Dust Offs and Bent Headers

Yesterday I caught up with Neil Grime at a bar in my home town of Launceston, Tasmania.  Fresh from the Condo 750 Neil is in town as a mechanic for the Targa Tasmania.

Here’s the bearded bushranger beating his old horse.

 

It gave me a good chance to chat about the Condo, as well as other tales of things gone and ideas of thing’s that might be.

The Condo was harder to follow from a distance then the Safari. The website is not kept as current. Consequently after seeing Rod Colling on the r65 Rooney special perform well in the Prologue, it was some time before I saw the “DNF” for Day One. What I did not know was that he had subsequently been able to carry on for Day Two, where things had turned very rough and tumble, not that Rod remembers much of that.

Here’s how it panned out. The prologue did go well for both Rod and Neil (riding his XR600). However on the first day one of the header pipes had collected a rock or log. Paul was able to replace it to keep Rod moving.  It must have been a hell of an impact as the damaged piece now looks like this:

 

With that drama not  far behind a new Mitas ‘segmented’ mousse in the rear tyre turned to dust and joined the red stuff 60km out from a checkpoint. This left the tyre off the rim and with too far to limp home Rod was picked up by the sweep. Hence the DNF. Not to be deterred the team managed to re-join the race on Day Two, albeit from last position.

Again things started well for Rod, however when emerging through a cloud of dust while passing a quad bike he found himself quite suddenly removed from his machine which, when the dust had settled, was found some 100 metres away from where he lay. Incredibly Rod was attempting to right himself when help arrived that sensibly convinced him to await medical support. He was as such conveyed back to proper medical facilities where he spent a few hours before joining the nights celebrations!

Neil brought the old XR 600 home in a respectable 37^th overall position, and is now looking forward to riding the Rooney Special in the 2013 Australasian Safari, while Rod Colling, amazingly not broken or beaten was last heard enthusiastically anticipating the same challenge.

Here is a shot of the part of the support team. L-R: Graham (2010 r65gs safari rider), Clarissa, Ian, Neil and Paul.

So, as Neil summed it up: “That’s Racing”. See you at the 2013 Australasian Safari.

Lucky Stu

Prologue

A good sign.

http://condo750.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Condo_750_times.pdf

 

Team Rooney Rides On

When I spoke to Paul early this morning he was already at work jamming mousse into tyres in preparation for Fridays beginning of the awesome Condo750 held in the central west of NSW. Competitors will navigate through 910km of Condoblins finest landscapes presenting both exultation and torture to machine and rider.

Rod Colling will be riding the Rooney prepared r65gs (#55) while Neil Grimes (#600) will pilot his own xr600, his Rooney rally ride still in construction to be ready for the 2013 Australasian Safari.

More detail as well as results can be found on the Condo750 website, and I’ll post updates as I can right here.

Lucky Stu

Double the Dust!

The 2013 Australasian Safari is on for Rooney Cycle.  This year will see two Rooney Race Specials contest the extreme event. The 2012 bike (shown below being piloted by Jason Adams in last years event) is currently being refurbished and readied for another blast, this time in the hands of adventurer Neil Grime.  Meanwhile, as if he hasn’t enough to do Paul is building up a brand new bike. Rod Colling will pilot this second machine through the West Australian dust.

Whoohoo!

Both Rooney’s will run Paul’s usual array of enhancements to engine and chassis, with some new developments also rumuored to be fronting up for some extreme punishment.  Updates of the bikes as they come together and the usual unfussed comments of Paul will be posted here also.

Bit wait there’s more it seems: Rally organisers have just announced a Pre 1985 challenge Award to cater for those souls with a taste for racing and a soul reminiscent of the classic machines. Click on the link to read Rooney Special pilot Neil Grimes talk of his own taste for the era.

Done & Dusted!

Now the dust has settled and the hard miles are done it is awesome to see that the 1983 bmw has made it through the grueling 2012 Australasian Safari. How hard was day six? Here is what Jason wrote about the leg over on Adventure Rider.

“Yesterday was the Kalbarri Death March, haha.. It started off well, nice fast 100k stage, fast and flowing. Second stage was a reverse of an earlier one, and halfway through I lost the back brake cable. Ironically, brakes allow you to ride faster. At first I used some fence wire to bodge it, but could never really get enough tension so it was really just to hold the brake pedal up out of the way. As someone pointed out, its a BMW and therefore doesn’t really need a rear brake. Just downshift and BBBWWOOOAAA down you go.
Fixed it at service.

Stage three was a 200k that at 80ks into I hit a dip and broke the left footpeg off. I found out later this is where the #14 yamaha crashed, and also Manuel. I went back and found the footpeg remains, and someone later pointer out it’s a BMW and comes equipped with two substitute footpegs sticking out from each side. I used some more fence wire to sew the peg remains back on the bike, but it just barely worked. Not proud to say I borrowed the footpeg from #14 bike which was there, in case the bodge job I did failed somewhere over the rest of the stage. It only kind of worked, I was forced to sit most of the rest of the way, or stand on one foot, and when I got back to camp I gratefully returned the borrowed yamaha peg.

The final 20ks were just brutal. As I said I saw Ivan (a very surly Ivan) at km 112, not interested in making convo of any sort, and at km 140 I found Dave Blight who was nursing his bike through a series of electrical shorts brought on by dumping too many times. We rode out the final k’s together, and when we finally reached the finish, I looked over at him and spontaneously starting giggling like a little girl. Couldn’t stop for about ten minutes. Arguably the hardest ride I’ve ever done. They save the best for last.”

Jason’s effort was rewarded with the ‘Andy Caldecott Award’. Andy Caldecott is an Australasian Safari legend who passed in the 2006 dakar rallye. Ross Briggs snapped this picture of Jason with his finishers medallion.

Granted, Team Rooney may not have finished the Safari in the top three. But the fact that a 1983 Bmw that Jason had never even ridden only days before the event was able to conquer such a grueling event is testament to the man and the machine.

Well done Jason and Paul, I hope this blog provides you with a useful record of your extreme undertaking!

For anyone that wants to read the full adventure I have posted the whole episode here reconfigured into chronological order.

Lucky Stu

Day Six!

Day five closed with no major drama. A flat tyre and some navigation hiccups slowed progress but Jason brought the big BM home in 28th position overall. Picture below courtesy Australasian Safari.

Today “the Australasian Safari competition moves to Jimba Jimba Station, Winderie Station, Wooramel River, Hamelin on the coast between Carnarvon and Kalbarri and then south to the Murchison river finishing in Kalbarri. The 431km of competitive stages includes red dunes, fences, saltbush flats, river crossings and typical rough outback station roads” (Courtesy Australian Safari)

Today’s leg 6 has three special stages as outlined below:

SS13 through ‘Winderie’ Station is 114km

SS14 through ‘Carbla’ Station is 111.64km

SS15 takes the team to ‘Hamelin Bay’ for a final 205.52km

That’s a days total of total of 434.17km in special stages.  It’s the second last day, and the last day of big specials (Leg 7 specials are two at less then 30 and 20km respectively). That’s a fact I’m sure Jason is well, well aware of.  If he were not busted, bent up and fully exhausted by now then there is something wrong with him. Have you seen any of the video footage of the riders? Man they are stuffed!

Almost there man….Keep it up Jason and GO GO GO!

P.S. By the time I get back to this blog it will be all done and dusted so for up do date results keep an eye out here. Lucky Stu

Day Four Done Well – Day Five Digs In.

With the drama of day three behind them day four was trouble free, though challenging for Jason and the Rooney team. With sections 9 & 10 completed the team find themselves in Position 30 overall (of motorcycles).

Ross Briggs snapped the picture below of Jason navigating the rocky terrain of Leg 4.  The toll on vehicles for the day was high and to make matters worse the leg was ‘unassisted’ (4 bikes suffered mechanical issues in SS9 and were unable to complete). When Paul saw Jason bringing her home he cried “bloody beauty!”, the rocky sections had destroyed the Big BMW’s tyres.

Jason is holding up to the grueling rally as well as anyone, blisters causing him the greatest discomfort.  Day five is a big one taking the team touring around Gascoyne Junction for an anything but leisurely 450km, not including the transport.  The leg is composed of two specials as follows:

Special Stage 11. ‘Gascoyne’ 147.25km

Special Stage 12. ‘Bidgemia’ Station 301.39km

Talking to Paul you can hear the dry dust in his voice, behind it though, you can feel the excitement of the rally…GO Team Rooney Go!