Bowe, Anthony, Donks and JP back safely

[GSDisciple]

After shipping our bikes to Broome we departed for Halls Creek on Thursday 13th. Commenced the CSR late Friday and exited at Kunawarritiji on early morning of Tuesday 18th as planned. Travelled south through Telfer, Queen Desert Baths, Meeka, Murchison Settlement yesterday (just missed the Gascoyne mob apparently) , before meeting Swampy at Mullewa yesterday. Three Springs Hotel was a welcome sight last night during a prolonged rain event. Had the obligatory cake and coffee at Bindoon before arriving back in Perth lunchtime today.

A very challenging but rewarding trip with teamwork, good humour and our ever present guardian angel Donks, being the secret ingredients!

More detailed report to follow.

JP

[KoosWA]

Well done, looking forward to the report, videos & pics.



PS: who's Donks?

[old betsy]

PS: who's Donks?

His real name is " Donald Keyes "

Well done guys

[Cookie]

Good to hear all went well:)

[reklaw]

I passed you on Carnarvon-Mullewa Rd, Friday 2.30, on the way to the races.

[GSDisciple]

We wondered who that was!

JP

[boomer61]

[bowewilson@gmail.com]

For those of you who are thinking about doing the CSR (I am referring to the top section Bililuna to Kunawarritji although a lot of this applies to the whole trip down to Wiluna which I did do with JP, Anthony and Ahab in 2012), here are some of my observations.
The fitter you are the easier the ride.
Get some experience in sand (their are hundreds of dunes), don't expect to learn it on the run!
Take minimal stuff, the more you pile on to the bike potentially adds to the effort required
I would probably go in June / July because its cooler, there will be more traffic at this time which can cause problems however if going unsupported and you run into trouble there is more chance of getting help. (we heard of one case where a motorcyclist came off, busted his shoulder and was taken to help by a passing 4wd)
Take a satphone and spot.
Fuel consumption for my XChallenge was 5 litres / 100k.
Plan on using the wells for water which will need purifacation tabs (wells 49, 46, 41 are solid, well 36 may have water in it, there was about 10 cm in it when we went through...thank god)
I topped up to 10 litres of water where possible.
Play with tyre pressures, I used 11psi in the front and 14psi in the rear and took a lot of care in the rocky bits, the tubeliss system is an option, I have no experience with this.
Use super heavy duty tubes.
I had trouble seating the TKC tubeless tyre on the front after a flat, sounds like Steve Bly may have had similar troubles on his recent trip, so I will be steering clear of tubeless tyres in future.
We took 3 and a bit days to do the trip, if going supported then obviously some of the things I have mentioned are not so important.
The CSR is a challenging ride, be prepared and you will get a lot of satisfaction from the experience!
There is definitely no smelling the roses on this trip, take your eye off the ball for a second or loose concentration, you WILL fall off!!
By way of comparison this trip is more difficult than the Simpson and a long way tougher than roads like the Connie Sue that some of you did recently.
Once again these are some of my observations, the list is not exhaustive.
As Ahab says "Bring your A game!"

[Digger]

I had trouble seating the TKC tubeless tyre on the front after a flat, sounds like Steve Bly may have had similar troubles on his recent trip, so I will be steering clear of tubeless tyres in future.
!"

Thanks for sharing this info....a lot easier than finding out the hard way.
You are correct about the tubeless tyre and repairing punctures in the field.
In my case, I fitted a Mitas E09 to the rear (suggested by Tyres for Bikes) to reduce the likely hood of sidewall punctures. Big mistake, in particular if you have rim locks fitted. The bead on this particular tyre made it impossible to repair in the field and the rim lock just complicated things further. If it was a matter of life and death I would've removed my rim lock which may have made things a little easier.
I have reverted back to Dunlop 606's on the rear.

[GSDisciple]

And to add my two cents worth under the heading "momentum is your friend, weight is your enemy!"

- We committed to staying together no matter what which meant we only took 'one' of a number of items including a cooker, a comprehensive toolkit, tow rope, first aid kit, chain lube, and so on.
- View the CSR as an 'endurance event' rather than as a 'tougher than normal' ride i.e. take mostly dry foods with water from the wells to reconstitute whatever you take. I'd even look into taking those power bars triathletes use while competing.
- You don't want 'stuff hanging off stuff' on your bike. Ideally you have your panniers packed plus only one bag on the rear carrier.

Hope this helps

JP

[GSDisciple]

Pics to follow soon

[Bozo]

Koos

I found a picture of Donks in the safe care of Ahab



Bozo