Motocross. More rivers, more crashes and a dead bike!!

On a continued trip, a second day of riding was much wetter than the first. I was still riding my friends CRF250L. We removed the license plate, rear tail fender and side indicators as they got a little beat up on the previous day.

This ride was different in that there was no mountain to climb and no view at the end. Instead, there was an entry point and exit point and about 12km of shallow (so they said) river to weave back and forth across.

The river caught nearly everyone out. A fast flow, deep ruts and rocks to through any rider off balance was pretty much the whole river!

But there was one rider who had more falls than anyone else. His first crossing over the dry rocks was ok, until he met the water. We didn't have to explain the importance of sinking a bike or having water fill up an exhaust- let alone drenching a battery.

I ended up riding at the back. A much slower pace but much more eventful. I can't count the number of times I watched him fall or helped out. Some falls were clumsy while others caused serious damage to his bike.

Half way down the river we caught up with the rest of the group. Flat bed rock eroded by the river offered a welcome rest spot.

Clearly the rest made no difference to my friends riding skill as the moment we left he sunk his bike. Deep enough to leave only the handlebars sticking out, the engine had flooded. We guessed we had to empty as much water as we could and hope for the best. We tipped the bike upside down to empty out the river water and tried to dry out the electrics as much as we could- they were still pretty wet though.

The river eventually led us to the exit track through farmland- and I'm please to say, no one fell or crashed.

The 12km of river track was fairly accurate, my bike measured 13.4km, but who's counting! What we didn't count on was the time it would take us to loop back round to the trucks. A generally flat forest track was much longer and meant it was already dark.

But of course, those flat tracks didn't last for ever and we were now trying to cross rivers in the dark.

Once again my friend started to crash at the worst possible places. Long story short was... he sunk is bike again, and it wouldn't start, got the tow rope out (just in case) and he was towed the last 7km

A long and slow day of riding, but still lots of fun. We made it back and are planning the next trip lol

I amd not sure what happened to his bike, I think it was the spark plug or something. The battery worked to turn on the lights, the gears could still be changed but there was not 'fire up'.