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What can I say, great weekend, great to meet so many good people, a weekend which had a few minor setbacks but came through with shining colours. Bit jaded today, didn’t get home till almost eleven, but it was thoroughly worth it. I must mention 1 thing, there was one person who really enjoys outdoor living so much so that he sleeps on a piece of 15mm thick foam,(set on the rocky ground) a pillow and Kmart sleeping bag
– took him 20 mins to get into his bag (whats doing)and took a swim in some very cold water at 7.00am :S (STM- swags are only a couple hundred bucks and will last a lifetime) :laugh: :laugh:more to come
hatto
STM, you need to change your avatar to “fully loaded Man” :laugh:
Hatto
Wow what a weekend.. My first ever big ride and what a hoot it was.. I rode the B-Route and had the best time riding in the 3 years or so I been back on 2 wheels..
I would like to thank TB, OBT, the sponsors and any other individual who made the weekend happen.. You got a hint at what went into organizing the weekend at the start but it all became clear when we got to the camp site, setup and they ran the awards portion.. A special thanks to the support crew.. All were top blokes and very accommodating for all the needs of the groups..
How about that special lady who gave up her weekend to help get the injured to the hospital, top honors.. TB laid out a box for collection at the camp site I hope there was enough for her and her man to have a night out..
The first half of each day was the best for me.. It was a great pace, not to easy but yet not too hard.. You blokes with those super bikes just amazed me all weekend.. I can’t imagine dealing with the weight through all that.. A thanks to llewdaert, Mick and Jeffro for doing all the lead and sweep duties.. The stand out in our group I think was Kat.. A lovely lady and boy she can ride.. I have a few mates she would put to shame..
I didn’t quite agree with the choice to give up and not finish the last half of the B-Route on Day 2 but I’m very grateful for the riding I did get to participate in.. I had a great lunch with Boulder, Kat and Strucky at a pub in Lithgow followed by some great conversation waiting back at the cars for the support group to return..
It was an honor to be allowed to join this group and ride.. I met lots of like minded people and remembering all their names will be a challenge.. I hope I can join another ride in the very near future..
:woohoo: OBT Rocks!!!! :woohoo:
Hatto wrote:
Quote:STM, you need to change your avatar to “fully loaded Man” :laugh:
Hatto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLIIKrJ6nnI
STM makes him look like a pussy, STM and his aqua dump theory :laugh: :laugh:
STM you are OBT’s fully loaded man !!
TB
Well what can I say, that hasn’t or wont be said again and again, nothing really. Another top weekend with the Old Bulls. Congratulations to the organizers for a top effort, thanks go also to the sponsors Jacks Link, Muc-Off, Sutto’s, Mud “N Tar, Whipp’s, 4BP Racing, Tee ‘N’ Cee signs for the stickers and anyone else I may have omitted.
Congratulations to Crash as Old Bull of the year, well deserved, to Ollie who was the top poster and runner up to crash by 1 vote (should have asked for a recount mate
).The Bee Rooters (yes we of the little peckers
) had a great time on the trails, after some early navigation troubles which resulted in the Lost City remaining lost :blush: , we were on our way. Once we had the map reading sorted (and by we I mean MickP and Llewdaert) the trails flowed nicely.
Scott on the big Weestrom out front followed by (in no particular order) Chris (C-E-L), Strucky, MickP , Kat girl and myself lounging around with the big lazyboy seat on the Transalp at the tail. Not a lot of pictures from day 1 as I was sweeping all day and not too many from day 2 as I was busy having fun.Couple of highlights for me:
Getting up at 2.30am to get ready for the long drive down after going to bed around 11the night before.
Meeting up with some now familiar faces and meeting some new ones at the gathering.
The convoy of cars with bikes as we made our way from Blaxland to the start point.
Gearing up and setting of in the fog and rain hoping it wasn’t going to be a repeat of last years caves to cave wet run.
Thinking GavB is the smartest man in the world after adopting his chamois tied to the backpack straps trick which means you just grab it and give the goggles a quick wipe to clear the rain and fog from them without having to stop.
Seeing Scott tear it up on the big V-Strom
Seeing Katgirl nail a couple of snotty hills and come out cheering.
Riding the big V-Strom, so much power for so little wrist movement :ohmy: .
Jumping in the icy cold river and not being able to breath :ohmy: :S
The banter around the camp fire
Getting a bit lost on Sunday and having to take the Tar to Capertee
Ollies prickly pants
Seeing the V-strom power up the rocky and rutted hill on Sunday
The awesome prizes provided by the sponsors, Thanks again to themI went to bed at 7.30 and woke around 10.30 to the sounds of TB holding court with stories around the fire. I woke again about 11.30 to the same sounds, everyone was having a good time by the sounds of it and the next morning by the looks of it.
Day 2 saw Boulder and Jason join our band of merry men and lady, Jason I think should be called crack or stack, something along those lines. Anyone who road behind him knows where Crack comes from, and Stack cause he had ‘em but always bounced up and straight back into it.
The early part of the ride went brilliantly thanks to MickP taking the maps and the lead while Scoot played at the tail. Things went perfectly until just after Portland where we headed back into the bush at the rest area. Somehow the map directions matched the trails but the distances were out and eventually the directions didn’t match the trails we were on either. Somehow I ended up leading for a while which resulted in us coming to a large bog that I just got through and is where Scott near buried the V-Strom. A bit of a group effort as he already mentioned with Kat on the saddle and Scott, Myself and either Chris or Strucky pushing and pulling. By this time it was getting on a bit and we thought everyone would be waiting for us so decided to hit the tar to Capertee. Some of us had enough as well, particularly those of us with the long run home to Newcastle and so decided to call it quits.
So Boulder took Kat, Strucky and Chris into Lithgow for Lunch while Mick, Chris and myself high tailed it to Capertee to meet the others only to find the Support drivers and no riders.
Anyway we had some lunch then Scott loaded up and road home the back way, I loaded my gear of the vehicles and headed for Bell while Mick waited for the crew.A big thanks to the support driver in Tiny, Lotsa and Bubba. Great effort guys, true gentlemen.
Thanks guys and girls for an awesome weekend, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Pictures to comeOk here are some Pictures for the no shows that weren’t able to experience it for themselves
The Gathering
The Riding
The Camp
Camp Jeffro
The Scenery
Video to come
Day One
Just a quick rundown on my take of the events for the weekend
seeing the amount of bikes and people at the designated spot all ready to ride awsome
Meeting up with all the old Bulls that Ive become good mates with and putting faces to names of all the new guys.
The first part of the ride before Capertee was very entertaining.
The Kram Karnage :blink: bloody hell he hit hard, he blew both fork seals in one foul swoop and was upside down for a good 15 metres before landing heavily on his wrist. We had a toast for our fallen comrade on saturday night.
The burger and chips at Capertee was awsome and the people there really looked after us.
Did everyone see the wheel stand that TB did out of Capertee yes TB for the fiftieth time
The trails to Sofala although mainly roads were very scenic but very boring a necessary evil I know considering the time constraints. The horse people going off about motorbikes using the Rd, everyone I know slows down or turns off their bikes to let a horse and rider go past, this old bat was fair flying off, Benjy took it all in his stride.
Bengy has a wheel standing addiction and must have popped 300 or so between Capertee and Sofala (not as good as yours though TB :laugh: )
Having a beer at the Sofala pub and having a chat with ol mate on his 500 Velocette
Setting up the Campsite before the Shananigans started, I picked a spot well away from everyone as apparently I mimick a Stihl 090 at full throttle when ive hit the piss :laugh: Unfortunately it was in the middle of a forest of farmers friends, im sure pictures will follow :laugh:
The awards ceremony how good were the prizes,big thanks to all of our sponsors awsome effort from all concerned. I must admit I felt a bit gutted about not winning the OBT of the year but being pipped by one vote and to such a worthy bloke I got over it pretty quick well done Crash.
We had the BBQ’s flashed up and the snags and steaks were pretty good after a big day in the saddle, everyone enjoyed the snags on bread with the fully loaded chilly and veg sauce :woohoo:
The circle of knowledge was formed around a ripper bonfire ,good onya Tiny for the wood gathering, I think I played up on a bit that later in the night (photo evidence?) TB was in fine form and wasn’t holding back, I think I got around and had a chat to most people it was a great social gathering that’s for sure. I woke up at about 4 in the morning my Tonsils were the size of an apple and feeling mighty sore and uncomfortable,I got up and found some ice and went back to bed how do you stop a swag from spinning?
Day 2
Up at a respectable hour in the morning packed up the swag and sleeping back full of farmers friends and had a brew with Moose,everyone was knuckling down and getting their gear packed away for the 8am start time.
I volunteered to continue doing the sweep with Gotcha the Super Sweep for the morning, we made our way along the winding rd through all the mist the grip heater (yes only one) was indeed very nice,got a chance to open the 450 up a bit just before hitting the trails. Gotcha and I were sitting back a bit to keep out of the dust but had a fair pace going, we both commented earlier that we didn’t want to get a flat tyre. We came down one hill and Justo had picked up a flat,so the tools were out and Hatto and Crash were all over it unfortunately they pinched the tube putting it back in, so I gave justo my spare put that back in and had some real Drama with the tyre valve took ages before we were able to have it sorted.lucky we wernt in an Enduro we would have timed out!
Get going again and catch up with all the guys at the fuelling point Jack Links Jerky handed out every where, how good is that Tender Chilly yummo!
We then headed into the Pine forest sections with some exceptional trails and rocky hill climbs to be found in there. Especially one rocky muther where you had to work your arse off to get up,Think Moose said “ we just go round those bastards up in Wauchope!” We also had a crack at Dan’s Hill now that was a fun climb the big four stroke did it easy.
Back on the trails we traversed some twin trails that were littered with sharp embedded goolies just waiting to crunch a tyre on the unsuspecting you know its an infamous trail when you see tubes hanging up in the tree’s and sure enough round a corner and Benjy has picked up a flat. Saw Chris had a slow motion laydown and drown the 400 Kato took a bit to get him going but in the end was good after a lot of perseverance and kicking. Hatto you are a legend !! Get that sorted and we travel through some very different terrain, best was going through the 3 or 4 river crossings without drowning it in front of the camera. Finally make it to Capertee, feeling a bit weary as the Voltaren I took earlier had worn off, another great burger and we were off . I handed the sweeps vest to Muckoff so I was able to have a bit of a go in the single tracks that I knew would be coming up, I found a new wind and was having a great time chasing the boys through the twisties
Best moment of the day was seeing Muckoff get absoluty loaded up with filthy swamp from the back of LC4’s back wheel, Im sure he didn’t mean it but man it was a great fill in!
I had a great time on the singles that followed shortly after it was just the whoops that I was having trouble with as I was starting to Cramp up. We waited for a long while near Zigzag wondering what was taking the rest of the boys so long to arrive apparently Gotcha the super sweep got himself a flat after saying all day how he didn’t want to get one. Mean while back at the Rd we watched a sweet little worked Dato 1600 hammer around the corner,lucky no one was coming the other way because it would have been huge.
TB and Mal went off to check where the others were and finally Sutto rocks in and says his farewells as he was riding home. Then we hear the BRP at full noise come down the Rd TB knocked her down a gear and hammers it through the left hand sweeper,yes mate it did look good.
We then made our way back to the cars in the dark along the railway lines.It was an epic weekend and one thoroughly enjoyed by all. I want to again thank TB Chris Mal,Hatto Tiny Lotsa and Bubba and everyone else involved with running of this ride. Awsome stuff Now ive got to get myself ready for another 2 days at Dungog.
Also a big thanks to Madmac for the lend of the Kato 450,bike was sweet all weekend and was a pleasure to ride,cheers mate
Ollie
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