Hafren Rally report

earthmover

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It was raining as we loaded the bikes at lunchtime on Saturday, it rained as we drove down. It rained as we scrutineered, it rained while were chatting in the pits. It rained while we were in the pub, overnight, and in the morning. Everything from drizzle to horizontal. Wet race then!
Les, Andy and myself signed on as the two HP2’s were being pushed into scrutineering, so had a brief chat with Si Pavey, where I offered to lock Blez in his room and take his bike round. The deal was nearly done, until it was pointed out that I was too handsome to pass for him in photos.
Howard, Liam and Anita rolled up an hour later. Odd, as they had said they would be there early. Liam stumbling over to give me a hug, with a huge beaming grin on his face gave the game away. Alcohol had been consumed the previous evening! Four bikes shoehorned into a transit made for an interesting few minutes, as we were introduced to Cliff and Jenny. Cliff was entering his first event, on Howard’s KTM 400. Jenny was entering the world championship shivering event, and looked odds on to win. After a brief bout of spannering on Anita’s Pamp, and admiring the Dutch mud on Howard’s Gasser, we drove back to the B&B to escape the rain.
Cliff had brought a very professional looking DVD of Howard in the Natterjack, so we watched that while abusing him mercilessly, before retiring to the pub for food, beer and talking sh*te.
Sunday morning dawned grey and wet, as predicted. The van trailer proved it’s worth, giving us somewhere dry to get ready. Paul stuck his head round the door to say hello, but unfortunately that was the last I saw of him. Les set off for his marshalling duties, Liam, Andy and I rode off in succession at our start time on the first lap. Riding into the rain on the liaison soon numbed my fingers, but a snotty downhill section warmed me slightly, followed by a short, well used climb, which got me nicely up to operating temperature. The first special started with a few hundred yards of single track, with little overtaking options, into a bumpy downhill traverse, with a couple of passing places, then onto a fire road hill climb, with plenty of options for the brave (or foolish).
This committed to memory, we rode on, enjoying the liaison as a brisk trail ride. Taking it in turns at the front, I watched Liam to see how he was riding after his broken foot. He didn’t seem bothered by it at all, his only worry being lack of fitness from the lay off.
The second special started with one of my favourite stretches of the Hafren, the single track loop, but I haven’t ridden it at speed before. From this there was a hard, bumpy track with a lot of standing water, before entering the trees and the whooped straights of the Hafren Enduro test. This could be taken quite quickly, and the Honda bounded from crest to crest as I tried my best to remain a rider, not a tree ornament. The last left hander was deeply rutted, but I managed to cut across it, giving myself a clear run to the end.
The rain had got underneath my roll-offs now, rendering them useless, so the remainder of the lap was spent mainly without goggles. Not too much fun in the rain! Arriving at the start of the third special, I recognised the track, but not the surface. The first hundred yards or so had been “repaired” with some large aggregate, including lumps of a foot across. This made for interesting riding, and wary of punctures I took it steady. Next were some very slick tracks, which led out of the forest gate and back into the Sweet Lamb complex. The flat out blasts of the car stages brought us down into the MX track, out via the rain gully, before finishing off on some more car stages, then five minutes of tarmac back to the start.
Just as I entered the MX track, there were a couple of people waving at me, which concerned me for a second, until I realised it was Rik (Mouse) and Clare. They had ridden down to watch the event and to see the HP2’s in action. Meanwhile, I had spied Liam ahead, so convention dictates that I should hunt him down. A slip up on one of the corners meant that he was able to get to the gully before me, but he then very considerately laid his bike down so that I could pass! I stopped to check he was OK, then noticed Andy charging towards me. Game on! Peter Christmas roosted me out of a couple of corners, but I was able to utilise the outside groove of a wide right hander and got by. Towards the end of the stage, Andy was breathing down my neck, but I think I scared him with a seriously sideways moment when the Honda stepped out on some marbles in front of him. Thankfully it stepped back with a snatch of the bars, and we rode out of the stage and back towards the start.
Stopped to chat with Rik and Clare for a minute, to see if they were enjoying the rain, then went to refuel. Andy found that the rattle from the back end of the KTM was in fact two broken sprocket bolts, so we were a little late for the second lap as he had to beg some bolts and tighten the others before continuing. We sent Liam ahead, as he was beginning to feel his lack of race fitness, I had a brew (cheers Rik) and a fag until Andy was satisfied that the sprocket was secure.
Lap two started much the same as lap one, the wind-chill got to my fingers, until the snotty downhill, but the uphill had been cut. Andy Cadney was parked at the bottom of it with a dead Elafant, if we hadn’t been late we would have stopped, so I was glad to hear he made it back under his own steam. Most noticeable on he lap were the numbers of dead bikes littering the sides of the course. WTF?
The timekeeper at the first special waved us to the front, so barely time to wipe my goggles before he counted down. Into the single track, I was rapidly catching the rider in front, but as we were nearing the wider section it wasn’t worth forcing the issue. He ran wide at the left hander giving me a clear shot, on to the next. Bouncing down the traverse, the next rider braked very early for the tight left and I was through, nearly overshooting the turn in my haste! A brief panic as my front wheel dropped into a hole and launched me upwards, but managed to stay on and dropped down onto the fire roads. An engine behind me could only mean one thing, a glance over my shoulder confirmed it! No sense in making it easy though is there? I wound the Honda to the stop and crashed it through the remaining two gearchanges without mercy, taking the straightest line possible through the gentle bends of the first part, while all the while watching for an orange mudguard in my peripheral vision. Surprised that it didn’t appear, I took the middle to inside line round the series of hairpins, still conscious of the slightest mistake letting him through, and again abused the bike horribly. At the logs, Andy was sat on my tail, but admitted that the shower of rocks coming off my well worn back tyre had taken their toll. He had still taken 10-15 seconds off me though. Bugger!
By the second special, we had caught up to Liam, though he was tiring fast. I didn’t expect to catch him so quickly through the check though, and didn’t actually realise that it was he that had pulled out of my way on the single track until he told me later! I felt that I had ridden well through the check, the front wheel skimming over all the water splashes, getting the speed about right through the whoops. I only passed one other rider, and he didn’t hold me up too much. Andy rolled up at the end commenting that he hadn’t been able to catch me, but the results show he had taken time off me again. Damn!
Leaning on it’s right hand cylinder, at the end of the special, was Jonty Edmunds’ HP2. It had a flat rear tyre, which had come off the rim when he had tried to finish the stage on it, and he was struggling to get the tyre back over the rim locks. Our tyre levers proved more useful to him than the small screwdriver he had, and he was soon back on his way, although the tube had ripped and he was aiming to ride back to the pits very slowly. The noise of the rim on gravel wasn’t pleasant, and his chances of featuring in the results were shot.
This slight delay had put us back down the order slightly, so when we arrived at the last special, we were again waved to the front. Liam had eased off by now, and as I cleaned my goggles, Andy went to the line. I pulled up and gave chase, but never saw him again until the end! He took more than a minute off me in that check. I didn’t see another soul for the whole 11 minutes it took me, and bar one over correction to a sideways step, didn’t have any moments either. In fact, I was rather disappointed with my performance, and vowed to push harder next lap.
A brief chat with Rik and Clare, before riding back to the pits to be told that the last lap was to be cut. The clerk of the course had decided that there were too many bikes to be recovered in the time remaining to risk allowing a further lap. This was met with mixed feelings, as I was looking forward to trying again, but changing out of my damp gear and getting an early bath seemed quite appealing! Most people felt the same. Liam had no intention of doing another anyway, Anita and Cliff were both relieved, as they were likely to have timed out anyway, and as Howard was riding with them would probably have done the same.
The rain actually stopped long enough for us to change and load up the trailer, but then started again as we waited for the last of our group to return safely. At least the trailer got washed off on the way home.
Thanks to the organisers and officials who no doubt got just as cold and wet as we, but didn’t get as much enjoyment out of it. Roll on the next.
Mark
 
Could not possibly add to that Mark.

Still got a CD for you.

Shame that both HP2's did not get decent results. Even I beat Si Pavey on his. Could not get your times though.

If an HP2 is to do the Daker, surely a puncture should not do the damage it did !!!!!!!!

It was a wet one :thumb
 
It was good day. If you saw someone waving a red plastic trident (think Evil Homer) at you, that was me :D

I don't think HP2s are allowed in the Dakar, too big. I thought there was some sort of foam you could put in the tyres to stop punctures, wonder why BMW weren't using something like that.
 
Mouse said:
I don't think HP2s are allowed in the Dakar, too big.

They ARE allowed. But it's pointless this year - this year's DAKAR's redicolously stupid and fully car-oriented organizers put 150kph speed limit to bikes that makes riding 2-cyls pointless there. 2 cyls (boxer, 950) strong points are sand plains/dunes and savannahs where you can put all this power into use and near to 200kph into clock in straights and to be superior than lighter 1-cyls on those conditions. So this year's dakar in pointless, IMHO, i've talked some pro KTM Dakar riders and they laugh their ass off (in very ironical way) about this restriction thinking that it will save lives.

Seriously, the Dakar Rallye has lost it's plot after the car-oriented organizers took over, no colours in the event anymore, get's seriously more boring and fully car-oriented bullshiite you see on TV mostly like last year. :spitfire

2007 will be probably 4x4 cages only... Goodbye Dakar.
 


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