Right, after having my thoughts stirred by Brents posting about smaller bikes for off road work and grumbling on about the Drongo being a bit heavy & cumbersome for such I have taken it upon myself (very bravely and with selfless determination, of course) to try the DR out at Woodhill.
For those that don't know, Woodhill is a trail bike park about an hour north of Auckland set in sandy terrain in a pine forest (thank you misters Carter & Holt, can I please have some softer trees). The park has a range of tracks clearly marked from easy to superhuman.......
Following the usual careful prepartions, kick both tyres, put petrol in, rush back for camel back & food, rush back for wallet, rush back for nervous pee....ad infinitum!
With a degree of procrastination I meandered north on old north road, inland road to Helensville followed by a repeat of the above "careful preparations" and made my way to Woodhill repeating over and over "you're 52 in 3 weeks, you're too young to die".
Having paid my $25 and asked the questions about search & rescue, old age discounts and where the loos are I wandered off down a black hole called "slow, opposing traffic".
5 minutes later I'm going "shit, this is easy, it's just gravel roads"
5minutes later I'm stopped taking off layers of friggin clothes as I burst into a sweat (gravel has become sand and I retract my previous comments). Thanks to all the friendly riders that slowed to check if I was alright....lying down gasping is obviously not a normal way to disrobe on trail rides!
At this stage I was still on the access track, I hadn't got to the easy bit yet! Further along this erroneously labeled track I met my first hill, screamed "momentum is my friend", chickened out, slowed down (yes, it is possible to go slower than 5km/h) and managed to invent a new trenching tool.
First important lesson:
You can bury both wheels to the axles with a small amount of throttle and an enquiring mind. Don't listen to the part of your mind that says "Oh, I wonder how far the back will bury itself if I keep on the throttle in second".
Second important lesson:
DR650's weigh at least 400 kg's when buried to the axles and take superhuman strength to dig out. Second lie down of the day, I've travelled at least 200 metres.
Thankfully, the rest of the acces track was flatter and I actually made it to the first trail which was semi flat and a short loop track that let me enjoy the vagarities of a sand trench between suicidal pine trees that leapt out at me from all sides. With incredible skill, I missed all of them and actually stayed on the bike for 15 minutes.
Third important lesson:
Don't wear your road / adventure gear for this......I must have sweated off about 10kgs and drank the 2 litres of water in the camelback in this bit alone.
Completely knackered, having spent 30 minutes and traveled about 1 km, I tried to find a viable way out.....using extreme cunning I resorted to an access road (gravel) for a respite and made my way deeper into this sandtrap.
So much for cunning.
It did actually get better after this, I managed to not fall off (much) and i think I got the idea of stand up, weight back and give it death which sort of worked......skill would have been useful.
Fourth important lesson:
Bike setup helps, a 80% worn rear TKC isn't a lot of use, higher bars would have helped and something sticky to grab with my knees might have helped.
After 2 hours of sweat, swearing and wheelspin, all conducted at peak revs in first and about 10km/h I think I enjoyed myself. A decent rear and i could probably survive all the easy trails......
Disclaimers!
The fence leaped out at me.....
Being upside down under the Drongo did not happen, there were no witnesses.
The metre deep trenches that followed me around have nothing to do with me.
Anywho, having successfully found my way back to the start I wobbled off gratefully through the carpark for civilisation much to the merriment of the other occupants. I should have charged for the entertainment!
Being now a master of sand I felt the least I could do was show off somewhere else so made my way over the sand dunes to Muriwai beach for blast back down the coast to Muriwai (15kms?). This had me grinning my head off......I didn't fall off (honest), the sand was hard and skipping through the edge of the surf was awesome. A bit hard to complain about surf, blue skies and the wind in your face................
Highly recommended way to travel the coast, a bit soft getting on and off the beach (get on at the Helensville end, there is a sand hill involved) but such a great ride and scenery.
Spa and beer recommended method of aiding rider recovery!
Conclusions?
I think Woodhill beat me this time but a better rear tyre, some cooler riding gear and I'm keen for another round of embarassing moments before I buy the smaller, lighter bike.
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Originally Posted by Drew
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Karma ... Justice catches up eventually !! 
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