Ubley Drove 9 May 09

[Dee Duble Yuh]

DaveS arranged an excellent day at the Ubley Drove motocross track. Special thanks to DaveS and HondaXRNut for letting me use and abuse their bikes!

Those of us who have never ridden on a motocross track had a quick introduction to motocross theory: jumps, table tops, berms and whoop-di-doos. Then practical lessons in: endos, the "Flying W" and brown-outs.

I took - would you believe - over 400 photos. A small selection follows.

Go-o-o!!!


One of the youngsters shows how table tops should be done:



DaveS, PhilW and AlanH demonstrate synchronised jumping:







PhilW swears, "No pies, no beer, strictly muesli". Opinions?


Meesh has been riding bikes for only a year, hasn't ridden any bike for 4 weeks, and has never ridden off-road in her life. So she sets off on a XR400 for a couple of laps! Gutsy? I'll say.

DaveS is just being helpful... I'm sure:






I settle for HondaXRNut's CRF230. Cheers!



Just after this photo was taken I got HUGE air, honest!


And a couple of lads on trials bikes showing us what real off-road skill is!





Up a steep slope... on just the back wheel!




And down on the just the front wheel.

[Sharribee]

fantastic pictures Dave, looks like another excellent day

[StumpyFingers]

Great pictures and looks like a great time had by all.

[AlanH]

It was great to meet up with everyone and see some new faces too. It's a pity that so many didn't make it this time but there are more dates booked. Hopefully I'll have stopped aching by then

There are some great pictures there DW. Thankfully you were looking the other way when I fell on my arse

Well done Meesh - pretty impressive outing for a novice and good luck finding a decent Serrow for next time.

If you go down to the woods today...

Phil and I thought we'd have a little jaunt down through the wild garlic in the woods to see where Mudwiz got stuck for ages last year. It was much less moist than last time so what could possibly go wrong we thought Well, my curiosity has been satisfied. I now know that road gearing doesn't work well on sloping damp clay and garlic leaves and that ideally it takes two people to drag an XR and a CRM out of somewhere they shouldn't really be in the first place. I really don't know how Mudwiz got his XR650 out of there last year with a knackered shoulder. Respect due
Thanks for organising this again Dave. It was an excellent day out. I've just rounded the day off nicely with beer and a curry. It's now time for a hot bath.

Cheers

[barftone]

Some very impressive jumps going on. Great pics. I like the CRM and XR mid flight, one for the wall maybe? I am working all weekend so could not make it this time. You lot better check your suspension linkages today, there looked like some heavy landings going on (not implying you had a big breakfast)!

[DaveS]

Fantastic pics Dave. Some possibly worthy of next years calendar?
It was a great day.
Weather was perfect again.
The farmer said that the field was white yesterday as it had been hailing, so I didn't know what to expect!

And the views from that place it feels like you're on top of the world.

Must do a BBQ next time.....

I was meant to be taking it easy today as I've been suffering with a bad back, but I didn't manage to control myself very well. As Bartone once said I have a lot of anger inside me and this is one place I can let off steam.

Thanks to everyone who let me try their bike... enjoyed myself tremendously and no bad accidents by anyone so a result.

27th June is the next one. Sign up in the calendar.

[phil w]

Great pics Dave and a good fun day. Its a great place to go and tune your skills or beat some fears. And today Im aching more than I thought I would and far more than a days trail riding. More muesli needed me thinks!!! Its amazing that you feel your doin well an then some youngster on a battered looking 2 stroke 125 creation with a road exhaust born out of an RD125 whips past you smiling and waving
Tis such a pity more people didnt come along as this is a great place to take @s and TAs (with a TKC) to see what they can do and the amount of mini thumpers on here now should mean more giving it a go.
Well done Dave S for sorting another great day there. Hope the knee is recovering Alan ,thats a cracking CRM you have there

[boboneleg]

Cracking pics Dave, definitely calendar worthy.

Great formation flying guys

[hondaxrnut]

i must agree with you all a fantastic day, great to meet all of you, some again from the last time, and thanks to dave for organising it.
my lad will be chuffed as he is in a lot of the pics, he realy enjoyed himself as he normaly has to ride slowly during a trials competition, so he could also let off steam and give my old xr200r a work out.
the bad news is the helmet cam footage was useless, so a better camera position will have to be found, but the good news is i got some good hand video camera footage so i am going to make a small film and i will let you know when i am succesfull.
i was realy knackered when i got home, but the boy then went out clubbing, oh to be 19 again!
thanks
shaun, (aka hondaxrnut)
edd, (mohican)

[Meesh]

Originally Posted by AlanH

Well done Meesh - pretty impressive outing for a novice and good luck finding a decent Serrow for next time.

Thanks for organising this again Dave. It was an excellent day out. I've just rounded the day off nicely with beer and a curry. It's now time for a hot bath.

Cheers

Ha! Thanks AlanH for the comments and thanks DaveS and HondaXRnut for letting me have a go on your bikes. Funny thing is the very first time i went around on Dave's XR400 I THOUGHT I was going on a gentle bimble around the field... I didn't realise I'd put myself right onto the track until I was in it!!! Then it was a case of whooaaaaa! Runaway bike! Help! oops! eek! what the.....! oh! Sh... sh... sh... what's next! KPlunk! bump! bump! bump! what rut should i go in? Oh! no! too late... just go over them all and hold on for dear life!! oh look - nice little bump to go over here.... followed by aaaah! sh...t no ground the other side!!!! twist, slide, accelerate, slow (no don't slow... best do this FAST all the way round).... Oh! my god bike.... I haven't a clue what i'm doing... you do it bike and I'll just hang on to you....

It was like that all the way round until I got back to green grass where I could see the others and I abandoned the track and headed for them. Got of the bike and shook like a leaf for 20 mins through shear adrenaline, shock and muscle complaint!!!!

It was amazing tho'.... once the shaking stopped I went back for more.. but at least this time i knew what I was in for and the shaking at the end was more to do with muscle fatigue.

Phew! anyway... I'm debating whether to get an XR400 rather than a Serrow!!!

Thanks Dave for organising such a excellent day! - I'm coming back for more.