Category: Bike Trip 2008

This morning, very early, some people at the motel where I was staying at decided 1:30am was the perfect time to work on their boat motor. by 2:30am I thought it had gone a little long but it was too cold to get up. Shortly thereafter they left and if wishes mean anything, they should have drowned as soon as they launched the boat.

At about 7:30 I left the motel, immediately got fuel and headed towards Ballarat. The satnav was suggesting i would be there by 12:30pm and I decided to detour via Melbourne CBD. On arriving there (at about 12pm as i was riding slowly) I realised that, although it seemed like a good idea, I had nothing to do while there. I found a curry shop, had some lunch (people don’t understand when I want only half of a small meal and always keep piling the food on until I stop them). Then more fuel and onwards towards the goldfields. In the morning I saw 6 degrees on the screen and it felt ok. By the afternoon, it was reading 10 degrees but seemed far colder. The road was wet in places and I think the humidity with the wind chill made it seem worse.

I’m now sitting in a cabin at the caravan park, wearing a beanie. My ‘pocket heater’ was great all day and the heated seats and hand grips got a run.

I forgot to mention yesterday that this the first time I have ever ridden/driven to another state. Pretty lame I know but there it is. So far I’ve done about 1200km at am slowly but surely starting to fall in love with the bike. Theres not a single thing that I would change at the moment. I know what you’re thinking, love is blind but everything is just going perfectly with it. What a fantastic machine.

Anyway, theres probably not going to be much blogging over the next 2 days as theres no riding. I will have some time for my ass to recover a little, spend some time with the wife and kids (they are here also) and see the local attractions. I’m sure Libby will be blogging so check out hers (Libby Withnall).

I might post some photos if I get around to setting up the relevant software. Libby with surely have some.

I’ll write more in a few days.

Well, this morning it all was supposed to be smooth and organised. I slept in a little and was then planning to leave about 7:30.

On taking my final packing (in the pannier bags) down stairs to put into the bike, I noticed the garage floor was somewhat wetter than it supposed to be. Apparently we burst a hose last night on the water tank pump. We then had to get everything moved so it can dry out.

Anyway, After stealing an anzac cookie that Libby had made (she always gets up really early) I got on the bike and left. It seems strange that when I want to do a few hours riding, it seems like it takes ages. This morning, it seemed to take no time at all until I was in Nowra. There I had a coffee, friant and 1/4 of a coffee before moving on again. Next thing I knew, I was in ulla-dulla and had to get petrol. (16.32L@1.749) and had to explain to a local police officer what the headlight modulator was all about. Then time seemed to slow down a bit. I arrived in Eden and wanted to have a stretch and noticed 4 missed calls on my phone. Apparently when I re-set the bluetooth stuff, I hadn’t stopped the bike talking to the phone. I fixed it so it goes via the Zumo and returned some calls while heading south.

When heading south on most rides, if you need fuel or something, theres always a town or something close. After Eden, theres just long stretches of nothing. I made it to Cann River with about 30k left on the screen. I Put about 19L in the bike ($35) and had about 130k to go to get to lakes entrance.

It was very cloudy and was starting to get dark so I was glad to arrive. I’m now sitting in the hotel room ($70) watching some tv and getting ready to get a pizza (the local shop has really small ones)

After the water pipe issue, I had to re-cut a hose to get it fixed and realised in eden that my Leatherman was still back at home. I found a shop and have a replacement so its all good again.

Tomorrow I will probably aim for Ballarat but don’t know which way to go. I guess I’ll just trust the satnav and see how it goes.
The bike is performing very well and nothing has gone wrong so far with any equipment or planning. I only drank about 250ml water today so I think I will trey to stop more often to get some fluids.

This  morning I started the final preparations for the trip. When I got to the office (at about 6:30am) I was just sitting down for a coffee when the power failed. The failure was the result of some huge winds tht suddenly arrived.

Now, I can (and have) ridden through extreme cold (well, 4 degrees seems extreme to me), rain, lightening and hail and its not that bad. Wind on the other hand makes riding very difficult as a big gust could cause you to end up in front of another vehicle.

Anyway, its thursday night now, the wind has died down lots and I’m ready to go at sunrise tomorrow. I don’t know where I will end up tomorrow night yet so we will just have to see how it goes.

The bike has both panniers full, top box full and the tank bag full. I don’t have a backpack strapped across the seat at the moment (its gone with the inlaws to meet me in a few days time) so it should be a nice comfortable start.

Just for anyones info (if anyone cares) the bike has a Zumo 550 GPS linked via bluetooth to my phone and an autocom bike comms system. The helmet plugs in to the autocom and this all allows me to use the phone, get sat nav prompts (great for school zones, speed cameras etc) and listen to music from the zumo (with an 8GB card) that has about 800 songs I will probably be sick of by the time I get back. The phone has its own weather proof box that has a charging cable.

In the top box, I have the laptop, 150W inverter (the top box has a 12v cable from under the seat), satellite phone, epirb, archos 605 (160GB media player) and misc cables, chargers etc.

I Have a Nikon D300 camera with an 18-200 lens for the ‘planned’ shots, and a little snappy IXY1000 (canon) for the simple stuff. It should stay in my pocket I think.

I have (in no particular order) Crocs, alking boots and bike boots, 3 tee shirts, 3 pairs undies, 3 pairs socks, riding jeans (draggin), thermal underwear, misc drugs and first aid stuff, emergency flashing light, head lamp, cable ties, electrical tape 4 pairs sun glasses, 2 pairs clear safety glasses and lots of other stuff I can’t remember at the moment.

The GPS only talks to the autocom with bluetooth for phone calls, the music/nav prompts are sent through a 3.5mm stereo cable (so i get stereo).

I have a telstra internet connection (next G) and an optus 3G connection so I should have both major carriers covered. Libby has a different optus system and the inlaws have a Next-G to ethernet box with a high gain antennae.

The BMW dealer has failed to get my spare key in time so I only have one (plus the silly emergency ‘wallet’ key they give you that would snap if you actually put it in a wallet)

I will need to change tyres probably in Alice, Darwin or Mt Isa depending on how they go. If Jason ends up coming along for the last week and a half, I will miss darwin. I have wired his mike (and mine) so we both have similar comms and have added UHF radios to the mix.

Thats all the ‘facts’ I think are things I may want to read about later (basically this is my diary so if its booring, please ignore me )

The longest day I’ve done so far is 550km and the longest ride was 1200km over 3 days. Tomorrow I think will be about 650k with about 500k on day 2 (if i plan to get to Ballarat for the second night to save some money)

I’ll try to blog daily. I don’t know if I will be able to include photos in the posts (depends on internet access etc). As I’m with Libby for most of the first 3 weeks, check out her blog at http://libby.withnall.com for her take on whats going on.

Hopefully I’ll post more tomorrow night.

Ok, yesterday the photos weren’t available. Heres another post with some photos from the camping trial.

The bike all loaded up.

The tent in the morning.

My probably unnecessary table and chair. It packs up quite small and a table is very handy.

No, this is not a post about how to express any particular sexual orientation, its about actual camping.

I went on a test ride/camping trip to make sure everything was working for the big trip.

I had all my gear packed, the bike felt like riding with an elephant on the back, still had no room for some of the camera gear I wanted, but set off with the intention of working it all out. The camp site was not the best but was going to have to do. I would need to get used to sleeping with traffic noise at some point. I setup the tent, table, chair and cooked some dinner on the MSA stove. So far so good. at about 5pm it started getting dark and cold and by 6pm, I was inside the tent reading a book and trying to stay warm. The new -12 degree sleeping bag was fantastic and I was warm (unless I wanted to move). Actually warm was not a good word as it could mean too warm, comfortable is better. The new bag is really great. It has elastic on the lower portion so that you can still move around a little but it stays wonderfully snug.

When the tent was setup, I failed to pull the fly out sufficiently on one site and it touched the inside part of the tent. Oh well, thats what the trip was for, to work these things out. In the morning, the grass everywhere was white with frost. The tent where it was setup incorrectly was wet. That part of the tent touched me and therefore, I too, was wet.

Normally, on this planned trip halfway round Australia, This shouldn’t be a problem. Firstly, where its cold, It won’t be wet (Alice etc). Secondly, where its wet it won’t be cold (Cairns) and Thirdly, where its wet and cold, I won’t be camping anyway (most of Vic)

Packing up a tent in the cold and wet sucks. It requires unpacking and drying later and your hands get very cold.

The upshot of all of this is that I don’t think I will be camping on this trip. This will save me some room in packing, and allow more flexability in the times I spend riding (I can leave earlier and arrive later). It will however involve spending more money on accommodation. I guess this is something I’ll have to just deal with.