All of our Online Offroad Tour bikes sport top of the line protection gear courtesy of Force Accessories, including a bashplate, case saver and radiator guard/brace kit. The gear Force produce is world class at protecting our bikes in the harsh unforgiving environments we often ride in.

On a recent ride to the Wombat State Forest with a few friends we encountered some of the slipperiest tracks known to man-kind, constructed of typical “no-grip” Wombat muck. On one particular corner, taken at relatively low speed, the rear end of my CRF450X stepped out, and in the ensuing struggle, (and much to my surprise) I managed to maintain control and straighten the bike up. In the ensuing few micro-seconds of bliss, namely thinking to myself how well I did to save my own scrawny ass, it all suddenly came unglued. I had unwittingly rolled over another patch of “no-grip” and down she went, hard on the left hand side. I next saw Daryl (aka.The Turd Burglar) coming at my head, so a quick McGuiver jungle roll or two saw me spring to my feet and relative safety. Naturally a photo-opportunity is rarely passed up when I am around, and Blue took this pearler on my phone for laughs (we had to re-enact the action)

As can be plainly seen from the pic, The Turd Burglar was lucky not to have ridden straight over yours truly, and parked his wog bike right onto my Honda’s header pipe (thanks for missing my head T..

The bike was picked up, and the ride continued as expected. It wasn’t until I got home that I discovered that my left hand side Force Accessories radiator brace had copped a fair biff in the crash. The front grill plate was twisted, and the rear brace was bent backward. I have used B&B guards on my previous bike (a stinky WR450 if you ever hear Rod refer to it) and although they gave good protection, they were bolted to the radiator, so when the guard got pushed back, it took the radiator with it.

I had expected this would be the case with my CRF, bent guards and a horrendously twisted radiator, but when I removed the guard and brace I was pleasantly surprised to see the radiator spring back to it’s original alignment, and had suffered absolutely no damage at all. The secret behind the Force Accessories guard is that it does not bolt directly to the radiator, but instead, the guard and brace bolt together, leaving the radiator to float freely between them. Trust me, I have personally experienced and seen many radiators damaged, but I have never seen a guard do such a good job of protecting that vulnerable, expensive radiator so well.

A few well placed belts with my trusty rubber mallet and the brace and guard were re-aligned and in near new condition again……ready for my next unplanned off-bike adventure,

Monty

Ed: good honest appraisal Monty. I’ve had the same thing happen twice now and also feel the Force gear is superior to other brand radiator guards I’ve used.

There’s been no time for blogging, despite plenty of blogworthy events going on, including Wayno and I experiencing a case of frostbite in our feet when riding wet in snow between Yack and Omeo, scoping tracks for the Blast to the Beach. That’s a story worthy of it’s own story, but alas, my time has been required at places other than the keyboard and mouse.

I’ve been full noise with the moving thing, beginning with a full repaint of the interior of the new home at Nungurner. The joint was coloured in poxy hues of maroon, blue, green and yellow. Niiiice. As well, it was worn and in need of patching then a full sand of walls and ceilings.

White ceilings and cream walls throughout will see all our furniture match and even though it took bloody ages we ended up with a professional job.

Cheryl went into top gear and steam cleaned 35 years worth of kids boogies and some recalcitrant silver fish from the carpets.

Some new curtains and the place looks quite homely and is now ready to move in.

Found some dope left by the previous tenant in the top of the laundry cupboard.

Outside, we’ve weeded like mad (rotten English Broom which can either be drowned in round up or manually pulled - I went for the latter then burnt them in a pile) and of course some blackberries.

Found wallabies, wombats, deer (fallow and sambar) in the back yard, as well as an Echidna and plenty of birds. Not sure if I should welcome or shoot and eat the deer.

Constructed vegie patches, planted them out, (even taking a 6 X 4 trailer full of worm ridden Yackandandah cop compost to help the shite local sandy soil along), pruned fruit trees, installed a gate, blah blah blah.

The property has plenty of room for both an mx style track and some single trail which I can make as easy or hard as I like. The state forest is 450 metres from the front door and everything points towards me being able to continue the touring and coaching business down there.