The weather man says ‘Rain, then Sun’. It seems that the proverbial supercalafragalisticexpialadocious weather conditions are set to accompany our planned adventursaurous to Harrietville.

Bureau of Meteorology Forecast for Albury/Wodonga:

Forecast for Saturday
Morning cloud. Winds southerly and light.

Precis: Partly cloudy Min4 Max18

Forecast for Sunday
Sunny day. Fog patches and light frost early in the morning. Light winds.

Precis: Early fog. Min3 Max19

Forecast for Mt Hotham:

Forecast for Saturday
Morning cloud. Winds southerly and light.

Precis: Morning cloud.Min-1 Max5

Forecast for Sunday
Mostly sunny. Light winds.

Precis: Mostly sunny.Min-4 Max5

What does all this mean?

No dust.

No rain.

Wheelies and Skids whilst grinning like a mad man.

Poor little Timmy has been seen in Western Australia!

CNN was sent these photos from a group claiming responsibility, the ‘Paraburdoo Lions’.

You can see part of their club logo in the background, but it could be just some Bushido Bullshitto designed to throw us off the scent.

Despite their claims, a further image obtained from our connections at NASA seem to indicate that Timmy is still in the clutches of an evil bikie gang, apparently with headquarters in the mines at Marandoo. Unfortunately the satellite was not able to capture the full image of the offenders face to enable easy identification.

In a move obviously designed to infuriate Wayno, it seems that the brazen captors are holding Timmy in luxury at the Mercure Hotel.

Let’s hope Timmy hasn’t developed Stockholm Syndrome and become attached to his captors.

It’s pissing rain here and I’m fully excited. Next weekend we’re off on the new tour to Harrietville and the rain could not have come at a better time.

I went out in the troopy today to check on the affects some Parks Vic controlled burning up behind Bright may have on our trip. Good thing I did.

It was raining steadily and up high, visibility was shite.

In places, the fire was still burning.

The idea behind the fire is to reduce the fuel loads at ground level to reduce the intensity of future bushfires in the summers. Cool. Here’s the immediate impact for Rod though.

Some laying on the ground like that, but others presenting more of an issue.

This became more tedious on steep hills, as the handbrake on my Troopy is made of ‘wont work’. Well, it does work, just these things never worked properly from new. So to stop the whole ‘Car goes like Jack and Jill’ thing, I get help from a trusty rock.

There was enough rain to cause puddles.

These tracks may well scream ‘BF Goodrich Mud Terrain’, but next week will sing a different tune. METZELER.

I found some unreal, pretty much awesome tracks of a very unique variety whilst snooping about on foot today. You’ll have to wait and see.

I have 12 booked in at this stage, which is a good number. I can slide in a few more if anyone is keen, given the weather god has now smiled and it looks like being the best tour we’ve done in ages (which is a big statement, there’s been some blinders).

I’ll see some of you Friday night at the pub or Saturday on the bikes, then we can go and play out here ………..

It seems that the evil yet reclusive oil baron (aka Fidela Castrola) has enlisted the help of some hired henchmen who have taken Timmy to yet another secret destination, rumoured to be somewhere near Blackwood.

These fearsome mega - tools are from the radical break away group Al - Pirella, recently known to have lost their grip on things locally.

The three thugs have been positively identified as Nobby Pirella, Magilla Pirella and Moose Pirella. Nobby seems to be in charge in this photo posted on totaltools.com last night.

Timmy’s head seems to be on the chopping block and his chances of survival look bleak. Leaked rumours of rust and rounded apertures abound. Let’s hope Nobby has not had his evil way with our little Timmy.

Whilst hard to pinpoint, the faces of the villians look vaguely familiar.

Late braking news (pun) has been received that Timmy’s plight has worsened. In response to a threat from Wayno of ‘Bushido’ retribution (Bushido is apparently some obscure cult with ties to Wahgunyah), the evil bikie gang have responded with a photo that shows Timmy is now in deep strife.

Information from an undisclosed source indicates that the evil bikie gang has links to a hitherto unidentified person known as the ‘Oil Baron’, reputedly able to slay fiends with a single key stroke.

Monty, seemingly having a contact on the inside, had this to add:

‘Legend has it that the Bushido Master still lives in solitude in the Wahgunyah Mountain Ranges, and the Baron was last seen in the Yackandandah Valley. Much like Bin laden, sightings are rare and actual contact remains unprecedented.’

Rumours are ciruclating that the Oil Baron has enlisted the help of the evil Al - Pirella group, who are known locally to have lost a grip on things.

Apparently inconsolable from the loss of his beloved Timmy, in desperation Wayno added:

‘I am closer to finding the real human cockroaches responsible for putting poor little Timmy through this horrific ordeal. Can you please pass on a message through your dark sided terrorist group mascarading as al-pirella. I believe his real name is Fidella Castrola. Part of the hideous terrorist group fallapartus metzarllius. Tell him i am willing to trade one box of assorted muesli bars for the safe return of Timmy.
This offer only lasts until Harriettville because of the fear of little Timmy turning gay due to his possible location.’

Information has just come to light that Wayno’s precious tool, little Timmy T bar has been captured by undesirables and is being held for ransom at an unknown location.

Recently, whilst on a pre tour to Harrietville, Wayno and Timmy had a falling out, with Timmy then becoming lost somewhere in the Stanley Forest.

Since then, Wayno has been inconsolable and is having difficulty coming to terms with Timmy’s fate.

Those close to Wayno expect that he may not be able to cope with the latest reports that Timmy has been located, but is now in the clutches of an evil gang of rival riders, who have made it clear they are prepared to twist Timmy’s nuts unless Wayno coughs up the ransom.

The leader of the evil riders sent us through the following picture of poor Timmy. Look away if you have a weak stomach, this stuff is not for the faint - hearted.

The evil - rider leader, a shady character who’s real identity is unknown but goes by the perplexing nickname of ‘video’ has made his demands clear. For the safe return of Timmy, he is demanding one fully enclosed bike trailer, an asset he somehow knows Wayno has many of.

We’ll keep you posted as news on Timmy’s fate comes to light.

What happened to Pirelli? Well, our long term partner, Galvin Marketing, parted company with Pirelli for business reasons. It was an amicable split and there was nothing wrong with the product or either business, but both have gone their separate ways in Australia.

It’s a wierd set up really, as Galvins have been the Metzeler importer in Australia for decades and the Pirelli connection made sense on paper as Metzeler and Pirelli are made by the same global entity.

Anyway, Peter offered us the opportunity to use Metzeler tyres and having had a great association for plenty of years, I decided to stick with them.

I previously used Metzelers on my Thumpernats XR250 back in the day and knew that they had some great rubber.

Currently, we’re testing the entire off road range and of course have found that it’s horses for courses.

At this early stage, the MC5 intermediate is looking the goods as an excellent all rounder.

We’ve been using them on the front and found they grip on a variety of terrain and don’t fall apart in rocks. Wayno reckons they’ve saved his bacon by finding traction a few times when he should have crashed. His has done a little over 900 k’s in rocky, shitty country at times and is still going strong.

I’ve been trying the six days extreme FIM tyre, which is touted as an all rounder. I found it’s level of grip was grouse on all types of terrain. It’s just about shagged now at 930 k’s, much of this in the same shitty terrain.

Like nearly all front tyres, after a while the sharp rocks begin to tear at them and you lose the odd knob. All in all though, I’ve been very happy with it and if I wasn’t so picky, I could probably get another 930 k’s out of it easily. But I’m out to test the range to work out what works best for us, so off it came and now I’m trying the MC5.

We initially tried MC4’s on the rear, which is their full soft MX tyre and found that whilst grip was unreal, they didn’t have the durability we need in the rocks up this way. Ace motocross tyre, especially the rear and perhaps just the ticket for a mud ride and probably the Yack Charity Bash, but a summer rock tyre it is not.

So now we’re testing both the MC5 intermediate rear and the MC6 hard terrain rear on the back wheels.

The hard terrain MC6 is on the left, fitted to my CRF 250X.

It’s only available in a 110/100/18, bigger than the 100/100 many people run on 250’s. I took it out for a short blast last night and found it performed well. Plenty of traction, but the 250 was still able to break loose to steer with the back wheel when I wanted to.

It looks very similar to the MC5 in terms of knob structure and reportedly has excellent durability. My guess at this early stage is that it would be an excellent tyre to use when conditions are not full mud, such as most of the time in the North East high country.

The Intermediate MC5 is in the middle. Slightly smaller knobs than the 6 but quite similar.

The MC5 already has a great reputation as a grippy, durable trail tyre and we expect them to be a great choice for our tours.

The MC4 on the right has a very different pattern, with smaller knobs spaced further apart.

I’ll report on our findings in due course, after we’ve thrashed the bejeezus out of all of them on both my 250 and the other guides 450s. The difference in bikes and riding styles and ability amongst our group should give us a really good picture of each tyres overall performance.

So now this:

Has been replaced with this:

Typically, I hate changing brands and prefer to stick with the Stephen Gall philosophy of ‘pick the right one first up and stick with it for life’, however this change, so far, seems to have been a good one.

More info, including an article on our tours, can be found in the news section at www.metzeler.com.au

As part of our Harrietville tour preparation, I’ve spent a few days out in the fire ravaged areas, both in the four wheel drive and on the bike, assessing track availability and suitability for our use.

I went out yesterday with my daughter Jessica in the troopy, to clear tracks with the chainsaw. Jessica drove and acted as safety officer whilst I cut. She sat in the car and read a book, actually getting out of the car once to help move a twig.

Whilst there, we worked out what created the famous glow.

Remembering that this shot was taken after midnight, something was going pretty well on the other side.

I worked out what it was.

The natural bush (stringybark, red and apple box trees, black boys) closer to the top of the hill and near the high voltage power lines visible in the glowing photo had also copped the fire at near full intensity.

Excepting the ones burnt to ash. Many of the trees here are still standing, but little more than upright piles of charcoal.

Whilst the carnage at the time was abhorrent, the scenery in this area is at the moment quite spectacular. You’ll see things from a perspective never before possible.

Those coming with us to Harrietville will have something to remember just from this short section alone, forgetting the rest of the hoot for a moment.

My trailer is eight or so years old. I bought it in the Thumpernats days and it has since done service at numerous race meetings across the country, as well as dozens of tours.

It had finally cracked the shits at being over loaded and the draw bar was bent, having actually cracked nearly right through on one side.

It was starting to look a little tired and I was considering replacing it, but have you checked the cost of a new enclosed trailer?

So, I decided to use the much revered barter system to try to spruce it up.

I spent two whole days getting rid of the old stickers, then sanding back old paintwork under them. Good for your upper body fitness but not a lot of fun.

Then I took it to see Khy from Fine Line auto refinishing at Lavington for some paint.

Khy does work on awesome projects, like hot rods and could paint my trailer in his sleep.

I took precautions to protect my lungs.

After wiping it down with solvent, Khy sprayed on some etch primer that helps the top coat stick.

Then he started to apply the three coats of white.

We left it to bake in the oven for half an hour or so, where it was heated to 60 degrees. It came out soft and tacky, but dried in no time.

Due to time constraints, I then reveresed the sensible order of things and took the trailer round to Leighs shed, where he fitted a new heavy duty draw bar for me.

It was my job to use angle grinders to cut off the old drawbar. Whilst there, I cut right through the wiring in the chassis, which gave me heartache later. Tip - attach some wire to the wiring and pull it out the back,so you can simply pull it back through later.

We went from 2.0 mm thick 50 X 50 to 2.6 mm thick 50 X 75, so that the draw bar is now mega tough.

Leigh can weld a bit, which was handy, as since we weren’t flipping the trailer onto it’s roof, he had to do vertical ups (a type of weld in the vertical plane), which can be tricky. He did an ace job.

Next, I fixed the wiring (1.5 hrs), then dragged the trailer around to see my guru singmaster, Tim at Signs by Knight in Kane road Wodonga.

Whilst Tim made the stickers I wanted, I fitted some fine alloy chequerplate I’d scammed from another mate, Tony, who’d cut and bent it to shape.

The front cops a hammering with rocks and looks unsightly in no time, so chequerplate made sense. Plus, there was a dent I wanted to cover up.

Tim and his boys did a fine job, even covering each sticker with a protective clear layer to prevent scratching.

Where to carry all those spares is a conundrum. A heavy bumbag can be a pain, so I routinely get all my gear out and go through it, working out

A: if I really need to carry it and

B: is it being carried in the best spot

I had been carrying a spare brake and clutch lever in my bumbag for ages. I use teflon tape under my perches so I’m unlikely to brake a lever and need a spare, but I continue to carry them to help others in need.

I’ve cut both down to reduce their size and weight. The clutch is now a two finger job and the brake a one finger unit.

I’m trialling a new spot to stash them.

Wayno has audaciously copied me and now stores his levers in a similar spot, but he’s actually fastened his to the back of the Force radiator guards. I prefer my spot, as his slightly increases the chances of radiator damage in a crash and his weight is being carried higher, potentially adversely affecting the handling of his bike.

Wayno is a bit of a thinker and comes up with some good ideas, such as his patented sneaky storage spot for his screwdriver (I’ll get to that one day), but I reckon I’ve got it all over him with my lever storage.

The best bit? My bumbag is now a little lighter.

Don has a trailer for sale that might interest some of you.

Here’s his blurb:

FOR SALE

3 Bike trailer, completely modified 18 months ago ( spent in excess of $2,500 ), vic rego, new light truck tyres & alloy wheels, jockey wheel. Good solid trailer.

$1950.00

Ph: 0418 966 376

or catch Don via donm@jimstestandtag.com.au

Honda will be issuing a press release today to let people know that despite ADB printing that we’re mostly burnt out, that in fact all is well here tour wise.

I’ve got a feeling that once the release hits the websites like www.eatmydirt.com.au and www.fullnoise.com.au , then the Harrietville tour will fill.

This tour is not for beginners. You don’t need to be an A grade motocrosser, but it’s a fairly long ride on a wide variety of tracks. Wayno and I were discussing the ride last night and we both rate it very highly.

We got a good dump of rain the other day, hopefully it’s there’s more to follow.

Australia’s riding conditions are tough on our air cleaners. Tests conducted by Japanese engineers confirmed that our dust particles are often smaller than those found in other parts of the world.

Smaller dust particles makes them more intrusive and capable of penetrating our air cleaners, where they are then free to infiltrate and adversely affect our engines.

This is a real problem on long rides in dusty conditions. A two day or multi day tour is a prime example, especially so with a group of riders.

I’ve taken to using filterskins in these conditions and find them a real asset.

You oil them up just like an air filter and fit them over your filter.

To fit the skin, I found it necessary to use a small phillips head screwdriver or similar to punch a small hole in the filterskin to allow the wingnut bolt that attaches the air cleaner to go through.

You have to fit the skin on the air filter when it’s removed. It’s impossible to fit one properly when the filter is already in the air box.

After riding, they of course look something like this.

At this stage, I just peel the skin back to reveal the much cleaner original filter underneath.

Then I continue riding, without having to clean the air filter, just yet. It’s surprising just how much dirt the filterskin will trap. Sometimes a little dirt gets through to the air filter underneath, but it’s always pretty clean and functional when I peel the skin back and more than up to the task of protecting my engine for another days riding.

Then, of course, the inevitable happens.

Before I remove the filter, at this stage I take a rag and clean out as much of the dirt in the air box as I can. This helps to reduce the chances of dirt getting into the air boot when changing filters and helps keep the clean filter clean on insertion back into the air box.
You can only really get to the dust towards the rear of the box, don’t get too paranoid and spend much time here.

Seen here removed, the dirty filterskin laying against the clean filter, after I’d peeled it off at the ‘half way’ point, prevented only a very small section of the original filter to work, as shown by the small cleanish triangle in the picture.

The skins can be washed just like you would an air cleaner, meaning Kero or Turps then warm soapy water.

You can fit two or three for really dusty or long rides if you want.

These things are good value I reckon. Cheaper and easier to use than a spare air cleaner and anything that costs only thirty bucks but might make my expensive engine last longer is smart thinking in my book.

If you don’t want to spend so many dollars, then chux superwipes also do a very good job! They don’t fit as snugly, but laid over your air cleaner, oiled up, they will certainly help to trap dust and dirt in a very similar manner to a filterskin. I saw a number of leading riders at the dusty A4DE at Warragul in 2003 using a chux.

Despite the arid landscape, we had a great time on our recent visit to Tom Groggin, as usual.

This place can be relied upon to deliver a riding holiday without peer.

We had five new CRFs to show off, all stickered up the same with cool Ringmaster Graphics.

As usual, there was some terrain that challenged people at times.

We had a celebrity with us this trip, known here by his code name - ‘ G - Man’. He’s the dude that won the CRF 50 at last years’ Yack Charity Bash then donated it back so that Mong could buy it at auction.

G - Man’s KTM suffered a broken swingarm bolt. Luckily it was right on the end, so Wayno used an 8mm tap I had on hand and fitted a new bolt and washer to get the old orange thing through the weekend. G - Man was all smiles.

Wayno and I ran a tyre changing and bike servicing/adjustment demo on Sunday morning.

We ran the usual coaching day after that, which was again great fun. After the customer grass track racing, we even had an OOT race.

I was fully primed and had the 250 X set to ’smash those 450s comprehensively’, however my team mate, who shall remain anonymous to protect his identity, was lacking some, err, race skills.

Monty took off in neutral, never a wise move when one is contemplating victory. He then made up for that a little by at least staying in front of Wayno and Don for a few laps, just enough for me to edge closer and smell victory.

Just as I contemplated drawing the dagger, he then fell off and victory went to tweedle’s dee and dum.

On Sunday arvo, I swapped the No Fear gear for Harro’s Toyota and Cheryl and I played support vehicle while Wayno, Don and Monty took some of the crew up to Davies Plains.

It was great to get out with Chez and play a different role and it was also cool to mingle socially with a horse riding adventure tour we found camped out at Davis Hut. They shouted us a cup of tea and cake, thankyou very much Mr Rouse. Even better was the revelation that our riders had got on well with the horses when they bumped into them near Kings Plain track.

The food was again fine fare from Cheryl and Rita. The fillet mignon saturday night was universally declared awesome. The camp oven pork, lamb and beef on Sunday not far behind.

The tracks on the way home, despite the dust, were choice and we had a fairly trouble free return. It did get a little hot though, so Wayno went for a swim and imitated a whale.

The WRF that had been smoking all weekend finally used up all our oil reserves and was retired to the back of the four wheel drive.

The fun factor of the trip was also greatly helped by the group being primarily made up of one large bunch of mates. Thanks to Danny for being the primary organiser of the motley crew.

Riders, I have some spots left (about 16 !!!!!) for the upcoming tour from Yackandandah to Harrietville on 2/3 May.

Someone who had made a booking for seven riders has just pulled out without warning.

Wayno and I have just returned from a two day pre tour to scope the ride and despite the shitful dusty conditions, can report that the tour will be a hoot.

You’ll get to ride some ace new tracks, see some badly burnt areas close up and take in great views of the alps from over near Mt Hotham.

Many of the tracks have seen a DSE bulldozer and with a little rain will be fully sick, with less rock and more loam than usual.

The accommodation at the hotel is better than our usual fare.

Numbers are of course limited to 20 and we will have four guides as well as the usual four wheel drives to help out.