Central Australian Holidayz

[Advwannabe]

Of the more depressing things one sees, your bike in the revision mirror being towed by a c@r ranks right up there. Especially if the machine is functional. Such are the compromises of holidays with my beloved. We did get to see some old and valued friends, see some beautiful parts of Oz and ride. A bit.

We rode to this winery.



Then we rode to an art gallery, then a craft shop, then a coffee shop...

However once we got to the Flinders I discovered that there is such a thing as a great road in central Oz. The road from Hawker to Blinmen is chock full of beautness. Then when it turns to gravel and cuts through the gorge on the way back to the Leigh Creek if possible it gets even better. A lot of you would love this road, Jeltje and my kidneys after the protests, I'm not so sure. Hmmm solo next time me thinks

Then there was more art galleries, craft shops, flower displays, traditional art and other wrist cutting wonders. Do you know that there are art works to inspect within easy reach of Coward Springs, half way up the Oodnadatta track? You do now. You are not safe anywhere.

We camped, we drove in the Tojo (Landcruiser), we looked at some more art.

Then I rode a bit.

I rode up the Oodnadatta track



Then it got dusty in Marree



Then I rode up the Birdsville track. Some of it looked like this



A lot looked like that. Mainly the creekbeds.



Modern oil tight Hinkley Triumph. Technically that seal came from Rick's electrics, but I wouldn't have had to install that if Mr Triumph had designed the stator and oil vent system properly in the first place!



Before the Poms got round to building modern oil tight motorcycles with no electrical faults they did a great line in tough dependable trucks. Mr Kruze ran a freight and mail service up and down the Birdsville track in the 30s and 40s and opened up this part of Central Australia for a lot of folk. When one of his trucks broke he'd sometimes leave it and ride a horse out until he could get another truck in. You had to be self sufficient back then and he reckoned it was one way to make sure he had parts. Heck of a way to run a business. It took days to get the mail through



Before building dependable motor vehicles, they did a great line in 'can't possibly fail' date farms. Lots and lots of broken dreams out here. Riding 400 miles in dust storms, thunderstorms and 105F temps was hard enough and I was doing it for fun. I can't imagine how tough you would have to be to make a life out here.



I found a nice pub. It had an arts and craft display and everything, but because I was on my own and making the decisions I didn't look at it. Outback people are wonderful though, the publican even went next door to give me some of his own sunscreen.



Nore to self: work on cruiser face.

Then I went for a little jaunt, following the many sets of tracks around the 'road closed' sign ( love the bush) to go for a swim in the Cooper. Tigers in sand, not a great idea, but it does go more or less in the right direction as long as you keep it nailed. If you are on the Cooper Creek track and you see a Tiger, it's engine bellowing, slewing wildly from one side to the other, don't do what the Dingo pup did and freeze. I don't know whether it was fear or confidence that I couldn't possibly wander over to that side of  the track or curiosity that kept him sitting there, but he probably needs to find a way to get to oil outta his fur now after his near miss.   

The Cooper ferry



Mr Kruze also built and operated the first ferry across the Cooper. I was sucking down a litre of water an hour to that point and jumping in the river was heaven.

Then, as I got back towards Marree, it started to do this



which it hasn't done for some time, apparently. But it did mean that by the time I got back to town then towed the Tiger back to Lyndhurst it looked like that



I think there were several coffee shops, craft shops and aboriginal displays after that.

Of the gear, the Heidenau K60s are brillient. Great grip on road and gravel. You will only get 6000ks out of a set, but I guess that's the compromise.

I'm over my Hagon shock. The dealer in Oz has been absolutely fantastic with mine and I cannot fault his service. He's revalved it and resprung it for me at very reasonable cost. However it just is not up to continuous gravel work. a couple of hours in on a hot day with such a heavy bike the damping was gone and I was basically riding on the spring. It's possible that would happen with any shock, but I think I'm going to try a Penske or Ohlins if I can get one before the next adventure.

My custom bash plate worked a treat and judging by the gouges underneath wared off a few decent sized rocks from the cases and pipework. For those of you who've seen my drawing it needs a slight modifcation of a 25mm chamfer on the two bottom edges. If you build it as is and you ride enthusiastically enough to scrape the pegs on road you will scrape the bash plate as it is at present.

I promised someone I'd take photos of the rear mounting brackets and will do so when I take it off for the mod.

955 Tiggers are old hat now but mine still gets the job done. I'm coming back here next year to do the Central Australian road from Alice Springs to Kalgoorlie.

Cheers!

[Bixxer Bob]

Totally envious mate!

One of the great de-motivators in the UK is the lack of anywhere to hand that you can lose yourself.  Ok, you can do any amount of tarmac road trips, but to get to anywhere where you really need knobbly tyres you'd have worn them out long before you got there. And knobblies on wet tarmac in European traffic?  Hmm.

I did a tow-the-bike trip to Scotland last July, but was so busy enjoying the roads I forgot to take pics.  There'll deffo be a next time though.  The motorhome and trailer measures 35ft in length.  It's a Fiat Ducato 2.8 diesel base, so overtaking slow cars going up Glencoe in the rain was fun.  Rumbling past at 60-ish invoked much flashing of headlights which I thought was a protest at being overtaken by a large vehicle (ok USA, I KNOW it's not BIG in your terms) but it turned out I'd forgotten to lash down my security padlock and chain properly (it was going nowhere as it was locked, looped through a trailer frame rail) but the lock was dancing along the tarmac making pretty sparks.....

[Advwannabe]

I'm hearing you Bob. Even those tires are a compromise, as I commute to work on the Tiger. I'll get about 6000km out of those in a combo of road and trail riding.

Next time I seriously go bush I will bite the bullet and go full knobs, which I'll take with me on the bike then lever off the Tourances and lever them on before launching. I possess to skills to do it, but combo laziness, wanting to holiday with my wife and convincing myself that towing a trailor 2500kms was a good idea. It wasn't.

But next time the suspension will be better sorted and I'll have some soft panniers installed and and..... 

[Chris Canning]

I didn't know to laugh/cry or have my chin on the floor,a world away from anything in Europe thats for sure,re the suspension what lets the Hagon down apart from it's a buget build,just the fact there's no remote reservoir,hence why it gets all hot and bothered,I guess you could get an Ohlins built from spares,but really life would be a lot simpler to either go Wilbers or Hyperpro.

Any more photo's? always interesting to see whats going on,on the otherside of the world.