Took her out for quick test run

[Jug]

1st run since last winter, and I have been fiddling with carb so I thought it prudent to have a quick test run before going laning tomorrow.



Well... she looks pretty clean today but that won't last long...



She resented me for lowering the needle height so that needed to be set back as soon as I got in... and boy what was I thinking with that rear tyre... a part worn Mitas CO2.. inflated to 20 psi and on greasy roads.. it was like riding with a caster wheel on the rear.
Open the throttle hard, rear starts stepping out... brake... rear slides out... lol
I was half tempted to put a different rear tyre on (like this evening) after that experience but decided to just drop the pressure and tough it out.. I'll get use to it soon enough, and also scrub it in quickly...

Oh well, bring on the lanes tomorrow..

If this is the last post I make then you can all assume that I didn't manage to get use to it in time...

[billinom8s]

all sounds like too much fun to me.

where are the photos from the after then?

looks a tidy bike.



now i want one even more - humph

[Jug]

The run went fine, and the engine behaved too once I'd reset the needle height. That rear tyre remained hilarious throughout the day though (on tarmac). It did ok on the mud & stones so I'll finish it off over this winter but won't be buying another.

I was TEC for the group of 5 riders. I choose to be TEC as I knew it'd take me a little while to get back into it as I haven't ridden lanes for about a year now. Pretty soon I was up to speed again and up with pack, and laughing at all their mistakes whilst hiding my own.

I took a couple of pics at around the halfway point. My mates’ bike had a sudden rear deflation whilst riding on the tarmac. Valve stem let go and ripped clean out. He did have a bit of a fight to stay upright, which was interesting to watch.

So these pics were taken after some relatively clean lanes... we then entered some really claggy ones and you should have seen the state of the bike after that!





I put her in the garage yesterday and to my surprise she was still damp this morning. So I shrugged off the aches & pains and dragged her out and cleaned her up. Took a few hours to blast out all of mud & mulched leaves but eventually she looked clean again.
He's a video my mate took whilst out, I'm hardly in it (as I was TEC) but when you see a yellow bike, it's me..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOMM0q6 ... e=youtu.be" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[billinom8s]

those are some pretty muddy lanes/tracks.

looked like a lot of fun

[TLS-Moose]

Nice!

Could you give a rough outline of the route please? A couple of interesting bits there ....

[Jug]

Sure.

We started off at the filling station in Kilmington, headed north up to and around Stockland, nipped further up to Ullcombe and then headed south to Cotleigh, then through Honiton and out towards Ottery St Mary but then turned and hit the start of the East Hill strips instead, before heading back east to Offwell, Northleigh, Colyton and then back to Kilmington, about 5 hours riding.

It was all within East Devon and we only did fraction of the lanes that east Devon has to offer.
South Devon has more legal lanes again, and North devon has some of the most scenic.
Devon is blessed with having a large amount of very good quality legal green lanes, it must up there as one best counties in the UK to ride. Cornwall and Wales have great lanes too, Dorset is ok, Somerset not so much...(long story) .
The southwest as a whole is a pretty good area for trail riding.

If anyone gets an urge to take up this hobby I'll happily show you around or if not local enough I can probably arrange for a more local TRF member to give you a guided ride.

So if you want to go riding but don't have any riding mates, don't worry.. there are rides arranged often which can cater for all levels of ability.

[TLS-Moose]

Sure.

We started off at the filling station in Kilmington, headed north up to and around Stockland, nipped further up to Ullcombe and then headed south to Cotleigh, then through Honiton and out towards Ottery St Mary but then turned and hit the start of the East Hill strips instead, before heading back east to Offwell, Northleigh, Colyton and then back to Kilmington, about 5 hours riding.

It was all within East Devon and we only did fraction of the lanes that east Devon has to offer.
South Devon has more legal lanes again, and North devon has some of the most scenic.
Devon is blessed with having a large amount of very good quality legal green lanes, it must up there as one best counties in the UK to ride. Cornwall and Wales have great lanes too, Dorset is ok, Somerset not so much...(long story) .
The southwest as a whole is a pretty good area for trail riding.

If anyone gets an urge to take up this hobby I'll happily show you around or if not local enough I can probably arrange for a more local TRF member to give you a guided ride.

So if you want to go riding but don't have any riding mates, don't worry.. there are rides arranged often which can cater for all levels of ability.

Thanks. Thought I recognised a couple of the lanes. Agree with all you say. My Laning vehicle has stabilisers. And a 4.0l V8

[Jug]

Some of the lanes could do with a visit from one of those beasts, just to push the bushes back a bit... doubt they are wide enough for you to get down though.

[chr1s]

Wouldn't mind getting into the dirt again...tried to join the trf Devon forum last year but never heard back from the admin...that said....I need to buy a bike first..

[Jug]

Yeah, I'm not sure whats happening there. Occasionally someone will post to say their mate hasn't been able to join, sometimes it can be that not all the required info was filled.
It should have a contact email address so new members can alert someone if this happens.. I'll check that out.

[TLS-Moose]

Some of the lanes could do with a visit from one of those beasts, just to push the bushes back a bit... doubt they are wide enough for you to get down though.

No, a couple of those are a touch narrow ..... though its surprising what it can be made to fit

I only wish the 4x4 community was as unified behind a single, effective, representative body like bikers are with the TRF. There's too much pettiness, factioning and in-fighting within the 4x4 groups A single, unified, 4x4 group working alongside the TRF could do a lot to improve the chances of these lanes being kept open for motorised use.

[Jug]

I only wish the 4x4 community was as unified behind a single, effective, representative body like bikers are with the TRF. There's too much pettiness, factioning and in-fighting within the 4x4 groups

Erm... yeah... if only it was like that... maybe a few years ago.
Devon use to be the most popular TRF group, had the most paid up members and would have several ride outs running each weekend. Then the trolls came out to play... and the good guys went away...

For sure the TRF are still very active in fighting (and in-fighting ) but the man at the top has gone in a different direction which has upset a lot of the old guard. Still the TRF itself seems to be surviving.
Devon group seems to run pretty much independently now but is quieter because of it. It needs more people to come back to the forum and start posting ride invites again, along with run reports etc. I think groups have cycles of activity. Facebook eats away at forums and people's lives change. There are less and less people taking up riding in general I think and this all has an effect.
Some of people I know are getting electric mountain bikes as well as, or even instead of...