Jolly Roosta Trail Ride Report

The team from the Kawasaki Sandpit ran the Jolly Roosta trail ride on the first Sunday of May 2010.

This is the third rendition of this event that starts and finishes on Leighton's Farm at the northern end of the Woodhill Forest.

The Jolly Roosta is fast becoming one of those must do events-even if just to see what new sections have been thrown in by Tony B and the team from the Kawasaki Sandpit. In the 3 or 4 years since the team have taken over the Sandpit and started to organise trail rides and races through the forest they have gone from strength to strength in the quality of the rides and organisation.

Tony is a great believer in giving the punters value for money and opens up the trails earlier than other events giving great value for the very competitive entry fee. The tracks opening at 8am 'ish and closing about 3pm and provides something for everyone. Best of all he even appears to groom some of the main trails and while some of the ground gets covered reasonably regularly in different events there is always something new to see.

These rides are sand based events, ride able in any weather but more fun when there has been a bit of rain to compact the sand. Unfortunately Tony isn't a weather god so the open trails were a bit fluffy. But what the hell if you nail it then they are not any problem and most people understand they are what they are.

One of the things I like about these rides especially as I get older, fatter and less fit is that there is something for everyone. There is enough challenging terrain to test the gun riders but if you have a bit of a hangover or aren't the most confident or experienced rider then you can still challenge yourself and have a whole lot of fun.

For most people, including kids on anything but a peewee most of the tracks-including most of the main trail are achievable by anyone with decent fitness and confidence.

Tony also seems to get together plenty of helpful sweep riders and most importantly in these days of get going when you get there rather than a massed briefing, someone to give you the key info as you roll through the start gate. 'At the water tank decide which way you are going to go. If you hit the main trail from there there are no shortcuts back so make sure you have plenty of fuel.!

The ride consisted of one main 50 odd k loop and several shorter loops. The main loop took us out to a lookout after a really neat hill climb that in all my years I can't recall ever having seen.

There weren't too many road sections, for me they seemed to come at just the right time to have a bit of a rest before ducking back into the forest.

I'm going green-one day

I ride a dirtbike for recreation and I am a sometime racer. I like nothing more than riding in the great out doors. The roar of a high performance two stroke engine ringing in my ears and spewing hydrocarbons into the atmosphere and a big knobbly tyre ripping chunks out of the earth. I have even been known to stop at times and appreciate view. We get to get into some really neat places.

Greenies are against people like me enjoying this kind of activity, just as they are against anyone enjoying the great outdoors unless they plant a forest to offset their carbon footprint and live off a diet of nuts and berries.

Riding areas are being closed all the time, not just because some greenie group or council has decided that a block of bush is the only known habitat of some unhitherto unknown species of plant that has to be protected but also because of increasing safety and well being compliance issues. Though sometimes it seems to me that environmental groups just want to close vast areas of the country off to preserve them in their pristine native condition so that nobody can enjoy them.

Of course some people who ride motorbikes don't help the cause by riding where they are not supposed to and damaging fragile ecosystems while their noisy bikes simply annoy people. There are hoons everywhere.

Most of the riding we do is on formed tracks on race tracks, farms and forestry or bush blocks, or single tracks purposely cut through through the trees. Any damage is pretty localised and nothing a bulldozer can't put right.

I am sure that one of the biggest objections to people on dirtbikes is the noise. Even a properly muffled bike multiplied by several hundred riders at a race track or trail makes a lot of noise.

But help is at hand. Electric dirtbikes are being developed around the world and could revolutionalise the sport and open up new riding areas that would normally be closed due to noise issues.

In terms of useability these bikes are nowhere close to the current combustion engined bikes. They aren't as fast for a start. They have limited range and the fact they take a few hours to recharge between rides doesn't make them attractive to most riders yet.

But the time is coming that these bikes will be the equal of a combustion engined bike and we'll be buying them along with generators so that we can charge a spare battery while we carry on riding in places like this block of bush.




That will just give the environmentalists another excuse to stop us-just imagine all the power stations that are going to have to be built to satisfy our lust for green electric powered bikes and cars.

Going to the dogs

One of the things that I can never understand is how people who have pet dogs seem to think that everyone should put up with their constant barking, let alone shitting and pissing all over other people's lawns. How the their rights to have a dog and the dog basically making a nuisance of itself override the rights of other people to have a bit of peace and quiet. Or to walk down the street or through the park without worrying about being mauled by someones pet.

In our street there are several small yappy dogs that will bark from time to time. One in particular gets right up my nose as it's owners tie it up in front of the house where it barks at anything that moves past.

I live in a fairly new subdivision, the houses are plonked on fairly small sections and are all pretty close to the road. Make a lot of noise, have a loud argument or have the stereo turned up full noise and everyone in the street can hear it.

Tie the dog up outside the front door and there are only a few metres to the footpath. Through the long summer evenings that people enjoy walking in it yaps at everybody that strolls past. Don't the owners hear the bloody thing barking. And how do they put up with it? That is what I can never work out.

This is one of the fundamental questions of the age and can be applied to the people who decide around midnight to turn the stereo up as far as it can go or start mowing the lawn at 7pm on a Sunday night. Don't they think about the noise they are making or don't they care?

I know I don't any more. I have DVD full of Sex Pistols songs to play when I get annoyed and I no longer worry about what time I crank my motorbike up when I want to service it or give it a test run.

If you can't beat them, join them and make their lives a misery.

If I had my way I would ban all dogs from residential areas. Not a popular idea I grant as all those people that practice anthropomorphism where their dog is concerned would immediately be up in arms. Maybe they should all just get a life and learn a little bit about respnosibility.

But if we are all going to live in relative harmony with our neighbour's we have all got to learn that we can't always do what we want to and need to think a little about how our actions impact on others. Having a small yappy dog that annoys people is one of those things. So while I might like to I don't respond the way I would like.

Motomuck - the miracle cleaner

Riding a dirtbike is great fun but there will come a time when the bike needs to be cleaned as they tend to get a little dirty.

I don't know about you but I always struggle to get my bike as squeaky clean as it was when it came out of the box or back from the bike shop after a periodic tune up.

No matter how diligent I am I can never seem to get the bike completely clean. Not only do I manage to miss bits of mud, sand or dust entirely and those bits of grease on the swing arm where I was a bit generous with the chain oil. I just cant seem to get the plastics and the shiny bits smear free. It is little wonder that she who must be obeyed always says don't bother when I help out with cleaning duties around the house.


Now I have always been skeptical of miracle cleaners, they either don't work unless you follow extremely detailed instructions and water blast the bike clean first or they strip the bike back to bare metal and consume the plastics.

That is until I discovered Motomuck and turned this..............

the result of a fun day in the forest.......

......into something that closely resembles the trusty steed when it was brand new.

Ok so I have taken a few liberties here but needless to say I am impressed with the product.

Basically once you get home (or maybe the next morning as the bike and any muck needs to be dry) spray Motomuck all over the bike. Wait ten minutes (maybe have a beer)and then wash the bike clean.

Any muck or grease simply washes away, especially from all those hard to get to bits., the engine cases and exhaust system. Hey my bike doesn't look brand new but it isn't far off.

Motomuck has been developed and is marketed by Hiltron Security Systems. Motomuck is a non caustic, non acidic cleaner that won't damage plastics or metal. For more information and ordering information click here.

Places to Ride-The Possum Trapper Trail Ride

Greg Power has multiple New Zealand Trials and Enduro titles under his belt and through his events company Power Adventures organises anything from training sessions to most recently a three day enduro in the Maramarua forest south of Auckland. Power Adventures also runs a number of trail rides around the place.

The Possum Trapper is an annual trail ride held in the early New Year in the Maramarua Forest. The Maramarua trails are clay based. Wickedly greasy in the wet with slippery roots snaking across the tracks to tip up the unwary and incredibly dusty when it's dry.

The trails are a combination of overgrown access roads and single track through the trees linked by gravel roads in various states of repair.

Greg does his best to provide something for everyone-from the novice to the expert. One of the aims of these rides is to get people involved in riding. The last thing a novice rider wants to encounter is an almost impassible obstacle that exhausts them and puts them off riding. But there is also enough to keep the likes of me and indeed experts happy.

The only real criticism I have is  that some of the sure directional arrowing is a bit obscure. We were intent on doing the expert tracks but I'm not sure that we rode them all. A  map of the tracks and clear arrowing would be useful.



Contact
Power Adventures
Where?


View Maramarua Forest in a larger map

Places to ride-The Kawasaki Sandpit

We're quite lucky in this part of the world to have several motocross tracks available and several active clubs and charity groups who organize regular trail rides.

We are also really lucky to have the Sandpit where for $25 a throw a man can blast around to his hearts content.

The Kawasaki Sandpit is an offroad motorcycle park based in Woodhill Forest 40 minutes north west of Auckland along state highway 16 towards Hellensville.

There are some 1000 acres of sand based trails winding through the trees in the forest. The trails ranging from tight single track to full throttle return roads provide something for everyone; from the novice rider to expert.

The park also has a couple of motocross practice tracks and a trials area. The best part about the Sandpit is that even when it is pissing down it is always open. In fact the best time to ride at the park is just after heavy rain which compacts the sand and provides awesome traction.

Set in a pine plantation long dry spells increase the fire danger and at these times recreational users of the forest operate under restrictions or can be forced to close temporarily. 

Long dry periods make some of the return tracks quite fluffy and a bit of a challenge for some riders. But there are plenty of tracks to choose from.

The Park is open 5 days a week, closed on Mondays and Tuesdays when the main trails are groomed and open late on Thursdays through the summer.

Contact
The Sandpit

Where?
Woodhill Forest
Molloy Road entrance (off Rimmer Road)
SH16
Helensville

View State Highway 16 diversion in a larger map

Common misconceptions

Billions of us live in a world of instant mass communication where news and new ideas, new technologies and ideologies flow faster than could ever have been imagined just a few short years ago.

I am sure that one of the reasons the world fell into recession so quickly in the last couple of years and why we appear to be coming out of it equally rapidly compared to the Great Depression of the late 20's and 30's is the speed that the bad and now the good news has flowed around the globe. One of the other reasons is surely that global economic power is shifting from the western hemisphere to Asia. India and China in particular have emerged relatively unscathed from the recent economic meltdown caused by American Corporate greed and ignorance.

This communication revolution has good and bad points. The development of news and I use that term loosely has generated a need for instant gratification. If something happens in the world we want to know about it now. As perception is reality then those first images, those first comments and ill informed analysis are the ones that stick-even though in the longer term they are proven to be nothing but bull#$it.

Combined with the ability for all of us to transmit all that we know or imagine to be the truth at the press of a button and beam our random thoughts in living colour to the rest of the world no matter how ill informed the world is being dumbed down by a deluge of half truths, fantasy and misinformation.

Not only has the web and all its offshoots, blogs, tweets, and every organisation that has the nohow to build their own 21st century soap box made all the news that is fit to print available to all it has also made all the news that isn't fit to print available to everyone.

Traditional media organisations that have had the resources to actually investigate what is going on in the world seem to be a dieing breed. Cut off at the knees by falling advertising revenue and falling subscriptions. The web is the way of the future but the traditional print media don't seem to be able to make this work for them yet. Maybe subscriptions are the way to go. People will always pay for quality product even in a world that expects to get most things for free. But the technology to deliver the product electronically to the kitchen table doesn't exist yet.

Papers (of the news type) like books won't die completely until there is an electronic medium that is as convenient and portable as they are. Something that can deal with the rigours of spilt milk and being shoved into a pocket to be read later.

But I'm getting off the track. This blog was supposed to be about popular misconceptions and misdirections in part perpetuated by the modern media. So here we go.

NZ's ACC and motorcycle registration costs

In the last few days the ACC (New Zealand's no fault accident insurance scheme which is funded by things like vehicle registration costs) has announced an increase in registration costs for large motorcycles as the owners of big bikes are over represented in accident statistics. There can be no argument about this as it is true-just as it there can be no argument that most accidents involving motorcycles are caused by four wheeled vehicles. However, people on bicycles are equally as vulnerable and probably as equally represented in accident statistics. A broken cyclist is going to cost the same to put back together as a broken motorcyclist. The difference is motorcycle has to be registered, it's rider licensed and he pays various user charges. A push bike however is green and gets away with anything. But in a user pays world shouldn't they be paying their fair share?

Global warming

The world is warming up based on recent history. But then the world has also been through a recent cooling period. I read recently that the French Revolution was in part caused by famine that was related to a series of wet and cold winters. The world was apparently cooler in medieval times than at the height of the Roman Empire.

I believe that we should do all we can to protect our environment and reduce the impact on mother nature of our activities. We should look for cleaner greener ways of doing things but I don't believe that the activities of mankind are solely to blame for global warming. If we can't predict the weather accurately suggestions that we are the cause of global warming are supposition.

Oil is running out

Oil is the driving force of our economies. It allows people like me to live in the suburbs and drive to work, enjoy motorsport and indirectly provides me with a living. Of course oil is running out -it is a non re-new able resource. But I can't image that it will run out and be priced out of reach for most of us in my life time. (Hopefully I am not wrong). Look at a map of the world or a globe and have a think about where most of today's supplies come from and then see how big the rest of the world is. We just haven't found it all yet. I am sure that not too far down the track someone is bound to come up with some new form of energy that will make the need for oil redundant.

Electric cars, fuel economy and sustainability

I am not sure that the replacement for the internal combustion engine is going to be the hybrid or electric cars being developed today. What is sustainable about building vehicles that need batteries to run? They are more expensive to build and well we're going to need more power stations to generate the electricity to power the batteries.What are they going to run on? Then what do you do about disposing of the batteries when they are exhausted?

And as somebody pointed out to me the other day what is sustainable or green about ditching the older vehicle and buying a new fuel efficient model? Sure it might use less fuel and spit out slightly less CO2 into the air -but what about all the cost of actually producing that new vehicle in comparison to keeping the old one on the road until it is no longer economic to repair?