After a missing a couple of weekends I was quite keen to get out on the CRM again. I joined a couple of others for a early morning start and I have to admit, I wasn’t at my best due to lack of sleep, remnants of jetlag and a rather turbulent week but nothing ventured, noting gained.
The first thing of note was that on tarmac, the bike was a new bike. The tyres are wonderful compared to the other ones on the road and off road, they felt more confident too. With the small group and the new found grip and probably mt state of mind, I became more adventurous with the bike, firstly by standing up a lot more and also by going a bit quicker. This proved to be a bit risky as I lost track of how many times I fell off the bike, I suspect it made double figures. I feel sorry for the CRM.
We covered many different tyres of terrain ranging from gravel tracks, moorland, watery muddy bogs under trees, rocky terrain with obstacles and the ever present fords. Points of interest were:
- Coming to stop on a steep bit of hill with the front wheel up a step, trying to get going again, wheeling it and ending up with the bike vertical and me pinned against the bank under it.
- Successfully getting across a combination of a corner combined with bogs and a stream only to have the bike cross rut, go sideways, stall and fall over.
- Trying to get through a bog on the moorland and getting very stuck. When you can’t see the rear wheel as it under the mud, you know its going to be fun getting it out. The three of us did get it out (thanks guys!). As I walked out, I stepped on a bad bit and I disappeared into another bit of the bog up to the tops of my thighs..
- Crossing a ford, I went for the standing up with a bit of momentum approach. I hit a very large rock in the middle and according to the observers, the bars went to full lock, the bike stopped and I went over the bars. The bike took a little coaxing back into life since the exhaust was full of water but the engine thankfully wasn’t. After this I was rather wet. It did clean the mud off my boots and the bike though.
- The only on tarmac incident of the day, coming up to a T junction and I was busy looking for a sign of which way to go. I put the brakes on to stop having not seen the gravel and the front wheel slid from under me, with the others watching with a grandstand view.
The day finished a little early as the others are out again tomorrow. I think given my performance this was probably good for me too. Despite the number of incidents, the clothing and other gear did its job and I’m fine, even if I may have difficulty moving tomorrow (as usual). The bike just needs some TLC on the usual areas like bending the handguards back into shape and checking on the state of the gearbox oil.
So it was good and I did enjoy it but I’ll not be pushing the boundaries quite so much next time and will hopefully have a few less interesting moments with the bike ending up on its side.