Sunday 4 June - Mooney

After a moderately slow start (no-one had told Whisperer that Brian wasn't coming, so we had to reorganise so that he could get his car sorted - and so he could collect T-Bone along the way), we set off for a Mooney ride. We (Whisperer, T-Bone, Doug and Stephe) met Richard and Ed on arrival, somewhat offsetting our sadness at not having Brian and Rees along for the ride.

After the standard, "gee why didn't I think of that last night" bike repairs (Richard, having not ridden in some time, wasn't fully aware that tyres needed to be able to retain air, for example), we set off.

Tragically, there's been a stack of clearing along the track, although it didn't seem to have harmed the scenery too much - just removed a number of the more interesting obstacles... With the freshly rain rinsed surface, it was actually a pretty good track to ride along and there were no real excuses for not making all the relevant challenges.

But, fair to say, fail the challenges we each did!

Doug had the best excuse - depending on your perspective as a boy or girl - he was either recovering from double pnuemonia with pleurisy, or the common cold... In any case, it was supposed to put him off his game, but it didn't in the least - he was first up the tricky hill on the initial track, leaving everyone else in his wake.

Doug also had a zero touch ride up the big hill once we passed the dam (go Doug!), and no-one else managed to claim that accolade this trip. T-Bone was doing handsomely as always, but seemed to be having traction problems putting him off his game.

Speaking of traction, lots of tyre grief today - Stephe is dumping his absolutely crap Hutchison, and Doug is planning to get rid of his rear Maxxis Larsen TT, with only Whisperer talking up his tyre (a Maxxis High Roller).

Ed was loud and silly (personally responsible for 76.8% of the accidents on the day), but at least managed to keep attention away from Richard, who was probably having fun but was so far back most of the time it was hard to tell...

Speaking of Richard, he very sensibly chose to walk down Rock Brian today, which was only funny because of the extent of his 'trash talk' at the beginning of the ride (ah, how the mighty have fallen!). Ed was far and away the happiest with his attempt (followed down the rock by Stephe, using *no* bad language at all (for a change)), and Whisperer and T-Bone were both also happy to claim a Rock Brian descent (Whisperer taking a right hand and then a centre line - looking to add a left hand descent next time!).

Doug managed to pull off an accident, on the track to the Oranges, only his third in living memory. Stephe did a hanger on the way out, and Richard did a hanger on the way back - thank goodness BHP managed to maintain commodity prices with China for the production of steel, so that we can continue to support the economies of both countries...

Apart from that, much fun had by all, and - finally - some photos of Doug!! Ride Photos (and two videos) here, with some samples below: