Ubley Drove Nov 2009 - Muddy and Wet :)

[AlanH]

With severe weather warnings all over the south, it was a bit touch and go whether the meet was going ahead or not. Dave left it to the morning to decide and, as the winds and rain didn't seem horrendous, he loaded up and trailered his XR to a rather wet and windswept Ubley Drove.

People were later turning up than usual - probably waiting for the horizontal rain to stop. Dave sat in his comfy car browsing the forum and eventually people started to turn up.

My CRM came out of the garage in the morning looking like this...



After one lap it looked like this...



The bike got progressively muddier throughout the morning. This was just the start.

It was rather windy and the table top jump, usually a favourite of mine for messing about on, was a bit interesting as the wind was gusting hard from the right. If you got airborne, the wind punted you 2 feet sideways so for the rest of the outing, I was trying not to get air over it for once as it really doesn't seem very wide when you can't really tell where you need to aim.

The largest climb on the track proved to be very slippery. The standard trick of getting a good run up in second gear and plodding up just didn't seem to work. The first problem was the corner at the bottom was covered with gloopy mud so you couldn't really carry enough speed to get a run up. The second problem was as soon as you lost traction, the tyre picked up loads of sticky wet mud and then started spinning like a slick.



The third problem was even when you did find traction, the front clogged up and the bike just went wherever it wanted to - usually off the side of the track into the bracken or just swapping ends and falling over.

Momentum was the key...


...but even carrying decent speed with the power on and looking good, sometimes you just seemed to end up wherever the bike wanted to go...



I got up cleanly a few of times, once was by just powering up in first spinning the back wheel chucking mud everywhere to stop the rear from getting clogged. The other times were in second gear carrying a bit more speed getting a bit of traction at the edge of the track and firing across the main slope at an angle.

Most of the time was spent getting half way and stopping for a rest...









I did manage to shoot a few short videos with my stills camera. They are not particularly brilliant quality but here they are:











Riding in the mud, gusting wind and driving rain was far more fun than it ought to have been.

Thanks again to DaveS for arranging the day

[phil w]

Great stuff there, looked a hoot

[AlanH]

You missed a great day Phil. Hopefully catch you at the next one with the catering van

[Whealie]

I am guessing that the zebra would not have been that much fun in that amount of mud.

[HUDDERS]

Looks like a good day

CRM looks well Alan

[hondaxrnut]

thanks alan,
glad to see you got me falling off, the only time i did actualy fall off.
we had a great day, me and edd loved it.
see you next time
shaun
hondaxrnut

[AlanH]

Shaun, I was so surprised at you coming a cropper, I nearly dropped the camera.

[AlanH]

I am guessing that the zebra would not have been that much fun in that amount of mud.

It would have been a challenge. There are parts off the main circuit that would have been do-able but I should think an AT would have got bogged down very rapidly anywhere near the main "track".