Thanks for all the good wishes, thoughts and comments everyone, it was much appreciated. Spent most of today cleaning and washing the ute and trailer that ‘Ghostrider’ lent me for the last month (trailer=month / ute=weekend) – thank you very much Wal.
I think the rain earlier this year has been a god send for the farmers, however, it’s meant an explosion in the ‘kamikaze grasshopper’ population!! Those little bastards have yellow guts that stuck like sh%# to a blanket and re-coloured the ute and trailer!! Those same little mongrels felt like .22 bullets when they hit you on your bike too!
My eldest daughter, one of her friends and I arrived at TB’s (now to be referred to as Lushes – as in Luicus Washington – that is Lushes Luicus, the crew chief in Talladega nights – as per Mals earlier post) mid morning on Friday. We loaded up, hooked up the trailer, TB commandeered the pilots’ seat, Lochie jumped in and off we went. Detoured to see Mal5.1/3.0 and headed west. Arrived at Condo, the Showground was packed. Almost 90 riders and over 30 vehicles in this years race – a pretty full field. There was such a variety of entrants – the solo bike competitor from Qld right through to the full on Factory entries from Honda, KTM and PWR Holdens. Like
Lushes said, we had to change the background & number colour on the bike before we could pass scrutineering. We bumped into Ecks and Dave, said g’day and set up camp. The girls set up their little ‘Taj Mahal’ and us boys did what boys do best……look busy doing nothing much. We checked out everyone elses set-ups and did the usual social things. We were camped next to a fella called Caesar Delfarra. His name triggered my memory; I remember seeing it in the Australasian Safari riding a DRZ….and doing really well too!
He and his x2 crew were really nice blokes. Caesar goes great too… he brained it by finishing in the top 20 – excellent effort; especially due to the fact his new WR only had 300k’s on it! Well done Caesar!
The Saturday leg started with a 40+km transport section (non competitive) to the first selective(timed section). There was a 35 minute delay to the start due to some obstacle causing a problem on the track. Nerves were growing…..Finally Off we went! I had a great start…….NOT…….I misread which side of a fence I had to turn left at and couldn’t stop in time…..smash, straight into it! I broke my fairing, crimped my brakeline, wrapped myself/ bike in wire and flipped the the map reader out of wack! Ooopps, deep breaths…..calm down…..your only minutes into it…..you’ve got 800km+ to go. I think I’m talking to myself too much…what do you think? Anyway, I picked me and bike up, untangled everything, secured the broken fairing, placed the remaining front number plate in my jersey, re-positioned the map reader with an 8mm spanner and did what I could to stop the brakeline from re-kinking in the same spot as it works up & down a million times during the next 2 days. Now, I’m down a heap of time, So lets get going. Not 20 minutes later, I’d passed a couple of the riders that had passed me when I had my early unsheduled stop. I’m catching another rider and trying deal with the enemy of all bike riders….DUST. You know that your pushing your luck…..you close right up….then you have to back off, because you just can’t see what the terrain is like. You know you have to take a chance….but there is a skill a good rider has that makes him able to pick his time by the surrounding country, type of ground etc. Well, I don’t have that skill….I’m just an old try hard that loves having a go. Needless to say…I didn’t back off out of the dust enough….As it cleared, I was sailing pass another enemy of a Cross Country Bike rider……..A TRIPLE CAUTION SIGN !!!. Now, to the uninitiated, you can generally move pretty quickly through a single caution if your on your toes – a double caution, you better slow it way down – trouble coming up. However, a triple caution – you better just about stop and have a board meeting about how to negotiate it. Well, I’m dropping into a pretty steep double erosion washaway with a ridge down the centre of it….I load the fiddy up as much as I could and clear the first, however as I hit the second, my hand jarred off the bars….from that moment on, I was a passenger. So, when I stopped rolling and sliding, I had the bars jammed into the top of my pants and I was pinned up against my favourite naturally occurring dividing device….a 5 wire fence. “What the hell’s going on” This wasn’t in my plans. More time lost – So, once again, I de-hang myself from this most recent predicament, straighten myself and the mis-aligned triple clamps up and get going again – I didn‘t have anymore off’s. The only dramas I had was missing some hard to see turns….you then lose more time finding where you went wrong and getting back on track. Day one finished, but I blew it big time with all these mistakes. However, I gotta say, the bike was brilliant. It just loves this type of running….especially those long paddocks runs etc.
They noise test the bikes on their way into impound at the end of the day. All ok. Lushes sprung into action, fitting new grips, changing the air filter, resetting the damaged bark buster, Greasing the chain, checking her over etc. Worth his wait in gold.
Day Two. The first few stages were going well. However, the front sproket driveshaft seal was p’33ing oil out at great speed! We couldn’t do anything about it. We topped up the oil & I would just have to check the oil through the next stage. At a splash and dash stop (no assistance) I stopped and checked the oil. It need some, luckily the fuel man had some. I topped it up and off I went….it should be ok until the lunch stop. There was a killer bull dust section that was the stuff nightmares are made of. It seemed like days in there. I wished I was on a quad as one went flying past me….it was so quick through there…while I was struggling. Its dust cloud just hung in the air for ever. I tried to keep moving…then I dropped it. It stalled. On restarting, the decomp cable broke. Starting a flooded 650 without decomp is very hard. It took me ages. I lost all the positions I’d made up. This was the longest stage, 140km+, then lunch. Lushes had the tank & seat off and rigged up a temporary fix – well done him. Took the air filter skin off, topped up the oil again, food, pee and rest. The final selective was probably the most enjoyable for me. Things were going great; I’d rounded up 4 or so riders and had about 25kms to go. For some reason, the bike started surging and misfiring….she was flooding and only just running. I got to within 2km from the finish and had to do a ‘u’ turn around the end of a fenceline in deep, deep rutted dust – as I was turning, the bike stopped and I dropped it. It took me forever to start the bike. In the mean time, all the places I gained….I lost. I got it going and finished. Lushes changed the air filter and I started the final transport back to Condo. The bike was still going crap. After 5km or so, for some reason, the carby cleared and back to normal she went. Do you believe it……..of all the rotten luck. Anyway, that’s life.
The Wrap Up.
It was a great weekend. Other than the last few kilometers of the 800km+, the bike was brilliant. I had a ball and really enjoyed myself. Thanks to Suttos – the Special Pirelli rear tyre they gave me, it performed beautifully (I’ll do a report on it next week).
I already appreciate how good the top blokes are, they’re terrific, I really admire their skill, commitment & courage.
Thanks to all the volunteers, the Condo 750 committee and all the sponsors. They all did a great job and put on an excellent event.
If you love riding all types of terrain, testing and challenging yourself – give the Condo 750 navigational cross country race a go……….you’ll be hooked!!
A big thanks to Lushes, Lochie, Eliza & Ghostrider. I couldn’t have done it without them.
Sorry it’s a bit rushed, I’ve got to go to work soon and then I’ll be away.
Crash
Ps. Well done to Dave and Ecks. Dave went really well. He would have finished in the first 40 or so of the 80+ that started. I’m not sure where I finished…probably near the end around 50 something.
