2017 Harrow 100 vinduro - Victoria Australia

has been run and everyone covered in mud! what a great weekend, although the gods were against me from the start. Friday - drive 4.5 hrs from work home. saturday load up and drive 3.5 hrs to harrow. along the way i saw my 10 litre jerrycan had fallen over...in righting it i see its empty!!! the lid had caught and opened and lost all my mix..lucky i didnt do the flaming fandango!
get to harrow and pay entry..im rider 163 (this will teach me not to pre enter) gear up fire up and off to the practise loop...took a wrong turn, up a hill then sput put pow phut ..did a plug! @$# quick road side changeout and backtrack and hit the loop. "avoid the bogs" a helpful soul said and im glad he did as there were some shockers...make it thru the loop to the short nat terrain track and was enjoying a bit of you pass me, i pass you back with a bloke on an 87 240 when the guts of the muffler left town "gunna be one of those daze"...back to camp, track down a few tec screws and thats fixed..now the chain roller has disappeared more repairs and she is ready for the parc ferme.

i was ready for the big day (near dead last in the starting order) so had to work my thru some pretty chewed up ground in the lachy loop even got passed by kdx geoff on a greasy hill (after i showed him the best line across the pooh patch...did he thank me?? hell no, just kept reminding me about the hill (he was on the grass) so out for the big loop and managed to get thru the sean hamilton special test (boggy creek with very steep sides) without outside assistance and had a pretty uneventful ride to the fuel dump. headed out for the Mc Clure loop and hooked up with a couple of guys on XR's and had a hoot in the sand before they stopped for something and i lost them, got thru all the bogs and creeks and off camber slippery hills and had a ball in the sandy ferny country until the run down the fenceline where hidden in there somewhere was something that put me into orbit, i rekon the overloaded bum back was the only thing that stopped me from passing the centreline and i landed back down on old faithful who was rolling along like nothing happened (husky owners know what im talking about) headed back to the fuel dump and hooked up scooter and his mate and headed for the campground and both nearly finished up in the nasty looking ditch just before the road section back to the camp.

fuelled tank and stomach and headed out for the second loop, track just up to the road was in a sorry mess...my diet and exercise regime leading up to Harrow was paying dividends..NOT!!!
the run through the ferns was a bit wobbly and luckily the Hamilton special test had been re flagged i made the fuel stop all right and headed out on the Mc Clures loop and was passed by a fast young bloke on a maico in the sand hills, tried to keep up but that wasnt gunna happen then the maico stopped with a stick jammed in the speedo drive so i got passed him again only for him to catch me up and disappear... still he got me back on the gas for a bit....then we caught some blokes looking for a clean line through a creek and like vultures when we spotted one we all dived on it. a little train of bikes chugged along for a while which was fun but a few fell off the back and the young fella on the maico headed off into the distance coming around to the real greasy off camber hill, i saw him just cresting the rise and thought i will have another crack...this distracted me for a vital second or two and suddenly there was small ditch in front which i popped the front wheel over it only to realise that 1. the track went left, 2. i was going way too fast and 3. a 12 ft ravine lay in front.....what to do?? PANIC, i hit the brakes and accelerated and as the bike left the bank, i lept for my life and went SPLAT ala Wiley E Coyote on the far bank and slid slowly down onto the bike...bugger!

i lay about for a bit and had a few snakes then looked at the scene...shit the bike was being washed down into an even bigger hole under the fence so i had jump in and wrestle it back up. the only way it was coming out was with 3 or 4 fit blokes. None arrived. eventually a bloke showed up..."wheres your bike??" he said.. i pointed to the gully..."Christ..how we gunna get it out?" i said "go get help" fortunately he remembered to tell the sweeps and they came looking...when they arrived they all got their phones out and started snapping away 10 minutes later and half a roll of tape holding the headlight on, i was away again (thanks guys, was a great job) i passed team penrite coming into zoggs bog and got passed by a pair of pigtales...can you believe it? she was on it! Then she disappeared into a big puddle and i managed to avoid the mud shower and then struggled back to Mc Clures for a snag and a drink... i headed out for the final section but the sweeps had closed the gates so i was back on silver...top it off, it pissed rain on me all the way back to camp. what an epic. got a few minor aches and pains, (corked arse from that flying w) and i need a new radiator shroud and headlight and tailight....i love Harrow... sorry about the novel but i have a bit of time before the news... PS the wr went like pooh off a shovel all day!..anyone got a headlight shroud???

here is a pic of the scene of the crime

How many times did it take to dig a trench this deep? Sorry I just had to ask. Lol talk about digging a hole, going in a hole.

Really if night riding hitting that wouldn't be fun.

Classic! Can't wait for the next chapter

Where is the go pro video?

the #$%$#@ go pro was flat batteried

all you would have seen was a sudden approaching green wall followed by "oh Sh*t" yelled real loud

rebuild the hodaka gearbox...AGAIN!...he made it

just before the unfortunate incident.....

nice night shot there....

That throttle cable is scary!

Standard before side pull throttles!!

that was SOP back in the day... use to get your leg caught in the brake or throttle cable sometimes... ...or the cable would loop around the fork top on compression and lock up the brake on extension. eventually, we wised up. mostly.

nothing like the "ol stick grabbed your throttle cable" for that extra launch into the bush

Right, then the Gunnar Gasser throttle came out and anybody with 20 bucks got 1 quick

hey if that cable postion was good enough for Roger Decoster's Suzuki RH400 it's good enough for me !

I bet he got 1 quick too!

1977- Roger DeCoster scopes the track aboard his Suzuki RH Factory Bike.

look at that gear shifter position... I thought I was the only one. (well, and every trials guy too, I guess)