No I haven't done it I am doing it for the first time this July. The whole thing kicked off because a motorcycling friend died of cancer aged 42 and then a chance meeting Lois Pryce and Tamsin Jones. This is my Dakar Rally moment.
I entered on my own and then I persuaded a work colleague (we are in a work based bike club called REVS) who is based in Preston to come with me. He sold his road bike and bought a DRZ400s so we would have near enough the same bike. I also got him to join the TRF as well. He has never ridden in the dirt before and is spending his weekends getting muddy around Preston. Any tips Liz gratefully accepted.
We are catching the ferry at Plymouth on the Friday night (23rd July) riding down from Roscoff over 2.5 days to Molina in the Pyrenees. The event is Tuesday lunchtime to the Thursday evening and maps are being handed out on the Tuesday morning. Then 3 days riding back.
We are putting new tyres on before we go and using a 15/41 cog combination for the road work and 15/47 for the event. I have been told most of the off road is straight forward stuff but who knows.
Any tips or hints gratefully received I am kind of learning as I go along and using my commuting trips to London to try stuff out. We've persuaded a bike shop in Preston called Ghost bikes to let us have matching kit at cost (have a look at their website very good value) and so team REVS is born. There can be 4 in a team so if anyone wanted to join us that fine.
Maybe I'm a bit odd or just doing it wrong but I find changing the front a real pain (all those spare washers being bent over) and can change a back in about 20mins.
I have tried a number of different cog combinations. I find the 15/47 too slow on the road (we are doing about 850 miles each way) but good off. The 15/41 cruises at 60 - 70 no problem. No doubt once I start doing lanes with the TRF folk I'll see there all running 13 or 14 fronts and 47's and 49 rears.
Always willing to listen and learn and I'm really just picking stuff up by trial and error. Quite a lot of error sometimes.
