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The above is a potentially very long list but in the interests of protecting my not very good name I will only offer the latest of said list . Coming back from my meeting with the lost boys of New England ( Charlie will enlarge on that story ) I took a different route home and going on dark I was beginning to look for a quiet and secluded place to camp. I was riding beside a small clean looking creek and thought it would be a good campsite if I could find a way down. I found a narrow track with relatively fresh wheel tracks and started to follow it .

Mistake 1 . I should have walked it ..... but it looked OK.

The track went 40 feet then ran down onto clean white sand . Mistake 2. I should have walked it !!
As soon as my front wheel hit the sand it sunk in to the brake disc, I couldn't turn around and I was committed and in deep ! The next few minutes were spent trying to maneuver a heavily laden bike in incredibly deep sand .

I was bogged !



I unloaded the bags and the panniers and spent the next 30 minutes in heaving and grunting, Tilly would move forward about 2 feet but by then would have dug herself a new hole, (the sand was full of water and this strangely enough also helped the situation.) At this stage I'd lift shut the motor off, lift Tilly's rear end up and the sandy slurry would slump into the hole. Start engine , gain 2 feet . Repeat as required . Eventually I was able to gain drier sand and made better progress. The next problem being a fallen tree that forced me back close to the water .



I eventually got back to hard ground but it was a work out ! Next time I shall look, especially when I see that coarse white granite sand .

After I have looked I shall AVOID !

I see no wheel or final drive in that first picture.

Oh! there it is! The very top of the tire is peaking out!

OMFG.

You are a better man than I, Sibbo.

Nah, just desperate !

155 pound of desperate !

Well Done Sibbo, where there's a wheel, there's a way!
Hope you lads had a good weekend.

Excellent Jeff, but I'll wait for Charlie to post his photo laden update, I went to the wrong spot first off but caught up later , I guess that could be added to my list of stupid things . Bugger .

Sibbo wrote:Excellent Jeff, but I'll wait for Charlie to post his photo laden update, I went to the wrong spot first off but caught up later , I guess that could be added to my list of stupid things . Bugger .

When it comes to stupidity, if you stood next to me, no one would even know you were there.

Wow Sibbo

It's a good thing you have those big floats panniers or you never would have found her.

Yep, would have been a lot worse without the bags.

So, this is the very first evidence I have ever seen why anyone would prefer a shaft drive over a chain on an off-road bike. That would have been even uglier with a chain.

Holy sheepshit, Sibbo!! I didn't see this thread last night - computer was low on battery.
BMWs are not lovers of sand, as I discovered in the Grampians last year when I did a series of very similar stupid things..

The ... er ... trainer pontoons have definitely shown their worth. And you and Tilly survived, got home safely and (importantly) managed to make an entertaining documentary of the adventure. Congratulations all round.

So, was the campsite worth the exertion? It looks like a pleasant spot.

Major Softie wrote:Yep, would have been a lot worse without the bags.

So, this is the very first evidence I have ever seen why anyone would prefer a shaft drive over a chain on an off-road bike. That would have been even uglier with a chain.

That crossed my mind at the time MS, the "sand" is made up of 1/8'' granules of decomposed granite . 5 minutes would have totally stuffed a chain I'd say and to be fair to Tilly I don't think anything but a lightweight trials bike could have ridden across the stuff and stayed on the surface.

The aptly named trainer pontoons did set the maximum mining depth and equally fortunately they are easy to remove . She was a lot easier to move sans cargo.

Campsite ? I was keen to depart Charlie . I rode another 25 km and found a good campsite 300m of the road at "Crooked Creek" half way between Tenterfield and Casino .8C overnight and then 37C as I dropped onto the coastal plain the next morning . Not that much fun. It sure made me pull the liner out of my jacket !