Mild Ride to harties I said :-[
OK so the amount of rain we had last night should have made it clear to me Things might get a little tricky.
We all met up at The Total at around 7ish
All except for Shane who followed Pistol's directions from last week and ended up at the wrong Petrol station, Twice :biggrin:
He arrived at around 7:30 and we set off.
11 Set off from the Total
only 5 would make it to Harties!!!
The Weather was spectacular for ridding it was clear and crisp with zero dust.
We took the winding route from Northgate to Chartwell where the sports started.
We got to the Jukskie river crossing which was flowing strongly after last nights rain. To make it more fun a truck had dumped a ton of river sand right at the start of the crossing.
It was Deep but I knew the bridge was smooth concrete underneath so made it through with a big splash No Problem!
I get my camera out and start taking pictures of the crossings when Shane falls off his bike behind me, The normal problem of uneven ground and a heavy bike.
I turned a round just in time to see one of the WD lady's (Sorry in all the excitement I forgot to get your WD Nickname) on a shiny new 650GS have a slight wobble crossing the sand. In trying to correct her bike she had some target fixation and rode off the bridge into more than a meter of water. I got such a fright that I didn't even take any pictures I juts dropped my camera and jumped in after her. The GS disappeared under the water with only the rear pannier mount sticking out of the water.
After some serious man handling we managed to drag the poor GS out of the river and onto the road. Other than the water damage both rider and bike were unhurt.
They decided to tow the gs home and get the water logging sorted out there rather than battle next to the road. Please let us know how the trip home was and what the gs is up to?
Others did take pictures of the salvage job and I'm sure they will post them.
Next the rest of us took a nice single spoor along the river to the 3 "little" hills. These are very nasty very technical MX bike routes that the dumber of us just had to attempt. We all made it up the "easier" of the 3 except for Ganjora who went all out for the most hectic hill, he almost made it too ;D
The Clever Dogs just watched from the sidelines and shook their heads at us.
A small mud crossing later and we were ready for the next part of the route. Except the Cyclops's son's KLE had other ideas, It seemed that after the water crossing it was only running on 1 cylinder so some beer drinking and wrench wrenching took place and the problem was sorted. Comment of the day goes to Shane who after Cyclops says "We need a way to get the moisture out of the plug cap" asks if they needed some Q20, everyone brightens up only for Shane to say "I Don't have any I was just wondering if you needed some" :biggrin: ;D
A funny sight was the "Too tall for my hair" guys using their gloves to protect their bald spots.
After about 30 mins the problem was fixed ad we were on our way again.
EssBee had some other commitments and had to get home so he left us at this point.
The Next section was uneventful for the most part other than yours truly doing a rather spectacular side slide and somehow recovering before hitting the deck.
My "poephol" was munching seat there for a few moments. :biggrin:
We then hit the tar towards harties where a few others had to get home.
By now we were 5 all was good until the KLE got a puncture. Some tire weld got us to Maxis at harties where we did a quick tube replacement and had some Brunch.
On the way back the KLE wasn't happy, somehow the rear brake pad had gotten damaged and was giving problems. Cyclops and Son decided to take the tar and take a slow ride home.
Usurper Li and I took the dirt towards Erasmia and had a nice river crossing over the wide Hennops river.
Got home at around 2pm
Even with all the "Events" it was as usual a fantastic day out.
I hope I am not getting a reputation for planing hazardous rides : at least it was an adventure!
Jules
OK so the amount of rain we had last night should have made it clear to me Things might get a little tricky.
We all met up at The Total at around 7ish
All except for Shane who followed Pistol's directions from last week and ended up at the wrong Petrol station, Twice :biggrin:
He arrived at around 7:30 and we set off.
11 Set off from the Total
only 5 would make it to Harties!!!
The Weather was spectacular for ridding it was clear and crisp with zero dust.
We took the winding route from Northgate to Chartwell where the sports started.
We got to the Jukskie river crossing which was flowing strongly after last nights rain. To make it more fun a truck had dumped a ton of river sand right at the start of the crossing.
It was Deep but I knew the bridge was smooth concrete underneath so made it through with a big splash No Problem!
I get my camera out and start taking pictures of the crossings when Shane falls off his bike behind me, The normal problem of uneven ground and a heavy bike.
I turned a round just in time to see one of the WD lady's (Sorry in all the excitement I forgot to get your WD Nickname) on a shiny new 650GS have a slight wobble crossing the sand. In trying to correct her bike she had some target fixation and rode off the bridge into more than a meter of water. I got such a fright that I didn't even take any pictures I juts dropped my camera and jumped in after her. The GS disappeared under the water with only the rear pannier mount sticking out of the water.
After some serious man handling we managed to drag the poor GS out of the river and onto the road. Other than the water damage both rider and bike were unhurt.
They decided to tow the gs home and get the water logging sorted out there rather than battle next to the road. Please let us know how the trip home was and what the gs is up to?
Others did take pictures of the salvage job and I'm sure they will post them.
Next the rest of us took a nice single spoor along the river to the 3 "little" hills. These are very nasty very technical MX bike routes that the dumber of us just had to attempt. We all made it up the "easier" of the 3 except for Ganjora who went all out for the most hectic hill, he almost made it too ;D
The Clever Dogs just watched from the sidelines and shook their heads at us.
A small mud crossing later and we were ready for the next part of the route. Except the Cyclops's son's KLE had other ideas, It seemed that after the water crossing it was only running on 1 cylinder so some beer drinking and wrench wrenching took place and the problem was sorted. Comment of the day goes to Shane who after Cyclops says "We need a way to get the moisture out of the plug cap" asks if they needed some Q20, everyone brightens up only for Shane to say "I Don't have any I was just wondering if you needed some" :biggrin: ;D
A funny sight was the "Too tall for my hair" guys using their gloves to protect their bald spots.
After about 30 mins the problem was fixed ad we were on our way again.
EssBee had some other commitments and had to get home so he left us at this point.
The Next section was uneventful for the most part other than yours truly doing a rather spectacular side slide and somehow recovering before hitting the deck.
My "poephol" was munching seat there for a few moments. :biggrin:
We then hit the tar towards harties where a few others had to get home.
By now we were 5 all was good until the KLE got a puncture. Some tire weld got us to Maxis at harties where we did a quick tube replacement and had some Brunch.
On the way back the KLE wasn't happy, somehow the rear brake pad had gotten damaged and was giving problems. Cyclops and Son decided to take the tar and take a slow ride home.
Usurper Li and I took the dirt towards Erasmia and had a nice river crossing over the wide Hennops river.
Got home at around 2pm
Even with all the "Events" it was as usual a fantastic day out.
I hope I am not getting a reputation for planing hazardous rides :
at least it was an adventure!Jules
