Orange 2 Day 2009 or was it Talladega Nights the Ballard of Ricky Bobby
SHAKE AND BAKE Ricky Bobby
The Cal Junior (DanD) perspective.
This was a ride I would not have missed – One of my best mates last rides before a bit of a break.
Finished work early on Friday to get all of my chores done before leaving to go to TB’s. After the kids were picked up from school, house tidied up and the floors vacuumed as requested / demanded. The Princess of the house arrived home to put herself in the shower and get dressed to go.
The bikes had been prepared, put on the trailer and all the gear packed in the Sube.
We dropped the kids off after getting them their Friday night Macca’s and we were off. We made it to TB’s while the Sun was still up only to find TB in a bit of a cranky mood. What would put TB in such a mood? A broken spoke and no spares that would fit, that would do it to anyone I suppose.
We loaded the blue bikes on to TB’s trailer and cracked open the first Rum of the night. TB’s mood improved when he got some liquid refreshment down his throat and he shared a moral dilemma that had come up during the day. As funny as f**k that one TB. Wish I had of been there.
Novice arrived shortly after and we made our way inside when the ever so lovely Sal bought home the noodles.
The normal piss taking didn’t take long to start happening with Kylie (All Bran is delicious) making her rum fuelled statement that “with a head like mine it should be illegal, but I still have it” see I told you she is a BITCH. Who ever introduced her to rum should go and have shoulder surgery this week the a**sehole.
We had our tea and enjoyed another rum, a few last minute checks were done on the gear and water bags filled up.
Wasn’t long before it was time for bed to get a good nights sleep before heading to Orange.
The wake up call came at 5.30am with everyone getting out of bed to go. Our first stop was the Macca’s at Blaxland to meet up with Scotty at 6.00am. We were on the road and heading to meet up with Crash and Mal5.1, with Crash and Mal meeting us within 400 metres and within 5 minutes of the proposed meeting place we were off again,. We stopped at a Shell servo to have a bacon and egg roll and a drink for brekky.
Our next stop Orange.
With some concern about Kylie getting car sick and unloading her breakfast in the back of TB’s car a super quick seat change was done with me pretty much getting out of the car while it was still going and Kylie doing the mad dash over the seats we were off again.
The trip to Orange was both a journey kilometre wise and with the topics discussed. Nothing seemed to be out of bounds.
As a side note I am now going to start marketing a range of PPE just for woman who ride. Something to protect their softer areas, thanks for the heads up Kylie.
We arrived in Orange to find White Rocket, we then all made our way to park the cars at Garry and TB’s mums place.
We started to unload the bikes and to gear up only for TB to find a set of shot wheel bearings in the back of the Fiddy. Lucky that Orange has a bearing trader open on Saturdays and Kylie and I made our way into town to get some replacement bearings.
When we arrived back and TB had fitted his bearings, it was time to hit the trails.
We made our way into some of the finest singles that I have ever ridden. It was a bit dustier than last weekends ride out there but still a heap of fun. We started in the pine forest singles but then got into the bush singles.
The ride pace up the front was full on and I was having a bit of a time keeping up with TB who had entered the zone and was cutting sick. The dust was a bit of a bugger in some spots but luckily I had Ricky Bobby in my ear telling me of what to look out for when the vision was a bit less than good. Thanks mate, for always looking out for me Shake and Bake brother.
The ride was flowing along quite well and everyone was riding really well. Novice had a few offs going through the tracks and there was some unpleasantness on some of the hills (me included). There was one section that left Kylie with her WR securely parked / wedged in a tree. White Rocket and me de-wedged the WR and I turned the bike around so Kylie could get on her way again. I did here whispers that Kylie was about to have a bitch fit at me cause I rode her bike down the hill too far when turning it around. She absolutely hates it when someone rides her bike up or down a hill for her. Not she needs help that much anymore.
We were not so much doing massive amounts of KM in the singles but were doing a massive amount of work. The singles at Orange are technical with the tracks being cut through some very close tress and some rocky hard hills to traverse. There was one hill that we done that was a rock garden the whole way up. I had dropped a few places in the pack and I wanted to be back at the front. There was a little bit of carnage happening before me but for some reason I had to be at the front. ( I think the reason was that voice that gets into my head on rides, the one that is saying to me “where the hell are you” and sounds a lot like TB). TB was in my ear wanting to know why I wasn’t talking to him when I was going up the hill, he now knows when I am concentrating I cant talk as well. So the gigs up now when I am pulling a wheelie or doing something that’s a little bit tough, as I don’t talk. Anyway I made it up the hill and by the time I got to the top both me and the WR were doing it pretty tough.
We had one moment when the corner man system didn’t work as good as it had been with Novice going for a bit of a tour as he thought we had gone one way when in fact we had gone another. The rest of the group stopped and waited but no Novice? I went for a slow ride back the way we had come to see if I could find him, White Rocket joined me and we took a trip back to the first corner that we went on after leaving the main road. We found Novice looking quite red in the face after riding up the other track that he thought we had gone on. Novice cooled down a bit and we hit the trail again to meet up with the rest of the group. On our way back up to the group, everyone else started heading back towards us.
The call was made to head into town to get some lunch and have a drink. We made our way out of the bush and headed for the Robin Hood Tavern in Orange. TB and me carried out a recognisance mission last weekend and found that the Robin Hood was good for lunch and the drinks were chilled to the correct temperature.
On the way to the pub a certain polka dot shirt wearing clown who rides a XR650, who will remain nameless pulls a wheelie up a hill, that’s nothing unusual for the said clown, but when the said clown decides to try and turn my bike off with his bash plate, well that’s when things get interesting. Lucky for me I caught movement out the corner of my eye and moved my hand for some reason. The reason is now apparent cause I was going to have a XR650 joining me on the WR. I don’t know who got the biggest surprise me or the certain clown.
With lunch over we made our way back into doing some more singles before going and getting our overnight bags for the pub stay.
We left after getting our bags and refuelling at the cars on our way to Hill end. The ride over to Hill End from Orange is a heap of fun. We had the incident with the kids and the horses which wasn’t really that pleasant, but luckily both of the girls were OK. Bugger having horses I will stick to bikes.
It is a really nice flowing dirt road that you can have some fun on. TB treated us to some unreal twin trail that we turned the wick up on and made some serious dust. Both in the literal sense and in like TB’s favourite bike movie “Dust to Glory”. We peddled all the way to Hill End. We done the crossing at Long Point which is no where near as deep as Root Hog but with 8 people along it was decided that a shallower rather than deep river crossing would be better. The river crossing at Long Point still has the chance of ending up going pear shaped with decent sized goolies on the bottom. With everyone across we kept on moving. TB and me swapped bikes for a bit with both of us riding like we stole them. I was surprised that TB let me take the lead for a while, I later found out that he wanted his air cleaner to stay cleaner than mine and he ate dust for a while. I never grow tired of riding the fiddy it’s just such a well balanced bike with tons of grunt (and a comfortable seat.) If only Honda had put an electric leg on them.
By the time we got into Hill End I know I was tonguing for a Vitamin B, I reckon everyone else was in the same boat. We parked the bikes up after everyone that needed fuel got fuel. After that it was drink time. The first one didn’t even touch the sides. We sat around on the pubs veranda for a while where TB got a decent sized splinter in his leg. After trying to dig it out with what ever we had in my tool bag as the tweezers in the first aid kit were as about as good as a kick in the nads. Kylie went and threatened legal action against the proprietor of the establishment, she got everything she needed for the extraction.
With that episode out of the way it was time for a shower and to put some clean dustless clothes on.
We moved down to the beer garden for the normal OBT banter and fun. The meals at the Hill End pub are good, real good and very filling too. I still had plenty of room for Vitamin B and Vitamin R so I kept on having one more. Poor Novice didn’t hang around long after dinner as he was buggered so he headed off to bed. Mal from Suttos and his mate Andrew arrived to have a few brews and meet up with the Old Bulls.
We ended up moving inside as Crash and Mal were having a game of pool. Kylie and me started to play doubles with Crash and Mal but I was quickly shunned from the team as I hadn’t sunk enough balls WTF. Whatever happened to a team effort Kylie?
TB was next to pair up with Kylie next. He too was told that he didn’t cut it on Kylies elite team as Kylie reckoned that he threw the game in my honour.
I hit the sack at around 11.00pm I think. TB got a bit snippy with me cause I shaked and baked Mal5.1 – you had to be there to get the full drift of it. With everything sorted I went to sleep. I cant say I slept the best in between Kylie not breathing, TB’s snoring and needing to go to the toilet. I was awake first and went outside for a smoke, Kylie and TB joined me shortly after and it was black tea for all, no bloody milk.
We sat out on the veranda for a while and watched Crash take in the sights of Hill End.
We left Hill End at around 8.00am after sending out a bit of a search party for Mal (Sutto’s). We hit the trails again bound for Orange and brekky. We went back the way that we came, but this time I swapped bikes with Crash. I really do like them Fiddy’s, I might get one and just learn to use my right leg to start the bastards. The river crossing caused no one any grief and we ripped through back to Orange. However the rain started as drizzle and went from there. TB had a bit of a moment over a sneaky little kicker jump, but he landed the big girl and kept on peddling. We done a couple of side by side jumps over the cattle grids that was pretty cool. We stopped at the old mine workings and had a look at an old mine shaft. By this stage I really wished I had my jacket but it was back in Novice’s ute getting wet. I had a bit of a moment on the twin trail hitting a rut a little bit quick and a little bit not the right way. Luckily Crash’s bike straightened up and saved me from certain disaster.
White Rocket had a bit of a rush of blood and came charging through at one stage we went bar to bar for a while which was fun. Rocket you can certainly ride a bike.
We got back to the cars and changed our bags and headed out into the singles before we went and got breakfast.
I had a bit of an off in the singles with the front wheel washing out and a pine tree getting in the road of my chosen trajectory. No real damage done, nothing that a few cable ties and rivets wont fix.
Rocket had another huge rush of blood in the singles putting his Kato through the trees like a ballistic missile. When Rockets in a mood get out of his way, shit he is fast.
Novice decided to call it a day and loaded up his bike and headed for home.
We went into Orange and got breakfast, by this time I was f**kin freezing. I wish I had put my jacket on. The pies where excellent though.
We made our way up to Mount Canobolis, by this time I was both soaked to the bone and absolutely freezing. Kylie showed some concern and was worried that I was going to get hypothermia. We left the top of the Mountain to head for the singles, Kylie decided she was going to head back to Orange to wait at the Macca’s for everyone to finish. I was caught between a rock and a hard place at this stage, continue on riding risking hypothermia, but getting to have my last ride with TB for a while or let my bride ride back to Orange in less than perfect conditions by herself. I wanted to do both but that would be impossible. TB told me to go back with Kylie and make sure that she was OK. I went back to Macca’s with Kylie and had a cup of coffee, but I still couldn’t get warm. We decided to leave Macca’s and headed back to the car. We got back and put some dry clothes on, loaded my bike and got everything ready for TB and the boys to get back. Finally I was dry and warm again. The boys were back at around 3.00pm after doing some slippery single trails.
Everyone loaded their bikes and it was time to go. We stopped to get some fuel for the car and fuel for ourselves.
We got back to TB’s at around 6.00pm, loaded the bikes onto the trailers and headed for home. We picked up the girls from mum and dads and went home for a shower after a great weekend.
It was one of the best, yet one of the worst rides / weekends that I have had.
It was great for the fact that I spent the weekend doing my most favourite thing with a great bunch of people. Every OBT ride is great cause of the people that make OBT what it is.
But it was also the worst cause it was my last ride with one of my best mates for a while.
Heres to you TB for organising another top weekend of riding and OBTing.
Shake and Bake Ricky Bobby, this ride was as good as gold and we are now done like a kipper.
All bran is delicious and that’s a paddling.
Cal Junior
