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Gold Coast Run

Sadly a good friend passed away last week, so two of us made the trek north for his service. I left here 7am, to meet my mate in the Blue Mountains near Katoomba at 8.

The weather had been suspect here all week, and Queensland had been getting inundated, but we hoped it may have mainly passed on by the time we got there.

The gods were in agreement, and other than a shower when we had lunch at Kempsey, we didn't get a drop on us. Of course the smartest man in the world forgot about sunscreen, again, so I was getting a bit red and sore by the time we hit Tweed Heads South at around 5 ish. We showered and walked to a local pub for dinner which was fine except for the trivia going on, but eventually he stfu , and we had a few beers ,then wandered back to the Motel.

The next morning we headed to a local cafe for breakfast found online. Pulled up , and there's a HP car sitting there. Went in and ordered , and the 2 more HP cars turned up and the cops came in , and then 2 detectives ! Didn't take any notice of us, so all was good, but have cut that place off the breakfast cafe list !

We attended the service for the rest of the day then the next day up at 5am, out the door at 5.30 for a mad rush back down the M1 to Sydney. Hot again, till the outskirts , then rain for the last 2 hrs home...

Just out of Grafton heading back.

Willowbank Run

1/8/23

Had to give the old girl some love, cold ass winter finally killed the battery, so that and an oil change for a run to Queensland to the drags.

Left last Thursday morning, went westish to Mudgee, up through Ulan to the Golden Highway ( best scenery...) to Merriwa , Scone, Tamworth , then met two mates in Uralla and continued up to Glen Innes for the night. Brilliant weather, not hot but not a cloud in the sky all day!

Next morning, -5 degrees, oh the joys, but wrapped up , and off we went.. Tenterfield, then one of my least favorite roads, the Bruxner Highway. The 35km /hr corners dont really suit my nearly half ton of me and the bike...but plodded on in what was now pretty warm weather, through a heap of road works to Lismore then Nimbin, which we rode through only, then on the windys to Murwillimbah. Again great scenery!

Lismore Pub..sadly closed.

From Murwullimbah to Currumbin to visit a mate, then up to Beenleigh for the night at a good mates place.

Next morning up to Gasoline Alley to meet the other boys and ride out to Willowbank

Not Cheap !

Possibly the nicest Harley I've seen lately

Not been to Willowbank before, great facility, it was warm tho, glad I decided not to have a go and sit in the staging lane for hours, would've stuffed me..

After the drags it was back to another mates to party . Next morning , not too early thank christ, it was on the road again heading home, motorways only down to Kempsey for the night.

If you're doing Brisbane Sydney on the motorway on a bike, beware of the lack of gas stations! I have had 300kms out of my tank, but this time 284 and it ran out 7kms out of Grafton.
fortunately my V-rod riding mate, who'd run out shortly before me, still had a litre or two in his spare tin and I limped it into Grafton, which is something like 13km off the motorway.

Almost last stop the next day , at Taree,

After Taree,we stopped at Raymond Terrace then 2 of us headed out west to ride down the Putty. Another favorite of mine. Not ! and this time with road works.

But it does have the Grey Gums Cafe that particularly helpfully , is now licensed! Beer good !

After the Putty I headed across to Kurragong for my ride home over Bells Line of almost a Road , where fortunately there is a gas station halfway to Bell I guess, or I may still have been there...

Sunday ride

Out to Rylstone pub again on Sunday , quick bite and a beer....Bike friendly publican, still riding.

Good food too...

clik for website

http://www.rylstonehotel.com.au

Broken Hill Ride

Met the boys at Yetholme on the Great Western Highway, but 1/2 hr from my place. Wet as you can see, and 8C...

Next stop was Cowra , where mercifully the rain had stopped, just out of Blayney, but the roads had deteriorated .

Lunch there, then off towards West Wyalong where we stopped the night.

Next day was off to Hay, a few hundred kms; for lunch then through to Wentworth..

Time for a beer..still raining on and off...roads were pretty crap, badly potholed, even flooded in one area,

about 6 100m patches of 6 inches over the road...

Nice pub in Wentworth, good meals and a motel next door..

Melbourne guys met us the next morning for the blast to Broken Hill then Silverton

..which is a 265km stretch with no gas station...some made it ! ..but that's what backup wagons are for...

Broken Hill...still not warm!

Silverton Pub,bout 33kms out of Broken Hill..interesting place, birthplace of BHP apparently...good pub and meals but hellish expensive !

Not long after we arrived, WA , 3000km one way for them ! and Brisbane turned up..

Mad Max country...

A few beers and lunch

local wildlife..

Nice old triumph...some locals..

Lots of SFA out that way...

Campsite...

Stayed in the motel a couple of nights then headed back towards Dubbo on what proved to be a much better road...

Gassing up in Wilcannia...

Stayed the last night in Nyngan , at a caravan park with cabins, which had a really good bistro in the RSL..great feed !

Next morning was the blast down to Dubbo and home. I turned off from the boys at Dubbo, and found the worlds roughest road

between Dubbo and Mudgee...potholes a foot deep across the whole road , and miles of it...but made it without incident fortunately....

Albury Ride

Great little 6 hr ride down to Albury a few weeks ago, bit of rain but not too much, bit of dirt road but not tooo much... Jees nearly $50 to fill the tank !

Left here by myself but caught up with a group in a small town just south of Goulburn by chance..quiet beer...

From there its the a little boring blast down the Hume for a couple of hours...to the next pub...

then another hour or so more and just out of Albury is the Ettamogah...

Couple more beers then across the road to the Motel..a few of the bikes..

Woke up to another great day and back up the Hume..

Is it just me or would we all like to see a big thermo nuclear fly right up Putrins ass? (R added intentionally..) Seems a bit soft cock to sit and watch this manic despot do what ever he likes...Of course everyone doesn't want to start WW3. but Hitler marching into Poland started WW2 didn't it? Should we not have done that ? The nuclear threat is obviously a huge deterrent, but seeing Russia's efforts so far, they haven't exactly blitzed the situation, maybe their nuclear threat is just a big wet dream also?

Been on fart book for 10 years or so, Ive found it good to see what everyone is up to, see family pics etc, but after another 6 day ban, 1 day off a 3 day ban, maybe its not the place for me anymore..Sometimes I have just have to have an opinion...and whether it's some leather maker turning out skull embossed triangular handbags /saddlebags for the new softtail frames, if I think they are gay as fuck, I'll say so. Or if the West Australian police force do some propaganda piece about saving some young aboriginal boys life, instead of shooting the whole family and dropping them down an old mine shaft, as we all know they'd rather do...I may want to make comment. I may have to stick to here...

Got the new tyre back after 2/12 weeks, christ things move slow here, Damo gave me a hand to put it on, they're a bit of a mission, big heavy bloody things, as we're doing it I notice I need new brake pads....another backorder locally , but only a few days this time, so we got it all back together last week...Needed to rethink the saddle bag mounting...when I put them on originally I used the short steel brackets that came with the original bags ..and they weren't supporting the back section of the new bags, and with all the shit I carry one bag was starting to hang down and looked like it might start causing a problem.

So off to the local steel shop and bought some 40mm x 5mm flat bar to try and do it properly this time...

Chopping up the steel..

I measured the inside of the bag and cut two bits of steel for each at 500mm long..

Then using the original steels marked the mounting holes and drilled those, for the 2 different sized bolts used on the bike.

For the right hand side I welded two vertical pieces along the back steel to stop the bag leaning in toward the wheel when there's some weight in it.

I didnt need to do this for the left side, as I'd built a support when I first put them on, as that one hung into the wheel badly.

worlds shittiest welding here !

I put a bolt through the rear end of the steels where there isn't a support on the bike, to hold the bags rigid throughout their length

Then it was just a matter of bolting them on, which sounds easy but was a real pita , trying to hold the weight of the bag and get the bolts to start. the guard can move a bit and obscure the holes so some gentle easing of the ends of the bolts on the grinder helped them locate themselves better. I ended up having to get longer bolts by about 25mm as the steel plates made a bit of difference....

All back on and ready for a short 6 hr ride in two weeks...

Queensland Ride

5/2 Left home at about 1pm on the Friday, for the 240 odd km to Mendooran to meet Spud coming up from Melbourne.

stopped at what looks like the only inhabited building in the area...the pub!

Alcohol free zone..no drinking on the footpath...in case a kangaroo sees? no cant anywhere to be seen...

mmmm beer good

Spud turned up on his Challenger , christ they're a good bike I want one ! and off we trotted towards Narrabri , about another 250km....long straight roads in reasonable nick eventually, and it got warmer and warmer..till we got there about 7pm, and Met spuds mate Grump who'd ridden down from Bribie Island , about 8 hrs away to meet us..

Spuds bike in Narrabri...hiding another later model Rocket behind it..

The heat hit me when we stopped, and I was straight into a shower and on with the AC, so quick, I forgot to turn off the ignition didn't I..

Someone knocked on my door a couple of hours later and said the lights were on, so turned it off then...but the damage was done...

7am the next morning..push the starter..just a click. To cut a long story short, after having to borrow jumper cables twice...as I needed gas...we finally got underway and did the 90 odd kms to Moree where we stopped for breakfast, by which time the battery was fine again..

We trundled off toward Queensland an hour or so away, stopping dutifully just south of the border to remove out colours lest the Queensland populace be collectively sent into some sort of apoplectic fit leading to mass murder and mayhem. What a fucked country we live in.

Anyway after about 6 hrs arrived at the swish pad in western Brisbane....and partied on for a while ..

One of the boys' Muscles..

Coupla likely lads..

Up at 5.30 the next morning for the 970km trek home. Gods were smiling on us just a bit of rain in the Ballina hills as usual, back in NSW ,then a brilliant , hot , ride back.

Needed a beer in Buladelah...

Then the last 300km run back home through the outskirts of Sydney. Where we ran into a 20km tailback due to an earlier accident. FFS...a few miles of splitting lanes and I spied an exit to the Old Pacific Highway , and took it !

Tyre was looking a little worse for wear when I got home..I swear it was ok before that last 1800km!

26/1 Off for a ride on Friday, go about half way to Queensland , then the rest on Saturday...have put the new shocks on ( Ikons) and had a couple of short jaunts , reckon I'll be ok backwise , they seem to have softened things up a bit. Had them on a medium setting, but ended up taking them back to the lowest seems to have worked....easily adjustable so Ill take the tool for the bottom adjustment , and can do the top adjustment by hand...if they need any more tweaking..

Is it just me or do the fucks that make and enforce these bullshit laws against colours , tattoos etc all need fucking shooting? Australia really needs a bill of rights...spending some time this morning reading Queensland Human Rights Bill I'd say there's number of areas Queenslands draconian anti MC laws could be challenged... but of course its all a matter of money...

Heaven and hell ride.

Took off from home about 9am, not hot but quite pleasant, heading to Albury, about 5-6 hrs down through Bathurst, Cowra , Young etc...

Weather turned great outside of Bathurst...had to stop and take a pic...

Took off again and meandered down into Blaney, then through Cowra , which was stinking hot and sitting between semis in the main street wasn't a lot of fun...

Out through Cowra and towards Young. The roads hadn't been too bad, the odd pot hole , but nothing major...

Then I hit the road deformation from hell... one of those bits of bitumen that are pushed up vertically, this one close to a foot Id say.

Front wheel hit it first and send me sideways a small amount then the back wheel hit and it was like a sledgehammer up my spine.. Fortunately the bike stayed up and on the right side of the road so I just kept going and breathed deeply as the pain slowly subsided...

Pulled into Young to gas up and got off the bike and hobbled in to pay and buy some lunch. Nowhere to sit so I put my sandwich in my jacket and took off to find a park bench in the shade to eat. But there weren't any, and trying to avoid the traffic through the middle of town, in mid 30's heat, opted for the truck route out. However there was only the one signpost and no indicators of how to get back to the main road.... so effectively lost I just kept heading generally south...Stopped and ate my sandwhich in the shade under a tree, then kept going..

I eventually hit Burly Griffin Way and had to pull out my phone for the maps to see whether I went left or right..right it was so down to Wallendbeen, Cootamundra then across to Gundagai to get onto the Hume.

Got into Albury about 5pm, still stinking hot, but a good room with AC had me cooled down again before long.

Ordered a nice vindaloo from menu log , had a couple of beers and settled in for the night. Back was a bit sore but nothing major...

Woke up in the middle of the night and that had all changed. Agony if I moved...finally managed to sit up and get some nurophen and bromelaine I had with me...and went back to sleep again.

Woke up at 7 and back still the same but the painkillers had taken the edge off a bit...hummed and haaed about going home again, but once I was up and moving around it was more bearable so decided to keep going to Jamieson, the destination in Victoria.

Took off about 9 to do the 250 odd km ride, down the Hume for an hour and then turn off for 120 odd kms to Jamieson. Bloody nice ride, lake on the left at one point before pulling into Mansfield that was a bustling little town. Gassed up for the 37kms to Jamieson as I was at about 260kms on that tank. Have done 305, but better not to push my luck..

Pulled into Jamieson and the pub we were to stay at was still closed so parked at the take away next door and had an early lunch...

and yakked to the locals, one of whom turned up on her horse...great folks..

Boys for Melbourne and Sydney and Central Coast turned up and it was into the pub for a few ales.

Wandered off to bed sometime and had the same result with my back when I lay down...I have a compressed vertebrae from an accident 22 years ago, and the pain was worse than that.. I wondered how in the hell I was gonna ride back home in the morning... Somehow made it through the night again, and as the day before found once I was vertical it was bearable. Went down to the bikes and the pissing rain. Oh the joys.

but anyway off we went , hoping it might clear up...

Pan America demonstrator my mate had borrowed for the weekend..

But it didn't really all day, till near Sydney, but it wasn't cold so reasonably enjoyable still. I'd decided to go the long way home an extra 200km up the Hume then over the Blue Mountains to Portland to avoid the slightly shittier roads I'd gone down and hopefully not aggravate the back any more, so about 900km all up for the day.

So pretty warmed up and dry again I was just on the outskirts of Portland and it came down in torrents. Only about 5km to my place , but it drenched me to the bone..I managed to catch the edge of the storm that hit Lithgow with a mini tornado ffs... the wind was so strong I had to slow right down and could barely see, fortunately it was only about 10 minutes of it.

New set of shocks coming for the bike...my mate noted the stock ones have about 2" of travel if that..so a custom set of Ikons are coming, more travel and suited to my weight...

Hospital the next day with my back, but CT scan showed no more damage, fortunately, so it'll get better slowly...

Chaos in the shed.

Well almost...Damo putting my bike back together after kindly doing a fork seal...Bloody thing been leaking for some time and it wasn't helping the front brakes...which have been a bit of a bane for the 8 years I've nearly had the bike. Ok for a while , then no feel and the lever coming right back to the bar...tried a few different ways to fix them, bleeding backwards , pushing the pads back into the caliper etc, but nothing lasted..so anyway this time we put this back together with new pads, and it actually feels ok...but we'll see how long it lasts...I just read on a forum how Triumph changed the piston caliper size to a larger one eventually , and that seems to have helped lot...so if the brakes end up crap again I'll have to try that...

Really good mechanic young Damo , for 15, or any age actually.... if only he'd tidy up occasionally!

Moree Ride

Went up to Moree on the weekend a month or so ago, good ride about 550kms each way....only bugbear was having to strap a bag onto the carrier as there wasn't enough room in the saddlebags to put one.. so had a search on ebay when I got back and ordered these.

Came from the states in about 2 weeks, which wasn't too bad. Cost about $300 with GST , but seem good value, even came with lockable buckles and a couple of padlocks..

There was amounting system on the bike already for the smaller bags so was just a matter of unbolting the old ones, using the chrome plate inside them as a template for the new holes, and bolting them on...had to move them as far back as possible so a passenger can get a foot on the footpegs, but don't stick out past the taillight fortunately..Just need a ride now to try em out...

Here's some pics of the weekend away..

Leaving my place

Mudgee

smoky riding up to Mudgee..could hardly see Lake Windemere off to the right...

Pub in Coonabarabran

We'd ordered our food and then the manager bleats about the colours...said we wouldn't be long and he was ok...

Left here for the longest straightest stretch of road I remember, between Coonabarabran, Narrabri then Moree.Where it wasnt bush,it was parched dry and as flat as far as the eye could see almost ,getting near Moree..

Parked up at the motel for a couple of nights then back home Sunday

Stopped in Mudgee at a friendly( for a change ) pub just off the Castlereagh highway for a couple , where it started hosing down, so the last 100kms was wet as , but not cold...

Some old b'stard kept following me :-P

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