Watagans 25th ride report

[Mick DMember]

crash wrote:

Quote:

#

onya crash, keep jerking his chain….LOL

[GregMember]

micknmeld wrote:

Quote:

crash wrote:

Quote:

#

onya crash, keep jerking his chain….LOL

What are you talking about Troll??

[Mick DMember]

Trailboss wrote:

Quote:

micknmeld wrote:

Quote:

crash wrote:

Quote:

#

onya crash, keep jerking his chain….LOL

What are you talking about Troll??

Your post from last night that you just deleted…

[Anonymous]

Working on my report today guys, keep your eyes peeled, I’ll post it up later

[GregMember]

moto wrote:

Quote:

Working on my report today guys, keep your eyes peeled, I’ll post it up later

Mine is half done, did it last nite, get into work this morning and go to finish it of and I used the other laptop at home and cant be arsed starting the whole thing agian so it has to wait till I get home.

PS No squirrel report, bastard may not have been there!

TB

[Anonymous]

I’ve just been out to sub-contractor to sort some issues out which has taken 3.5 hours longer than it should of so mine will probably be tomorrow now

[Brendon CarreMember]

Just got home from Intensive Care unit!!:angry: fancy talking lawyer penning letter as we speak!!
Wife reckons watching me get out of bed sunday morning was “Priceless”
Just One question when is the next one!! Top effort by everyone involved i really enjoyed the day. Thanks to those that helped pick me up and dust me off, the cooks, sweeps and TB for some awesome trails. looking forward to riding with you blokes again.
Boulder :cheer:

[GregMember]

A leaders view or lack of it

Didn’t need the alarm to wake me I had been unable to sleep and was checking the time every hour at least, Chopper was on time travelled up the street a little and found Chris sitting on his drive, coffee in hand. We turned of the M4 onto the M7 (sorry Mick you wouldn’t know any of that as you don’t leave Wauchope) and crawled along waiting for Crash, once he caught up we cruised along via the glow of Crashes fuel light DOH! Once we got to a servo, topped everything up it was happy days.

As we approached the meeting place all the jokes regarding Tiny being there early started, it ranged from 4am in the morning till the day before I think. Not to be let down around the corner we come and yes Tiny was there but Boulder had pipped him at the post. We did so intros and soon the people started rolling in.

The convoy of cars as we left to drive up was a sight in itself, once up there I had the make the uncomfortable speech regarding it’s a trail ride, you are only coming of your own free will blah blah blah everything was unloaded and we rode down the next camp area and waited for Ollie (someone said Ollie is always last) and a couple of guys that turned up late and a couple more that had set up their camp the night before, while they got ready we ducked down the single line that runs parallel with the road gathered the group up pulled a U turn went back to the camp, once the whole group was together we got going, Moto was sweeping and we got into some single line easy going, it was muddy in spots. We had a quick break while JRD cable tied his radiator shroud where a stick had broken it free at the bottom mount, once fixed we continued along at a pace a lot quicker than a group that big should have travelled, the corner man system was working fine with two man at every corner. I asked Champo was there any dramas he said it was all good so I decided to step it up a little, we came down of a section of the Great Northern Walk and turned a hard right back on ourselves and headed over to Ollie lookout, but it wasn’t that easy, I sooted up a muddy rutted son of a bitch of a hill straight up and thought how good is that as I rode straight into mud hole and the front just sunk. It was stuck big time, someone helped me drag it out, think it was JRD if it wasn’t whoever it was thanks. We continued to the look out without a problem for a breather and some photos, Ollie asked what the area was called the lookout he meant, I didn’t know I don’t know names so I called it Ollie Lookout, congratulations mate.

We headed back to the bottom of the great Northern Walk to take the left turn, I came upon the big puddle I got stuck in and went straight through so easy that I came up to the top of the rutted snot hill to quick, cross rutted and ground to a halt this caused the BRP to fall to its left, because it was deep in a rut it only fell a little I stayed on but was down on my knee, I could hear a bike rev behind me but thought nothing of it and rode of only hear later that me stopping caused Chris to crash, ha ah ha.

We did Tiny’s loop at a great pace until I ran out of corner men, on a little jump with a log crossing all rolled into one, JRD turned up then Tiny, we chatted between ourselves until Crash fronted and said that Ollie had a flat and was fixing it, Chris had a crash down a bank. Soon we could hear them coming, it sounded great, we then had a great ride to the Basin, had a blow a drink and trucked back to the cars, we completed nearly all single line, Crash came up with me a one stage and we had let the BRP’s have there head, nice backing it into a couple of corners and back into the single line, dodged a Echidna, score was now one black snake (I squealed like a girl when I ran over it) and I had clipped a Wallaby,

Chopper and Raceytracy had the snags and onions going we had a great feed, some pit racing then took place, we fuelled the bikes, Gilli had a leaking fork seal so he pulled out, 5h1f7y, Spaedle both went back to camp and lotsa had his rear shock on his Kato fail so he was done

That’s it for me for now up to lunch, a leaders report doesn’t seem so interesting because I don’t see much of what goes on, looking forward to Moto’s and Ollie’s reports (Ollie’s is always good), there should be at least another dozen or so reports, doesn’t have to be war and peace like my dribble

Cheers to Chopper and Tracy again for lunch thanks guys

The sweeps, Moto, Ollie and Furk

Thanks to everyone for coming its why the site was formed it was the best ride I have had in the 23 years o riding the Watagans

TB

PS bring on the Xmas party

[Anonymous]

Trailboss wrote:

Quote:

It was stuck big time, someone helped me drag it out, think it was JRD if it wasn’t whoever it was thanks.

Sorry wasn’t me , I had fun watching from the other side though

[Micheal TrainerMember]

Cheers guys really enjoyed the loop it was good to get out in such a large group for a change, good pace, good tracks and good group. awesome. great to meet you all.
looking forward to riding with you again.
hopefully ill be able to make the christmas party.

[Anonymous]

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away…….

…….there was a club called OBT that had organised a ride in the bush. I was going. More to the point, I was sweeping for at least half of the ride. I hope I don’t furk it up, I’m not very clever and anything’s possible!

Annnnywaay…..after KTM still not getting my new fuel tank in I was bound to using the broken one that TB had gone to some effort to repair for me. I had a mare of a day Friday and ended up fitting the tank late in the evening, I wasn’t happy.

Come the next morning I shot out of bed, and got suited up ready to rock and roll. The basic pre-ride checks had been made the night before and I unlocked the beast and rode it 5 mins down the road to Matt’s house where we spent 10 minutes buggering around with the backpacks trying to carry the 75 snags and 8 onions between us.

Getting this sorted we headed off down the road making our way the 18Km’s or so to Dunks Lane. We stopped at the servo in Wyong to fuel up. After filling my tank up something gave way where the crack was and fuel was pissing out of tank onto my hot engine like I was pouring it on there with a jerry can! Concerned that I might ignite the whole petrol station I quickly moved my bike to the grass verge on the side of the road, took the fuel cap off and poured fuel out until the leaking stopped. I now had about 2/3 tank of fuel. Deep joy. Matt put almost the whole bucket of sand down on the garage forecourt which by now looked so wet you could have been forgiven for thinking it had just rained.

Arriving at Dunks Lane we jumped straight onto the firetrail and smashed the next 40K’s all the way to camp ground/meeting point. Arriving early and annoying the early morning campers with my exhaust we sat down and waited for everyone else to turn up. Shortly after we heard the noise of the convoy of cars pull up and park. We were about 200m round the corner so fired the bikes up and rode round to meet everyone and get the introductions going.

A short time later we were all ready to go and TB had shot off up the road with Chopper recording the festivities on the camcorder. I was sweep so waited for the last rider to leave…..10 minutes later Ollie had finished faffing around (TB – It was me who said he is always last! ) and we were on our way.

We jumped straight into some single track going towards the pines which was a good start to get everyone warmed up, the cornerman system seemed to be working well for such a large group and I spent some time watching the guys in front of me checking out how good they were. It was immediately obvious that everyone could find their way around a bike pretty well and nobody appeared to be struggling. It was also quite clear that a few riders were actually quite quick indeed.

We doubled back on the first section of single track and this was when I saw Matt almost land sideways in a good size puddle. It was as close to falling as you can get without actually falling off. Like any good sweep I made loud jeering noises to make sure he knew it didn’t go un-noticed :p

There was the odd mechanical and adjustment here and there which warranted a short stop, but no real issues. The single trail was awesome and actually quite flowy considering the numbers we had riding. Most of the little get-off’s I seemed to have missed being at the back. So, much like TB, I wasn’t really in the thick of the action.

The first real break was when Ollie got a flat in the front of the RMX, I think most were happy to have a little break. Ollie was getting on with it and we all stood around watching and taking the piss….as you do!

We get onto some single and twin trail stuff which I was having a ball on (even at the back) when my back brake started to make some unhappy squeaking and grinding noises. Oh, even deeper joy, not only was my fuel tank sporting a death crack my rear brake pads had now worn out!

The trails were ace and for the most part I had no idea where the hell we were pretty much until we got back to the camp ground for lunch. Ollie rode behind me for the last few K’s as I had hit reserve on the beast and didn’t want to be left behind without any fuel! The old girl made it back to the camp though in another amazing display of fuel economy.

Lunch, thanks to Tracy and Chopper was awesome, and in my case much needed. I felt so much better for having some food in my belly and bit of a rest.

Unfortunately, we had lost a few after lunch (although still had a big group) due to mechanicals etc.,.

I had really enjoyed riding the afternoon loop. I was surprising to learn how much you actually use your rear brake when you don’t have one. Trying to ride fast in tight, twisty single trail is very hard and I almost washed the front out a few times. In the end I was just using a quick stab of the brake to bake the rear into the corner (MX style) and get on the gas on my way out. Steep down his were less fun though!

In all we covered some loops that took us all the way to Dooralong Lodge and round the perimeter for a bit before riding somewhere near the scout hall. Again, for the most part I had no idea where we where except for seeing a track I recognised from an MTB ride a year or so ago. None the less the trails were great and I was having a blast.

Through the single track on the way back to the campsite I was having fun with a guy on a 530 Kato. I would sit and drop back from the guy infront of me to get some space and then hammer it to try and get shot of him (using my poo rear brake MX technique). Dosdgy rear brake or not I was going through the ST about as quick as I could and he was always right up my arse. Riding a 530 too was pretty impressive!

After arriving back at the camp we had another can of Pepsi and liitle break before we all started to get packed up and head home. Me and Matt had the pleasure of rising another 60Km’s back the Central Coast. By the time I got home I was well a truly stuffed.

I hadn’t ridden in 3 weeks, by the time I got home it was 12.5 hours after I had left that morning and I had done a smidge over 250Km’s all up.

Awesome day, it’s what riding is all about.

Thanks for everyone that came, great to meet you all, I hope this ride will be the stepping stone for some more epic rides in the future

Memorable moments, in no particular order were:

Watching Boulder ride up ‘Boulder Hill’. All 3 times :p
Gili ‘helping’ Ollie move his bike off the log he used to fix the puncture and doofing the expansion chamber on the RMX on the log 3 times in a row. No damage done though :p
Lunch, lunch and lunch!
The view from the morning lookout.
Trying to get away from the bloke in the single trail on the way back. Damn, he was quick on that 530 (sorry didn’t catch your name).
The Honda getting stuck in the bog hole
The soreness of my arse on the ride home

[Anonymous]

Hello All

Sorry guys I have been stiff and sore since saturday I am not used to going so slow. It was a good day. I will write a report soon.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I missed you squirrel, I kept my eye out the whole ride. You must have been up front with the fast boys

[GregMember]

drop the act Steve

[Anonymous]

What act? Maybe you are trying to hide the fact you are the squirrel?

[Author]

Posts