Heading down the Princes Hwy towards Moe, I was surprised to see the roads were wet from some overnight rain (Excellent – no dust!).

Unfortunately, it was only a localised sprinkling, and as I got closer to Morwell the roads became dry again. Oh well, the tracks are mostly slow tight ones, so how much dust could there be?

12 of us decided to forgo the chocolate Easter eggs and hot-cross buns to concentrate on a much healthier activity. It was still very family-oriented, with a couple of father & son teams in the mix.

The tracks didn’t disappoint – the tight twisting trails kept both mind and body very active as you navigated around stumps, ruts, whoops and roots, all whilst trying to dodge between the trees. As the day warmed up, dust was added to the equation, so suddenly you could no longer see the things you were trying to avoid. It was fun!

The challenge hills only tempted a few riders this time, but were still entertaining to watch. I managed to get my little AJP right to the crest of the main one before stalling it – thankfully there was already someone up there to help with those last couple of metres, or it might have be a long slide back down for me!

Sadly, the day came to an early end, with one of the bikes suffering mechanical problems and losing oil in a hurry. We cut back to the cars along the dirt roads and finished the day at 3pm with 76km on the clock.

I figure there might be a couple of bikes being advertised soon. One especially springs to mind:
Late model XR250.
Only ridden at Churchill on Sundays.
Blows a little smoke on start-up.
Comes with patented high-temp auto chain oiler.

Thanks Frankie - another ride well worth the early start and long drive down there, and a great bunch of blokes to ride with.
Thanks to Colin as well, for doing the dusty tailman duties all day.

Some happy snaps:

It's fun, right?



The occasional low speed dismount happened to most of us...



Walk softly, but carry a big stick!



There were some open bits to give us a rest - occasionally...



The dust starts to make an appearance



Lots of 'follow the leader'



We had the odd rutted hill to negotiate here and there...



...and the occasional bottleneck



A new trendy style of right-angle brake lever - wonder if it will catch on...



Regroup time



Frankie's arrowed track through the pines

G-day all.
When I posted up this ride I was like Will, forgot it was the Easter weekend, nobody post up that they wanted to attend my ride,so it looked like that this ride wasn't going to happen, as the days rolled past & getting closer to the ride date I got a PM from Colin P, he was doing Will's ride on Saturday & that he would like to come on my ride the next day, he told me that he was thinking of getting a KTM 200, he has never ridden a 200 & for that matter  haven't ever ridden a 2 stroke before, he asked me very nicely if he could have a test ride on my 200 before buying one, I had to think very hard about that   yeah no worries mate I said, at that point it looked like that it would only be Colin & me doing the ride, I invite Colin to Stay at my place Saturday night that would save a lot of traveling, he excepted my offer & said that dinner was on him, that sounds good to me I said, we had a very nice dinner at the pub, bloody hell we never stopped talking from the time he got to my place until we hit the sack, thanks mate I really enjoyed ya company & the free meal as well  I was looking forward to the ride & show some members that had put their names down on the ride list in the last week leading up to the ride what I've got here & the ones that has done it before are like me, ya just can't get enough of the riding that my area has to offer........Right  ?

Next morning when we got to the drive way that leads to the unloading area there was all ready a few keen riders there waiting for me to open the gate, sorry for being a bit late fellas or were ya's a bit early  after a bit of a tong waging we headed off, we had a regroup as we were about to leave Joe's property, Cullen on a Honda XR 250 must have stalled it & was having a bit off trouble getting it fired up again, while he was kicking that xr over quite a few times I thought he's going to be stuffed even before he gets into the narrow tracks, but lucky for him he has youth on his side  being up front ya don't get to see anything that's going on behind ya, so there's not a lot I can say about the ride, I was having a ball, the more I ride those tracks the more I love riding there, while a was enjoying my ride I was wondering how Colin was going on the 200 Kato, the first thing I did at the first regroup I walked up to Colin & asked him how he was liking the 200, he was all smiles & loving it, every time we stopped  I looked over to Colin & got his attention he gave me the thumbs up.

As Pete said the play hills were very entertaining, I didn't have a go this time, after 4 attempts last time I decided that I didn't have the need to get up there, the first time I had a go at that hill climb I got up there 1 out of 3, on my last time I had 4 attempts & failed my thinking is now, I have got up there once & that will do me

I was told that it was getting a bit dusty later in the day but it wasn't to bad when they all spread out a bit, yes there's a lot of things that you have to look out for & the dust can make it a bit dangerous, I didn't have any dust to contend with being up front but that doesn't mean that my vision was much better then the rider's behind me in the dust, I have got what they call dry eyes, so my eyes water up all the time it gives me a blurred vision, so I have to blink a lot for me to be able to see, yes one of the things that happens to ya when you get on in years, scratched lenses doesn't help much either, time to get new one's....Another $300 +

With about 15 k/m to go we got up a what I would call a Clubman hill if it was wet, while we waited at the top to make sure that everyone made it up I was then told that the XR had a bad oil leak, what to do, we decided that we would all ride up to the road at the top of the track we were on, leave Cullen there with his bike & we would take the short way back to the cars & drive back & pick him & the bike up, as we headed off the track went down hill more then I'd remembered & then got confused & thought I had taken the wrong track, because in that area Max & I walked down some tracks that looked just like the one we were on & they went for a long way down hill with big ruts, & the ruts gets bigger  towards the bottom, I told everyone to turn around because this is the wrong track, when we got back to the bottom & left Cullen there with his bike & rode back along the road I realized that I wasn't on the wrong track, I must have had one of those brain fades, they reckon it's one of those things that comes with old age
Don't feel bad Cullen about causing the ride to be cut short, these thing happen, I think that everyone was quite satisfied with the 74.8 k/m we had done already.


Thanks everyone for coming I hope you had a great ride.
Thanks Colin for bring up the rear, so is there a 200 to be added to the stable ? 

I hope that the tracks are wet on my next ride on the  28-5-16

I'm now looking forward to a 2 over niter road ride with some mates on my KTM 1050 adventure.........Life is good   (Y)

Thanks Frankie for a great day. After a 4 month wait to get my TE 449 back from a top end re-build I was keen as mustard to go riding.  Apart from a little bit of dust later in the day the conditions were ideal. Frankie has a great mix of tracks happening here. It's quite nice when you get onto a more open track for a while just to sit back and cruise.
No real dramas during the day. Everyone rode well and the ride flowed along nicely.  
My already bent rear brake lever took another hit on something and became almost  a U shape. Knowing Husqvarna have a 3 month back order wait (they need to do something about this) for a new brake lever i purchased a blow torch from Bunnings today and had a go at straightening it. It looks a bit of a mess but is more or less in the right place now. I think I'll order a new brake lever in the meantime though. 
Thanks Frankie for leading an excellent ride and thanks to Colin for doing tail man duties all day.

[quote="markjudkins"  i purchased a blow torch from Bunnings today and had a go at straightening it. It looks a bit of a mess but is more or less in the right place now. I think I'll order a new brake lever in the meantime though. 
.[/quote]

Hi Mark, I'm glad you got ya brake lever back to a usable condition.

Thanks Peter D.......... for ya ride report & putting up the photos, good to see you had another great ride in this neck off the woods.

Hey all its Cullen here. Just wanted to say thanks for the awesome riding and great tracks and sorry to everyone for cutting the ride a bit short. Hope to ride with you all again, with or without the XR.
thanks to Colin for riding tailman

calvin & cullin

calvin wrote:
No worries matey, put it behind ya, hope to see ya on the next one.......Did ya put the hard word on ya Dad ? go on Dad Cullen needs a 2 stroke

Good day riding all those narrow tracks ,Frankie says theres even more to be found,hope to do the next one.Bit sore today after doing Wills ride as well.Great pics Peter they show what most of days riding is like. Thanks Frankie and Colin for tail duties.
 
                                                                                                                        cheers Lynton                
 Frankie is the air filter in the 200 the same condition as the 300 ?

lynton mcphail wrote:
Hi Lynton, not sure what ya mean, the condition of the filter in the 200 was a bit dirtier then the 300, I was up front with no dust & Colin was at the back copping a bit of dust.

If ya mean, are the 200 & 300 filters the same, no they are different but you have to look hard to see the difference.