I’ve added some photos, with more to follow. I’ve just returned from a few days in the Lakes Entrance area, planning the Blast to the Beach, so the update here has been tardy.
To give this event due adequate coverage would take a fair lump of cyber space. I’m sitting here, drinking beer, pretty well worn out from a long weekend, despite not having ridden at all. To say we’ve all been busy is an understatement, but I’ll try to summarise the weekend for you.
We did something different this year and ran a ‘parc ferme’, which is french - gay speak for ‘place to put your bike after they’ve scrutineered and noise tested it until they let you ride it’. (Collins English Dictionary)
The Department of Sustainability and Environment were back this year, bigger and better with their noise testing. More bikes were tested. Personally, I reckon the noise limit they run with is really fair.
Some bikes got through that to my trained ear were fairly rudely loud. Noise is the demon our sport can do without and I’ll back the DSE’s push for quieter bikes all day long. Not stupidly quiet mind you, I’m a bloke and like the sound of a four stroke on song, but surely we’re all better off without offensively loud bikes.
Less Sound Equals More Ground - get with it - it’s the future.
Only some six or so of 170 bikes were found to be seriously in breach of the limit. Unfortunately for them, the EPA are now involved and they have to remedy their excessively noisy exhaust.
I dislike the idea of punishing some of these blokes, a few of whom I personally know to be good people, however in the long run, we will all benefit from less noise, so together we should just accept it and ride on, albeit a little quieter.
There were about 170 entrants. We exceeded our nominal 150 rider limit, just like we did last year, to accommodate a few select important industry partners, assistants and celebrities.
Think dudes like Graeme Baynes from Honda, Tuffy from Trailrider magazine, Brendan Bell from MXTV, Roger Pitt from the DSE, Dan the trailbike cop, sweep riders, Online Off Road Tour guides and a few others I’ve probably just overlooked.
With so many riders, some were bound to be quite ‘unique’.
We tried a little harder to look after sponsors and had extra signage all over the place. Thanks to Tim Knight at Signs by Knight at Wodonga, who does an awesome job each year. (They also do the cool signage on my vehicles and trailer). http://www.signsbyknight.com.au/
Ringmaster Images help us out with quality graphics each year for the Bash 50 and our own tour bikes.
http://www.ringmasterimages.com.au/
The riding was different this year. We set up two quite distinctly different loops.
The morning loop had some slippery hills that thwarted the best attempts of dozens of good riders, despite many arriving as advised with new tyres.
The Grasstrack section ‘Glassies Grasstrack’ was fully sick. Some ultra - tight twisty bits through the juvenile black wattles were followed by some ultra slick on - off - on - off - on - oops I’m off - camber corners on a grasstrack motocross circuit that was raved about by pretty well everyone I spoke to.
You started passing this sign, immediately followed by a cool jump out into the paddock.
Unfortunately for many riders, the track designer was a twisted old grasstracker and had cunningly put a tight off camber corner just after the landing area. Many discovered they had jumped too far just as they tried to use the bunting as a brake.
Just the sort of corner that would be perfect to take on an XR650. Not.
Other corners caused similar mayhem. Here, sweep the sweep becomes directionally challenged on an on - camber corner, where that’s not supposed to happen.
Joel was riding with aplomb and I was impressed with his aggressive mid corner speed.
Some blokes had it nailed though and were out there livin’ the dream.
Conrod straight was best taken fully pinned in ninth gear.
There were other sneaky corners. Leigh and I were snickering like school kids when we laid this sneaky off camber number out.
A steepish gully that was reasonably simple if you maintained momentum nonetheless brought a few riders unstuck.
Dan is a part time trail bike officer based out of Mansfield. The DSE and TAC have funded a few extra dirt bikes for police from Mansfield and Benalla to tackle the growing problems they have down that way with Flannos and the problems they cause.
Everytime I visit places like Sheepyard Flat I see some Bogan riding around without a helmet doing wheelies and that’s what Dan and his gang are out to try to stop.
His DRZ was bog stock, including road legal tyres made of Won’t Grip. He was getting about quite well, but at one stage on the grasstrack I saw him do a complete 360 spin with zero control. Unfortunately both the TV cameras and mine were not running at the time, or Dan would be seeing a less flattering picture here than the above one.
Luke Corbett and Benny Greenwood, our local resident A graders were blurs and a pleasure to watch fully pinned on their rec - reg’d motocrossers setting the course alight. They did three morning laps each. Plenty of blokes struggled with one, despite it being only 28 km long. Some successfully completed none, wobbling back to the pits with assistance, wasted.
There was absolutely no shame in that, as this event is designed to cater for all riders. Some will roost about completing multiple laps, grinning the whole time. Others cruise around, with the odd spurt when conditions suit their style and desire. For others, the first corner and every obstacle after that is a mountain they struggled to climb and fully tests their inner strength and resolve.
Some will gimp about in the pits and in a car, unable to partake in the roosting due to a prior indiscretion involving ‘the thing with the flip’ and an unsuitable landing. Ce la vie.
Lunch was, as usual, a sumptuos affair. Locky from Countryside meats provides us with super - tender scotch fillet steak each year, then Ross and his awesome band of volunteers cook it into a storm to satiate the burning hunger of 170 roosting rebels around midday. To the lunch crew - thanks, good job, again.
The afternoon loop was quite different, being 25% longer, but a fair bit more open and faster, so that it took around the same time. Whilst it had a great climb that would have tested many riders, there was no ‘pork chop’ hill that would see 60% of the field having to walk up - whilst the guides rode their bike up.
The guides thought the new layout was far superior and spent much more time riding their own bikes this year.
I forgot to mention a couple of things at the rider’s briefing. One important one was to ban the use of tear -offs. A few riders were obviously not properly educated about the Eco problems tear offs cause and snuck under our guard. Out on the track, I saw a couple of mates rip a tear off each and dump them on the ground in front of me.
They were younger blokes and to their credit, when I spoke to them, they responded really well and gladly picked up the discarded rubbish. It was obvious that they just hadn’t been educated properly yet.
Don and I will pick up as many as we can out on the track whilst collecting arrows and signs.
Our final fund raising tally was an amazing 19 grand, net. That’s 2.5 K better than last year, despite the recession. The primary school is undergoing redevelopment as we speak and that sort of coin can do some real good for our kids.
So, a big thanks to everyone who had anything to do with this event, from organisers, assistants, property owners, the DSE, Victoria Police, sponsors and of course you riders.
Awesome effort. See you next year.
