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Well with only 3 weeks away till the start we decided to sort out the tyre repair kit, tool kit and cooking equipment…
and had some help fitting it to the front mud guard. This is guaranteed NOT to come off
Then the toolkit was thinned down to the what was necessary
NOTE: the white things on the right side are rubber gloves…. just in case you thought it was something else
Lastly got the cooking stuff sorted…..
This is photo of it packed
If I’ve missed anything or you have suggestions please feel free to comment!!
Kat
Day 2 of the Ride Report
So woke up at 5am and waited till 6am to do a ‘rooster’ call and woke up my fellow riders with me stamping around doing a warm dance…. friggen hell it was cold out of my sleeping bag. I started off with making some coffee but needed some direction how to use my new stove (thanks Mick).
Anyway after some breakfast and coffee… bike was packed and ready to roll by 7.30am..Steve told us the we were changing route and going down the Bridle track… I was relieved as I spent from 5am – 6am worrying about the long ride over the dreaded river TB warned me about.
This is where we all hung for little while whilst some organised there gear but we weren’t aware that Ian decided to head off and do a hill that was off the route.
Amy and I headed off knowing we were the slowest and didn’t think much when a camper pointing up the hill. We thought he was worried about his kid riding around on the dirt bike…but it wasn’t till later that he was pointing to one of our riders up a steep hill in distress. Steve and Clubby were there and picked up the message and again acted as medical support for a very difficult situation. Amy and I were gutted when we heard the news. Our thoughts go to Ian and hope he has a speedy recovery
We headed down to Blackfellows Hands and that is were Amy had a mud bath in full view of couple of 4WD’s…she was covered head to toe on one side with mud….. it was so cute…..but she wasn’t alone. A guy on a big KTM 990 went down before her and it took smick400 and this bloke to lift the heavy beast out of the mud. Soon after it started to hail as noticed on Mick’s seat
Then it started to snow…. Amy and I flying along on our little bikes enjoying the experience then noticed no one was behind us…. wtf
Kat showing off her snow filled screen
It took some time for the guys to catch us but it was due to the heavy pot-holes and the big bikes slipping over them. It payed of having smaller, lighter bikes to get through that section without any issues…. we were laughing our heads off..
Here is a short video of the snow falling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C_JFVtwXqs&feature=plcp
To top if off we headed back to Bilpin and enjoyed a late lunch and glass of wine… as demonstrated by Amy
All up we achieved our goals:
1. Spending time riding together
2. Work on our navigation skills
3. Enjoy camping in friggen freezing situation
4. Learning to use all our toys (GPS, stoves etc)
5. Meeting other APC riders and listening and learning about their preparation
6. Testing out of modifications to the bikes
7. Having funThanks to Steve, Clubby, TB, new and old friends on the ride and Smick400 and Dan for supporting our cause.
Kat
I hate it when work gets in the way of me writing a ride report and posting photos….
Anyway here is my take of the shake down ride.
Left home at 6.am with my support crew (smick400) with very clean bikes
Arrived at AdventureMoto headquarters ready for a 7.30 kick off to meet my riding buddy Amy (Flying Fish) and the rest of some of the APC Rally riders
So I found out that Amy’s GPS decided to not work and I was tasked to do the navigation. OMG
. This presented a new challenge…… I’ve never owned a GPS NOR ever had to follow/navigate a course….. This was an opportunity to give it a go :S . I let Amy know that I was so out of my depth doing this but this was what a shake down ride was all about….plus Amy HAD NO CHOICE… :laugh:So of we started following the pink line…. I screwed up at the first corner cause I wasn’t looking at the GPS frequently enough… so having a LONG line of people following me caused a massive U-Turn couple KM’s down the road…. I was laughing so hard… anyway I noticed Steve and Clubby turned into the road and thought this must be right….. OMG am I going to get us to Hill End if this is what I’m capable off…
So some how we went from a big group of riders to down to 4 (Amy, Smick400, MinusOne and myself). So Minus one and I were the only GPS owners so I took direction from him. When we started to go off course I was wondering if I got it wrong…. somehow we were heading in the wrong direction. We soon found out that we were off on a route that he accidentally punched in that took him in the opposite direction. Anyway… after a laugh and a giggle we started to head back to St Albans via a longer route but still was magical.
Based on the extra distanced traveled we decided to chop of the Murray Run section to keep us on track for Hill End. The funny thing was “WE GOT BUSTED DOING THAT” … as we went past the Murray Run Rd…. out came the leaders…. Steve and Clubby…..
So I was SO intent on fueling up and getting going again we left the cafe latte riders (Steve and Clubby) and off we went on Howes Trail. We kept a good pace and came across a group of riders at the killer downhill section at the Putty Rd end. It was difficult to stop but as we went past I noticed Fish. I thought they were just having a break but found out at the other end from Boulder that Fish took a dive… I’m sorry we didn’t stop.
Amy in comfortable position
Kat heading up a hill
Amy in attack position
Clubby decided to do a strip for us at the end of Howes Trail….
So after Clubby took his cloths off we had to do the same….both Amy and I were suffering from the flu and enjoyed the sweaty experience but knew that Commission Trail was going to be a hot experience… so off came our layers…. sorry no photo’s… but it wasn’t anything like a Clubby experience.
We headed off to Commission Trail
We decided just to ride it at our pace and keep it constant… may seem slow to some but we didn’t want any injuries so close to APC. This is were Dan (Amy’s friend) stop us at the top of a hill and warned us that Wayne on his Triumph lost it on a down hill erosion hump
Couldn’t believe our luck when there was a camp site close by for a comfy wait for the helicopter
Steve and Clubby managed the medical rescue and Dan did a sterling job of recovering the bike with a ute that took several hrs to manage.
After leaving the guys we kept following the pink line :side:
Covered some tar and easy dirt roads but with the sun setting and dodging some cows we cruised onto Hill End:
We got to Hill End at about 5pm… tried to get a group photo but Amy was on a mission to find the camp site and get the tent up before dark…. :cheer: … I wanted to test out my new headlamp and it worked well in getting the tent up in the dark…. oh… yeh it was friggen freezing as well
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We meet up with Boulder at the end of Howes Trail and that’s when we found out that the group of riders we passed were Fish and the crew heading to Hill End. As we went past we said hello thinking they were having a rest….it was not to be.
All the best to Fish… and hope for a speedy recover.
We then headed to Commission Rd at our pace which was a bit slower than everyone else. We were waved down and told that Wayne on his Triumph was down with a suspected collarbone injury. The bike was a write off and so is his APC aspirations. Luckily he did this within 50 meters of a couch that happened to be in the bush under a tarp along with camping equipment (and coco pops!!).
Wayne being looked after by Clubby
So Steve (Adventure Moto) and Clubby took control of the rescue (helicopter and 4wd ambo)
TODAY we experienced even a worse situation…
Minusone took a serious fall that occurred off the actual course (just after the Turon Crossing) and it was thanks to a observant camper who noticed the incident and hailed down our experienced rescue team (Clubby and Steve)… the rest of us were totally oblivious to the situation until Smick400 relayed the bad news at the end of the Bridle Track. Minusone had a compound fracture of the Tibia and incurred blood loss. Again Steve and Clubby did a unbelievable job in looking after the situation. Helicopter organised and not sure on how the bike got out.
It made us serious consider that we all have a responsibility not only to ourselves but to our fellow riders. I just wish we could have done more for both riders. Steve and Clubby including Dan who organised Wayne’s bikes rescue goes to demonstrate the sacrifice’s they are willing to make for riding mates.
Kat
Trailboss wrote:KatGirl wrote::blink: Kat I am a little concerned about you arm hair, have you heard of waxing or nair (had to ask Chris what to use :laugh: )This thread rocks, :woohoo:
TB
TB…. sometimes its worth keeping your handing busy doing other things 👿 whilst watching someone else do things like push the packing stuff into the muffler canister thingy… lol… I’m glad to hear Chris is helping you out on the hair wax products…… YOU NEED HELP in that department
Kat
mallee wrote:By the way Kat in the “doing the valve clearance photo– you need to do the nails” 👿Mallee
Mallee – my nails are a lost cause…. at the moment things a looking up if my nails are clean and have no sign of grease under them….
Report on my weekend of working on the bike…
Got the subframe back from the welder and he did a great job….
Installed GPS, 2-way and heated grips on the bar and ran the appropriate power to the battery. You can see the high/low heated grip switch under the 2-way.
The screen protects the GPS and 2-way….. as you can see I’m a proud and loud Old Bull-ette by the sticker on the front.
Next was to repack the exhaust… took lots a WD40 and patience to get the 4 screws out…. plus a few glasses of wine
Lastly the Giant Loop had all its seams sealed which was a slow process but one worthwhile…
So only things left to do are:
Replace front/rear wheel bearings
Replace cush drive bearings and rubbers
New chain and sprockets (from Chaingang 15/40)
Oil change
Air Filter
Install front fender bag (locked in) with tyre changing equipment
Do a final review of my toolkit
