Zig Zag- Hillend and back two day

This was to be one of the biggest rides I ever lead
Mick and Moose fronted at around 3pm, and Chicken arrived soon after, Chicken said his bike was ready, how good is that I thought, them he says we just need to regrease the rear mousse, take a link out of the chain and change the front tyre (lucky it was ready eh?)
Then the crowd rolled in, soon we had a good crowd there was Tiny and Tiny’s biatch, Moose, Mick, Chicken, Moto, Champo, Racey Tracy, Eagle and Chris.



Again Moto’s choice of products purchased came under scrutiny

Tracy got the pizzas on the go,

Salina came home and we started loading the bikes, soon everything was loaded, showers had and we sat to watch Dust to Glory. The DVD buggered up and all went pear shaped, so it was of to bed. The snoring that night was incredible, Mick and Chicken are just wrong, Chickens’ snoring was crystal clear up stairs, and Mick was just as bad.
Next morning I had the house up at 5am, we hooked the trailers up and waited for Chop to turn up, as soon as we had him hooked up he said he to go back home to get a trailer plug. We picked up Chris and headed on our way, we soon had a highway patrol car following Moto and low and behold Moto gets pulled up, what for you ask? For no using his indictors enough, Jesus! If the cops are behind you for a while wouldn’t that be the time to use your blinkers? Anyways Moto said his boy band good looks got him off
We arrived at the Zig Zag car park and it looked like no one was there, we soon spotted Holeshot who was already getting ready, some quick intros and the others started arriving, Tracy jumped into action again and collected money for the jerry cans and we loaded the support vehicle. Once everyone was ready we got under way






We stopped at the lost city and had a look

From left to right
Boulder, Chicken and Mick at the lost city

We left and traveled down the Black fellows hand trail through to Capertee, some shots from Baalbone cap







WTF!!! The things you see in the middle of no where

And onto Capertee for fuel.

Proof Mick did accually leave Warchope.


Whiterocket excited now he has discovered the hills


Does Holeshot ever stop smiling?


Chops DRZ looking the goods on day 1.


ECKS-Man and Chris's 250's were never outgunned




Can't be sure but I think Moose was having a party in his pants.















We headed to the Lost City for a quick break and some piccies:





Then we headed off again, on to Blackfellows Hands Track and a few other places I didn’t catch the names of!





The leader wore the polka dot jersey.




Next we headed out to Capertee and our first refuel. The servo was probably not expecting a crowd like this lot!



Mick feeding his face! (And what a face!)

Next we headed bush, again I don’t know the tracks and the locations, but it was great stuff. Tight twin track which opened up at times, but generally 3-4th gear with rocky hills, river crossings and beautiful scenery.

Beautiful scenery:

Mick had an incident with the XR trying to burrow under the track…


But was soon underway again:

While waiting at a gate as cornerman, I had plenty of time to snap a couple of generic location shots… the boys behind had a flat to deal with – one of many for the weekend.

Looking forward:

Looking back: (Someone should write a song about that! RIP Slim.)


And then it was back on the bikes, with the occasional rest before heading to Yetholme for a splash-&-dash then back through Sunny Corner and onwards towards Sofala.

A brief stop as Sofala pub where many of the lads partook of the cold beverages on tap!

Sofala is old, man…


About 2km from Sofala we stopped for a swim – actually most swam, I ended up trying to stop my bike from shocking me as I braked… wish it had worked!
Here are a few of the boys pulling in past my corner at the swimming hole:




Parked in the shade of the bridge about to have a swim


Then we were back on the bikes for a blast into Hill End. Well, for those on bigger bikes it was a blast… for the 250’s it was a long haul!

Everyone’s a bloody tourist!

Scenery

Love this, the sign says “Please enjoy your visit to historic Hill End.”
Well, OK then…


One of the DRZ’s failed – suspected carby problem. Good thing we had a trailer really! At least he can say he rode it into Hill End!

A few injuries: Those are splinters in his foot!

Tiny won the Training Wheels award for his supermoto-style get-off right in front of the Hill End pub!


TB’s XR650 was diagnosed as terminal with the countershaft flopping in and out about 5mm… not good!

Plenty of photographic evidence of this because he was giving anything that wasn’t a Honda so much crap!



Work also started on the stopped DRZ – it was to prove a non starter for Day 2

It was about now that I discovered that I had pretty bad heat rash on the inside of my left knee. Turned out it was more than that, but I will explain later on!
We lined up for a meal – some had great meals ($12 lasagne was awesome and the $22 T-bones were worthy of Fred Flintstone) and others choose poorly (Chicken schnitzel – tiny and overcooked…) and the odd cleansing ale!


Some team members disgraced themselves, naming no names (moto) but the next morning most of us were up early for the 7am breakfast that turned out to be 7:30am.


Mind you, the dining table for brekky was nicely laid out!

Then we loaded the broken bikes onto the trailer and ute and the group headed off at a bit after 8.
Is that a Honda on that ute??

Had a smooth run back to Sofala, except for one flat (Chicken’s XR600). Eagle on the KLX decided at this point that his ankle, damaged in a fall on Day 1, was too sore to ride on, so the bike was loaded up and the list of DNF’s grew by 1.
Fixing Chicken’s flat at Sofala

Chicken was leading day 2 after TB’s bike failed.

Eagle’s foot:


We now pointed the bikes towards Kandos and made our way there along a couple of backroads and the railway line service road. Most of this running was not much fun on the little 250, buzzing along in top gear, but the bigger bikes were well suited.
On the railway service road heading for Kandos


As we pushed on, Crash hit a nasty washout on his XR650. His mousse front wheel had recently been respoked with heavy duty spokes and suddenly the wheel turned into a shattered mess, with 8 spokes broken and the hub stuffed. The XR on the ute was turned into a parts bike, donating a front wheel, and we got him back on the road. Refueled at Kandos and headed back the way we had come along the railway service road to Capertee for fuel and lunch.


Then it was a fairly quick, no nonsense blast back to the Zig Zag carpark, slipping up a well worn (almost worn out) single trail just to stuff the unwary, unfit and unwilling! I think I was all three!


www.olbtrailriders.com style



TB