Motocross Knitta!

The last two weekends Skoot and I have headed out to more remote and bush-covered areas to indulge in our Trail Bike obsession. I've yearned for a motorbike since I was about 8 years old, and after making the decision earlier in the year to take home two frisky trail bikes (not road bikes - as we value our existence and refuse to put our lives in the hands of negligent drivers) we have never looked back!

Every time we go riding we get out of the city, out to the 'wilderness', doing something active, muscle-toning and exciting, and doing it together, sharing times together doing something we love.

Skoot's much more experienced than I, but I've been coming along in leaps (literally) and bounds and am now much more confident on the bike, corners and in the wet - which is just as well seeing as the last two weekends have seen us mud-covered and drenched!

Weekend before last I learned an important lesson to add to my TrailBikeExperienceSet...

Wet logs and roots are not your friend.

I, of course, learnt this the 'hard way'. Wet log = slippery, UBER slippery, and the result can be seen below.

[The two red circles should be TOUCHING and attached!! Not the clutch dangling away on its cable]

We'd only been out for 20 minutes or so when I managed to very expertly detach the clutch lever from the handle bars. COMPLETELY. The clutch lever itself didn't snap as has happened before, no no, the ENTRE bracket sheared off! I was thankful though, that it was the bracket that broke, not my wrist or hand (can you IMAGINE?! NO. KNITTING. *eyes widen with the horror of that thought*) but it did mean Day Over for me. The ignition had been busted out from the guts of my lovely (and GREEN no less!) bike by the fall too, so we fiddled about and managed to start her up, then we swapped bikes for the ride back to camp, as Skoot was able to gear shift without a clutch.

And then, when we made it back to camp and the rain had started to just sprinkle ever so lightly down upon us, and we decided to pack up all together and head home... I redeemed myself. Oh yes!! I may have completely come unstuck in a very unco-ordinated and bike-mushing way, but I REDEEMED MYSELF!!

The red dirt clearing seen in the top photo shows where we parked the car that day, in the centre of a sort of amateur motocross set up, with berms and jumps, drop off and a vague circuit around the clearing. As Skoot was sorting out my Greenie near the ute I did a bit of a circuit on his bike and pulled off two, yes count them TWO, air jumps and landed them both!

*leaps about with the excitement of it all*

Skoot saw the first one from his vantage point on the ute and told me it was awesome, that I'd soared through the air a decent way and landed convincingly. I am THRILLED!! Just those 2 seconds of the first jump filled me with confidence and dashed any residual fear or apprehension I had for motocross. Now that I am relaxing more each time I ride, my body is more flexible and connected to the bike, instead of staying rigid and tightening up at bends or rough terrain.

We went out with a group of friends this last, soaking weekend, which was SO much fun! Skoot and I, and the two lads were all on bikes, and Kelly brought along her racing quad. That's a LOT of bikes! We barely fit them all on to Gus our trusty, faithful and adorable ute. Lookattitall! We barely had enough room for the camping gear!

We went out Saturday arvo and stayed over night in such a gorgeous spot, absorbing the mellow surrounds and crisp air. The next day we got up bright an early to get some riding in before the forecast rain made its inevitable appearance. I've always thought riding in a 'pack' would be awesome, but I hadn't realised just how much fun it really would be! We encouraged and motivated each other, played about and enjoyed the trail rides, supported each other when things went pear-shaped or repairs needed to be done, and basically had a ripper of a time!

I even managed to get a little knitting in by the fire =)