Crusty Quinns

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Bumble in the Jungle
Date 19/Sep/09
15 Riders Choko, Colin McCaughey, Fiona, Gazza, husq mike, Jacko, Lucky Pete, mackley, peter, Pounce, Roley, TigeR, Tommy, WRRob, X
Rider of the day Choko
Stack of the day mackley
Told you there would be cake!




Report by Pounce.

Col Mc was coming up for his 100th event with the Crusty Quinns & asked if anyone was interested in a Lano run. Being the selfish bastard I am and not wanting to do that ride I asked him if he’d like a big ride from Metro Rd to North Bannister. He was very amiable to the suggestion that I think he came to rue later on.

15 riders showed up for a perfect day of riding. When the big fella arrived (last as usual) he wasn’t feeling 100%. Bit of a cold & bunged up nose.
A brief riders meeting with me promising lots of water, especially warning the group about the fenceline puddle that eventually suckered a few of us in.

Choko takes the lead with Pete sweeping and we’re off. A nice easy ride out to previously mentioned puddle. At the first regroup only about 8 klm’s from the cars, Fiona discovers that she has no rear brakes. Only 62 klm’s more to go, who needs brakes anyway? It’s not as if there’s any hills or tight winding trails where we’re going. HA!

We get to the puddle & this is where the first mini drama of the day happens. I get there & some of the guys are already on the other side, so I’m guessing the normal detour is OK. I pull up behind Col, go around him & straight away the bike’s seat deep in muddy water. Being the DRZ, it just growls a bit, I paddle a bit & through I go. Over at the other side the group is waiting, while some of the guys take a reccy & find another detour that’s not so deep (wimps), Col’s stuck in the water yelling for help & Jacko has drowned something so his bike won’t start. Jackos bike is pushed over to where the group is, a bit of a fiddle, bump start & she away like nothing was wrong.


Gazza


Roley


Bumble in the Jungle


Bumble in the Jungle


Off again. Next stop the small hill climb. Sad to say though Roley made it up to the top this time first go! Only one person (2 if you count Choko’s lame attempt at the start) had a bit of a mishap. Gazza hadn’t been out there for a while & decided to take the old route up the hill. His short legs let him down when he stopped & tried to put them on the ground & gravity got the better of him.


Gazza


TigeR


Fiona


Down the other side onto a great goat trail where Col makes his attempt of SOTD. A rather rocky, snotty part of the trail & down he goes breaking the mount that’s holding his new GPS on. That’s the least of his worries, as we’ll soon find out.

On we go, heading southish when we either miss a turn or take the wrong one. No worries though, it turns out to be a great fire trail. I’m following Fiona & she keeps sticking her leg out for me to pass BUT I CAN’T! Having no brakes didn’t seem to slow her down at all, it made her go faster (except where she nearly overshot a couple of corners). That talent almost gave her ROTD.
A quick regroup, Choko is lost looking for a left turn to get us heading the right way again so we forge ahead & end up on Metro Rd South. We take this for about 10 klm’s until we finally get back onto the trails.

YAY! Single trail again where we finally get some of this abundance of water I promised. Who’d of thought a WR250 could weigh so much? Tige got himself stuck in a puddle & the bottom was slimy mud that sucked his bike down so that it took 4 of us to pull it out.


Bumble in the Jungle


Everyone else tries different routes across the creek & we all end up on the other side OK, except Col where he discovers that his rear wheel bearing has shat itself & isn’t in the hub any more.

Quote of the year!
"I checked it before I left, it felt a bit wobbly but I thought I’ld get one more ride out of it."

This earnt ColMc the Hog Award!


From memory it’s not that far to the roadhouse & my speedo says about 6 klm’s to go so Col make the decision to battle on. At the next stop 100 metre’s from the main rd, Mackley has a bit of the KTM vs. Water syndrome & has trouble getting the bike started. Col gets the bike to the main Rd then a slow wobbly trip down to the roadhouse.

Now at a place called a roadhouse you’ld expect them to carry such things as brake fluid, am I right? Now if you want a cheese sausage, a wood fired pizza or a beer you’re in luck but don’t expect anything vehicle related unless it’s fuel. Fiona’s shit outa luck until Jacko decided to fill her brake reservoir with water. That does the trick so she has brakes on the way home.


Jacko sorting out Fi's brakes or did he?


Lunch at Nth Bannister


Bumble in the Jungle


Pete & Roley put their hands up to help Col out & head off back to Metro via the main rd to pick up their trailer to come back & get the Berg. Now it’s not a case of the Berg failing, it was a 3 year old KTM wheel set up that died. Big thanks to the Bayman Rescue Team for that.

Down to a dozen riders, we start heading back with Mackley taking over sweep. Choko, going on blind instinct finds an absolutely brilliant trail that is a minor downfall for Husky Mike. He clips a tree and breaks his hydraulic clutch lever. No way of fixing it until we catch up with the group to see if anyone has a spare. Now this trail isn’t one you want to do without a clutch! It’s windy, tight, in & out of a creek, boggy & muddy. I get bogged in a deep rut & knowing Mike will be screaming up behind me motivates me to lift the heavy DRZ out in quick time. Mackley said it was amazing to watch from behind as Mike just “went for it” as that’s all he could do. Get caught up to the others, luckily someone has a spare, it’s fitted in no time & we’re on the way home.

Not much more to say apart from the trails the rest of the way were a great mixture of single trail & fire trail with a nice little hill & a couple of bit of snotty stuff too. We end up following our tracks back via the hill climb where Fiona & Mike have a tussle going up. Fi said she had to fight for her line as Mike muscled his way in. A regroup at the top then I take over the lead for the run back to the cars. Now you know I’m not the fastest rider but we hit the single track leading back from the puddle with Pete close behind. I stop a ways along for a regroup but Pete & me are the only ones there. After 5 minutes I decide I’ld better go back to see who’ld come a cropper, back track 1 klm & everyone is just sitting there having a rest. They reckon I missed a corner & they didn’t know where to go! Don’t you believe them. I think they were all just princessing out & needing a rest.
Anyway, off we go again into the whoopy part around the Metro Rd area. Only drama in the last 10 klm’s was Pete getting bogged, but a quick lift & he’s out.
We finally get back to the cars 6 hours after leaving with about 150 clicks travelled. Apart from some minor hiccups a great day out. Fiona has made Col a chocolate thing for his 100th & was wandering around asking everyone if they wanted some hedgehog. It was a nice treat to finish the day off.
Cheer everyone.

oh, forgot to mention.
Choko got ROTD for the big effort & leading even though he wasn't sure where he was going. Thanks.
Mackley got SOTD for a "gumby off in a mud hole"

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Part Two " Bumbling in the Jungle (Dumb & Dumber)

Well Peter and I took out off from the Nth Bannister Roadhouse to get ColMc’s car from Metro Road to come back and retrieve his Hogberg! This should have been a reasonably simple task but it was one of those days! Now usually Peter brings his brick of a GPS but did he today? " no! Why? He does not know why! He also talked about bringing his maps today but no he did not! We later found out his compass has gone missing too, just when we needed it the most!

We thought it would relatively easy to go down Wearne Road and cut across and hook up to Metro Road. But unfortunately doing things in a hurry (on the gas) and taking a left turn instead of a right turn (at Pike Road) took us in the wrong direction. Then Peter had a brainwave " “…my mobile has a GPS…”. However, this was easier said that done. The sky was fully overcast and standing in the trees we could not even make out where the sun was, let alone for the GPS to pick up the satellites straight away. That’s when we discovered the compass was missing! Anyway the GPS fires up but I now discover Peter can’t read his mobile because he is frigging blind " where is Googleman when you need him? So there we are on an unmarked intersection, with the faint sound of some 4 stokes in the distance and Peter giving me instruction on how to use his GPS that I never used before. Finally a voice (with a female Swedish accent) in the mobile says we are now downloaded and yes we get a direction arrow for Brookton Hwy. About this point Peter made some passing comment about this was out of Dumb & Dumber! What did he mean?

From here it was relatively easy but it still meant running along the fencelines, with the farms on the right and a few places where we had to detour around deep water. We in fact came back on the first water hole where ColMc and Jacko came to grieve in the morning on the fenceline. As we approached it three riders emerged from the boggy side tracks, in the bush, looking a bit worse for wear. Peter and I then went in to navigate these small potentially gotcha tracks of cold muddy, sticky mud. Peter just went for it and as I heard him come out the other side I followed the same line and got through in one go as well!

We knew where were now and just went for it but we still did not get back to the cars until 1.45! We loaded our bikes and checked out Peter’s street directory but it only went to Canning Dam. I then made the decision to drive the long way on the tar with ColMc’s FWD to Nth Bannister (there was no way I was going to get lost on the tracks or stuff his car up!). Peter headed off home to wash the bikes (as a good bitch does) and I went back down Brookton Hwy to the Canning Dam turn off and crossed over to Albany Hwy and headed to the Roadhouse! Traffic was to a crawl with Sunday drivers sightseeing and stopping for tea & scones " I am starting to get road rage “…don’t they know I have to pick up ColMc who I left over two hours ago!). Once on Albany Hwy no worries and the Toyota sures does perform! LOL!

At the roadhouse was a very quite ColMc guarding his Berg. Little was said while he loaded up! The girls in the roadhouse said they were little concerned for him waiting so long and he had been getting a little animated when they had asked him where his mates were? I said to them this is what we do, no matter how long it takes! Crustys always look after their fellow riders.
Once we got going the conversation picked up, as did our speed, with ColMc driving now and determined to be home before dark to wash his bike and gear or was it to avoid the wrath of the Misses! LOL

Overall, from my point of view as was said a few times on the day at our re-groups " does it get any better! Prefect riding conditions, with a few challenges and a great bunch CQers to share the day with!

What did we learn from this? For me I am getting a GPS and as for Peter well what can I say " you work out who was Dumb and was Dumber! LOL See you next week to do it all over again.



Crusty Quinns® - born in WA in 2000 - V1.3.0-17/Apr/13