Kroombit Tops - Day 2

 I actually did get up early, beating my alarm. This was because there was a refrigeration unit outside my room window that kicked into life every few minutes during the night thus ensuring I had a crap nights sleep. 

I packed up and took my gear (topbox) downstairs, then went to get the bike from where I had hidden it behind a skip bin. Riding the thirty metres to my gear didn't feel too strange but I decided to check they tyre pressure. It showed zero! 

WTH?

I thought the valve must be dicky as I couldn't get any air out of it! Anyway, I rolled around to the front of the pub for the following photo. When I rode off the kerb it was obvious something wasn't right with the front tyre. In my sleep deprived, sickly state it hadn't dawned on me that the pressure guage didn't register anything because the tyre was flat. 

D'oh! What a doofus! 🙁

I proceeded to roll around to the petrol station at 30km/h. Once there I asked where their air hose was as I needed a slight top up. "Ahh, the nozzle is broken and we are waiting for the new one in the post" was the answer that I really didn't want to hear at 7am.

"There is a tyre place around the corner though. I don't know what time they open, but you can try them" she said. Yes, I would be trying them as I needed this fixed before heading out into the whoop-whoop. I wobbled around to J & J motors at about 15km/h as by now the bead seemed to be broken and the front end was seriously skatey. They open at 0830. Great, almost an hour and a half to wait.

I thought I may as well get my mini pump out and try pumping the tyre up while I waited. I have carried this thing around for about 4 years and never used it. Sooo...you guessed it, when I hooked it up and turned it on nothing happened! 

I wanted one of those sweet, free drums...but where to put it?!

I gave it a jiggle, still nothing. 

I gave it a more vigorous jiggle, held my mouth just right and she fired up! In literally 15 seconds it had cut out showing 30psi in the tyre! 

No way! 

It cannot fill it that fast. I disconnected and checked with my tyre guage - 30psi! I couldn't hear any leaks but used my leatherman to make sure the valve was tight, then packed up and hit the road. If it held ok I would re-check it in Monto before I really headed bush.

Suitably emboldened, I headed north out of town for the Chowey rail bridge. This is on yet another now disused rail line. One of many that trucks and road trains with their speed and convenience have made obsolete.

Located about three kilometres off the road, I had the bridge to myself so I mucked around with my drone. I was contemplating getting the bike on the bridge but thought better of it....

Back out on the highway I rode through another railway siding. Didcot consisted of a couple of timber buildings that I reckon were put up in the 1920s or '30s, had a single coat of paint and haven't been touched since. With no rail line there is no need for Didcot any more. The sad fate of so many small Aussie towns.

I kept on Northward and soon rolled into Mt Perry. I hadn't been to Mt Perry in forever - in fact I had to do a blog search to see when I had come up here to race my mountain bike and couldn't believe it was 13 years ago! The kids were so little!

Every park needs a Leopard AS1 Main Battle Tank. 😎

I stopped at the general store for a very nice pepper pie and a coffee. It was pleasant sitting outside in the sun and I didn't feel an urge to rush off any time soon....

But when I did it was time to head off track a bit to check out some more disused rail line. But first there were gates. A lot of gates.

And plenty of abandoned farm equipment.

I was soon at the Boolboonda rail tunnel. The last time we did this we were on mountain bikes and Lucy pink shorts (see link above) was 8 years old.

From the tunnel I headed north on Wonbah road through Bania State Forest. Well, not through the forest as in trails, I just did the main road. I got the impression from the notes for the .gpx tracks that I used for this ride that Bania might have been a bit next level for a crook bloke on a heavy bike.

So I meandered along, taking a few turns and looking forward to Kalpower State forest as it was another pine plantation. Unfortuntely, it has all been logged out so I motored over a rising and falling hilltop trail. At least the visibility was good!

Somewhere along here I accidentally ran over the tail of a huge python that was crossing the road. I went back to take a closer look and couldn't see any damage. He managed to slither off the road so must have been ok. 

Eeewwww. I hate snakes! 😳

I had a quick look in Kalpower and clearly the railways played a big part in this tiny siding town. Yet another dwindling town.

Another thirty five kilometres along the road I came to Monto, which was NOT a dying town. It was bustling with people getting ready for the long weekend. I fuelled up and looked for an air hose as the front was down a bit to 27 psi. 

No luck. 

I tried the other servo - no luck there either! What was up with petrol stations not having air hoses?

I dropped into the local tyre repair place and asked if they minded me putting a bit of air into my front tyre. The young bloke was a dirt biker and leapt to it. I asked him to put 33psi in to allow for the tyre being hot but I was very pleased that it seemed to be holding. 

(It looks like the tyre leaked around the bead from new and that is why it felt like shite' the first two days I rode it. I should have checked the pressure but I have never had a new tyre lose air like that before and I just put the handling down to being a knobby tyre flexing under the weight of the big girl. Lesson learnt)

I visited the local IGA supermarket and bought some supplies for what was going to probably be two nights camping.

Leaving Monto I saw an incredible one fifth scale model of a B24 Liberator at the local museum. 

Why, I hear you ask? Well, more on that later.

North out of Monto I was following someone else's .gpx track from 2018 along Monal road. I was hoping all of the roads would still be trafficable and within my skill range. It is always a bit dicey taking someone else's advice unless you know how they ride and it was 5 years ago.

Anyway, I was covering some nice easy dirt roads through various farms. Some being more open and flowy than others. Dooloo Tops road was going to get a bit less flowy and more remote than what I had been riding.....

I stopped here at the gate of Dooloo Tops to have some lunch. I assumed that my route went through the gate and continued and was pleased that it didn't go up the overgrown track that was behind me.....

Mainland cheese and crackers, washed down with water. Simple, quick and tasty.

Of course as soon as I moved the GPS righted it's direction of travel and I sooo did have to go down that road (signposted Rasberry Creek rd)! 

It started off pretty flat and wide-ish. Then it started developing steep pinches as it followed the ridge line.

It twisted and turned along the ridge.

Then it became powdery and/or rocky from cattle trampling it. So much so that I has a couple of front end moments in the tighter stuff. 

I was also thankful that I didn't have to hop any logs like this!

 

But then after a while I came to a gate with a biosecurity sign on the fence. 

Shit.

The phone number had washed off the sign so I couldn't call for permission. The trail went steeply uphill and looked to get worse....but I was too far in to turn around now....

Well, better to ask forgiveness than permission sometimes...... 😏

But just around the corner was the drop off the ridgeline. It was steep, loose and rutted and I was on a BIG loaded bike with 80/20 tyres and all alone. 

Shit.

Do I really need to go down there? Check the map. Yeah, just a couple of kilometres and I will be back on Monal Road (which I had turned off of  9 photos above)

So, to be careful I walked down part of the way. It was far steeper than it looks in photos. There were a few ruts but they weren't too deep and had good crossing points. While dropping the bike would be a nightmare out here, alone, I was confident if I was careful I would be ok.....

Annnndddd.....I survived! The grip was actually pretty good for the grade and dryness of the rocky soil. I will admit I just clutch coasted down and modulated the brakes and picked the optimal lines but it proved to be easy!

The trail then meandered across grassy flats along a creek (Rasberry creek?)  which was very pleasant after the last half hour of stress.

I soon popped out on Monal road and shortly after I went though a gate to take a look at the old gold stamper at the Monal goldfields ruins. How they hauled this stuff in there back in the day is mind blowing. We have it soo easy today with cranes, excavators and modern hydraulics.

Back onto Monal road and more cow paddocks, cruisy trail and nice scenery.

Then I came to this gate.

I remembered something from the route notes about the trail being a bit snotty after the shire boundary crossing. Well, according to the sign this was the shire boundary. The view of sky in front of me should have been ringing alarm bells right about now!

Riding twenty metres through that gate saw the earth fall away! It was steeep, rutted, rocky and loose! The only evidence of traffic was two knobby tyre tracks on the surface. 

"Ahh, I'll be right" I thought to myself. This wasn't much steeper than the last one that scared me even if it was badly rutted up.

Well, fcuk me, I was all over the place as the back end tried to overtake the front constantly! The problem was there was a large drop off to the right and an embankment on the left so I didn't want to get too much speed as there was a (several actually) corners to get around as well. I was instantly drenched in sweat as I tried to keep the beast upright. 

At one point the rear stepped out about 30 degrees to the right (downhill/off camber side!) and I thought I was off but I must have released the brakes just in time, the bike straightened and I steered into a deep rut with a root across the end to stop me! 🫣

I sat there a minute or two, shaking from exertion and thinking what a fool I was to not share the route with anyone (I had forgotten) as nobody knew where I was. Sure, I had my Spot tracker but if I dropped the bike here it would be a big job getting it upright on this loose slope by myself.

Well, I managed to get down and once the trail took a few small ups I stopped on the first rise to take a big swig of water and cool down. Here you can see the peak in the background that I just descended from. Looking at the topo map I went from 560m elevation down to 310m in about 1.1 kilometres!!

There were a few more rocky, loose downhills ahead but nothing so steep or sustained and soon I was back on fast, open farm roads. Taking a left turn onto Tableland road I knew that my destination wasn't too far away.

The views across the rolling farmland on Tableland road was breathtaking in the afternoon light. I wish I could have done it justice.

Twisting and turning over hillsides I was gently climbing. I was also ambling along as it was just so scenic!

Through another farm or two before I hit the National park.

Woo hoo! I made it! Just 8km and 400 metres of climbing to get to my camp site.

Interestingly I had seen Griffiths Creek campground pop up in Race to the Rock conversation the week before. A new water tap had been installed and I was really counting on it being ok to drink as I had seriously underestimated my water uplift from Monto earlier today. I only had about a litre left on me. D'oh!

I rode through the campground noting that pleasingly there were only three lots of campers, not the hordes  I expected for a long weekend. I rode past them all, following the track to see where it went. When it came to an end I glanced up the hill to my left and saw nothing but open, grassy bushland. Something like an early European settler painting.

Awesome!

Riding to the top of the ridge I spied a flat bit of ground that wasn't totally overhung with trees and it had a small fire ring to one side. Perfect! This would do me.

I set up camp then took a walk down to the main section of the campground to seek out the water tap. I had brought my Sawyer Mini filter with me so if the water tasted ok I would have unlimited water. Luckily the water was crystal clear. I filtered it "just in case" and was chuffed I now had as much water as I wanted.

It was getting late now so I arced the fire up, keeping it small so I wouldn't attract any attention from other campers, even though I was at least 500 metres from the main area. I didn't want to see anyone else at all tonight, wanting to get the hell away from everything and everyone for a while.

I heated some water to rehydrate my dinner. With unlimited water you can't go past these Backcountry dehydrated meals for convenience and weight saving. Well, for a couple of days anyway....

I sat by the fire for a while, reflecting on the day and listening to the wild horses whinnying and galloping around in the dark. Today was a good day and this was heaven camping here in the cool elevation of the Tops but I was upset with myself for riding that stupidly steep road on my own and not remembering to forward my route in Gaia GPS to a few people so that someone knew where I was. 

It shook my confidence quite a bit tonight which was quite unsettling. I hoped it might be the fact that I wasn't well with the head cold and the fact that I hadn't slept well last night. This wasn't the "normal me" so I decided to go to bed and catch up on some sleep. I wouldn't be setting an alarm as I was staying put tomorrow with just an exploration ride around the Tops planned.

Todays route. 358km.

Cheers.

Day 3 here.

Kroombit Tops - Day 1

I have been wanting to do this ride for a couple of years now but that silly pandemic and having no job for a while sort of got in the way. Another hurdle is that ADV riding isn’t much fun in the heat and with winter days in Brisbane being in the low 20s Celsius, heading anywhere north of there is going to be somewhat warmer- even in winter which makes for a small window of attack.

Anyway, I decided that I needed to get it done this winter so put in for some leave for late July. Work being the thoughtful place it is, my leave got bumped to the first two weeks of August. Close enough!

I had some commitments in the first week of leave so that done, promptly caught a cold and felt like shit.😔

I really struggled to motivate myself to get organised for this ride. I had wanted to go mid week as I find you get most campgrounds etc to yourself rather than sharing with the hordes on a weekend. Well, as I said, I couldn’t motivate myself especially as I had a new set of Mosko Moto Reckless 80s that needed fitting then nutting out how to pack everything I needed. Sounds like a first world problem I guess but in my defence the Andy Strapz Avduro panniers that I have used for the last few years are so easy to mount and carry so much gear with ease that I was really unsure if I liked the Mosko gear.

I eventually got it all sorted and of course, the Mosko gear looks as sexy as all getout - however it doesn’t hold as much gear as the Avduro panniers - which is possibly a good thing. Too much space means one tends to pack too much stuff.

 I found a route that looked interesting on the Trans Australia trail site and managed to chop it up into Gaia maps and get it onto my gps - no easy task as I had to covert the Gaia route in Basecamp, then still add dozens of points to make it route over the “borrowed” route from the TAT site. Phew!

I was eventually on the road late morning and buzzed up to the Sunshine Coast where I exited the highway at Palmwoods. Following the pink line I twisted and turned around lots of little backroads/trails until I popped into Pomona. I stopped here for a late lunch at the supermarket and topped up the tank. I was heading for plantation country for a while and wasn’t sure when I would next see a fuel stop.

Just out of Pomona I got to stop for a while at what is a very common occurrence here in Australia the last few years - roadworks.

I buzzed past Kin Kin and into the massive pine plantations south west of Tin Can bay which don’t seem to have a name. 

Then I proceeded to zig and zag my way along grassy Forestry roads, hitting the odd sandy spot here and there. I had been unsure about the feel of the front tyre all day so far. In fact, I rode the bike to a coffee meet the day prior (and a day after fitting the new rubber) and thought the front felt terrible. I put that down to new rubber as I had read that the Motoz Rallz needed a few hundred kilometres to bed in. That still didn’t dispel the feeling that the front tyre felt a bit flat.

It felt pretty ordinary on the rocky climb out of this creek crossing (the Noosa River according to maps!) but felt ok when I stopped and tried pressing in on the knobs. I was also not in the plantations at this point, having passed a national park entry sign and noticing the trail getting much narrower and unkempt - just typical government administered road really.

However I was soon back on the forestry highways and really enjoying blasting along. This Desert X is much more confidence inspiring than my old Africa Twin, purely from a mass/height perspective.

It was getting late in the afternoon and I was really only about two and a half hours from home (if I had taken the Bruce Highway) My late, unmotivated start had a bit to do with this but the tight, twisty nature of the dirt route was certainly slowing things too.

I proceeded to blast through Toolara State forest towards Tiaro. I had to slow for a couple of groups of wild horses on the road through here! I have never seen wild horses anywhere but the alpine areas of Australia. Great. Another road hazard but much more dangerous than the usual kangaroos.

I fuelled up in Tiaro and decided not to follow the “route” through St Mary state forest and stuck to the blacktop to Biggenden.

I arrived in Biggenden just before dark and found a pub to camp in. I noticed the front end of the bike felt funny riding slowly around town but just thought it was from the load I had on the back. New to me tyre and first time fully loaded on this bike….yeah, the tyre is fine.

Time for a shower, a couple of beers and a bloody good parmy. Today was a Thursday and I found out tonight that Monday was a public holiday up here…..so cue the packed campgrounds I reckon…..🙄

I was pretty buggered as I wasn’t well, what with the head cold so hit the hay pretty early tonight. I set the alarm for first light though as I had some plans for some golden hour photography in the morning.

Cheers.

Day 2 here.

Morgan Park Track Day

It has been a couple of years since I last did a track day here. So when I noticed that Champions had a Monday ride day AND that you could bring a "buddy" along for free, I decided to jump on it! That "buddy" would be my daughter, Lucy.

This led to some frantic hunting around for tyres on both of our bikes. Mine because I wanted something more track oriented than the Michelin Road 4 and 5 that I was running on the R1 and for Lucy because her tyres were the OEM hoops that came with the Z400. She also had a plug in her rear tyre which is a no-no for track days. 

Of course, I ripped the tyres out of the bikes as my local bike shop will work minor miracles to change your tyres if they just get the wheels. Book in weeks ahead if you want them to take the wheels out of your bike though. (No Andrew, I'm not going to do my own changes...yet.)

Lucy went for a Michelin Road 6 rear and as they only had a 5 in stock, she went a Road 5 front. They will be great all round tyres for her style of riding/commuting.

I went for some Michelin Power GPs. They are touted as 50/50 road track as opposed to the GP Cup track weapons that had a ridiculously steep profile on the rear tyre. I also had 90 degree valve stems installed which is something I have wanted to do for years but with so little use, I just don't change tyres on the R1 very often.

While we were at it we changed Will's CBR500R over to a Michelin Road 6 on the rear and he took my Road 5 front which had done under 1000km on my R1. This was due to the fact his OEM Dunlops felt like rubbish with no feel when I had a ride of it. Steve backed this up on a recent visit when we rode the R1, CBR and my Desert X back to back to back on a twisty bit of road near home. I saw it as a safety improvement for Will and hence helped cover some of the cost of the new Road 6 (have you seen how much Michelin tyres are these days?!!) 

So, the $200 track day with a free buddy had turned into an ~$1500 affair once new tyres, hiring of leathers, motels, food etc etc was carried out! 

Oh well.

Lucy and I were going to head up to Warwick the night before so we didn't have to be up at 3am to do the two and a bit hour drive out there on the Monday morning. This led to Will suffering major jealousy and him pleading to come along. He wanted to chuck a "sicky" but I told him being sick on a Monday as a 1st year apprentice wasn't a good look at all. Instead, I reminded him that most of his workmates and his boss all ride. I suggested he call his boss and ask for an annual leave day. He did and his boss said "yeah, sure!" so it was the three musketeers for the track day then. Bloody glad I got Will's tyres sorted while we were doing ours!

Not a great photo but the sunset coming into Warwick was spectacular.

We were up early but not as early as if we were coming from home. I filled the jerry can while the kids got some breakfast and coffees, then we headed out to the track. It was a cold morning with quite a brisk wind blowing. I didn't mind as most times I have been to Morgan park I have sweated my proverbial off!

We unloaded and set up, then headed around to scrutineering. That done it was back to the pit. When Lucy arrived she looked like someone had pinched her puppy. She had failed scrutineering because her throttle wouldn't spring closed. She normally has bar end mirrors and when we removed them we also removed a spacer that kept them from jamming the throttle tube. Now, the original bar ends that we had refitted were jamming it. Bugger!

I had no spares but some limited tools - what to do? I know, "hey kids, look around on the ground for washers" I suggested. After five minutes of doing this we had found two suitable washers that spaced out the bar end weight enough for her throttle to work properly. She took off to scrutineering again and was back two minutes later with the all clear. 

Crisis averted!

 

We were ready nice and early so I thought it prudent to give the kids a bit of a pep talk as I could see they were nervous. I reminded them that they only have to ride around at their own pace and you could use all of the road. If they ran off I told them to just ride straight and use a little bit of rear brake to slow down, then get back on the track. Don't panic as there is nothing to hit. I also put a bit of tape over their speedo readout so that they wouldn't be distracted by looking at their speed. They used their Strava cycling app on their phones to record the top speeds that they could then look at while sitting safely in the pit.

I was pleased that when we attended the riders briefing the Champions people emphasised exactly the same points as I had. They also had an extra briefing for the first timers too, which they kept low key and was very welcoming. 

Nice.

I was in the second slowest group so went out just before the kids. It was cold, only about 14 Celsius so I took a few laps to warm the tyres but our group was so small that by going last onto the track I didn't get passed all session and basically had a clear track in front at all times. Just like a private test day!

By the time I got off my bike the kids were out there, ripping it. Well, not quite - I was pleased to see that they were taking it easy and feeling their way into it. I had been especially concerned for Will as he has only had his provisional licence for about six weeks and hence doesn't have much experience.

Will.

Lucy

As they rode back into the pit after that first session, I think I actually teared up a little. I'm not sure if it was from pride or from relief that I was going to be able to go home that night. A little of both I guess?

Anyway, they both had huge grins on their faces and I was as proud as a Dad can be of them.

The day didn't warm up much. I think it got to 18C but that was great as it wasn't hot in the leathers which made for a more enjoyable day. 

As per usual, Champions had a photographer roaming around the track and I decided to fork out for some decent photos as a memento of the day. These are all by Motothing photography.

Just checking in - yes, still having fun here.......

I changed to the kids group for two session so that I could take some video of them and see how they were going. That was bloody good fun and I must say I was surprised at their mid corner speed on the tight corners. If I'm honest it was faster than mine!

Done and dusted! We had ridden every session and outstayed a lot of people as the last sessions were almost private track days. There were only three of us in my last session! The kids had had a great time and were still in one piece, as were the bikes. 

Hell yeah!

Lucy had uni the next day, so once loaded up we headed for home. 

The only downer for the whole day is that my bike and Will's bike had a bit of a coming together on the way home with his pillion footpeg coming into contact with my pristine Staintune exhaust can and scratching it up a bit. I will see if I can get it polished out but if that is the worst that happened on the day, then I am sort of ok with it...but I really do need to buy a proper motorcycle trailer.

Cheers.

New ADV Rubber

 

With the rear Pirelli Scorpion getting down a bit in tread depth and me eyeing off a proper ADV ride soon I thought it was time to put some decent off road tyres on the Desert X. I have umm'd and ahhh'd for weeks about which tyres to choose. I liked the Motoz Tractionator Adventure on the rear of the Africa Twin but it did get pretty "buzzy" on the blacktop as it wore and while I would like to try their Rallz on the rear, it is even noisier as it wears. Then I stumbled on a tyre I had forgotten about, the Heidenau K60 Ranger. The Ranger was meant to be an 80% dirt tyre that was a bit more user friendly on the blacktop (especially when wet) than the K60 Scout. They were still quoting impressive life for the Ranger and I just like the look of it with it’s meaty, chunky tread blocks. 

So that was the rear decided on. For the front I did like the Bridgestone AX41 on my Africa Twin but I thought I might go for a more aggressive front tyre. I was torn between a Pirelli Scorpion Rally and the Motoz Adventure Rallz, both tyres I hadn’t tried before. My main concern wasn’t for their dirt prowess as I was confident they would be fine in that respect, more how they would affect my bike’s sweet road handling.

So, I decided to live dangerously and pulled the trigger on the Motoz Rallz. Better to pull back a notch or two on the blacktop than to go wanting for grip with a loaded 220+kg ADV on snotty dirt roads I reckon.

 

Tyres For Bikes has a huge selection of tyres under one roof so I grabbed the tyres there. Unfortunately I keep having bad experiences with them actually fitting said tyres so I elected to go to my local bike shop to have them fitted. If I supply the wheel sans bike they will do a change for $25 AUD per end. Worth the coin to get a professional, quality and balanced tyre fitting in my view.

So, all fitted up. Now to go get them dirty.

Cheers.