North Wales Trail Ride April.

[Eddie Evans]

CRM ride out.
Seeing the numbers were low I had invited a couple of my usual riding mates along hence the KTM and the CRF.
We met high above Oswestry and the weather was lovely and clear. This was the first time I have used this meet point and after a moment of panic as we rode out of the car park when I could not think which direction to go we were soon on a trail.
At the end of this long trail Moose was pointing to his front tyre which was only flat at the bottom..
During the puncture repair I took time to set the height of my rear brake lever. I had fitted a new caliper& cylinder but had had no time to do the usual test ride. Once this was sorted I joined in the piss take on the puncture repair.
Here’s Matt helping Moose

wish there was always as convenient centre stand

This was quickly sorted and we were soon on our way and after a few more trails we had a quick stop to sort out what time everyone wanted to be back at the cars.
Here Moose and Chris admire my bike

Knobby, Matt and myself tend to go for late finishes. So with a 6 PM finish in mind we continued on our way.
The morning was lovely and clear




This is one of my favourite photo spots
I missed Moose as he followed me down

But got the others



This one always gets the heart and lungs working
Moose takes a rest

[Eddie Evans]

Continued,

This leads onto another long overgrown section.
Moose emerging near the end followed by Knobby



Then taking a break

This next lane can be a killer when its wet but unfortunately the ground has been drying up fast.




From there we made our way towards petrol and a lunch stop
Just in time for Moose as he had just gone on reserve
Fed and watered we continued




Knobby’s favourite gate

and the last photo’s from me


As my bike went through the gate to stalled. I tried to bump it down a small bank and nothing.
A bad plug was suspected and changed
Finger over the plughole showed there was compression although it seemed lighter to kickstart than before.
It did back fire a couple of times but that was it.
There was petrol there so we pushed it up the bank and had another go at bumping again no joy.
I decided that although Matt and Knobby were not happy they should take the lead and continue the ride. I made my way to telephone reception. I have had the nagging doubt after the previous problem when it seized and felt I had missed something and had resolved to strip it again at the end of this CRM run in any case.

As I mentioned before after a mile of pushing it bumped started as if nothing had been wrong. I resisted the temp to continue trying to catch up with the ride and made my way towards home.
Once home I power washed the bike ready for dismantling and mowed the lawns as penance. I had just finished when my telephone rang with tales of Moose taking an early bath and monster hill climbs, I was glad that everyone had continued to have fun, gutted to have missed out but committed to sorting out the current problem with the bike. Never did like tango.

[CR Mmmmm]

Looks like you had an awesome day, sorry to hear you had to take an early bath. Next time I hope I will be there. Yesterday would have suited me, not too much mud, I used to love it but it knackers me out.

[knackeredMk1]

Looks like a really good ride .

Sorry about your bike though . - Bit of a puzzler .

[Eddie Evans]

This may work, Moose taking the bath
http://s378.photobucket.com/albums/oo22 ... F/Oswestry 040409/?action=view&current=DSCF0560-1.flv

[Eddie Evans]

Ran out of time editing so I'll have to have another go
Here is a video of the river crossing.
Moose decides to give his bike a good wash before going home

[Eddie Evans]

Looks like you had an awesome day, sorry to hear you had to take an early bath. Next time I hope I will be there. Yesterday would have suited me, not too much mud, I used to love it but it knackers me out.

I think you will need to ask Moose about the mud

Sorry about your bike though . - Bit of a puzzler .

It is indeed a puzzler as I had convinced myself at the road side that a ring had broken and there is no way it would have fixed itself as I pushed it down the road.
Is it possible that a ring could stick causing lack of compression and then free itself??

[knackeredMk1]

'Ring freeing itself' - Could we be back to the partial seizure idea .

This is a long shot - but is there enough clearance between the piston rings and the power valve

Or is the jetting correct all the way through. I.e. Is there a part of the throttle opening where you are running a bit lean - and this is the part you are using more often before these 'seizure' events . Maybe you could try raising the needle

[moose011070]

Thanks for posting that video of my bath time Eddie! Well my crm was looking a little dirty!! I would like to thank Eddie and the rest of the guys for a great day out, Wales is a breathtaking setting, although I must admit to feeling like bambi on ice for most of the day . There are some fantastic riders amongst the menbers of this sight although they would tell you otherwise I'm sure.

Oh yes, and I will be sure to take much more notice of those 'Photo Ops.' if I ride with you guys again

Moose

[Eddie Evans]

Moose I'm glad that you enjoyed the day and you are more than welcome back any time.
Here is Matt's account that he has allowed me to post here so that you don't miss out
"A Hill Too Far"
Refreshed after a nights sleep I will try and add to some pictures to ours days adventure.
The day started with a bit of confusion as to finding the meeting place. Knobby had obviously been there before in the dark so had no problems.(Another favourite dogging spot)
We were soon all together and once all the smokers had coughed into life headed off on the few road miles to the first lane.
Just before the end of the lane Jason noticed he had a front flat.
Being new to trail riding with us the constant flow of abuse from the Tango man must have been a bit of a shock.
The paw prints in the corner of the lens are from when I lent the camera to Knobby.
This big stone could have been put there for the purpose. Keep in the back of your mind how pristine this CRM looks it could have just come straight out of the crate.

Jason with his wheel.

Where is Slider when you need him. I am sure he would have relished this ride and the opportunities for him to fix stuff.

[Eddie Evans]

I had to get my hands dirty.



Meanwhile Ed ignored the banter (He's used to it) and got down to the matter of adjusting his back brake.



Chris is also a member of the CRM website as well as this one so could join in on the CRM maintenance day.



After I had given Jason my high spec magic front tube(very expensive though ) we headed off down to the Glyn Ceiriog Valley and stopped in Pandy Wood. Ed asking the fatal question "So what time do you want to be back at the vehicles"



Aiming to ride until 6pm we did a few lanes ending up at the "lane to warm you up on the coldest of days"

These lads were pretty warm by this point and there is still more to go.



The end of the lane.



Sadly Knobby's friends were not about so he parked the Tango machine in the middle of the road to made other vehicle users stop. Luckily they were all friendly and gave us a cheery wave.

[Eddie Evans]

The more sensibly parked bikes and Chris.




We then headed over to Weak Bridge Lane which was very dry and we all made it up without any problems Chris demonstrated his bike control.



The red power valve spring had turned the KTM into the ideal trail riding tool nice progressive power and low down grunt. :hmm:



The view from the house on a lane was fantastic.



To be fair to him Knobby was doing quite a lot of gate opening and closing so Ed sent him down the hill to his favourite gate.



Minimum noise and no surface damage mean great care needs to be taken when going through the garden.

[Eddie Evans]

We then headed over to Four Crosses and then refueled and headed towards the Berwyns the riding starting to flow well until disaster struck.


Ed's CRM had cut out and wouldn't start.



Some people were more helpful than others.





The classic good push was even tried.



Some gave up before others.



Anyway Ed was going to roll down the valley to a village and wouldn't accept any offers of help. Personally I felt awful as we left him and didn't enjoy the riding until thanks to mobile phone technology found out that the sun shines on the virtuous and that the CRM had restarted and enabled him to return to the cars under his own steam.

[Eddie Evans]

Heading over the top Knobby advised me to go on ahead as there was a good photo opportunity. Oh how we were no to be disappointed. :1stplace:

The muddy puddle was a shadow of its usual self but its always important to keep to the ruts to avoid damaging the surrounding farmland.



Oh dear.



Jason recovered quickly Knobby was impressed.



By now the CRM was looking slightly less than pristine what both could do with is a good wash(more to come).

[Eddie Evans]

We headed over to the Berwyns and stopped to chat to a couple of trail riders at the top of the Wayfarer and who should come along but Hairy and his mate. Nice to see them enjoying the trails. After a quick chat they headed off the way we had come and we descended the other side. Jason had had quite a big moment riding up a rocky section so I guessed he was starting to feel tired. As he needed to get back to his B & B in LLangollen and then head back to Lincolnshire he wanted to head off so we promised to put him on the A5 after a couple of little lanes one being the Corwen Carwash.

After recent confusion I must add that this clip was taken on a legal UCR by qualified riders all riding road legal motorcycles !


By now poor Jason was soaked although him and the bike looked cleaner.