I was stoked to finish the Powys enduro first and last woman. However a week after i was sporting some fine social services bruises on my arms, getting sympathic looks in Asda and getting some 'Yeah Right'looks when i told them "it's Ok i haven't been beaten up". So i decided no T-Shirts for me any more i had to cover those things up.

Last weekend Stan, and his pals Ivan, Scotty and myself did the epic Poole - Oxford - Poole trailride. We were going to start really early on Saturday, stay over in Oxford then back on Sunday. I drove down Friday and stayed at Ivan and Nicky's in Poole, who are a lovely, lovely couple. Suprisingly we all got really drunk but managed to start the next day about 6am. The lanes are pretty similar to the stuff we do around the ridgeway but they do seem abit longer. Having alot of a hangover was not such a good idea as balance was abit crap and those long, grassy, skinny, slippy ruts were abit more tricky than usual. I managed to get cross rutted quite a few times before the yammy got really pissed off with me and drove me into a barbed wired fence. As my leg was scrapping down the barbed wire i kept thinking this is gonna hurt, this is gonna hurt. Next thing i was thrown over the fence into a nice grassy field. Now let me tell you something those social sevices bruises are absolutely nothing now. I've got a bruise from my knee to the top of my thigh which looks abit like a well fed Italy.

Next stop we realised that the barbed wire had not only punctured my leg but also my radiator - a nice tiny hole just big enough so all the water pissed out - luckily it was near a bike shop that the guys knew so we got that sorted.

We got to Salibury Plane about 1ish without doing hardly any road riding then zoomed about the plane for a bit, taking detours through fields with crops up to your shoulders. I was suprised how close it is to Barbury as it prob only took us about an hour and a half to get to the cafe. We got there about 4ish had a cuppa tea and an aberdeen burger then headed to Wantage to look for an Asda so Scotty could find some shorts to wear in the evening but no luck.

Stayed at The Hare in West Hendred which we got to about 5 ish so it had taken us about 11 hours. The pub was actually really nice - rooms were abit basic but the food and drink was good. Suprisingly again we got really pissed. As Scotty hadn't got any shorts Ivan kindly lent him his cycling shorts he had been wearing all day. NICE!!!!

Next day was meant to start early again but we didn't get away till about 8.30am and Gayoff joined us for the trip back. We were all abit hangin by the time we got to Barbury Cafe to have a bit of a hangover Fry Up. I've gotta say how much i love that Cafe, the guy was gonna get up at 6.30am and to cook us breaky if we wanted it - What a star!!

Stan had told me he had one and a half hours left of fuel and ran out just before we got to the cafe - i reckon that was about one hour and twenty seven minutes. So he borrowed some fuel off Gayoff and got to about half a mile before the petrol station and ran out again and had to push it - woops!!! (still it would be quite a boring story if it went like this: rode to Oxford and back it all went smoothly and nothing happened).

Gotta say though he does know the lanes really well over there so when we ALL sort out a date and do it again......

On the way back Scotty who was getting abit tired got tricked by a skinny rut which had him off and broke his shoulder - so off to hospital for him.

We managed to get back to Poole about 6ish. It's a fab trial ride and good training for the desert rallies as it's a good long day.

Just one more little story that might make you laugh - We went for a mountain bike ride up Shotover last night and came across an overground brambly bit of lane and i would NOT go down it as i'm covered in so many brusies and scratches that i'm really fed up with it so we had to go round another way. Shortly after we got to the little jump spot they have at the corner of the forest and they've built a new jump - So, tried it flat out the back wheel got all out of shape and sent me flying. WILL I NEVER LEARN - No probably not!!!! I'm just gonna stay in and watch reality TV.

See ya all at the Welsh where we should try to sort out a date for an Oxford - Poole - Oxford ride

Over and out: GI Jane xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 SOLD

Well it seems like were one step closer to the adventure, a good turn out on Sunday at Jeffs place got the bikes loaded up so were nearly there. Dickie made an apperence just to add credability to the proceedings and Simon made it a tad later than everyone else.

Young Josh was in charge of the bike protection and did a striling job, whilst his dad practiced tickling metal with a hack saw (it looked like cutting a knife with butter).

Management was spotted in the form of Gordon and Jeff working during tea break, but a strike was averted due to the nice chocolate biscuits and sausage sarnies (Jolly Good show to the Websters again there).

Ant and Phil are off on Tuesday, and I'll see everyone else on Friday at some god forsaken hour, nice one?

Look like this...

Hopefully I have posted a few pictures of my bike prep.  The rally bracket has taken the longest to do, but I am really pleased with it.  Bike was pretty much together on Sunday 5th.

Simon

In a fit of enthusiasm  inspired by recent photos of trailer fettling, I rushed out and bought myself something I've always wanted...... a ratchet crimper (for electrical connections not my hair !). Ok so I only needed to do 8 crimps and it cost £30 including 582 unnecessary extra crimps - but suddenly the whole soggy pile of wires that is my bike looked like it mightget finished and tested before Liz picks it up in a few days- so it was worth it -and the roadbook worked immediately ! !

So I'm getting there....

reuben

Had a good go at the trailer on Saturday round at Jeffs. There was planty of hitting things with hammers, grinding, welding and all that sort of thing.

Simon sorted the electrics after going AWOL for a couple of hours in search of bulbs, Phil and Geoff had a weld off with the spare wheel fixings (we will see who wins that one on the road) whilst Jeff went off to play Tennis (management for you huh!).

I was playing nerd and doing the technical stuff while Ant was wearing his cowboy hat with pride. All in all a lot got done and the trailer is almost ready to go.

Nice one everybody.

I'm slowly getting my bike prepped - not easy when you have to stand in the freezing cold and rain in the yard to do it....

Part of the problem is that I've not seen a bike thats set up properly - anyone got a decent photo that explains where you put all the switches to be easy to use in motion ?

 I'm assuming that you need to move the KTM lights/kill switch to somewhere else so that the ICO  3 button fitson the left . What about the big ugly roadbook switch - how/where  does that fit on ! I take it that all the indicator stuff gets stripped off

Most of my stuff came via Tom Beckett but he's in Libya still so I cant ask him yet !

And also - where the best place to fit Sigg / aluminium  bottles of spare water on the bike- and do they just jubilee clip on ?

And finally - isnt the time going quickly!

reuben

To put Simons mind at rest I just got a bit of wire to connect the old Garmin GPS things with my laptop so we should be able to sort out waypoints and the like.

Once we know them of course!

I've just bought one of those 3G phones and only  this second got it to work in conjunction with the 'pooter . The files end as .3gp and play as quicktime rather than flash - can they be uploaded and viewed on the site ?

If they can I'll get some footage at the local bings - Scotlands answer to the sand dune. This weekend I saw  a friend tumble about 25 meters down one, they are pretty steep and not always soft !

reuben

(I think you need the latest Quicktime 7 to view it )
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/win.html