no-one refused to ride or was grizzling about the conditions, and were all looking forward to enjoying the challenges ahead
Well I feel guilty now because I did grumble a bit about the cold but the tracks themselves were just friggin awesome.
Yes there were a couple of greasy hills not far from the start that seemed to have a few spectators but that was about the worst of it as far as hills go. There was a steep downhill sometime later that had me praying for my front brake cable to hang in there as I was squeezing it so hard.
The rain then set in but the pines did a good job of protecting us from some of it, you noticed the rain when we broke out onto a fire road every now and then as the rain would sting your face. I had a bit of a sore neck at the end of the day as I was riding with my head down so much trying to use the helmet peak to protect me from the elements.
With Drakie dribbling on about distances to the fuel dumps during riders briefing I was starting to think I should have bought a second fuel drum for the second fuel stop but when I refueled at the first fuel check it only took 3-4 litres. I checked it at the finish and I still had nearly half a tank. Either my KDX 250 is really fuel efficient or I was just running on the pilot jet all day!
After the pines section and the first fuel dump the tracks opened up a bit but by that time I was soaked through and I was starting to suffer from ‘Coolgardie Syndrome’ The faster speeds and the cold wind went right through my soaked clothes to turn my body into a fridge. I nursed myself through for a finish but there were a couple of times I overshot some corners because my cold fingers refused to act quickly to grab the brake. The fact that no one caught up to me suggests to me that everyone else had dropped the pace too.
This event reminded me so much of an 80’s Enduro it was like stepping back in time.
I had to bail out of Sat. as I had to go to a funeral, in Stratford of all places (4 hrs in the opposite direction) so thanks to all who helped to make this event happen, especially Rach. on the ‘desk’
It was my first outing on my new 250 (yes it runs at last) and it was a good event to run a bike in as overheating was never going to be an issue. Just have to fiddle with some tuning and set up issues now and then ponder gearing for Hopetoun.
come on Tex More photos Please ...
Don't think there will be a lot of photo's as it wasn't a good day to have a camera out, I had mine with me but I didn't dare take it out of the car.
