Hail long weekends...

Rosie

Just through the door
I posted this up on another forum but thought I'd pop it up here too. (Take no notice of the date on the photos - I was using an old camera and couldn't be bothered changing the date settings)...

Thanks Stewy and Jay for another awesome and funny weekend. :clap:

Saturday morning - a whole long weekend free to do whatever I wanted. Whilst having my usual breakfast I looked at this:

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and promptly loaded the bike up and headed off.

The last minute plan was to meet a couple of friends at some campsite called 'Sheepyard flat'.

Stewy and Jay are part of a 'touring group' of 4 that I use to head off to the Snowys etc with every now and then. No.4 - Booga - is overseas in England. I enjoy touring with these guys and am pretty rapt to be a part of this 'group'.

Anyway...

We arrived - me right on dark, 10 mins before them (Stewy minus a working headlight - he'd been blindly following Jay through some pretty hardcore tracks) - and set up tents, scored some firewood from fellow campers. Instant campfire. We ate - chicken kiev's wrapped in foil thrown on the fire, sausages in rolls...lemon Ruskis for me...clear sky of stars, great company...life is good...

Trekked back and forwards what seemed miles to the nearest loo only to wake in the morning to find one a couple hundred metres from the tents. doh...

Next morning: Iced puddles, tents, bikes etc...plus sunshine and blue skies.

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On the way out I lost traction and crashed.

It turns out that VTR's with road tyres do not like the Merrijig to Sheepyard flat road. Riding down it on the Saturday afternoon I lost traction on a rather slippery downhill right hander. Kept it upright though and all was well. Riding back up it the following morning however...gett o the slippery bit and I tried..I really really tried...but it wasn't enough. Went down a ditch headfirst, flung over bars, faceplant (haha) and kicked tank to get my foot out from under it. Got up and assessed damage, figured there was no way in hell I was gonna get it out myself and lucky me a 4wd came by. Bloke helped me pick it up and get it out of the ditch. Coppers came around the corner in their 4wd. Coppers saw I was alright and then pissed themselves laughing that I would take a VTR with 'those' tyres on it down this road. Laughing aside, they were cool as. From the trailbike division (major blitz going on in them thar hills this weekend) and one of them offered to ride it out for me if I wanted.

So being a girl I said yes. Had I been a guy I'd have said no, but I am a girl and I can play damsel in distress if it suits me. hehe..

Be stuffed riding it out myself - I was over dirt by that stage and was spooked by that slippery shit. Copper borrowed my helmet and rode it out. He said it was like a little toy. haha..They gave me some tips on dirt riding and told me to go get a DR650 asap. Top blokes...for cops anyway.

At Merrijig I bought smokes and wiped the mud off everything.

At Mansfield I met up with Jay and Stewy again. I told them about how I came off at the slippery section. They didn't know what section I was talking about. They have knobbies and I don't, that's why.

Here's where the mirror used to be. Couldn't have snapped off at the mirror hey - had to do it from the brake fluid box thing. Gonna be fun to repair.

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We decide not to head up tracks and stuff - we go instead to do the Jamieson to Eildon rd to find a campsite there. I ride to Eildon because I can. It's warm there and I want to get a hotel room and not go back. I do though - and the tents are set up, fire lit, hot cup of tea handed to me and we eat and drink alcohol.

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They tell freaky stories and we talk about freaky movies like Wolf Creek and Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch and when I go to the loos I get scared being on my own in the dark...even worse when I lose my way back to the campsite and keep ending up at dead ends.

Here is a picture of the pretty river by which we are camped:

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and another,

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I'm pretty happy with how these turned out considering I took one of the girls old cheaparse cameras.

Hot tea, bacon and eggs, loaded bikes up and headed off in our own directions. They to go dirt ways home, me to go wherever. I head to Eildon in fog and freezing conditions. Get there and order a hot coffee and bushmans brekky. The whole entire time of my eating is spent listening to some random guy tell me he has 3 harleys and a XR450 in his shed and can't ride them because his licence was suspended and that he reckons I should get a 400 because anything bigger is too much for me and he wants to go riding again and how he thought Stroms were Hondas and is mine a Honda and am I going to eat all my bacon.

I flee to Yea and then to Flowerdale and Kinglake to St. Andrews to home. I stink from wearing the same clothes for three days and I loathe trying to get the knots out of my hair. I have a big bruise forming on my left thigh and knee but damn I have never felt better.

Thanks to Stewy and Jay for another top weekend and hail the Queen for being born.
 

STOOKIE

I like it dirty
Top weekend, Stewy was amazing on his strom/hybrid bush pig.
Can't wait for summer.
Good work to all braving the cold. :clap:
 

Hytram

<-- now went that way
great to see you out on the bike, its the trips and events like a these that live in your mind for ever :)


I think Stewy has some explaining to do with those wheels on his Strom!
 

Rosie

Just through the door
Thanks Indie - it was. :)

Stookie - Thanks for having me along. Just like the old days...but without Wally. Haha...Can't wait for summer. Lotsa adventures to be had methinks...

Glitch - Yep, Big River. Gorgeous setting. That's the first and last time I'll be taking the VTR into roads such as the Sheepyard flat one at this time of year. Next time I see a road like that it'll be on something a bit more appropriate, preferably with knobbies and preferably with a bit more skill and know how. Also, straight away after coming off I could see the line I should have taken...ah well, you live and learn. :whistle:

Marty - thanks :) Was great to be out on the bike doing this stuff again. May be getting a DR650 soon! Stookie offered me a ride on his but the campsite was full of dirtbikers who knew what they were doing and I got a bit self conscious...might have to take him up on his offer another time - maybe with less people around so I don't get nervous.

Thanks Williamson. I now know that ;) hehehe...
 

Chally

Tour Pro
Good onya for getting out for a ride and great photos. Glad you didn't get hurt any worse in the get off!!!

Jeff
 

stewy

Still young and stupid
What you mean, don’t they all come from the factory like that?:wot:

It was kiwi that posted the pic that tells all.

http://www.stromtrooper.com/dl650-specific-wee-strom/31833-wire-spoked-wheel-wee-photos-here.html

Whoever the bloke is that owns this bike is one smart cookie:clap:, as it’s actually quite a basic job and almost a direct swap over but there was one tricky little thing that you need to do to get it too all line up and once you figure that out it’s childs play.:woot:

Basically there is something in the photo that tells you what the model bike the rim comes off and while they are a little tricky to find they are not impossible and certainly WAY cheaper then the custom ktm rims (or those new billet hubs) and it was a lot of fun solving the riddle, and finally bolting it all up to confirm I was right in my investigation.

Will post up all the pdf drawings of all the spacer required to do the swap (soon once i get them all together and tidy them up), so anyone who figures it out can just go to any machince shop and have the spacers made up

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It’s been an amazingly fun build, and everything I researched has worked a treat.:kna

Still need to get the rear AT shock adjusted as the spring is way to stiff for the 650 hopefully start on the exhaust in the not to distance future (not sure if I will just mount a pipe on or do a more reworks exhaust system

Basically by the time I finish it, will have suspension travel of 180ish (mm) at the front, 214mm at the rear (ground clearance will depends on the option I take for the exhaust) and seat height is only just over stock (so not too tall that I struggle to reach the ground)….all in all I reckon it’s near prefect, so what I first planned…..if I was to do it again I reckon the leading axle would be nicer for dirt.

It’s been a ripper bike and while maybe not as good as I had hoped in the dirt, (and if it was just me I would probably make the switch to a drz400) but there is no way I could put lenna and the wheelchair on the back of anything else and stretch across the range of riding I can do on this bike (and she loves the pillion seat on the dl650 and is keen to do more till we sort out the issue of her own ride, then things might change.)

Till then I just have to deal with the hand that has been dealt to us, in a prefect world we would all own many bikes and never work yet still have enough money to ride the world many times over, well it ain’t prefect so I will ride as far as I can with what I have got :flame:
Wanna add a huge thanks to glitch, tileman, zapps, flyingfinn and a few others i have forgotten along the way, who put me on the whole thin 650 setup.... as stock it's a pig and something i would never have considered, but in it's cut down size it's real winner in my eyes.

Basically all the work was done on each and every mod i have done (ie there is a thread about it, but nobody every added each mod to one bike), so it was just pulling about 6 yrs worth of threads from many different forums together and the end result is imo the best parts of each build on one bike, so :chug: guys.

(ps i wrote about half ther report and then lost the lot...going to re-write it in word :bang:)
 

stewy

Still young and stupid
Well with the weeks leading up to the queens’ b’day weekend, it was any ones guess what the weather was going to do, 2 days out, it’s looked like northern vic would be dry, and south wet so we decided to head north.

So some E09 all mounted up and the offer to get away for a few days riding and camping with a few friends it was all too much to turn down.

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Jay had already scouted out some suitable routes, which would hopefully keep us both entertained (considering we both are riding bikes at completely different bikes at both ends of the adv riding category, Jay dr650 and me dl650)

Anyway in day before we left I started having trouble with the headlight blowing fuses, anyway friday night thought I had it all fixed. Satuday morning came around and wrong, still blowing fuses. Well I was looking forward to this weekend too much and I knew jay had gone to a bit of trouble to make the weekend happen, so I loaded up a headlightless strom.

Meant to leave jays in warrigul at 11.00 I was my normal 20min late, though to my relief jay answers the door in his dressing gown…..

Bit of a look at the stroms new mods and a cup of tea (while I wait for jay to get dressed into something more suitable and we are off about 12.00-12.30ish

So up through Erica - Rawson and onto Thomson Dam, and wow knobbies actually hang in pretty well on the road wet or dry, reach Thomson dam and a quick stop to take in the views and the nice sunshine.

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Well wasn’t long before we reach the dirt road and time to test out these bad boys in the dirt. Well bloody hell, it’s amazing what the right tyre will do, it still moved around quite a bit and still had a few slips but it’s certainly a lot easier then my first attempt which I was on a bt016 and then the second time a few weeks ago when Jay and I went and played up in the snow near Mt Donna on k76.

A field somewhere along the road before we reached the woods point turnoff.

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We finally reach the woods point turn off around, and jay decided to take a leak and walked to a near by tree, (here I am standing in all this snow, so what’s the first thing that goes through my head) yep you guessed it, make a snow ball and launch it (just missed and as jay looked over his shoulder he didn’t seem to find it as funny as I did.) So time was now about 2.30 with that said we made tracks for Jamieson.

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Arrive in Jamieson and another quick chat about those little moments that get the bloody pumping. Now onto serious discussion, how much further do we have to go as it’s now about 4 in the avro.

Jay “well we could go the difficult way into sheepyards flats via steins track or the easy way.”
Me ”how long is the hard way? As we only have about 1.5hrs of light left?”

Jay “oh maybe 30mins and the easy way maybe 40mins. But the hard way has a steep decline into the camp ground”

Me “how steep?”

Jay “steep”

Me ”hmmm, well if we get in there and it’s crazy steep we can always ride out and back in the easy way?”

Jay “yep”

Me “ok well we have plenty of time, if it just seems impossible we can do that.”

So with all agreed off we go. Well after about an hours riding (remember 30mins to the camp ground, jay said) we reach this down hill descent. We walk down a portion of it. Yep it’s steep but completely dry and not impossible imo.

So Jay offers me some tips and advice for riding down hill, I listen quite carefully, as this will be my first attempt at it. He offers to follow. Well down we go, sure it was a little tricky, but only had one minor moment when I stalled the bike, but I just keep my head, pulled the clutch as to not let the rear wheel compression lock (kept steady on the brakes) and hit the starter and she fired back up and released the clutch again, no problems, christened the bash plate at one point to. All in all was relatively easy I thought. (if it had been wet is would have been completely different, but the dry was np.)

So we finally reach the bottom of this hill and it’s now just turning to dusk….i look at the track ahead and there is a small water crossing (more like a ford then river crossing) and the track looks like it rises slightly, and I think oh well we can’t be far now as I am watching the light fade.

WRONG!!! This track continues for a bit and before I know it, we are facing another river crossing (it’s ¾ height of the front wheel) muddy on either side and dusk is now all but gone and twilight has set in. Well this one didn’t quite go as swimmingly, about half way across a rock that sends the bike and me shooting off towards the bank, (luckily I keep things from going ass up) but bike gets stuck half up bank (ie just missed the low road exit area) so jay come and give me a hand, we back her up and I ride out. So now I am thinking wow the camp site must be right here…..I mean it’s not far from being pitch black and I say to jay if it isn’t the next camp site stiff, this is getting crazy, well he assures me he can’t remember any of this but he knows it past the last campsite we have just past, so at least we are on the right track, oh yeah, that is just what I wanted to hear, NOT!

Well up another rutted out super sticky clay hill and by now all I can see if jays bike in the lead bouncing up and down as he rides up it…..as I try and follow his lines as I can barely see, I feel the front and rear disappear in different directions and I get that horrible feeling that gravity has beaten me, I just step off the bike.

Just wonderful, so bike on it’s side well I take a minute to catch my breath before picking the bike, Jay is now half way down the hill (he thinks I have just gotten bogged so was coming down to help.) So I jump back on and take off and it starts moving so I just keep the power on and ride up the rest of the way, making jay walk back up the hill.

Finally after this we make a small descent and here is the campground we said we would meet rosie at. Only problem is no rosie as we ride around looking for a bike camping by itself.

Sure enough she only just pulled up herself, we find a space to set up for the night and all settle back with a few tinnies and chat about our adventures for the day.


The second day, I was up early as I wanted to have another play with the headlights to see if I could fix this issue, finally found a where it was shorting and taped that up. (seems to of been the issue as had no more problems)

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Mmmm omelette for breaky
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Jay and myself heading for Mansfield

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The rest of the second day was all about rosie (typical) first her crash then losing the group before finally riding back to find us already setup up with fire going just near big river.

Another fun night with a few more tinnies, chatting about future plans, dreams, desires and all things life under another cracker sky.

Guess we both enjoyed that view huh rosie?
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Well the last morning Jay and I had agreed to get back into the dirty stuff, and head home via woods point again. We waved goodbye to rosie and of we trotted back to jamo for fuel.

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From here we found a small 4wd trail that cut off part of the wood point road down and it was agreed if it go to tough for the strom we would turn back. Off we trot jay leading the way quite a fun track challenging for me, think jay enjoyed it more then the fireroads we had been doing.

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Well after navigating this track for a while we reach a river crossing where a couple of 4wds are playing around in the (stream) for some reason I saw this and just freaked :eek:…..I remember my heart started racing, looking at the real slippery rocky clay film leading down to the river, and then the huge up hill track on the other side. I reckon we stood there for about 30mins and I reckon I walked up and down the slippery hill on our side more times then I care to remember. (I was so busying with my mind racing I forgot to get any pics) all I remember was Jay just saying we can just go back if your not comfortable….and boy was I not comfortable with this dunno why, anyway after much internal debate in my head I said I just couldn’t do it…..and jay was cool with it, though I knew in my head I was holding him back. :oops: A return trip back up the trail we had just conquered, and I was beat, I was down, (after everything this was what I came out here to do, but when push came to shove I just froze) so I needed to stop to take a bit of time to get my head right again. In the meantime Jay came back looking for me again (though most of his ride back up the trail was looking over the side of the cliff, looking for a 650 on it’s side, safe to say I reckon he was relieved to see me and the bike parked off to the side)

That aside we hit the main dirt road again and blasted back towards Melbourne.

We parted ways at some intersection (Jay headed to Noojee and me to reefton)

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All in all it was an interesting and fun weekend, I guess for me it was quite a challenge, as I haven’t done much riding in recent times that I have had to overcome those new rider major fears and moments that you get when you are new at something. It will certainly go down as one of those trips that you never forget for the good and the scary. I couldn’t ask to do these trips with a better group of mates. :thumbs:

Like rosie says can’t wait for summer and the adventures I know we will get up to.:chug:
 
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