LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Wow!
I'm sort of just back, still buzzing! It went a bit like this:
Sat pm, do School Christmas Fete, buy Cristmas tree, find its too big, buy new Christmas tree, get humpy 'cos all the daylight is going.
Load up the bike and set off for Wales about 4-30. (Dark!)
Get to Llandiloes about 8-30, very chilly hands and feet, so into the Rugby club, Buffet, Quiz and hydrate with pints of soda and black.
Get chatting to some mad guys on a mission to race with hangovers, and with them promptly loose the quiz.
Some what warmer set off again at 10-30, very frosty, to the Sweet Lamb rally center, to "camp" in the car park - only tent there, rocks not tentpegs sort of thing.
Actually sleep well, alarm at 7-15 to sign on at 7-45. Number 308, start time 10-12. So far so good, record check times on a paper plate, 'cos I'm that well organised! Scrutineering - rear wheel bearing on the way out, they always find something, but the bike gets through. New helmet so I wasn't worried about that (this time).
Looks like it might rain!
2 hours to go, its raining and the wind is now blowing a bit of a hoolie, so I strike camp before it gets flattened for me. Repack kit, and dump panniers etc by a chap I've met a couple of times before's car.
I'm now wet, and the jacket that was once water proof is not working!
Faff about and drink coffee, eat bacon butties, get really cold.
10-12 - Start. First check 6 mins, nice going, some road, mostly fire road.
10-18 - First special (untimed on first lap). Wow, some wonderrful fire roads, loose gravelly bends and up a hill. Onto single track, a tight bend then down a steep gully, with a stream crossing L-R, and a "bump" that I don't know how to avoid. Its the sort of fork bottoming, straight down, wrist snapping bump that always hurts, and I really can't work out how to make it easier! But, we survived, back onto fire road, then onto a MX type track, with small table tops, whoops and bermed corners. Round that, on to more muddy tracks, then the special is over. Still a way to go to check 2.
Some time later, but within my check time. (Actually, I stayed within checks all day, a first for me!) Start of special 2, revs, go, oops really tight left hander into muddy, rutted, whoopy, puddly woods. Probably would have been fun if I could have seen anything. Wet goggles, with water between tear-offs is not a good idea in the dark shade of the trees. Off they come, and suddenly its a whole new world. I like muddy rutted sections, the TA needs lots of forward planning to get into the best rut, and clear some of the puddles. When it goes wrong, you land on the belly pan, and it feels like the bike is going to break in 2! Up, bends, then a long muddy etc down hill section, steep bend at bottom, then a heap of rocky single track to finish. That was really wonderful riding, technical, but still possibly fast. On then to check 3. Some wonderful open moorland, forest track, and footpathy stuff.
Then, round a bend we're off the track again, a cornerr then up a long steep loose hill. The little bikes in front seemed to bounce off the hill, so I had a couple of minutes whilst the marshals picked them up and gave them a push on their way. Don't you just love the torque of a bigger bike? Top of the hill, some muddy jumps, and a man carrying an exhaust pipe. Stop to see if I can help, have a bolt that will fit, and some cable ties, so its back on. (I know he finished lap 1, but I don't know if he went back out.) Lovely muddy track, then another loose muddy climb. Watch some chaps make a mess of it, use that to float to the top - the Brian Eland school of riding, who cares if the back wheel is spinning so long as the bike is still moving forwards! Check 3.
This special is a little hard for me, fast fire roads that I'm no good at. But hey, then back to the start/finish. With enough time for a brew before my next check!
Lap 2, and as a beginner, my final lap, began badly. Same route, same problems, but on special 1 I became far to aware of the need for speed and fluffed the first 4 corners. Then I said stuff it, rode smoother and probably faster. It still takes some getting used to, 50mph on gravel and mud, then trying to brake! The MX section went much better, some nice air, then off up another track.
Special 2 arrived, and this time I was ready. Clear goggles and some idea of a line meant I was able to achieve my first ever timed section overtake, probably covering the poor guy on the XR400 with cr*p in the process! Wonderful, until I overcooked a bend, went over the berm and under the bike! That allowed the WR on my tail past, but I was up pretty quick, bike didn't even stall!
The next lumps of riding were fantastic, probably more enjoyable than the first time round. Thinking about it, its probably because I knew there were no "stoppers" and I could get round unaided. The steep climbs were again fabulous, and even special 3 seemed to go OK. Well, I lost 19 seconds to the KTM behind me, but he didn't seem to want to go past!
Next section of track, a little 2-stoke came past, so I set off after, but the second rock in the face persuaded me to let him go!
Couple more bends, start/finish in sight and a last long fire road, wow, 5th gear and nearly 70mph!! Thats a rush!
In, sign off, nearly 20 mins early!
Awesome days riding, 88 miles so they say, with about 4 or so on road. Its not often you can get to do that. It turns out the 3rd lap was only a half lap, 2 stages and 20 miles, next time I may well be a little more adventerous.
Coffee, coffee. Paul Blezzard, THE Paul Blezzard, admires the bike, and the "sensible" modifications done to it. Wow!!, really happy now. But, I'm putting off the inevitable. I'm soaked to the skin, with a spare thin fleece as the only dry clothes facing a 190+ mile ride home, and its dark again. Eventually I have to leave, 30 miles to Newtown, put air in the tyres back to road pressure, change gloves and put on dry fleece. (Now wet fleece).
30 or so more miles, Shrewsbury services - food and more coffee.
Just onto the main A5/M54 drag, and a van hurtles up behind, flashing its lights etc. It overtales, flashes hazzards, so I follow it into a layby. None other than Paul, going to London, with space for a bike in the back! Absolute Godsend. I think I learnt more chatting in that van than I've learnt in ages. Get a lift to near Banbury, much warmer for the last 40 or so miles home. Still cold though. Legs go into cramp 5 miles from home, so that bits done standing up, and all the way through town too!!
Talk about still buzzing! Its now far too late, I've written far too much (boll**s).
Worst bit? Concentrating so much on the riding, time checks, coffee, that I didn't take any photos of the route. Sorry, must try harder next time!
Just found the photos page - http://gallery.jackstringer.co.uk/c1157776.html
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Mudwiz
Bookmarks