Breslau 2012

a team of three of us are entering the 2012 Breslau Rallye in East Germany near and in Poland.

the week long Rallye is held from 25th June to 2nd July.

there are three of us entering and we're all Husaberg mounted. Taffmeisters will be sponsoring the team with spares etc. two of us are 2009 FE570e mounted and one is 2008 FE450e mounted.

looking forward to it.

regards

Taffy

thats close to where we live, nice rally. we are doing the short version of this one in june, the Baja Saxonia.

friends om mine have done the Breslau twice. tough navigation, some serious watercrossings and a lot of fun. You will find a lot of info and fotos here, it is in dutch but with Google tanslate you'll be ok!

http://www.rallymaniacs.nl/index.php?op ... d=88889083

well we are getting nearer to the rally

last weekend all the sat & nav gear was fitted.
it has a road map which is like two toilet rolls in a well presented box. touch a toggle switch under the left bar and you can scroll up or down. the distances between any obstacles or turns are marked to the nearest 100th of a KM!

the bike is now kitted out with an ICO for trip metre, day metre, time. and speed: the idea is that you "zero" the mileometre it and watch it carefully so that as you get to say: 5.25KM there should be a turning on the left like the roadmap says!

I also have a Garmin CS60 sat nav for compass work and knowing where I am on an overall map or should that be atlas.... :lol:

I still have the original speedo but s of today it needed a battery, the ICO needed two batteries, the garmin needs a live feed and the roadmap needs a backlight (LED). these were all ordered as were some lights for the original bikes beam, charging light so these were ordered too.

we need to fix a second cable up from the disc so that the original speedo or the ICO speedo can work and that'll be done this weekend.

I also fitted a 2006 blue headlight assembly and need a new bulb for this then I can MOT it this week. so that was sorted. I need to make good a plate for the headlight to hold it at just the right angle to see where I'm going! that'll be done in the dark of course!

testing: well last Sunday I practiced at Donk Track near Kings Lynn and got used to the dashboard view very quickly. all I have to watch is going from a steep decent into a steep ascent: I must lean back quick to avoid my shoulders whacking all the clocks! However the 'buddy' who I so charitrably gave a lift too left his bloody straps too loose and on the way out on the track it jumped on my bike like some kinda shagfest! it managed to brake the flimsy toggle switch under the bars and my race team partner 'Tony "the king of gadgets" King will make this with both eyes closed :twisted: :twisted:

anyway, whist on the track, nothing so much as wobbled or broke in 40 laps of testing and I deliberately threw myself at the flora and fauna to really test it breaking my front mudguard but not the clocks etc....

this Saturday I prepare the bike for a race on the Sunday and then during the next ten days I must prepare it for the race.

more on this and my team partners later. photos to follow soon.

regards

Taffy

Good luck guys, hope all goes to plan.

well my feet haven't touched the ground in the week since the rally ended but what an event! It is only now, slowly sinking in, that it was a tough event! it creeps up on you over the week.


pre-rally
with two weeks to go my two riding partners: Mike Brown (on a FE450e 2008) and Tony King (FE570e 2011) arrive at my workshop on a Saturday in order to fit all the navigation gear. Tony takes control as I carry on running the shop, I have no idea what he's doing as he flies around cropping and crimping. when it is all done I have a 'road-book mounted in the middle of the bars along with my Garmin CS60 to the right. above the roadbook I have an 'ICO' which will clock the mileage on each stage and can tell the time. on the left bar is a 'toggle' switch which has a flick lever for rolling the roadmap facing towards my thumb. this I'll depress to get the roadmap rolling and also I have three buttons for adding (or subtracting) metres to the ICO as well as changing settings.

a week later I fit batteries to the ICO, the Garmin and to my original speedo. while I practice one Saturday with all the gear and the following Saturday i actually do an Enduro with it all fitted. after some 20 falls it all still operates just fine so I prepare the bike in the last week with some new plastics, a change of oil and take it over to Mike's house where I find him loading up on his own the night before so give a hand.

as for the fuel tank, well mike says that you can do the rally on a standard tank and maybe with a bottle of fuel in a back-pack so i decide that as I have no time anyway the choice is simple - do nothing and pray!

But I'm very stressed, work hasn't been going well and I'm doing all the hours I can. on the Wednesday then Mike leaves early along with 70-year-old Roy who is helping the team, that evening, the dog is also dropped off at sister Jayne's and then I get home to pack up and finish at Midnight. I'm absolutely knackered and so stressed, i know I've missed stuff but what is it? who knows! the idea is that i take my small tools and spares while Mike and Tony take the big stuff. I fill in some of the gaps but as it will prove later: i had enough gaps for a double-decker bus!


Thursday - rally -2 days
I catch a Train down to London Stansted and team up with Tony. Now, I don't know Tony that well but I guess everything in moderation right? the first glimmer of 'my kind of attitude' is that he says he can't wait to get to the bar and that there'll be a pint waiting for me to which I think: 'yeh-yeh so what! he'll have a coffee like everyone else'!

how wrong was I, I arrive and Tony has a pint ready for me and it is still only 9am! I wash the pint down and reply: 'you'll just want the half but I'm having a pint?' "oh no"! he says "I'll have a pint too!"

the flight arrived at "Bigdgosh" in Poland and we then sit at the railway waiting for the train "to" Pol. first mistake, the train we are waiting for is one arriving from Pol so we have to wait another hour. that's OK - more beer!

we then arrive at Pol and have to wait for Mike and Roy to come and collect us from the Rally camp so we: have more beers! the lads arrive so we all..... - have a beer! we stop at a roadside Cafe for some tea and it is here that I declare no cutlery or plates/mug etc. the lads immediately confiscate the appropriate utensils and the issue is solved! the van has but room for three in the front so i volunteer to rest in the back and sleep all the way. when I get there Tony and I need to get the tents up quickly but I declare that 'I can't be arsed' and immediately crash out in the back of the van on some lovely setee cushions.

Friday - rally - 1 day
Friday dawns and we get our free toiletry bag, pass, all the route maps for the week, a cap and a T-shirt of the event. next is first aid where the polish med. officer lays his beautiful female assistant down and practices mouth to mouth on her....then asks for volunteers.... he got 32 of the 34 (the other two were blind) and after a while I could definately see her chest move up and down. I'm so glad she was ok! :twisted: :twisted:

next we got introduced to some press hacks named Alan and Martin. Alan is a rotund Glaswegian and has a thick accent to go with it but is a great bloke. he's there to take photos for magazines etc.

we then have scrutineering which I sail through until they ask me for a copy of the Insurance. sh....! talking with Tony back at the shop I ask him to find the insurance, scan it and send it through but he takes the e-mail address down wrong and so we never receive it. an hour later we try it again and this time we're OK,

I'm stressed and have the shakes by now, it's 3pm and I'm de-toxing like hell, the sun is as hot as we ever know it in the UK and I'm dehydrating as well. I decide at some point to get my lilly white legs out and go get a barrel of water but some arsehole takes a photo of my white legs and stands there with a cheesy grin...I asked if he'd really taken a photo of my legs and ha affirmed it so I called him an 'arsehole' and moved off. later I put the trousers back on and save EVERYONE the embarrasment!

we get the gazebo and tables how we like it but everyone knows I'm deeply flustered - and I get no leg pulling for a while. I've come on this Busman's holiday after a stressful time at work and although the alcohol seperated me from the work - a good thing - I now have jangling nerves due to all the above and the fact that there is a helluva lot of money involved in all this AND i don't REALLY know how to use the ICO and the Garmin sat-nav!

Mike shows me repeatedly until I have it all off-pat and I start to relax. these computer types find it all so easy!

we didn't get free tea that evening despite the rally being upon us and the briefing coming at 10pm. but the bikes look smart and we're set to go!

Day 1
Prologue followed by the first stage
the prologue is shortened this year to just three laps of a MX track on the side of the camp. Firstly a team photo is taken of us all ready to go and then it is kit on and off to the start. I felt quesy: something I never do and then I need the loo several times so I'm obviously feeling some pressure that isn't there so I must have made it up? I'm annoyed with myself at this.

[youtube:222cb7qk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw-Q3SvJmQE[/youtube:222cb7qk]



In the prologue race of 6 of us, I set off in second and enjoy this race on white, soft sand the type that you get no grip from. but there is a huge dune to go over at the end of each lap before you are back at the beginning and this will only be crossed twice because on the third time you miss it and go straight on to the time keeper. I count three laps but only twice over the dune as I come towards it - so i do a 4th lap. Idiot!

back at the Van I fuel up to the top and have a bit to eat ready for the afternoon's first stage, a short 70KM 1.5 hour touch.

Stage 1
I start near the back of the field of bikes next to a German Frau, I start steadily and after a while start to let rip, I then start overtaking rider's who manage to get lost even in a straight line and soon 10-15 bikes or more are overtaken.

I come to a 6-way clearing and stop, it looks to me like over and forwards at 11 o clock and then on the roadmap I see a drawing of a sign with '24' marked in it and I dash off taking a Pole with me. Meanwhile, back over my shoulder is Mike 'testing' the route in the opposite direction!

The pole takes me when I slow a little and then we both pound on at 90kph! alas I don't 'toggle' the roadmap as quickly as I'm riding and I don't see: WARNING! 50KPH MAXIMUM!

they pull both the Pole and I over, he gets 5 and I get 10-minutes.... and then all the bikes we'd overtaken get us back while we (and later just me) sit still!

As I set off again 'slowcoach' Tony goes by and I'm back with him, I ride on again making up places but also then making mistakes. you gain seconds riding quickly but you lose minutes when you're lost!

we arrive back at camp with little we need to do so we head off for a late beer and then turn in. we have our first big day tomorrow.......

regards

Taffy

Good stuff Taffy - looking forward to the next update.

Any pics to show us?

Great report!! Keep it up taffy.

Be carefull at this 5 way plus crossings that they will point the arrow in the wrong direction, while the CAP will say something different. The CAP is always right and more important than the arrows.

At the Baja 300, the same route planners as in Breslau, plan this kind of fun to trick people into getting lost :mrgreen: They sure succeeded in tricking me :cheers:

Stage 2
This is an early start and the day will be about 8 hours long. I go to a late briefing the night before for roadmap changes and then make the necessary alterations, I use Tony and Mike's pens and Mike has a fancy board whereby the long 'bog roll' can be rolled on and marked. We only fit these on the morning as we don't want Dew and rain on it all. Others watch the European cup final the night before but I'm too busy, I see Spain are 1-0 up when I walk by once but that is about all. if the Germans had made the final i'm sure the camp would have come to a halt.

I start low again as I had those time penalties, I'm just a minute ahead of Tony but about 6 behind Mike. We set off and go along some nice country 'green lanes' just like home! I make up more time and then get lost because for just a small distance I let three guys infront navigate without looking at my clocks or roadmap. then we do a u-turn and now not only is the roadmap wrong but so is the mileometer! If I lose the lads in front I'm in the Shy*&^%. next thing I make a half-arsed attempt to look where I'm going and they ride off into the bush. If I follow them now I'm just a copy cat....If i don't I'm lost.....

so I ride back a mile or more to where I was last right, re-set the trip and roadmap and start again. I then come upon a compass point. this is when you are told to stop at a point, mark a bearing and distance into the sat-nav and then ride towards the dot on the screen. Initially the Garmin doesn't know where it is until you move and moving makes the 'needle' spin crazily. there are several of us there and we appear to be drunk.

Tony catches me. Captain Slow has caught me!

tortoise - hare - hare - tortoise! oh dear!!!

I head into a wood and then ride across a wilderness of tall wild flowers and weed expecting my front wheel to disappear at any moment. Luckily I see a ditch and hit it at the right angle AND where it is relatively dry, I gain more confidence in the long grass and then wonder if there are wild wolves in this part of Poland. then I wonder if anyone would miss me if I never got out of this grass (I know the answer t that one!).

at last I come out and can see a track. this is the track that I could have friggin followed if, instead of literally following the compass, I had simply turned left onto the track and followed it for a bit! lesson learned.....

I go past some Hacks and then I see the Rally helicopter, as I approach the tail the chopper is going to full revs to take off! I cower in order to avoid the blades and then work it out that I'm still bloody tall!

around the corner is the yellow umbrella but between me and them is a ditch. I see some virgin bank and am straight through but Tony puts his 'poor route locater' on and gets stuck straight away. I go back and pull him out....

so the day is done and all is reasonably well. we go back to the camp and jet wash everything down, Mike fetches a beer each.

That night is an electric storm that goes on and on, the rain comes through the tent but I'm too tired to care. I'm feeling fit and fresh but Tony, who doesn't believe in 'GYM' is already knackered.

tomorrow is another big day, we change oil, clean the bikes and mark the roadmaps ready. the day will be so long that they've marked a fuel station halfway around. in the meantime - sleep

regards

Taffy

Day 3

the rain is all gone from the night before and the temperature is lower than the Friday and the prologue days, thank goodness because I'm not used to that kind of heat and it would represent a different rally for me.

I set off with three rolls of 'roadbook', one is in the bike and two in the karrimore rucksack. I have 1.5 litres of 100% water and some energy bars. my wallet as well for the fuel and a bag full of tools and bits. I let the rucksack droop just enough that it rests on the seat behind me.

having fluffed the prologue, fined for speeding on the first stage I had done reasonably well on the first full day but I am ITCHING to really let rip and move up, I reckon I can do way better than I have been. the gearing at 52 x 12 was too low so I have put it up to 52 x 13 and it is just as well because the 12 teeth were knocked out after two days. the change in gearing, as it happens, never affected me at any time for being too high during the rally and I was to regret that it wasn't even taller in two days.

Mike sets the sat nav so I just see the compass and the co-ordinates as I thought it was better. this is a mistake and the 'dot in the field' is far better as it'll turn out.

the going is on open pine and coniferous forests and there is plenty of mud in the hollows, the idea is to roll round one to the left and the next to the right in order to stay dry, sometimes through the middle island but like everything there is always one puddle you take to be a few inches deep and it turns out to be 2 feet deep, you hit it going too fast, you don't lift your feet and it all sprays straight up all over your goggles and the sat/nav gear!

I look for a pond that I should have ridden through to make sure I'm spot-on but later I'm told by Mike that it would be a pond to me but it had dried up, we come to a chicken fence and the roadbook says left and left again and follow the fence for 400m before doing a compass route but after 150m all the riders are sat there. I don't spot this and join the lemmings. because we are doing it 250m too soon we all ride up and over the rim of an aquaduct and then down through the woods. 15 riders meet on the other side, all the quads are there and so to are the side-by-sides.

Tony then joins me and the bikes overheat, we ride down this road, then that road, across grass yet the original 15 bikes have all gone. so we go back to the post re-set the trip meter and the maps and ride this time for the 400m. we then take a bearing and still we ride around asking questions.

suddenly Tony says he knows the problem!

'what is it? I ask

the compass bearing isn't too a CP (with people and an umbrella etc) but merely to get us across countryside to a road!

damn!

so we reach the road and turn right as per the roadbook. all the details then fall into place and around the corner there is a CP and as usual it is through a ditch/stream/river! I get through having got stuck and actually hold the throttle open while pulling on the front wheel. seconds later Tony arrives and this time I INSIST I select his crossing point and I choose a diagonal crossing that starts under a tree where nobody else has been! after a bit of tugging Tony is through!

after the CP I turn left at an old WW2 bunker but the ICO is playing up. it does it just as we're asked again to ride across country and so I try to work on my own and with Tony and copy others but i don't know where I am again!

suddenly though, my ICO seems to be malfunctioning, all I can do when they ask us to zero it is to take it to 60.00KM or 80km and pretend to use just the last three digits so 11.64KM is seen on my ICO as 71.64 but luckily I've always been mustard at basic arithmetic and I keep on top of the job.

so we ride to the afternoon start and drop infront of an 8-wheeler, that's 12 bikes drop in front of the 8-wheeler! he wasn't happy but nobody wants to get stuck behind them! I say 'cheerio!' again to Tony and he agrees to catch me in 10-minutes when I'm lost again! I fly off and overtake bikes left, right and centre, it's 2-lane rollers but black soil, damp but no puddles! great for biking.

anyway, I go down an avenue of trees and overtake bikes, 4 x 4s, side-by-sides and quads. at the end though the ICO isn't moving and I double back while hitting the buttons, dam! so I spin it round behind a Pole on a Polaris Quad and follow him for the next hour. he's not happy and at CPs he asks them if they can tell me to 'clear off' but they shrug their shoulders! (what can we do?)

we now learn a new trick! the organisers make you do two loops before bringing you off it but if you tag on to anyone who is on their second lap you'll miss three CPs for the first lap that you never did! luckily I like the pace of this Polish Polaris Quad and he's not too fast that I can't enjoy it, he rides really well and I now become aware of the fuel situation. I keep rolling the roadmap thinking 'I must be here....or here....or here' but the truth is I don't know!

then I get the splutter that says that I have run out of fuel! I walk forwards to a camera man 200m and then back past the bike and ask again back 200m. no "Benzyne", I stand in the shade of a tree and just point at the tank as everyone goes by. so now I have nobody to follow.

if you look at this video, after 10 seconds there is a Husaberg parked on the left....
[youtube:1q5hel1k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWQ7VvLVTfE&feature=relmfu[/youtube:1q5hel1k]

anyway, a suzuki DR450 stops and then goes back and asks for a water bottle, comes back and we get fuel into my bike, I start the bike just as Tony goes by, he stops 150m away so I ride by thinking he has stopped for me but as I ride by, 50m away I see another Husaberg out of fuel, a FE450 (2009+) and as I look back for Tony he hasn't moved. HE'S ALSO OUT OF FUEL. three Husabergs in 200m!!!!!!

the suzuki rider helps them by asking for the lemonade bottle again and I go back to Tony who has adapted his tail section to be a fuel tank but it can't get into the main tank. Tony's blowing into the auxillary and NOW it pushes into the main tank. we reach the end of the stage and head for a fuel station where we eat a little and then move on, Tony looks at the ICO and declares it 'ODD'.

I then become his shadow for the rest of the afternoon all the way to the end and back to the camp site. alas first we had to cross the stream that you see so much of the trucks stuck in at the end of the video. we helped pull someone through legally but then when it came to Tony and I we went under some yellow tape and off the course. we cleared the mud hole but were told our cards wouldn't be clipped. I was all for going back and doing it legally but Tony said he was dog gone knackered so we rode off into the sunset...

later we turn a corner where all the jeeps have stopped, this only ever means MUD! we go around the edge and I stop to line up a route across the mud, suddenly Tony goes past but with no speed, hits a tree root and stops. my path is now compromised by Tony and when i try it I have no speed. the mud is about 45cm/18" deep and it's thick and heavy. A frenchman then pulls his winch cable between us and goes to a tree. I can't believe how stupid he is and a second later Tony sets off again and the wire raps around Tony's rear wheel. after 3-4 minutes he unties the cable from the tree and routes it up, over, down and under to get it out of the rear wheel. we then pick up Tony's bike and point it towards the tree lining and he gets out that way.

Tony comes back to mine and the problem is he can't even stand to help me, then he pulls on the front wheel and we make progress but he can't get out of the way and we have to stop again! eventually we get out but he is 10-minutes longer than me just getting his breath back!

of course if we hadn't been slow we would never have found the forest in this condition. if you're slow, the jeeps go by you, they destroy the track, you get stuck in their mud and so it goes on! this was though the last of the tough stuff and we stroll the last bit and cheer ourselves at the last CP point like a couple of school boys!

back at the camp site the ICO is declared dead. So I visit a man named Arno Groot of the Netherlands and runs 'RallyXL'. he says the ICOs always malfunction and has a better product! I can't pay him there and then but i give him my last £100 as a deposit. suitably fitted the bike is now ready to go again! I get all the usual stuff done but tomorrow we will move to a new camp site so we will start a little later. It is the special stage day - time to put on the fast shoes and go!

regards

Taffy

Really nice Taffy! Keep it up :bounce:

Nice Taffy

You went this far to play in the mud, and you still have time to wright all this.

Keep it going
Good luck

:cheers:
ZAGA

Day 4
after the great job of checking that it wasn't the sensor but the ICO Mike, Tony and I woke on the Tuesday morning to a cool and lightly overcast day, we all grabbed some breakfast and as is my ability, I couldn't see the packed lunch even when it was shouting at me.

We're leaving camp 1 for the last time and we'll be at a new campsite when we finish. We ride up the road to a disused army camp and Mike starts a few minutes ahead of me and then because Tony had ridden together, failed a CP together and got back together it was only natural that we started together. It was accepted that I hadn't really had a chance to navigate properly yet and this was mostly on my mind as we started.

we moved off into a labyrinth of criss-crossing tracks and literally everyone was riding at 15-20mph inorder to pick up all the markers on the roadmap. you're not always taking a left or a right, indeed you may go straight for 1 mile BUT you'll have every crossroad, every 4 way junction, every 2-into-1 or 1-into-2 marked and brain needs time to speed up to this. I had begun to understand that this was brain chess and that it is the brain you warm up in the morning. the right-wrist doesn't need exercize!

I'm pretty good for a while and move away from Tony only to overshoot a right followed by an immediate right. back together.... there are 15 riders around us but NO!!! we're back together! I move off again and then stop to check, back comes Tony!

we climb a shallow hill and a side-by-side is coming back down. I see fork to the right we must take and as Tony is ahead of me I have to 'Fork Off'! (sorry but it was so easy!)

I then go through an intricate web of turns into lanes that aren't main tracks, you think:'they can't mean this lane?' but they do! Tony gets to join me at a CP and as I go to leave I can't grasp the way the map is drawn and lose 10-minutes. when I get it right I crawl along double checking and then as the turns line up to the distance travelled I let rip again!

I come up a rise and suddenly spot two bikes...It's Mike and Tony! apparently joke of the week is when I ask them in all seriousness: is there anything I can do to help YOU! there isn't and Tony fits his spare tube into Mikes rear wheel.

I go off and really start to get the pace right, then when a car takes me I lose my place, not aided by the fact that the rolling map is binding so it rolls over slower than I'm crawling. so I stop to rip a bunch out and Mike flies by followed seconds later by Tony who doesn't spot me apparently!

I cross a river and look lost, my first outside help of the week: i've crossed the river 200m too soon! so I go back and when I get it right I also re-set the roadbook to the right place and can go-go again! the river was quite deep but a Frenchman gets out and walks it for their car team, it is easy and before the car can start up I've moved off and brush past the frenchman! yipee! vive le france!

it's now very hot and the going is deep sand. I stop at the fuel depot where I see my cans and Tony is just leaving, he asks what my new ICO says and I say 71.7km and he looks confused which is OK as it should say 21.7km!

I move off again and we go up onto a criss-cross plateau, the cars are now amongst us - even the trucks. I can't get by two fast cars but I take a huge risk and get them both while riding in long grass on the edge - not good! the second one I take I have to take on the outside of along bend with one foot up near the bars, I keep the throttle pinned! yeee-ha! now I feel the pressure as the turnings and info come thick and fast and a biker can't be as quick as a navigator and driver. at a 6-way junction I don't see the 7th road behind an hedge and lead the three cars behind me in a dance that sees us bearing down on a lorry going fast towards me and i'm in soft sand trying to scrabble ANYWHERE!

the three cars behind all turn before I can and now I calm down behind them.....time....take your time..... the 'S' in the hedge was there 5 minutes ago so I roll the roadmap back and find it, then re-set my clock and go on slowly. the three cars all miss the secret road and I'm suddenly proud that a biker can ride and navigate better than those three!

now I hit my straps again! I come to a CP = always a weak point mentally and then roll around a 90 degree left and plough on looking for a left turn. 30-minutes later I'm back at the CP, I take the left and then it says left? so is that left and left or was the road ctraight and this is the first left and there'll be another in 50m?

I take it and 50m later there is another left! damn!!!!!!!!!!

I come to a kind of river crossing and there are dozens of photographers there. one advises me which way to go and I see a thin strip of soil about 40cm wide that the spectators are using but I also want! I ride the bike into the water and it gets deeper and deeper. I then get off and push. the bike gets to the bottom of the bank and I push hard with every sinew in my body... as the bike goes up the bank I feel that I've pushed so hard that my feet are stuck! I have to choose between getting the bike as far out as possible and falling over or to stop!

so I keep the throttle pinned. the bike gets higher and I eventually fall on my hands and knees and the bike topples onto my back. spectators pull the bike off me, I plead for fresh tissue to wipe my drenched goggles. I can't speak for a couple of minutes.

so I carry on and now there is no traffic anywhere around me. I then hit some massive puddles and 'S' - slalom my way along them, I ride up a bank and lose my balance, the garmin sat/nav nearly has its head wrenched off in the chicken wire fence.

we carry on, there are many sat/nav places left but the car drivers are so good they make a B-line straight there and I barely bother with co-ordinates. I keep seeing two frenchmen, they're not very good at the navigation I feel but we merely nod and shrug...

I ride to the new camp site and feel reasonably pleased with today. I later get the ICO functioning correctly and glue up the Garmin with superglue. I get some on my hands and have had no strength in my hand since and it is two weeks now....

oil change, pads on the rear already half worn (oh dear!) tyre still OK, change air filter as the last one was sucking hard today. the drive chain has really gone south today and I change the 13T for another new one on the front.

we're really into the rally now and the 'team' have started taking tea separetely and breakfast at different times etc. each evening finishes with fuelling. the poles bring fuel in trucks to each camp site and then put up old fashioned fuel pumps to serve us from. Roy washes the bike and our team is wedged between two other teams that have some Husabergs so we chat with them...

it is worth mentioning 'attire' here. the trousers I have are rancid and bare no resemblance to the colours 'blue' and 'white' they are in fact disgusting! I have filthy legs but work on the bike first, then I run out of time and so I go to bed, Mike doesn't talk to me for two days after this.... standards.... mustn't drop them I guess

everything is starting to smell, we clean the helmet linings, the gloves and we put the boots in what little sun there is but its all starting to smell.... 8O 8O

I don't know it but tomorrow is 'rally stage day' fast and furious!

regards

Taffy

On the previous evening we discuss the real problem with rear pad wear, the relatively new pads were now down to the metal so a new set are fitted. The disc, some 4mm wide new is now down to 2.5mm - wafer thin and were concerned about the disc snapping or some such. the surface is rough and its going to knock the pads out anyway let alone the fact that I use the rear brake more than the front.

everything is coated in a thick crud of sandy mud and a jet wash by any of us is not the usual 100% perfection because we have to drag the water across camp. so calipers etc aren't exactly 100% spotless.

Day 5
we take just a single roll of roadmap and head off, I'm not sure what we're in for but today they start us one at a time. I leave the line flat out and find myself going along long, smooth tracks but I'm tapping the toggle like the clappers as I look at the sat nav and it shows 110km per hour in places. I could go faster but I'm flat in 6th! today's gearing could have been 52 x 14 I guess but there.....

I see a crossroads marked and as I cross it, it points 'turn left at the picnic site' but after circling around there is nothing there so I carry on and just 100m later we turn left at a picnic site..... oh well! their fault this time!

so although my times over these 5 stages are probably good they are tempered by the gearing and the fact that like stage 2 when I shoot up a fork the wrong way: there is always the human error in there!

I do a stage in which Mike catches me up and then I him, moments later we need to do a compass bearing and we set off at two slightly different angles. Mike gets to the CP just ahead of me and is having his DOC clipped when I just have to clear the last mound and join him. as I hit it in the long grass the clocks suddenly shoot up to face height and drop down. I crawl to the CP and get my card clipped and then set about repairing the roadmap which has snapped its welds and is just jangling about. luckily the welded tube still fits in it's trench and that locates it. So I use a roll of tape up strapping to the headlight and ICO: over, under and around!





I don't expect it to last 5 minutes but after 30 minutes I add a little tape and it lasts 100% for the rext of the day!

we have plenty of time for chats today as we all arrive at the stages roughly together, I pass many riders but at the queue they generally try to get back their place in the line, everyone has learnt to try and stay ahead of the quads on a day like today. we are thee quickest thing out there today bar none!

it's really nice if no trucks and cars catch us, you get a completely different feel to the rally when cars are among you. they slow you perpetually, you look for them more - so you slow down, you move out of their way early - that slows you down! and even when you're quick - they're in your way and won't budge!

even though it's moist it is dry and there are no puddles and it really is a license to be brave - or stupid!

I enter the third section and fly off starting in third gear, I toggle away madly but even after a day of changing the wheel diameter I seem to be clocking KM up faster than I come to the points on the roadmap. I learn to tap-tap-tap every few hundred yards to bring the distances right.

I'm doing over 100kph and trying to look at the road, look at the roadmap and look at the KPH counter! I could ride into a log and I wouldn't know it was coming! suddenly it says at 16.90km two crossed squares? and the the word 'picnic'? My speedo says 16.7kph when I see something, I register it, i look back at the road map, up at the speedo: it says 17.2kph and I decide that I must have seen two picnic tables back there stood well back from the road? I toggle the roadmap and see the word 'zeit' which means 'finish'. I roll the throttle but the next thing I see is the radar gun and I fly past the man, I come back and he holds the gun up to show me 87kph. :cuss: :cuss: :cuss:

If I'm done for this I'll lose over an hour? Jeez! I and another rider ride against the traffic and go back down the track to the two picnic tables stood back in a clearing and just think that at 100kph plus this is a stupid reference point.

all the riders gather around him and explain how 'unsportsmanlike' this speed check is....

later at the last stage I again make great time but we all clear a road and brake for a forest T-junction marked with caution! I dread to think what would have happened if the road had been busy....for a biker it is fatal, but later with a 25 tonne truck it would probably kill the car driver and all the occupants!

the day finishes with a ride back to the camp and they put in a crazy 800m stretch that is the hardest thing we do all day JUST TO GET TO THE CAMP?

I see the bar is the first thing on the camp and many bikers have stopped there! it would be rude not too I think and partake of an ale or 3! I meet a Dutch lad who has pulled out due to exhaustion! he's in his early 20s and shattered already however he wants to rejoin tomorrow. Tony arrives and then Roy gets there too and I stick a beer into them - happy days! a ride and a beer! bliss!

regards

Taffy

[youtube:1hy82npo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RslvjKlXrbQ&feature=relmfu[/youtube:1hy82npo]

from 2.50 this is the road into the camp. it's not even a stage it's just a road back to a new camp and then they cut some trees down. weird, it would have made a great rally stage....

regards

Taffy

Day 6
the toughest of the Rally for me
I set off ahead of both Mike and Tony: it appears Mike had missed a CP in catching me two days before so he has been hammered. I'm humbled to be starting so far up the field. apparently I'm in about 10/45 at the moment despite missing a CP myself and all that has happened.

I set off on the first stage and immediately the roadmap is wobbling about! so I dismount and re-tape it and all is good. I go a little further and I have no roadmap so have to turn the wheels by hand. this is dangerous but I keep it going to the end of the stage when I see Mike and then Tony and we find that the wobbling roadmap has knocked all 4 fuses out. Tony has one spare and we fit that in the slot that allows the roadmap to work.



I'm gradually falling behind all the bikes here and I get disorientated and go further behind, I'm flustered! but I catch up with Mike in some woods and he has incredibly had his rear wheel spindle unscrew from the SOLID end! the nut is still on it. there is nothing I can do to help and I move on. Tony is at a stop and I ask for money for fuel for the day as I have given my credit card to roy to fuel the van on the way to another new campsite!

I move off again as Mike arrives: he's made a 'fix' and is back again! I come to some deep deep mud. I go around the outside and a 5 year old boy shakes his head. I have gone around the yellow tape - I'll get 'done' for this so I go back JUST inside the tape. I then see Tony in mud and an old boy stuck. Tony makes it through but the old boy is finished....I pull him backwards out of the mud and turn his bike sideways out of the monster puddle: "take my advice - go that way!" I said and then disappear for my bike and ride a thin rim on the edge. I then ride by the five year old and do all the 'high jive' handshakes with him, I'm so pleased, I thank his parents, his friends, his family, aunts.....uncles........distant relations...................................

then we arrive at the start of stage 4. there are about 8 cars there and we all ride to the front. 20 bikes go but when it is my turn they say 'no' and let the 6 cars go- a disaster for me! once the cars are in front the track is ruined, you cna't see anything, there's no grip....

I complain but he lets 6 cars go before I'm allowed to go. this is crazy! I go off like hell and try to catch the rearmost car, at 100-105kph I'm taking risks, I come to a road and get waved across by the medical team....

then 1km later at 100kph - boom! and then a second later another - BOOM! my front wheel has hit something twice in a second. I go from lock-to-lock and then fly over the bars and land on my back. I get to my feet and can see the the medical team running for the ambulance but I get straight back on and disappear - quick!

then 20 minutes later I have a puncture, I stop and try to repair it twice with patches. the sweat from my brow ruins the glue....I can't stop sweating into my work!

I have to give up as I have only brought three air 'pellets'. so I ride on the rim and see many polish people and I ask for a handpump = no joy. at a road it says on the roadbook 'rally stops' and as I ride I sit on the rear mudguard to save the front tube from damage. I stop at a little village garage and explain 'I will repair and you give me air ok?' the man understands and I repair the puncture for the third time. I pump the tyre to 20psi and it stays up.

the tube has a 8mm and a 13mm gash in it, I should really have a spare tube.... bit I don't. so I rejoin the rally but in all this AGAIN I've become uncoordinated. I then find my place and come to huge river. I ask in German 'when was the last motorcyclist' and they say 'vor drie uhr' - 3 hours ago!

after 18 seconds it shows me back in the rally heading for the river. no puncture for a little while and a little lost!
after 1.00 Mike and Tony get through a creek
after 1.05 it shows me testing the river to see if I can cross it all on my own...

[youtube:1wxxv33q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JREUqudZA80&feature=relmfu[/youtube:1wxxv33q]


the river long after me
[youtube:1wxxv33q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcn9w4JrHUw&feature=related[/youtube:1wxxv33q]

I walk the river, I try every part of the river but sometimes nearly fall over the current is that steep. I then go the other side of an old railway bridge and try it. the current is too strong and the river is too deep.... so I try to cross the disused bridge but the polish spectators aren't amused and tell me a 1km route around.

I take this but the CP won't clip the card - fair enough! I travel on and an hour later I have the puncture return. some boys say '1km to a village' but after 4km I return to the track and continue to ride on the rim. I've done 5 of 11 stages and I've been riding 10 hours. I can't continue with a puncture!

ahead is a rescue truck so i stop and declare 'abandon'. then a side-by-side reverses up to us. he has done this for 8km because his gearbox has broken. he also wants a lift - his rally though is finished and he declares can-am S-by-S to be rubbish! I mention the punctures and he offers me his 'air pellets' I try one and it looks successful, I fit my kit and then I see it has gone down again. dam! :angry: :angry:

I try once more: glue, patches, air pellet....this time I see a puff of dust come out of the tyre and I see a 30mm gash in the tyre.

fin.

FUNNY
at 8pm we are told to load up. the driver says that we must stop for alcohol for the S-by-S crew. Then the heavens open: it rains along with lightning and thunder like the film 'young frankenstein'! it is unbelievable! the rain bounces off the road to the cab.

we stop for beer and then head off, the two exhaust stacks are blowing into the faces of the two men up on top in the S-by-S. the wind, the rain, the exhaust fumes, the exhaustion.... we get to the new campsite and the two men are asleep. we tilt the trailer and lower the ramp to the ground. they are still asleep. a crowd of 40 gather, they are still asleep.

I ride my bike to the tents where I park infront of mine but the other two's bikes aren't to be seen? maybe they are the other side of the tent?

there is 100mm (4") of water. water in the tent, the wheels of the van are deep and stuck. I go back for my gear and walk to the tent. the new campsite has been hit by a bomb it seems. It has been a 15 hour day, I'm shattered right now. I haven't eaten since 6am but it must wait.

straight to bed, throw myself under the wet duvet, my feet rub against the wet tent and my head against the wet tent wall. sleep! all I want is sleep.

regards

Taffy

Wow. Respect!!

should mention that at the end of day 5 after the special stages Tony had just the one beer as I mention and then shot off saying he had a missfire. he didn't bother with the in house jetwash but instead had the Poles jetwash it quickly and then came back. the bike now wasn't running.

after various inconclusive tests I suggested he poor a thimble of fuel down the injector body throat and sure enough it tried to start and he clearly had a fuelling issue.

a call to a man in England confirmed it could well be the injector itself being blocked. Advice was to get a 9v battery and get the injector nozzle to open, as it does so: to clean it with solvents and an air jet etc.

put back together the bike started and ran straight away. Tony went on later to say that it was the best it had ever started.....

as mentioned about day 2: the 570/450 and 390 all seem to use about the same amount of juice and in the rally which had about 5 LDCs and two older Huseys in it, nobody had a mechanical failure besides Tony's injector problem. Mike just had a wheel spindle come loose.

ultra-reliable.

regards

Taffy

Day 7

Bikes stolen
the penultimate day

I awake with the sunlight coming through the tent as usual, no matter how tired this is my alarm clock and earlier in the week it had allowed me to get ahead of the 'game' get things done despite perhaps waiting my turn for stuff.

on this particular morning I get up and Roy is already around saying: "well where are Mike and Tony then? they haven't gone already have they and their bikes aren't here?"

Mike comes down off the Hill and announces in a 'final' sort of way: "they're gone, the bikes have gone! I followed the tracks up onto the hill and you can see where they pushed them and then presumably started them and rode them away"

Mike then disappears into the main camp and minutes later up pops Tony: "wehey! mornin!!!" we then have to tell Tony three times that his bike and Mike's have been stolen....

sometime is spent considering how it was done and then Tony goes next door and a large Polish Quad team (4) announces that it has had a load of equipment stolen including a generator. I then contemplate my own situation and what it would mean to me to have my bike stolen.... IF it had happened and i realise that the bottom would have fallen out of my world....

I don't mention anything that has happened to me, the two S-by-S boys etc, no humour, nothing. I go for breakfast and find both Tony and Mike stunned looking into their navels. They tell me to just got on with my rally but for them - it has stopped. they don't want to be involved in the 'day-to-day' etc.

I gather my thoughts and go back to the bike. Firstly I go for a spare wheel and fit it. tyre pressure raised to 20psi for no repeats of yesterday, new air filter, new rear pads - the disc is even thinner, new chain and front sprocket. I go late to the rider's breifing to catch the English version and then go to alter the roadmap with today's changes but nothing tallies up? then I realise they told us at the beginning why we didn't have sheets for day 7!!!! they are going to give them to us today! talk about S-L-O-W on the take up.

Now I'm just about out of time. So with my new map, adjustments made, Tony then volunteers to fit the map to the bike. I don't have time now to highlight all the turns in marker pen. I threw some water in the rucksack, threw some energy bars in the as well as well as getting my tools back together. I find the best of the worst gloves you ever saw, the stinky helmet goes on, the feet slurp into the still wet boots having gone through the crisp carcass like trousers that stand up on their own. 8O

the campsite has no water due to the floods of yesterday and the fire brigade (the suppliers) not being able to hang around. so no bike wash, no body wash.

anyway, I head off out of the camp. this time I can tell you where we were: Bogatynia, right down in a small 'bubble' of land between CZ and Germany. SO ANY POLES, GERMAN OR CZ PEOPLE SEEING TWO HUSABERGS FOR SALE FROM THIS REGION....CONTACT ME!

I rolled along to the start line, they kept us in the pre stage 6 positions so I'm still quite high up. heading off I made good progress through some riders and then came to a section where there was a big startline balloon and all the cameramen waiting. when my turn came and the red mist came down I shot up the hill in first place but expected some kind of finishing line? there wasn't one so I rolled over the hill without clicking on my toggle button and seeing where I am. red mist see.... gets you everytime!

I come down to a swamp (in the official video but you only see cars and a truck in it) and get stuck while Tina Miaer waltzes across. well she weighs 50lb less and so does her bike! three cameramen thrust their cameras under my nose and into my eyes as I struggle with the bike... I chase others up the hill still but now I can't find where I am, the trip meter is correct until we all do a U-turn and now even this is wrong!

I go through a valley of mud and the side-by-sides are among us, using old tricks learnt I overtake around 6 bikes and all the S-by-S here and am gone. after some good navigation around another muddy bed I'm doing well and reach the CP. calibrating the map and zeroing the tripmeter I set off again.

stage 1 is out of the way. stage 2 starts just 100m later. we then ride in a dry open wilderness of white chalk and sometimes sand and mud! I make even better progress, I'm up with the 4-10th for the first time! I check everything I do and it's going well.

Suddenly three cars are on my tale and I don't know what I fear but I am frightened!

I lead them accurately around many twists and turns before I slow to look at the roadmap, as I do this my front wheel rides into a crack caused by water damage - I'm now "scalextrix". I crash to the ground and fear for my life but the cars are good and stick 50m behind so see me in plenty of time.

back on my feet I move off again and then after another30-minutes I see all the bikes of the rally gathered in one place. apparently the organisers left out one line/photo and it wrecks the stage for everyone.

a call is made and the organisers give us the sat/nav point of the CP and the day is over for us as we all rush back to the camp we have only spent the one night at.

I lay out in the grass and soon Mike, Tony and Roy appear having been to the police station. we eat bread and salami, cheese etc and then head off for the new campsite again with me in the back. this time we're off to Germany for the very last stage. stage 8.

what we don't know is that the truck that will bring the pallets of water to the new camp? that has broken down in the mudhole I talked of and we are going to have no water again tonight or for half of the last rally day. so no washed bike and a rider that hasn't washed for 2.5 days.


the mudhole can be seen throughout this one but 35 and 1.19 seconds show you well
I win the race up the hill - 54 seconds
[youtube:lm58zhao]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJiz5zE-B7k&feature=relmfu[/youtube:lm58zhao]

I later find out that I've lost as much as 13 hours on the previous day knocking me down near thew bottom again. oh well!

regards

Taffy

Interesting adventure you all had... ****** stolen bike story, for the rest typical breslau! Well done, not an easy rally.

What a wild looking rally. Sounds like you had a ball taffy. What a shame about the bike being stolen that's terrible news, you'd love to get ahold of the pricks that did that. Hopefully they get what's coming.