off road ride

mikeyboy

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Overland and classic,vale of belvoir,Melton Mowbra
many thanks to womble and captain for organising and leading a fantastic days riding,ditchwater,i apologise once again for knocking your topbox off,ill get you a beer in as compensation at the cotswold bash..mike
 
ditchwater,i apologise once again for knocking your topbox off,ill get you a beer in as compensation at the cotswold bash..mike

I look forward to it, and no problem. I'll try not to crash perpendicular to the trail in future and leaving the followers nowhere to go. :friday

I'm going to see what's recoverable.

I didn't get many any action shots but here's a few geezers standing around:


We met Noddy and Scotty at the end of this lane on a couple of pogos. Embarrassingly good riders who can do 40mph one handed on the trails. With 117 years riding experience between them it showed. :rob :rob

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We stopped here to see the The Wall, and allow me to recover from my last crash of the day...

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The Wall is seen here to the left, and is an old target for the Army to shoot at. One of the holes was two feet across and otherwise was full of punctures from various calibre' of gunnery. Hopefully someone will post the picture I didn't take. :blast

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I'd decided about five minutes before The Wall that it was time for me to bail out and leave the rest of the crew to finish off Womble's trails without having to pick my bike out of the sand (Thanks Dean).

Even though I couldn't get the jist of riding a fully fuelled :blast R1150 GSA in the sand everywhere else was fantastic and I look forward to doing it again. :thumb2
 
The turnout was great for the trail ride on the Saturday with a fair mix of
skill levels - we started out as follows

Womble (lead)
Dean (sweeper)
Cobbster and Chris
Ditchwater
Donnie
GB
MickDB1
Mikeyboy
SuffolkGSRider

Special mentions go to Ditchwater and Donnie who hadn't got much experience offroad - Donnie's total offroad experience when we started was about half-an-hour and that was earlier the same morning when we went for a quick explore.

Unfortunately, GB and Chris were early 'casualties' for the run. GB had a recent hand injury and wouldn't make the day (we ride together regularly, so there's plenty of time for more riding) and Chris was on a Transalp but we didn't know how to turn off the ABS, so sadly they parted ways with us after the end of the first lane.

For the next hour we covered some simple lanes, gradually getting more difficult, including some very bouncy terrain just off Peddar's Way. Sadly for us all, it was a little too dry which meant that there was more sand than usual and the big puddle near Roudham was nearly dry, so we missed the opportunity to pick up some proper mud and photo opportunities.

Unfortunately, not long after this, SGR had a bit of an off and decided to call it a day. Again, SGR and I ride together fairly regularly, so it was a case of discretion versus valour and he decided to head back to base.

The next obstacle was the infamous East Anglian sand and you won't understand until you have ridden it, but it is very strange stuff and you really are better keeping the power on and the weight back, and forget what the front wheel is doing . It wasn't long before Donnie had a little lie down and Mikeyboy must be a trade-unionist because he went in sympathy, but the great thing about sand is it's soft, so bikes were picked up and off we went.

Over the next hour or so we covered a variety of East Anglia's forest terrain including gravel, grass, hard-pack, a bit of mud and some puddles and, yes, more sand . Not far from lunchtime, we hooked up with Noddy and Scotty, a pair of local reprobates and fellow UKGSers, and we agreed to meet up at the local cafe later.

Sadly, we lost Cobbster at lunchtime as he had to go, but he was a happy chap and is looking forward to coming back.

After that, it was back onto the lanes for another couple of hours. I must say that Donnie and Ditchwater did really well because sand can be very hard work and they soldiered on regardless. Apparently the Desert Rats trained in Thetford during WW2, so now you know what the going was like! Anyway, Noddy next stopped us for a photo opportunity - a wall that was used as part of a firing range during the WW2.

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Ditchwater left us at that point as his topbox was threatening to come loose and about an hour later Donnie and Dean headed for home as well.

The remainder of the merry men rode on until 4pm after which we decided to head back ourselves, via the old RAF Knettishall (thanks for guiding us Noddy) and thenceforth to beer and bollocks :friday
 
I would also like to thank Womble (dave) and all the other lads on the run for a fabulous days trail riding
Probably the best day out for a long time for me
Roll on next year ( hope the sand gets a bit damp by then )
 
Sorry to be a bit late with the photos Ditch, its that work thing that gets in the way.
 

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Cheers Noddy :thumb,

That's just the evidence I needed to justify my crash rate: Soft, deep'ish sand.

There's a place near me with a quad track and I'm going to have a look and see if they'll let me practice. :eek:
 
You need more practice??????

................ to justify my crash rate.:................... and I'm going to have a look and see if they'll let me practice. :eek:

I thought all you needed was perfectly good car park and the rest was up to you:rolleyes::rolleyes:
 


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