Adv's ride to the Oz WSBK or the "one day I'll learn&qu

[Advwannabe]

I had such an 'interesting' time on the weekend I thought I'd share it. The plan was to get away from the Defence Force College after the big beginning of year parade by 1100, so it was no surprise to not be hitting the road until 1300. Sigh....Tigger had barely got into its stride when we happened upon a scruffy dude with a broken down old Panhead. I remember whinging in another forum about you never see these guys any more, replaced by Hell's accountants and wannabes but here he was! We managed to fix his ignition switch and get the old girl turning, but despite an hours mucking around and getting fuel and spark, no burning. He was a genuine aussie dude, travelling to Melbournistan for his son's birthday. Sorry I couldn't help him, but hopefully we organised a non-rip off tow to a decent bike shop.

Further behind schedule.. shedding plans of a Wee Jasper run we slabbed it down the Doom, the monotony only broken by cruising along with a big unit of a man jammed onto a ZX9.



You can't really make him out, but man he looked uncomfortable! But he had his regular stretch exercises going and looked like he knew how to chew miles.

Started making some time up and began foolishly to plot a course over the snowies near Holbrook, then another broken bike! This time a Bmtroubleyou 1200RT. No lights, nadda, nothing. He had a lot of farkles bolted to the thing he'd installed before coming on the ride. I've read somewhere that the Canbus on these things doesn't like accessories so when we ran out of ideas I started disconnecting farkles. Somewhere between pulling the heated grips and the CB while switching the ignition on and off we got pretty lights on the dash and he was mobile again. Feeling pretty o.k about being the good Samaritan but now the sun was starting to weaken and I was still in New South.

Just the other side of Albury another BMTroubleyou!! Why always me? I did think about not pulling over, but you just do, don't you? Luckily for me he was fine, just waiting for his mates, but not thinking to wave me on. He was a haveachat though so we blasted outta there quick! Just to demonstrate that wonderful life principle, "No good deed goes unpunished" I managed to ride through the one rain squall on the horizon. We finally managed to pull into St Andrews Beach on the Mornington Peninsula at about 2230.

Not a lot to report about the races, I missed all the Bikeme and FarRiders catching up with Jeff and Rob, an old friend who had ridden all the way over from Karratha. We all had an admiring look over the SuperTenere and the new VFR1200 at the Expo, which, despite my whinging about weight and looks, is a substantial, clever motorcycle which Honda will no doubt sell by the boatload. The Superten looked very cool, can't wait to ride one. I did take a photo of this:



Very stylish and Spartan old Gixxer with the exhaust exiting from the light holes of the 916 ducktail! Being ridden by a stylish young thing too. We had a ball watching the races, wondering who Carlos Chuca was going to take with him when he threw it at the scenery, but he not only stayed on but won the race! Surely he can't keep that up all season?

After a very pleasant evening relaxing and telling lies with old friends I had the whole of Monday to find an interesting way home. The run down the Gippsland Coastal Highway, while infested with revenue collectors was very pretty, but the traffic on stretch between Sale and Bairnsdale on the M1 convinced me not to go any further on the main drag. I've always wanted to ride the Barrie and the local reckoned it hadn't seen a lot of rain. The promise of low traffic was the clincher. I did run into  a crowd of BMTroubleyou GSes and a Transalp with the same idea, but they pulled into a pub in Buchan and left me to it. The start of the Barrie:



Along the way we played leapfrog with Mark on another GS and the crew when any of us stopped to take photos. The track soon narrowed down and got rougher, but the scenery was well worth it



Watch that first step......



The old guy is enjoying himself but it was still Stupid Celsius up there



I'm coming back here to camp

I was having such a good time I didn't notice I was hanging the back out more and more around the corners. Good fun, but the big girl is top heavy and can get away from you pretty quickly, which is what happened on a slow uphill left hander . It was all very logical, try to get it back, no its too far gone, get your hand and leg clear and smack! The ground is still hard even at 30 km/h. Roll over and switch the ignition off, then have a little lie down for a minute. That'll teach me to sneer at Carlos! The only bloke who has fallen off more than me this weekend is Chris the V, and that was only because he was pushing a crap bike too hard.

Anyway, hmmm no throbbing, requisite number of limbs attached, everything seems to be working, result!  

No biggie I thought, crash bars protected the bike, riding gear protected me, then I noticed the gear lever on the ground. Uh oh........shaft snapped off where the bolt goes through the shifter. That's gonna be expensive and riding 300ks in second just doesn't appeal right now.

People were fantastic, the BM crew all stopped on their way past to make sure I was o.k, but nothing any of them could really do. An older couple happened along and between the two of us we managed to get what was left of the shifter over the bent stub of the selector shaft and I was mobile again.

This is what Uri Gellor's shifter looks like....



Looks like a megabuck job to replace the selector assembly, or........... I mill a bit of material of the inside of the new shifter to get a better fit over the stub of the selector shaft, mill the area around the  threaded bolt hole flat and use a smaller bolt as shown but with a Nylock nut to secure the shifter .  Not exactly original but if it works it could save me a stack of money. Anyway, if you have opinions and ideas I'd love to hear them!

In any case a fantastic weekend  and a great ride, which would have been even better had I been thinking a bit more about what I was doing. Tigger is a very capable bike in the gravel, but if you don't pay attention to Mr Newton things will go pear shaped very quickly.

The Barrie Way can expect a rematch...........

[oxnsox]

Great post mate. I'm imaging the Sepo's an Pom's 'll have a bit of an err-umm moment with the lingo... great

[Nick Calne]

Excellent stuff.

Look at the blue sky in the first pic.  Haven't seen anything like that for a while.....it's been a long, cold winter here....

[Sin_Tiger]

I hope you are riding past when I break down or have an off (not if)  

Who remembers Uri Geller, apart from Mr. Jackson  :roll:

[redbirds]

Enjoyed the pics. Thanks for posting.

[akendall1966]

Who remembers Uri Geller, apart from Mr. Jackson  :roll:

A few Exeter City fans do.... :P