I’ve just had my first ride since dislocating my shoulder on the Kimberley ride and it felt good to be back on the bike. I could have ridden earlier, but with a dislocation it’s always best to strengthen the muscles around the shoulder to reduce the chances of it popping out again. I borrowed a Husky TE450 from Paul Feeney at Nerang – thanks guys – and spent the weekend at Mark Eland’s 400-acre property – Gympie way – that backs on to some of the best Forestry trails I’ve ever ridden. There’s so many hills that go up and up its crazy. Some really put you to the test as Morison Media’s I.T. guru Jake Vanderrol and buddy Dougie found out as they attempted a massive hill called Gentle Annie – which is far from being gentle at all. I’ll put together an article about the weekends riding for TBAM’s On Any Sunday section that should appear in the next issue or so. Thanks to Mark for having us at his awesome farm set-up that he brought especially for trail riding crew/friends to come and enjoy.

While in Sydney I spent an arvo with Luke Cole, Shagga and Ant Collins out at a compound they’ve recently set up at Box Hill. It consists of one mutha down ramp and three kickers, two standard comp and a super. The one that comes in straight at the downramp is on an uphill slope and boots the rider super high, the other that comes in at 45 in more mellow and better for the less experienced rider. As the clouds started to form we made most of patches of sun that poked through now and then. When there was no sun I cranked up the flash and scored some killer pics. Here’s some B Grade ones and hopefully Benny (FRMX Ed) will run some of the A’s real soon.     

Luke Cole is getting better with age, just like a good bottle of red wine.

I hadn’t been to an FMX demo for close to 12-months so I was keen to head out to the EFA run demo at Campbelltown on the 7^th of July. Schuie, Shagga, Coley, Spud, Brown and a few other riders were signed on to ride and I was also keen to catch up with them for a chat, but as soon as I arrived around 2pm, demo started at 4, it didn’t take me long to realise the boys weren’t overly happy with the set-up, and with one decent look I could see why. I’d been told before hand that the promoters had tipped in some serious cash to ensure the demo would be a success, but one look at Pete MCann’s old kicker with a lazy radius and a 30-odd-metre long strip of black, slippery looking piece of rubber leading up to it signalled to me the money had been spent elsewhere.

Luke Cole lets rip a huge Indy Nac while Spud follows close behind for a distance check.  

Yes, this blog is way overdue, but to say I’ve been a little busy of late is an understatement. Late May I spent four days with Mal Palmer from Mt Buller M/C Tours, and a great bunch of blokes, exploring the Huts Of The High Country, Victoria. It was a great ride, freezing cold at night camping by the fire in swags and in the huts. We took on some challenging hill climbs and the footage/pics we scored was all-time. Peto was along filming for an upcoming TBAM DVD, and he impressed us all with a few classic flips off the back of his WRF250 loaner. Wait to you see the pics in the next issue of TBAM, out mid August. Thanks for the top weekend Mal.