Day Three- Macksville
This was my favourite ride as we had more troops, it was dryer, we had a stack of hill climbs and we covered a fair amount of terrain which ensured a long day in the saddle. Gathered at the ride off site was Macca our sweep (WR450), Rossco (WR450) and Adam (Yammie 250). That made seven hearty souls with one DRZ rider MIA!
The word was the first section was as greasy as a banana peel and covered it crappy lantana. True it was so most felt their way into the day in this section. Soon we were headed for the ridges with one nice long single track hill climb which had a peaked summit so that the front wheel was going down the other side as the rear wheel was still coming up! One for the unwary.
We pulled up to have a breather as Ev went to assess the planned trail for dramas. A comms mistake meant that Ev was waiting down trail for us! This happened a few times only Ev would come back with good news that the trail/creek was rideable.
We went down some nice sketchy hills that dropped into flowing creeks, riding in the creeks for a while and climbing up the other side.
Once such hill climb had the lads going in all directions tripping over each other. I managed to gouge myself and Katie on a section of F…ing barbed wire right beside the hill. WTF! Bob must have thought I was mucking about as he went the same line and ended up with more scratches on the beast. Out came the pliers to remove the wire and pile up it up under a far away tree. Best to piss it off rather than have anyone else harm themselves more than what I did. By the time we regrouped Ev was doing some trailside maintenance on the WR but was unsuccessful in putting better teeth on his front sprocket. A plan was hatched to get back to the cars and possibly someone may have a spare with their gear. The chain was tightened and we headed off without drama.
Once back at base, Ev and Adam took off to find a sprocket as none were found in gear bags etc. The nut was also taken to match up with the correct socket. What could go wrong? Bob jumped in and ripped the bike down for quick reassembly on their return. We were paid a visit by Bigger Al who checked in the see how we were getting on.
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It seemed liked three hours had passed when the lads returned and started the repair. Only thing was the nut was left back at home. Macca offered up his nut so Ev could continue and called it a day along with Rossco who had a hot date that evening.
We hot footed it back to where we left off and Ev resumed showing us this awesome riding area. So awesome in fact that he took us down a valley and dropped us into a swollen creek. Ev took off down the creek and left me to find the best line. Travelling to slow on the 300, Katie had a drink of water and stopped. I was in good company as Bob had found a 5ft hole to give his beast a proper wash with the whole bike going under. Bob was lucky he was sitting on the bike or he may have gone right under. LC and Bob set to work on the WR while Adam gave me a hand with the 300. Ev returned to get some pics and video bless him. We both got under way with Ev pointing the way only for me to water the 300 again! Once on high ground and dewatered the 300 was pushed the rest of the way along the creek in the deeper sections. I found the bottom of the air box had a build up of mud in the bottom which would have reduced the water crossing capabilities somewhat.
Back on dry land we hit the ridge line again and had a blast along a winding stretch with erosion mounds and rocky up hills. Once on the fire trail I felt like my rear tyre was flat, but as I run mousses I shrugged it off. Later on LC pulled me up to say to wheel was looking sick. I had another check and the tyre was rubbing on the chain guard on one side for about ¼ the diameter of the tyre. LC had chosen to stop on a bull ants nest so we moved to the fire trail where Bob took delight in kicking the shit out of the KTM to try and centre the mousse. I had to stop him as he was having too much fun. It didn’t move it. The options were firetrail back to base or push on through the singles. I chose the latter and ran a slow pace as sweep.
We came to the last hill of the day and the lads were running over each other and hitting different lines trying to get to the summit. I had to get the camera out for the carnage. Fearing the mousse would succeed in its bid for freedom I found my own way up the hill by going diagonally up through the bush. Once at the top Ev conquered his demon and joined me followed by LC who also made it. Bob and Adam had to take a fire trail around after many valiant attempts. With all the hill climb carnage we were having it was surprising that more damage to the bikes was not had. Bobs bike did suffer from lying on its side more than being upright, with the rear wheel bearings giving up the ghost by the end of the day.
We returned to Ev’s place in Bello and Bob and I did some work on our steeds. Bob needed the bearings and met a shady character in Coffs for an inflated price but strangely no money changed hands! :whistle: I pulled out the mousse to find nothing obviously wrong with it but the tyre had deformed slightly. I had a good 2nd tyre in the trailer so this was fitted with abit less mousse. The tyre seems to have returned to normal as I write this. The Pirelli I used has a large profile 120/100 and I think the mousse may have rolled over to one side. Probably from the power of the 300!
We had a takeaway dinner with Ev and his wife waiting for Bob to return and fix the beast. An oil change was painstakingly performed after the drowning as well.
Back at the pub the Smirnoff’s flowed until kick out time when we crashed the young-uns party upstairs. LC did well not to kick the crap out of a dope head that was picking him. As we had our bikes in the car park, our cooler heads prevailed and called it as it was early into Sunday morning. Not a good start to the final day of our tour of duty.
