The shitiest 327 kms ever !!!!

[PHILinFRANCE]

All started well , left the Shack at 8.30 Tues morning for a RV with Nico-D at Aurillac to start a section of the West to East TET

Within an hour it stared raining and by gum it was cold !!!! ........................getting soft in my old age

The rain stopped as we reached the "Impassable Rock Garden" and i'd got the bloody camera on the wrong setting what a ninny

P1080599 by Philip Parkinson, on Flickr

Al was here a few days ago and did mention it was a challange !!! we made it through unscaved and put the kettle on , we are British after all

Nicks DRZ at the end of the section

P1080612 by Philip Parkinson, on Flickr

The trail opened up from here ,easy running

P1080614 by Philip Parkinson, on Flickr

Weather wasn't to good but like Al said the landscape was great

P1080620 by Philip Parkinson, on Flickr

P1080629 by Philip Parkinson, on Flickr

The rain came back with a vengance so we took shelter here

P1080632 by Philip Parkinson, on Flickr

It didn't last to long and we soon got back on the trails ,all big open stuff and i even got chance to do some advertising

P1080631 by Philip Parkinson, on Flickr

Turn right here

P1080630 by Philip Parkinson, on Flickr

That night saw us getting a hotel as wild camping in the rain just sounded shite !!!

The morning rewarded us with full sun and the trails changed into long wide sandy stoney pine forest tracks , good fun with more than a few wash outs , this is where i noticed what i thought was the Donk bottoming out !!!

It was a tad bumpy and i was being a bit giddy but we stopped to take a look and saw that the tyre was rubbing on the plastic under the seat !!!! FECK !!!

Nick got some pics while i punched up the suspension hoping this would help as i didn't want to quit already

It did help a tad but not much and i'd eased back on the silly stuff ..................;but now i had no front brake looks like we'd bust a seal on the lever when holding it back as a hand brake !!!

I wasn't going to stopfor that , after all i still had a rear and gear box mine up it did make me giggle locking the back end up to stop a few times

We reached big reservoir where we stopped for a look , within 5mins we heard the throb of a thumper coming towards us from the opposite direction , turned out to be Ian Womack an Aussy guy whos been on the TET for 6 weeks...ish after starting in Slovenia by buying the "linesmans" XTZ

P1080634 by Philip Parkinson, on Flickr

Great to meet a fellow fool , and we chatted for a good half hour swapping trail tails ,when i notied this

P1080633 by Philip Parkinson, on Flickr


BUGGER

P1080635 by Philip Parkinson, on Flickr


PROPER BUGGER .............................what you can't see is the rip round the back

So that was the start of " THE SHITIEST 327 kms EVER" ..........................thats how far the quickest road route was !!! just over 6hrs later i made it home creeping along at 50kph just waiting for the Donk to snap in half

Best laid plans !!!! but at least i have a spare Donk frame

Nick carried on heading east and i spoke to him last night and i'm sure when he gets back he'll piss me off with a FULL RxR

Phil

[beddowsm]

Bugger Phil, glad you made it home OK. Wonder how long it had been like that before you noticed?

Trails look ace. You said West to East TET. Is there a route? Ive been on the TET site and it goes North to South.

[aliwakeskate]

Flippen eck Phil! Gutted about your bike for you!

Glad you bumped into Ian, I said to him to look out for you.

Looks like you had fun upto the busted frame.

Enjoy the rock garden then!

Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk

[qcnr]

Poop, that doesn't look like it will polish out either...

[WIBO]

WIBO?


Glad you got to ride some of that trails at least......most bizarre ref frame.

( I'm still having a wee peep for Spanish trails that are not too open for a sunny ride out...I'l keep you posted )

[minkyhead]

WHOO glad you spotted that phil ..

wonder if its internal rusting that weakened it .. you dodged a little bullet there for sure ..

makes a interesting RR though keep well

[daveuprite]

Ah Shiiiite. You've been Framed. You did well to get home Phil.

[Redmurty]

a man of your calibre will be able to fix that couple of cable ties and some "No More nails" job done

cheers Spud

[boboneleg]

OMG!! that's exactly the spot where your other one started to go and the same as Bergdonk's bike on ADV. I'd have a word with him if I were you, I think he 'gusseted' the frame to give it more strength. All to do with the upper chain roller on the other side if you ask me, was that mod already done when you got the bike?

Really sorry to hear this Phil, best get your pipe and slippers for a while

[Andi_Archer]

Damn what a shite way to spoil what sounded like a great trail trip its lucky you stopped after all.Maybe you should lighten up on the packed lunches