Road Trip - Day 2 - Riding at Bowen's

The morning started with Schuie and I working flat out in our mobile office, usingplenty of my Lakes Networking gadgets to keep us updating the site and also organising sponsorships for thenew Queensland Moto Park back home.We're also planning the S & S FMX Coaching course for when we reach the Valyside compound in Perth which should hopefully be the last weekend of September.

With office work over, Bowen arrived and it was time to attack the rain-soaked course and see what was rideable. Before Matt and I even had our gear on, Jake had come back in with mud all over him after slipping in the corner - so we knew it was going to be slick. But the new Motoz tires were spot on and I was getting a fair bit of hook up... and so did Schuie when he decided to cover me in mudwhile I was trying to film him with the SportsCamera helmet cams!

The jumps were a little slick, but definitely jumpable. The 90 footer was the trick jump, although you had to skip over a gully and land almost in the face of the upramp while powering on in 3rd gear to make it to the smoothest part of the downramp. It was a bit technical to trick the jump, and Jake was showing he had the home town advantage with big Rulers and Double Grab indy's, while Schuie and I were happy to justjump and whip off it. I did make a novice school boy error - I forgot I had fitted the full race seat to my KTM and I was trying to do Seat Grab tricks. I did them, but they just didn't feel right... after an hour and a half - Schuie decided to point out to me that I had the full seat on, which made sense as to why I could barely do it. So a quick change over to the cut-down seat and I was in action!

The other main jump was a 120 foot jumpreturn back over the same ridgeline. With a fairly short run up on to the ski jump, it was hard to make it to the downramp and make a smooth landing. It was 3rd gear absolutely wedged to get to the knuckle and not to the sweet spot, thats for sure! But regardless of a ski jump, it was actually quite a poppy jump. Flying 120 feet with plenty of airtime was a good way to start the trip and we were all over it.It was only after a while that another little jump over the creek would dry up enough that we could get more speed for the 120footer and it was then on to be tricked and you could land in the sweet spot down the bottom. Possibly an extra 20 feet or so.

After finishing the ride, it was only a short walk through Bowens property to the pub across the creek and a couple of beers to celebrate a good start to the trip, and a sweet ride to start with!Thanks to Jake Bowen and his family for having us at their new compound and hopefully we can make it back there again one day!