Tenere Tragics

TÉNÉRÉ TRAGICS DREAMING:

WILL RUSS GET THE ORE SUPER CLUNKER READY???

With over 30 registered and paid-up Ténéré Tragics now on the books, there's no doubt much feverish activity will be going on in workshops around the country as we Tragics polish our Ténérés and get our mighty machines ready for the Run to the Rocks.

And nowhere will the activity be more feverish than in the ORE Garage of www.offroadexplorer.com webmaster, Lance 'Russ' Turnely.

You see, Russ is a Super Ténéré Tragic and his pride and joy is an ol' banger original XTZ750 Super Ténéré that he paid way too much for and had to be skull-dragged off the trailer when he got it home because the front wheel had seized up ... and that was just the start of his dramas.

At the time I borrowed a classic line from Seinfeld and declared, ‘I give you a year!’ to get his Super Clunker (as we have lovingly dubbed it!) up and running and out on the adventure highway.

Well, thanks to the engineering prowess and mechanical skills of Clive from the MotorcycleBiz workshop near Newcastle, NSW, Russ managed to get his XTZ mobile and it even sailed through a rego inspection. Yes, I was amazed.

But since then the silence from the ORE Garage has been deafening ... what of the mighty ORE Super Clunker? Good question.

Well, the word is the inaugural Ténéré Tragics Run to the Rocks has fired Russ back into action and he's in for the ride and he's going to do it on the ORE Super Clunker ... is he mad, is he brave, is he crazy, or is he truly tragic? Perhaps he is all of the above.

All I can say is, if Russ DOES actually get the XTZ to the start of the Getting There Ride in Hillston, and he then DOES get all the way to Arkaroola, well, he will be truly deserving of a very special award at the Ténéré Tragics Run to the Rocks Bivouac BBQ dinner!

And if he doesn't make it, well, let's just hope Russ is packing a tow-rope and plenty of beer money to bribe a fellow Tragic on a new XT1200Z to get him home!

-- Clubby, Ténéré Tragic #1