On the  4th Nov 09 12 Tag-Alongs flew up  from Melbourne and had their bikes delivered to Trailworx camp grounds and spent 4 days with us testing their skills on the Watagan trails.
Following their 4 day camp we rode them through the bush to Swansea  where they boarded a fishing charter to end their awesome getaway.
The blokes had a blast and are already talking about making an annual ride with us. A great bunch of guys we definitely will look forward to riding with them again.

On the weekend of Sept 2/3 we had a group of friends consisting of 2 ex Newsouth Welshman, and 2 ex poms on a 2 day  “extreme” tour.  A local from bunbury (Bill) came with me for the ride.

The group, all riding KTM 450s & 525s, with Bill on a trusty 98′ Husaberg 600FE, and me on the Berg 550, had a ball.

The lads struggled on a few of our bigger hills, but with some tutoring, they managed to get up most of them, and soon they will be blasting these hills with ease. The boys were blown away at the size of the hills, steaks, the burgers, and the serenity and scenery of the Blackwood Valley.

Prologue

This is a typical story of many a trailrider. A bloke reaches a certain age, the kids are growing up – some spare time is available; it’s time to take up a hobby. The thought of golf is tantamount to laying down and waiting to die, you need something with some adrenalin involved. Thoughts go back to far flung carefree teenage years – yes, a dirtbike is the go!

Research is undertaken in earnest, scouring the internet and magazines for information. Budgets are set with the Finance Minister, there’s not much cash available – a dual-purpose secondhand trailbike, a cheap pair of boots and helmet and that’s it. It can also be used to commute – hell it’ll pay for itself in the savings! We’re off.

And thus it starts; fast forward a few years – the hobby has become an obsession. The commute option is ditched, A trailer gets purchased, the gear-bag fills up with new gear, flash armour, knee braces, new helmet, upgrades to better boots. The kids show an interest – a mini-bike appears in the shed. The dual-purpose trailie gets sold to upgrade to an enduro bike. Budget is now a dirty word. All weekends are now taken up with some form of trailbiking. Your old mates get neglected for your new trail riding mates. The missus has been promoted to Factory Sandwich Maker (FSM). You start going on trailbiking holidays with your new mates – and have an annual weekend “ride of the year” with a tour operator.

It’s all good – at least the bulk of the major budget items are now sorted – even if you are afraid to look at the mortgage balance. Then the FSM issues those fateful words “I’d like to give this trailriding a go!”. Off we go again. Fast forward a year, the budget deficit would make Kevin Rudd blush – but that doesn’t get discussed. The missus is hooked, all holidays are purely for trailriding. She and the kids have now neglected their mates for their new trail riding mates. A family trail ride is good fun; but a new challenge is required for our ex-FSM.

Ok, you say “What about an organised tour?”. “Aren’t they expensive?” is the reply. What follows is a re-enactment of the “Life of Brian” scene “What did the Romans ever do for us?”.

“What do the tour operators do for us?”
“Safety”
“Besides safety”
“Knowledge”
“Besides safety and knowledge”
“A full backup vehicle”
An on it goes until it’s reaches the conclusion of an organised tour being a great idea!

Enter West Coast Trailbike Safaris with a tailored annual “Girls & Partners” ride. John & Georgina Staines operate a professional and friendly tour company from their base in Kirup, gateway to the wonderful trails on offer in the SW of WA. This ride is all about the girls getting a real taste of the trailbike tour, with some extra challenge options for those up for it.

Enter The Combatants

5 couples turned out for the second year’s running of the “Girls & Partners” ride.

Couple #1: The WCS mob

Name: John
Nickname: Staino
Steed: Husaberg 570
Profile:
Tour proprietor
John spends more time on a bike than on dry land. His tours range from extreme tours peppered with ex-racers, ex-state champions and annually a should have been world champion to … well, us lot.

Name: Georgina
Nickname: George
Steed: Tricked up KTM250EXC-F
Profile:
Tour proprietor
Georgina is a relatively new rider, so has empathy with the newbies. This is the perfect antidote to Staino – half-man/half-bike.

Couple #2: The RTRA 1st family

Name: Steve
Nickname: Pretz, Mr. President
Steed: Husaberg 450
Profile:
Steve is President of the WA trailriders advocacy group: RTRA (www.rtra.asn.au).
His profile closely maps the prologue above. When not eloquently representing the trailriders of WA with government and all forms of local media, Steve loves getting out with mates and family for a ride. He had a permanent smile this weekend based on his new relationship with the ‘berg. In fact so much so, that I’ve now got a marketing idea to pitch to Husaberg with the tag line “Every man needs a Hussy in his life”.

Name: Valerie
Nickname: Val, 1st Lady
Steed: TTR-125L
Profile:
Val does all the actual work for the RTRA, Steve just basks in the media glory. Val clocks in at 5′4″ and had to search high and low for a registrable bike in her height category. When will the manufacturer’s produce a 150F ADR bike? – there’s a bigger market out there than you might think.

Couple #3: The Whippersnappers

Name: Scott
Nickname: Scotty, The BIG kid
Steed: KTM EXC-R530
Profile:
Scotty grew up in the wilds of North Qld where dirtbike ownership is compulsory. Weighing in at 6′4″+ with a Wiggles attitude, Scotty was suffering severely from the ‘flu which slowed him down to warp factor 4 this weekend.

Name: Fiona #1
Nickname: Fe, Enduro Queen
Steed: KTM 200EXC
Profile:
Fe took up riding a short few years ago on a Honda 230F. Under the “toughen up princess” tutelage of Scott, she has advanced to a KTM-200EXC; finished her first season of enduro and frankly had some of the blokes worried with her speed this weekend.

Couple #4: The Gidgegannupians

Name: Jack
Nickname: Start ya bastaad
Steed: Yamaha WR450F
Profile:
Another couple closely matching the prologue above. Jack an experienced Enduro rider, whose dad took up the sport after his son and subsequently they both rode the Canning Stock Route (often mistaken by Kiwis as an annual event).

Name: Tanya
Nickname: Onya Tanya
Steed: Kawasaki KLX250
Profile:
Tanya was deceptive by her measured riding style – but calmly took everything in her stride. Onya Tanya!

Couple #4: The Paddys

Name: Tadhg (wtf?)
Nickname: TigeR
Steed: Yamaha WR250F
Profile:
The couple of the prologue above. Tadhg (just like the Tadhg Keneally that brought some class to the Sydney Swans) an experienced trail gumby – all the gear and no idea.

Name: Fiona #2
Nickname: Fifi, Macca, Yes dear
Steed: Yamaha TTR230F
Profile:
Has accelerated from FSM to Factory Rider (”do bikes have fuel?”) faster than a Chad Reed holeshot.

The backup

Name: Gerry
Nickname: Smiley
Steed: Suburban + trailer of goodies & fuel
Profile:
A dispenser of wisdom, one output “That two-stroke sounds like a bee towing a watermelon”.

Day #1

We’re finally here. No backing out now. T minus ten and counting. Staino gathers everyone around for the pre-ride talk. The tension is palpable – until Val feigns disgust at this not being a tour of the local shoe shops. Still, there is more than a few last minute nervous pees amongst the group. Finally buttons are pressed, kickstarts are kicked, cranky bikes are roll started and we’re on the way.

Personally I have done more than a few of these tours, but it seems to take an age to get a mojo happening. It’s all super gumby at the start ; heaven knows what it was like for the first timers. The beauty of the start at Kirup is that you’re on the trails immediately. The rain gods had yet to smile on WA so it was dry and dusty – it was a necessity to hang back to ride in clean air.

The group started to move along the private property fence line trails (what did the Romans ever do for us?). All was moving along until a descent down a deep sandy trail with a right angle bend saw Tanya come a cropper. Oh no, I thought, there goes the weekend for Tanya before it starts, but she obviously must also be a graduate of the “Toughen up Princess” school – she brushed herself off, gathered her thoughts and the show went on.

We cruised along varying trails slowly getting into the groove. We climbed up into the blackened Balingup pines which had recently been devastated by fire. I made an ill-formed decision to make a passing manouevre on my beloved, and was greeted with a withering stare – and an equally withering icy reception at the next re-group. Ooops – obviously still a bit edgy – time to take another position in the group for the rest of the day.

By the time we cruised into Tathra Winery for lunch all was well with the group. We had a hearty county lunch in this idlyllic setting. Brian the owner rocked up for a chat – he was happy that there was a Kwacker amongst the group. Some of Brian’s peers frequent the local bowls club whereas Brian is a keen and hard-core KLX trailrider and also cruises the bitumen on a Kawasaki 900 cruiser. That sounds like my kind of retirement plan.

Replenished after lunch, we hit the trails of Nannup bound for Margaret River. The mojo was rising. Staino expertly got the mix right. Some singletrack, lots of logging trails and then some transport to allow some time for the girls and the girls-for-a-day to relax.

In one particularly overgrown rocky, log-strewn singletrack, the group got separated. Those to the front, pulled up. BIG kid Scotty was left on his own back down the track “I’m bored” he shouted, only to be scolded by his better half. He then amused himself with beeping the horn on his bike. That must be what they’re for! It transpired later, that Val further back the overgrown track had a little spill and got trapped under her bike. She beeped her horn to attract attention – only to have Scotty just beep back. We concluded that Val must have thought on the beep back “Oh no, Scott is trapped under his bike too!”. A subsequent suitably withering stare of the Val variety put Scott in his place.

We proceeded through some excellent sandy tracks through the pines. On a regroup – I twigged that all was not well with my better half. After some counselling I extracted the info that she had taken a heavy tumble in the sand. Judging by the amount of sand emanating from all angles it looked like a full submerge had happened. I recalled my last counselling session after having taken a trip over the ‘bars after riding into a hole on a recent blokes trailride – lying on the ground checking my vital signs I looked up to see a concerned Col B go “Mate, that’s a hole – you’re not supposed to ride into them!” … funny that a similar technique does not seem to work with the womenfolk. Note that for future reference.

On we rode to Margaret River without further incident – apart from Scott leaving his corner for the call of nature – but we wouldn’t want to dob him in or anything.

Rolling into Margaret River on a busy afternoon was a blast – it was part-Easy Rider, part-Wild Hogs. I’m sure I saw at least one shopper cower, or was she was checking her shoelaces – maybe it was a part-cower?

We pulled into the salubrious Margaret River resort – this is not the typical country pub which is usually the norm on these tours. The beer garden at the front was awash with drunken Fremantle fans celebrating the derby win over the Eagles. “Hey Mate! I’ll give you twenty bucks for a ride on your bike?” … mmm, let me think about that.

Gerry unloaded our bags from the backup-vehicle, George handed out the keys (what did the Romans ever do for us?) and we headed into the luxurious rooms for a hot shower, change and relax before heading to the bar. It’s not a bad life.

We all gathered at the bar for a debrief. Over 170kms were covered today – and all had a right to feel proud. The steak sandwich was good, the beer even better and all topped off with excellent company for the night. With another 170km day on Sunday, commonsense prevailed and couples gradually peeled off for the night.

Day #2

Sunday dawned, the compulsory big breakfast was dispensed with, all geared up ready for the off at 9am. Watched by a few bemused guests of the resort the Wild Easy Rider Hogs rolled out of town. The beauty of day two of a tour is – you’re already dialled in – mr. mojo risin’ is in residence. A morning fog hovered – the sun trying to break through – we were quickly on a beautiful set of winding sandy tracks through the bush. You wouldn’t be dead for quids – I love this country!

The mid-morning break came all too quickly. The ever smiling Gerry was already set up – ready for the refuel of bike and body and pretty soon we were off again; Nannup bound.

The group was in the zone now; single-track, logging-track, gravel-track, dodgy bridges, dodging bridges – all was taken in their stride. Lunch in Nannup was at the picturesque Barrabup Pool – and there was Gerry again already set up – maybe he’s one of a set of triplets?

Some fatigue was starting to set in. After the obligatory photo-shoot, we headed off to make a reasonable time for our return to reality. Again the afternoon served up a wonderful smorgasboard of trails for the trek back to Kirup. A regroup just before home confirmed the distance covered of 338kms for the weekend. Everybody in one piece, trail hunger suitably sated. For the first timers – finally an understanding of their husband’s blubberings on return from similar previous trips.

A big thank you to Johnno, George & Gerry who made it seem like they were just another part of the group and that it all just magically came together. Bring on the 2010 Girls & Partner’s ride!

Epilogue

Unfortunately there is a sinister inevitable conclusion to this tale. Picture a perfect winter’s morning; the sun is shining after recent rains – the trails are mint. You are approaching a favourite corner on a favourite trail – on song. As you take the perfect line – a front wheel flashes on the inside – you are forced off line as the assailant executes a perfect block pass which Chad Reed would be proud of. You and your bike go bush and you are unceremoniously dumped on your arse – then the realisation – that was your missus!

Picking yourself up gingerly, you reach into your bumbag and fish out your mobile phone. Contacts -> Search -> GHI -> Dial.
“Hello, ….”
“Yes of course, would you like complimentary free lessons with your golf club membership?”
“Yes, thanks”.

In the meantime … ride while you can.

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