UK Ride

I was inspired by a thread on here to leave my 2 stroke at home and take the XR to lead 2 days of fairly easy trail riding. Now I have struggled with the bike since I first bought it and have felt the front end was totally wrong. I put light oil in and reset everything to standard. Better but hitting the small rocks had me wrestling the pig to keep it going straight. Near the end of the second day I had had enough and after reaching the top of a climb I stopped and slackened to damper adjuster on the fork cap right off. What and absolute differance I still cannot believe it. All of a sudden I had full control, the bike went where I wanted and this pig could fly . The only reason why I have not done this before is that I did not expect to get this much differance, I never mess with settings because standard is usually far better than what I end up with. The Xr is now going to do a load more trail riding.

Here is a copy of the report I posted in the Europe section of the Adv site.

A few last minute changes saw the group down to 6 riders. Nickyboy, WM Borneo, Chris Barnes, Paul Young, Knobby and Myself.

Saturday’s ride took us out towards the Denbigh moors and back over the Moel Famau In all I took over 200 photos of the weekend but I
will only post a few.

Chris makes a splash


Nickyboy in the mud


Knobby Doolittle says hello to the girls who had flocked to see him


WM Borneo stuck in the rut


Paul Young climbing out of the ruts


Out of the forest


Down the gully


Pit stop


Back onto the tops




Time for a drink


Like the saying as happy as a pig in


An afternoon stroll




Green laning


Last one before lunch




We had not seen any of the groups during the morning but as we arrived in Ruthin one group was filling with fuel whilst the other had just
arrived at the café. I had my usual salad before filling with fuel and onto the afternoons ride.

There’s always one and its usually


It was all down hill from here


Everyone’s favourite


This was so good we did it twice


Misty on the tops


Some like it rough


Making waves


Nearly there now


At that was it for Saturdays ride.

More to follow.

Pogo 2 - Sundays ride, same riders as Saturday. Challenge was a 9:30 start with a 4 PM finish

Nice and easy does it


This is concentration


Going


















On to the pheasant steps






Everyone’s favourite




Even good things come to an end


Towards fuel and food




If it was wet then it would have been time to worry.


But it was dry


More views


and water


and views


and water


Ok so far


Maybe not


Good job the water was clean


Almost time to head back over the tops






as I said some like it rough


some are not so keen


After riding this section I adjusted my forks . I had been fighting the BRP for 2 days and slackened the damping right off. For me it was
a revelation, Pigs can fly






No messing this time


Nearly there


And that was it



until I noticed Chris starting to get his kit off for a passing car


But the old soldier was just showing off his war wound


and that was it back to the pub to pack up and go.

Sir,
You are a real Big Red Pig Wrangler! That's some dirty stuff there!
Congrats and thanks for the great RR.

Thanks Bump.
I can't wait to get out on the bike this weekend and really test out the new settings.
I've always thought that there was a great bike in there waiting to get out. With the overheating and handling problems sorted it's time to enjoy the awesome power.

That looks like the best way to spend a weekend

Beautiful country and beautiful pictures

Thanks for sharing. Country side looks much like over here where I live in France.

Man you tossers from across the pond know how to ride!

Great story, great pictures! Thanks for sharing!

Outstanding! I really like seeing where everyone else rides.

Thanks Hew for the time and effort to post all the pictures and text!

Glad you got the pig sorted out too.