North Star Trail Ride Weekend

[RoyMember]

Arrived at 9.45am on the Saturday. Blown away by the number of bikes/people. Last I heard there was 861 riders. Never seen so many bikes in one spot. Signed up in less than 5 minutes and kitted up. Loops opened at 10, we were out there by 10.30ish. The pact was keep the pace up, no easy options (well at least without be defeated by the hard option first) and ride as much as possible. Went out on the 85km loop first up.

As soon as we got to the forest prologue we met the bottle jam of bikes. Single file, heaps of stopages. Being a first timer, I was a bit worried this was going to be the scenario for the next two days. If this was the case I would have stopped riding and commenced the drinking. Luckily that was not how it panned out. After a little while we got to the point where the 30km loop split off from the long loop. After that things were still a little slow for a while but we gradually worked our way to some clear running. did I mention there was a few rocks in the first section. Lots of round loose suckers that made it fun.

As you expect there were high speed transport sections in the long loop but there was plenty of good trails as well. We got to the first section that said hard and the nerves picked up. A nice shitty rocky loose hill climb. Watched a couple of mates who are better riders than us have a bit of trouble getting up. Anyway had a crack and we all got up first time in one go, so all sweet. Then off to the next section with the hard water crossing. I was leading at this point and got to the water. Creek banks, not too bad, water crossing is narrow, so figured it must be deep. In I go. Suddenly, couldn’t see the front guard, my arse is getting wet on the seat. Needless to say, no stopping here so full power on and out and up.

Some great gully sections along this part of the track. Got to Death Adder Hill. Thought beauty this hill must be good as it has a name. Sadly disappointed as it only turned out to be a small pimple with rocks. Very rocky hard section at the top though which wasn’t so kind on some of the brake levers.

Finished the loop. Averaged 41 km/hr which gives you an idea of the high speed sections. Had a quick lunch and jumped back on the bikes just before they sweeps went out to close off the long loop. Got a much cleaner run this time and the three of us hammered through as fast as we could. Finished the day having done all the hard stuff twice and the enduroX was on when we got back so we thought “When in Rome…” and out we went. Neat track, the whole thing was sand 6 inches deep. Blasted over the railway sleepers thinking “don’t even think about rim damage”. Did that twice before falling off and agrivating a bit of rib damage done earlier in the day.

To cut an already long story short we did the long loop again on the Sunday. The hill was getting harder as it had been dug up but still managed to keep my 100% success rate intact. Then we did the 30km loop just so we had covered everything. Had a little play in the quarry. Didn’t attempt some of the real hard climbs there as they were all or nothing hills. If you didn’t make it both body and bike were in for damage.

Had a great time, just over 320km covered, average speed for the weekend was 44km/hr (speedo tells me this). Loved the trails when you got a chance to really hammer through which was surprisingly often considering the number of bikes.

My compliments to you Gibbit and all of the crew. The whole thing was well done. The only thing I had to wait for all weekend was a hot shower and even that was only 15 minutes.

Hopefully I will be able to scab some photos of others soon and will post them up.

[RyanMember]

unreal write up mate, i seen the ad for this ride on here and was envious being up in nth qld, then i realised i just missed the A4DE 4hrs sth of here. But 6 months and ill be in the thick of it down there. cant wait.

[nathanMember]

Great write up mate. I will look forward to seeing a few pics.

Thanks for the compliment I think Revthemonkey had a bit to do with setting up the enduro X track so well donr to him too. I thought the weekend went pretty smoothly. It’s a shame they closed it down early on Saturday. They could have done with a few more toilets too.

I had a great weekend as a sweep. I did around 320km as well(three 87km and two 30km loops). Bit sore this morning

[RoyMember]

Whe we did the arvo loop we had a lot of trouble passing a few of the sweeps. Mainly because they were better riders than us. They were having fun and so were we. I ended up passing one sweep on the outside around the edge of one of the cultivation paddocks. I think it took him by surprise and I must admit was really hoping he wasn’t going to drift too wide. Hope that wasn’t you Gibbit, but I think it was a blue bike not a white one although the colour of the bike wasn’t really what I was concentrating on at the time. Powersliding corners is not really my forte.

Also Aaron, I think I followed your first ever bike home all the way from North Star to just south of Moree. A MX80 twin shock with the muffler sticking out at a weird angle. Would of got a photo but I thought it would of made the passengers nervous doing it whilst moving.

[nathanMember]

Nah not me. I think I saw you at the fuel stop on sat arvo with the ‘bike teritory’ stickers. But by the time I got my helmet off you where gone.

[nathanMember]

Few pics been put on the website.

http://www.northstartrailride.com/northstar_trailride/Photos/Photos.html

[Dwayne OMember]

Yeah,
Sounds like a good day out for sure
Pics are good too,,,, Thanx for sharing

[Aaron WildeMember]

This was the first thing I saw when I got out of my Ute. It was my fist ever bike. My dad bought it in 1982 for $860. I did not realize it was mine till I saw a few familiar crashed bits and then asked him where he got it!!! What a blast from the past. :laugh:

But as you can see you can run into all sorts of bikes at North Star. Yeah you will look cool with the latest bike and gear but these dudes are out having just as much fun

We had to help this one with a fouled plug on the second day. Wonder why it oiled up ??? he would have been wringing its neck in the tight suff :silly:

Was a ride of very different stuff for me. I also saw first hand how to repair a tube on Darrens BRP without removing the wheel. Yes I know it has been discussed here before but I have never had a go myself.

[RoyMember]

Just got round to looking throught the photos and couldn’t resist putting this up. Especially whilst Aaron is away and can’t defend himself.

Aaron on the left. Me on the right (KTM)

Aaron quitting whilst he was behind

About now I heard something about “I need my mummy”

Luckily a steward came out to tell him to stop crying and get off the track

In a different race things got a little ugly for me after the big log too. Luckily I just managed to stay on. Guess which ones me.

[Aaron WildeMember]

My wife stuck heaps of photos of that stack on her fb page. Seems there must have been a few cameras on me at the time. I had fallen and almost fallen quite a few times before that so I guess was asking for it

[AlexMember]

Haha that’s heaps funny, nice write up Roy. Damn them paparazzi

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