Today i took Ecstasy on a mission.
As you might know i’m a volunteer for the MAG who fights road closures amongst others. Yesterday i asked about their stands about dirt roads because all i always hear is dyke roads which we have many here in the Netherlands chasing the rivers coming from everywhere to end up in the North sea.
Coincidences don’t exist she said because earlier this month he she talked with the linesmen from the TET Netherlands section about this topic.
Dirt roads being closed for cars and bikes as if the signs are for free and i think…. no, i’m close to 100% sure the closures are for cars as well because nobody likes taking a car offroad so no harm for them and the bikers don’t feel excluded like when they only would close the roads for bikes.
Thinking i’m this dumb is an insult so i went of to inspect some of these roads if there is a proper reason to close them off and the upcoming period i’m continuing to do this whenever i come across one of those signs.
Above is a nice example why i believe the closures are bullshit, both are the same sign each at the start/end of the same road but both with different exception signs under them.
At one side it say that farmers vehicles are allowed and on the other side it says that destination traffic is allowed.
I also talked with pedestrians asking if they knew why the roads are closed and how they feel about motor-bikers and most of them didn’t have any problem with us when we take it easy passing them. Some said they have more problems with the mountainbikers .
I’ve noticed before already that a lot of people gave me a nod as a thank you for slowing down and try to keep the sound low when passing them.
On my regular route home from work there is at the start of a dirt road a horse farm where a lot of time they are training and after a few times passing they started to wave at me.
Probably because they noticed that i do my extra best to keep the engine sound down (Ecstasy tends to backfire a lot, an XT660 habit).
Only a few look at me like “what the hell are you doing on our road?”
In the process i also discovered some new roads where i’m allowed to ride and i took all the regular offroad parts to have some fun as well.
I made a waypoint and a photo of all the roads i entered and made notes of my experience and/or the remarks from the pedestrians i talked to. Some roads i decided to ignore based on the talk. It’s no use to fight a closure if it’s no fun to ride anyway.
Back home i needed to check Ragnarok, yesterday i’d noticed some irregularity with the front brakes thinking i was too late with checking the brake-pads and having steel on steel.
De disks felt like it was the case but after taking the caliper apart i was just in time but somehow the disks where destroyed anyway.
I’m prepared for some costs for spare parts but this was not one of them… bummer…
After some (re)search i ordered a new set, brake-pads i already had on the shelf.
The OEM disks are ridiculously expensive so i ordered TRW/Lucas disks which are per set cheaper than the cheapest single OEM disk i could find.
Tomorrow i’ll finish cleaning the calipers and placing the new pads. After that i’ll take the front wheel out to clean and prepare that for when the new disks are in.
Don’t mess with brakes. For this reason i bought Ecstasy as soon as i did.