Monty and I snuck out recently to scope some tracks for the Blast to the Beach, our 5 day adventure in May. We rode from the new OOT central, in the Nungurner Highlands (named so despite it’s proximity to the sea) all the way to Omeo.

Monty was playing with his panorama function and managed to cut the front off a Yamaha.

We crossed both sides of the Great Alpine road and found some ripper tracks. In the bush 450 metres from my driveway starts a beaut collection of tight sandy single trail style tracks with plenty of undulation.

The riding around Mt Elizabeth and Mt Wong was red hot. The huts at Moscow Villa were in great condition and prompted Monty to return with the new girl and kids to camp there for several days.

The Haunted Stream looks like being a talking point, with something like 52 river crossing in only 20 k’s or so.

The area receives little vehicle pressure due to not being close to major centres and in fact the riding on the whole trip looks like being shit hot with an incredible variety of terrain.

On one particularly cool, undulating roosty track we were all having a bit of a dip. I managed to juuuussst avoid this chest high log across the track and couldn’t get to the UHF quickly enough to stop Monty from approaching at ‘ridiculous speed’ (remember the Mel Brooks comedy SpaceBalls?’.

Lucky punter but a wise move, dented pride before death.

My new abode is well placed to run tours from and from here we can easily reach places like Omeo, Ensay, Dargo, Buchan, Hotham or even Groggin and iconic chain - yourself - to - a - tree places like the Erinundra Plateau where the trees are enormous.

Heck, I can even see the possibility of a Blast to the Beach starting at my place and ending up for a spot of charter fishing at Merimbula.

Force accessories have quickly established a name as an Australian producer of high quality products designed to protect your off road motorcycle.

We have been using them for some time now and have been impressed by their designs, quality control, fit and customer service.

New this year is a trick looking black coating that sets them apart from their plain alloy looking competition. I’ve just taken delivery of some new gear for both my 450R and X’s and today will run you through the one I fitted first, the bashplate for my motocrosser.

Now that I’ve Rec Regd. the bike and am riding it in the bush a bit (It’s a real weapon. Light, turns on a dime and has buckets of torque, though obviously requires some restraint with the right wrist) it needed some protection. Standard protection is fair useless.

The plate came in a very professional looking package, with the plate wrapped in a heavy duty protective plastic bag and the mounting kits separately secured in a cardboard box. They smartly used the box to advertise other products they make, which include radiator guards, disc protectors, case savers and tools.

On the far left are two self adhesive strips of tape to insulate between the bashplate and frame rails. This not only protects your frame but reduces vibration.

In the centre is the front mount, below it the rear mount and the flash shiny bashplate itself on the right.

I put them on the Scales of Truth and found that the whole kit weighed in at 1.23 kg. That’s not too bad. They have minimised the weight of the mounting hardware with their trick one bolt removal system and the weight is all carried low so it will have minimal effect on the bikes handling.

I fitted the kit myself simply in ten minutes with these tools. 4,5 and 6 mm allen keys, 10 mm T bar and a 13mm ring spanner.

I mounted the front bracket first by taking the two 4mm headed capscrews out, sliding the bracket in behind the frame rails then reattaching the thin metal mounting plate loosely on the front. Don’t tighten it right up at this stage, let it float so you can locate the main single mounting bolt later.

Then I fitted the rear frame mount. Again, I just did it loosely at this stage as I think you get a better fit if you do.

Then slide the plate on, the rear first, with the mount sliding over the frame like this:

Then fit your front single mount bolt. You might have to wiggle the front mounting bracket into place to make it fit. Only use fingers at this stage to avoid cross threading and ruining the whole show.

When it’s sitting there loosely with the front main bolt in, I gave the plate a wiggle to make it fit snugly, then used the 4mm allen key to tighten up the front mounting bracket bolts, which are accessible from the front of the plate.

Then I put the 13mm ring spanner onto the rear mount bracket nylok nuts and used the 5mm allen key to do them up tight. Then I used the 6mm allen key to do the front nut up and whilst doing so I gave the bashplate a few whacks with my hand to ensure it sat snugly on the frame rails.

The only trap is to ensure you don’t squish your radiator overflow hose between the plate and frame rails.

All finished in no time and the fit was ace. I’m now far more confident of the bike making it through the rocks in one piece.

Once fitted, the plate is a cinch to get on and off with their simple one - bolt removal process. I’ve used other brands of bashplates in the past where you have front and rear mounts to remove to get them off and they were a pain in the arse, taking much longer.

The team at OOT have thrashed these plates for well over 20,000 k’s with not one issue.

More updates on Force products in due course as I get the time to fit and test them. I’m keen to see how the new black coating lasts. I’ve previously trialled a nylon coating for Force and it wasn’t up to scratch, so I sought advice from head man Brian from Force:

“The coating has a great name, Performance Polymer Alloy (or PPA), which was designed to adhere to aluminium and while it can obviously be damaged in our application it will not separate from the aluminium adjacent to the damaged area as other coatings do such as powder coating or the nylon coating that you tried previously. I have had several of the plates being used for technical single track for about 6 months and they still look good. Naturally there are a number of scratches underneath which aren’t normally visible. The coating also cuts down on reflected engine noise.”

If Brian is confident, then so am I. If you’re in the market for a quality bashplate or other bike protection product, Aussie made Force gear is in my mind pick of the bunch.

Visit www.forceaccessories.com.au for more info on their great gear. Prices are listed on the products page.

Here at OOT we use the odd tyre. Back at Yackandandah I always had issues with insufficient shed room to accommodate them and they ended up in unruly piles on the floor of my workshop, which shitted me no end.

With plenty more room here at the new OOT central, I ordered a larger than usual stock of tyres to see 2010 out.

Those with a keen eye will notice some slicks in the front of the picture. These are for Wayno and his SP1 Honda track bike.

The delivery dude, Cheryl and I all had eyes like dinner plates when they arrived. Who ordered all those? Who? Who? Despite my claims of ‘must have ticked the wrong box’ I was busted and had to work fast to get them out of the way and less obvious.

So my father, who is the skilled carpenter type and I went to work on some racks. Wayno had told me about some tyre racks he’d made for his shed in the Wahgunyah lowlands and armed with his insight and some material about eight times as big and strong, we set to work.

I used some galvanised C section purlins that I had lying around, bolting and screwing them to the shed wall. I used a level to make sure it wasn’t out of whack and dad fashioned a couple of bits of timber to protect our noggins from the sharp end of the purlin.

Customers will be able to purchase the odd tyre from me at competitive prices this year. I have mostly MC5’s, which we find to work the best as a trail tyre. Most of the rears are 110/100/18s, but I also have a few 100/100/18s which some like to fit to 250 four strokes, some 120/100/18’s which are for larger capacity trail bikes and the odd 19 inch rear for motocrossers. All the fronts are 21 inch MC5’s at this stage, with hopefully some of the new Hard fronts that Wayno has tested and raved about in the future to compliment the range.

If you think you might want some extra traction coupled with some bonus durability prior to a tour, drop me an e mail or give me a call. I might even chuck in a little blue Metzeler elephant.

Honda are considering adding Pivot Pegs to their official accessories range and have asked me to test some to assess their worth.

You would have heard of these before. They are an Aussie made after market footpeg designed to replace your stock pegs. They run on a shaft and their design allows them to pivot a little forwards and backwards.

The platform, or the bit you put your foot on, is larger than the standard Honda item which is a good thing. A larger surface area spreads the load on the sole of your boot and provides more comfort and control in itself.

The pivoting function is the key though. They don’t pivot much, but enough to make a fair difference to performance over standard pegs.

I found that the Pivot Pegs were far superior in comfort to the standard items as the sole of your boot is far more often in full contact with the peg platform, spreading the load.

With standard pegs, at times when your foot is angled, such as going up or down hills, only one thin edge of the standard peg will be in contact with your sole (there’s a joke there about one of my guides and his soul but I’ll leave that alone to protect Wayno). This thin edge will put more pressure on a small area of your sole and do two things:

a) Reduce comfort

b) Wear the sole out faster

Feedback from other users of these pegs suggests improved boot sole life with the new pegs, which will offset the cost of the new pegs.

I’ve found far greater comfort levels particularly when landing from jumps. A smoother more pleasant landing for my ankles.

The other advantage I’ve noticed is more control with the rear brake, particulary when riding down steep and or rocky declines.

I’ve also been thrashing a set that has been powder coated red to ‘Honda -ise’ them, but we’re unsure if they will make it into production looking like this. I’ll have a chat to them about the colour just in case they go for the paint job. They’ve done 24 hours of hard riding and haven’t come up too bad, but the red may or may not be available for you guys.

Fitting was a ten minute job made easier by the simple instructions that accompanied the product. The manufacturer recommends servicing the pegs every 15 hours, but just like Honda’s recommended piston replacement program, I reckon you can safely extend this time! Servicing is a simple pull apart, clean and re - grease anyway, which is a ten minute job anyone can do.

So, overall, I recommend this product, especially to someone having to replace their pegs anyway due to damage, but also to everyone else.

If you have dodgy ankles or legs, these will make your life better.

For the rest of us, more comfort, longer boot life and better brake control are always on the wish list.

They will be available from your local Honda dealer in due course.