Oz - Condo Cross Country Rallye

[atgreg]

Well it was a memorable weekend !!! I headed out to Condobolin in central NSW to checkout the Condo 750 2 day cross country rallye. It’s a mini version of the Oz Safari / Dakar with bikes and cars competeing including 2 Oz Advriders – GTAus and rjf

I got away from work about 4pm on thurs and it was raining !!:huh , the traffic getting out of Sydney was a pain but soon I was at Windsor and it was time for the ride up Bells Rd, it was wet and chilly but as I got over to the western side of the mountains it started to clear up





The autumn colours were great !!. Finally at Lithgow I caught up with a pile from my touring club and we had a great night:freaky , they were off to Lightning Ridge for the Goat races !!







Friday AM and Rob and I said goodbye and our 2 Africa Twin 750’s headed west for Condo. As we rolled through Orange what should be pulling out from the curb but another Africa Twin !!, not a sight you see often here in Oz, we pulled over to chat and it turned out to be a guy I know, Neil of his 650, I think I know all the AT owners in oz



We kept heading west, Orange – Manildra – Parkes – Bogan Gate – Condobolin. No dirt and the road gets pretty flat past Parkes but it was still good to be out of the city. FFaarrkk it’s dry out there, things are really getting desperate, if there’s no rain soon I think a lot of towns and a whole way of life are going to disappear !!!

We got to Condo about 2pm and checked into the pub, yes we piked from camping , wimps I know:norton

Down at the showground, headquarters for the rally there was no sign of rjf or GTaus so we wandered about and ogled the bikes and cars that had already arrived and going through scrutineering.

John hederics - 6 times bike winner of the safari now drives the factory holden, 6 litre injected V8 !!


A trick ute and it's cockpit




An old landrover with a supercharged V6


A KTM 450 and 660 rallye


:rabia:rabia:rabia


2 factory Honda rallye bikes :rofl, sorry my mistake , 2 fat honda Adventure tourers


Another couple of KTM's



XR650


team Honda CRF450's



A few piccies of intrument setups

rjf's setup






GTAus's setup


Budget setup on a DRZ400


homemade electric maproller on a TTR250 , it uses a spit motor


rjf eventually arrived with his dad and uncle and went through scrutineering





rjf putting his route sheets together, what a pain of a job







Rob and I headed off to bed while rjf finished his route sheets, sat am dawned and it was time for the racing to start. The whole town get's behind the event and everyone is incredibily friendly !!!

The start


rjf heading to the start, there's a nervous grin under that helmet and goggles


Rob and I headed out with Wayne and Bob in the ute to the 1st service point, I was given the job of navigating, now the service crew are given a set of route sheets and you need to navigate by the odometer the same as the riders so as we left the showground i told Wayne to zero the trip meter, "it doesn't work" he told me :rofl **** !! A mad rush to find a pen to write down the odo reading and we were on our way. We had a lot of laughs on the way, Wayne rjf's dad is a REAL character. We arrived at the service point with all the other crews and waited till the bikes arrived.

team Honda servicing the CRF450's




rjf had started at the end of the field so we knew we had a wait, slowly all the riders arrived, were serviced and left while we waited, we were getting a little worried when an official came over and told us he had got lost and was running a fair way behind ( a note - take a UHF radio and you can hear all the officials and competitors talking and keep up with whats going on in the rally)

Eventually we were the only crew left and then fjf arrived and we filled up the bike and rjf with fluids etc





rjf set out again and we headed for the lunch service at Vermont Hill



it's a great community hall in the bush where both the cars and bikes lunch on both days ( the cars and bikes do seperate loops and then swap on the 2nd day), the locals do catering there, great steak and sausage sambos. it's a real party atmosphere with lots of locals and kids etc, typically friendly of Condo.



I finally got to meet GTinAus and his XR600, not many of the old aircooled beasts at the event 2 600's and 1 400 i think, a big change from 93 when i rode the event on my Transalp :eek1 red 600's were everywhere then


A disintegrated bib mouse on a KTM


rjf was running late because of getting lost ealier but eventually arrived, at least he arrived on his bike, some bikes arrived in the back of the sweep utes and some riders ended up in Condo hospital includung honda rider Jamie Cunningham who crashed and knocked himself out.

rjf pondering his 1st half day rallying




Back in town we were suprised when rjf arrived not long after us and let us know the officials discouraged him from doing the arvo selective due to being late.

Lots of maintenance on cars and bikes on sat night





fixing the KTM's sidestand courtesy of GTinAus's bolt supply


One of the bad things about being service crew is you dont see much of the action, luckily on sunday the morning service was right next to the finish of a section so we went for a walk and got to see some good stuff.

there a Looonnnggg straight followed by a hairpin corner and there was some great braking action.


















I'll let rjf fill you in on the rest of his day 2 but we found ourselves back in Condo early so Rob and i decided to head off and maybe get back to sydney that night, we left condo about 2.30pm, 130km/h all the way to Parkes, fill up and Rob complains his bike is all over the place, we checked the tyres, rear down to 21psi, a closer look , bugger a nail in the tyre. Out with the tools and 45 mins later ( I know we are slow but we we dont fix flats very often) we are on our way with a new tube, glad it was in a town at a servo and not out on the road.

We got to Orange about 5.30pm it was starting to get dark and real cold so **** it we'll stay here, a luxury night in a motel. A crispy cold, clear morning and it's through Bathurst and over the mountains to home. We called in at Pezz's KTM Rallye shop on the way home.





I'd been smelling petrol on my bike all weekend but couldn't find anything, parked out the front of Pezz's there was a puddle under my bike and it was dripping out quickly so off with the tank, a pain as the AT is not the easiest bike to work on. We found a split fuel hose, that seems to have fixed it fingers crossed !!!. Thanks Pezz for the tools and help.

I had a great weekend, thenks to rjf for letting us help and be in the think of the action. One bad thing is that I want to go out and ride Condo badly:huh I rode the same event in 93 on my Transalp, what a laugh, i didn't finish last, 3rd last but not last'



So it's either do it on the AT:eek1 and kill the beast or get something more suitable, Pezz's rallye was calling to me, "buy me"



PS Rob took a pile of piccies too, I'll put some more up when i get them from him and we both took some good video.

Greg

[atgreg]

These are some photo my friend Rob took out at Condo

[anton88]

Wow great pics Greg - thanks for posting them. looks like you had a great time

Those Rallye prepared KTM are soooo nice.

[DaveS]

Fantastic report. Thanks for sharing.

[boboneleg]

Great report Greg, looks like you had a ball.

[Pussyhorse]

Cool piccies.

Australia is a great place. Wish I had a dirt bike when I was over there instead of the crappy CB900 roller door I had.

[Mudwiz]

Wonderful!!
Thats just the sort of thing I MUST do!!

[faantjie]

Inspiring stuff there man. Really enjoyable.
THANKS

[Maverick]

Cool pics Greg and would love to go around OZ again, this time on a bike

[oily]

Top piccies and report Greg.