Devon TRF Group Forum

I'm in and paid up.
You can reserve your place now and pay at the end of Feb - they have upped it from 163 places to 250!

Not me this year, have a good one!

Albert wrote:

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im booked up, very excited about this after going through the website

http://www.taffydakar.org.uk/news/

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 Superb.... welcome to join Wrighty base camp with us.

It be good this year with so many riders, think I may trailer there this year though. It was a long ride home in 2014!!

Albert wrote:

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I was planning to ride there, hopefully thats not too terrible an idea :S

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 I have ridden to the Taffy Dakar and back two years in a row, take plenty of ibuprofen for the aches and pains, plus a cushion for your backside and you'll be fine!!

I'm thinking of entering this, will make a change for me from planning and leading rides out in Wales. Any chance if I do so I can hook up with some of you on here.

 

I'll be camping and on my ttr.

 

Boz

Ive just signed up-- should be good fun

 

Mike

Very keen to enter next year! Just wondering what everyone's riding, as enduro bikes are not allowed?

-- Edited by Crocker on Sunday 3rd of January 2016 03:56:45 PM

bozz wrote:

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I'm thinking of entering this, will make a change for me from planning and leading rides out in Wales. Any chance if I do so I can hook up with some of you on here.

 

I'll be camping and on my ttr.

 

Boz

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 Of course you would be welcome there seems to be quite a Devon group going now.

KronreifTrunkenpolzMattighofen wrote:

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hampsterracing wrote:

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Albert wrote:

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we will have to get a big Devon flag or something for everyone to rally under

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 We have a devon trf banner

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 Happy to fly the flag as I'm taking the car. 

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 Sounds like a plan, will be great to have so many DTRF about

I see the email has been sent to form teams etc but if we have more than 6 etc theres nothing to stop us riding together if we want to.

I have my ticket up for sale, camping etc included. £50

Have decided to take the new RIB to the Scillies to enjoy the gig festival instead.

Not long now.

Will be heading up from Dorset on Friday. Blue VW Transporter with a DR350 and CRFL if you are passing.

Did look around for you guys but didn't find you.

Although I did meet a chap from Weymouth out in Sarn Helen and another bloke called Albert who was on Chris Cork's team on Sunday morning.

Albert and Chris Cork

That team must be in the points

Dom1 wrote:

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Did look around for you guys but didn't find you.

Although I did meet a chap from Weymouth out in Sarn Helen and another bloke called Albert who was on Chris Cork's team on Sunday morning.

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Was nice to meet a fellow DR350 enthusiast Dom, hopefully will get out for a ride your way this summer Mike Wright and Khanage from this forum were on my team too, just not about when we were chatting

 

ttr steve wrote:

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Albert and Chris Cork

That team must be in the points

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 Ha! thanks for the ego stroking Steve, but no we unfortunatly got a little merry on the friday night, did no planning and were a bit worse for wear on the big day, don't know exactly where we placed but the winners got every checkpoint plus the special so we were probably way off  
 Still I had a brilliant time, some great lanes around there and the team was great company (cheers guys!)

 

One of our fine Devon teams came in forth, very narrowly missing out on third place

-- Edited by Albert on Monday 2nd of May 2016 10:13:51 PM

Mike Wright wrote:

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The idea of setting up the team was purely for laughs with no intention of taking any of it seriously. This showed when Friday night became a party night which then showed on the Sat morning . Base camp was more like a grotto for staying a week or more with everything we needed. I think we all had a good laugh and the weather was great for the Sat event with Nick winning the first raffle prize being a new crash helmet that actually fitted.

No idea what postion we came in the event Im afraid.

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 I think we got our level of effort just right though, didn't take it too seriously but did get out and see plenty of the area

Right then, report time.

Friday - 

Had booked a days leave to get there in good time.

Underestimated the amount of packing time required as usual. Baking a couple of cakes - one to leave and one to take with me always takes a while but is well worth it.

Arrived at Dan's an hour late, quick game of van Tetris to get his bike in then off to Wales. Having blown leaving early to avoid the traffic this took us another 5 hours.

Fortunately, HP and the team had arrived on Thursday and fully set up our HQ for the weekend. Dan and I were allocated the guest wing and prepared for a chilly night.

Usual briefing - Have fun, don't die and don't call the air ambulance or the whole charitable purpose of the event will be pointless.

Attempted a bit of map marking but soon realised I could not be arsed and decided to do it properly in the morning.


Saturday - 

Up at 6.15am due to the cold and an urgent call of nature.

Settled in front of the electric heater wrapped in a duvet and marked up the maps whilst Dan gently snoozed.

We let the "serious" competitors get on with it and queue for the 8am start and finally got underway about 8.30am heading up to Sarn Helen and the infamous steps. Once we got into the swing of riding the loose rocky surface we made decent progress down to the steps which I had been dreading.

Made a decent fist of the descent until I got to the river where I bottled it a bit then mustered my courage and made the drop in and the crossing with minimum drama and maximum revs. Dan followed me down and also avoided a ducking. Then my bike wouldn't start, this may or may not have been down to the kill switch but I could not possibly comment. Also met a fella on a Kawasaki with almost the consecutive number plate to mine, small world etc.

While I was fiddling about with the bike a full dress GS1200 Adventure arrived at the steps so I waded across to help catch him as he made the drop in. As it was he made the drop no problem only to drop it into the river halfway across. So I then got a soaking helping push the huge bassa out the other side.

After the river crossing there is a steep rocky climb up the other side which again we tackled with gusto and varying degrees of success.

We pushed on to the second part of Sarn Helen and Dan suffered his only "crash" of the day. Crash if far too big a word for it but mincing zero mile an hour flop does not do justice to the amount of damage the pristine CRFL suffered. I took it upon myself to lighten Dan's mood by explaining that now it looks more tough and its a trail bike people expect scratches which he clearly appreciated and I was glad to help.

Coming this was I knew we had to ride down the boulder hill we took two hours to get up last year and to be frank I was not looking forward to it. Taking the low low speed descent option it was not as bad a I feared but I was glad not to be riding up it.

At the end of Sarn Helen we found a group of riders who had lost their navigator to a mechanical failure early on. So we were joined by Paul (DR350), Tim (DR600) and his son Travis (lunatic CRM250) and headed for Llandovery and the Special Stage beyond.

From Sennybridge we took the Roman Road over to Llandovery and rode west and hit my favourite trails of the day running up and around the Welsh mountains, amazing scenery and good riding. 

Then we went north to the Special Stage held on private royal forestry which was only available for the one day. This was mainly forest fire roads with a small trials stage to keep us on our toes. 

After the trials stage we set off again, as the Special Stage was marked and I am poo scared of gravel the others showed me a clean pair of wheels through the forestry. It was no surprise to come around a bend to find Travis and his CRM lying in the gravel. Being young he bounced well and was still a damn sight quicker than me.

As time was getting on we debated whether to press on to Brechfa Forest or pull together some of the trails we already ridden and head back. Just for a change we chose to man the **** up and headed for Brechfa, I regretted it to start with as it clouded over but we were met there by the Taffy Dakar marshals who provided drinks and set us on the right trail, the sun came out and we started into the forest. 



This was excellent riding and very challenging in places with deep puddles and rocky descents. At one point I watched as Tim rode his DR600 into a puddle deeper than his wheels then dropped it. Fearing the worst I was expecting to be there for a while but he just picked it up kicked it back into life. I found out later the secret, HT leads off a jet ski.

Around Brechfa the marshals had marked the way with tape so I was let off navigation again. I was glad to be on the DR seeing the struggles of others on big trailies particularly having shoved a Super Tenere up a slick rock trail we couldn't even stand on.

We came out of Brechfa and joined up with a group of GS riders to ride back but dropped off at Sennybridge for fuel before the final run back. Once we arrived safely back Paul realised the split link in his chain had fallen off somewhere in the last 20 miles at 70ish mph. Lucky.

Was knackered but didn't care, due to the weather forecast I had decided I would not be riding the Sunday anyway so it was a celebratory Magners, hog roast and medals all round.



Massive thanks to HP, James, Alan and Wendy for their hospitality.

Looking forward to next year already.

Nice report,,
Cheers..

Time for a lunch break about half way through and a puncture repair at the same time

 

 

Looking at the KTM's in the picture above, am I right in thinking they have relaxed the rules and allowed Enduro bikes to enter? Thought it was only Trail bikes or Adventure bikes over 600cc?

Part of the reason I did not enter again this year was because I got rid of my trail bike for something more Orange.

The KTM was allowed to ride with us but not part of the team apart from Corky who was the VIP so can ride anything.

ANOTHER..C90....!!

ABOVE PICTURES,CURTESY OF ....UKGSER....