Mad-laners Megathread

Originally Posted by specialone

Paul, upto now I've been wearing my textiles and sidi goretex boots, I'm planning on getting a mx lid, jersey, pants, torso body armour and I've got supermoto leather gloves already so will use them.

In the coldest of days I'll still wear my textiles but you could buy a big jersey and build the layers up underneath. Pants I'm not sure tbh, I guess you wear the thermal base layers underneath.


I'm going to the dirt bike show to get my stuff as Speedplay said he got all his gear from there and it was keenly priced.

Paul, I'm just wearing ordinary textiles too, we are not flying round a motocross track at 60-70 mph, and with the level we are at falling off would mean no more than a few bumps and bruises, we are lucky if we get up to 30mph. I'd say road riding was much more dangerous than green laning, but green laning is excellent fun. (how often do you see Phil smiling?)





In my experience UK green lanes don't get too dusty either, so a visor would be fine most of the time, but probably good to own a pair of goggles for the odd occasion you might need them. Generally if your riding a motocross track, like you decided to do a Yamaha experience day or something, or you go laning in mountainous areas on dry rocky tracks that kick up a lot of loose dust, then goggles would help. I wished I had had them in Mexico and Portugal, look at the colour of my shoes and jeans in this photo, and that dust does get in your helmet and in your eyes, my removable liners in my helmet were put in the washing machine when I got home, and they still needed another wash out, but I've never had that problem here yet.



I guess if you buy a motocross jersey, you need to buy body armour as well. I'll look at the stuff at the Off-road bike show and decide what to buy there. Motocross kit looks quite thin, more for summer use, I don't fancy freezing my ar$e off before I start, then going and getting really wet and muddy. And does MX gear offer adequate protection on road? Unless you are doing a full day in somewhere like Wales or abroad, the green lanes here are usually only a couple of miles long, and 5 or 10 miles apart, so in a greenlaning day, TBH you spend more time on the road getting to the lanes, than you do off-road riding them.

[Shellywoozle]

Blimey Ralph you have a piccy of him smiling

Originally Posted by Shellywoozle

Blimey Ralph you have a piccy of him smiling

thats wind

[Shellywoozle]

Originally Posted by robh539

thats wind

ROFL ha ha ha

Bol Ox
I want that pic removed please, it's ruining all my hard work on my miserable persona

well I dropped my bike in for its mot today and all is good

For the guys looking for a bargain bike, try looking for something with a bigger engine.
The 250-450 brackets tend to be looked at by the younger riders for track days and field bikes.
I picked up my 2001 520 already road registered and with a load of spares for £1500.
There are bargains out there, especially at the end of the summer months.

Originally Posted by Owenski

So the big question is: once me an Pauli have sorted out a pair of bikes which one of you lot will be putting us up so we can join in one of your routes.

I have 3 spare rooms, a large sofa and some garage space...

[Paul the 6th]

there do seem to be one or two bigger bikes but I get the impression that bigger more powerful bikes mightn't be as fun off road to a complete noob like me?

As for accomodation: so that's the bikes in each of the spare rooms, drink & food on the sofa and then sleeping in the garage?

Specialone and I have been out for 6 hours today and spent more time off-road than on and got some good video footage. Some places were so deep rutted and muddy that we were absolutely knackered! The last lane we were going to do before calling it a day was the worst one, and a couple of miles long. We got about 300yds down it before I stopped

Me: "You know what, I can't be ar$ed with any more of this!"
Specialone: "I'm glad you said that!"
Me: "Shall we turn round and go home?"
Specialone: "Yeah!"

Then cos the ruts were so deep, couldn't get out of the rut to turn round, when I did my bike grounded out and got me stuck with one wheel in each rut, rear wheel spinning in mid air. Had to manhaul the bike round.

Specialone binned it at least once (maybe twice can't remember) and we both had a lot of close moments.

Completely knackered now!

Originally Posted by speedplay

I have 3 spare rooms, a large sofa and some garage space...

Wheyhey! The party is at Speedplays place

Originally Posted by Paul the 6th

there do seem to be one or two bigger bikes but I get the impression that bigger more powerful bikes mightn't be as fun off road to a complete noob like me?

Nope, Specialone's DRZ throttle is snappier than mine and more likely to get you into trouble, if you grab a handful by accident. The clutch is your best friend anyway, as soon as you start to lose it, nip the clutch in and then it doesn't matter ho much power you have. My bike is 170kg wet and though I did off-road stuff as a kid, 20 years later I might as well have been a complete noob, and I have learned to handle it.

Specialone's DRZ is easier to handle than mine 'cos it's lighter, but when he rode mine today he found it easier to get standing up on the pegs and make progress. More weight equals more stability when things are going well, it just means more to catch when it goes wrong and starts to drop, more momentum when it tries to throw you off, or more to manhaul when it gets stuck. It gets stuck in soft ground easier, but has more power to get you unstuck. You don't feel the weight once it's moving, and it ploughs on over bumps rather than getting thrown off course by them.

A DRZ is 119kg dry, Speedplay's 520EXC is 112kg, so engine size doesn't necessarily mean weight. A larger engine also comes in handy in tricky situations, like when you need to drop down into a muddy dip almost at engine stall speed, then give it loads of beans to get up a pure mud slope, the torque comes in really handy. Just twist the throttle and the rear tyre starts spinning and throwing dirt, whereas a 250 might have bogged down and stalled.

I loved my 200exc when I used to green lane and do hare and hounds on it.
My mate has a crf450x and the 2 stroke 4 stroke difference was interesting sometimes as the 2 bikes are very different on the power delivery but both had their plus sides.
Now after being a 2 stroke fan and thinking that 450 was to much for most of what and where I rode...
...I wouldn't swap my 520 for a smaller bike again.
The weight is about the same (within 7-10kilos) but the power is awsome.
Smooth delivery if you use the throttle well but still more than enough to pull your arms out of their sockets if you want to go down that route too.
Paul, if you want to try a larger enduro then your welcome to give mine a try..

Just don't kill it like you did the daytona in Wales..