Pro for a day!

[JohnMember]

I haven’t been riding for 18 months, so haven’t been around here much. I’ve copy/pasted from my ride report on ADV, so forgive my explaining to you who TB is and what a nav ride is. :blush:

Just over a week ago I received a call from TB650 from RideADV.

I have ridden their NAV rides and also gone along with TB as he pre runs sections/days before the actual ride comes through. My last ride was in July 2014 when I did the Outback ride with a few mates listed in my signature.

Back to the call from TB… he wants to know if I’d be interested in doing some pre running and exploration with him this coming winter. I’m a seven day shift worker so am able to do things mid week when others are at work. My answer? “Love to… BUT I don’t have a bike.” His answer? “No problems, I’ll supply everything. Just bring your riding gear!”

So I bragged to few mates that I was turning Pro this winter, despite not having ridden for nearly two years. They laughed it off. I hoped that I’d maybe get the call up at least once this riding season.

Saturday morning while out walking the dog I got the call at 10am “Can you come riding tomorrow?” My answer “The wife’s working… I’ll need to work something out with the kids. I’ll ring you back…” After a little juggling act the kids were sorted and I was set for my first day as a Pro!

I slept like a 7yo on Christmas Eve, woke up every hour only to look at the clock and see that it wasn’t time to get up yet. In the end I got up an hour early and tried not to rush getting ready. Soon enough I set off on the 30 minute drive to the secret Ride ADV HQ. And there’s TB waiting out the front with the two bikes ready to rock and roll.

My ride for the day, a WR-R 250 with the following mods: TEKNIK suspension, Screens for bikes screen, Seat Concepts seat, IMS tank, Barkbusters fat bars, bark busters, raised bars, rear racks, bash plate, massive pegs, Zumo GPS and a GYTR muffler. My bike had around 4000km on it.

“My” bike.

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TB’s rig

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TB’s rig had just 300m, yes that’s right metres, on it. What’s more it was way more modified than my steed. But when I say that I mean mean bolt on bits and bobs, all the internals were stock!

[JohnMember]

I was as nervous as kid on his first day at school. I hadn’t ridden forever and this bloke was giving me a bike to ride for the day… the first thing I noticed about the bike (as compared to my Tenere 660Z) was that it was a little wider where the tank shrouds started to protrude out to go around the radiator. Other than that the bike felt like a full size bike, I’d got it into my head that riding the WRR was going to be like riding a mountain bike with a motor after punting the big 660 around the place… after all it was a “little 250” wasn’t it?

We ran the transport from the secret HQ in western Sydney out to Oberon. Oberon will be the last overnight stop for the boys and girls on the “Bridge to Bridge” (Westgate bridge Melbourne to Sydney Harbour Bridge) via as much dirt as TB and the crew can find between the two. (Link here for the interested http://www.rideadv.com.au/event/bridge-to-bridge/ )

At Oberon TB was quite the Latte’ set he enjoyed his double mocca, chocca, latte’, expresso, decaf with a heart on top and a bacon and egg burger from the seats on the footpath! Last time he’d had a boiled egg, a cold one!

The main street of Oberon

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TB finished soon enough and we were off! I was supplied with a GPS that had the days route already loaded, so I just had to follow the line. But I followed TB (mostly his dust) for most of the day… he might not be built like a jockey, but he sure can ride like one!

For those that don’t know, Oberon is directly west from Sydney. Naturally you’d think to get to Sydney you’d go…. EAST???

[JohnMember]

Well let’s just say… on a Ride ADV navigation ride you follow the compass in the direction of the most dirt with the best riding.

My “contract” prevents me from telling you where we went but I did manage to snap a few secret photo’s of places you may be riding if you are lucky enough to be a participant on the Melbourne-Sydney 2016 Bridge to bridge!

You may ride here: (and there may or may not be a bit of single track just before this spot)

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[JohnMember]

or here:

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[JohnMember]

Or somewhere down there:

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[JohnMember]

It’s all up to this bloke really…

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[JohnMember]

No idea where this is:

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I can tell ride participants that on the last day they could experience pine forest, natural bush, farm roads, up hills, down hills, water crossings and erosion humps. If it’s dry – dust. If it’s wet – no dust. TB and the crew manage to string together just the right amount of track variations to stop you from getting bored.

[JohnMember]

I know the GPS system works well, I’ve participated in Nav rides previously, but on this pre-run TB gave me the go ahead to just ride on as he was fiddling about doing something. So I just set sail in the fresh air. After a bit I started to wonder how long it had been since I’d seen TB. I pulled up and had a blow, had a couple of snakes and tried to wash the dust down my throat. before long 15 minutes had passed and I decided I’d better go look for him. Naturally there was no phone coverage, so it was back to the olden days method of ride back to where I last saw him. I was only a couple of minutes up the road when I saw him… turns out he went looking for me down a track I wasn’t supposed to go down (and didn’t). But all is well that ends well.

Where I waited for TB

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[JohnMember]

Eventually we started to re-emerge into civilisation… houses started to appear, signposts started to appear. But there was still one more great little section of road. We had crossed a river and the road climbs out of the valley, one section in particular reminded me of the rally roads in New Zealand which sweep left, right, left, right with a hump in the centre of the roadway and if you do it right you can straight line through the whole thing. I did. It was awesome.

This is where the fun level drops a tad. Being a ride that ends in one of the country’s major cities you are required to ride on the tar. We pulled up in a town, that for now has no name, and refueled our selves and bikes.

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[JohnMember]

We made our way through a very interesting route. I have lived in outer metro Sydney all my life and haven’t ever travelled on some of the roads and some I haven’t been on since I was a kid. Eventually we made our way to and through the CBD. TB left his mark, literally, outside Sydney Town Hall. He had his head down doing something with his GPS and looked up to see a Fire truck stationary in his lane… he may have uttered “firetruck!” before grabbing a boot full of rear and locking it up… left a 2-3m mark!

TB goes to the knee and thanks the Lord that his “Pro” actually made it to the end of the “organised” ride!

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Turns out a mate from work was on the boat backing out of Circular Quay! Small world…

[JohnMember]

Final shot of the trip

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Then the fun began!

The run out of the CBD was like no other special test I’ve done! Except the trees (cars) moved and we raced each other through the traffic, trying to out do each other through line/lane selection through the slow traffic. I’m not a road rider at all but I did enjoy it. Then the boring M4 drone at 110kph back to the secret HQ.

As we arrived at the secret HQ TB cracks the doors and wheels the bikes in and does an oil change while I’m getting changed! Who’d go back to being an amateur?

IF I had a choice I’d have a Tenere for rides west of Dubbo and a well set up and prepped WRR for everything else. TB asked the question “If you could only have ONE bike in the shed, which would it be?” That was an easy and immediate answer of the the WRR!

And that was the end of my life as a “Pro” rider…

What would have made it better?
A pit bunny with an umbrella waiting at my bike when I arrived.
Having this as a job EVERY day!
Me being fitter would make it better… but that requires work. Yeah, nah!

My wife is now unhappy as I’m looking at second hand WRR’s on the internet!

[SteveMember]

Great read,thanks for sharing

[Author]

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