Well……….. That was epic, to say the least. Firstly I need to thank my wife Melissa for putting up with all the shenanigans that go on here in my shed when a big ride is on.
My Poker run started several weeks ago when I first went out and plotted the loops, then I was left wondering whether I had set out loops that were up to scratch for the event. It is a hard job setting up for riders of different degrees of ride experience. Even, If I do say so myself, I think I got it right, as everyone seemed to enjoy themselves even if some had to push themselves beyond their comfort level.
My weekend started early with TB arriving at my place Thurday arvo before I knocked off work and when I got home, we got into some serious shed time. My XR had been having idling issues so we pulled the carby of it and TB and I set about setting the float level to the correct height and then it wouldn’t start. TB’s years of XR experience came into play when he realised the inlet valves needed adjusting. The big fella set them for me and the pig fired into life and sat there and idled perfectly..Thanks mate.
Friday morning saw us in the bush by 8am, a quick run through the bush up over Bago saw us at the start of the loop. We spent the next few hours, putting arrows up and bunting off the track and were back in town by noon for a wicked burger from RiderX’s shop here in town. A quick shopping run in town to get meat,drinks etc for the BBQ saw us back in the shed by 2pm.
That heralded the start of the biggest progressive shed party I think the shed had seen!! It was then a never-ending procession of visitors dropping by to say gday as they turned up in town. It was great to see familiar faces and meet new ones putting faces to site names. During all this, TB was adamant that we should do something with my suspension on the XR as it was not performing up to scratch. Me being the King of thinking,if it aint broke don’t fool around with it, was happy to put up with it……..but TB started pulling the arse end off the XR and flogging me into submission, so we set about getting the race sag right and at the same time dropping my front forks down a bit……it embarrasses me to say TB was right and the XR handle a heap better once back out on the trails…..Thanks again TB.
The boys have covered Friday night at Wauchope RSL pretty well in their reports so I wont dwell on that to much other than saying what a great feed they put on and to pass on the RSL manager’s thanks to all the OBT members for the business. I did a quick calculation and our little party would have come close to spending in excess of a $1000 in the club on meals and drinks alone.
Saturday morning, saw TB and I heading to the bush again at 7am to finalise the two loops and check a few things. A special thanks has to go to RiderX and Tripper for the great job cutting in a small section at the end of Jurassic park, what a great job boys, you turned a great trail into an awesome one. Top stuff. TB and I then sat at the corner with Tripper and Ash and waited for the group to arrive. Fossil, Boags and Choko(the three bulls) where the first to arrive with a huge procession of cars behind them. A small break down in communication saw everyone miss the intended parking area (my apologies).As I walked down the road to inform the gridlock of cars that they had to turn around and go back a Km or two the long line of cars soon made me realise that TB and I had created a monster and I will admit I kinda shit myself for a moment.
Anyhow all got sorted and everyone, got kitted and ready to ride. At the riders briefing again I shit myself with worry that everything would go to plan and we would have a great day. I will let everyone else put their thoughts in about Saturday as it was all a blurr to me.
Thanks everyone for turning up and riding the day in the spirit that was intended, I hope you had a great day. As it was a first for us we played the day by ear and it seemed to work OK, thanks to the behind the scenes help from, RiderX, Tripper, Melissa (and her signs and arrows), Eagle, Kram, Corey and Muc Off Mike for his sponsorship of the event.
