The Brickyard bites, baby!

[Eric SmithMember]

The Brickyard bites, baby!

The weather was a bit shady as we rolled out of town to our ride at Goobang National Park, AKA the Harvey Ranges, south of Dubbo.

We had a few starters –or so we thought, but there were a few last-minute no-shows.

Still, we had the important people, namely me, MKB, Stu, Mototrans (Scott), Alan (Whiterocket), Peter and Matt. As we were gearing up the ranger showed up and told us about a few closed tracks that were not in the area we were planning to ride. He was quite nice and obviously knew the place inside out.

Matt is the Sherco dealer in Narromine and was showing off the brand new Sherco 2.5i -very nice!

Stu, Mick & Matt

Scott gearing up while shooting the breeze with the ranger.

Stu, Mick, Matt & Alan

We headed straight to the trig (Caloma) only to find our heads in the clouds – quite nice but no view!

Pete

Matt

Scott

Alan

Mick

Stu

Me

So we moved on and headed to the Widowmaker – which was freshly graded. We decided not to cut it up by trying to ride up it and moved west to the single trail. This was awesome, flowing, grippy, no dust, just fantastic!

Matt, Alan, Stu, Pete

Pete & Stu

Scott, Mick, Matt, Alan

Then it was up the powerline track and through some more fire trails back to the carpark, via some of the fastest riding all day featuring some MASSIVE filling in by and filling in of all of us!

A thing of beauty:

Pete and Matt left us at lunch and the five remaining diehards headed out and hit some trails.

Mick gained a stick in his chain guide but we were soon underway again.

Stu was telling a story of how much roost came out of the back of Alan’s bike:

Meanwhile, back with Mick:

Stu helped out by being the bike stand:

The mighty DRZ didn’t miss a beat all day

We ended up on the single track again, where Scott found reserve and we headed back down the powerlines track and headed for the cars.

This is where it all went wrong.

I was sweeping, and came across a scene I would never like to see again: skid marks on the track, a bike on its side and one of our blokes face down on the track – not moving. Stu was down.

This was scary and after his lips started going blue we gently tried to get his helmet undone without moving him. This was not happening and I decided to call an ambulance. Just as I was pulling on my helmet to find service for the mobile, Stu started responding to Mick’s questions. I’m guessing that he was out cold for between 3 and 5 minutes. We checked his toes, fingers etc for feeling and eventually judged him ok to roll into the recovery position.

He was very dazed and confused, short term memory was shot and after a minute or two he realised that his shoulder was bloody sore and his ribs were not real flash either.

Scott and I headed back to get my ute to ferry Stu and his bike out of there. I did the trip there fairly gently because I just had to make it in one piece, took me about 20 minutes for the 20km or so of fire trail. I changed out of my bike boots and pants and headed back to get the wounded bike and bloke. Scot was to follow and catch me. Well, he didn’t catch me, I did the trip back in 20 minutes somehow – go the Mazda Bravo! I need a red flashing light for it now that it is an ambulance as well!

Anyway by the time I got back Stu was sitting up and talking – well, mostly asking what had happened and what was going on! Poor bugger, concussion is a bitch! We loaded his bike on and with Stu in the passenger seat I gently drove back to the carpark, calling his wife on the way to let her know what had happened.

(Back in time a little, before I headed to get the ute) Stu hit a hidden stump in the grader bank on the left of this pic, about where Scott in the red is standing:

Because Alan and Stu had travelled together, Alan drove them both back and I assume that as of right now, Stu is in Dubbo Base Hospital and getting some decent painkillers!

So a great ride, but a really crap crap crap ending. Best wishes to Stu, hope you heal nice and quickly mate!

This may be my last Harveys ride. Single track for me from now on. I’m having second thoughts about the Condo 750 next year as well. This is the first serious accident that I have seen – where I was not the person lying on the ground anyway! Not keen to see that again.

[GregMember]

ECKS-Man wrote:

Quote:

This may be my last Harveys ride. Single track for me from now on. I’m having second thoughts about the Condo 750 next year as well. This is the first serious accident that I have seen – where I was not the person lying on the ground anyway! Not keen to see that again.

Nice report and pictures Ecks, hope Stu gets better real soon bad luck

ECKS what happened there today can happen on the single line track when it opens and ya briefly grab third, Aidan’s (BMW rider)leg broken in 5 places was a 20 kph crash you ask him? It happens everywhere its why they call it an accident, you just have to ride to the conditions, my bad crash doing about 35kph, its biking

Get better Stu

TB

[dennis da menaceMember]

top report Ecks man.

some nice lookin trails.

must have been the full moon mate. my 300 spat me off too.

hope stu is ok and back in the saddle soon.

i know how you feel Ecks. id much rather smash myself up than see somebody else wounded. its a horrible feeling.

[Eric SmithMember]

On balance it was a great day out. Mick, Stu and Al were riding (in my opinion) too fast for the trails they were on – in fact at times we were all guilty of it. However, the Harveys is getting more and more opened up, wider tracks, more traffic, closing the “good” bits. This accident turned my stomach, but there is more to it than just that. I’ve been where Stu was – overconfident, came off and hurt myself. The Harveys sucks you in to that and I for one am not inclined to go back for that reason. Even thought I try to ride 10-20% slower than my top speed, there’s always something!

[GregMember]

ECKS-Man wrote:

Quote:

On balance it was a great day out. Mick, Stu and Al were riding (in my opinion) too fast for the trails they were on – in fact at times we were all guilty of it. However, the Harveys is getting more and more opened up, wider tracks, more traffic, closing the “good” bits. This accident turned my stomach, but there is more to it than just that. I’ve been where Stu was – overconfident, came off and hurt myself. The Harveys sucks you in to that and I for one am not inclined to go back for that reason. Even thought I try to ride 10-20% slower than my top speed, there’s always something!

I hear ya ECKS, and we all do it and it does turn your stomach mate :unsure:

TB

[Anonymous]

Hmmmm….not good to hear about Stu, I hope he gets better soon

Other than that good ride report ECKS it was a good read

[Mick DMember]

Good yarn ECKS, pity about the ending. Nothing like a big off by someone to take the shine off what would have otherwise been an awesome day.

[TrentMember]

Shame to hear that hope Stu’s feeling all better!

Did you guys have a ride on the sherco?

[Eric SmithMember]

Hey all, just spoke to Stu and he is OK, with a broken collarbone and cracked ribs as suspected. They had to do a CAT scan because when he got to the emergency room he was slurring his speech and had one pupil dilated. All clear though thank goodness. I am the first one who was there who has called so I was able to fill him in on what happened (again!).

Mick and Pete had a go on the Sherco. I wasn’t game in case I liked it too much! The bloody thing has some poke though, pulls away from my bike! 6 gears helps there too!

[Bruce CurtisMember]

Ecks, it’s always going to be a game of odds, you can ride on the edge for years and get away with it, then just be cruising along and WHAMMO I try to ride well ahead of myself and limit the whammo bt, but it still happens and as TB said S/T is the one that gets me.

Give your mate a bit of curry, make a joke of it, otherwise you’ll end up walking away from it for too long, which I did after that tenacious bitch fear leapt onto my shoulder.

He’ll be right it’s only a few broken ribs and a collarbone, he will have a decent bike story to tell the grandkids, as will you.

Bruce

[alanMember]

i was just behind stu when he fell of i don t think he was going to fast its just that they were riding side by side and there was a stump cut of very close to the ground right next to almost on the track with dirt pushed over it and his front wheel glanced of it than the back wheel hit it throughing him over the bars .could have happened to anyone you would not pic it as a stump.it does turn you of bikes a bit i did not no what to do lucky mic was there he knew what to do .ecks must be a bit of a rally driver did not take him long to get back in the ute.

[alanMember]

top report ecks just a few more pics

[alanMember]

and a few more[img]http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/uu140/whiterocket69/harvys032.jpg

[Eric SmithMember]

Mr Blue wrote:

Quote:

Ecks, it’s always going to be a game of odds, you can ride on the edge for years and get away with it, then just be cruising along and WHAMMO I try to ride well ahead of myself and limit the whammo bt, but it still happens and as TB said S/T is the one that gets me.

Give your mate a bit of curry, make a joke of it, otherwise you’ll end up walking away from it for too long, which I did after that tenacious bitch fear leapt onto my shoulder.

He’ll be right it’s only a few broken ribs and a collarbone, he will have a decent bike story to tell the grandkids, as will you.

Bruce

You are right Blue, as usual, but ol’ mate fear has been riding my shoulder for years after a series of scary ones. Three kangaroos over the years have shaken me to the core. Yes, single can have its risks but at lower speeds I’m more comfortable. Catombal, Clarence, all the tight single where it is 2nd and 3rd gear. Fall off and 90% of the time there is no harm. At 80km/h you’re going to get hurt and if you don’t you’re lucky!

When Stu gets back on the bike I’m sure he will be fine, he is one of those blokes that don’t get “down” after setbacks and can blank things out of their mind – like kangaroos. Stu will never remember telling me as we drove that he had to purposely blank out the risks from kangaroos when riding at the Harveys. Now he will have another risk to blank out!

I actually think that a large percentage of stacks happen once you turn off the aggression and start to relax – lose focus.

[GregMember]

ECKS-Man wrote:

Quote:

Mr Blue wrote:

Quote:

Ecks, it’s always going to be a game of odds, you can ride on the edge for years and get away with it, then just be cruising along and WHAMMO I try to ride well ahead of myself and limit the whammo bt, but it still happens and as TB said S/T is the one that gets me.

Give your mate a bit of curry, make a joke of it, otherwise you’ll end up walking away from it for too long, which I did after that tenacious bitch fear leapt onto my shoulder.

He’ll be right it’s only a few broken ribs and a collarbone, he will have a decent bike story to tell the grandkids, as will you.

Bruce

You are right Blue, as usual, but ol’ mate fear has been riding my shoulder for years after a series of scary ones. Three kangaroos over the years have shaken me to the core. Yes, single can have its risks but at lower speeds I’m more comfortable. Catombal, Clarence, all the tight single where it is 2nd and 3rd gear. Fall off and 90% of the time there is no harm. At 80km/h you’re going to get hurt and if you don’t you’re lucky!

When Stu gets back on the bike I’m sure he will be fine, he is one of those blokes that don’t get “down” after setbacks and can blank things out of their mind – like kangaroos. Stu will never remember telling me as we drove that he had to purposely blank out the risks from kangaroos when riding at the Harveys. Now he will have another risk to blank out!

I actually think that a large percentage of stacks happen once you turn off the aggression and start to relax – lose focus.

THE LAST SENTENCE IS ALL IT ECKS, I always back of when heading home ask Crash and Chicken I talk about it all the time. Ask Moto 200m from the end same ride Tiny had 20kms to go

TB

[Author]

Posts