To many, ‘tyre changing’ is profanity and is in a similar vein to ’skinned knuckles’, ‘pinched tube’, ’sweating profusely not having fun’ and Jock’s favourite ‘caaaaaarrrrnnt do it’.

Tyre changing is the demon that rider’s will pay to avoid.

Don recently paid 25 bucks to a mate to fit a rear tyre to his bike, with a group of mates sitting round in his shed, on the piss - out of sheer ‘can’t be bothered’.

I agree that at times it’s an unpalatable task. If it’s real hot, or real wet, or real cold and you’re out in the middle of nowhere, then it’s much more fun standing around watching someone else do it.

However, with a bit of a leg up on technique, a measured approach and a bit of practice, it can actually be quite simple and definately worth practicing to become adept at yourself. There’s not much doubt that one day you will have to remove a tyre and there won’t be a shop with a machine or a willing mate in sight.

Let’s start at the start. Warm rubber is softer and easier to manipulate, so get those tyres warm if possible. If you can, leave the new tyres in the sun to warm up while you take the bike for a spin for ten minutes to warm up your rubber.

Remember to wear your safety gear, as ‘just a quick blast’ is often accompanied by ‘not wearing enough protective stuff’ and a resultant painful injury. Also, changing a tyre is much easier when you’re wearing nylons, knee guards or braces and boots. Don’t dismiss that last line, or you’ll find out why painfully.

Of course, if you were organised, you could have a new tyre sitting in the sun for a few hours while you went for a decent ride with your mates and change them immediately upon your return. Carl, you could get some help from Eric at this stage.

So, step by step, let’s nail this sucker.

Put the bike on a decent stand, like this trick stainless TCR precision one I’ve had for six years.

Get all the tools out you’ll need.

Here I’ve got my two FORCE levers, which have specially designed tips to make your job easier. The tips are small and easier than most to use. As well, the tips are short and less likely to pinch a tube. They obviously have an axle nut spanner on each end, eliminating some heavy tools from your bumbag.

The levers have a similar tip to the Metzeler levers, long regarded as superior to all others simply because they had the best shape and size on their small tip.

A 12mm ratchet spanner for the rim lock is one of my favourites and really does save considerable time. Any 12 mm spanner will do, but a ring spanner is way better than an open ender. Both are much slower than the ratchet unit.

The valve removing tool is one of the few in my bumbag that has had size and weight added to it. A bit of dowel screwed and glued into the threaded end makes it much easier to use.

You’ll also want some baby powder and lubricant like Castrol DWF, plus spanners to adjust your chain if need be.

Put your FORCE spanner on the axle nut and give it a kick with your Alpinestars to loosen it.

Then remove your nut, washer and axle block.

Then use your FORCE lever to help poke the axle out.

This is generally easier than pulling the axle out from the other side. They are sometimes covered in sticky grease and after a while this sets to a glue - like substance and the axle becomes recalcitrant. With the lever in place, just give the spanner end a whack with an open hand. It will only push in so far and won’t damage anything, leaving the axle part way out and easy to grab and pull from the other side.

Where do you put the axle?

Now kneel behind the back wheel. Grasp the wheel and push it forwards so the chain becomes loose. You might have to ‘jiggle’ the back wheel a little to move it forward. Don’t strongarm it, take your time.

Move your knee/leg up against the tyre to hold it forward and take the chain off the rear sprocket, starting at the top. It will just fall off the bottom usually. Lay the chain down on the swingarm to make your job easier later on.

Now lay the wheel down on the ground. I’m using an old cardboard box here to cushion the blow and keep the dirt and grease off Honda’s concrete. In the bush, I just lay it on the dirt if I have to. If you can find grass, even better. Just remember to use a rag or at least a finger to clean the crud out of the wheel spacers before you put it back on the bike.

Put the wheel disc side down first and take the valve out.

With the air out now, push the valve in with your fingers.

Then remove the little rubber grommet thingy that Honda use to help keep crud out of the oversized valve stem hole that allows the valve to move about and not tear off in the event a rim lock fails. (Interesting sentence structure here best described as ‘not real good’ - no apologies at 6 a.m.)

Now take your special ratchet spanner and undo the rim lock nut.

Don’t take the nut right off, the rimlock can stay where it is and doesn’t require removal, just loosening right off.

Now we have to break the bead. This is a must but not that hard most of the time. The exception can be a tyre that’s been on there for years and not warmed up properly. If your tyre was put on by moses, make sure the ride the bike beforehand to warm it up properly, or you may be cursing at this stage.

Stomp around the bead with your boots until you’ve got it all free.

Note that some riders like to sit the wheel on top of another tyre to do this part. The theory is there’s less chance of damaging the disc when you’re stomping to break the bead of the tyre off the rim. In practice though, I’ve never used a second tyre and have never bent a disc. I’ve done hundreds of tyres, but if you want to use a second tyre, go for it. If you weigh 130 kgs and go to the gym for kicks, then definately use a second tyre to protect the disc.

Then, flip the wheel over and do the same on the other side. Don’t be so scared this time, as it’s now the sprocket on the ground. You can go hard and kick the shit out of it.

Check that the bead is broken properly.

Now it’s time to use your FORCE levers. I like to work with the levers in front of me. I know others who like to work with the levers on the opposite side of the tyre, furthest away from them. I don’t think it really matters much and is personal preference. I believe that my way allows me a better view of where I’m putting the lever tip.

Just wiggle both lever tips between the rim and the tyre. Starting at 90 degrees from the rim lock seems to work well for me. The little curves on the end of each lever at the tip will ‘click’ into place when they are in the right spot. If unsure, insert then re - insert the lever a few times to get used to the feeling of the lever locating nicely in position.

Initially, the levers are only a few inches apart.

Now, you may have to use a little force here. Both levers should be folded over at the same time. Tuck one under the disc to keep it there.

Now you’ll see why we started with the disc down to break the bead. When you flipped it to put it sprocket side down, you left the disc upright. The disc is much less likely to scar your knuckles compared with the evil teeth of the sprocket. Plus, the disc is smaller and gives us more room to move with our hands.

So, leave that lever tucked under the disc and take the other lever out.

Re - insert the other lever a few inches either side of the first. Select the spot to put it by trial and error. The best spot is where it goes in easiest, normally perhaps four or five inches around. If it resists going in, pull it out and try another spot nearby. Don’t try to take too big of a bite though or it will be hard to lever over.

Note that there is a simple way to extract the lever each time. If you just pull on it, it may take considerable force to remove, adding to your pain (sorry - I meant detracting from your enjoyment).

When you’ve levered over, just push the top of the lever over away from the bit of tyre that you’ve already started peeling off the rim. The tip will simply fall out without a struggle.

Then you just keep levering a bit of tyre off at a time. Spin the wheel around so you are always working in front of your body, not skewed off to one side.

At a certain stage the lever that was under the disk will just fall out. Place it to one side with your stash of tools, you’ll need it again later.

When you’ve got one side of the tyre right off, then it’s time to remove the tube. Push the valve in with your fingers, then reach in and pull the tube out, starting with the valve. I like to have my hand in the shape shown below to grab the valve itself.

Once you’ve got a little of the tube out, I like to stand the tyre up and use both hands to push downwards on the tube, using my body weight to force it out, not just my arms. Gravity is helping me out.

Now the tube is fully out, we have to get the tyre off. Firstly, make sure the tyre bead is sitting off the rim and into the valley of the rim, at the rim lock. This gives you maximum free play on the side you want to lever. Ensure the rim lock is pushed down like so:

Now, place the wheel with the rim lock at the bottom and insert a lever into the tyre from the valley side as shown here:

You only stick it in about this far. Then you have to use a bit of force to lever it over towards the tyre to peel it right off the rim.

Now you’ll get a full appreciation of the value of doing this in bike gear, especially the knee guards.

Use your knee to push down firmly on the tyre to peel it right off the rim. Use body weight not leg power.

Do that a couple of times and the rim will fall away from the tyre.

I dare you to try this in your shorts and thongs. I may be getting soft, but when I try it, the tyre knobs grab hold of the skin and hair on my knee and make my face contort into a wierd, pained look.

Whilst it’s apart, check your rim tape for damage. I like to run two loops of electrical tape to cover the spoke nipples, but duct tape also works well.

If you have sensibly re drilled your rim to position the rim lock four spaces away from the valve hole, then you have been able to discard the rubber rim tape that comes standard and use tape to cover the nipples at described above.

You can also now fit your new tyre using a more simple method. If you haven’t, then the alternative method you must use is shown a bit further on.

Prepare the tube for fitment by covering it with baby powder. The baby powder provides some lubrication and helps you to avoid pinch flats, where the tube is holed if it’s squished between the tyre and the rim. The powder helps it ’slip out’ instead of rupturing.

It is more time consuming, but can help, if you put the valve back in along with a little air to puff the tube out. I like to rub the powder all over the tube with my hands. A bit messy, but it ensures complete coverage.

Pip Harrison, Honda tech guru, simply avoids all this mess by pouring a heap of powder into the tyre before he inserts the tube. His method is less messy, but I prefer mine. Do whatever you want.

Tubes come with two nuts on the valve stem. Leave the larger one there, but take the thinner one off and leave it in your ’spare nut container’, to never be used again and despite the fact you have accumulated 47 over the years, are unlikely to ever throw out.

Next, fit the odourously pleasant tube into your tyre.

Then, use a ‘CRC’ type lubricant such as Castrol Dewatering Fluid (DWF) to lube up the tyre, to make it much easier to slide the rim into position.

Now you can fit the rim to the tyre. My rim holes are set up so that I fit the rim ‘disc side into the tyre’ with the rim lock tucked into the leading side of the tyre. Line the valve up with it’s hole as you slot the rim lock into the tyre.

Now, put some fingers under the valve and stick it up through it’s hole. Once it’s in, which is simple, put the rubber grommet thingy back on and then the valve cap. This keeps it in place to prevent later heartache.

Before you go pushing like mad and getting nowhere, first make sure that the rimlock is pushed down and the bottom of the bead is sitting in the wheel valley, so you have maximum freeplay up to where you’re going to be pushing.

Now use your left hand (fingers really) to grab the tyre bead on the near side (opposite the side the rim is on) and as you try to pull the tyre onto the rim, at the same time you are trying to push the rim into the tyre. You can lean on the rim with your knees perhaps. Try to use bodyweight.

The rim should, with a little bit of effort, just pop onto the tyre. If it won’t, try pushing down and pulling up harder. If you are really struggling, visit the rim lock again to make sure it’s positioned right.

So now we have one side of the tyre back onto the rim. Drag out those Force levers again, you’re nearly home.

Lay the wheel down on the ground again and slide both tyre levers into the gap as shown. Again, they only go in far enough that they ‘click’ into position, this time on the rim. I like to start at 90 degrees from the rim lock.

Fold the levers over, then kneel on the bit of tyre you just folded to help stop it going back where it was. Keep on lever in place, folded over, to help.

Keep going around with the other lever, taking whatever sized bites you can make work. If you get too greedy, you’ll work that out soon enough when the tyre bead pops back out and you have to use the lever again in the same spot.

At about the half way point I prefer to stand on the wheel. I put my feet on the bead at both points just before it is levered onto the rim. You can also continue to kneel. If you do nothing, the tyre tends to pop back off and undo all your good levering.

When you get to the rim lock, you should push the nut in, pushing the rim lock into the tube/tyre so that you can get the bead into the gap between the tyre and the rim lock.

When you’re near the end, it’s really important to make sure that on the other side of the wheel, the tyre bead is in the valley, so you have maximum free play. Otherwise, your levering will bring immediate sweat and profanity. This is what you don’t want it to look like.

If it looks like that, kick it, so that it looks like this:

When you get to the last bit, you might have trouble getting the lever tip in between the tyre and the rim where you want to lever. What I do then is the put the lever in in the middle of the tyre bit that’s not yet on the rim, where there’s the most room, then shimmy it around to the spot I want to lever. This usually has to happen only once.

Then I’m often left with a four to six inch bit of tyre not quite over the rim yet. Kick the bastard again and it will comply. Funny how things comply when you kick them. I don’t recommend it on anything other than tyres.

Congrats, your tyre is on. Now pump the bugger up. You have to put in sufficient air to ’seat the bead’ at least at the rim lock. It only really matters that the tyre is properly seated (you’ll see it ‘pop’ onto the rim as you inflate) at the rim lock. The rest of the tyre will seat itself as you ride.

Once seated at the rim lock, tighten the rim lock nut up good and tight. I like to do ‘em real tight, sort of ‘not far off too tight’.

Time to put the wheel back into the bike. Sounds easy, but again, slow and easy with some planning makes this task easier.

Get behind the bike and carefully line up the disc with the brake pads. Keep and eye on the wheel spacers as you slot the wheel in, they are easy to knock on the swingarm. Take this bit slowly. If you go fast, you’ll most likely knock the brake pads out of whack and the wheel spacers with them, stuffing the whole entry thing right up. If you do, relax, take a breath, re position your bits and have another go, carefully.

Get right behind the back wheel now and use your knee to push the wheel forwards. Re fit the chain, starting at the bottom of the sprocket. Then make a grab for your axle and gently slide it into place. If it won’t go in nicely, ‘jiggle’ the back wheel whilst still pushing on the axle.

Re fit your nut etc. as shown.

Use your Force lever to tighten the nut. How tight? Real tight I reckon. Near full noise with a short lever like the Force tool. Not quite full noise, but not far short of it. Nobody wants their back wheel trying to fall off. I’ve seen chains smash engine cases when back wheel nuts weren’t done up properly and stuff that.

Whilst tightening the nut, lean on the back of the tyre with your body and use your left hand to push down on the chain. This helps locate the back wheel against the adjustment blocks firmly. Some like to use the old ’spanner between the chain and back sprocket’ trick. Either way is fine.

Can we go riding yet? No. Check your tyre pressure.

What about you guys who haven’t yet relocated your rim lock to four spaces from your valve?

You’ve gotta do things a little differently and there’s a neat trick here to make that easier.

You fit the tyre to the rim the same way, but you haven’t yet fitted the tube into the tyre. Still spray with Castrol DWF and use the same method to push the rim into the tyre, just no tube yet.

Once you get one side of the tyre on, the you have to lay the wheel down and fit the tube.

Once you have it in, here’s the secret to getting the valve into it’s hole.

You put your hand into the tyre, with your fingers on top of the tube. Your thumb however goes under the tube and guides the valve towards the hole, whilst you lever yourself some room as shown below.

So you are levering on one side whilst your hand is on the other. If you don’t lever, the tyre bead likes to sit in the valley and block the valve’s access to the hole, often creating major frustration and sore fingers.

Before you take your left hand out, take time to fit the rubber grommet thingy and valve cap to the valve stem, or you’ll regret it later.

Now flip the wheel over and lever the tyre onto the rim the same way as described earlier.

Thanks to Honda’s resident photographic guru Graeme Baynes for the quality shots, Force for the trick new levers, Metzeler for the MC5’s and Heavy Duty tubes, Castrol for the DWF spray, TCR Precision for the quicklift stand and Home Brand or whoever for the powder.

Now go ride.

This post is just about finished now, barring a few choice photos from Tuffy and Frosty yet to arrive.

I confess to some pre tour trepidation, despite the countless hours of planning that went into this epic.

Cheryl, the team and I were perhaps the best prepared we had ever been leading into a tour. On the other hand, we were contemplating an adventure that would push all the boundaries given the parameters.

Perhaps luckily, despite the tyranny of extreme distance, the forboding and potentially demoralising weather near snow season, the vagaries of attitudes towards the proper preparation of a dirt bike for a challenging epic, the forboding terrain inclined to make our adventure intense and the intoxicating lure of alcohol to your average dirt bike rider, the Blast to the Beach in 2010 was perhaps the best adventure we’ve ever taken part in!

Here’s our intrepid adventurers on the morning of day one at Yackandandah.

Pete from Townsville, aka ‘Townsville’ arrived with a pristine example of a WRF450, hired from a place that I won’t name in Melbourne. They were pre warned that his bike would have to do 1000 hard k’s and he was promised that their bikes were really well prepared and cared for. My arse.

We had to put new chain and sprockets on it at scrutineering on Sunday. Luckily for him I had some Yamaha spares.

Nice

Handy that, when you’re riding in the dark.

The thing also had no rear lights at all, no indicators and an illegally displayed number plate (bolted to the top of the motocross rear guard). All this was pretty inspirational for poor old Pete who’d flown from Townsville for the adventure. To his credit, with a bit of help, Pete and his Shit Box made it through. That’s the name his mates gave him on his number plate name tag for the week.

In brief summary of the event, a really cool group of blokes accompanied us on a ride along sublime tracks, in near perfect conditions, at sometimes ridiculous speeds, with outrageous beaming grins, for a whole week, without nary an injury or bitch.

This tour was the shit.

I wanted to ride again the day after and the day after that.

The accommodation was varied and all quality.

The Blue Duck has relatively new owners, Mike and Lana. Mike is handy and they are doing up the rooms with great results. We all commented on the quality of the mattresses and had a great nights sleep.

We had to do some top end maintenance on arrival, with Brett having no compression. His mechanic had seemingly put in new inlet valves without having cut the valve seats, which never ever works for long.

We had shim kits, feeler guage and micrometer along for just an occasion and were able to limp it along for most of the week with a second valve adjustment.

The food was shit hot all week. The pubs we chose have great meals and in between Cheryl and Kim kept us chockers with equally good fare, perhaps even better. The creekside soups and rolls were fab.

The tracks were the most diverse collection of cool that we have ever put together. Whatever you can think of, it was there, but better.

No dust, excepting a little on Mt Jack on the morning of day 1, where a bulldozer had just attacked the track on the northern side of the hill.

Stuff all precipitation. It drizzled on us a little at times and I had my raincoat on a few times just in case, but the wettest we got was crossing a few creeks.

Rack - off big jumps. The buzzers will still be going off at NASA due to our intrusions. Little Snowy was in incredible condition and we rode the favoured downhill leg from Mt Emu. I was bottoming Don’s 450X forks on the up ramps of the jumps.

Horn views.

Fast shit.

Some of the open stuff down near Lakes Entrance is this granatic sandy stuff sort of like a speedway track and was powerslide city.

Tight shit.

Sandy stuff, both way tight and some quicker. No beach sand, but some short sections were similar.

Loam.

All types of rocks. Sharp, smooth, small, large.

Momentum - stopping mothers on hills.

Despite no hills in his part of the world, Townsville made it up on his Shit Box, later named Hit Box (only since the ‘S’ on the name sticker got removed in a crash!)

Red clay made of won’t - grip.

You often find slippery clay near rivers, but the most fun (treacherous) was on the top of Mt Erzberg, where about 10 k’s up above the snow line is open and fast, with a bit less than zero traction for the entire stretch.

I stopped to check on Wayno when he dropped off my tail and he was wide - eyed, telling a story along the lines of ‘I thought my back Metzeler was my front Metzeler’ he was that out of control.

Rutty hills.

The Metzelers did their best to grip and hang together, with not a single knob shred despite the rude treatment. We forced the riders to run 16 psi to try to avoid flats (we had four in total all week, a couple with replacement standard type tubes). 16 psi in slippery conditions is borderline for traction but we were all in the same boat.

At the end of the week all tyres were intact and could have done another couple of days riding. The rear on my 250 could do another week.

All fronts were still in great condition. Pretty pleasing considering the rugged terrain we rode at times.

Carl and whoever was giving Eric a cuddle at the time did a great job as back up four wheel drive. Capable, on time, jovial. Struggled on Mt. Wong, but so would have a Unimog. I had meant to hire some snow chains for Carl for the mud on Wong but forgot. After 8 winchinig episodes they made it up the first hill but then had to go around another way.

The Scotts provided the fog - free perception needed to safely navigate the escapade. We used 89 series goggles with a dual layer anti fog lens. They performed really well all week despite the fog inducing conditions.

This photo was taken at bling issue stage before the double layer lens had been fitted.

One rider found they didn’t fit his dial as well as his usual goggles and reverted to his old trusties on day 4, but that’s normal as not everyone has the same shape of sized head.

No Fear gloves ensured our hands maintained comfortable control of the cockpit (despite some gay - hands of a couple of ‘tradesmen’). A new set of gloves is always a bonus.

Alpinestars saw our footsies comfortable for the week (despite numerous successful attempts to drown them). These ‘Coolmax’ socks are quite expensive to buy but after wearing them all week I know why - they are a quality item.

The DSE saw that our necks and heads were sufficiently warmed and beamed the ethos of Ride for Tomorrow. Their neckwarmers were used by most riders all week. They can morph into a cool beanie at will. Thanks Roger.

Castrol lubed us up real good. On Wednesday we serviced all the bikes (exept a couple who were running full synthetic and didn’t want their oil changed). We used synthetic fortified Castrol GPS in the engines and where separate gearbox oil was possible (Hondas and KTMs) we used Castrol MTX gearbox specific oil.

We swapped filter, oiled chains, rebuilt Brett’s CRF 450R again, including repairing a rooted cam chain tensioner by ripping off the busted spring and welding a nut to the end to give us some more extension to take up the slack of the worn out cam chain. (As well as the regular re - shim of the valves)

I re - glued and re wired Grant’s TAG grips that were slipping around, adjusted bars, levers and pedals, spokes and attended to other stuff doing it’s best to fall off.

You will be able to read the rantings of St. Tuffy (Muffy?) of Trailrider Magazine in due course, along with the proliferation of quality images he collected. Can’t wait.

I’ve done a lifetime of trail riding and racing, but despite the pressure associated with having to make it all happen, it was most likely the best ride I’ve ever done and enough to want me to do it all again.

What have you got on next week? Anyone for a ride?

The testimonials and random feedback make interesting reading. It seems that apart from being the best ride most blokes had ever done (including yours truly), with capable and cheerful staff, Cheryl is the ‘bomb’ and sets the industry standard for food.

Some feedback, chosen randomly:

SMS

1. Thank you both had the best week of riding also the quality of food and organisation was outstanding will be going on tour with you all again thanks robbo

2. Arrived home safe. We thank you for an awesome week. My mates have heard about it all morning and are very envious! Thanks again, Bono

3. Thanks to you guys for a fantastic tour. Was even better than I’d hoped it would be! Will be back for another for sure. See you at the Bash!

4. Good run home in bed at four just finished work back home to bed again had a ball great tour

5. No worries, f&%$)n good effort with the whole trip mate eveyone needs to be congratulated, I reckon once word gets out these big trips will be booked out b4 you can blink!!! Fuck it do you wanna quit work & we’ll do about 8 of these a year

6. Thankyou for everything over the week really appreciate it had a great time

Via e mail:

1.
Hi Rod,

I have attached all the pics that I took on the ride. Rob and I had a fantastic time and haven’t stopped talking about it. Big J wanted to know all about our week. Minnow rider is “green” with envy and as it turned out, he would of been ok being away from his business last week. Them the breaks - I guess. Maybe, next time.

What suggestions do I have to improve it?. Nada, zilch, zero, nothing! Don’t change it.
It was perfect in every way. I counted up how many organised rides I have been on and it amounts to ten (7 with OOT).
Nothing comes close to the package that you put together for this one. Actually, I think that it was pretty special that my tenth ride rates 10 out of 10.

We are very appreciative of the hours that you, Cheryl and all the OOT crew put in. It all ran like clock work.
I think that that is what separates OOT from the others. Attention to detail. No stone left unturned.

The organisation - outstanding; the riding - bloody awesome; the food - delish; the accommodation - warm, comfortable and clean; the support crew - grouse; the riders - a top bunch of blokes who all rode at a good pace; the weather - grouse!

Everyone on and involved with the ride had a passion to be there and that is what made it so special. The smiles and laughs throughout - showed that we were all having a ball.

Please pass on our thanks to Cheryl, Carl & Kim, Donny, Jamie, Luke and Wayno for an outstanding effort.
I had met Tuffy before, but never had a good chat. A top bloke. I look forward to his wrap up of “Blast to the Beach” in Trailrider.
I have just subscribed for 2 years.

I wish last week was starting all over again. Back to work tomorrow - unfortunately.

Cheers
Bono and (Rob)

2.
Hi Guys,

Gee it’s great to be back to work (NOT) I would just like to say what a hoot I had last week, it is hard sitting here today without the company of Eric!!!

Rod & Chez, congratulations are in order for a ripper week, everything went off without a hitch & I’m sure that once the word get’s out these sort of tours will book out very quickly in the future, everyone else needs to be congratulated as well as everyone played a vital role in the whole week running smoothly. Good work Well done.

Oh well back to the 100 emails & phone calls I need to deal with.

Cheers Eric’s mate, Donny

Regards

Don McInnes

Regional Franchisor

Jim’s Test & Tag

T: 131 546

M: 0418 966 376

E: donm@jimstestandtag.com.au W: http://www.jimstestandtag.com.au

3.
Ha!

Thanks for a great week. Just going through photos now. Will get them to you asap.

Cheryl rocks!

Tuffy

4.
I really enjoyed the trip, I took the time as my annual holiday, and really enjoyed it (though it may have been hard to tell sometimes, as Wayno says , “everybody needs a cuddle sometimes “)
the tough stuff makes it worthwhile, if it was all easy it would be boring,
The ditching of the last bit of track near home was a good call. the lack of headlights on 4 bikes after 5 days of rocks and roost ,would have made the run home a bit more than a challenge for some,

Great job Rod , I reckon it ran smoothly and safely. quiet honestly i reckon you could go with the same plan again.
Please pass on my sincere thanks to Cheryl , Kim ,Karl, Wayno. Donny and Luke and Jamie, everybody did a fantastic job. great crew you got there.

Mick Chester

5.
Website Enquiry - Detail received:
Name: FROSTY
email: supermoto@bigpond.com
telephone:
comments: Rod and crew again had a fat time on the 5 dayer and have been talking it up to anyone who will listen to the rantings of an old fool, but have also been thinking of the Groggin ride in 2011, have ran it by ssome mates and would like to know the date if set, how many riders and cost etc, i am dead set keen and can maybe drag some other clowns along to take the piss out of Donny or is it Ronnie? drop us a line when you get time and again thanks for the great time and memories, i will also get that disc away soon.
Submit: Submit

Note from Ed: If you want a new Suzuki or help with anything motorycling related in the Armidale (NSW) area then you would do well to visit Frosty at Supermoto. He is very knowledgeable and has a real passion for bikes. He is involved in racing and knows his shit.

6.

Rod, Cheryl and team,

Just a short email to thank you once again for an awesome week of riding with a great bunch of people. It’s been a hard week back at work especially around lunch time when I start craving Cheryl and Kim’s roast pork and gravy rolls, soup and beef stew, just to mention a small selection of the fine food which was on offer. Rod you truly now how to run a professional tour and I hope to catch up with you and the rest of the team someday soon. I would also like to send a big thank you to Wayno for all your help on the tour. Cheers Townsville

Peter Sturmfels

And this epic from Gregg:

7.
Me and Trav spend a bit of time on the forum dirtbikeworld.net. Micks on there too.

They have a ride review section on there, hope you don’t mind me posting this up on there.

It dosnt do the ride justice but couldn’t help it, I just wanted to brag.

I probably should have used a bit more artistic licence.

Anyway heres what i wrote.

Blast to the Beach-Online Offroad tours-Unbelievable!!!

This was an epic and Id need to take a day off just to write the report I reckon!

This ride has been in the making for almost a year now and my missus was sick of hearing about. It was a fully supported tour run by Rod Lay at Onlineoffroadtours.com. The basic run down was to ride from Yackandandah (near Albury) to Lakes Entrance and back in a week with a spot of deep sea fishing thrown in the middle to break it up a bit. The day Rod put up the expression of interest on his website I booked 6 spots for me and some mates.

It wasn’t cheap at $2500 but this wasn’t your average trailride.

It started on the Sunday in Yack where we rocked up to sit back and watch Rod and his blokes whack a set of Metzler MC5s with ultra heavy duty tubes onto each bike. This was included in the entry price along with a set of No Fear gloves, Alpinestars socks, Scott goggles with a spare dual layer lens and a few other goodies provided by the DSE (I shit you not).
This was followed by a quick once over on each bike and we were good to go)

Day one was from Yack to the Blue Duck Inn in Anglers Rest (not far from Omeo. Tracks were your usual high country fair with plenty of fast open fire trails with heaps of rocks, to loamy leaf littered 4wd tracks. allot of the tracks we were to be using over the coming days were rarely used track that were more like two single trails following each other side by side than 4wd tracks. By day’s end we had covered 220ks and we rolled into the pub just on dark. Timing couldn’t have been better.

Day two was from the Blue Duck to Lake Entrance. The first half of the day was more of the same as the day before, but what followed straight after lunch was as close to dirtbike heaven as I thought you could ever get (I think we reached that on day three!). I’m not a real fan of fast open stuff, but this was awesome. For close to the next hour we were in nothing less than 4th or 5th pinned along some of the best leaf littered, loamy, sometimes rocky trails that you are ever likely to see. When we thought it wouldn’t get any better we started to make our way into the forests that surround Lakes and it quickly became apparent that I live in the wrong part of Victoria. Let me say that Lakes has the best tracks I’ve ever seen. Bar none. End of story. Sandy loamy single trails that twisted and turned with no rocks to smash into and just a few slippery logs to keep it interesting. That afternoon was unbelievable and made me want to stay in Lakes for the rest of the week. I won’t be forgetting it in a hurry. Ks wise it was a short day with us covering about 180ks all up.

Day three was the ?rest? day. We were supposed to be going out in the ocean for some deep sea fishing but the weather decided to change plans for us. It looked shithouse out past the heads so we were forced to stay in the lakes system and have a fish there. With about 18 rods in the water between us it was all a bit dismal and had little to show for the morning bar a few crabs and a few other shorties. The highlight was one of the boys giving into peer group pressure and eating the eye (it was an f*!@ing big one, out on a gurnet??? I think???) out of a fish that popped out while gutting them. We finished off the arvo with a bike servicing session while was made up of lots of filter changes, oil changes and general once over’s. They even found to time to turn a failed auto cam chain tensioner out of a CRF450 into a manual one with the aid of a 8mm nut welded to the end of the tensioner to make up the slack on the knackered chain and a bolt on the outside to allow for the adjustment. MacGyver eat your heart out.

Day four was from Lakes to the Golden Age pub in Omeo. As mentioned earlier, this was close to being dirtbike perfection. It started the same way day two ended with sublime trails in the forests out back of Lakes then back into the high country fast stuff. Enough can’t be said about the tracks out Lakes way. I strongly encourage anyone to go for the weekend and have a look. I love riding at Cobaw, Tallarook and Wombat but these joints have nothing on what we rode. The return trips were using none of the trails we used on the previous two days (bar a few transports). The day ended with more than a few beers at the Golden Age and a sensational parma to boot. 200ks for the day.

Day five saw a few of the boys riding a bit slow early on, no doubt showing side effects from the night before. Today was the trip home from the Golden Age to Yack. Very similar to day one but better. Went down a few of the longest downhills I’ve ever seen. They seemed to go on forever.

All up we did 830ks over the four days of riding.

If any of you had contemplated doing a tour with Rod before, don’t hesitate. Unbelievably professional and organised to perfection. All his guides and backup crew were more than willing to help out and were a great bunch of blokes. Nothing was too much trouble for them and can’t imagine it being run any better.

I didn’t think I’d be saying this but the food was a definite highlight. Rods wife Cheryl does the catering and was ridiculously good. Roast pork rolls with gravy and a bowl of hot soup in the middle of nowhere sitting round a readymade fire next to some of the most picturesque rivers and streams in the country, lunch was definitely something to look forward to an never the same.

Id post some photos but aren’t in club mud anymore so go check out Rods blog at http://onlineoffroadtours.com.au/tour_blog/ for some photos and his story. Tuffy from Trailrider and Dirt Action came along for the trip and will be doing a full story on the trip for both mags so you’ll be able to read about it there too.

There were some gun riders on tour, two of them were the best I’ve ever seen. A bloke called Greg ?Frosty? Frost and his son Tom from northern NSW were freaks. I almost pranged watching Tom ride on more than one occasion, he thrashed his WR250 within an inch of its life and made me realise how slow I really am. Rocky section were nothing for him cos hed just hit the first one and jump the rest.

So much more could be said but I’d be here all week.
Sherro and Bailyanna were on the tour too and I’m sure would agree with the all of the above.
All up the trip of a lifetime and one we won’t forget soon.

Gregg

__________________

Regards,

Gregg Sheridan

8.
Hi Rod,


My name is Yvette and I am Karl Gasa’s wife, Karl and Pete aka Townsville had the best time on your motorbike trip and he has not stopped raving about it especially the food.

Since Karl’s return home he has not stopped talking about your wife’s cooking and the beautiful soups and stew she had waiting for them at every meal break. I actually made a stew the other day with my mums old recipe and a batch of pumpkin soup as well to shut him up and he said it didn’t have the flavor like your wife’s cooking hence my e-mail.

I was wondering if I could bother you to get your wife’s cooking recipes and secrets to making these yummy soups and stew that she made on the motorbike trip. I am usually a good cook but I could use some help when it comes to soups and stews with great flavor.

Karl said he was going to e-mail you about the recipe but like normal he never gets around to it and I am so surprised as to when it comes to his stomach it normally comes first. ha ha

I would appreciate it if you could e-mail me with the recipes if possible, I understand if they are a family secret but I would love it if Karl would rave about my food the way he did about your wife’s cooking. You must be a lucky fella and very well fed.

I await your earliest reply.

Cheers

Yvette Gasa

As a final pre tour for the Blast to the Beach, Jamie and I went out for one last ride from my place on Monday.

All was fine, with great weather, moist tracks and only 160 - 180 k’s planned.

The morning was really good, with Mts. Elizabeth and Wong in fine form and no issues. A bit of fuel and a chicken burger at Ensay and all we had left was a planned foray down to check out water levels in the Haunted Stream.

I’d been eyeing off a little track that led down to the Haunted that showed up on the fantastically detailed Rooftop Map and it promised a short cut to avoid some of the river crossings we simply didn’t need to do that day.

The start was way promising, with nice loamy soil, however it soon headed down hill and became a little overgrown. I’d done the bottom 500 metres or so and knew a few things:

1. That it came out at the Haunted Stream
2. Was quite short, only a couple of K’s long
3. It had a fair bit of regrowth on it after the fires

So, when we came to the first downed Ash we were unperturbed and simply dragged the bikes across.

Then the track got a bit steeper and the undergrowth denser. Another log saw us over again and forcing through the juvenile eucalypts along the barely recognisable track. The bottom was only perhaps one kilometre away, so we were confident.

About then it all turned to poo. We were committed and due to the large logs we’d surmounted, unable to back track. It had become way steep to boot. The track turned to shite.

We struggled to even recognise which way the track went, it was that dense. About as dense as I was feeling when we started to run out of daylight.

We soldiered on, but were forced to leave the ‘track’ and head bush to get around large fallen trees. When we tried to cross back over to the ‘track’, we would be stymied by other logs that prevented our rejoining the salvatory path to home.

Going was incredibly physically challenging. I went over the hangers about four times. Some were little piss - ant flops, but others were the final blow in a wide - eyed out of control bulldozer like highish speed (at least it felt fast) crash through the thick vegetation, ending perhaps as the ground would fall away four feet or so and notable by the high pitched wail I gave out when I saw another near - death situation looming.

I was rooted. This shot was taken approaching dark and gives a subtle indication of how much enjoyment there was to be had. A half hour later I was twice as bad.

It got way worse. Jamie left his bike and walked 200 metres or so down the hill, which was cliff - ish, but couldn’t find the track. I did the thing with the flip a few more times and was physically wasted from picking the piss ant little 250X up each time. I had to sit down for rests.

I radioed Jamie as it got dark and we made the executive to bail on the bikes and try to walk out. I left a trail of Honda bunting I had with me tied to trees to find our way back another day and then trudged (tripped, fell, groaned, rested) the 300 metres or so down to the little creek at the bottom of our cliff. It took me half an hour.

I’m not sure I’ve ever been so fatigued.

Jamie produced a couple of glow sticks to light our way. On the scale of 1 to 10 for adequate light they were around a minus six, but the best we had and they possibly saved us. My torch was incredibly on the workbench after a vest ‘reshuffle’.

This is the last photo my camera managed. Then, in an uplifting gesture, the LCD screen flashed the words ‘Batteries Exhausted’. No shit I thought. After owning the camera four years I’d never seen that message. Nice timing.

We waded the small creek, which successively turned into larger creeks of course, for around an hour and a half. What fun we were having. There were blackberries and stinging nettle to play with, augmented by the slippery rocks. Of course, I had to fall on my arse in the drink. Bonza.

We blithered out of the stream on the Haunted Stream track (aptly named) and set to getting a fire going. Luckily I had a small container of spare fuel on me and despite the wet wood we soon had a fire happening. That was good, since we were wet. I had half expected my lighter to moan ‘lighter exhausted’.

We set about trying to dry all our clothes a bit at a time. Jamie’s favourite T shirt caught fire and we both burned the toes out of our socks. It was quite comical and we even had time for a bit of a chuckle.

We shared our remaining food supply, but the Strepsils didn’t quite cut it. The muesli and fruit bars had gone earlier on the hill.

By 9 p.m., I realised that not only would the emergency services be out looking for us, but they may not be exactly sure where we were, so I dragged out my trusty GME Personal Locating Beacon and turned it on.

An emergency beacon is generally reserved for emergencies, however on this occasion, given they would be out looking for us anyway, it would help everyone by providing our exact coordinates.

It beeped and strobed away hopefully for 3.5 hours until the heroes arrived, to find us wrapped up in space blankets by the fire. Not exactly toasty warm, but they beat the wild dogs and we were alive.

I got home at 4.30 a.m, slept four hours then Jamie and I drove back and engaged in a 9 hour ordeal to recover the bikes! I found mine via the Honda Bunting Trail and set to work with the chainsaw and ‘excavator’ (think kicking out a shit little trail across a cliff like hill with your boots). Way cool and I bet you wish you had been part of it.

We worked on one bike at a time and made it back to the trailer just on dark. Woo Hoo! The Isuzu dragged the tandem trailer along the quite rough track with aplomb and we eventually made it home around 9 p.m.

Lessons learnt?

An emergency beacon is worth it’s weight in gold when the shit really hits the fan.

Carry more emergency food than you think is sensible

Carry a torch

Carry a raincoat

Investigate potentially tough but exciting new tracks early in the day

A big thanks to everyone who helped us out. Without meaning to leave anyone out, in no particular order, Swifts Creek, Omeo and Bruthen police were all involved, Ensay Ambos were in tow and Bruthen SES made a welcome appearance.

Our wives were of course suitably impressed.

The 2010 Yackandandah Charity Bash is full. No more available spots. Finito. Stop ringing Don trying to belatedly make an entry. The boat has gone.

We will make an announcement very soon in regards to the new staging area and a great new auction venue with plenty of parking for cars with trailers.

Okay, I’m fully aware that some of you have been able to secure early births by offering to pay extra money and/or promising to call your first born males either Don or Rod, however the entries are now officially open.

Same deal, 100 smackeroonies gets you the ride of a lifetime, the comaraderie of 150 or so similarly crazed loons intent on having a great day out and the warm fuzzy feeling knowing that your efforts contributed towards smiling kids at the Yackandandah Primary School.

There will be a few changes this year. Our new venue is directly adjacent to the grasstrack section we used last year and will allow you to laugh your arse off as your mates feebly attempt to replicate the skill of Stefan Merriman.

There will be a new grasstrack section as well, right next to the pits.

Spectators will be welcome for the first time ever.

No promises, but we are working towards securing a CRF250X to replace the CRF50 as the main item at the auction. Since the event is 100% charity, unfortunately we can’t give a bike away, however we will have a very low reserve on what will be a very cool bike. You may well walk away with a cool new steed and a saving of a couple of grand. More to follow in due course.

Our auction this year looks like it’s moved to a new venue, at the recently refurbished (they spent a couple of Mill.) Yackandandah Sports Park/Cricket club facility. It has great facilities and heaps of car parking.

So, stop dithering or your spot will already be gone. To book, contact the main man Don McInnes at donaldmcinnes@bigpond.com or on 0418966376.

See you there.