Witshire mini meet- greenlanes and camping..

[Tramp]

Hi all,

Right the west country thing is off [fuel prices and distance thing a offroad restrictions]
so have contacted the landlord at the following pub and he has no probs with bikers..

http://www.thegoldenswan.co.uk/

He has space for the weekend june 24,25,26 2011 i off up to have a look soon but looks really promising and food not expensive and looks a good menu.

I reccon meet up Friday evening pitch tents and have a beer etc, then on the sat morning we could do a offroad/onroad ride out into north wiltshire including the "Ridgeway" and across to shafetsbury up Zig Zag hill and across to either the Old shaftesbury drove or the Ox drove to Salisbury.

sat night grub and ale and rest aching bones , sunday morning across to salisbury plain perimiter road and round to warminster and stone hendge before bracking for home around 2pm ish.

The sunday ride will be loaded up on hard surfaces but possibly rutted etc so you may fall off but at low speeds .

I think max 10 people unless we do 2 groups , I can do a route and waypoints for the Garmin etc if anyone interested.

This is mainly for big bikes 600cc+ as the Xr boys will find some of it boring but anyone welcome aslong as they have offroad biased tyres Tkc/K60 etc incase of mud and clay .

I`ve chosen june as it will be drier and warmer and lighter nights etc so we can stay out on the sat night if having fun , plenty of stops during the day for pics etc.

Now I know this clashes with the longest day and Rippley etc but not everyone is doing them so a chance for everyone to have some fun.

This is also posted on the XRV forum....3 spaces already taken

If your a off road god and have Touraces then your welcome

[V-Rider]

Count me out then I'm on road tyres. Have a good un though.

[Lee]

Sorry guys, I'll be at Ripley – if you end up doing it a different weekend I'd love to join you. You'll probably be OK on Tourances if it's dry (and has been for a while), but I can testify to just how slippy some of those tracks can be in the wet with road-biased tyres on.

[Peejay]

I'm probably gonna be away also

if this one is a success maybe another sept time??

[V-Rider]

Sorry guys, I'll be at Ripley – if you end up doing it a different weekend I'd love to join you. You'll probably be OK on Tourances if it's dry (and has been for a while), but I can testify to just how slippy some of those tracks can be in the wet with road-biased tyres on.

Dont think I can get tourances for my tyre sizes!

Im running 120/70 17 front, 160/60 17 rear. Road biased bike I have read about versys owners in the US fitting off road tyres that are different sizes to standard... Maybe I'll have to do a bit of surfing!

[redbikejohn]

mmmm i might be up for this. all the other events clash with my racing but that weekend should fit in just fine. i've done loads of trails over that neck of the woods in the past.

http://redbikejohn.com/Dawn%20to%20dusk%20ride.htm

will be on the tenere though not the ktm - oh and not all the trails are that wet/muddy :laugh:

[Tramp]

Soory to the guys that cany make it and welcome to Redbikejohn, cool link you wont find me doing that on my Ta just to heavy.

It should be a good weekend with different trails and scenery and I`m bound to fall of in the ruts on the Ridgeway its a "balance thing".

The old shaftesbury drove is regraded to "Fovant badges" then okay to shaftesbury, oxe drove well if its wet its a "mud bath" but should be dry by then and the "plain" well that dont change any.

good to have some old hands along..

[McOo]

I'm at Ripley too. but can confirm that Tourances on Salisbury plain mud & chalk is pretty tricky!

[Tramp]

Unashamed bump,

I thought we all had Adventure bikes ? so who fancies a Adventure in Wiltshire .

ps: they look far better when dirty:woohoo: :woohoo:

the Berkshire Ridgeway is now closed to all traffic so get the chance to ride teh wilts side before that closes too....Damn hikers.

[redbikejohn]

Inspired by this thread I hit the dirt on Sunday. Copied from xt forum:


First time on the dirt. a quick ride to clear my mind.

After a not too wonderful week I was keen to get out for a ride this morning and looked forward to some sunny weather to go with it. Unfortunately I was greeted by a drizzly cloudy sky and while I’ve commuted in all types of weather the last two months I wasn’t keen to ride for fun in the wet.
I moped about the house then set to work on the ktm for a while, installing some new race jetting.



Come the afternoon and the sun was finally out so I got dressed and headed out ‘for an hour or so’. Not really sure where I was going I cruised around aimlessly until I decided to head over to my old trail riding area – the downs near Blewbury. I should have been racing there the day before on Saturday but the universe had other ideas, RIP mum.



Getting near the track I decided to see how the Tenere would handle the dirt track heading up to the track at Ashdown Farm. All seemed ok but I took it nice and easy, standing up and rolled through the two large muddy puddles carefully. Once at the top the setting sun lit up the landscape and lifted my spirits slightly so I thought ‘sod it’ and carried on up the track until I hit the byway at the junction.





Here I stopped for a few pics and to take in some more scenery. Now safely on the byway network I headed off up the hill with a little trepidation as the clay can get pretty lethal when wet and I had standard tyres on that are only fit for road work. To my surprise the trail were nearly all dry and the Ten coped more than well enough.





Heading off down another byway I was eventually blocked by a fallen tree. Manoeuvring a 190kg bike in a narrow track on a slope isn’t all that easy but thankfully it all went fine.
Once back to the original junction I set of down the hill to get back to the tar road. A deep and muddy part did not look very inviting to the road biased tyres so I got the front out the rut in time but the rear wasn’t having any of it and continued on in the rut until the bike was 90’ deg to the track. Well at least the rear grab handle makes a good lifting point to heave it out. The little bit of lifting and the added excitement of the now damp clay track had the blood pressure climbing, which in turn caused the road bike clothing to overheat me in no time at all.

I quick blast down the M40 and home to dinner.