What seems to the forming of a bad habit, I did the customary working to midnight Saturday night to prep my bike again, and even then it was only half done. Hey, how important can fork oil be?
Sunday morning I loaded up and made the big trek north to Tallarook. Only a couple of K’s off the Hume was a beautiful property that had good parking. I did the usual sign up on the day and then had a quick look around. Looked to be a good turnout, they later claimed to have had 52 riders.
The Bus Boys and Associates did a good job organizing and setting out. The marker paint on the rocks was a good move, it helped show the way and was also a good warning of the dangers these rocks presented. They even laid out a small track for the kids to ride of which a few took advantage of. The local Scouts did the catering of burgers and drinks and we were blessed with good weather.
We were treated to a small special test type bunted area at the start where we then headed off through some open paddocks to the trails. The first trails gave us a short warm up before we hit the ‘hill’. The finisher’s medallions claimed “Tough one” and everyone knows why. The hill itself wasn’t that steep, and traction was pretty good but it seems that this hill was full of magical melon sized rocks. They looked like rocks when approaching but as soon as they disappeared under the bike out of sight they transformed into spring loaded ball bearings. It was like riding with a loose axle, you just didn’t know which way the bike was going to go next. Lots of body English was required to keep correcting to the desired direction (up) and lots of dancing of feet in order to stay on the bike. I took my camera out for the second lap round but I was confronted with a hill full of photographers eagerly waiting to capture my skills, or lack thereof. I made it past them but decided not to stop to capture others as it would have been too hard to get mobile again. Third time around I must have used up my quota of neural download capacity from my brain to my body. Signal strength went from Broadband speed down to Dial up speed. My brain knew what to do but my body wouldn’t respond quick enough. Body English turned to Body Japanese and I found that a KDX 175 won’t climb a hill at 25 rpm as it abruptly stalled. Luckily there were no photographers this time. I made a mental note that training was to start next Monday.
The hill was the toughest part of the course, I believe everyone came unstuck at some point but it would have been a good feeling to all that conquered it. They did make a detour around it if you weren’t game but you were rewarded with some good trails beyond if you tackled it. No doubt some chose to go around it but there was still quite a few running the full course so it seems many liked the challenge.
With every up hill comes a down hill where you can catch your breath back but you had to be alert for those pesky rocks everywhere. The overall speed was slow, wouldn’t have gotten past 3rd gear. I’m guessing at around 15 minutes a lap. Demanding, both mentally and physically but enjoyable just the same.
A dozen or so took up the extra ‘Red Plate’ ride. Really must organize that club rego for myself one day. Reports back were of some good trails from a lap of around a half hour plus. Apparently some trail riders on moderns were a bit nonplussed at all these old bikes on the trails.
I think the record for most laps was I think 18, I did just as much talking as riding. Team Penrite ventured down from Canberra again and we also had a team from Sth Aust. as well.
All in all a very enjoyable day, congrats to all those that made this happen.
Now, just on 2 months until the next one at Harrow, can’t wait.
