Brisbane 500 Fail

A local bikepacking race popped up on the radar a few months ago. The Brisbane 500 was the brainchild of Brisbane local Hayden Lester and promised to tie a bunch of Brisbane’s best singletrack locations together via a network of backroads. I immediately put it on my radar but must admit, in the last few months life and work, then life and then some more work had got in the way. I didn’t rate my chances of getting the requisite time off work but two days out from the start the planets aligned and I thought “ why not give it a crack”?

After all. How hard can 500 km around home be?

Blasts From The Past

I am currently visiting my folks in country NSW. They are starting to get on a bit and I think Dad has begun to realise that he needs to let go of “stuff” that isn’t being used (in 40 years!) and won’t be used or needed.

While we weren’t encouraged to ride motorcycles as kids, both Steve and I managed to get some two wheel fix via mates with bikes, plus Mum’s 1963 Honda Cub 50 once we were old enough.

Chillertek holding a viscous 50 metric cubes open.

Slip, Grip And Stop

After the thrashing that Steve gave my R1 I figured it was time for some TLC...or as any normal person would call it, routine maintenance. But I wouldn't be stopping at the R1 though. No, I have done 5360km(3330mi) on the BMW in the 9 months that I have owned it so it was also due for some lovin'.

Chillertek, The Thrasher......

South East Queensland Mash Up - Chillertek Style

Okay sports fans, as you may have seen HERE, Chillertek has been and conquered South East Queensland (SEQ). 

He has pretty much covered it all but here is the trip from my angle.....to go with his full-blown write up.

Prepping for little Bro's arrival.

New Rubber

Well, after 6 years and just over 8000km I have finally worn out the Michelin Pilot Power Pure tyres that I had fitted waaay back here.  The funny thing is that my prediction was pretty accurate in that one of my kids IS finishing high school this year!! :-0
Scary!!

Luckily for me, my brother suffered a puncture while out on a ride with the lads back in December 2016. That Michelin Pilot Road 4 was only on the bike a relatively short time he tells me (which may or may not be true as it looks like it might have around 4000km on it between those blog posts), so quite new-ish, miles wise. Or, new to me.....

After finishing off my Pilot Power Pures during his recent visit, Steve mailed the rear tyre up to me. That meant a quick trip to Tyres For Bikes out at Eagle Farm to have it fitted, plus a brand new Michelin Pilot Road 5 for the front.

New/second hand Michelin Pilot Road 4 rear

New/new!! Michelin Pilot Road 5 front.

It will be interesting to see how many miles/years I get out of these tyres as they are supposed to be pretty hard wearing and get in the vicinity of 11 000km (6840mi). That would be about 10 years of usage at my current rate and see me at almost 60 years of age!! They are also pretty good in the wet with rave reviews from such hard men as Geoff J. If they are good enough for him in the land of the Long White (Rain) Cloud then they are good enough for me!

On another note, while I was at Tyres For Bikes, I spoke to the owner of this little toy.

He was getting a puncture repaired and looking around it I was actually reasonably impressed with how the Zero looked. It was weird to hear it ride off as it made almost no noise and the owner mentioned that was hard to get used to, plus the lack of vibration - with no reciprocating combustion engine throbbing away. Interesting but I am not sure a 200km range would cut it in the real world. Maybe for a commuter bike where you can plug it in at work - but I can see that being an issue with cheap arse Aussie employers if more and more employees start using electric vehicles in time and plugging into the work outlet......

Anywho, cheers and thanks for checkin' in!

Chillertek's Visit To South East Queensland - The Planning

Steve and I hatched a plan at the MotoGP for him to come up and spend a few days riding the roads in South East Queensland (SEQ). He had previously done only one trip up this way. That was when Kwoky moved to Brisbane and got an escort out of NSW....probably just to make sure he left.... ;)

We decided to wait until the weather cooled down a bit up here as it is just too muggy to enjoy riding around SEQ all day in summer. To maximise time on the roads he will fly up and ride one of my bikes, thereby saving at least two days travelling time. It is looking like we might have a window of opportunity in March or April so I have been getting everything sorted. 

This is what I have come up with as a rough plan so far.

Wind it on like Mick!!

Wearing Out Some Rubber

WTF ????? I hear you ask.......

No, not wearing rubber out. Wearing out some rubber. A very different proposition!

Steve finally came up to Queensland for a ride and we wore out the rubber on both my bikes. 1600km in a few days will do that.

As a result, the F800GSA got a new  Heidenau K60 Scout on the rear today to match the front it got a few thousand klicks ago. Not surprisingly, it tips into corners very nicely now!

Stand by for further transmissions.......

Cheers.