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. After an uneventful but pleasant, if dusty meander-up through the hills climbing up a sharp pinch that all successfully accomplished with no problems we came to the first breakout section. Each member of the group chose there path and we set off to conquer the steep rocky rutted downhill section of Quarry track. As we approached the tough section, creating a rise Anthony chose to test the ABS on the new Touareg, discovered it behaved very differently to his Tiger and was forced to take a brief nap. All well, Anthony upright we kept motoring along. The rocky downhill section arrived with little warning with a few of our more experienced team members including our founding president coming accropa on some of the deeper ruts having a short nap and bending the brake lever so severely on this gs850 that the breaks were jammed on. With some brute force and the help of the sweeps boot the brake lever was successfully adjusted and we were able to man handle the beast back onto a better line. Catching up with the group we missed a turn as the cornerman broke down and we dropped down a sharp pinch into a mud puddle. It was big enough to flag the error of our ways and we turned around just as our Trusty lead arrived at the scene. Rejoining the group we completed the rest of the ride uneventfully until the last 10km where In the dust and dirt flying around one team member miss read a pothole with less than ideal results. The lesson for us all, hang back out of the dust so you can get a clear view of the terrain. Until next time Madcats out Text: Dean W