It's been forever since I rode the yellow bike and with the Herbertville Trail ride allowing quads too I managed to persuade Colin to come up for the ride.
We had an early start as we had to haul the bikes a fair way on the pretty average Weber-Wimbledon section of Route 52. In the end we could have taken it a bit easier as we got there with just over an hour to spare - plenty of time to get sunburned while we were forced to smell the bacon and sausages the guys next to us were cooking up...
With no rider briefing (just a piece of paper with a map) we had to keep an eye out on when the ride started. We managed to be in the first 20-30 bikes to tear into the first of many hill climbs.
The route was a little different than last time out but still took in plenty of challenging hill climbs and descents and of course the odd bit of mud - one particular bog hole taking a bit of an effort to get through on Lap 1 but there was a better route around/through it the next time around. One thing that was familiar from last time was the wind - I didn't get blown off the hill this time but it was interesting...
A new section of the ride was probably about 2km or so of beach. I hated the entry to the beach through seriously soft sand and even on the harder stuff I wasn't crazy about the wiggly/waggling through the front end at speed. Beach at about 21:30 in the below video:
During the first lap Colin and I got separated when he took an easy route while I clambered another hill and I ended up waiting for him for about 20 mins with no sign of him. Meanwhile he got back to the ute and waited for me for a while before tearing off to go looking for me.
When I gave up waiting and made for the ute I stopped a number of times to ask people if they'd seen him but apparently he was an invisible man. When I got back to the ute the guys next door said he'd left about ten minutes before I got there.
A quick drink for me and the bike (450's use a it of fuel on hilly 35km loops) and I tore off after him. I eventually caught him probably a third of his way into his second lap and we had a quick catch up before getting back into the brapping.
Another hoon back down the beach got us back to the ute again where at around 2pm it was definitely time for lunch!
With 2 laps and 70km under our belts we were reasonably knackered so after lunch the bikes were loaded back up for the trip home after a heap of fun!
I really enjoyed getting back on the Suzy and am definitely looking forward to the next trail ride in December.
Here's what some of the ride looked like from 4 wheels (shame the Garmin doesn't have the image stabilisation that the GoPro has).
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