[Amy HarburgMember]

Hi Fuchsy,

I own a Garmin 660 zumo which I have had lots of problems with, i just find it a frustrating unit to use and i have had lots of technical issues? On the weekend I borrowed TBs 60CSx and I can now highly recommend this. It’s easy to use, no fuss and just a good unit. I will by buying one after using it.

Hope this helps.

Flying Fish

[Amy HarburgMember]

Day 2

I can safely say that I like a relaxed pace to my Sunday morning – Yes I can be described and a latte adventurer. Nothing’s better than starting a big day with eggs Benedict and a few latte’s before hitting the trails…….well I was shit out of luck wasn’t I :unsure: No coffee and no breakfast. Only a hangover and a brisk ride up to the top of Mt Panorama. But it was worth it!! 6.30am watching a beautiful morning awaken over Bathurst with a line of adventure bikes ready to go! :woohoo:

Then straight to the bridle track. I don’t think I would even get tired of that track and its views. After heading up over the bluff and back down across a causeway I suddenly noticed a Ninga had snuck up on me………so it was on for young and old! 👿 :woohoo: :silly: TB and PTW trying to intimidate my little 250 with their big bikes. Wow what a ride! No time to take in the scenery or to worry about the drop offs I was to busy trying to ride my line and keep the revs into the WR. That was sooooo much fun, I wanna go do it again. There were lots of woohoos when we reached Hill End.

Then there was the run into Rylston for breakfast and onto the commission rd then into Yengo. I’m not sure if I am just use to crossing Yengo in the other direction or we took different tracks from what I remember but it was actually I bit challenging! Great fun, but some section were a bit steeper than I remember and a bit looser.
By the time Dave and I got the rode we had had enough fun for one weekend. So we bailed out here. I hit the Wollombi home with a quick stop at the pub for refreshing ale then onto Singleton. I finally rolled through the gate at 5.30ish.

What a weekend……now that is Adventure riding!

Flying Fish

[Amy HarburgMember]

Wow what an amazing weekend of great trails strung together by TB.
Overall I can’t say enough how great the route was. The whole two days were fantastic. Thanks a million TB and everybody on the ride.

So my weekend got off to a slightly slow start because I couldn’t get away from work until 4pm, but then it was load up the bike and all road lead to St Albans. This was the first time to get back on my WR since the APC so it was great to be back in the (small? :unsure: ) saddle again.

Anyway it was great to meet up with everybody in fine form at the pub. It was also great to put a few names to faces that I hadn’t met before. I also caught up a friend that had come along to get involved with old bulls. David or as he seems to be known now Wiggsy has recently bought a Tigger and was keen to put it through its paces. As it turns out it was definitely a great test for man and machine. Safe to say Dave was up to the challenge and punted the big girl over what was a trying course for a big bike. This was also the first time Dave has had this bike off road. All up top job Wiggsy!

So it was off to a great start on Sat with sweet tracks through Mt Irvine and Blackfellows. These are always worth the trip. Again I need to say how great the route was that TB put together………great track after great track all linked together.

Unfortunately I either didn’t listen to, or see, or take note of the large detour sign TB made around DJ’s hole and I almost met the same fate as DJ bike. By more good luck than good management I stopped short of drowning my bike. But I was in deep with lots of mud holding the bike! What’s a woman to do in this situation ! :blush:

That’s when a brave knight came to my rescue! Jeffro strode into the water without hesitation to see it I was alright and to help retrieve my bike. Wiggsy then jumped in and we got it out without damage. Boulder gave it the once over and assured me it was ok, so away we went…….just a little wet. Your my hero Jeffro. :kiss:

The rest of the day was more great tracks and some navigational challenges , but all in all great. Then onto the Kelso for drinks and stories.

More later.

Flying fish.

[Amy HarburgMember]

EAGLE`02 wrote:

No worries there,,, You are always counted as one of the group any time, you know that

Will see you there at St Albans

Any changes, let us know & we will meet you if you need to
Cheers

O goodness it’s good to be back on line and talking about a ride again!!
Thanks Eagel and TB for not missing me and welcoming me back to the folds.

Insert any one of many excuses here…….work, life, trying to sell a house, internet problems etc. but “whatever” I here you say….
Never mind my excuses…..I can’t wait for this and the the Coffs Weekend.

Flying Fish

[Amy HarburgMember]

singletrackmind wrote:

I have set up this post so you only need quote it and fill in your details. It is the easiest way for me to compile the numbers.
Cheers

Riders site name: Flying Fish
Friday ride: No
Friday dinner:No – probabley be late
Saturday breakfast:Yes
Sunday ride:Yes
If you have family coming how many and what are their ages: No

STM

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[Amy HarburgMember]

Hi guys,

Count me in for the Adv ride this weekend.
If there is a latte or counter lunch avaliable i’m in!! :whistle:

Flying Fish

[Amy HarburgMember]

EAGLE`02 wrote:

:blink: OOPS
I forgot about Flying Fish and possible friend,,, :whistle:

Sorry FF, Of course you too are more than welcome to join our convoy at anytime as well.
We will be leaving Freemans around 3.40ish and up over the Watagans to Bucketty so I guess it`s about an hour to there (Settlers Rd)

Let me know if you are thinking of joining up or doing your own thing

Will be great to catchup again

Hi Eagle,

Thanks for the invite but as TB helped out with I will probably meet everybody at St Albans Friday evening. I unfortunatly cant see me getting away from work in time to meet you Freemans at 3.40ish.

I might even try to remember to bring along that peice of chain I owe you from ages ago.

Hey TB, I just spoke to a mate of mine that recently bought a Tiger 800 and he’s interested in comming along. I will speak to him again next week and confirm.

Can’s wait to catch up with everybody again :woohoo:

Flying Fish

[Amy HarburgMember]

Hi All,

I have been a little slow with my ride report sections…I promised Kat I would start this a few days ago…..but work has been successful at delaying me again, so sorry about that, but here is my pre start run down of the ACP.

Pre Pre Day (Thursday)

Without a doubt this day came all a bit too quick for me. I had a few really busy weeks at work in the lead up to the APC, so except for bike prep, everything was a little behind. Therefore the Thursday before I was to leave for Wisemans was the only real chance I had to pack the bike and get myself ready. I had amassed a large pile of stuff that I wanted to take, but it was all in a large pile in the back room of my house.
The first thing I had to do on the Thursday was to get the bike to a local grapghics shop to get the awesome Old Bulls Grapghic put on the bike. Thankfully this went really smooth and within an hour the bike looked amazing.
Next was a quick trip to Newcastle for an appointment with my Orthopaedic Surgeon to get a Cortizone injection in my pesky Tennis Elbow. I certainly didn’t want that hampering me on the ride. Finally back to Singleton at about 2pm. That afternoon and night was spent sorting my gear then packing, repacking, ditching unessential clothing and finally consolidating it onto the bike. Like I said, all the bike prep had been done and thankfully this included tools and spares etc. So it all just had to go on the bike.

Finaly by Friday morning I was reasonably happy with what I had packed on the bike and I was ready to go!

Friday – Singleton to Wisemans Ferry.

I had organised accommodation at a B&B for Team Old Bulls, and I had planned to meet, Kat, Mick, TB and Dan there later that day. So after a little faffing around and some last minute phone calls to family, Mike and I hit the road at about Midday. After a quick fuel up we rolled out of Singleton.

Up to this point I don’t think I had had much time to really think about what I was about to head off and do, and also up to this point I hadn’t had a chance to doubt my ability to do this ride…..that all changed about 20minutes later. As we rode into Broke I absolutely fell apart, this may have been partly due to listing Dixie Chick Wide Open Spaces, but whatever the cause, I was a mess of self-doubt and fear. I had expected to cry at some point on this ride, but that had certainly come sooner that I had expected.

After stopping and being reassured by Mike that I can do this, I pulled myself together and we carried on. After that I focused on the exciting adventure I was heading off to do and so the rest of the ride was relatively uneventful.

We arrived in Wisemans at about 3ish and as we rode up to the pub I spotted Kat and Mick so we pulled over, had a few drinks and started to get really excited about the trip.
We were joined by TB and then all went off to get settled into our accommodation. Dan soon joined us and then later that evening we went back to the pub for had dinner and caught up with a few other APC riders.
We all agreed that an early night was a good idea, so back to the accommodation and to bed it was.

Stay tunned for day 1………..

Flying Fish

[Amy HarburgMember]

Hi All,

Well I just got home and to be honest I’m really sad it’s over .

After I take a few hours to relax and take stock of everything, then I will start to post the tales of the adventure and photos.

Three quick comments,

Firstly, the support from the entire Old Bulls community both in the prep and during the ride was really special and meant more to us than you may release. Thankyou all so very very much.
Secondly………..ToTB. I really don’t think we could have done it without you and your incredible guidance, help and time. Thank you Charlie :kiss: .
Thirdly………..To Kat. YOU are amazing. The determination and commitment I saw firsthand from you is more than anybody could know. You should write about a book about overcoming adversity and taking life by the balls and showing it who is boss. Talk about a never die attitude…it was amazing to witness. Especially….Thankyou!!

Flying Fish

[Amy HarburgMember]

Hi All,
Team OBT is going great. We are in Urbanville tonight with a heap of other riders. Beds and swags all over the pllace. Kat and I are going great, what amazing trails and places. The bike are both in good form and no probs. We are working llike a well oiled machine and supporting each other. We definatley have the wing man concept down pat. Its such a great experience being with such a cool chick on this. Althought its only day 3 the support we are sharing is just so important.
The first two days we rather technical and a bit knarly in spots, today was easier riding but bigger due to open dirt roads, with some beautifuly forest thrown in. Some great views. Not to many blond moments and a llot of fun.
Can’t wait for tomorrow!

Thanks everybody and Charlie (TB).

Kat and Amy

[Amy HarburgMember]

Hi Team,

Sorry I have been a little quiet in the last week. I have been a littlle errr………busy…….to say the least.

But here we are, the lights have gone orange and we are but hours from lining up at Wisemans for the start of a very exciting adventure….I can’t bloody wait :woohoo:

I one of earlier posts I mentioned I was looking for some graghic to put on my bike so I could spread the Old Bull Trail Riders word and show a small token of apprication for the help and support I have recieved from everybody . TB sent me some cool ideas, so with the help of a local signwriters/sicker shop I now think the bike looks awesome.

So here it before

Now with the graghics

I have a few more last minute things to do and pack, but I will be leaving home at about 12.30 today so I can get to Wisemans and soak up the atmosphere and hook up with the rest of the team.

Like Kat mentioned I have an annoying elbow injury sorted out yesterday, so it wont bother me on the ride.

OK I had better go and get ready….see you all on the raod. BTW Kat and I will post our spot tracker up later today so you can all follow.

Flying Fish

[Amy HarburgMember]

Hi Team,

Here is a bit more of a detailed update on our APC prep and our versions of the Shake down ride – without the incident stories. This might be a little long winded, but it was a big weekend. :blush:

Sorry, I didn’t take any photos over the weekend and so can’t add any to this update. Kat and Mick were the office press for the weekend.

Both Kat and I have been hard at work getting our bikes ready up to this point and we really took this weekend as an opportunity to check out the status of this work. We also used it as a chance to put together our camping gear and trial a few new things. I bought a new sleeping bag and had few other little things I wanted sort out. We were also planning to use this as our first test at navigating, as neither of us has ridden using a GPS as our only form of navigation :unsure: .

The week leading up to this ride was really bad for both Kat and I :blink: . We have both been really sick and work (again for both of us) has been the week from hell. But not to be perturbed we were super keen and looking forward to the weekend. Like Kat said “bright eyed and busy tailed…with lot of antibiotics”. I also figured that if I get a cold or flu on the ACP I will have to tough it out, so what better way to practice than with the real thing. I went to the Doctor today and thankfully I just have a run of the mill chest infection and a great case of laryngitis . I started the weekend with a croaky voice and finish with no voice. So it looks like I will have tomorrow in bed recovering…..so look out Old Bulls forum.

On Friday I road down to Dural so I didn’t have to rush too much in the morning, I also just wanted to get a long way away from work. The plan was to get Steve to load the route into my GPS. I’m somewhat useless with that sort of thing. Unfortunately midway through the process my GPS had an epic fail and completely stopped working. It wouldn’t even turn on…bloody thing… :S

The next morning (feeling rather under the weather) I hooked up with Kat and Mick and we put a game plan together for the weekend. The plan was to stick together and generally take it easy. We well and truly had an agenda for this ride and it wasn’t to ride fast or take any chances. We just wanted to have time riding together, cover the distance, and look after the bikes and us, learn how to navigate with the GPS, and have a bit of fun thrown in. Well, generally I think we succeeded.

Because my GPS was dead, it was all up to Kat. As I’m sure everybody would suspect…Kat did a great job. Sure we missed the first turn, but so did everybody :laugh: except Steve. We were then lead a little astray by Ian who had accidently pressed the wrong route in his GPS. Anyway it didn’t matter we were there to learn. We just regrouped at St Albans and skipped the Watagans, but that was actually almost part of the plan.

Steve and Clubby then accused us of cheating when we arrive at Laguna at the same time from a different direction…… So while Steve and Clubby were showing how hard core they are by having plunger coffee and raison toast (Steve even had pink flowers on his cup :kiss: ), Kat, Mick and I fuelled up and hit the trail again. We were also joined by Dan on his mighty 990R. It was great to have Dan along so he can keep an eye on my bike and all the work he has done setting it up. Unfortunately he later left the ride to recover Waynes bike from the Commission trail.

We had a total ball through Yengo. That trail is so much fun with all the contour banks, and Mick certainly made the most of the jumps and making it look so easy. Kat was also ripping up the trail and clearly enjoying it. I was having a few problems with my clutch and generally getting use to the changes to my bike and my new boots. Who’da thought different boots would make such a difference, but it took all day to get use to them. :blink:

Then onto the Commission Rd. This is Dan and my home trail, so I was having great fun on it.

After an hour or so helping Steve and Clubby at Wayne’s crash site, we decided that if we were still planning on getting to Hill End on the planned route, that we needed to get going. So off we went. The rest of the day was a mix of roads, open dirt roads and some smaller farm road, all good fun. We got into Hill End just as it was getting dark. In my excitement of getting there I missed the photo at the Hill End sign.

We went straight to the camp site and set up our tents. To say it was cold was an understatement and we were trying to figure out exactly why we were stupid enough to camp. I think it was actually my bright idea to camp……what was I thinking?? :blush: Anyway off to the pub for dinner and a few well deserved drinks.

The next morning we were just about to head off when Steve and Clubby came and told us about the decision to change the route to avoid the much anticipated river crossing. While Kat and I had decided to walk the bikes across and had our plan ready, we were still relieved to hear we would have to do it.

So as a group we hit the trails once again, went to the Bridle Trail. With Kat at my tail, we made the most of the good conditions and had a great ride. It was so much fun riding together like that and I was totally pumped when we pulled up.

After Ian’s mishap up the hill, we again had to change route to seek out some phone reception and ensure he was getting the help he needed. With the 8 of us left we instigated a cornerman system and got moving. After we got the mobile reception and check on the situation we all continued on together and went onto Turon gates, then Blackfellows Hand trail. It had started to rain a bit and the start of the track was a bit slippery and muddy. At this point I messed up a little and dropped my bike in the mud, then slipped getting up and rolled back into a big mud hole and got totally covered in mud :ohmy: . I had a nice queue of 4WDs watching it all as well. No harm done only a little bit of pride…..there was no hiding that I had clearly dropped it because I seriously had mud from head to toe 😆 . The source of much amusement later for the rest of the group.

The rest of the trail was totally amazing because it began snowing. The snow was heavy enough to settle on the ground and create truly beautiful scene. What a day, what a weekend, what an experience!!!

The weekend was rounded out with lunch at the Apple Bar at Bilpin with Pizza, wine and stories for the previous day. There was also a great sense that we are all totally pumped for the APC..Bring it on.

Would you believe my trip meter read 1,111km when I got home. Legs 11 times 2. How cool is that!! :woohoo:

Thanks to everybody who was on the ride especially Kat and Mick for their support and fun and Steve and TB for putting it all together. I hope our two fallen comrades get better soon.

Now I need to figure out what is going on with my clutch, and then do the final changes in a few weeks.

Flying Fish

[Amy HarburgMember]

Great ride reports so far guys. Sound like your having a great time…totally jealouse.

I hope you had a great birthday TB. After Steve and I spoke to you steve killed my GPS… it was totally his fault :angry:

[Amy HarburgMember]

See ya Guys, Have an amazing and safe trip. Can’t wait to hear all about it later.

As Kat said, we will keep you posted about our ride on the weekend.

Cheers,

Flying Fish

[Amy HarburgMember]

Hey Chris, I have heard that the definition of ‘Adventure’ is “discomfort relived at leisure” …. so no need to take the roll of dunny paper……… :ohmy: :dry: :laugh:

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