The weather gods were smiling on us. After the dreary weather of the past week, the air today was dry and even mildly warm at times. But that didn't mean that the tracks were dry - there were still plenty of slippery patches waiting to catch out the unwary!

17 riders today – a pretty good turnout. After a quick riders briefing at 9am, we set off into the Triangle to sample the usual morning tracks. Everyone seemed to be coping well with the slightly greasy conditions, and the pace was pretty good, so a trip across to the Narby side of highway was included.

Things got a little more challenging then. Those tracks are deceptive, and gradients that would just invoke a yawn in the summer instead offered very little traction.

Ure Spur track is one example. We gave everyone the chance to try the climb, with Mark (tailman) waiting at the bottom for 10 minutes before heading up himself. If he came across a rider still struggling with the greasy clay as he went up, they had to go back to the bottom and await our return (via the main tracks). The majority made it up, with some vivid descriptions of the carnage below.

Mark then took the lead to show us a few new Narby tracks, which was followed by a quick blast back to Marysville for lunch.

Frankie’s leg was causing him some grief, so we detoured back to the cars to allow him to retire. A couple of others called it a day at that point, and so we were down to 14 riders as we set out across the road to the Dom Dom Saddle area.

I was aiming to do a quick loop up to the Saddle car park, but things didn’t quite work out as planned.

A track that had previously been ‘moderately’ challenging for a L2 rider, had somehow become much greasier than I’d expected. The two small hill climbs on the track were the clay equivalent of black ice, and traction was non-existent. There was a great team effort involved in getting the bikes up the hills, with the helpers losing footing and rolling/sliding down the hills themselves.

I found it all hugely entertaining, but I think I was getting some dirty looks by the time we’d done the second hill. Mark (as usual) showed us the benefits of having a Tubliss system fitted, and made it look easy!

After the delay involved in finally getting through that track, and the fact that fuel was getting ‘light on’, we decided to make a beeline back to the cars.

So, thanks to everyone for another fun day. To those that struggled on those greasy hills in the afternoon, my apologies, but hopefully the morning session made up for that mistaken track choice.

Thanks again go to Mark who was tailman for most of the day, and also a part-time ride leader.
We managed 103kms for the day

Hi all.

I was having some pain in my lower back & working it's way down my right leg, for the last week or so, I thought I'd just work through it, by the time the Marysville ride comes around, it should be ok, Marysville has a reputation for being very slippery when it's wet, so a new front tyre was the way to go, I decided to try a Pirelli Scorpion M/X Mid Soft 32  80-100-21.

I arrived at the unloading place first, no one to talk too, I was keen to try out the new tyre, so unloaded the bike, wtf, it wouldn't start, oh hell don't tell me that I've got Colin's problems now, then the old brain kicked in, I forgot to remove the  exhaust plug,  yeah we have all done it, aven't we ?     anyway, it fired up & took off,  I haven't ridden the 300 for a while & was very surprised how much difference a 100cc makes, the new tyre felt good.

When we headed off I was preparing myself for the slippery tracks, after a few km's I thought, it's not slippers at all, or is the new tyre doing a really good job, my pain in my back & leg was giving me a real pain in the arse,     I got a taste of how slippery it is there when we crossed the HWY.

Peter told us about a very slippery hill, we were all keen to give it a try, I gave the others a head start, no good arriving at the hill in a group, when I got to the hill, the first thing I saw was A bike laying on the ground & someone running down the hill  then I see about 3 bikes laying on the hill & a couple of fellas stopped on the side, that put me off so I came to a stop, with the way I was feeling, I thought it best not to do more damage to my back pain, we were told to go back down to the road & wait for a regroup if we couldn't make it up, there was a few of us that didn't make it up.

After lunch at the creek, I asked Peter if we could swing past the cars because my back pain is getting worse, thanks mate, on the way home I had to stop & walk around the car a couple of times

I've got an appointment to see a Chiropractor at 2 pm, all will be good after that, I hope

Thanks Pete for a good ride & Mark for doing the sweep, & to everybody that made it a great day. 

P.S  I'm very happy the Pirelli front tyre.    I'm sure I would have enjoyed the ride more if i was %100 fit.

Hi Pete, thanks for a great ride yesterday. I found some of the tracks had a surprising amount of grip, while others were the usual Marysville red clay slick surface. The morning loop was pretty open, I think I had around 70km on the clock at lunch time. Sat in the sun by the river eating lunch having a good chat was great, although by the time the guys got back from the bakery it was starting to get cold.

The afternoon ride was a LITTLE more challenging in places. I can't recall such small inclines, (not hills) causing so many problems for so many in the group, still the team building was really something to remember.

Looking forward to the next ride. Thanks Mark for being tail, those Tubliss tyres sure make the inclines look easy.

Cheers Colin