This Suzuki VStrom adventure began in Derbyshire. It was the first time i had met a lot of the people there. Below are some quotes direct from the mouth of some of the people who attended. They are the conversation that happened on the forum just after the event. It was great to meet all the people and everyone had a great 2 days Stromtrekking around Derbyshire.
After we all met up we set off for Hillside Cafe in Cromford. unfortunately we got seperated at the first roundabout, but with people in both groups who knew the area it was easy enough to gather together at the Cafe near Bonsall. The group was split fairly evenly with DL1000 and DL650 Vstrom’s, a Kawasaki Versys and a Yamaha Diversion.
We went up through Bonsall onto some unclassified roads and then spent the day winding our way around the more southerly sections of the peak district. I remember some especially slippery lanes not far from the Cafe at Monyash, but it was nice to be following for a change and I was able to just enjoy the ride.
The night was spent camping above Castleton and for once it stayed dry in Derbyshire. We were fully loaded again sunday and our local guide Andy decided to take us via quite a gnarly green lane (see video below) which was due to be closed on a TRO shortly after. Riding one by one past the Land Cruisers who were stuck at the bottom made me smile.
The watering hole of choice on day 2 was Grindleford Cafe, it brought back memories for me and it was great to see all the old fittings were still there. The details of all the places we passed are a bit blurry but you get an idea of our weekend from the conversations below.
Here is a link to one of the videos, but just search stromtrekkers on youtube and you will find others im sure https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=bFl6lpAcI50
From The Suzuki Vstrom Forum
Mad Phil
What a day I’ve had and all the others…
Accidents from before we even met up but I will let the person concerned tell his story..
Mine is, had a cracking day, only binned it 3 times, very little damage just a snapped front brake lever & bar end, a bent rear brake lever & a very large scrape on the exhaust…
My leg hurt a little after one of the offs & now I have a very large swelling / lump just below my knee that is actually about twice the size of my knee..
But brilliant day all round really..
Gassoon
Ta for the consoling words gents..and Bug**ration MadPhil! Hope everyones okay…at least there’s plenty expertise on hand to hammer out the bent bits etc hope Your swollen knee goes down…
Jstrom
Well!!! What a weekend….. Not without incident but all survived(well up untill I left the group at about 1:30 this afternoon at least!!).
Rocky trails, gravel, mud and big big puddles(I’m sure one was actually a small pond!) with fully laiden stoms was tough going and intense at times but it was just the best!! Definately the most extreme and demanding riding for me to date but also the most fun and exilerating.
Great bunch of blokes(& gal) and a great job done by Ptarmigan and Hutch. Full credit to you both…
can’t wait to see the pics now..
Bluestrommer
What a great weekend it was great to meet you all.
I was gutted that I had to leave early, but crisis at home all sorted, they’ve all just got to put up with me keeping on about how my weekend was ruined
Thanks again to Ptarmigan and Hutchie for organising it all.Great roads, lanes, rocks, mud and puddles, and I only came off once
Hope to see you all again soon
Dracula
Unbelievable riding, fantastic weekend!!!!
Home safe and unscathed (except a graze to my bash plate, but that’s only expected from the terrain we’ve been on!).
Way too tired to do anything with the pics tonight, plus I don’t think Mrs Drac would appreciate me being on here all night.
Huge gratitude to Ptarmigan n Hutchie
Well done to all involved, there was certainly some very challenging tracks :wtf: .
Special mention to Doris, who’d have thought it from a Divi!
Just remind me, who actually binned their bike this weekend. , and who didn’t?
Oh, and who drank all the Port??
Again, thanks to all.
Chris Graves
Arrived home safe and sound, no more rain after I left you all on the Snake. Of course if had not put my waterproof babygrow on it would have poured all the way.
What a fantastic weekend. Every one very friendly and sociable. Big thank you to Andy for organising the routes and to Hutchie for acting as sweeper when we were out and about.
Will sort my pics out later.
Sven
Home safe at about 6.15.
Totally knackered, but what a brilliant week-end. Ain’t never done stuff like that before on a V-strom.
Big, big thank you to Ptarmigan & Hutchie for organising the whole week-end.
P.S. I had a little bit of the port but I think Hutchie had most of it…..
Juvecu
*puts his hand up* I high sided the Wee on the way to Mad Phil to ‘collect’ him so we could ride together to the meet location.
Wet road + loaded Strom + new rear brake pads + downhill left turn with an off camber + one rider not paying attention + braking late
front brake on + rear brake on
sliding rear + automatically releasing rear brake
realising I’m too fast
applying rear brake again + rear sliding again
holding it + hoping there’s not car coming around the bend + rear coming around + aiming for the grass + RELEASING REAR BRAKE
high side
falling very hard on my shoulder and head + right side pannier comes off + top box breaks off + right foot peg breaks + right indicator breaks + right bar end bent + rear brake lever bent + Givi engine bars getting lots of damage and bending.
That’s about the short version, add to that some sliding along the road and onto the grass and one bloke getting up on his own and swearing in two different languages and you’ve pretty much got the idea of what happened. All caused by rider error, if I was paying attention I’d have been braking when I should have and it would all be fine even with all the other factors against me (I think…) The big mistake was to release the rear brake when the rear came around, if I held it I would have had a less dramatic fall and probably just dumped it over onto the grass when the rear hit the grass.
This happened close to where Mad Phil lives, I called him and he was there so quick I couldn’t remember the time passing. It was literally: call Phil, some blokes in diving suits helping he pick up the bike and push it about 5 meters up the road and then Phil arrived. We put my panniers and the top box and the bits we picked up in his Land Rover and I rode the bike to his place. We bent back the bits that was bent, put some spare Hayabusa foot pegs on, replaced the indicator with bits salvaged from one he had, glued the broken off top box catch back on (and used bungees just to make sure the top box stays put) and the panniers could go back on without hassle.
Mad Phil did most of the fixing and within 30 or so mins (maybe less) the bike was back in a good enough condition to use. A big thanks to Phil for helping me out, would have been a disaster without him sorting things out and the moral support right after the fall is much appreciated
I had landed very hard on my shoulder, my right hip is bruised, my hand hit something very hard and the palm is bruised, my wrist is hurting a bit (better today) and I hit my head quite hard. Today I can feel that my ribs are sore, just bruised though and my neck muscles and the muscles behind my shoulders were strained, it hurts between my right cheekbone and my ear and my jaw joint on the right still hurts. Bit battered, but nothing that won’t heal up without issues (and maybe a few more Hoegaarden )
Mad Phil’s wife had kindly cleaned off the mud and grass I collected with my helmet and between the visor while sliding. We called Hutchie and they insisted on waiting for us. We set off and arrived there at 11am.
Anyway, I’m home safe, the oven is just beeping to let me know my lamb shank is ready and then a hot shower and maybe some Amarula will put me into bed. I didn’t sleep well last night so I’m going to be dead to the world tonight.
Me
great run out
big credit to everyone
especially hutch n ptarmigan for the reconnaissance and planning
do you have a route map so I can return to the trails again?
was great to meet you all, without exception, a truly great weekend,despite the thing that pretended to be a tent
sorry for attacking your guy rope dracula I was definitely on autopilot, n the pilot was very pissed indeed
was great to have such a wide mix of people
full marks to juv for commitment
and weestrommer gets prize for coming furthest and probably most mud collected too :-)
obviously I got home safe, heres some late night photos,
thanks to all for making it the weekend it was.
so who did manage to stay upright all weekend???? I don’t remember you going down dracula? or jstrom? or chris?
keep thinking of the 2 stranded 4x4s on that last lane n what they mustve felt like having a dozen nutters on bikes ride straight past them
and the crunches as my bash plate was gouged n scraped over those rocks
we have to get out again soon hutchie )
can’t wait to see vids
Numptynut
A MASSIVE THANK YOU TO YOU ALL.
What a fantastic weekend thanks for your friendly and accomodating welcome and putting up with general numptiness ….er keys! and falling off whilst stationary!!!
Did things I never thought possible on a loaded wee!! Had to sleep with the bike last night ‘coz it was welded to my a*se after all the bum twitching on that last rocky climb!!
Home safe and tired …..sorry Hutchie but cleaned the bike back to its shiny condition and mainly so that the oil cooler could!
Great bunch of blokes I look forward to meeting up again, special thanks to Ptarmigan & Hutchie for getting things in motion & keeping them in motion. (Don’t mention losing everyone at the first roundabout).
Look out for ‘Doris’ I think she’d like to sign up as an honorary stromtrekker!!!
Me
you going to come n clean mine now then numptynut? – I wish I had the patience
n I for one reckon “Doris” did wonders on the Divi, I was following out of the campsite watching her pick her way through with great aplomb
n at least she remembers to turn her indicators off
everytime I go out I’m going to have visions of juv and drac making flashing gestures at me, you know what I mean,
you going to do some searchin for lanes round your place now? so much for the mcn review that says don’t ever take the stroms off road
perhaps we ought to send them some footage
glad you had a soft landing when you went over, sorry had to laugh when u just threw your arms up in exasperation, reminded me so much of my incident in cumbria the week before
again, great to meet you both
Sven
That last one with the rocks & the 4×4’s was insane.
All I could hear was Earthcore’s bashplate hitting the rocks in front of me, whilst I was desperately trying to avoid them. All the time thinking “I don’t have a bashplate, what’s going to hit first…. the exhaust, the oil filter, the centre-stand or the sump
Luckily only one small sound of the bike hitting a rock (probably exhaust)
Can’t wait to see Juvecu’s video… do hope he got that bit.
DiviDoris
As numptynut will testify I was somewhat nervous about the idea of spending the w/e with a bunch of macho V-Strom owners, but I can honestly say that I had a blast this w/e
Thanks so much to all of you for making me and my dainty little Divi feel exceptionally welcome. I expected a w/e of beer, burping and engine revving, not polite conversation and port quaffing (I’ll pack my smoking jacket & cravat next time) thanks Sven! and not a drop of testerone in sight!
Thanks especially to Ptarmigan for his ride round routes and for everyone else for their patience even if they were silently teeth gnashing whilst I tried in vain to start after stalling several times at crucial moments (don’t mention the 1st roundabout incident) ……….
I’ve a few good photos but not quite sure how to upload them. It’s a shame those I took of you all appearing over the horizon at the end of Houndkirk Moor are out of focus, that looked great as all the headights appeared one by one and silently glided down the hill as I hummed the Star Trek theme to myself. I guess I was too far away to hear the crunching noises and expletives
Glad to hear all of you arrived home safe although I think Wee Strom is still on his way. We were buzzing for hours when we got back Thanks for a fantastic w/e anyway!
Juvecu
I had to take a brush and the Hosepipe to it to find the bike underneath There’s still loads of mud on the driveway that I couldn’t get washed away with the hose so I will have to sweep it when it’s all dried up (and when I can actually use a broom again)
Me
think surviving is a bit of an understatement :-)
and it was obvious the vee’s were a bigger handfull, so agree they should get some credit, especially considering phills tyres, as to cleaning derbyshire off, I found bits of yorkshire n cumbria underneath, sure there’s some paint somewhere not sure what but something died under my screen too,messy
time for major service now
was a great one
WeeStrommer (who came from Germany)
What a great weekend! Great routes! With great people! Riding great stroms! A BIG to Mr & Mrs Hutchie for the put up on the Friday night. A BIG to Ptarmigan for brill’ rides on both days.
I got back around half 8 last night, a round trip total of 1521.7 Miles.
Just for the record I didn’t drop the Wee, but came very close on more than one occasion.
I’ll post my pics and video of Dracula (from the front) later on.
Thanks again all & welcome dividoris.
Hutchie
Cheers mate, was a pleasure ‘having you’ (oooer missus)
You were loving it, I was watching you spinning up the back end (oooer) every chance you got. Shame we didn’t get a vid of you falling over, but there’s plenty time for that yet
Ptarmigan did indeed do an exceptional job of the entire thing.
Just looking forward to the ‘real’ videos from Ptarmigan, and the photos from Dracula , for me porn collection.
Me
that’s great mate, n I thought I was doing well at 2000miles in 3 weeks
was great to meet you, n A1star for commitment
I think without exception we all had a few nearly moments, mine were mostly crunching and bouncing off the rocks on that last lane by the stuck 4×4’s, how I smiled inside
glad your back safe n sound
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