Motocross. Rescued by a tractor when things go wrong in the Thai jungle!

thinkit (62)in #motocross • 4 years ago

When heading out into the mountains, countless things could go wrong. Fortunately things usually go to plan, but this time, things didn't.

On this occasion, myself and another rider were 3 hours out of Bangkok, south of Kanchanaburi. There was an old mountain track that lead up a rocky path to a lake. We never found the lake because we either took a wrong turn or missed a turn. Instead we wound up round the mountain to where it flattened out with great views all around.

The track kept going through some mountainous farmland and down the back into a bamboo forest. At the highest point of the mountain we realised that we had been riding the wrong track. We were also at the only spot that could pick up any phone signal and managed to check Google Maps. To our delight Maps showed it went on for another 8 kilometers and connected out to some farming routes and to the villages.

The photo above shows the outcome the following day for one of the bikes...

Thinking the track, that become progressively more and more over grown would lead out to the low lying farmland, we kept pushing on through the jungle.

The jungle became more and more overgrown but we could still make out a track beneath our feet- just about!

At different points through the jungle, the track would widen and clear. Rocks would take over and offer some exciting riding. We soon found out that it would be these rocks that would cause damage to the Yamaha WR250.

As we reached the bottom of the mountain we thought we were nearly there. However the wide tracks just kept looping back round and joining up with a part we had already ridden. The forest was farmed for its wild bamboo and piles had been lashed together ready for collection- as and when was anyone's guess though.

We had ridden every track, Google Maps wasn't loading and only gave us a low resolution of a cached map. There was no way down the last valley and up the other side. We had a short walk on and although we felt we were heading in the right direction we never found the farm track that could lead us out. To be fair, even if we had found a track, the last 300 meters was just too dense and steep to ride through and connect out.

We made the decision to return the same way as fuel was getting low. The hill climbs back up the rocky paths become 'problematic' for my friend riding the WR. He took numerous falls and rutted the rear wheel many times. Stalling the bike on a steep incline left it too heavy and awkward to be lifted or carried up and out- it is times like this that I really appreciate the 'lightness' of my 100kg CRF250R.

As the bike took its 5th or 6th,7th, 8th fall! it was getting beaten up. The handlebar guards had bent on both sides and were pinching/trapping the clutch and brake levers. Not being able to release the clutch meant we would just be riding the clutch and would inevitably burn it out. A pinched brake of cause was another huge issue.

The front wheel wheelied up a few times and came crashing down damaging the front brake caliper, finally jamming the pads. Fighting and wrestling with the bike on a 40 degree climb became pointless. We had 1 hour of light left and made the decision to abandon the bike in the jungle!

I gave my friend a backie all the way out trying to conserve my fuel. The steep sections saw my friend have to walk up as riding with 2 was impossible. Riding an MX bike off-road, with a passenger and luggage was difficult and saw me have my first and second crash of the day. Luckily, I was riding slow to save fuel, so the crashes weren't too bad.

We made it out and back to the main road- all that was left was to devise a plan on how to rescue the abandoned bike. The tracks were too steep and rocky for 4x4s and even calling in other enduro or MX riders would be pointless as the bike couldn't be ridden out. We forgot to check which parts actually needed fixing and were too far from any shop to go and buy and fix on site.

We had a better plan... Ask a local farmer if we could rent his tractor- well him and his tractor. It didn't take long before we found a helpful volunteer in the local village. We arranged to meet early the next day and sure enough, the farmer, his tractor, a trailer and his team of helpers were there.

The bike was still there after spending the night in the jungle lol. We loaded up, tied it down and began another very long and slow trip back out.

The tyres on the tractor weren't as bald as the trailer tyres, but it worked. It kept pulling up and over even the most difficult of climbs. It took the entire day to get in and out, but the bike had been saved.