Three good men in a forest

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
:poo:
No injuries, bike still ticking over to get you home on the day...it's all good then. :so

Surprising that the ground's already that wet and soggy after the fairly little rain we've had....then again, one never knows how things hang around those hills and how much water gets dumped in spots.

Looks like a great day in the bush, though...:clap:

Ta for the pics and posts...and get some cheap aftermarket indicators + mirrors before busting the exxy OEM stuff. :wink:
 

CamStrom

Tear along dotted line!
My indicator is still gaffa taped after my spill.
War wound, plus it makes it look like I actually ride tha bastard a little!

Just remeber, if it can't be fixed with gaffa tape, you're not using enough gaffa tape!!!
 

robbieb

Tassie Daddy
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When in doubt, a bit of speed will get you through, though you do get a bit more dirty, as per yours truly on the Dunstan in NZ last year...

http://www.austouring.com/forum/showpost.php?p=36437&postcount=128

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Captn Spock

Ride along and prosper
Staff member
To be honest, I considered that. But in the end, a couple of factors led to the fall; inexperience and the fact that I was leading the group.

Inexperience - well I thought the stretch of mud and slush was too long for me to just carry higher speed into the mud. It felt like i was only going to come down faster. The stretch of mud was long enough for my tyres to loose traction before I got over it. Thats what i thought happened. The front end just washed out immediately as I entered. Just no traction, no warning, just BANG!

And leading the group meant I had a second or so to think and make a decision. Go faster? go slower? Stop and assess the mud? Well duh, I did NOTHING. no change in speed, stood up on teh pegs. hoping to keep the bike as vertical as I could to allow it to not wash out. But thats the first thing that happened.

Only guy who got through without any more speed was the one with knobbies on. I dont like to blame tyres on falls because its always the rider.

But I don't know what I would have done differently though. At that time and place, I thought, higher speed would have just brought me down with greater impact as the tyres were covered in mud already.
 

Don't discount the right or left sides (where you are standing). Without seeing the whole stretch they look to me to be the drier lines and are the ones I probably would have taken. The problem with the centre line is that it is usually a ridge that drops down either side to the tyre tracks. What that means is if your front wheel moves a little left and your rear moves a little right you end up like you did, horizontal.
If you are ever really in doubt carefully check the depth of the water on either side and test how solid the bottom is. If you ride through the water it's a trench so your bike cannot slide out from under you and with the sides being higher than the wheels it makes things easier from the feet paddling point of view. I would guess that those puddles are probably less than axle deep and probably fairly solid in the bottom judging by the fact that there is no sign of 4WDs clawing their way out.
 

ant

AngryAnt
I told him he shoulda done it faster! Then I did it slowly too and nearly fell off myself!

Moral of story - don't listen to Spock
 

a86

Getting the hang of it
That little dirtbike looks about the size of my 250 degree. I am so much happier on the little bike in those conditions!
 

ant

AngryAnt
So Spock didn't have all the fun, my rear tyre deflated on the way home, noticed it not behaving above Yarra Glen, and pulled over, didn't check the tyre pressure though, for some reason I thought it might be a loose rear axle nut as I'd just done the chain tension and lube the day before. D'oh.

The lads pulled me over again in Greensborough because they could see it was flat. No obvious nails or holes, but the pressure was 3psi! Luckily I had my trusty tomcat mini-compressor which gave me about 25 psi to ride home on. Modern tyres are amazing - riding on 3ps with only mild squirming in bends is pretty impressive!

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