I definitely needed to go for a ride this weekend and perhaps should have chosen Saturday as the weather ended up being a little nicer. On Sunday morning the weather was fine except for oodles of wind. So, I decided that rather than dealing with that on the Connie or Tenere, I would take teh 450 out to the Taikorea MX Park for an experiment...
The Park is a pretty awesome setup. When you arrive you can see the MX track with its crazy jumps (no thanks) but they also have a kids track and a 12km XC (cross country) track. The XC track was the one I was interested in, although perhaps I should have tried the kiddies one?
One thing Taikorea has a lot of is sand. Deep sand and lots of it. Lots, yes, quite a bit actually...
The only time I've really ridden in this sort of stuff is on the Orua trail ride where there were a few sandy sections to get through. Not a lot, unlike Taikorea where there happens to be a lot of sand...
Anyway, I gave it a good old try and didn't make too many mistakes and did have a bit of fun. After nearly completing a full lap I pulled in to have a drink and a breather at the ute but quickly discovered (on hopping off the bike) that my back had pretty much had enough. It kinda sucks being old and unfit...
Oh well, I got out on the bike (and am really enjoying the 450) and tried something a bit new. I definitely won't be taking the Tenere into this sort of country...
Looking forward to a proper trail ride, hopefully a less sandless one too...
No comments:
Post a Comment