Raetihi Ripper

[dafydd roberts]

Raetihi Ripper who's going and has anyone got any past experience?

[kezzafish]

get ready to follow the farm quad procession, fall off ridiculous cliffs (with no hazard markers before them), and have your bike knicked by some toothless locals.

The good points being: it's cheap (if you live below the great lake), theres about 160ks of track so you definately will get your fix, awesome views, some good hill climbs and sloppy shit, and the weather is always good in hillbilly aotearoa

Me and my down ass homie crew are gonna go, see ya there ya 2 wheeling cheater

[Jimmy]

Yeah. I'll be there for the first time. Have heard really good things about this event and the only criticism being a humungus uphill somewhere where dudes were having to wait 90 minutes while those in front were assisted, rescued, or buried. Could be exaggeration of course. Sound like its worth checking out for yourself, and the other upside is it's a weekend away from the war department.

[kezzafish]

Yeah. I'll be there for the first time. Have heard really good things about this event and the only criticism being a humungus uphill somewhere where dudes were having to wait 90 minutes while those in front were assisted, rescued, or buried. Could be exaggeration of course. Sound like its worth checking out for yourself, and the other upside is it's a weekend away from the war department.

have a look at my pics in "post your dirt pics" thread (it's on thread page 2 and page 3 of the thread). there is some photos of the hill in question. it wasn't hard just surrounded by muppets

[Jimmy]

Thanks man. No sweat. Five sleeps to go. Me plus three from Welly. Now to focus on the weather forecast....

[kezzafish]

coool, i'm getting a bit excited about it now too. Are you gonna camp there Jimmy? we should meet up and get trollied. Daffyd... you still in? Me, Dave, my brother and Darryl are but i think secondfield is out due to cash flow?

[MXNUT]

Been last 4 years and never had any trouble getting around. Plenty of good steep hills and a good bonfire at night.Takeaways in Raetihi do a reasonable feed and only about 5 kms away.
The trick is on the Sunday morning to get away early with the front bunch and then you will not get held up for very long. Sunday loop is long with gas stop half way around, if you dont piss around you will get 2 loops in .

[secondfield]

Yeah, I don't think I can afford it this weekend ... bummed out because i've heard its the goods.

Was talking to some guy's marking out a hare scramble scheduled for here next weekend who reckon its one of the best value 'traditional (ie tough)' trail rides happening ... Two days and a great social event too...

[Jimmy]

coool, i'm getting a bit excited about it now too. Are you gonna camp there Jimmy? we should meet up and get trollied. Daffyd... you still in? Me, Dave, my brother and Darryl are but i think secondfield is out due to cash flow?

Staying with the creature comforts at Ohakune i.e. bars, restaurants and beds! Be good to catch up for a beer on-site though.

[tnarg]

Really wanted to do this but money tight. Got group of mates going. Sucks

[kezzafish]

Staying with the creature comforts at Ohakune i.e. bars, restaurants and beds! Be good to catch up for a beer on-site though.

Cool mate, but you're gonna miss out on the hoolaginism at camp, oh well. gis a bell when you're up there. 027 220 6030 alternatively look for us, huge square tent, red isuzu bighorn, white hiace, suzuki's yamahas and ktms. cheer

[Lucy]

get ready to follow the farm quad procession, fall off ridiculous cliffs (with no hazard markers before them), and have your bike knicked by some toothless locals.

I resemble that remark!!!!

But I don't knick stuff

[Jimmy]

This was a good two days of riding, great weather with not a drop of rain, which was just as well 'cos it would have been treacherous if wet, particularly that greasy as papa mud that was causing grief to plenty of guys who hit it too hard in any event. About 400 riders at a guess, shitloads of dust in parts (zero visibility), great views from the high ridges and plenty of good technical sections on day one. Two major bottlenecks on Saturday - one just a little slippery uphill that I fail to understand how it could catch people out and cause so much delay (about 30 minutes) and then further in we had a 60 minute queue waiting for every quad to get hauled out of a sharp angle down/up ditch that they were nose diving into and unable to drive out of. This was a real bitch and should have been recognised and corrected when the track was being laid out. Day two was premo - fast, open, good hill sections and a few nice challenges - on that papa stuff again. Seems that quite a few dudes got caught out on various sections, including some slippery grassy sections of track, and I heard of two broken collar bones, a broken leg, six busted ribs, popped AC joint, concussion and no doubt there were more. The ride was very well marshalled, good medic back-up, great food and overall an 8 out of 10 for me. Worth the trip no danger.

[cr125nz]

sounds like a mint weekend jimmy will have to book this in next year for sure did you get any pics of the weekend?

[Jimmy]

sounds like a mint weekend jimmy will have to book this in next year for sure did you get any pics of the weekend?

Yeah - will upload some snaps later in the week. FYI, the loop on Saturday was 70 kms and on Sunday total distance was 120 kms, and we didn't have to open one gate - superb!!