JayBo's ride - '09 Aus Safari

It’s been a couple of weeks since the 2009 Australasian Safari was run and won and I have recovered enough to try and put the event into words from my perspective. This should be a fairly lengthy epistle as an incredible amount of stuff happens in a seven day race covering over 4,000kms with 55 riders and a bunch a quads and cars in there too! I won’t cover the preparation too much other than to say it was a fairly mammoth task in its own right.
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My bike build thread already covers a fair amount of the history but in a nut shell the bike is a 2009 KTM 530 EXC-R kitted out with:
-Mecasystem 5 litre lhs alloy rear fuel tank with subframe
-Mecasystem nav tower, headlights and fairings
-MD roadbook
-ICO trip unit
-Renazco Racing seat
-Force Accessories alloy bashplate with water tank
-Trail-Tech stator
-Xenon Rider twin HIDs with slimline ballasts
-LED flush mount indicators
-Hella dust light
-Grip heaters
-ProGrip Rallye foam grips (actually Superbike grips!)
-Scotts steering damper
-KTM Hardparts PHDS bar mounts
-Pro-Tect Enduro Concepts bar risers and damper mount
-<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:country-region><st1lace>Cush</st1lace></st1:country-region> drive rear wheel
-Stealth sprockets (14 / 48 gearing)
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My body preparation consisted of cycling around 300km&#8217;s per week with a 32km commute to work each way around 4 days per week. I also did the ocassional cycle shop ride on Saturday mornings. I rode the 530 at a one day navigation Rallye in April as a shakedown but did no other dirtbike riding until the Prologue on Day 0 of the Safari. I didn&#8217;t want to risk any injuries, having had my fill of those in the last few years.

So this story basically starts with the days immediately leading up to the scrutineering and documentation and the move to the Bivouac prior to the Prologue Day 0. I should also mention here that I was part of the Kiwi Safari Team, having coaxed a couple of others to join in the fun/challenge. So Andrew flew across the ditch with his bike the week before the Safari and stayed with me a few days.

The other official KST rider was Robin, an expat Kiwi also living here in <st1:City><st1lace>Perth</st1lace></st1:City> at the moment. We all built up 530 EXC-R based bikes, with Andrew and mine being close to identical while Robin went his own path to a fair extent (different fuel tank set-up, different nav tower, different fairing and lights &#8211; actually just the base bike was the same). From across the ditch we also had Ben & Katie as Service Crew. They hired a camper to chase us around and were along primarily to focus on getting Andrew through to the finish, although available to help everyone in the team as required. Robin had Dave as Service Crew that flew across from NZ too, once again to focus on service for Robin. Robin hired a camper trailer for Dave to tow behind Robin&#8217;s Hilux ute. Ethan and Lisi were made &#8220;honourary Kiwis&#8221; for the week as my Service and Support Crew. They have a wealth of experience in car rallying and were dead keen to join in the fun after some previous plans they had collapsed on them. They drove my ute camper and towed the team trailer (borrowed from my Service Crew from last year for the event) with all the service gear, spares, fuel and tyres. There were a couple of other riders that kind of &#8220;attached&#8221; to the KST, being Kiwis too. (The official team entries are for teams of three so with five we couldn&#8217;t quite stretch to two teams &#8211; maybe next year?). Kelvin lives in the Pilbara up North a bit punting his 690 Rallye while Paul joined us as a late entry on his Yammy 450. Paul got &#8220;adopted&#8221; by the Kiwi car team of Sarah Twaddle so we didn&#8217;t actually see too much of him.

So Andrew and I headed off to collect his bike from the freight agent, picking up Ben on the way for an extra pair of hands. The bike was then brought home, uncrated and re-assembled.
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Lots of running about was then needed to source stuff that couldn&#8217;t be flown across, like fuel jerries, lubes, last minute spares, etc.

We got in some practice in fitting Mousses, to much hysterical laughter from the women present when the guys struggled with greasing the Mousses. Comments like &#8220;yeah baby, what a big one&#8221; and &#8220;it&#8217;s too big &#8230; it won&#8217;t go in&#8221; and &#8220;try a different angle and maybe more grease&#8221; kept everyone amused for hours.
Ben greasing up:
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Next up we headed to the Safari HQ for documentation and to collect the event sponsor stickers and race numbers to be applied to the bikes before presenting for scrutineering. This saw us busy for another long day in the shed.
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We took the opportunity of a long day in the garage and having two almost identical bikes, to set up and compare the HID lighting kits. Andrew went with a pair of 4200K lamps in Narva free form assemblies while I went with a pair of 6000K lamps in the Mecasystem free form assemblies. Both sets of assemblies were designed to fit Halogen lamps, not for HID fitment, and required some modification to fit.
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The difference between the yellow light of the 4200K and the white/blue 6000K is quite obvious. Hard to say which was better really ... just different.
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The bikes were then loaded in the trailer ready to head to our early timeslot for scrutineering the next day.
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We then headed to the Safari HQ to run through scrutineering. This also gave us the opportunity to try on the team clothing that KTM New Zealand provided for us.
Myself left and Andrew right.
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No problems were encountered with anything by anyone in the team, so the thorough preparation was worthwhile.
Robin's bike getting the once over.
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The bikes and riders after scrutineering done: left to right is myself (John), Andrew and Robin.
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Things didn't go so well for everyone there. The word went out that one rider was urgently looking to source a 21.5 litre fuel tank for his KTM because the one that had just been delivered wasn&#8217;t the correct one. Of course every shop in town had sold out of large tanks. Another rider had his bike on the tray of a ute and someone adjusted a tie-down only to have the bike fall over. It just happened that the fuel tap was perfectly alinged with the tail-gate and promptly something broke and fuel poured everywhere. The Kiwi Team were there quickly to help and I ended up being the mug holding the container to catch as much of the fuel as I could for the owner. By the time the guy had found the right tools to take the tap off the fuel had run out.

We left our quickshade holding our spot in the allocated Bivouac area and headed home for a while. The next day we returned early afternoon and set up our little area.
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So we attended the compulsory riders briefing and picked up the scroll for the prologue day. The next installament will begin with the sun rising on the Prologue day.
Ciao
JayBo
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for those of us who are never going to compete at anything your reports are a fascinating glimpse into what it must be like to really commit to an event and 'do it right'

really enjoying your posts

thanks


Mark

Coooool keep em coming

excellent

Let us know a lil bit about your riding technique over the tracks - ie sand & how you maintained high speeds for so long.

Thanks for your interest out there. I'll try to get the details in but prod me if there's anything in particular you want to know. I'll try and keep in mind your enquiry on riding technique Padmei and address this for each surface type as I come across it.

I'm sorry that I don't have too many photo's to support my story ... I was kinda busy with other things myself. In time I'm sure more photo's will pop out but in the mean time I'm going to "borrow" from various limited sources. I'm also sorry that I didn't take as much care as last year in saving things like my start times or noting the times I came in. It all seemed more memorable last year because it was my first time and starting really early and arriving in the Bivouac in the dark was kinda exciting, even though a PITA. This year early starts were a result of my getting steadily closer to the front runners and coming back in the dark was only the result of getting held up at an accident scene and was a rarety. In fact it was great to get in to camp in the mid afternoon once ... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

So, Day 0 dawned clear and bright. Man I love Western Australia's climate!!! A bundle of nerves today but trying to maintain an air of composure for the team. We all got ready together, although my reporting time of 9:10am for the Prologue control was a bit earlier than the rest of the team. The briefing had suggested we need to allow 75 minutes for the 68km ride to the Prologue start so we all agreed to head out at 8am. I was champing at the bit though so we actually headed off a few minutes early. Just enough time for a last minute team photo before leaving the Ascot racecourse bivouac.
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We headed out together, Andrew, Robin and I, for the hour or so ride East of Perth. In my impatience for things to get underway I gapped the other two a little as either my speedo was pessimistic or they were riding slow. Stopping at a set of traffic lights I noticed a strong petrol smell. With a huge road train truck beside me I realised it was unlikely to be him so must be me. Looking down I see fuel pouring out of a drain tube under the bike. Arrrggghhh!!! Traffic light turned green so I scoot across the lights, trying to turn the fuel off at the same time, and quickly pull up. Of with the bumbag and out with the tools to check the float bowl drain screw is tight. Yep. Tap on the float bowl a bit. Realising I was going to have to sort it out at the Prologue start I tried to start the bike but it wouldn’t start. Due to not having been ridden for a couple of months the battery soon quit. I got hot very quickly trying to kick-start it. Still no go. In the mean time the Service Crew had caught me up and Ben tried to start it. Still no go. Out with the jumper leads from my Nissan Patrol and presto. Yeehah! Quickly on the road again and I turned the fuel off, let it run out then turn on again. I did this cycle several times hoping it might encourage any sticking in the float bowl to free up.


Finally getting to the Prologue start point with time to spare to look at the fuel issue but there’s no issue now. The fuel starving cycling must have cleared whatever the problem was. Big sigh of relief. I did notice though that the kickstarter was missing! Back to arrrggghhh! A check of my NextG mobile phone showed there was coverage so a quick call to David at Causeway KTM & Ducati and they promised to bring a kickstarter to the official start ceremony in the city later. Good on ya guys! I couldn’t have a better sponsor! (I have an "In case of Emergency" number on my phone ... it used to go to my wife's number but now goes to my local KTM dealer ).
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The "Road book" guide for the Prologue stage described the Selective Section as "Loose ball-bearing gravel surface through natural state forest interspersed with rough, rutted sections with localised water in often deep wheel ruts." Sound like fun??

Annie Seel started on the minute before me so with the “Rallye Princess” in front I had an incentive to make up that minute. I also knew that the Prologue is not the place to make a monumental stuff-up so just cruise and relax into it. The Prologue was only 15.84 km so not enough time to make any moves anyway. I rode away gently and came to grips with scroll book navigation again. Just cruise, don’t take risks and try to relax. Overshot one turn but some quick bushbashing for about 50 meters and I was back on track. That turn really sneaked up because the track was looking good for straight ahead and the turn was non-existant. Note to self, be more careful of nav. Suddenly around a corner there were spectators all waving and camera flashes going off.
Me riding through the spectator viewing point:
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Pulling up at the finish control about 5km later and the marshal asks me “where’s Annie?” "What do you mean where’s Annie – she was in front of me. Wasn’t that her that just pulled away from the control?" Don’t say I missed her crashed off the track or something! I rode out pondering the possibilities. the team had agreed to met at the spectator viewing point and wtach some of the action so I headed that way and met my crew there. It was a 5km detour and I rode quietly due to all the spectator vehicles on the dirt road and a few minutes after getting there I noticed guys ride through that started well before me. Eh what?! Yep, there’s another one that started several minutes before me. Turns out several people got pretty lost. Must have been that hidden turn off the track that tempted straight ahead.
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Back in town to the Bivouac for a while to chill out before heading into the city for the “Safari show” and official start ceremony. My reporting time for the show was 14:15hrs so a nice relaxing couple of hours to kill. I qualified in 29’th position which was perfect in my opinion. A nice mid-pack start so no pressure, plenty of people in front to do the first navigation, a few people I can pass but not so far back that they get risky to pass. Also not far enough back to have the risk of cars chasing me down in the special stages, especially knowing the first special was to be deep sand track for 73km. So the afternoon was spent standing around waiting for things to happen. Very boring. Seems most of the “spectators” at the Safari show were directly involved in the event, riders, drivers, crew, etc, with not much public interest.
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So finally we got lined up to ride through the big arch. A quick introduction from the host with the PA and head back to camp. Speaking of the camp, the facilities at the Ascot racecourse were brilliant for the documentation, breifing, etc. Of course we’d all forgotten the fine print that said there was no dinner provided for Day 0 evening so off to visit the KFC around the corner! Good race food that is!
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I’ll pick up the story with Leg 1 later.

In the mean time, here's an introduction to some of the terms of the Safari. Each "Day" is a "Leg" of the Safari with each Leg broken into various "Sections", either a "Transport Section" or a "Selective Section".

The Transport Sections (TS) are travel along public roads, obeying (theoretically) the applicable speed limits and road rules, to get you from one point to another. These points can be the Bivouac (French word for "camp" I think), refuel zones, service zones, etc. For TS you are allocated a time for the transit. You add this time to the "time out" to calculate an expected arrival time at the next control. If you arrive at the next control early, you simply wait behind the first control signs for "your minute" to show on the clock. The minute before your minute shows you are allowed into the control area but you don't hand your time card over to the Marshal until your actual minute is showing on the clock. That way you get clocked in on your correct minute and that time gets recorded as your checkin time. You are then allocated a start time for the next section, usually a Selective Section.

The Selective Sections (SS) are the competitive sections where you are racing the clock. They have a nominated "Target Time" that is used for the purposes of working out at what point you have failed to finish a section but that's nothing to worry about really. The Target Time is impossible for someone like me to achieve on any section I think - it takes superhumans like Ben Grabham to tick those off! So the minute before your "start time" there will be someone else on the start line, taking off on the minute before you. As soon as they've gone you can idle up to the start line and wait. A 30 second board will be shown and then the Marshal will generally announce 10 seconds and you're on your own. At the change to your minute you blast off ... or ride quietly away depending on who's watching. You try really hard to not stall it or drop it within sight of the other waiting riders.

That'll do for tonight. I've had the hard word about "I see you think you've got out of the dishes again!" Ah well, I'm obviously not a Pro Rallye racer yet!

Ciao JayBo

I dont think elevated sporting status got anyone out of doing the dishes, but being able to write a detailed report like you do should qualify for permanent exemption
I feel like I've done a days work if I manage to squeese out a reasonably long paragraph.
Had any kind of writer training Jaybo ?

One of the classic bits I love in the "Race To Dakar" DVD is where Simon Pavey says something along the lines of "I only ride the Dakar 'cos it gets me out of doing the dishes for three weeks". He makes some brilliant statements in that DVD.
I haven't really had any writer training - only what I got through doing my trade and a few years in various manager roles. Thanks for the vote of comfidence though.

It's rather suddenly dawned on me how large the task is I've set for myself ... and I'm talking about writing this all up, not riding the Safari - that was the easy part! I've been provided access to a several hundred photo's but I'm having some difficulty working out what was where and when. Ah well, only a few of us will know when I stuff it up . I suspect this means I may have to come back and edit a few posts when I find pictures that belong somewhere earlier than where I am when I discover them. Then, just to add to the pressure, ATGreg went and put a link on the Racing Forum thread to bring a few more spectators over here to the nice, quiet Kiwi Forum . Good on ya mate!

So Day 1 arrived. Another glorious, cloudless Western Australian winter day. I can't remember my exact start time but it wasn't too early because it wasn't dark when I left which is always good. I can probably deduce my start time because the "Road Book" guide for Leg 1 shows the first competitor was to be away at 06:30. I finished 29'th after the Prologue so my start time should have been 06:59 I guess. (I may be wrong about this - I seem to recall something about the first ten riders get 2 minute gaps but that might only be for Selective Sections). Anyway, it's close enough for this purpose.

This does remind me that I will scan a few relevant pages of the "Road Book" guide so you understand what information we are provided each night for the following Leg. In the mean time I will continue as I did for the Prologue with copying the text of the Leg description. I'll also scan and post the title block of the odd section that I have kept the scroll map for and explain the information shown. Anyway, on with the story...

So I headed out from the Bivouac to the start chute and waited for my minute. You have to show up at the start of each Leg around 10 minutes before your start time so the Marshalls can line you up in start order. This is a detail I neglected to tell my team mates about and one of them received a 10 minute penalty for not turning up until the last minute. Bugger!

So my minute arrived and I headed out in the cool morning air for the first 152 km Road section from Perth to Nilgen. I clearly remember really appreciating my new grip heaters so it was pretty cold. I also came to appreciate the Leatt neck cover that stops all wind from shooting down the front of your jacket. If you haven't got one of these and race Rallyes in cold climes, get one! The trip was uneventful with no hassles.

The Road Section ended with a deep soft sand track that went for about 2km. Strange having to get up on the pegs and work for a bit after sitting there like a bag of spuds for so long. Suddenly I was in the queue of bikes stopped before the control. Plenty of time to spare so off with the helmet and wonder about chatting with all the friendly faces - especially the ADVRiders ... of which there were a fair few. (G'day everyone ).

So the first Selective Section for the 2009 Australasian Safari! The Road Book guide read:
"This is the section that was used as the last stage in 2008, whilst it was dry when setting, it is likely to have sections of standing water that are not in the instructions. The surface is sandy throughout and will be a testing stage to begin the event."
Great! Memories of me trying to undrown my 640 last year flooded (pardon the pun) back to haunt me! I felt so happy to have the 530 with it's simple air filter extraction system and easily removed fairing and fuel tank. Hopefully I wouldn't need those features though.

About now I feel the need to apologise for lack of photo's to support the story. Maybe next year I'll take a small camera with me huh?

So I blasted off on the 74 km of soft sand trail densly surrounded by thick, scrubby bush. This is "my country" and the stuff I practice in, so trying to navigate with the bike flopping around didn't worry me at all. I kept the pace reasonable without pushing things and had the Scots steering damper up a few notches to keep things stable and less tiring to hang on to. before I knew it the "Flying Finish" instruction came up. Great to get that one out of the way! I finished in 31'st position in this first leg, so not great but not bad. (I think there were around 55 entries).

So from here was another Road Section, this time 84 km, to the refuel point at Warradarge. I'll relate the story of checking into the refuel because I actually have a couple of photo's ready and then a funny part to the story. Then I'll sign off for today and pick things up again when I have a few more photo's of the refuel area so you get an idea of what organised chaos looks like.

So firstly a pic to keep you all awake for a few minutes more.

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The story behind this is quite funny. You see the sexy white 690 Rallye a few bikes behind me? (I'm No.33 at the front BTW). Well, the road entry to the refuel went like this: We came down a road that ended at a Tee junction at which we were to turn right. Pilbara (yep - another ADVRider!) was waiting there for me so I pulled up next to him and we chatted for about 10 sec's. Suddenly he was off ... and straight onto the back wheel! He happily mono'd on up the main road with me jealously following in behind - of course on both wheels though . Anyway the next instruction was a left turn into the access road to the refuel. As I slowed and turned in, Pilbara just kept going!!! I guess his ICO distance wasn't registering and he didn't know he'd already done the distance to the next instruction . As he put the front wheel down and looked behind him, I'm guessing as if to say "how's that!", only to see me turn off. Classic!!!

The next piccie is very similar but here for a good reason. You see , this is a good example of the value in having experienced Service Crew. The bloke near me with the black cap on is my Service dude and he walked to the control point to nonchalantly see if everything was okay with the bike and find out what I needed. Of course it was a "Refuel" and not a "Service" zone so he can't actually provide any service functions other than fill the fuel tanks. But rules are only broken if you're caught and in a pinch we'd work something out. This is how top riders often "find" that missing tool lying around in the bush. Not that I had any problems that required any rule bending, but the story highlights the usefullness of experienced people on the team. Interestingly, although he was looking completely uninterested in me at the control, the Marshalls kept an usually close eye on my refuel activities. Coincidence? Or good Marshalls that are experienced enough to observe when a service crew is checking things out at the control? Good stuff! It is a race after all, even if I'm only there for the fun and the challenge.
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Me riding into the refuel from the checkin control:
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It's imperative for the rider to spend the refuel time stuffing as much high energy food and drink down his gullet as possible. It's a 10 minute cram session!! Banana, around 600ml of drink, some pasta and a muesli bar all get stuffed in there at the same time and chew man chew!
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It's late, I'm tired and off to bed now. More from the refuel later.
Ciao
JayBo

good report!!!

The next stage is 1000 words long at 120 wpm so you should be able to do it easily on a muesli bar.

Great write up Jaybo,

I'm looking forward to the days still to come.

cheers,
Coak

Nordieboy - everyone wants to be a comedian! Don't give up your day job.
Coak - Maybe you want me skip past Day 5 or 6 was it??? I seem to recall you on a similar minute to me on Day 6 ... something to do with fuel shortages wasn't it? I reckon we'll have started the next Safari before I finish this thread up:eek1 . (Or at least be writing the Desert Challenge story up???)

Anyway, enough of the banter ... on with the story. Actually, just before I pick up from where I left there's a couple of things to deal with.
Firstly I stumbled across a photo that reminded me of something that belongs back in the Prologue Day 0 post. The day before the Prologue we stocked up the fridge and freezer in the camper but then didn't do much driving. The freezer didn't go on until a bit late in the day but I didn't think anything of it as I've been using the setup for years (twin batteries in the ute and twin 80W solar panels on the roof of the camper) and never had any problems unless excessively using the exterior work floodlights. Anyway, the morning of the Prologue and this was my preparation for the day:
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Yep - out with the jumper leads! I guess the battery isolator isn't working so well these days.

The other thing I need to deal with is Padmei's request for details of riding techniques for the different conditions. Well, the sand stage that I covered in my previous post was pretty much the only deep soft white sand of the trip so I'd better cover that one. Crank the steering damper up a bit, stay standing up in the "standing attack" position, keep your weight back and the throttle on. Momentum is your friend so try for a good cruise speed without washing too much speed on corners. Keep looking well ahead and ignore the ruts from other bikes as they collapse anyway. (Slightly different story if you get the cars in front of you because their ruts are waaay bigger and do the steering for you! Ride faster to stay in front of the cars!!). Stay standing to save energy, take a sip of drink every 5 or 10 minutes and try and relax a little. Ride a pace that allows you to navigate without mistakes as turning around can be a bugger on a tight sand track with deep soft sand with Rallye bike steering lock, not so bad with an enduro bike but the nav gear tends to restrict the lock on these Rallye bikes.

Okay, so now I'll pick up where I left off. Coming into the refuel zone at Warradarge. A couple of photos show what the refuel zone is like - a pretty chaotic scene as you ride in looking for your Service Crew. Luckily for me my crew had foreseen this and came to me at the control to tell me where they'd hidden.
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The only concern I had with the bike was I wanted to have the oil level checked. I had heard all sorts of stories about how fragile the 530's are because of the 600ml engine oil capacity and how I was crazy for using one on the Safari, especially without using an external oil cooler. I really didn't want to make any modifications to the engine as it's the mod's that tend to fail on you. (More on that later when I came across exactly that on other bikes that vindicated my decision!). Anyway, I wanted to keep a very close eye on the oil levels throughout the Safari and this first refuel after the fairly fast sandy stage was important to me. Of course it was impossible to see the oil level easily with the bashplate on and the Marshall was keeping such a beady eye on us that I didn't want to risk using any help or tools around the place, even if they came out of my bum bag.

A bit of a lesson here for us in that the Service Crew had parked around the corner tucked away behind the gas station. I suspect this also contributed to the eagle eye watching us closely. I didn't see any other crew have a Marshal dedicated to watching just them for the entire time of the refuel! Maybe I'm special?

So, bike and rider refueled to capacity and it was on to the next Selective called Golconda. This was a 28 km Section described as "Another sandy stage with tight turns and hard to see the correct route in some locations." It was kinda interesting because it was basically a large loop in a couple of scrub blocks so you finished at the same place you started. Quite a number of "Keep Right/Left of Tree" instructions that I soon figured only applied to the cars ... except for one! A nice open hard-pack section in the middle along a ridge top of sorts was fun. The little bush that looked soft in the left hand wheel track but turned out to be quite solid caused a short "bum up" flight. That took care of the sphincter muscle exercise for the day! I enjoyed the stage and finished in 28'th and held 31'st overall so on the right track now.

As I came out of the stage one of my Kiwi Safari Team riders was lined up waiting for his minute at the start control so I stopped for a quick chat. He was pretty happy with things except for the 4x4 that just pulled in behind him. I told him of the option to allow the car to start in front but Andrew decided against this because there were more cars coming and how long do you wait? So I told him to just ride the section and keep an ear out for the cars. I reckoned he'd get caught up by a couple of them so at around the half way mark start glancing over the shoulder. As soon as you see a car, just pull over and let him past. No point getting run over on Day 1 right? As it turned out he sensibly chatted to the car drivers and told them he'd pull over as soon as he was aware of them. It turned out good because the three cars all caught him near turns and passed without stress. Great.

All that was left was the 211 km Road Section to Geraldton. I arrived mid afternoon, which was fantastic . I had time to relax a little, and a friend that recently moved to Gero came down for a chat. (G'day Col ). Nicely he left with a bunch of my gadgets and chargers to charge up my headband worklight and mobile phone. Great stuff.

The Bivouac was in the town footie oval again, so nice grass and plenty of space. The bike got a fresh set of rubber, oils and filters and a bit of a clean. My riding gear got to air out for a while and I got a shower. Luxury. Great of my local shop, Causeway KTM & Ducati, to loan me the KTM Quickshade for the Safari week.
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So that was Day 1 really. I marked up the scroll chart for the next day, put that in the MD roadbook and hit the sack. (I'll scan a bit of marked up scroll chart and explain the colour coding I use, although there are many versions and everyone seems to develop their own methods to some extent). All I'll say at this stage is that it takes around an hour to 1 1/2 hours to mark up and insert. Some days you get two rolls and you have to do a roll change during the day. More an that later too.

I have "drinkies" after work tomorrow so won't add to the story until the weekend. Ciao for now.
JayBo

Jaybo,

Great story.

Not enough is said about privateers doing it tough, and the press don't give too much stuff about it if you are not top 5 but deserve mentions much more than the guys arriving with everything prepared for them.

I have just put Paul's article on my new website (Launched only yesterday). If you want to copy/paste your story there and other article you want to write once in a while please feel free to register, then submit it in the blog. Then it will include it in the Local News.

The new www.TeamRallyAustralia.com website has all the features of facebook but in true Dakar Spirit, goes a bit further ;-) So you can create your own community of followers, twitters, invite facebook friends from there -- all under one roof.

If this helps with your racing and excite the people supporting you, then we will have accomplish something

Cheers,

CBV

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Team Rally Australia

Nice work Jaybo! This thread is now subscribed! Keep it up!

Great going Jaybo.

CBV Great site but can't seem to register. The registration page seems a bit strange.

As you were

Padmei,

As your first time, you have two options:

A.
If you have a facebook account, use those credentials.
The next page will give you two options:
(1) include your TeamRallyAustralia login
(2) create an account (CHOOSE THIS) -- create any username you'd like.

The two accounts will then be interlinked and you can choose whichever option to get in TRA, regular TRA login or Facebook Connect login.

The only difference is that if you choose Facebook Connect login, you can invite your Facebook friends (from within TRA) into your own community (up to you to create what you want to talk about in your own blogs, groups etc). That Facebook Connect login also gives you the option to push content out to your regular Facebook account.

B.
I you don't have Facebook, just register on TRA and create your username/password.

Any issue, pls drop me a note via the contact page on the site. It might take a little time to get fully familiar with all the functionalities available. You can use the site to not only stay in touch with TRA, news etc... but more importantly create your own Community of interest (racing, cooking, fishing etc...)

Now for the tease...the girls from South America seem to have no problem registering (see photos in there), and English is not their first language!!!

Cheers

CBV

_________________
Team Rally Australia

On with the story then. Sorry it's been a few days but I've been busy in the shed stripping the bike back to enduro trim for a Pony Express next weekend. There's a lot of stuff goes on to get in to Rallye trim.

So the morning was an early start one. I think I was away at 06:31. It was still just on dark and it was fairly cold. Within a few minutes on the road I discovered it was very cold! The grip heaters went on full again. First up was a 140 km road section, with a refuel at 93 km at Mullewa on the main road from Geraldton to Mount Magnet. There was a bit of fog around which kept things on the cold side for quite a while but luckily for me it lifted before heading across a slight rise at one point. The view was fantastic overlooking the wide expanse of flat country with the sun just coming up through the distant fog. Just brilliant. Wish I picture of it.

Carrying on I got to Mullewa to realise that my Service Crew hadn't passed me so weren't here to give me fuel. Oops. Didn't think about this too well did we?
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I found Steve (InertiaDRZ) lounging around and so we chatted for a bit. He was doing the Safari on an '09 KTM 450 EXC this time, after doing okay on his old DRZ400 last year. He was definetely enjoying the better suspension and would appreciate this more in the days to come.
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Steve's wife offered me some of Steve's fuel, seeing as I had only recently switched from the rear tank, which holds 5 litres. So I borrowed 5 lt's from Steve and then my service Crew turned up just as I was about to leave. I topped up the main tank with a litre or two and then headed away. Another 47 km to the start of the Selective section.

There was a "Splash n Dash" for the bikes at the start of the Selective. This is where you put a 10 lt jerry on a trailer the night before and the organisers deliver it to the "S&D" location for you to top up. Of course I only used a small amount of it. Thnking back I could have ridden on to the S&D and filled up there as I hadn't used 10 lt to get there.

I said in my previous posts I would scan some interesting bits of the Road book guide. So this is the cover:
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...and this is the page with the notes on the Selective:
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Hopefully you can read that but let me know if you can't and I'll edit the text in. This is a decent stage of 245 km. The interesting thing to note is the reference to the "Splash n Dash" at 193 km. This S&D is inside the Selective and therefore is part of the time taken to complete the course. If you can make it to the next refuel without stopping at the S&D you are better off by a few minutes than everyone that has to stop. I managed this by ensuring both my tanks were tippy top full. I figured I could count on 50 km from my rear tank (I got 88 km this morning but that was cruising on the open road at around 110kph, not racing a Selective Section off road) so if I got to the 170 km mark and was still on the main tank then I could relatively confidently fly past the S&D.

Another useful page in the guide is the map:
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This gives you a quick overview of roughly the direction you'll be heading. You can see areas that could be wet and also see the road crossings that will give you some appreciation of where you are during the day. Some people carry the guide with them in case they need to refer to it during the day in case of problems but I don't.

Another sometimes useful page is the aerial view of the refuel zones. These can help guide you through the confusion of the refuels, particularly getting out in the right direction for heading to the next stage. In the example here it's pretty obvious but sometimes they aren't quite so straightforward.
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Onto the Selective then ... in the next installament. I'll scan the map scroll to show the "header" for this next Selective so you see what comes up at the beginning. Maybe tomorrow night. For now, more dishes, a shower and bed await.
Ciao
JayBo

Hey John,

Very cool to read the story of the actual race after following your bike build closely.

I'll be checking this daily for updates, thanks for sharing!

Lukas

So, I'd topped up the rear tank with fuel from the 10 litre jerry I had at the Splash n Dash at the start of the Selective Section SS3 - Old Coach Road. The Old Coach Road is a trail that links Geraldton to Mount Magnet and forms part of a tourist route that adventurous people can follow. There are several such routes throughout outback Western Australia that you pick up maps and a history guide for and then follow the trail. I'm not sure exactly how much of the "Old Coach Road" the Selective Section followed but maybe one day I'll do the trip "in slow motion" in the 4x4 camper. In the mean time I was planning something a little quicker .

So the MD map scroller wound forward to reveal the below:
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At the top of the header is where I write notes to myself to remind me to switch the fuel taps to get on the correct fuel tank. I generally use the rear tank for the Road Sections to minimise the rear weight before the start of a Selective. I then switch to the main tank for the Selective Section, leaving the rear only if needed. This gives me a good idea of my fuel range remaining with a reserve in the rear tank, meaning I can run the main tank with both taps in the "Reserve" position. This way I don't have to deal with switching fuel at the front fuel taps which are a pain to reach. Also cause in delay and risk I don't need. So, in the case of this stage, the reminder is to ensure I am switched to the main tank.

The other reminder that is highlighted in yellow (hasn't scanned too well but both hand scrawled notes are highlighted in yellow) is to reset the ICO's. I reset both the ICO and also the standard trip meters on the standard KTM dash unit that has two trip functions.

The interesting things to note in the header information is the "Target Time", the "Average" required and the "Distance to next Refuel". The Supplementary Regulations that define all the rules for the competition, stated a required fuel range of 250 km's at race pace and 300 km's all up. This stage is pushing close to the first requirement - hence the late addition of a Splash & Dash at the 193 km mark to help out those people that can't read Supp Reg's.

So a bit over 3 hours is the Target Time. I pretty much don't concern myself with that but it does allow you to have a think about pacing yourself to last - you and the bike. Now the guys at the pointy end of the field see the Target Time as the time they have to be riding flat out!! Like an Enduro Special Test but not 2 to 5 km's long! Of course whether the bikes and tyres can do that is another question but damn those fast guys seem to do it with relative ease.

While sitting on the start line I check the first few instructions to see what I have coming up immediatley. In the case of the Old Coach Road, the first instruction is a "nothing" one but precedes a creek crossing "SO CRX, 80m KR along fence (barbed wire)". This all means I can charge off the line hard and keep it pinned as I click through the gears for the first 1 1/2 km or so. I double check this theory by listening to the previous bikes to see if they suddenly back off within ear shot. This works better later in the Safari when I'm nearer the front end guys as many guys back in the field back off for, what later is found to be, no reason. So my minute comes up and I take off.

You can see a couple of highlight marks at the "Tulip" (the little "sketch" of the feature at the location) and the "Information" panel at km 3.53. Allow me to explain. The far left hand panel is the "Total" stage distance from the start of the Section. The next panel is the "Part", or Partial, distance from the previous instruction. The big diamond between the previous Part and the current Part is there as an indication that the two instructions are very close together. I actually run a yellow highlighter vertically down the line between the Total and Part panels if the Part distance is less than 1 km. This gives me a "heads up" that several instructions are relatively close together, so wait a while before taking a drink or day-dreaming! The centre panel is the "Tulip" and these are generally a good depiction of the feature you can expect to ride through/around/over. In the bottom left corner of the Tulip panel is a number. This is the Tulip number and only really becomes important on two occassions:
1) The organisers have made a change and tell you about the change referring to the location of the change by Tulip number.
2) If you are unfortunate enough to have to stop and help at an accident scene and need to get medical help, the dude on the other end of the radio will want to know at which Tulip number you are at. They have the GPS co-ordinates of all the tulips available in the chopper. Very handy!!! (As I was to find a couple of times over the next couple of days as the attrition rate climbed due to the aforementioned pace of the pointy end of the field!).

Finally the far right hand panel is the tulip "Information", and contains any special instructions or a code for the obstacle. The road book guide contains a chart of all the code and their meaning. (SO = Straight On, KR = Keep Right, TVHL = Turn Very Hard Left, HTS = Hard To See, etc, etc). If you are interested I can scan the pages and post them up.

Everyone seems to have different ideas on the highlighting code, and I'm still developing my own idiosyncoracies (sp?) but this is how I do it:

Yellow = Information only. I use the yellow to highlight any notes or instruction to myself. I also use it as mentioned before to indicate where instructions are less than 1 km apart. (I have to admit sometimes this results in the entire blimmin scroll having this stripe down it!)

Green = Instruction. Go this way or turn here. I generally indicate the end of any turn at the arrow head as long as it is on the side of the Tulip panel in the direction to go. The idea is that a quick glimpse gives me the idea of where I am trying to head. Sometimes there are more than one turn in the single Tulip so I mark two strokes of the green highlight at each turn point. (The green didn't scan very well and looks blue in the piccie above).

I also use the green to indicate the flying finish as you'll see in the scan of the end of the stage later in this post. This is because I found I had a bad habit of slowing down for the Flying Finish because it looks like a Control Point. By highlighting the words "Flying Finish" in green I have broken that bad habit and now hold it on until past the Flying Finish "line".

Red = Warning. Cautions are shown on the Tulips as exclamation marks. A single !, a double !! or a triple !!! depending on the level of caution required. I swipe the red highlighter diagonally through the exclamation marks once, twice or thrice to suit. I know many people don't bother marking single ! as they are really only warning of things that might cause a car an issue and shouldn't be a problem for bikes. I know of several cases where Rallye's have ended for people on single !'s. I mark them all. You do whatever you want and I will hope you're healthy enough to pick your own bike up as I ride past!

I'm going to press on now. The stage was great and all my fitness training on the pushbike commuting to work for all those months really paid off. I did get stuck in a couple of bogs, one a large puddle that I rode around but not far enough around apparently, and one a small creek crossing that I made a very bad line choice through.

The only other drama for me was getting a bit lost at the 185.24 km mark. I made a "KL of Yards. FMT" a bit too much of a "KL" and went the wrong way for about a km. I then retraced my steps and went the right way a bit but wasn't convinced I was going the right way. In fact I convinced myself I wasn't when someone came back towards me. I carried on a little further and found the tracks just disappeared so truned around and went a few km's back. I then got onto what I knew was the way I'd come from before getting things wrond and rode back to the last place I was positive was correct. Turning around there to face the right direction I then reset my ICO to match that point and set off again. This time, riding slower and carefully I found the mistake I'd made the first time. I had "Kept Left" of the cattle yards about 20m too soon. I now discovered to my dismay that I had actually been on the right track for a while earlier on. I pressed on knowing that last time I had found the tracks to just dissapear. Just as they dissapeared and I pushed my way through a couple of small trees I discovered that the tress marked the exact distance for the instruction "TR (VHTS)". Very Hard To See indeed it was. There was no "track", just a few squashed ground hugging plants off to the right. I took off knowing now that I was right and had several slower bikes to catch up to that had passed me while I was sight seeing and using up valuable fuel. I quickly calculated I was down probably 8 km's worth of fuel. Arrgghh. Never mind, just ride on and put it behind you - but DON'T DO IT AGAIN!

It took a while but I soon caught and passed the riders that had past me (G'day Inertia ) and rode on. Because I'd stuffed the nav earlier on I decided to stop at the Splash & Dash even though I was not yet on the rear tank. I think I needed a break for a minute too. No drama's from there to the finish.
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In case you're curious (and have read this far!!) the Information at 242.28 "AH in Rd" is an Ant Hill. The termites build these mounds that are harder than KTM seats! You don't really want to hit one unexpectedly as they'll send your arse to the moon if you're caught out sitting down at the time of impact!

I finished the Old Coach Road Selective in 29'th position so moved up a few places in the overall from 31'st to 28'th.

So at the end of the Selective there was an 8 km Road Section to the service at Yalgoo. I'll have to pick the story up again tomorrow (hopefully) from my arrival at the Service Control with a surprise in store. I certainly didn't expect to see this competitor checking out of service as I was coming in, meaning he was only 20 minutes ahead of me!

Till next time, Adios.