I was also lucky enough to find out that my brother had recently moved house, literally across the road (small world hey!) A few hours in the swag and I'm ready to go!
The sun rose early and my brother soon emerged from his room. In his usual fashion, he still had the filter to oil and a bit of riding gear to sort out before loading up. Off to pick up one other, servo, maccas, and then pedal to the medal to get to our destination.
After getting stuck behind the antique truck association (50klm/h in a 100klm/h zone - Come on!), we arrived at Wyaralong (QLD Moto Park) at around 10AM. The day was definitely heating up, as we scrambled to sign in to the park, unload the bikes and get ready to head out. It wasn't long before I felt at home again...
It has been a long time in the making. As you can probably tell, I really do love the sport. I may not know all the stats of the championships, or have the latest rides, but most of my enjoyment comes from keeping a good bunch of people around me to share our previously uncharted regions of trail and the challenge of hitting the unknown terrain ahead.
The bike was feeling great! The 280 kit that I had fitted was pulling great from the bottom end and the bike was hooking up well. I was keen to test out the limits of the bike, but knew that I should take it easy during the running in process. I also still have the forks to tune, as my brother had rebuilt them and the clickers were set back to centre, so it was best to focus on them.
A few laps of the trails/enduro tracks, and I am starting to find my feet again. From what I can recall of the flashbacks in my mind, there were some moments of brilliance over difficult terrain, and also some not so brilliant moments. Some more bike time is required to for speed and smoothness.
Everything was going well, so we decided to take some tracks to the far end of the property to check it out. The trails were better as the had not been used as much as the tracks local to the car park. There were some more challenging rock ledges and hill climbs, and the boulders seemed to multiply.
We had ventured to the rear of the property and had decided to split into 2/2 to head back to the cars. With the notion my brother was off. I quickly followed and could track him from the tyre marks and the dust kicked up, as well as the squeaking of his hard compound brake pads in the distance.
The trail pace was lifted as my brother was out of sight. Amongst the chaos and the trees hurtling past, I had visions of myself regaining form, smoother and faster than the bike have been before. Both the full bottom end and top end rebuilds have been painstakingly undertaken on this bike now, so there is not a nut or bolt that couldn't be pushed to its limits.
Dropping over the ridge ahead, soon it turned to ride along it, slowly descending while flowing along the off camber sections. Off a ledge and downhill, before I turned to face a sticky little hill with enough momentum to commit to the rocky accent. Looking up, I could see two blokes who had just finished their rest after they had obviously helped each other to drag their bikes over the last ledge. The guys had parked themselves on the right side of the track, so the choice was to attack the left. This was not the best line, but I had enough momentum to make something of it. Ripping the throttle around, the bike let out a bark that I have loved from the first day that the Pro Circuit Ti 'silencer' was fitted. The rear tyre quickly bit into the earth and lunged forward as I grabbed the next gear. Halfway up the rise, I spotted a flat rock that I could use to propel the bike and myself up the last ledge. On target, I preloaded the suspension and bounced up onto the ledge, I was glad to see that the two blokes had turned to look in awe while leaning on their farm tractors, to witness for the gap that if I had thought about it, may not have been able to make.
One problem,... The bike had stalled mid air. When landing, I found myself balancing on the three foot ledge that was just conquered. Reaching for the starter button, the bike didn't even sound like it wanted to fire. Pushing hard on my toes, it was only a couple of seconds before I was riding it out backward over the ledge. Somehow managing to stay upright, I knew the best decision was the throw the old girl down before any more speed was gained and a reverse highside was achieved.
The two gents asked if I was OK. After a quick nod and a bit of a giggle, the bike was up and I was pointing downhill for another attempt. Grabbing second gear, the bike failed to roar to life. Reaching for the starter button also failed me as the battery is pretty much buggered and only gave a few rotations. I must have kicked it a thousand times, at least it felt like it. There wasn't much relief from the sun as the trees didn't offer much foliage, and the ridge has blocked any chance of a breeze to cool me down. Let alone the camelback that had let go in the esky on the way down, that meant I had no water to cool off with. Feeling a little light headed, I decided to take some gear off, rest for a minute and look for the lollies that had been packed in the tool bag for these instances.
Then it was time to investigate. The KTM tool kit was all that was needed to have the bike stripped down in about two minutes. The plug was pulled, and although it looked as good as its ever burnt before, it is replaced with another new iridium unit that I have on board. NO SPARK!
Credit to QLD Moto Park, the boys soon find me and manage to get a recovery vehicle to my rescue. The Rhino buggy has a custom made hitch mount to tow the bike through the bush and back to the car as others look on. First ride out and my noble steed has failed me....(sigh).
Somehow, after the somber trip back home and unloading bikes, I still had an extra spring in my step from doing what I love.
Wednesday - The secondhand coil that I ordered from eBay arrives, fifteen minutes later the bike springs to life. I might even make the next two day yet!.....
Happy Halloween Guys!
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Thanks for taking the time to hang out. We'll catch up soon!