Friday, November 13, 2009

Kalgoorlie 2 Day

This years Kalgoorlie 2 day enduro turned out to be a great event. It's just a fun event to wind up the year and a good reason to drive to Kal to ride your bike all weekend! Paul and myself were on the Beta 450's and Simon was on Andy Sutcliffe's KTM 200. Andy must be a very trusting person because even though Simon is getting on a bit he still doesn't mind to give any bike a test to it's limits. On day 1 we were joined by two of Simon's work mates Sean and Nick, Nick is quite new to it all and I'm not sure if he knew what he was in for!


Day 1 was a 175 km loop which doesn't sound very big but believe me it was hard work. Most of it was boggy sand, and after only a few km's your already looking forward to the next fuel stop for a rest. It didn't take Paul long to find grief, on the first checkpoint Paul crashed and hurt his ankle which hasn't healed from the last two events. Simon rode really well considering it was really his first proper ride on an enduro bike. He scared the absolute shit out me during the race. I thought I had a big gap between myself and Dad on one of the wide open stages so I backed off the gas a little bit to relax, when out of no where Dad screamed past me as if i was standing still and at the time i would of been sitting on 100kph! We all managed to finish with no dramas, not many riders finished day 1 due to overheating bikes and riders. Everyone was quite sedate on Saturday night which is known to be a wild night. We only had a few drinks and crashed quite early.

Day 2 ended up being a lot easier and shorter. The loop was only about 110 km's. Paul decided to give day 2 a miss because of his ankle being a bit sore, That worked perfectly for Simon and I. We rode while paul stayed back and packed up the van. The tracks on day 2 were a lot faster, at some points everything is just a blur at top gear flat out. I had a few scares throughout the day but at one stage i hit a tree root at full noise and i thought i was stuffed. Luckily i rode out of it with a new respect on how quickly your luck can change. I thought of going back and warning Simon of the tree root, but i also realised being a lot older he should also be a lot wiser and go a little slower. Now I know he certainly isn't wiser because he hit the tree root as well!















It ended up being a great weekend, a big thanks to Andy Sutcliffe for lending Simon the KTM 200. Andy is mad because he rode his old Bultaco and certainly put everyone to shame on their new bikes. Our bikes also went the whole weekend without missing a beat, considering the heat and the difficulty of the event I couldn't be happier.