Month: May 2010

This past Sunday I was out in Ganaraska forest again… but not for a regular ride: this time it was a club event: the Mini Pine 2010!

Getting out of bed before 6 and on the road by 6:30 had me rolling in to Sandraska Park at around 8:15am:

 

 

I thought I was a bit early… but the lot was already over half full, and filling up fast!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had never seen so many bikes in one place before!

 

 

 

 

 

And trailers kept rolling in with more: from golden oldies to bikes that looked like they were fresh out of the crate:

 

 

 

In addition to the OFTR trailer there were some vendors present as well: KTM, Yamaha, Husaberg and Gas Gas… some with bikes for sale…

 

 

 

 

… as well as some private owners with sale signs on their bikes, big and small:

 

 

I saw some people I knew…

 

 

…and met others while chatting in line… which didn’t start to shorten until close to 10am:

 

 

Finally everyone mobbed together for the kickoff meeting: to learn how the enduro guys would launch, how the trails were flagged, safety stuff etc…

 

 

…then everyone headed back to their bikes to suit up.

 

 

 

There were 44 groups of enduro riders (up to 4 in a group), all launched one minute apart from each other (so that’s at least 150+ bikes right there) before the trail riders could head out. Soon the low numbered bikes started to line up for the 10:15 start:

 

 

The trickle of bikes lining up soon turned to a flood…

 

 

 

 

…with the most popular brand being KTM by a wide margin. I’d guess the second most popular brand I saw was Yamaha… but maybe that’s just what I wanted to see (because I ride one 🙂 )

 

 

 

Finally the launches started… taking 45 minutes to get all the enduro guys out into the field.

 

 

Most of the trail riders just watched, though a few were queued up at the start area to get a jump on things. Lots of kids on smaller bikes with their parents!

 

 

Half way through was a gas stop. Anyone who couldn’t make the whole loop in one tank put their jerry cans on a large trailer… and while the riders were making their way through the first section the trailer was towed to the gas stop for them. I should have been able to ride the whole day on one tank but:

a) the gas station I normally use didn’t open until 10 on Sundays… so I was still riding on the same tank that brought me from Toronto

b) I had also sprung a leak: one of my 2 fuel lines was dripping gas fairly quickly. Every time I pulled over I fiddled with it to make it stop… but as soon as I started the bike up again the vibration would cause the leak to come back.

But, since I’m street-legal… I just rode to the gas station while the others used their jerry cans 🙂

 

 

 

Then we were off again:

 

 

I think I only fell off once in the first loop… but 3 more times in the second stage (I was getting tired)… but finally bikes started to cross the finish line:

 

 

…the same time as the local fire department fired up their grills and started to offer burgers and hot dogs!

 

 

 

Not long after I parked some strangers popped out of the forest as well: a group of horse riders must have been dodging bikes all day.. and ended up coming out at the finish line. After thinking about it for a sec they crossed under the same canopy where the enduro riders checked in… to great applause from the huge lineup at the BBQ 🙂

 

 

 

 

Finally, here’s some YouTube footage of the event from my camera and helmetcam:

I had a great time… though I was tired and sore by the time I rolled back into Toronto around 5pm. I can’t wait until next year! Since the enduro portion is nothing too serious… maybe I’ll give it a go!

…to steal the phrase from the 3WheelerWorld forum. May 1st was the first 2010 meetup of the Southern Ontario Trikers (SOT) at Ganaraska forest… organized by my friend BJ (Xhumeka).

Got over to BJ’s early in the morning to help get the trailer sorted. Normally he could take up to 3 bikes…

 

 

…but fitting an ATC in there too required a bit of out-of-the-box thinking… and a slab of dead tree:

 

 

BJ’s friend Paul soon arrived and we were on our way. Although Paul rode street, it was his first time on a dirtbike: way to get thrown in the deep end! 🙂

Soon enough we were out at the Ganny, greeted by an assortment of trikes, quads and bikes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and here’s Paul all ready to go!:

 

 

Due to a couple of errors on my part, first taking the “back road” to our first destination… and secondly mishearing BJ’s next destination after he found us… I was in “group 2” for the day. 3 quads and 2 bikes meandering the forest and never quite meeting up with the main group until lunch. Which is too bad, because it would have been nice for everyone to make it to the Forest Center and stream at some point… but we still put on some miles… and taught Paul how to kickstart a dirtbike:

Or after it wore it him out… how I could kick it.

And how when I got tired some of the quad guys could kick it 🙂 (thanks to everyone on their quads who kept us dirtbikers moving!) Note to self: never buy anything that doesn’t come with working electric start!

We did make it to The Lookout first thing, before we kinda lost track of each other for awhile 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made it back to the parking lot about 20 minutes ahead of the main team, just before lunch, … and just as it started to rain. Paul was just happy to be off the bike for awhile:

 

 

I had only brought a couple snack bars for the day, so I borrowed Pauls backpack and burned down the road to the nearest burger shack (hooray blue plate!), and returned with a bag full of fries and bacon-cheesburgers. And one of the SOT guys had a big box of chocolate-chip cookies for desert: sweet!

The rest of the day went off without a hitch: giving my group a chance to see some of the local hillclimbs that we missed in the morning. Then it was time to pack up. A little bit of excitement as we had a why-is-the-trailer-moving-oh-shit-it’s-not-attached! moment…

 

 

..but other than that it was just getting the bikes all lined up to fit the trike back on BJ’s trailer:

 

 

…and a quick stop at Tim Hortons on the way home.

 

 

Thanks to everyone who helped make 2010’s first SOT meetup a success, and special thanks to BJ for organizing it. Congrats to Paul for sticking with it the entire day… right to the final fall in the parking lot just as we returned from the last run 🙂

Now for the YouTube: several hours of boring helmetcam footage trimmed down to just the interesting bits: