First TRF meet and green laning

[Luke_Retrofly]

Hi
Well since I purchased an enduro bike I thought I would get into off road riding, trouble is its a bitch to find legal trails to use, especially with new laws in transition.

Everyone I spoke to pointed me in the direction of the TRF (trial riders federation). So I got in contact with my local group (Loddon vale group) and they directed me to their website, luckily they were a planning a "newbie trail ride" for saturday. Purfect, and I put my name down straight away.

With only BCF meets to go by I expected us to meet up ride around on some mud for a couple of hours then bog off home. This was not the case as I would in turn find out.

For starters the meets started at 9, yes 9AM . So me being me I get up late, fanny about for too long and leave behind scedule need to get petrol and not knowing exactly where I need to go.

After getting lost I get to the meeting point half an hour too late, by then no one was there . So I ride off home a bit dissapointed.

Suddenly I see a bunch of off road bikes parked up next to a roundabout and spot a few people huddled round a bike with no rear wheel. So on the off chance I pop over to see if it was them.

It was , turns out someone had got a puncture.

First impression, yes they were a bit older than me (none under 40 I think) by the looks of it, I could be wrong, and 1 with a breard though not everyone had one as Iw as led to belive .

They seemed nice enough and introduced themselves etc. They were very organised thay had a wide range of tools and inner tubes layed out fixing the wheel. 10 minutes later it was done and we were off .

i stayed towards the rear of the group with the most experianced at the rear of the group helping out stuggling people and the navigator at the front. Pootaled around a bit on some dusty gravely road quite flat nothing special, but good for me being a kind of noob to the whole experiance.

As we get more into the countryside tarmac turns to gravel, which turns into mud and water, lots of mud and lots of water infact. soon we were splashing through deep water filled ruts bombing along with water spalshing everywhere . Im struggling a bit with the deep ruts and have to drag myself out of one at one point but was never left behind as someone was always waiting at the last interchnage for the next person to come along, and they would do the same in turn till the last person.

So all going well, slowing down for horses and pedestrians being very curtious.

FORD!

No not the car kind, the water kind. "Hmmm" I think to myself as the people infront pile through the 2 feet water. Bearing mind my off road experiance compiles of 20 mins on an MX track and trying to get up with G and korn for a few hours I was a bit daunted.

Fuck it, I think to myslef as long as you dont stop you'll be ok. So i bomb into the water.

SPLASH!

Water rides over the top of my head with water entering ever nook cranny and hole.

I keep the throttle nailed as at this point the wheels spinning.

Ive made, albiet very wet but I'd done my first ford. Great fun whens the next one I think to myslef .

So we're bombing it through more mud more puddles up to your eyballs .

Im thinking hmm probably time to go home soon, so when we stop I expect for us to say our goodbyes.

No.

they were just deciding which pub to have lunch at . ohh lunch sounds good, this days gunna last longer than I thought.

So we stop off at "the crown" their local for when off roading. We all sit down and have a nice pub lunch very civilised with tea and other drinks on offfer, someone even subs me a tenner, quality .

we chat about the trail, crappy new laws and taking the piss out of people perspectives on the TRF and how they match in some cases.

The we're off agin, 2 more fords and alot more mud. Then we get to "Devils Highway". hmm sounds nice. They're talking about ruts up to the handle bars and water above the waist. Sounds like a challenge.

It was I struggled a bit but didnt fall off once, though did have a few hairy moments, riding in deep narrow ruts is the hardest apsect of off-road riding, well it was today. Some of the ruts were fucking deep fileld to the brim with brown liquid, nice .

More wetness and fun insued. Having spen most of the morning worrying about what I was doing and not falling off I was now enjoying myself much more going through deep puddles full on and trying to jump every crest i could find hehehe.

Twas getting on so we decided to do one last ford, this was the big one, well not the big one because the big one was about 3 foot deep with a torrent of water flowing thorugh it so we decided to the next biggest one. It was a pretty long ford and one of the members walked through it first to see how deep it was, rather her than me, though my feet were already swiming in water by that time . Everyones saying that I dont have to do it if I dont want to.

Fuck that Im doing it .

By now ive learnt to go through at a steady pace so not to create a massive wash over myself. I start struggling as I have to streer into the current but make it, just. A few congratulatory pats on the back and that was the end of the meet. Though they were kind enough to take me to a pressure washer and show me how to wash my bike, they even washed down my water proofs .

By now its getting dark so we say our good-byes and I retire off home.

I had great time, the people were very friendly and helpful, offering me advice on everything off road, riding techniques, how to find off road trails, bike maintance and other places to go off roading. They were very organised the navigator was always checking his map and a few people had GPS so we would never get lost. They have meetings twice a month at a pub in reading where you can chat about new trails, copy peoples maps showing all the off road trails and discuss up and comming events. So ill be there next thursday for the next one and will deffo be going out off roading with them again soon.

Looks like ill have to grow a beard and get a waxxed jacket and start smoking pipes when I join the TRF .

I wish I had taken a camera would have got some ausome pics, so will deffo get some when I go again.

Luke (Knackerd)
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[KLR600]

Sounds like you had an amazing time!

Well done for going about things the right way aswell instead of just ragging your bike around the nearest field like a lot of kids do.

Glad you had a great time but take a camera next time!
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[T1z3R]

sounds like a hoot mate
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[Luke_Retrofly]

Hi
Yeah well pissed about not taking a camera, deffo nessity when going off roading, also one of thouse back packs that stores water, everyone had one but me .

Luke
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[Section59]

Bloody good fun this offroading lark, isnt it?

Sounds like a good day out. Deffo get pics next time.

[Type_Mo]

Sounds liek fun, I wonna go green laneing soon
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- Typhoon ?0 - Yamaha DT125R - Aprilia SR125 - Yamaha DT125R - Honda Hornet 600 -

[Luke_Retrofly]

Hi

[Andy C]

nice write up how do the bike fair up? was it underpowered being just a 250cc or was it more than enough to keep up?

i wouldnt mind trying off-roading but i think that will be in a good few years
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[Luke_Retrofly]

Hi
In actual fact my bikes probably a bit over powered for my capabilities, it being a 2 stroke 250 enduro bike I had trouble at low speeds, as I said everyone else had 4 strokes, the 400's had a bit more pull on the road but off road it didnt matter what bike you had, 1 guy had a 125 4 stroke and kept up fine, though he did flood his engine when we went through the deepest ford, though his bike was considerably lower than ours, cant remeber what is was though.

Also, i managed to purchase an OS map, luckily it looks like there are alot of By-ways open to all traffic near me, quite lucky actaully , should be taking that to the TRF meeting so I can copy all the routes they do .

Luke
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[Scotty]

Excellent so theres still hopes for the 125's YaY
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Regards
Scott