John

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  • in reply to: The 2013 OBT Birthday ride report #245703

    John
    Member
    Trailboss wrote:
    Taken wife out tonight for dinner a few sneaky posts in between I will post them tomorrow :P

    TB

    So you’re looking for some action… that’s all you got to say :whistle:

    in reply to: The 2013 OBT Birthday ride report #245645

    John
    Member

    Pics of the helmet TB? Tell everyone how good it is and keep it to yourself :angry:


    John
    Member

    Are you sure? Forever is a long time! :whistle:

    There is this on gum tree, that’s all I’ve seen…

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    XT660Z WRECKING LINK

    in reply to: Neck braces #242576

    John
    Member

    For those in the market…

    Torpedo 7 currently have LEATT GPX Adventure 3 for $199, current offer also includes free freight for orders over $125.
    LEATT LINK HERE

    They also have AXO Stone jacket, which I have, and is LEATT compatible for $80 (yes you read right!). It is a $240 jacket with a HUGE discount. I’m very impressed with mine.

    JACKET LINK HERE

    NO AFFILIATION AT ALL WITH TORPEDO 7 JUST PASSING ON WHAT I THINK ARE GOOD DEALS

    in reply to: COWRA BREAKOUT #245417

    John
    Member

    Thanks James! I assume you used heat as well as the hammer/anvil?

    Thanks TB… once again the fountain of knowledge for all things 660Z!

    Might have to ring Mr Yamaha and see what he wants for a new lever to see if it’s worth messing around with or not.

    in reply to: Whos Garage, who got a new bike today? #244730

    John
    Member

    Nice bit of gear Strucky!

    I’ll be looking for you on the 16 August!

    in reply to: COWRA BREAKOUT #245416

    John
    Member

    Copy. Will have to set up a suitable time/date to give it a crack then.

    in reply to: COWRA BREAKOUT #245415

    John
    Member

    So when are you buying an Adventure machine???? You would have enjoyed the ride… and the debrief afterwards, you could have had one of your own beers! They were better than Bucky’s Aldi beer in a can… :whistle: Oh and we had Bucky’s special recipe Black Angus lasagne and some equally secret recipe garlic bread that was bloody good too ;)

    Ford? You in a Ford? Really? S’pose if you don’t drive it like it’s a company car… and definitely NOT over 80KPH you should be right. You did say Ford didn’t you? :dry:

    You got any gear to try and straighten a brake lever?

    in reply to: COWRA BREAKOUT #245461

    John
    Member
    LC4skin wrote:
    The place you are going to buy and call “Adventure Enduro Land” already has some nice single track in the pine you can see in the background. I know because Bob and I put it in there. (He lives at Neville)

    Noice! Having all that on your doorstep would be awesome!

    in reply to: COWRA BREAKOUT #245450

    John
    Member
    Bucky wrote:
    Comprehensive ride report there mate !

    Was a great ride & I reckon we covered almost every surface ( apart from sand ) that we’re likely to come across.

    I loved ( ALMOST) every minute. Riding in the dark with roos & wombats everywhere when I’m “optically challenged” was a worry. I was using the force for that bit !

    The Tenere impressed me. Must admit that 200kg bikes with high ‘ish tyre pressures & slippery red clay aren’t a good mix. We rode with a lot more caution than we’d normally show on enduro bikes, & still got through at a reasonable pace (for me anyway).

    Will have to get video for the next one. JTB’s impression of the water jet at Lake Berley Griffin when he hit the causeway at about 60km/h, & his 180 degree spin on the red clay hill would make for a good laugh bench racing over a beer after the ride.

    Can’t wait to do it all again & grateful for a good hit out on the new machine before the Nav ride in August.

    Thanks for planning & leading it all JTB.

    Cheers,
    Bucky

    No problems Bucky… just need to convert the VOR bloke and it’ll be just like the g’olden days! :dry:

    in reply to: COWRA BREAKOUT #245436

    John
    Member
    Murph the surf wrote:
    Lovin the strorey
    Especielly the pics
    I have no thoughts of doing that kinda miles on a bike
    Did double the Misses to Cresent Head and back in a day, ;) ;)
    Was a GPZ1100, very first of the EFI. I do believe. :whistle: :pinch: B)
    Even so we went through the whole puncture, on a motorcycle trip’
    Fu_k the pickle??????????????
    I don’t won’t a pickle, I just wanna ride on my motorcycle!!!!!!!!!
    After shoooting the pickle through the long end at 100ft
    Well I realised never wanted a pickle??????????!!!!!!!!!!!
    And then
    And then
    Twas a trip
    A C I D
    Is it still out there??????????????
    And whats the quality?????????????????
    We all love a good trip!
    Yeeha
    Its only 11:20
    So?????
    I aint drunk yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Love you lot
    Murph

    What ever you do don’t go through the drive through… :unsure:

    in reply to: COWRA BREAKOUT #245410

    John
    Member

    DAY 2
    After the shenanigans at the end of day 1 we had one bar of fuel each on the gauge. Being new to the Tenere camp neither of us knew how much fuel this actually meant we had on board. Day 2 was only to be a half dayer. But we didn’t want to run out on our first real trip. So that meant a 20km run on the tar into Oberon for fuel.

    Day 2 dawned a pearler! Only problem was the fog on the run into town for fuel.
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    Bit of frost about
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    But how could you not want to ride this
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    After refuelling we came back to the Vulcan forest via a road that literally travels through the middle of three or four properties… I’ve driven it many times, but it’s amazing how fast you can cover a dirt road on a bike compared to in a 4wd! It was a good bit of road.

    We went over to where my point B was that I never got to last time. Lots of “private property” signs and a huge fark off chain and padlock swing from an open gate. Didn’t want to be on the wrong side of that. Discretion was the better part of valour and I went looking for the stomping grounds of my youth in the Vulcan.
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    Found some familiar tracks that I last rode on my WR450… I like the perimeter tracks of the pine forests. They HAVE to follow the property boundary serving as a fire break and access road in case of fire, they follow creek lines and go up and down with the contours of the land. Generally they are never well maintained either.

    It IS Oberon in JULY, of course there was ice in the puddles
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    We stopped for a snake break at the bottom of this rise. I had seen what I would have explored on the WR, an old road that had been overgrown by pines and wanted to ‘stage’ a photo of me coming out of it… here is the hill in question. Yes, it was a little steeper than it looks Shane VOR. As I went up I gassed it up on the clay, yeah smart move I know. Naturally the rear wanted to overtake the front and that’s when you let a 200kg bike do whatever a 200kg bike wants to do. But at least I had finally had my first off on my new bike.


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    Bucky’s yells “Wait! Leave it there… I’ll get a picture” I mumble to self “I’m not picking this bastard up by myself, take all the pics you want…”

    The uphill headed bike now wanting to go back down again…
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    The staged single track photo that was for the benefit of former enduro riders who’s bike reside under satin sheets… (apologies for the shaky photo, the cameraman thought he had to do it too!)
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    Bent the crap out my rear brake lever… what do they make them out of these days? I’ve never done that before, mind you I’ve never had a 200 keg bike either.

    The compulsory fire tower visit…
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    Inspecting the damage
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    I’m no expert, but that’s not where it should be.
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    Bucky said I could approach the white Tenere only if I did so on bended knee
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    Arty farty fire tower shot

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    I’ve been whinging and moaning about the fact that I didn’t receive a stock tool kit. I didn’t want to cheap arsed crap just the suspension tooly thing, fork allen key and the spark plug spanner. Bucky takes my seat off to look at air filter and turns my seat upside down (who does that??). Underneath the seat
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    He finds this
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    Good prize Bucky!

    Too bad the other black key and the red key weren’t hidden there as well!

    We hit some more technical/clay trails
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    All good things must come to an end! 135km for a half day in the pines…
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    Thanks for a great ride Bucky. We’ll have to do it again, but in reverse so we can see the bits that we did in the dark!

    Things I learnt this weekend:

    If the TEN wants to change wheel ruts on clay in the pines… let it.

    It does NOT handle like a WR450.

    This adventure riding stuff is good fun!

    The Torpedo 7 50L dry bag makes a good “boot”. I was so much more comfortable with the bumbag and some spare gloves etc stashed away in there! It’ll be there for the Aug 2 day ride with my overnight gear in it!

    The MEFO stonemasters are really squirmy at times and the tyre has squared off as it has worn down. I reckon I’d be lucky if there was another 500km in it. Maybe 606’s next? 3000 kays sounds pretty good right now.

    in reply to: COWRA BREAKOUT #245430

    John
    Member
    Trailboss wrote:
    Good job mate how did the GPS go?

    TB

    Ummmmm…

    1. I think I am GPS challenged.

    2. It kept turning itself off. I think the batteries would rattle off the connections (or something). As soon as I noticed I just switched it back on. I can see on the GPS that it tracked a whole big loop. Managed to save it onto the GPS (somehow). Just need to have my computer recognise the GPS so I can (I assume) download it onto the bloody computer. I imagine that will be a conversation for another day.

    I will be buying a hard wire power cord for it to hopefully alleviate the power turning off.

    It will be good to actually plot a course onto it and travel the route without having to stop and check maps etc. We lost a LOT of time in the AM doing this.

    I have to say you did a great job in setting up, I appreciate it. Thanks

    in reply to: COWRA BREAKOUT #245409

    John
    Member

    DAY 1 PM SHIFT
    By the time we ate, refuelled and bought our wine :blush: it was 2pm. No way in hell we would make it back via the route I had planned while there was daylight. I didn’t tell Bucky that. I told him we wouldn’t have time for the longer ‘alternatives’ I had planned. Again some awesome fast loamy farm roads, right on the door step of Cowra. I was having too much fun and burning too much daylight to take too many photo’s.

    One of the longer straights

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    Awesome views
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    Turning right Bucky…
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    Adventure super highway
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    Granitors…
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    It was getting darker and colder… time to layer UP! And REALLY push on…
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    While we were pushing for home on the run from the Abercrombie river to Burraga we crossed a shallow concrete causeway. I upped the pace as we came out, a couple of hundred metres on I saw another causeway sign and wondered how bad it could be… we’d crossed twenty or so all day and barring the last all had been dry. And the last did only have a couple of centimetres in it. Ohhh bugger, this had about a foot of water in it. Bucky tells me later that it looked like a bomb went off as I hit the causeway with water going everywhere. I can assure you it went all over me! Bucky had a HUGE laugh about it and no doubt in 20 years time he will recount it again! Bastard.

    My memory of this intersection, and we were supposedly just 50km from camp was that it was WAY darker than it shows.
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    City boy Bucky wanted to take some photo’s of sheep… they ran away! Who would have thought…
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    It was about now that Bucky made it clear that he was NOT having fun anymore! Come and ride my bike, I’ve lost my low beam!

    So we are now riding in the pitch black through a logged pine forest area and what do we come across? A DETOUR! Are you kidding me? I was SO close to riding around the sign and finding out what the reason for the detour was. But I just wanted to get home. So we get onto the detour road and travel about 5km before we see ANOTHER detour sign taking us further west from where we want to be…

    Then all the cars started coming, towards us of course. So being the good citizen I kept turning my high beam off and hazards on so I, hopefully, wouldn’t get run down. We made it back to camp after riding the last hour in the dark. I didn’t mind it, would have been better with low beam, but Bucky certainly was NOT impressed… no more night rides for Bucky.

    Tucked into a few beers left behind by Shane and a lasagne knocked up by Mrs Bucky, a shower some more bench racing and off to bed for day 2. I could get used to this adventure caper, it’s certainly a gentleman’s sport!

    DAY 1 was run and won! No real incidents, couple of “scare self” moments… but you get that in 435km of riding.

    in reply to: COWRA BREAKOUT #245407

    John
    Member

    DAY 1
    Soon enough the morning came, it was brisk. But this is Oberon, and I have to say it was quite warm… Bucky’s monkey weather wall showed it was 3.2 degrees!
    Early o’clock! But like Big Kev… I WAS EXCITED!

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    How the garage looked…

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    Nothing like a sunrise in the bush

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    The first sods turned by Bucky’s 606’s

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    I dressed like the Michelin man, when stationary I cooked. We didn’t stop for the first 20-30km… but I had to stop to take off the stupid winter (non riding) gloves I had on. Sure they were warm but there was ZERO dexterity… on with the Fox motocross gloves.

    Bucky showing true adventure form…

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    Down in the valley behind the bikes you can just see the TOP of the fog we are about to ride into…

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    A bit of old stuff happening along the way…

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    The fog was actually thicker than it looks, probably 20m visibility

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    Out of the fog, it can be seen just behind Bucky and the hill…

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    We stopped in Rockley so I could take a layer off…

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    Here’s Bucky enjoying the serenity…

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    School of arts

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    God had the high ground

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    We left Rockley and rode some great country back roads! Some of it had been bitumenised since the google maps/earth and street view images had been taken. But that’s OK, they call it progress. Eventually we came to this road… that IS EXACTLY what we are looking for!

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    This was a more open section towards the end of it. I was having way too much fun in the tighter, narrower sections, using the centre “hump” to skip from one wheel rut to another…

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    I could have ridden this road all day long, it WAS that good. When we got to the end we rode across a small wooden bridge that had planking missing and a “ROAD CLOSED” sign that had been knocked over. Sadly in the not too distant future I imagine some bureaucrat will decide to close the road due to the danger posed to stupid people who may hurt themselves. I hope the same bureaucrat decides he should install a concrete causeway as a cheap alternative for locals… fingers crossed.
    Before too long we came across the metropolis of Neville. Checked the maps and increased the snakage input.

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    Would appear Bucky managed to get behind the lens…

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    One of my landmarks… a windmill I found on google street view. It signified the start of the ‘unmapped’ (by the NRMA cartographers in 1953 no doubt) section. I looked at google satellite and earth and could clearly see tracks going where I wanted to go. The adventure was to find our way through the other side and hope there were no locked gates or anything else that would prevent us from getting where we wanted to go without back tracking…

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    While I was planning the ride I was showing a mate, Maf, some of the google street view footage… this included the above windmill. He said to me quite ‘tongue in cheek’ “I suppose you’re going to take a photo of the windmill!”. Obviously I did, and while I was standing there I texted the photo to him. His immediate pictoral reply is below… yes he’s a plumber.

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    I’m hoping that soon he’ll be an adventuring plumber! Come on Maf… it’s only money!

    Bucky modelling his Hi Viz black gear…

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    We’re going left!

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    I’d buy this place and call it “Adventure enduro land”

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    So we did a bit of a zig and a bit of a zag… and I knew we were travelling, generally, in the right direction. We came around a corner and there it was… a sign that confirmed my hopes.

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    We’d made it through. Time for a snake.

    So we took off at a great rate of knots headed for lunch at Cowra… then we ran into fog AGAIN. And it too was worse than it looked. For while there I thought Bucky may have been collected by a P plater that had passed me with zero idea about anything. Turned out he was OK, his glasses had fogged up.

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    A “spirited” ride ensued as we tried to make some up, had a minor dead end on a dirt road. I came to a T intersection, time would tell me I should have taken the bitumen and turned right. I just headed down what looked like an interesting dirt road. A kay later I was riding it back the other way. But it was fun. This was the next runway we negotiated…

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    Shane’s old man used to live in Cowra. In fact where he lived was part of the old site of THE “Cowra breakout” from WW2. These days there’s not much to remind anyone of this except maybe a few of these:
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    About 1pm we rolled into town. People and cars EVERYWHERE, sure it was a Monday lunchtime, but I had really loved seeing pretty much no one in the past few hours on our cross country travels. AND everyone we did see gave us a wave!

    We had a hamburger and chips washed down a Coca. We found the servo and filled up. Bucky had spoken of buying the wife a bottle of wine… I wasn’t sure if he was taking the piss. Turned out he really did want to buy the piss and take it cross country back home!

    DAY 1 PM coming…

Viewing 15 posts - 211 through 225 (of 314 total)