During this trip I discovered the neat trick of keeping ones hands warm by frotting the engine (burst up to 120km/hr and apply full choke, the bike will settle down to approx 95km/hr whilst you warm your right hand, cruise control on the cheap. Fuel economy sucks during that though). Riding the New England tablelands after midnight is damm cold. Fuzzy neck warmers are your friend, pay no attention to people who think that fashion counts. I keep meaning to get heated handlebars, as the outer section of the handlebars protrude past the fairing to cop the full brunt of the icy air.
One of the people that we stayed with on the way down was the famous Nib666 of Gumbyfame. As payment, he got to ride my bike (for comparision, he normally rides a 250cc toy). The best thing to do when a friend of yours says that he did 90km/hr down a suburban street in 2nd gear because 'It sounded right' is to nod in agreement, and pray that no police saw him.
On reaching Sydney after Silverton (Martin is a beefy rider, and having my bike loaded down with that much gear is awkward, to say nothing of the fact that riders make poor pillions) , we picked up two companions for the rest of the journey being Rob Joengbloed and (how embarrassing, I need to check my mail), both of SUMS fame. Rob was so eager to go on this trip that he purchased a Honda CBR1000 (red, what else) a week before the trip. Mad bugger.
After a journey following the coastline, we arrived in Melbourne just in time for rehearsal, four days after leaving Brisbane.
On the way back, we took the short trucking route (ah, fond memories) directly to Sydney with the help of Lukey and friends (one day). The next day, Martin managed to get his employer to fly him back, but unfortunately neglected to tell me in good time. I did manage to go shopping, and purchased a water-proof suit which makes its wearer look like the Michelin man.
The day after that, I embarked on the 14hr straight ride from Sydney to Brisbane, leaving Rob's place at 4am. Red Eye (a high caffiene sports drink) plus Supradyn (dissolving vitamins) do mix, but you really don't want to do that. Total distance travelled: About 4500km over a week.
The bike and myself in the Mt Lofty Carpark, Adelaide, SA. The things on the front underneath the headlight are 'Shoo Roo' whistles, which are meant to scare away wildlife before you hit them. Riding up to Mt Lofty is a hoot, as one of the back roads has a 110km/hr limit with lots of nice curves.
I managed to convince the lovely Michele to go riding during this. After the third ride, she was able to look at something other than the sticker on the back of my helmet.
I had originally intended to ride from Melbourne to Canberra via the Snowy Mountains, but was starting to run out of time. Rode to Sydney via the Hume highway instead.
The next day I followed the coast north of Sydney, but ran into flooding (and thus an extra day) halfway. The map that I had indicated that a short distance back, there was a highway that ran directly across to the New England highway around Armidale. Several hours later, with arms getting rather tired from hauling the bike around corners, and having travelled not that far on the map, I ended up in a little town called Walcha to sleep the sleep of exhaustion.
The day after, I rose early, intending to be in Brisbane by 11am. Except that this was on the New England tablelands, and there was extremely heavy fog that rendered moving at speeds about 50km/hr an exercise in enduring frustration (visor condensation and visibility of about 100m, 50m if the lights were on high beam). Travelled about a hundred km at 60km/hr following the taillights of a semi-trailer, before descending far enough to escape the fog.
Proceeded quickly back up to Brisbane, arriving in the afternoon.
