All week I’d been keeping an eye on the weather reports, and also keeping my fingers crossed that Sunday’s forecast deluge wasn’t going to arrive a day early. Thankfully, this time the weatherman was spot on with his prediction, and we had absolutely perfect conditions for our blast around the Marysville forests.

19 riders took part in our little jaunt through the sunshine, with some new faces (for me anyway) amongst the familiar ones.

The tracks were pretty much perfect. There wasn’t any dust worth mentioning until late in the afternoon, and even then, there were enough slippery bits under the tree cover to keep you on your toes.

There was a brief pause mid-morning whilst a front puncture was repaired, and then it was back into the action. At a later regroup, Phil offered up some knarly tracks following the power lines as his ‘challenge hill’ for the day, and half a dozen of us went off to test our mettle against the rocks and ruts - there were a few bikes needing a rest break on the way up.

We managed a fair distance for the day too – I had 148kms on the speedo, so I ‘m glad we detoured via Buxton servo for our lunch break. The guys with full reg went into town to grab burgers or pies whilst the rest of us lazed around in the sun at the picnic tables, enjoying our sandwiches. A couple of riders left us for a shortcut back to the cars at that stage, bringing our numbers down to 17.

As the day progressed, Phil regularly waved the more ‘eager’ riders past him so that we could have a bit of a play over the culverts and washouts at a faster pace, before waiting at the next corner for the rest of the ride. This made for some good dicing up the hills and gave us a chance to work off some of that excess enthusiasm.

Here’s a quick video clip of the ride – At the end you can see the new routine that Sue and I have been working on. I figure it could be a new Olympic sport called ‘Synchronised Sliding’ – it’s still a 'work in progress', as I think we need to tidy-up our timing and artistic flair a little more…

Thanks to everyone for a very enjoyable day out!



Change the video quality to 720p for best viewing:
[video]22UOVgflhRk?vq=hd720[/video]

As you can see on the vid (thanks Pete) the tracks for most of the day were dust free and demanding some attention to maximise grip - Grouse.

It was a good bunch of riders, young and older, new and veterans, girls and boys. Good mix of bikes too, Mostly blue then orange and a mix of the rest both 4 stroke and 2.

Even though Phil lists the ride as level 1/2ish when he waves you past you know theres a good bit coming up for a fang and fang we did.

Darrell gave us a chance for a break with his puncture, he had it next to a pile of logs to work and sit on. The rouges gallery in the stalls kept the session both informative and hilarious and the ride re-commenced in good time.

We visited the lookout twice just to make sure Nick could get good phone reception, I'll leave Nick to provide the details - 

All up a really good day out on the old Kato which clocked over 20,000ks on the ride and I'm still loving that bark, thanks old girl.

Thanks Phil, love your work, Thanks Rocket for tail man duties - welcome back to AMTRA, and thanks to all who came to play under that lovely blue sky, arn't we a lucky bunch.

PS - Dont forget to join the fight against the proposed extention to the state forests, we need some info on this site to enable us to do this.

PPS - Hey Wiggy, isn't it time for a new bike - for both of us  

"PPS - Hey Wiggy, isn't it time for a new bike - for both of us   "

Not me you need to be telling Ken 

Ken, really I was taking one for the team by giving everyone another chance to have a crack at the tracks beneath the power lines. As it turned out I did have good phone reception! Next time I need a girl to have a girls look in my bag.Anywho, what a ripper day! Perfect weather with a great bunch of people. Special thanks goes to rocket for tail man duties all day and his mates for helping some bloke who ran out of petrol 5 minutes before we got back to the cars.
Cheers Nick

Great to get out for a club ride. Cruisy crew, laughs and plenty of riding. Thanks everybody. 

Thanks Phil for leading another great ride. Everything just fell into place, the weather, track conditions were just right  even though it could get a bit slippery at times and the distance was spot on for the day. Thanks to Rocket for being tail all day. Cheers Colin

Another great day, conditions were perfect, had a lot of fun, a great bunch of blokes, who's going to keep these rides going whilst Phil is away, I'll be up for it, I need the practice.

Jason375 wrote:
Calling Michael, come in please Michael. 

Hi Ken. Yes Phil has me lined up already for the next 3 months. This ride is his baby I'll look after it while he's gone.

Good on you, Michael - the tradition continues!

I'm sure we'll all look forward to those dates appearing in the calendar (hint hint).