Luckily this time out it hadn’t rained apart from 2mm a few days prior so everything was almost the opposite to last years ride. I had actually forgotten about the ride and booked some overtime at work for the Saturday until DV8 texted me and asked what time I was attending. I figured a trailride was more important than providing medic cover at the local horse races so I ditched the overtime and went riding instead leaving the racing for someone to cover.
Left late Friday from Roma arriving around 9pm to find DV8 and his mates already set up with the fire going. Dropped the swags out and after a bit of a chat and coffee hit the sack to get ready for Sat ride.
Rose early Sat and unpacked the rest of the gear and checked the bikes out. The old ever reliable XR400 was to be my usual choice of rides whilst my young fella was on his 2010 CRF250R. It was having some starting issues today with a few bike to bike tows needed to get it to fire. Once it warmed up it was all good so far.
Attended the briefing then returned to camp to allow the hoon/idiot factor to dissipate a bit before we all decided to commence riding. Ride opened around 10am with our riding component kicking off about 11am.
The track was in a reverse direction to the previous year and didn’t look familiar at all (mind had blacked out the horror of the slippery, clay/black soil mudfest that the previous year was). managed to get to around 15-20km mark when the CRF began having issues again. She would run then die after about 50-150m, kick it again then the same would happen. Thought she might have been hot so we let it cool down a bit but no change. Tried towing the bike but due to the terrain it was difficult and ended up pushing the bike for a bit (at least it wasn’t the XR). The son 26 y/o knocked up pretty quick pushing the bike so I took over (48 y/o) and ended up pushing it up and over 2 hills till we found a recovery point with a sweep in attendance. Must have pushed it 2kms and then realised we were just out of site of the sweep point before we started up the first hill – needed the exercise anyway.
Couldn’t get it to run again so left the son and the CRF to be recovered and headed off to continue riding the old XR. By now it was close to 1pm. Track was a little broken and bull dust patches forming due to the number of riders prior. Heaps of logs to cross,numerous creek crossing mostly dry, occasional open fast flowing sections separating some nasty loose log jumping hill climbs. The main 60-70km loop has some shortcut options in as well a fuel stops at the loop junctions along with a BBQ at the fuel stop ( free ticket included as part of entry).
Having lost a heap of time with the CRF issues, I kept riding without stopping for the remainder of the loop. Feeling a tad fatigued and the arm pump happening from pushing the CRF and also XR in tight stuff I took all the Easy options where possible.
By the mid point to the loop I had seriously had enough of logs on tracks and dusty rutted out loose hills and was looking forward to getting back. By now it was touching 2-230pm and the arms were almost dead and sun/dust making things a bit warmer.
Probably an hour later made it onto where the open loop joined the novice loop and came across DV8 and a number of riders standing in the middle of an open paddock around a young bloke who took a tumble. Being a paramedic I thought best not to ride past so pulled up and joined the crowd and offered my expertise. The only time neither myself or DV8 had a first kit.
Turned out this young teenager had just picked up a new 250 Yamaha I think a few days before and had had a serious miscalculation of in his riding capabilities. He had been riding the novice loop and nearly taken DV8 out at the loop intersection (Luckily DV8 had seen him coming and avoided him) about 100 mts prior to hitting a indentation in the open paddock at Full noise. He ended up 25m from where he initially lost control to where he landed with the bike a further 30-40m further on. His attempts at breaking the fall of his bike by using his body were unsuccessful with the bike suffering severe damage (flattened the bars level and broke the read subframe/guard at the seat.
The rider sustained a open fracture to the R fibula (R lower leg bone) which was protruding thru his riding pants just above his R boot and a fractured R collarbone most likely caused by his Leatt neck brace – had he not been wearing this neck brace he probably would have suffered some serious neck injuries as his helmet took a substantial impact both front and rear. His fractured leg was caused by the bike cartwheeling over the top of him on its unguided path to destruction.
Anyway checked him over, passed on my assessment to the event paramedics and shortly after they arrived. Considering the impact he took and the injuries he sustained he was in reasonable spirits and even more comfortable after some Morphine, green whistle and leg splinting. Over an hour had passed from his impact time to being fully packaged and on his way to meet the Chinchilla Ambulance. He ended up being transferred to Toowoomba as far as I know probably for surgery on his leg.
Having had this unplanned ride break I then headed on my way for the last few k’s across a nice open “Novice” level area back to the camping area.
With the CRF dead in the water, it was decided that the CRF needed to go home for repair so we packed camp, said our goodbyes to DV8 and crew and headed back to Roma. Must say the XR400 performed extremely well for the whole ride and didn’t miss a beat at all.
Talking about the CRF, we pulled it down on Sunday and discovered the fuel filter was black as a the ace of spades and like mud. The valves were checked and also found to be in need of a re-shim as well so today has been spent fixing these issues.
Took it out for a run and it’s like new again and feels like your arms get dislocated on acceleration for a change. Next time it needs a valve adjustment some new stainless valves will go in. It’s still not bad for over 125hrs+ to date with one valve adjustment.
Looking forward to the next trailride – work permitting – no photos sorry, camera batteries were flat.
