MONDAYS at Cargo Public School are generally taken up by stories about riding motorbikes over the weekend.

The storytellers tend to be the students at the small school but early next term it will be principal and sole teacher Brad Tom who will take centre stage at show-and-tell as he shares his riding exploits from over the school holidays.

Tom will venture to South Australia today ahead of the 24-Hour Reliability Trial, which is the only race in Australia where competitors ride continuously for 24 hours.

The race starts at 11am on Saturday and runs through until the same time Sunday.

A number of issues can arise when riding for such a long period of time and Tom is hopeful his preparations will be spot on.

“The preparation of the bike is a lot different to most races simply because lighting is such an issue,” he said.

“For 12 or 13 hours of the event I’ll be using lights whereas most enduro events are done during daylight hours only.

“The next big thing is the riding for 24 hours straight without a real break in those 24 hours.

“Just getting myself ready for that physically has been a bit of a challenge in regards to it’s a lot of training ... and also making sure that I’ve got everything ready in relation to nutrition as well, making sure I’ve got enough food and those sorts of supplies.”

Tom is looking to be part of the 40 per cent of riders who finish as the arduous event has a high attrition rate.

He rides his KTM 250cc bike regularly but has not raced for over two years.

Enduro events like this one are appealing to Tom and he decided to take on this huge challenge as it is considered one of the hardest around.

“I started hearing more reports about the 24-hour race at the end of last year,” Tom said.

“It was something that really interested me, the endurance part of it.

“I haven’t raced competitively for about two or three years and although I’m a very keen bike rider, I’m not into just looking for a two hour race.

“It’s the only one in Australia that is actually a continuous 24-hour race rather than being over two to three days and that really interested me. I thought that sounded like a challenge.”