First trial practice 2013

First Trials Practice 2013

It’s the first weekend of the year and my son Martin hadn’t had to work.  There was a ride on in Hampshire but I have no transport down there and Martin has asked to go trials riding so it’s all sorted.

The sky was grey and over cast, but no rain was forecast.  We have the new code for Nash Mills and we headed out to our playground for the day.  We have arranged to meet Scott, a friend of mine whom I met whilst trail riding.  He is already playing when we arrive.  In fact the Mill is a lot busier than I thought it was going to be.  The site is very wet from all the recent rain and in some parts it’s just like a swamp.

We got kitted up and made our way to the far end of the site where we could practice some off camber riding and to be honest it’s generally quieter at the far end.  The pace of the practice was leisurely and for me everything was going well.  All that I had struggled with at the end of last year now seemed not to be a problem today.  We set up some little sections including off camber riding, hills, logs and rocks, we also played a little bit of follow the leader.  Martin and Scott were also both doing very well.

At lunch we headed back to the car park where we enjoyed our sandwiches and a drink.  A lot of the people who’d been there in the morning had left and there were only about four other rides left.  So after refreshing ourselves we decided to stay nearer the entrance.  There is a log near the entrance that is my nemesis. I have successfully managed to clear/jump/cross larger steeper obstacles, but this one log seems to have an imaginary stopper for me.  So I decided to practice on it perfecting my technique.  Even though it was wet and slippery I managed to cross it more times than not. 

As the day progressed and the obstacles became more and more slippery covered in mud and water and the off cambers became very greasy, although improving your balancing and riding skills the danger element becomes high and you have to make a conscious decision as to whether the enjoyment and learning outweigh the dangers.  It was now late afternoon, early evening and we were all getting a little tired and started to make silly mistakes, we played for a little bit longer but then decided that it would be best to call it quits for the day.

We had a great day, one thing that was nice was, I see Scott as a good rider and well above of my league.  We were talking about the day and he said that when we were playing follow the leader I’d done some things that he wouldn’t have considered, but because I had done them he had.  I know it’s daft but little things like that build so much confidence.

First ride January 2013

Laneing 2013 First Ride

We’re just into the New Year; as usual we’ve all over indulged. So I’m sitting at home feeling fat and sorry for myself wondering if I should finish the chocolates and nuts now or tomorrow. As the stuffing continues more through auto pilot than need, I get a text from my friend Josh asking if I wanted to go out for a ride.

The weather has been mild and very wet the past few weeks. I had an idea for a ride one that I’d wanted to show Josh for quite a while now. He’d also shown an interest in it as he’d not ridden these lanes before. I was feeling let’s just say, uncomfortable with my added Christmas weight so instead of putting this ride on a forum for all, I decided just to invite a few friends that way if I felt like I wanted to stop it wouldn’t be a problem, and I could change the route at any time to suit.

The morning of the ride arrived, there would only be three of us riding today, the conditions were mild, overcast and wet. I wanted to see the height of the river before we attempted the crossing; this is the same river crossing I took Tony to just before Christmas. I’ve only ridden this lane a handful of times myself and I’m not sure how deep it can get, the banks indicate that it could potentially drown a bike at its highest.

We made our way toward the lane taking a short detour to check the river height, the detour is a tarmac country lane that has blind corners and is very narrow. The edges and centre of the lane was covered in wet leaf debris with just to lines of tarmac where the wheels had worn it away. I wasn’t happy about the lane I had an uncomfortable feeling that I was going to meet oncoming traffic. I continued with caution and I’m glad I did because as I rounded a corner, one of the larger ones with room to pass, a car coming the opposite way was cutting the corner and had left me nowhere to go. I knew if I braked hard the bike would wash out on the wet leaf mulch and I’d probably end up over the bonnet so I steered the bike into the bank braked and bailed off. Luckily I was safe but the car ran over my front wheel, fortunately for me she caused no damage to the wheel. The female driver was like “I’m so sorry, are you ok? Nobody ever comes down here, is your bike ok? I’m so sorry”. To be honest I was very annoyed although I’d expected it and told her to go on her way. She left hopefully a little wiser, but as I went to leave I realised that my gear lever had been bent in toward the casing from the impact from the hard tarmac road and that my bars were also bent. We pushed the bike to a safe point and worked on it. I managed to straighten the gear lever by put a couple of tyre levers between it and the engine casing and gentle prizing the gap open until it had sufficient room to be able to change gear. A little spannering saw the bars straight and after a good check around the bike we were once again safely on our way.

 

 

The first lane went well and all enjoyed the river crossing, which was surprisingly low considering the amount of rain which had fallen recently. I guided the way to the next lane but felt that I had to keep waiting however all came to light when we all arrived at the beginning of the next lane. I was told that Angelo’s bike was making an awful noise on acceleration. We had a look and I watch him try to pull away under load. It turned out that the front sprocket was severely worn, or as the KTM centre was to say later “that’s not a sprocket it’s a washer”

 

 

We attempt the lane but things were getting worse. This scuppered my planned ride as the nearest bike shop was about 10 miles in the opposite direction. I now had to work out the quickest and most direct way to the KTM centre whilst avoiding any major junctions and roundabouts. A steady ride saw us arrive at the shop with no further incidents. Luckily they had the part and we had enough tools on us to carry out an emergency repair. Once again the bikes were checked and we were on our way, a few lanes later we stopped for fuel and a bite to eat before heading off again. Whilst we were taking the break Josh mentioned that things happen in threes and that seeing Angelo and I had had problems he was next in line.

 

The day was now drawing on, the next section of lanes passed without any real traumas just the usual wobbles. Everything was flowing and going as it should. I continued to guide the way to the next lane but as I wanted to get some video footage I let one or the other take the lead once at the beginning of the lane. As I follow from the rear Josh took the lead, he rounded the corner where I knew it gets very wet and sloppy. Much to my enjoyment Josh decided to take the centre line which looked like solid mud where the 4X4s had pushed it up. But it turned out to be a mound of wet slurry. He slipped one way then the other and ended up cross rutted and off the bike into the ditch.

 

 

We were now all even one incident a peace and we all felt better now the curse of the dreaded 3 was over. We were now heading homeward and I had several different routes in my head, I wanted to make the most of any light we had left. A little road work later saw us at the beginning of a lane which I wanted to show Josh. I lead the way stopping where the lane split into two. I wanted to take the right hand fork so stopped to mark the way Josh pulled up alongside and we started to chat whilst waiting for Angelo. What happened next was bizarre. It felt that I’d been hit hard on the back and momentarily everything went black, first I notice a sharp pain in my leg, next I notice Josh was no longer by my side but about 12 feet further up the lane getting up off the floor his bike on its side. I turned to see Angelo sprawled on the floor his head under his bike.

I quickly dismounted, got the bike off of Angelo’s head and started to assess what had happened. Josh was fine apart from a little shocked as was I. Angelo was in a lot of pain rolling on the ground. All looked bleak and I thought that an ambulance would be needed. Fortunately as it turned out it wasn’t as bad as I first thought. The outcome was as follows, I had a sore leg, Josh was fine but had broken rear plastics where he’d been hit, Angelo came off worst. Although stunned and shocked he only really had a sore head and cut finger, which I dressed, his helmet suffered a cracked peak and scratches as for his bike the front side plastics where broken and snapped the head light was detached as was the right hand radiator. Spanners and cable ties saw the bikes repaired, even if it did resemble something like a blue peter project.

What had caused the crash was a simple momentary lack of concentration; Angelo was merrily puddle jumping watching where he was instead of where he was going.

Disaster averted, but time wasted. We had lost the last of the day. It was now my job to get us home as quickly as I could before we lost the light. Luckily I still managed to work in a few lanes and the day finished well with no more miss haps.

 

It was a very memorable day, but all for the wrong reasons enjoyable to a point but not one I’d wish to repeat.

Quad bike ride, Boa Vista, Cape Verde 13/12/12

Quad Biking in Boa Vista, Cape Verde

Well the end of the year has arrived and I’ve been told I can’t carry any of my holidays over. So I find myself taking a quick look through the holiday catalogues. Somewhere hot is what I need but I don’t want, or have the time for, special injections and I don’t want to spend hours on a plane. My search leads me to a small group of islands just off the west coast of Africa.

 The Cape Verde islands used to be part of the Portuguese colonies, but they were handed back to Africa in the 70’s. They have only been a holiday destination for about the last 5 years and the last 2 on Boa Vista. They are unspoilt and undeveloped.

At our hotel our tour operator gave their normal talk of this and that and of what there is to do on the island. One of which was a quad biking trip. They did short excursions or a longer island trip. To my surprise not only did my wife want to go on the trip but she also wanted to do the longer of the two rides. I was excited and wanted my wife to ride her own quad but No! Sue just wanted to be a passenger.  Which was fine with me; we were going riding. We were advised to dress well and cover up this is because it would be dry and dusty. We were also advised to take something to cover our faces.

The morning arrived, our pick up was on time, the road to our destination was fun only half of the road is tarmac it then reverts to the old cobbled road, some of which has now been eroded away. They had just had the heaviest rains for years which had damaged one of the old bridges and completely washed away a new bridge, so we had to divert across country to the old bridge. Then there were the narrow winding streets through the town. It all added up to an exciting start to the day.

 

At our destination we signed our lives away, although they said they had insurance and were the tour operators recommended choice, the insurance they had was only third party. We were then fitted with a sort of helmet and then taken to the quads and given a quick briefing. We were now in the hands of our guides, we set off first through the town and then a building site where it looked like new hotels were being erected, we then hit the beach.

 

 

We were about halfway along the group the bike rode best on fresh sand if you try to follow the tracks of those in front the quad just wanted to rail along the tracks already cut into the sand. There was another reason why I rode just to one side or the other, and that was to avoid the dust being kicked up by those in front of me. I did however find it amusing why the rest just seem to follow the leader like sheep.

We left the beach and headed inland through a moon like landscape of rust red sand and rock the vegetation, where there was any was brown and dry. Little piles of rock where place here and there and also along the roadside, for what reason I do not know. We then came to the cobbled road for a short blast and where we could take in the view of the distant mountains and the extinct volcanos we then took a gravel track that lead the way to where we would take a break, grab a drink and buy some souvenirs.

 

Rested and refreshed we once again took to the quads, the track took us through the village along some more rocky sand scape where the land was cracked and dried out, old stone walls lay abandon and derelict we had a few little tricky climbs but all was good, and I was pleased I’d covered up as those who hadn’t were now covered in dust and sand.

 

 The track wound its way through the rocky landscape and led down to a beautiful white sandy beach with a lovely green blue turquoise sea, the ocean waves breaking gently onto the beach. We took a second break and for those who wanted a dip in the sea was on the cards.

 

We were now on the Santa Monica beach voted to be the fifth most beautiful beach in the world and some 15km in length. After a swim, paddle or whatever else took your fancy and some photos for the album we took to the saddle once more. I had somehow worked my way up through the group and was now directly behind the guide. A few struggled to get traction on the deep sand and we took a slow ride making sure everyone was keeping up.

 

 We then turned inland away from the beach into a desert of white sand. Sand that had blown over the sea from the Sahara Desert of main land Africa. It was just after this that we had some fun. The guide had realised that I must have ridden before and the pace quickened. We were heading up sand dunes and down again, sometimes having to turn sharply at the top to avoid a shear drop on the other side. As we raced across the dunes I had the bike drifting, sideways and almost on two wheels on some of the sharper turns Sue was hanging on tight Woo-Hooing as we raced our way over the sand. After about ten minutes the guide took a good look behind then suddenly we came to a stop.

 

I wondered why so took a look and then realised there was no one else there. We had lost everyone. Luckily we had a sweeper and our trackers weren’t hard to follow so over the next five minutes or so the others appeared one by one. Once we had regrouped we set off for a short ride to a beach where the turtles come ashore to lay their eggs and to visit a cave on the shores edge.

 

 

 

This was the last stop of the day. We again rode along the beach then up over a bank and along the rugged rocky coastal path watching the waves breaking over the volcanic sea shore below. We hit some more dunes but this time at a more steady pace, them some more beach work, and around what was the islands main industrial pottery site which now is nothing more than a few stone walls and a large brick chimney

 

 

 

Then something happened that doesn’t happen that often in Cape Verde as we were heading back across the final few miles black clouds headed straight toward us then it happened. IT RAINED.  The dust that had settled on us was now being washed in and off, the rain on my glasses formed droplets then dried out leaving blobs of condensed dust over the lenses. The rain only lasted a few minutes and was gone as quickly as it came, the last part of the ride saw our clothes dry and we arrived back safe and sound if a little bit dirty. We had had a brilliant day’s ride and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and the looks we got as we re-entered the hotel were themselves priceless.