Orange grade 4/5 ride report, how good was it!

[murph the surfMember]

Hey big fella
Would love to come along. Hope it is one of my weekends off.
Could maybe do a run with ya’s and then spend the night at my good mates place, out the back of Portland.
See what happens with Mal first.
OOps, sorry Mal
Just thinking in advance. :huh:
By the way TB, your always more than welcome to throw that big red pig through some of our trails, mate???
Kinda have our shit together, up here.
Unless you have some sort of bike that is prone to breakdowns. :ohmy: :whistle:
Then there will be a whole lot of this. :sick: :sick: :sick: :sick: :sick:
Cheers
Murph

[GregMember]

Murph the surf wrote:

Hey big fella
Would love to come along. Hope it is one of my weekends off.
Could maybe do a run with ya’s and then spend the night at my good mates place, out the back of Portland.
See what happens with Mal first.
OOps, sorry Mal
Just thinking in advance. :huh:
By the way TB, your always more than welcome to throw that big red pig through some of our trails, mate???
Kinda have our shit together, up here.
Unless you have some sort of bike that is prone to breakdowns. :ohmy: :whistle:
Then there will be a whole lot of this. :sick: :sick: :sick: :sick: :sick:
Cheers
Murph

:laugh: :laugh: :cheer:

My bike doesn’t break down murph why would you think that we did grade 4/5 you can ride just not the strap required stuff will take you up there you decide

TB

[murph the surfMember]

Sounds cool
Post it and they will come.
Before I get too carried away, will have to wait and see what weekend it is going to be on.
Poor old Kato hit reserve at 67kms again, if nothing else this seems constant.
We had a fuel dump organised for todays ride. This may be an issue. :blush:
Have no idea how much is reserve!!
Will endeavor to find out though. Thirsty Bitch Hey?
Many of the new breed cars get far better milage than my bike. Anything getting better than 10 L/hundred kms is thrashing my economy.
I guess we don’t ride the damn things to save the worlds petroleum problems. :whistle: :pinch:
Chhers
Murph

[ChrisMember]

Nickj wrote:

Great stuff Krusty , glad you had a good day !

Sounds like you excelled in the tech stuff !!

Nice work !

Not sure about prep for Cameron but , maybe prep for Coffs hey

Thanks mate.. I had great encouragement from Greg and Chris… Its amazing what a simple pat on the back can do for ones confidence… Definitely prep for Coffs..

mal5.1 wrote:

Krusty – well done mate, TB was saying how good the track were and all the logs and hills and hills he threw in for you guys. It’s satisfying when you step outside your comfort zone on a ride and make it through to the end of the day.

Thanks Mal… Definitely pushed me out my comfort zone more than once… All my offs (about 5 or 6) were bike drops from stalls on hills or BIG boulders that jumped out in front of me… Honestly they just jumped out in front of me… :laugh: :laugh:

[ChrisMember]

Krusty wrote:

Nickj wrote:

Great stuff Krusty , glad you had a good day !

Sounds like you excelled in the tech stuff !!

Nice work !

Not sure about prep for Cameron but , maybe prep for Coffs hey

Thanks mate.. I had great encouragement from Greg and Chris… Its amazing what a simple pat on the back can do for ones confidence… Definitely prep for Coffs..

mal5.1 wrote:

Krusty – well done mate, TB was saying how good the track were and all the logs and hills and hills he threw in for you guys. It’s satisfying when you step outside your comfort zone on a ride and make it through to the end of the day.

Thanks Mal… Definitely pushed me out my comfort zone more than once… All my offs (about 5 or 6) were bike drops from stalls on hills or BIG boulders that jumped out in front of me… Honestly they just jumped out in front of me… :laugh: :laugh:

Yeah Krusty I saw them they were amazing those boulders one minute nothin’ then POW!! big boulder right in front of you, must be somethin’ in the orange soil:lol:

[ChrisMember]

Krusty wrote:

Nickj wrote:

Great stuff Krusty , glad you had a good day !

Sounds like you excelled in the tech stuff !!

Nice work !

Not sure about prep for Cameron but , maybe prep for Coffs hey

Thanks mate.. I had great encouragement from Greg and Chris… Its amazing what a simple pat on the back can do for ones confidence… Definitely prep for Coffs..

mal5.1 wrote:

Krusty – well done mate, TB was saying how good the track were and all the logs and hills and hills he threw in for you guys. It’s satisfying when you step outside your comfort zone on a ride and make it through to the end of the day.

Thanks Mal… Definitely pushed me out my comfort zone more than once… All my offs (about 5 or 6) were bike drops from stalls on hills or BIG boulders that jumped out in front of me… Honestly they just jumped out in front of me… :laugh: :laugh:

Yep Krusty, confidence is a huge thing, the tips I was giving is just stuff I’m passing on that was told to me by TB, Chicken, Crash on my first couple a rides, it takes a while to get in the habits but once you do, your riding will go to a whole new level, standing up in the singles whilst may be difficult to get used to once you do you have much better control of the bike, like all that rocky stuff when you stand it is so much easier.. Videos uploading now, gonna take a while though.

[ChrisMember]

Krusty’s perspective…………………………

Where to begin? 😆 I suppose the beginning…..

Left home around 4:30 am to meet everyone at the Maccas in Blaxland.. I was the first to show and shortly after that idlejet arrived.. Some small talk and TB, DJ and Chris arrived.. Chris hopped in with me and off we went..

We arrived in Orange, unloaded and geared up… We were into the bush by 8:30am and jumped right into a short single to warm us up… We went and explored some older tracks TB knew but they were way to rutted out to enjoy single riding… It wasn’t long before other pine singles were found and the fun began… Everyone single we rode were tight and twisty with sharp left and right handers some even with nice corner berms… Some of them were not marked very clear and had a few logs and other obstacles thrown in to make it more interesting… I started the day out with using way too much front brake and was constantly washing the front out… Never enough to loose it and go down but a few oh f$%k moments for sure… I’m pretty sure Chris has some of the moments on video… While following idlejet I noticed how he was back breaking and sliding nicely around the turns and powering out smooth… I soon started to try and mimic what he was doing and it became much easier… I must admit I’m still a bit green on tight single riding but I learned heaps on the go and really started to enjoy what we were riding… Lots of the singles were along small ridges and kept zigzagging up and down as well as along the slope.. Great off camber corners with some of the tight left and right handers being slightly up hill testing my balance and control…

After a couple hours we took our first break along the trail which turned out to be detrimental for mine and Chris’s bike… While kicking back chatting, an older fella appeared on a mountain bike.. As we were blocking most of the path he lost it, fell on my bike which fell over and clipped Chris’s bike and down they went slow motion style… The fall caused my rear tail light cover to break off as well as my 12v jack cover to snap… The bloke was very apologetic and went on his way… I suppose we were in the wrong parking our bikes in the middle of the track… The rest of the day then seen constant jokes and cracks at Krutys broken tail light… :laugh: :laugh:

Jumped back on the bikes and right back into it… Not long into it TB came across a long semi steep hill that he was just talking about moments earlier… Down we went and at the bottom re-grouped for everyone to have a go back up… DJ went straight up so he could video everyone riding up it… TB and Chris went together and listening to their bikes fly up was cool… You could hear the bikes hammering and echoing through out the forest, then all of sudden nothing as they hit the top and turned the bikes off… I went next and coming down gave the appearance of a extreme challenge to go back up.. To my surprise it was pretty smooth and the ole DRZ tractor’d its way up… idlejet followed a bit too soon after me and had the extra challenge of riding up through the dust I left behind but he did it pro style and made it no worries… DJ went back down so TB could video him up as well… No worries there and done well…

The next section of riding was the best part of the day for me… We went back down the hill to continue on… The singles were clearly marked and had some really good flowing sections.. It was the only part of the day where I hit 3rd gear in the singles… Everyone was in their groove as the group stayed tight and we just flowed and blasted through… Turns, short burst straights, then tight quick left and right handers, up hill down hill along the hill and just kept on going and going… It was awesome… Sadly it came to an end and we stopped again for a short break… It was a “Hot Digity Dog” moment for me… :laugh: Really really enjoyed this section…

We continued on and left the area we were riding and rode a short bitumen run to another area TB knew… This area was very rocky and seemed to have trees down everywhere… After riding in we hit a section that had so many trees down we were just riding anywhere we could find to get around the down trees and then back onto the track, then off, then on and on it went… Lots of logs to get over as well as some rocks to dodge… It finally came to end in a open area where we stopped for lunch and rested… I had no idea how important that rest was going to be………

Once we got back into it we spent some time doing rocky and small rutted twin track stuff.. Eventually we came to the first rocky hill climb of the day… I’m no good at grading and reading the Old Bull grade description, from this point forward was mostly grade 4+ I’ve never ridden a 5 so I’ll leave it the experienced ones to decide the level… All I know is it was hard, tested muscle and mental strength, endurance and super challenging… This was going to be the part of the day that caused all the muscle pain the next…

I made it about a 1/3 of the way up the first hill before I stalled and dropped the bike… I think TB has video of it… After picking the bike up with Chris’ help… I got it back down the hill and had another go… Yay I made it as I bounced my way up… We continued on and at this point I can’t remember what we did except for entering what turned out to be a long extremely snotty, rock infested, rutty single that went up and down and up and down and what seemed like forever… I think we did 3 extreme rocky hill climbs within… There were times I felt like throwing the bike on the side of the track and laying down… I have never pushed myself as hard as I did on this section… I was so glad to see the end when we popped out onto a fire road…

I must admit this part of the day was not fun for me… However I suppose one will never know what they are capable of until they have a go… Would I do it again? I think so just because I know I was able to get though it once and now have no excuse to get through it again… TB said something to DJ that rang home for me… He told him that when you come to a snotty hill, stop and have a good look but don’t dwell on it because it will f$&k with you mentally… I think a lot of the reason I was so scared of the section and had such a hard time is I kept analysing and dwelling on the track as I went and kept throwing my confidence out the window… I was literally telling myself I couldn’t do it when all along I actually could… Funny how we mentally F$%k ourselves a times…

All in all it was great day out with great blokes and of course great tracks… My trip meter says we did 88.6… I reckon 60+ of that was just single track… Thanks to TB for letting me join in and have a go and thanks to Chris for picking up rear for the day…

This morning nearly all the major muscles in my body are sore and I’m pretty stiff and slow moving… TB has succeed in his goal for causing us to be sore the next day, atleast me anyways..

Can we do it again?

[David FirmingerMember]

Replace itsagas with idlejet in this epic tail

[Geoff ForshawMember]

Great RR Krusty.
I went around to TB’s earlier today and he showed me the vids. Well done mate some of that stuff looked a bit shitty with all that loose rock. Looks like you guys had fun though. Wish i was there.

Cheers,
Lefty

[ChrisMember]

Dejay_kwacka wrote:

Replace itsagas with idlejet in this epic tail

Ooops sorry mate!!! :blush: Sorted…

[David FirmingerMember]

Well it all started Friday arvo, when i dropped my bike off at TB’s after Sutto’s weaved there magic with it.
Having a chat about what to expect (being this was my first OBT ride and about my 3rd or 4th time in the bush) i quickly went from being excited and anxious, to down right nervous. :unsure:
Loaded up Saturday morning and with TB at the wheel it was a quick drive to Orange with plenty of laughs and just a smidge of road rage. Arrived to a crisp Orange morning and clear skies so we loaded up and headed out looking for some new trails.
A short tar transport to some twin trails which lasted a few K’s and then into some single’s in some aussie bush. Which included some over grown ruts a couple of dried out creek crossings and some rutted out/washed out twin trails.
Some more open, flowing twin stuff, then the fun started…. :woohoo:
Like Krusty mentioned some tight, twisting, off camber, uphill, downhill, 180 dergree turns meters apart from the trail just riden, with plenty of logs and branches (including the one i didn’t move quick enough for and got stuck in my helmet :laugh: no damage). Plenty of rear brake and the glourious recluse, this tight stuff was a bucket(not the word i used yesturday) load of fun.
We pulled up for a breather and quick bite when we were interupted by a passing mountain biker enjoying the morning air and soon the sound of the DR and chris’s kato hitting the deck (accidently of coarse). After righting the bikes, calming down the Krustinator(cause he had that red look in his eye, which i noticed was the reflection of his brake light that he was holding in his hand) with a joke or 10, we got going again. Hitting some more twisting and turning uphill stuff we found the hill TB talked about. When we got to the bottom i volunteered to go back up to get some fotage, which TB will post i hope if he hasnt already. So i hit the hill in 3rd with plenty of throttle and had a ball. Got footage of everyone, had round 2 with the hill for the camera and headed off. After a while i lost sight of TB and idlejet untill i round a section and found him stopped,(later finding out he had an interesting moment with two trees)
With everyone well and truely warmed up again, and me almost running out of fingers on one hand to count the lay downs after a spectacular lock up/slide into a tree, we popped out of the pines and into some twin trails.
Following TB was a challenge but a great way to learn some lines, and techniques untill we came across the Chainsaw. He told me to wait at the bottom for 2 minutes and the come up. I hit the hill not knowing what was coming but the intention not to make a spectical as TB no doubt had the camera zoomed in. It was a great challenge and with again the help of my trusty recluse (and the kato gods), i eventually made it up the hill.
A quick section of twin track then back into some awsome single’s we pulled up again for a quick breather. Again we were interupted by another mountain biker this time no bikes were harmed. After an intense chat, and hopefully some barriers between mountain bikers and trailriders broken we got back into.

More to come…..

[ChrisMember]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqUTM1kpkpg[/video]

heres one of the vids they are taking ages and ages to upload this is a long one!!!!
This was following Krusty pretty much the whole time.

[GregMember]

What’s with all the track cutting :laugh: :laugh:

Videos good Chris very clear, keep them coming

TB

[ChrisMember]

Trailboss wrote:

What’s with all the track cutting :laugh: :laugh:

Videos good Chris very clear, keep them coming

TB

I was bored had to make my own FUN!!!!

[ChrisMember]

Heres one of TB & I going up the Hill, I copped an absolute roosting and backed off a bit, then for all the dust I couldn’t see a thing
I just held it opened and prayed nothing got in my way.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uelZ3wjqpXo[/video]

[Author]

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