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Trail Report: 3rd January 2004

Players: Brad, Col, Howard, Phil, Rob, Roley, Simon, Steve.
Venue: Lancelin - Wedge Island Run
Rider of the Day: Howard - Excellent on the trails, and Big Air on the dune jumps.
Stack of the Day: Phil - Stooged himself when everyone was watching. Low speed tumble.

Mention - Rob - Had a tumble according to Roley (Dodgy info source)
Breakages & Injuries:

HOG Award

 Steve - Rear brake pads missing completely

Phil - Ran out of fuel on return trip. Required assistance.

Report & Pic's by Brad and Rob:

A "Wedge Run" had been called a few weeks back, and with a bit of too-ing and fro-ing, a date after the mad Christmas activities was finally settled for a Saturday. The boys gathered at the normal start point (the O.V.T.) for a 7:15 am meet - 7:30 am departure. Very early on we could feel it's going to be a bit of a warm one today, instead of the promised overcast conditions.


Early morning start to beat the heat is spot on.

Col seen here busy trying to fit a fuel container to the front of the YZ. To offset the weight of the extra load, Col has decided to remove a few unnecessary bolts from the bike we reckon. Exhaust shroud, and seat bolts have gone walkies recently.

"Phactory Phil" is also sporting the works gear team orange again. He is dressed, primed, and ready-to-go at this time of the morning. Says he doesn't like getting sand in his boots before a ride, so would prefer to be dressed beforehand.

When we arrived at the local bakery at Lancelin, the guys went their own ways to settle the hunger. Breakfast was soon served, and it was time to hit the off road area. We noticed why Simon was running a bit behind schedule this morning. Looks like he had been spinning a tie down web for the Mid size XR. Spiderman would be proud.

...get the gear unloaded, and get going.


Start point at Lancelin off road carpark. GPS coordinates 30 59' 57s 115 19' 45e

Fabulous blue skies are on display. No rain in the past few weeks, make for a dusty days work.

We get the warning from the local bike hire guy, to be careful. He has seen plenty of 4WD's enter the play ground this morning.

It is a very heavy traffic ride on the trails, for the 40km inland route to Wedge Island town ship. No major incidents happened on the way up. Steve dropped a fuel bottle that was taped onto his rear fender. Rob picked it up in his sweeper duties in Peter's absense.

Roley is showing signs of interest in doing a bit more riding with us. Today he is on Pete's spare DR250, and going pretty good.

A bit more footage for CQ2 was grabbed by Brad on the run north. We had a small pose session on one of the whoops sections, that should turn out pretty good.

Nice bit of shade is always a good thing,
especially today. GPS 30 49' 10s 115 11' 41e

I wasn't watching the time, but the trip up was done at a reasonable pace, all things considered. Time for a bit of a rest at the P.I.E. shop at Wedge.

There was a few guys on dirt bikes sitting there when we got in. Invites are made to check out the website etc, and come out for a fang. I reckon if they worked on getting their beer-guts a bit bigger, they would fit right in.

We had to poke Phil's tongue back into his mouth, and wipe up the slobber after he looked over the Husaberg 450 that one of the guys was on. I think the 650 Hussy is on top of the list now. He wont look the same in yellow and blue :)

After a quick break, we head off to tackle the beach. A few quick passes up and down the coast, and also up and down on the inland version of the same thing.

The sand is very grippy, and the tide is reasonably high. Pretty good conditions for the dirt bike folk.

There is a few smaller groups forming, and fanging around, but eventually we all meet back at the P.I.E. shop to organise the trip back.

Some closer attention is going to be needed in future to the amount of fuel we carry, compared to the distance travelled.

I counted 40km up inland route, 16km ride around up there, 28km back along the coast mainly.


Proof on film of the latest HOG Awardee

Fuel had been an issue from the start of the day and after regrouping at the PIE shop, it was decided to ride the beach back towards Lanclin, rather than take the dusty, meandering inland route. This would save time and hopefully conserve fuel. Heading south from Wedge Island the beach was superb under tyre, hard, flat and very fast, with nice little sand jumps running at right angles to the beach, most bikes nudged 110km/h plus. However all good things come to an end, and after about 8km the beach turned to mush, deeply rutted and soft, not funny when your still trying to negotiate it at 90km/h plus. I think one or two of us might have had a moment or two on that last section of beach. Luckily an opportunity to turn inland presented itself and with a collective sigh of relief we roosted inland


YZ250F fitted with new sidestand ;)

The 500E used my spare 2.5 litres at the P.I.E. shop, and I was worried about getting back in the end. Once Phil got chomping on the throttle controls, there was no stopping him all day. He led the whole trip, and met all the opposing traffic first up.

Not having enough juice onboard to complete the mission, Phil becomes the latest recipient of the HOG award, by running out of fuel about 7km from base.

Steve and I saved the day by donating some stroker Go-Juice for the cause, but we reckon out there, fuel could be as dear as $20 a litre :)

Not long after we got going again, the CRE decided it was going to get all lean on me, then just died. (Mental note to self : After refitting fuel line, turn cock back on) DOH.

Travelling back in the last few kilometres, I was following Brad, and Steve, and Steve pulled over quickly, and shut the KX down. Complaining of the feeling of a bottom end gone, he moved the starter to see if the motor was seized. Ah well, its turning at least. See what happens when ya kick it.

Everything fired up again, so that was pretty good. Motor sounds OK as well. We decide to just head back slowly. When we got in, Steve has a closer look at his bike, and sees the rear brake pads are missing completely!! The vibration he felt, was the pads getting caught up in the hub, and spokes as they were spat out. Bugger!!

Initially thought the bottom end had gone. Pads dislodging instead.


Would make a good lawyer this bloke !!


Howard, superb in the bush, and here, works the carpark dune, earning him ROTD

Being on the bikes has its advantages in terms of speed out in the dunes, and tracks. It is often easy to avoid oncoming traffic because of how slow the vehicles are travelling. The last few bends before we got back to the start point saw some oversize Tourist Moving Vehicles going very quickly through the blind turns. I had just made it to the lead in front of Steve and Brad, when I saw a TMV entering a bend, as I was leaving. Even I was thinking, I hope the guys behind see that. Turns out Brad had some good speedway action happening to avoid hitting one.

Hmm, pays to back it off near the start point, on the blind bends.

Phil complained about the amount of traffic he was hitting. He rated the ride a 5 from 10.

2 points deducted for traffic

2 for running out of fuel

1 for dust and heat.

I gave it an 8.

1 point for dust.

1 point for my bad jetting choice. The heat is well and truely here, so time to lean out a bit.

Otherwise I think we a great time of it. No real breakdowns that were a hassle, and everything else went to plan.

This is good stuff.

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