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2002 Off Centre Rally - The Big U
Submitted by David Drummond, 3:640/305

Day 7 - Saturday 10th August (Urandangie)

The day was spent watching more bikes arrive. A few more Dakars arrived - one kittled out with the full Touratech tank kit. It was owned by a Norwegian called Johan who spent quite some time talking to us. He was most interested in my storage canister where the right side exhaust pipe used to be. In fact, all the Dakar owners were very interested in it, and got the name and phone number of Bushell Engineering to chase it up. There was also a straight F650 GS (nice mandarin colour) there, with a genuine BMW single seat kit. I had a good look at that and also his radiator stone guard. The fellow from Townsville who owned it was very helpful.

In the afternoon, Steve Otter found the leak in my radiator and bogged it up with some 2 part metal epoxy stuff that Greg Aldis was carrying. It took quite a while to find the leak in the first place, but it looks like we might have fixed it now. Most of the other Dakar riders had experienced radiator problems, so it seems to be a weak point with these bikes. Steve knows of a place that builds radiators for bikes, so I may get a replacement one from there.

During the evening, it was confirmed that the next Off Centre Rally in 2004 would be held at Innamincka. There were other suggestions, including Hungerford, however Innamincka was the popular vote.

We had our "spicy tomato pasta with salmon" dish for dinner. We hit the hay fairly early. We're really winding down now.