Riding The gravel and sand and mud etc.

Hey all,
I know some on this forum are interested in dirt bikes......
Google.. Yamaha 24 hour reliability trial. South Australia. AU. There are some videos.
4 x 6 hour laps. Day and night. + Meal breaks.
I had three goes at it 20 odd years ago.
First, as a passenger on a 48 ES2 Outfit. Slow, easy, secretly stashed hip flask of Port.
Second, with my 650 Yam Outfit. Had never riden an Outfit before... Interesting, testing.
Third, with my 600TT Yam Outfit. Much quicker, very hard work. Still no match for the experiened.
More fun, in my opinion, on the sidecar than a solo, as you can talk and have fun, slide from one side of the
road to the other in the mud, with out falling off. ( road legal tyres).
No, never completed the event.
Has become a little too expensive, as fun. If you haven't got one of these, it's nearly a waste of time.





AC.

I must ride loose stuff or not ride. Dry is worse that wet UNTIL its turned to Mud then its always instant Crisis Emergency to me. It ya can't spin out rear at will to steer and recover then its a slow claw ride. I don't always feel agressive enough to make it too pavement so sometimes in fine weather I put tail between legs and take a cage. My Peel special is primary build for this plus a side car mount so not to get knocked down just commutting. I don't see pavement as near the challenge or fun, on a 3 link tamed Commando which I think will tolerate chair lift and drift turns.

The Bonneville , there was a place youd get 115 , if you tried . Gravle on clay .Youd cut & let it settle a moment before
shooting the bend . Thatd be where Farmer Brown pulled 125 on the Trident . :shock: :lol: further alongs a turkey Farm
sometimes ' free range ' .

I think the Valentines ' fire was a bit suspicious . Was enough spares there to keep the Indian 741s going for a centurie or so

Nothing much but ' loose surfaces & mud ' pre WWII , out of the cities .Nullabor & Brewarrina sealed around 1980 .
The old man had a phase one Vanguard , mud grips on the back , for getting out to the yacht race events N.Z.,

Steve Masterton does these enduro things , the 4 day W.A. one , Honda 750 or the like . Fairly Gruelling test .

In special states of moods, not un-like long distance cyclists going through THE Pain to get THE High of endorphin, just going out for a peddle or a commute is not riding THE Loose Slutty Stuff with Real Purpose. But even just out for a peddle or mild crossing hazards appear that can force one into just giving up for THE Hurt, ya can also Go Bezerk with nothing to lose trying. The most fascinating thing to me is learning that the absolute worse state to put a bike in is -trail braking ie" using front brake while leaning a turn. THE Gravel teaches ALL and first lesion that forever ongoing is go All Braking full upright both tires inline or SPLAT.

But to a commuter on THE Grit the last thing the term brake conveys is slowing up. Its only use at speed is to help steer by twisting bike on its vertical axis ie: one or both tires at once but opposite directions and to either lay bike over or jerk it back up. Can help get sharper going into a turn by drifting rear around so thrust is more in new direction than side ways. Can help get back up after apexes, or if front slid out instantly by ignorantly doing the Most Popular Stupid Dangerous Thing That Can Be Done On a Cycle, Trail Brake, you can let go of front brake and stab rear to lock it up an instant which will snatch a Hi Side save, which gains some time and distance to get full upright both tires inline to do life saving effective braking. If ya think ha I use trail braking all my life just fine to go faster around by slowing down smarts, picture doing in on sudden layer of sand or spilled oil. Its perfectly possible to accelerate around a turn on oil slicks and marbles, if fact its the only predicable way, yet counter steering with front in good traction has nothing to do with it. The fascinating thing to me is to feel the rear let go and not do any thing about it but stay on power till it swings out enough to stop on its own as the bikes is about to fall all the way down, but it jerks bike up instead and off any remaining front traction contact so fork get tank slapped flipped the other way, but not in coutner steer but in straight steer dolly wheel like. THE Gross SHit is easiest place to induce the frist part, getting the rear and front to break free, but its the worst to get that momentum to stop when you let off throttle brake or forks.

So basically THE Gravel teaches don't mess with it unless willing to learn you can't really ride it fast w/o on purpose over ridding it into control crashes you better know how to induce so it crashes just right to save, each time every time, all the time. The requires one to get routinely arrgressive enough that you just flat know to you bones when the tires will let go and then regrip. Flat tracking coutner steering leaning sliding is next most foolish thing to try to do on THE Grime, oh its way too easy to get all set up like that, but on THE Globbers it can not and will not cause a bike to make it around a bend, only slide on fast tangent off the path. Side car rigs are able to do flater places either way, counter steering wide slide or steering direct turn while accelerating into turns not braking.

Racing across rough stuff that jumps bike off surface requires knowing how far up the side and angle will take ya, then either avoid that like the plague plan to take adavantage of it to get the bike direction changed in the air to land right on smashed down tire to hook up better out of there.

THE Gravel and The Grass have forced lesions enough to have done all the stunt actions needed to do a full snatch down into a hi side launch for a barrel roll sideways landing on rear then front tire for a whiplashing sling shot frame rebound out of there. Flat trackers could learn to do it too if they'd just put some anchored bricks or root in low small stumps in their sliding ruts. That would be what I call the top out energy part of work up phase 4 handling.

Another weird that only shows up an insane hard planning speeds on THE Grinder is the tire acts like a belt on a crowned pulley and self centers on peaks of crests and will not stay down in the cleared ruts, oh you can try to forced and hold it down but that just that much less effective traction not to get whipped right down when needing to manevour. Basically if bike ain't up for it = it will over whelm who ever is riding it at some point, but then again THE Gravel always can.

On really rough stuff at speed i stand on pegs but there's little use to press on one peg or the other, just even loads to let the bike do its yet dampen from over doing it. Powering up to break free is almost always the best thing to do even if goes against survival instincts. Powering up less than breaking free just magnifies the bad things soon to hit.