i’m not joking: there is indeed a place called sunny corner.
sunny corner is about 2.5 hours from sydney, across the blue mountains, a few kilometers from lithgow. the little village – 5 houses and no pub as far as i could see – is situated right near the sunny corner state forest – must be coincidence – and i assume it is this proximity that is so attractive to scores of dirt bike riders. that, and the ktm sunny corner rally.
the ride is a ‘fun event’, ‘simulating a real enduro’; there is a live band on saturday – i chose to spend the saturday with my family rather than crowded around a camp fire with, i suspect, a lot of rather well oiled fellow bikers – and free overnight camping.
i also missed breakfast, which is included in the registration fee, but i queued with all the other similarly grubby looking trail riders for lunch, which was a rather good steak in a bun. maybe next time i’ll be there for breakfast, too.
the ride consists of 2 loops, each of them about 70 km long. i think so, at least, although the second loop was over rather earlier than i thought. maybe it was just me getting better on the bike.
there is also a selection of ‘easy’ and hard’ sections. in the beginning i though i’d save myself the embarrassment of getting stuck in one of the hard bits, but as i grew more confident i tried a few of those, too. it did not go not too bad, really.
both loops offered a range of different trails, from slow single trails winding through dense forests – like the one in the picture above, which incidentally also had a guy stuck about halfway down – to fast gravel sections. there were a couple of interesting uphill bits, too, and of course the odd downhill slide.
the ground was dry and rather slippery. i found that rather more often than i would have liked the front wheel had different ideas about where we were supposed to go.
before the ride i changed the front sprocket, adding one tooth, and i must say that on the balance i am rather happy with the taller gearing. it helps in the faster sections, but i found it also to be a lot more comfortable in the tight stuff. interestingly the 250 offers pretty solid torque off the bottom end, which is very relaxing when dodging trees.
on the uphill sections the bike runs out of steam every now and then, but if you are not afraid to let it scream – it redlines at 13.000 rpm ! – it tears up the track no worse than the 400 did. actually i rather suspect that the 250 is at least as fast. i also relocated the gear lever and the handlebars, and now find that standing on the 250 is quite comfortable.
the 250 is a couple of kilos lighter, which counts a lot under difficult circumstances, and not as tall as the 450 or the 525; again a huge advantage when you need all the legs you can find to climb a particularly nasty hill.
the rear wheel offers some good traction, provided you chose the right gear, which is still a bit of a challenge for me. coming off a bigger bike i am used to heaps of torque at any point through the rev range.
all in all it was a very good ride. i was happy cruising along well within my comfort zone, and without getting too tired. the distance was about two third or half an enduro race, and i feel i still had enough breath to go for another round. i also managed to stand through about 90% of the ride, which is pretty good.
i think the braces helped. they are really comfortable and support the knee very well. what is even better, i did not have any pain in my knee after the ride; usually i can feel the strain for a couple of days. the only odd thing is that it takes me more time now to get myself in position entering and exiting corners. nothing a little practise won’t fix, i suspect.
that was definitely a good day out; with a little more practise i should be ready to race in a couple of weeks.