.

We returned to Ev’s place in Bello and Bob and I did some work on our steeds. Bob needed the bearings and met a shady character in Coffs for an inflated price but strangely no money changed hands! :whistle: I pulled out the mousse to find nothing obviously wrong with it but the tyre had deformed slightly. I had a good 2nd tyre in the trailer so this was fitted with abit less mousse. The tyre seems to have returned to normal as I write this. The Pirelli I used has a large profile 120/100 and I think the mousse may have rolled over to one side. Probably from the power of the 300!

We had a takeaway dinner with Ev and his wife waiting for Bob to return and fix the beast. An oil change was painstakingly performed after the drowning as well.

Back at the pub the Smirnoff’s flowed until kick out time when we crashed the young-uns party upstairs. LC did well not to kick the crap out of a dope head that was picking him. As we had our bikes in the car park, our cooler heads prevailed and called it as it was early into Sunday morning. Not a good start to the final day of our tour of duty.

[murph the surfMember]

Great reports fella’s
Kinda wished I was there. :pinch:
Cheers
Murph

[AlexMember]

Nice one Bob. As long as you enjoyed it its all good.

[Adrian GaleMember]

Day 4 Nth Bello
A dusty crew of four assembled at Ev’s for a short and sweet session in the lantana. This was Ev’s promised land of single trails and hill climbs. We headed out into the slick red clay and sure enough I nearly went down in the first 100 metres. One cheeky hill climb after a creek caught out the tourists, but a re-run with abit more gusto did the job.

LC settled into the sweep position, a sure sign of the affects of a big night. Ev linked up a lot of his never ending trails in the damp dark forest. We encountered numerous down trees and logs at various angles with Bob using a tempered aggressive approach; he managed to win the battle with the logs. Ev’s hand saw was brought into the fray a few times. Ev was laying the WR over on a couple of logs as well as himself at times.

We tackled a slippery hill on the way home that didn’t cause much concern for the group. I was disappointed that we were not able to do the infamous 4km long hill because of the conditions. This too will have to wait for another day.

Quote of the day “I would bend over and pick it up but I would have a spew” LC. A lethal cocktail of bevies will do that to you bro.

It has to be said that the best part of the day was jumping in Ev’s outside shower, all geared up and having a wash. Top job mate. We loaded up and headed for home via waterfall way, Tamworth and the Bylong Valley way which is an awesome drive. The waterfalls are fantastic and were at their best due to the rain.

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Thanks Bob for your company on this adventure. My highlight for the weekend would be when we were singing the #1 song in the hottest 100 as a duet! Good times! Thanks LC for the ride and the fun in the pub. Cheers to the King for showing us his playground at Coffs, Macca , Adam and Rossco for the Mack’s ride but most of all to EV for putting together a great weekend for a couple of blokes that don’t mind getting wet. Thanks mate.

galeyktm300 ride ranking = 8/10

Galey out!

[Adam RodgersMember]

Sounds like you all had a ball :woohoo:

Great report there Galey and good photos from all considering the moisture that was about

Hope to do the Lowanna ride one day when it’s a little dryer :whistle:

Hope it dries out a bit when summer comes

Adam.

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