Just got myself a KFX 450R

[dieselboy]

Just got a quad bike for messing about off road and on the dunes. My friends have quads and dirt bikes and am missing getting muddy. This is the first bike I've ever ridden, I'm getting used to the gears, I managed to get up to 3rd but for some reason the I went back into 2nd when I tried to get into 4th.

Other than that the thing flies. I took my friend out on the back so he could show me how to change gears etc, and see a friend down the road. On the way home, pulled off in first and the front wheels were in the air.

I'll be muddy by Saturday morning

[KERRSURF]

full armour and a good quality helmet young man.

[dieselboy]

Thanks mate I'm surprised at how torquy the motor is. Even in 5th gear at near idle it will just accellerate with ease.
A quick service first thing Saturday then we're out. There are dunes a couple of hours away similar to the famous Glamis in America (they're called Lancelin if you're interested). Behind our house there are hundreds (if not thousands) of acres of unclaimed off road land, forests, sand pits. I have brought my GoPro but I left the sticky helmet things in England (will get them sent over )

I managed to haggle on the price of the quad and the guy threw in a lid. I'll be buying safety gear tomorrow morning too (may get new lid).

My housemate picked up their YFZ450R yesterday. If I manage to get photos I'll put some up

[KERRSURF]

pics and vids please.

[dieselboy]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...5&l=1ec75dbc15

A quick pic from earlier. Not sure if we're hitting the dunes tomorrow or just going exploring. Don't think we have enough space for all the quads / bikes between utes and trailers. I've only left to buy armour. Safety gear is expensive!
Was doing doughnuts and all sorts earlier. If we hit the dunes there will be jumps also. I need to get an SD card for the go pro so no vids just yet

[dieselboy]

So we decided to hit the dunes. Was a good day out, even though it's winter here we got around 20c and good sunshine all day. Was a bit windy though.

The dunes are quite big but I doubt they are anywhere near as vast as Glamis. But they do go right up to the sea though which is nice.

I got a quick sneaky photo when we went up to the sea. We didn't hang around long as it was very boggy
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...5&l=74e9488e24

We found a decent dune that allowed us to get some ok jumps off it. We took turns to use my camera phone for photos and videos.

This is me on my quad. I do the doughnut at the beginning to give me time to get into 3rd as I'm still not that quick with gear changes.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...88615970722367


Here's my friends on theirs. My mate Jay with the motorbike and the two quads one's his girlfriend and the other quad is my other mate girlfriend
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...31980873943057

I'm absolutely shattered!

[Don Logan]

Nice. Whereabouts in Australia are you? My wife and i have just been granted our skilled migration visas and will be moving to the Perth area once we've saved enough money. Seeing this makes me want to get out there quicker...

[KERRSURF]

Nice jump mate.

[dieselboy]

Nice. Whereabouts in Australia are you? My wife and i have just been granted our skilled migration visas and will be moving to the Perth area once we've saved enough money. Seeing this makes me want to get out there quicker...

I'm in the Perth area just now mate. When do you expect to be out here? Do you have work lined up already? I'm up near Joondalup just now.

Nice jump mate.

Cheers! There's another video of the last jump I did, where the front wheels came down a little in front. My friend who recorded it said he could hear me saying "oooh ooooh oooohhhhhh!" whilst I was in the air. Have a few grazes but was so much fun.

[Don Logan]

I'm in the Perth area just now mate. When do you expect to be out here? Do you have work lined up already? I'm up near Joondalup just now.



Cheers! There's another video of the last jump I did, where the front wheels came down a little in front. My friend who recorded it said he could hear me saying "oooh ooooh oooohhhhhh!" whilst I was in the air. Have a few grazes but was so much fun.

Nice, i've got a few friends there and should be out once we've saved enough cash for flat rental and 4x4 among other things. Maybe a year or so. No work lined up yet, but i'm hoping as i'm an electrician, work should be easy to come by. I'm up for mining and know some other UK sparkies out there too. What do you do out there? No 4x4'ing yet then? Can't wait to get back out there...

[dieselboy]

Nice, i've got a few friends there and should be out once we've saved enough cash for flat rental and 4x4 among other things. Maybe a year or so. No work lined up yet, but i'm hoping as i'm an electrician, work should be easy to come by. I'm up for mining and know some other UK sparkies out there too. What do you do out there? No 4x4'ing yet then? Can't wait to get back out there...

Nice. I guess you must have family or some kind of tie in with Australia as the old "apply for a visa" route for a 457 doesn't really exist anymore; as they reformed the system this time last year. If you have friends here you don't need me to tell you how expensive the place is I would advise you to bring your Surf over and make sure that it is in your name as that is one of the requirements for the import process. Otherwise you're looking at $10k for a decent Surf and even more for a 200,000kms Prado. To be honest, as WA is so vast I wanted a cruiser this time around but wanted something fun as well. I bought a 1988 Supra with just 55,000 miles on the clock and I get 33mpg on an average commute. My Surf would only get 23mpg max so would be costing me a fair bit in Derv by comparison. We went off road yesterday, there were 13 off road vehicles at the site we go to when I counted, but we were all on quad bikes. There were 6 of us on bikes. The places where we were going on the bikes I very much doubt the 4x4s would even get to. Very boggy sand, ruts and trails. A lot of fun. There are power line service trails which are also fun to go down as they go beyond the horizon. If you look at Google Maps for Wanneroo Golf Club you’ll see what I mean with regards to open space.

To be honest I'm not really up for the mining thing. It's good for the experience but they start work at 5am and don't finish til gone 5pm for 3 weeks straight without a day off, they must be mad? Sometimes I am sent up to the mine sites but it's only for a few days. Some of my friends spend time at mines and offshore. They do try and make you feel home though which is nice and all of your food is catered for.

I live with a plumber who is a tradie, normally involved with ground up house builds. So he knows electricians and plumbers anyway. Stay in touch at the very least and I’ll see you when you get out here! It’s the middle of winter and it’s a high of 20c today 

[Don Logan]

Nice. Yeah i've heard of Mundaring powerlines, sounds good.

I have considered importing the Surf, but have looked around and alot of people don't reckon it's worth it by the time you've payed all the costs and fees. For some reason, people seem to say not to bother unless your car's worth around 15 grand or more in GBP. I've looked around at the prices for Landcruisers and Nissan Patrol and they're shocking even for a stupidly high mileage example...

No family there anymore, they've all came back over here... We got a Skilled Migration subclass 175 Visa which was nice as my wife's a teacher. We applied just before they changed the rules.

Yeah, i know mining's pretty full on, but there's about 110,000-130,000 reasons per annum why i wouldn't mind doing it for a little while...

What is it you do out there and how long you been there for now?

Will keep in touch, i'll add you on Facetube. We did meet at a laning day a while back. Think it was a Surrey one.

[dieselboy]

If it's an ozzie that said don't bother importing the Surf then that's because they're lazy! I looked into it and shipping is $3k. Expect to pay another 1-2k for fees and having it over the pits for "Rego" or registration. By the time you've done all that including shipping costs you can make a few grand on top if you sell over here in WA on a 2nd gen; compared to flogging it in England. I don't know if you will be allowed to sell straight away though. Obviously there is some risk involved with regards to shipping etc.

How long does the 157 give you? I am on the 457 but have been advised to approach residency after the 12 months for flexibility. The money sure is good but thats obtainable in the city.

I'm a network engineer, so basically comms over computer networks. (voice and data). Last month my project was setting up satellite links with 3G backup for mine setups in the middle of knowhere. This time around I've only been here for about 6 weeks. I spent a good part of 2012 here last year though.

Cheers for the add. I remember the user name and will probably remember the face when I see it!

Just heard we're hitting the dunes again this weekend because my friends friends are back from fly in fly out.

[Don Logan]

We get 4 years on the 175 Visa and can then apply for residency which is, well, nice...

We have to utilise the visa before next March so are looking at getting out there for a quick visit in February before coming back to the UK to save some more money and get other stuff sorted before moving over there. I think i'm gonna have to rent a quad or a crosser while i visit and go and explore those areas in your pics! They look awesome...