The Insane Ride!
One of Australia's longest-running hard enduros held down in Tasmania.
The gold class riders make the prolog course look easy, although the course designers do know how
to space obstacles at very awkward distances so that even the best riders can struggle at times.
But generally these guys make it look easy,
which is why we are going to concentrate on the everyday riders...
the gumbies, the muppets, the squids, the everyday heroes.
These guys are experts at making it look really hard.
And good on them for having a go.
So here we have Ben, our local dirt muppet.
Along with Archie, his 14 year old son.
On the sighting lap, the guys get familiar with some of the obstacles.
This undercut log is going to be a tricky one on the Insane Ride.
Too fast and you go over the handlebars.
Too slow and you fall back down.
Archie is victim of the cruel track designers.
You can see the awkward spacing of the rocks and logs preventing a run up.
Ben nails the log punch technique nicely.
But it's a huge log and hard to get on top of.
What about the rest of the track for the next two days?
Some tricky off camber slopes.
Good to see most of the riders going for traction here.
Plenty of clutch slipping and careful throttle control to
avoid wheel spin and then sliding down the hill.
Wheelspin and 'wham bam thank you ma'am' do not work well in these technical sections.
You can see Ben does it slowly and methodically.
No wheelspin. Thinks it through.
Along with handy tips from Coxy. Listen to those low revs and clutch slip. Sweet stuff.
These creek sections go forever and make me wish I had done the
three day drive to attend this enduro. The water reduces traction of course,
which makes you work even harder to get traction. Great fun.
What looks like a straight forward log across the creek is going to be way harder than it looks.
Let's see how the guys go.
This is going to be another difficult one to get the bikes over'
That's it.
So the base is rock, it's got a fair bit of grip.
I just came up to it slow then got into it.
Well guys no wonder you were feeling smashed after two days of this terrain.
Well done.