12 Dec 2015 Neerim South Ride leader training sessions - arvo ride
After a nice 'semi-cruisy' morning ride as the tailman for Darren’s ride leader training, it was time to take over the reins for the arvo session. The group had shrunk to 9 riders, but they all sounded very keen to get into some of the tighter tracks that Neerim has to offer.
Riders briefing was far less overwhelming than last time, and hopefully I managed to get all the important bits mentioned in my little spiel.
I had been hoping to have my new bike ready for the day, but it wasn’t to be, so I dragged out my trusty little ’82 model XR200R to fill in the gap. Being ride leader on a 33 year old bike was always going to make it a bit of a challenge whilst leading a pack of ‘modern’ bikes, but I think the little XR did a pretty fair job…
We started off with a bit of a rehash of some of the tracks we had ridden in the morning, and then moved into some more challenging terrain. The XR was in its element weaving in and out of the trees on the tighter, slower bits, but I did manage to find the limits of its suspension travel many times over the whoops on the faster trails.
There were still plenty of ruts to contend with, but they were mostly dry, so made choosing your line much easier - even Frankie’s track was mostly dry, and certainly far less challenging than in winter.
Some of the trails we found were very overgrown, requiring a lot of ducking and weaving to get under the regrowth, whilst also dodging erosion ruts – Fingers crossed I can find them again next time!
There were no real issues (apart from my map reading skills being ‘tested’ once or twice), and we made it back to the cars at about 4:30.
Thanks to everyone who came along – hopefully you all enjoyed yourselves – and a big thanks again to Will, Gary and Darren for all the help in training us so that we can do the job right!
P.S Could someone let me know how many kms we did for the whole day - my speedo decided to reset itself halfway through the ride!