Dusty Butt 1,000km adventure ride

**cooneyr** · 13th March 2007, 20:23

Dubious honour guys but this thread is the bigest in the Adventure riders forum in terms of posts and views!

Anyway - any further nominations for the Sixsixone gloves?

Cheers R

**NordieBoy** · 13th March 2007, 20:28

Well it's probably narrowed down to TA or MF as they're the only ones that the gloves'll probably fit

[blackadder]"You have a girls hands m'lud"[/blackadder]

**Transalper** · 13th March 2007, 21:02

Originally Posted by NordieBoy

Well it's probably narrowed down to TA or MF as they're the only ones that the gloves'll probably fit

"You have a girls hands m'lud"

I got a girls jacket too

the armour fits me better in that size, took a bit to get used to that bloody backwards zip though

Did i mention that my current mx gloves have holes in the thumbs.

**far queue** · 13th March 2007, 21:32

Originally Posted by Transalper

I got a girls jacket too

the armour fits me better in that size, took a bit to get used to that bloody backwards zip though

I bet you can fit lots of stuff in the breast pockets though

**magicfairy** · 14th March 2007, 08:54

Did i mention that my current mx gloves have holes in the thumbs.

OK - hint taken.
My vote goes to Transalper, he'll get A LOT more use out of the gloves than I will, and I have 2 pairs already.

**NordieBoy** · 14th March 2007, 09:05

Originally Posted by Transalper

Did i mention that my current mx gloves have holes in the thumbs.

I have cut the tip out of the thumb on most of my MX gloves

**cooneyr** · 14th March 2007, 10:55

Originally Posted by magicfairy

OK - hint taken.
My vote goes to Transalper, he'll get A LOT more use out of the gloves than I will, and I have 2 pairs already.

Yer but that was a little bit un-subtle. Maybe we should just wait and see what the quality of the videos are from you both and decided on that LOL

Damn it Nordie why did you put me in this position! LOL.

Cheers R

**magicfairy** · 14th March 2007, 11:33

Then he definately wins. The quality of my videos is dubious, due to hitting wrong buttons with gloved fingers.
Got some good short ones at the first puncture and our puncture. Went downhill after that.
Left the video filming the inside of my bag for about 20 mins.

Filled up disk and I never got round to putting in another one.

Pathetic effort.

**Transalper** · 14th March 2007, 11:43

i got 3 hours 16minutes of stuff to sift thru, some with way too much dust or fog on the lens, other thats just a waste, some nice stuff in there though, got some on the pc last night.

**cooneyr** · 14th March 2007, 11:50

Originally Posted by magicfairy

Then he definately wins. The quality of my videos is dubious, due to hitting wrong buttons with gloved fingers.
Got some good short ones at the first puncture and our puncture. Went downhill after that.
Left the video filming the inside of my bag for about 20 mins.

Filled up disk and I never got round to putting in another one.

Pathetic effort.

Any effort is a good effort. TA has a little more equipment that you though!

Originally Posted by Transalper

i got 3 hours 16minutes of stuff to sift thru, some with way too much dust or fog on the lens, other thats just a waste, some nice stuff in there though, got some on the pc last night.

Maybe we should use the gloves as an incentive for TA to get the video done
quickly. There are plenty of other videos in production that have taken a few months - hint hint

Cheers R

**NordieBoy** · 14th March 2007, 20:16

2007 Dusty Butt 1000

When I first heard about this ride I thought I'd better do some potential damage limitation and build a nice seat for the DR.
Surprisingly it looked and felt like it'd do the job.
Some Mitas E07's went on for footware.
Next was the routesheet holder. Who was to know Nelson was out of 400ml click-clacks?

Friday rolls around and there's panic buying of spare tubes, water bladders and food.
RedKLR650 had to pull out as he ended up not being able to leave Timaru until 7 pm which left it a bit late to get to Nelson with any comfortable margin. I think he just broke a nail and couldn't get to an after-hours manicurist.
Alfonz rocked up at about 11pm.
Strangely enough I got an uninterrupted sleep as it's usually broken by me waking up and checking the clock every half an hour to see if I've missed the alarm.

Ryan (CooneyR) was already at the Nelson Information Centre when Alfonz and I arrived at about 5:15am and the rest trickled in over the next 10 minutes or so.
The lineup was CooneyR (DR650), TransAlper (Cute little DR650), Plug (F650 GS Dakar), Alfonz (F650 GS Dakar), BusaJim and MagicFairy (R1150GS), WareWolf (KTM 650 Adventure) and NordieBoy (Mighty DR650).

I didn't think much of the suggestion that as locals, I should lead off and Colin (WareWolf) be Tail-End-Charlie, me? lead?.

First time I've ever done steep rutty stuff in the dark.
Fog, lotsa fog down the other side.
Jim (BusaJim) and Marie (MagicFairy) dropped the big BMW on the wet bridge after a steepish downhill and tight right.

Cruised through Havlock and on to Northbank Road in thick fog. At times you couldn't see the bike 20m in front.
Going through Onamalutu and Alf punctured his rear TKC80.

Over the Kaituna-Tuimarina and Bush Roads and on through to Blenheim fuelling up with pies and petrol.

Over Taylors pass and turning off at the gate (not deer gate) up Black Birch Track (No! Turn here Jim!).
Looong climb up to the 1690m summit of Mt Altimarloch with stunning views.
Alf set off first and the rest followed at intervals.
On the way down Carl, Colin and myself were waiting near the bottom when Ryan came down and informed us that Pete was helping Jim and Marie with a puncture.
We decided they were in dodgy but good hands so went a bit further on to find some shade.
After a couple of days Ryan went back up the hill to see what was happening.
A week later and we decided to follow him up and see if there were any survivors.
As we got to the scene they were pulling their gear on ready to head down, everything fixed.
Apparently it was a bit of a gash in the sidewall of the front TKC80.

Off down the Awatere Valley to the Molesworth.
Nice flowing gravel with these strange "J" shaped marks on most corners. Seems they're known locally as "Colin marks".
Lots of vehicles as the track was closing on Sunday but most vehicles pulled over a bit and slowed down to let you pass but some...
I followed one 4WD for about 20m off his bumper for 6km before he let me pass. There was a gate 1km further on and he went through as I held it open. Luckily it wasn't much further to the Acheron Accommodation House.
My shoulders were getting a bit sore from carrying 5L of fluids on my back.

Nice going down Jollies Pass but my engine cut out and took a few minutes to get going. Plenty of fuel left so may have been the kill switch or possibly the fuel tank breather blocked?
Fuelled up at the servo just out of Hamner and realised how far behind we were when Ryan said he expected to be in Murchison for the second time by now (5:30pm).
Some of the lads bought a 10L fuel can to stash outside Murchison if the petrol station didn't have an afterhours pump.

Jim and Marie scooted off through the Rainbow first followed by myself and the rest probably went to the pub first before heading off.
I was down to 2L of drink now so put it in the bike pack instead and it made a BIG difference.
Colin didn't take long to catch up and I followed him through 3 fords before I realised that there were bridges as well.
More lots of traffic.
The road conditions were great with only the occasional rock to avoid at 70kph and the some steeper rutted corners and washboards to sap your power and speed.

Ryan and I dropped the key off at the managers place and we were off into St Arnaud where we met up with Alf again.
It was 9pm by now and we were half way!
Ummm, only half way?
Bugger...

Marie was a bit worried about the Porika Track in the dark especially as Jim's eyes were swelling up from a wasp sting and Colin didn't have any thermals and I wasn't very confidant about surviving gravel in the dark for lots more hours so we decided to head off back to Nelson.
The rest of the hardy adventurers decided to push on especially when Ryan found that the Murch petrol station had an after-hours pump.

Colin lead off with me following and Jim and Marie bringing up the rear.
We stopped by the side of the road when we lost the BMW's lights for a while and when they caught up I lead off which was not as much fun as following someone with good lights and as we got closer to Nelson I got faster as I started recognising things.

Seems like the boys got through the Porika and Braeburn tracks OK but a bit slower than expected and then Alf punctured again (must be something rubbing on the inside of the tirewall) and they decided to pull the pin.
Alf stayed the night in Murch and the rest headed back to Nelson getting in about 2am.

We all met up at Lambrettas in town for brunch and bullshit and as Jenni and I pulled up just as Pete was pulling off his helmet we saw Colin had already cleaned the KTM, but it didn't look right beside the obviously hard ridden BM and DR

Much was eaten, much was drunk, much was said but as much was drunk, I don't remember much of it

Cheers guys!
We've smacked the first cheek and after a gap we'll take a crack at the other one.

**Transalper** · 14th March 2007, 21:56

Nice report... couple of things... it was actually 6pm at Hamner not 5pm. By 6pm we should have been passing Murcheson for the second time having already visited Springs Junction.
You've swapped Colin for Ryan when you left St Anuard..."Ryan lead off with me following and Jim and Marie bringing up the rear."
All good otherwise.