2023-03-04 Mazcats do Marysville
“Repetition is an essential part of learning”, or so Rosie claimed in his ride description before taking us on the ride earlier this year. It all started innocently enough, with him announcing that the ride would focus on learning. But then, in the middle of the afternoon loop, Rosie, who always seems to have a “great idea”, suggested a more challenging track. The group eagerly agreed, not knowing that his track evaluation skills were far from accurate and the group were about to face the infamous “Marysville Mayhem”.
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2023-03-10 Open Roads Rally ’23
I can now relate to teenage Elvis Presley walking into the revival tent getting swooped up by the feeling of something so overwhelming to an individual. My knees buckled. “Rubber-leg” dance moves over each whoop. Weightless rider. Women leaping to the air screaming. The authorities desperate to shut me down. The Rally organisers futile attempted to contain me.
You see…I was fortunate enough to be hosted at Airbnb PW. A ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ host. A host with vision, generosity and an all-around great spirit. Between our host and his trusty sidekick (aka the ladies’ man), we were spoilt with a pre-determined menu of burgers, schnitzel, sausages, and bacon-egg rolls. The Esky’s was like Spotify’s genre of music. A playlist of never-ending chilled thirst-quenching liquids.
2022-12-08-Trawool Trek
We all gathered at McDonnalds Whittlesea for the beginning of a great ride. There was much excitement and interest in Ian and Anthony’s new stead’s as the came on matching Aprillia Touregs adding another vehicle to the Madcat menagerie. They looked the part and. Now it was time to prove there worth.
The ride was rated a 3-4 meaning a solid day out with steep ish ups and Downs with a couple of steep hills making it occasionally quite a challenging, the good news was there were planned work around a for people to choose if they desired.
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2022-12-17-matlock woods point day ride
The last ride for 2022 was a re-run of an easy ride that was first done very early in the clubs’ existence. The roads leading east of the Yarra Valley are made for Adventure: wide, well gravelled, mostly un-corrugated but with a sprinkling of pot holes to keep you on your toes.
As I sit here to write this, we’re almost in Feb now, with the silly season having taken its toll, I’m doing my best to recall the finer detail of this ride! This will be a brief report.
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2023-01-15 Bishop’s Backyard Ride
This ride is now fondly remembered as the Banished Bishop Ride, due to the Cathedral Ranges State Park being closed as a result of recent landslides. Not to be disappointed, a substitute route around the closed tracks was quickly devised.
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2022-09-16 Riding the roof of the world..
…Day 4 and 5 and our group is in awe of the sheer majesty and scale of the mountains. At their base are valleys that meander through the lunar landscape, and braided rivers that are now a green-blue colour. No one is unaffected by their surroundings, and in a group where shit-talking has been to the fore over the previous few days, a quiet reverence has taken over. Words fail to describe a remarkable landscape, and each is lost in his own thoughts as we ride…
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2022-06-16 Road To Nowhere.
Well, we know where we’re goin’
It was a cold and windy day my friends and we were on a road to nowhere. I believe this is was repeat circuit that was instigated by Tim our current president.
Tim’s rides have a musical theme and you’ll see a pattern if you look back over past ride reports.
A mix of old and new members ,12 in all, gathered at the Kinglake meeting point. Once the formalities of the briefing concluded we headed down to Castella on a beautiful twisty road which lead us to our first section of dirt. Turning off the Melba Hwy it was evident that this is a popular spot for off road bikes with single track heading off in all directions. We were traveling well as a group but the side track we were on was getting narrower and a little slippery. Riders were taking it easy and going their own pace.
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2022-07-08 WAW – Murray Sunset / Big Desert Bash
The riding we did on this day cultivates happiness. The stuff of dreams. The ride that has made so many give up a day job and go travel the world. Mixture of surfaces, mixture of speed. Whoops with close calls. Sights that presents unseen. After this day, for this trip the sun has set for us in the Murray ’till 2023. For tomorrow we pack up and return home.
“We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home.”
– Australian Aboriginal Proverb
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2022-04-23 Gone Bush
‘Gone Bush’
informal, Australian and New Zealand
a. to abandon city amenities and live rough
b. to run wild
We plan so many great rides in the Madcat club, but sometimes you just want to sit in the bush, in a chair, in front of a fire. So that’s it. I had the idea for my Gone Bush ride. I posted the ride on the Madcat website long before I knew where we were going, or how we were going to get there. But the idea was solid. The location was out there somewhere, I just had to find it.
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2022-02-15Madcat (Tas)mania 2022 – Ride Report
The Madcat Tasmania Trip was initiated by our President and Founder – Ian Ribchester. Originally booked for March, the scheduling of the 2022 Targa Rally meant we decided to pull it forward by a month. In late 2021, up to nine members had indicated their interest in attending. Due to personal reasons, and the ongoing spectre of COVID-19 closures the final attending numbers settled at six.
Riders and bikes
Ian Ribchester – 2019 BMW F850GS
Ed Van Der Wissel 2011 BMW R1200GS
Masoud 2017 Kawasaki Versys 300
Ben Hercus 2017 Suzuki 650 V-Strom
Tim Stolz 2018 KTM 790 Adventure R
Andrew Robertson 2021 BMW F850GS
click here for the very comprehensive ride report
2022-07-02 Ruffy is not so tuffy ride
This ride was held on the 2nd of July 2022 and had a total of 15 riders join in. I performed the role as Lead Rider on the Norden 901, whilst Dean undertook Sweep Rider duties on his new and embankment resistant KLR 650.
This is a fantastic turn out by the club during winter and is indicative of the commitment by those ‘hard core’ adventure riders that call themselves MADCATS.
2022-06-18 MADCAT vs Mosquito. Loch sport sand tracks 4
Quite often my wife will say to me in a disapproving kind of way, “when the hell are you going to grow up”. I suppose when I tell her I’m going away for the weekend with a bunch of blokes to play in the sand, I don’t really have a leg to stand on. But you know what it goes in one ear and straight out of the other one. It was heaps of fun and I’m sure its medicinal in an odd way. Let’s keep on riding.
2022-04-25 Social Touring Ride Ride Report
We wondered if anyone else was up for a leisurely run on ANZAC day? I reckoned that a few people had not so much to do on Monday other than mowing the lawn or desperately need to escape the kids long weekend at the end of the school holidays that just seemed ONE DAY TOO LONG?
The idea was some light off-road (unsealed road / gravel), take in some nice views over the hills and the dam, stopping at every scenic point we can for a photo and a chin wag, and then have a nice lunch at 1pm somewhere. After that it could be tar home or take another scenic route back.
2022-02-26 Toombon Haunted Huts
…After lunch, it was time for The Toombon Haunted Huts group to peel off and the “daywalkers” returned for a lazy afternoon ride back home. No time for a siesta if you Toombon Haunted Huts group. Are we Mexi-can’s or Mexi-can’ts? Let’s kick things into another gear. Spooky route alternative day one on the menu, thank you. ..
2021-07-14 VP OUTBACK TRIP
A plan was hatched and I posted a vague trip itinerary up on the Madcat chat channels, hoping to get maybe 4 or 6 people interested. Would you believe I ended up with 15 excited riders locked in and paid up? I didn’t, but I can tell you I was pretty happy!
And thus, the VP Outback Trip committee was formed. It is worth noting that not one of us planning the trip were born here!
Wayne R (Amazing Author) – In charge of accommodation, meals and beers; clueless with tech.
Rolf – Route Creator and all-round tech guru
Christian – Route Creator and all-round tech guru
And here we are, what could possibly go wrong with such great looking and smart blokes in charge?
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2022-02-05 Murrindindi / Toolangi – U-Turns, Dropped Bikes & Horrible Hills
This was a last-minute ride posted by Wayne, which promised nothing more than to be of unknown difficulty, and with a route which probably wouldn’t (or couldn’t) be followed.
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2022-01-22 Rocky Mountain High Ride
… A truly speccy find. Hues of blue as your eye travels north over the ridge lines of several ranges. And the hut, set in a meadow above the snowline, dotted with summer daisies, granite boulders, tough and tortured snow gums, small in stature, hardy in nature. Pure unadulterated magic. Well worth the sphincter- tightening 10 min side trip off the Circuit road….
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2022-01-04 ANDY MACEY, SOLO RIDE.
Partly because the weather wasn’t looking terrible and partly due to FOMO about the mental as anything ride I did head out for a ride today. I learnt several things….
1) Riding from 0630am to 1830pm is too much riding.
2) Don’t try tracks just for the sake of trying tracks as you won’t actually get where you intended to. Just waste a lot of time on dead ends and unsuitable for an adv bike tracks.
3) If your internal voice is saying things like
“it doesn’t look too bad if you stay on the right” it probably is too bad.
4) Being somewhere between Matlock and Noojee and nearly out of fuel causes anxiety.
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2022-01-02 MENTAL AS ANYTHING
While it was only a few days short of being a legitimate last-minute ride, this trip was inspired by a club member’s post of a local enduro rider smashing out the Tinger Spur Track. Damian posted the Youtube Clip on 20 December on Madcat Slack, and by Christmas Eve Tim had the bones of an overnighter mapped. The ride was quickly christened, and in the current nomenclature was blessed with “Mental As Anything”, name-dropping the track I’m on a Road to Nowhere. However a quick check of MAA’s discography fails to find a track so named…so either he was thinking of Talking Heads, who, to be fair, could be pretty ‘mental’… or maybe there were any number of Mental tracks he was channelling
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2021-11-19 MADCATTERS T- PARTY INAUGURAL AGM WEEKEND
1 week to go and the BOM forecast looked like a nice day for the wetlands of Scotland, not good for our intrepid heroes trying to celebrate their recently returned freedoms. Reverse Indian rain dances were performed by a native South American with an injured knee to please the Gods of Rain and eventually, with 1 day to go, the sky turned clear, with some clouds, but no rain.
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2021-11-05 MARTIN’S LOCH SPORT SAND TRACK PRACTICE
It is a weird sensation when your expensive, well-balanced adventure bike becomes squirmish underneath you. Like a lizard tail hurrying across the desert sand. Even scary when it happens the 1st time. What the 
, is my front wheel lose? Are my tires flat? My handlebar has come undone? The lads on Facebook debated 50/50 Motoz, 10W fork oil and full synthetic. Lying bastards!
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2021-11-02 CUP DAY KEPPEL AND WHISKY CREEK HUT
When Rob posted his Cup Day Keppel and Whiskey Creek hut ride, I knew I had the day off, and I knew I wanted to do some harder rides. Surely I squeezed into the requirement of ‘Intermediate to Advanced’? I knew my bike had qualified, 50/50 tyres – check, Bash plate – check, BYO tools and tubes – check. ‘Bugger it’ I though I’m going, so I sat my intermediate arse on my bike and off I went to the meeting place in Yarra Junction.
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2021-10-23 WE ARE BACK
After spending the last 11 weeks or so in lockdown, I missed the joking and banter that was part of a MADCAT ride, Riding alone is better than not riding at all, but it’s nothing like riding with the club. We’re back!.
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2020-02 JAMIESON/KEVINGTON RIDE
This was a big one, with a big story which I will try and recount the best that I can.
The reccy ride
This trip was well planned, a pre-ride was completed in a day by MADCAT President Ian and Vice President Wayne without incident, so running this ride as an overnight club event was going to be easy right?… right?
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2021-06-19 The Steppenwolf Ride
Two weeks of lockdown and primitive travel restrictions saw the Madcats with their claws out. Add to that the better disappointment of a postponed outback trip for over a dozen members, and frustrations were growing… as demonstrated by some of the weird exchanges on SLACK. As Hunter. S. Thompson said “when the going gets weird… the weird turn pro”. Plenty of evidence of that.
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2021-03-27 THE BOB SEGER RIDE
After a dreamy low- 20’s temperature the day before the Bob ride, the heavens opened in Melbourne about 7am on 27th March and it looked for all the world like a miserable mid-winters day as six hardy souls, of the original 17, sloshed their way out to our rendezvous point at Yarra Junction for a three-day-ride on mixed surfaces. At its conception, it was, in the mind’s eye, imagined to be a mid-Autumn ride, when the weather is at its balmy best: warm still days, dry roads, native bush, a campground on a river, and a hearty pub meal each night.
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2021-02-20 Return to the Grampians
On a warm and sunny Saturday, a group of 12 riders set out from Weeribee on a 300km trek across the west towards Halls Gap…
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2021-01-07 Loch Sport Sand tracks #2
Loch Sport Sand Tracks – After the success of the first event, and for the benefit of those who could not attend the first time — We present: Loch Sport Sand Tracks #2 – Jan 2021
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2020-12-13 END OF ISO
End Of ISO – Ironically, was the name given to this ride originally when it was planned before Victoria’s second lockdown. 8 Members attended the ride for its second innings, it seemed fitting to end the year with this ride — we hope NEVER to be in lockdown or Isolation again!
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2020-11-28 Ride Report – Alpine Run
After the COVID lockdown caused the cancellation of this ride originally, 14 members were keen to get out on the road for Damien Tammer’s “The Ride formally known as the Cup Day Alpine Run”
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2020-12-05 Beginners practice day 1
Training day were we focus on slow riding, body position, tight cornering, brakes control, and all those little skills that can be overlooked and not practice enough, but can save you in any ride.
We also test the real flavor of Adventure Rides when we have to help a member of the club and teamwork worked perfectly.
Practice was done in Pheasant Creek.
2020-11-21 Sneaky overnighter. Heading up to Big River.
To describe a bit how the trip was , we need to quote one of our member, Martin:
“Hard to say what I enjoyed the most this weekend. Was it the excitement to see a new area that I was introduced to? Was it the spectacular camp, the lucky great spot find within the spectacular camp? Was it the cool bubbling creek just 10 m away from where we slept? Was it the open fire under beaut sky? Was it the sizzling Brazilian BBQ meat prepared to perfection? The chicken, licken dinner? The brekky egg roll? Or, was it the excitement of the whole camp as the MADCAT riders pulled in with pipes roaring and growling? Kids stopping in their tracks. The onlookers getting upright from their seated position to gaze upon the lucky few who dare to tour, camp, live. Thanks!”
2020-09-21 First official Madcat meeting
30 participants
Lots of talking .. no much riding. Thanks COVID-19
Everyone looks very keen and willing to go out once we can.
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2020-09-07 And it’s almost ready
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2020-06-26 We have a page in our website to add news. Who would have thought eh?