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Kep Track - October 25 - 26, 2008

Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 5:27 pm
by Aushiker
Dear All

I am planning to ride the Kep Track (Mundaring to Northam and return) over the weekend of October 25 - 26, 2008.

Preliminary plans will have the ride leaving the western trail head at the Mundaring Weir Hall (Hotel) at 8:30 AM on Saturday October 25, 2008. We should then arrive in Northam mid-afternoon for an opportunity to look around the place.

The plan is to stay overnight at the Northam Caravan Park (range of accommodation options which means one can travel fairly light) before riding back to the western trail head on the Sunday, again expecting to back mid-afternoon Sunday.

If you are interested please let me know and I will include you in the planning.

The intention is to run the ride under the auspices of the Perth Bushwalkers Club (insurance purposes) so a $5.00 visitors fee is applicable.

Regards
Andrew

Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 6:00 pm
by chuckchunder
don't forget to stop for pie at Bakers Hill......... mmmmmmm pie........

Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 6:14 pm
by Kalgrm
I'll come along if I'm in town.

Try posting on the WAHPV site too - you may get a few takers for it there.

Cheers,
Graeme

Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 11:53 pm
by Aushiker
Kalgrm wrote:I'll come along if I'm in town.

Try posting on the WAHPV site too - you may get a few takers for it there.

Cheers,
Graeme
Sounds good thanks.

Andrew

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:09 pm
by Aushiker
G'day

Possible slight change of plans and I am now thinking of doing this as a return ride on Saturday (150 km) with an early start around 6:00 AM Saturday. If you are interested, let me know.

Andrew

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 1:04 am
by cavebear2
Aushiker wrote:Possible slight change of plans and I am now thinking of doing this as a return ride on Saturday (150 km) with an early start around 6:00 AM Saturday. If you are interested, let me know.
Damn, a pity I can't be there! Have a good long ride Andrew. FYI the track looked pretty crusie when our CTA group did it in August.

Perry

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 9:15 am
by rolandp
If total distance is turning anyone off, you may want to consider joining Andrew half way:
Prospector Train
You will need to verify that they still accept bikes.

Have a good ride Andrew.

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:36 am
by chuckchunder
rolandp wrote:If total distance is turning anyone off, you may want to consider joining Andrew half way:
Prospector Train
You will need to verify that they still accept bikes.

Have a good ride Andrew.
I took the Prospector to Merredin a month ago - bikes are definitely NOT welcome.........

Prohibited Luggage

For the comfort and safety of all passengers the following items will not be accepted as luggage on Transwa services under any circumstances.

Blah Blah Other bad stuff Blah

Prospector only

* Bicycles, surfboards and body boards

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:31 am
by Aushiker
cavebear2 wrote:
Aushiker wrote:Possible slight change of plans and I am now thinking of doing this as a return ride on Saturday (150 km) with an early start around 6:00 AM Saturday. If you are interested, let me know.
Damn, a pity I can't be there! Have a good long ride Andrew. FYI the track looked pretty crusie when our CTA group did it in August.
Thanks Perry.

Andrew

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:34 am
by Aushiker
G'day

If anyone is thinking of joining us, take a look at http://www.perthmtb.com/node/1242 It may not be as hard as you think.

Andrew

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:54 pm
by ajh_ausnzcf
A friendly person has plotted the KEP track at Bikely.

The KEP Track Bikely plot


Google Earth. 85km length.

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:56 pm
by Kalgrm
Got back into Perth today to be told I've been "volunteered" to man a sausage sizzle in the morning and clean it up in the arvo. :(

Bloody kids and their activities .... :( ;)

Cheers,
Graeme

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:15 pm
by Aushiker
G'day

Any suggestions on tyre pressures. I suspect most of the ride will be hard pack railway form.

Andrew

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:00 am
by Kalgrm
Depends on what you weigh, what the bikes and load weighs, how wide your tyres are, how wide the rims are, whether you're running the tyres tubeless (and if so, whether they are UST or standards converted), how smooth the track is, how aggressive your riding style is and personal preference for traction vs speed.

So, about 36 front and 38 rear - plus or minus 8 psi. ;) :D

(It's something you'll work out for yourself. Sorry. Just the way it is.)

Cheers,
Graeme

Pump it.

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:22 am
by ajh_ausnzcf
I'm going for 70 PSI, front and back. I expect pretty gravelly surfaces. Tyres are cyclocross/touring style.

The Bikely plot seems to be pretty rough, the photos provide excellent detail that the plot does not seem to use.

From online posters :
The track was in pretty good condition all the way along. It is a lot hillier from Clackline to Northam, but not hard hills, and it includes a small bit of riding on bitumen. The track is just gravel, like riding the Heritage Trail. It got a bit boring on the return trip.
Only prob was that there were a few sections that were totally boggy sand that were really annoying and on the return were metally tough as you knew you were up for a hard boring slog. Strongly recommend doing it in winter once it has rained a bit.

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 1:24 am
by chuckchunder
for your viewing pleasure there are a multitude of pics here from June last year. not that recent I know, but will give you an idea of the type of surfaces on the track. Lots of gravel, sections of sand, sections of bitumen and everything in between. Take a pump and spare tubes, there be GG's out there.........

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 1:30 am
by ajh_ausnzcf
chuckchunder wrote:for your viewing pleasure there are a multitude of pics here from June last year. not that recent I know, but will give you an idea of the type of surfaces on the track. Lots of gravel, sections of sand, sections of bitumen and everything in between. Take a pump and spare tubes, there be GG's out there.........
Thanks chuckers, that gives me a detailed impression.

Those GG's could be a real nightmare.

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 11:03 am
by chuckchunder
he he.... the first reccy ride with my brother (in the pics) i scored 37 punctures over three tyres in 8km of riding...... i put thorn proof tubes in for the actual ride and had no dramas...

weather should be good for you blokes, if'n i can get my backside out of bed early enough i might join you for the start....... still 0600 at Mundaring end? i'll be easy to spot, but don't wait up....

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:10 pm
by Aushiker
G'day

Set up Juliaas per Graeme's suggestion, fitted my Ortlieb Ultimate handle bar bag, put some weight in it and went for a doodle around Lake Herdsman. It went well so I think I will just use my handlebar bag for this trip.

Andrew

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:48 pm
by ajh_ausnzcf
So those thorn proof tubes do have a purpose after all. I'll have to watch the ground and tyres closely. Aggressive tread mountain bike tyres are probably a safer bet.

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:52 pm
by Kalgrm
Um .. they haven't proven so for me. Kalgoorlie had hundreds of these thing, so I was getting 20-30 punctures per wheel per ride, but no flats (see below.) Thornproof tubes and aggressive tread didn't prevent punctures without further measures.

The safest thing for double-Gs is a tubeless setup with fresh sealant, followed by thornproofs with Slime inside. At one stage I also ran tyre liners in addition to thornproof tubes and Slime, but found the tubes with Slime did the trick.

Cheers,
Graeme

Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 1:15 pm
by Aushiker
G'day

Myself on my Giant XTC 2 (Julia) and ajh_ausnzcf (ajh) on his German touring bike completed the ride yesterday. It was relatively easy for ajh and much harder for me, but still we finished it.

The numbers:

Total trip time: 12.14 hours
Time on the bike: 09:58 hours
Moving Average: 15.2 km/h

We had a few stops on the way to Northam to (a) sort out my seat which kept coming loose and (b) to sample the delights at Bakers Hill.

Just as we rolled into Northam ajh got a puncture. A thorn in his front tyre. Only one for the day. So much for the doom sayers :-).

We had lunch at Northam (bakers again) and then headed back to Mundaring. The climb out of Northam was not so friendly and not helped by the wind which had picked up in the afternoon. Once again we stopped briefly at Bakers Hill before continuing on. It was pretty much from here that I slowed us down, whereas ajh was powering on up the inclines I felt like I was going in reverse. My slow riding cost us around 2 km/h over the day.

In terms of the track, is in pretty good nick with the section from Woorloo to Bakers Hill being the worse (pea gravel). It is well marked with the exception of in Northam itself and where the track turns to the Mundaring Weir (Munda Biddi section) just out of Mundaring.

All up a good days riding, Julia performed well and I am pleased to have completed my longest ride and to have done it off-road on a MTB.

Andrew

Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 3:09 pm
by sittingbison
wow what an effort, I find tootling around the Morrison Rd railtrack loop for a couple of hours hard enough :shock: . Hope Bakers Hill pie shop is worth it, I've never been there but it keeps cropping up in threads.

Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 3:34 pm
by Aushiker
sittingbison wrote:Hope Bakers Hill pie shop is worth it, I've never been there but it keeps cropping up in threads.
Very much so. Very popular too. Ajh had two chicken pies so I reckon they won him over on the first one :)

Andrew

Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 6:01 pm
by nimm
now that's a long day in the saddle! :)