TWO DAY NAVIGATION RIDE. June 2013

[jim cadyMember]

Clean wrote:

The little bunch of gentleman riders in the pic may be the clue to who “Clean” is. I took the pic!
Glad that the GPS forced reading lesson worked!
Cheers

Ahh,
The man with the cloth,thanks for the loan of that by the way 😆

[Geoff ForshawMember]

Some Random Photos from the Nav Ride

Cheers,
Lefty

[SteveMember]

Another Cracker ride TB. Just a quick thanks to the sweeps, lead riders and DJ and Big Pete for all their efforts keeping riders going and of course being there when Wayne went out in the whirly bird. Thanks DJ for picking me up and heading into Mudgee with me to try and sort my bike out. Of course TB had the issue sorted in five minutes when the bike was back in the shed… But it was COLD!!

[Dave WigginMember]

Another Old Bulls Adventure ride! After the previous two I was really looking forward to this one, though I was a bit apprehensive about the forecast and the fact there was going to be a lot of mud. A substance I had little or no experience in riding in.

So on late on Friday arvo I left behind the corporate lawyers, Double Bay Madams and the Rose Bay Princesses that constitute the bulk of my customers in the Eastern Suburbs and headed off to spend the week end with some real people.

The traffic out of Sydney wasn’t too bad and before long I was heading up the Bells Line in to the gathering gloom. It sure was cold going over the top of the Blues but my new Klim jacket and pants started paying for themselves straight away.

Fortunately Ace wasn’t on this ride, so I couldn’t be led astray when I got to the pub at Lithgow and encouraged to drink more than is good for me the night before a big ride like last time. A couple of warming rums and a beer or two were quite sufficient before the riders briefing. All very well organised with GPS downloads and track notes. Brilliant stuff!

Good to see Lefty again, having met him on the St Albans ride. He hadn’t grown an inch. I was with his group “Lefty’s Learners”.

So up early on Saturday and in the frosty early morning. I teamed up with Isambard within Lefty’s group. Named after his great great grandfather, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, one of the greatest British engineers
of the Victorian age.

Off we went in to the freezing cold morning air. My first problem arose as my GPS wasn’t picking up any satellites. I had to follow Isambard on the first dirt section and it soon proved to be technically challenging. I had a hard time keeping up with him on his nimble DRZ but didn’t want to lose sight of him and take a wrong turn. Getting lost in the first hour would be highly embarrassing.

There was no chance of having a gentle warm up on this section. Straight in to steep rocky tracks and downhills, I had too many layers on and started to cook in my own juices.

At the first fuel stop Mr Squiggle, who must have exemplary taste as he was also on a Triumph, got my GPS sorted out in 10 seconds flat. It was still in simulation mode. Thanks Mr Squiggle!

More open tracks followed with some brilliant riding, until we happened upon “The Muddy Lane”. My first taste of real mud. I was doing OK until I got a line wrong until my front wheel decided it wanted to find the deepest rut in the lane, followed by my rear. The rut was just wide enough for the bike, but not my boots, so they had to stay up on the bank. I gunned the Tiger forward and the rut got deeper and the bank got higher. Now as a former rock climber I do know something about hip turnout, and flexibility was always a bit of a weakness of mine. But as the bike got lower and the bank higher and I paddled furiously along my hips had to assume a position they had not had to endure for a very long time.

The more uncomfortable I became, the wider Lefty’s grin got as he waited at the end of the lane. I finally emerged from the rut in a cloud of roost, a hip replacement a couple of years closer.

We got to Wellington at about 3.30 and decided to push on, keen to complete the route. There were some fast open sections where the Tiger (and me) were more at home, but still couldn’t hang with Lefty as he took his KTM up to warp speed. As it got dark Isambard was keen for me to take the lead as his headlight had all the power of a Christmas fairy light.

It did get very dark and we were wary of wild life, but the only thing I saw was a tiny white rabbit!

We rolled in about 6 o’clock after a great day, made even better when the British Lions won the first test.

Wigster

[GregMember]

Awesome read Wiggy, bring on your day 2

TB

[JeremyMember]

All packed and ready to go……. Maybe a little overpacked but I know for next time, change of sox and undies and away I go!

Just a tad nipply before the sun rose in Lithgow!

Got the room next to Clubby, Lance and wolfie was a tad star struck but kept it cool, sort of!

The view from the first river crossing, creek crossing ok it was a puddle!

Quite a traffic jam at the puddle but just had to get a photo of the hottest tenere, Factory ever thinking of selling let me know!

The old pig in it’s element!

This is what bought our day undone, the exhaust has been rubbing on this oil line for a while and created a pinhead hole just enough for it to look like the Exxon Valdez oil spill

2 hours later back on the road and loving it!

This old jersey girl stood in the middle of the road mooing at us until we were about 10 feet away then slowly moved off looking at us begrudgingly

The catchup ended in wellington as we hit there at 4 so slabbed it back to orange at legal speeds of course…..

Chasing the SUPER moon!

No photos from day 2, too busy holding on to flaying handlebars!

Thanks again OBT I am already approved by minister for finance to join in August, cannot wait!

[GregMember]

Awesome as well yz80h-thebeginning, now write day two love hearing about how everybody got on makes it all worth while

TB

[MichaelMember]

Great report and photos Wigster and yz80

Keep them coming guys

Cheers strucky

[Dwayne OMember]

Yeah,
Great reads from Wigster and YZ
Much more entertaining than the breaking news updates this evening and the footy for that matter at the moment :whistle:

Thanx guys, looking forward to Day 2 reports

[JohnMember]

Couple of good write ups there boys!

YZ tell us what you took and (really) what you will take on the next one? I’m new to this game and would like to know those little details… might help me out.

[JeremyMember]

jtb2879 wrote:

Couple of good write ups there boys!

YZ tell us what you took and (really) what you will take on the next one? I’m new to this game and would like to know those little details… might help me out.

haha well I had tent, stove, sleeping bag, food for 1 dinner 2 breakfasts, coffee of course, my spares, the fuel container (not used but cost $5 so not throwing it away!!! I do ride a DR) metho for stove and a night cap….. :sick: that was the panniers and top rack bag, on my back there was jeans extra jumper, socks, jocks, and odds and sods. now that is embarrassing…. :blush:
On the next one it will be spares in top rack bag, back pack with 3 litre bladder, jeans, spare socks jocks. That will be all.

[JeremyMember]

Day 2 began well, double nescafe43 motel coffee with UHT milk and a ciggie and I was fit and ready to rumble with the mud! 👿
It was +5 degrees at the old Ibis Styles Orange (no affiliation but a great motel) when boarding the pig, that is 6 degrees above yesterday I was sweatin up a storm!
Off to lake Conobalas car park when we see guys riding back the other way, thoughts did cross my mind but I put all my trust in TB’s directions :huh: and continue on to a smiling wolfie handing out big paper envelopes with more TR, TL GSO’s and the like, so into the bag it goes and follow the purple line we do. Nice uphill climb then a nice downhill, then slippery shit…. down goes a DR in front running on a trailwing rear! (how he did the next couple of k’s I do not know but all credit to him!)
Picking lines was the understatement of the day but we did it with no major mishaps, come to a corner and see a sign saying Goat Hill Track, anything with goat and hill in the same name cannot be good me thinks! But hey it was actually a nice bit of fire trail leading to nearly 1200 metres altitude on the gps.
When we got to the 2 fat ladies, none of them fat by the way and seeing the amount of bikes coming in behind us I was glad we got away early as some of the mount Conobalas track would have been chewed up and not easy to pass by then, even after riding through heavy rain for 2 hours back to Sydney a lot of that mud was still stuck to the bike (oh and still is!).
Leaving 2 fat ladies we headed up to the single, was gunna give it a miss with all of the gear on the bikes but we pulled up on the start of the track, ridedayjunkie and I looked at each other shrugged our shoulders as you do and went for it, only to be passed by a 640 adventure going gang busters up the hill. I did manage to pass him on the singles but only because he had got off the bike to wait for someone but hey it was a pass….. hi Lefty!
Then down into the Ophir (?) gold mine area with lots of nice open flowing corners and crests to have some fun on, down over the river crossing and 30-40 cadets are walking out of the bush either side of the road and lo and behold some of them chuck their fingers out for a hitchhike, so I do my best Stephen Gall impersonation skidding right up beside them and say get on before realising they are all 15-16 year old girls and notice a teacher/leader looking at me in a funny way…. Oops, twist the wrist and get out of there before any charges are laid! :blink:
Continuing on towards Mt Horrible, the rain started to hit and temp dropped, thoughts of riding though this to Lithgow and then on to Sydney got the better of us as we had both done that loop a few times before we shot off to Bathurst BP fuelled up and headed for home passing many dirty ADV bikes on the way. Rained from Lithgow all the way to my door in lilyfield, my expensive’ waterproof’ boots um ….nup, my expensive ‘waterproof’ gloves um… nup my cheap ass jacket and pants… you guessed it did no leak go figure!
Anyway was an awesome 2 days thanks again all involved for making it another addiction I will have to feed frequently!
Jeremy

[GregMember]

Been in Rumsoakedstudios tonight working on a video, sleepy now :blush:

TB

[AndrewMember]

Wigster wrote:

Fortunately Ace wasn’t on this ride, so I couldn’t be led astray when I got to the pub at Lithgow and encouraged to drink more than is good for me the night before a big ride like last time.
Wigster

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: I never takes much twisting Wiggy! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Sounds like you had a great ride mate. I look forward to catching up with you mate

[JohnMember]

yz80h-thebeginning wrote:

haha well I had tent, stove, sleeping bag, food for 1 dinner 2 breakfasts, coffee of course, my spares, the fuel container (not used but cost $5 so not throwing it away!!! I do ride a DR) metho for stove and a night cap….. :sick: that was the panniers and top rack bag, on my back there was jeans extra jumper, socks, jocks, and odds and sods. now that is embarrassing…. :blush:
On the next one it will be spares in top rack bag, back pack with 3 litre bladder, jeans, spare socks jocks. That will be all.

Bloody hell mate you did have some gear on board! Thanks for the info.

[Author]

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