TET NL South section A.K.A. Mudmasters

With the brake-lines and levers installed Ecstasy is almost completed, time for a test if he became what i wanted.
The weather is great and a very big difference if you think about the fact that is is just a week after heavy snowfall. Let’s ride the TET South section since i live in the south so easy to do on a Sunday.

I also wanted to show the bike to a friend with whom i’ve ridden the TET already for a part with Ragnarok and he also has plans for buying a Ténéré. He has a BMW GSA which is just as Ragnarok a bit heavy for real offroad.
He lives about 30 – 45 mins form the start but he had to work until about 15:00h so i can’t go before. Riding the trail in the opposite direction will solve that problem.
I skipped the a little bit and entered the track near Nederweert and i will enter it there also when i go for the TET Belgium later this year (hopefully).

It started with a few paved roads and along those roads where some meadows with loads of water and that was not a good sign.
Off-course that should not be a surprise after the snow but i was hoping it would not be too bad.
The first stretch of dirt was a bit muddy but not bad indeed… for a couple hundred meters.

This was already after the worst part which was bout 800 meters. This went on for over 2km but after just over a kilometre i decided to take a side road and skip that other kilometre. Remember that i’m a rookie in offroading and this is the first time i encounter this much and deep mud.
Keep going when having other options is unnecessary demanding for mind and body plus i have to keep in mind we have an evening clock and all possible resting places are closed due to a partial lockdown.

After that the track improved with a few exceptions here and there but overall it was what i hoped it would be.
The first part of Mud-masters i had to cross the “road” to get to a rideable type of ground and there i almost went down already but i managed to keep Ecstasy upright. That was a nice confidence boost after the scare from seeing the pool of mud, it meant the Ténéré was light enough so i would not drop it at every bump or mistake.
At the second part of Mud-masters it went wrong and i dropped Ecsatsy… twice (second time was just a stupid mistake, even for a rookie), funny because i dropped Ragnarok at almost the same point when on my way to the same friend i would visit after this day of riding. Than it was because it was too dry, i hope Ecstasy will also do well in loose sand because Ragnarok and i are not friends with that stuff.

At this point i discovered that taking away the passenger grips was logical for a better fit of the luggage system (Mosko Moto Reckless 40) but i also lack every type of grip at the back.
Not that i could get to them when having the bags on which is always because of the daily use.
Without any grip at the back it’s still a heavy lift, way better than Ragnarok but i do need to figure out some kind of handle to make picking him up easier

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The last bit a also skipped, i think the bit in Germany is all paved so i decided to turn around and go to my friends place.
Just on my was i got a message that he was a little later so i stopped for an ice-cream.
We didn’t see each-other since his accident on the way to the Adventure shield offroad training and after a short test ride for him on Ecstasy we catched up a bit.
Time to go home and when i pulled Ecstasy back it felt not right. Fuck… a flat rear tyre 😫

Luckily Jeffrey had a repair kit and a compressor. I did have the toolkit with the Bead Pro tyre irons but i didn’t had a repair kit for tubes (Ragnarok has tubeless) and the compressor was still on Ragnarok.
It was a bummer but a good one because i discovered some issues which i have to address before i go on the next trip.

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Things to address:
– Tube repair kit plus some lubricant for seating the tyre after the repair
– Center stand
– Place for the compressor plus a power socket to plug it in
– Wrench 22mm
– Fabricating some kind of grip at the back
– A mount for the GoPro
And just like that almost complete has already a new list…