Here We Go Again !!

 

Well, in a bout of lateral thinking I have gone and done it again. Yep, I have made the decision to move on from what has been to this day the most versatile motorcycle I have ever owned. 

I claim to be a bit of an early adopter 😉 in the ADV bike stakes when in 1994 I traded my beloved 1993 Honda Fireblade in on a Honda NX650 Dominator.

From this....

to this....

Steve hated riding that bike but to be fair he was 22 and in full on sports bike mode. I only bought the bike as I was heading back to the Kimberley for work and wanted a bike I could ride some dirt on but would be civilised enough on the blacktop. I wish I had taken some more photos (or not lost the ones I think I did take 🙄)

I sold that Dominator in 1996 and it took until 2018 until I decided to dip my toe into the ADV bike waters again, this time with a BMW F800GSA. I loved the look of this bike even though it was pretty underpowered and very heavy..,...but it looked good....which makes it ok, right?

But it whet my appetite for the whole ADV bike thing. So I sold it at the start of 2020....then Covid hit and put the brakes on everything. Well, every shitty situation must have a silver (or stainless steel) lining as at the end of 2020 I found the most awesome ADV bike. The previous owner had spared no expense on it and with only 9000 kilometres on the odometer, it proved to be a steal! Yep, the mighty Africa Twin Adventure Sports has taken me to a lot of amazing places.

However, as the saying goes - time waits for no man - or bike in this case because that is what we are talking about here. ADV bikes are evolving at a rapid rate. Where just 4 years ago I thought minimal electronics was the way to go I have come to realise that the modern electronics - in particular the off road ABS braking - is light years better than it was on my 2015 BMW F800GSA. The latest ADV bikes have not only the latest electronic aids but they also retain those mode settings when you turn the bike off, then back on again! Who would have thought that leaving the settings the way you wanted them when you started up again would take the manufacturers sooo many years to grasp.

So, while I absolutely LOVE my Africa Twin it is time to let someone else enjoy the ride. She will be going to a new home on the 3rd of February where a new owner will get to take her exploring. I am a little sad. As I said she is the best bike I have ever owned. Add to this that I have never had so many non motorcyclists come up to me and say "that is one good looking bike"! Even my own son isn't talking to me about bikes because I am selling her...... 😕

So, what do you replace the (almost) perfect bike with I hear you ask? Breaking my own personal rule to live by I am not only going with a "first model" but even worse, after ~35 years of happily sledging the brand I present my new bike......

Why? 

Well, the best electronics package going at the moment for one. Plenty of power but a much lower centre of gravity and a ~30 kilogram (66lb) lighter mass. Nothing to spend on suspension, footpegs or steering dampers. The main down side is that it is pretty bloody ugly! To rectify this fact I ordered a decal set even before I had bought the bike! 

So, as of today she looks like this. 

The UniRacing decal kit transforms it and the Perun Moto rear rack allows me to run my SW Motec top box at a much lighter weight than the SW Motec rack (1.3kg versus 3.3kg just for the rack and mounts). I have fitted some Bark Busters as the standard hand guards are very weak. Some Double Take mirrors are also in the mail. A genuine Ducati bash plate is on back order and Barrett pannier racks will be added once they start producing them for the Desert X but I think it looks a million times better already.

She handles very sweetly on the road, especially with those Pirelli Scorpion STR tyres as they are very road oriented. Once I get the first service done in a couple of weeks, by which time I will have all of the off road gear on it, I will throw some proper off road rubber on and get her dirty. 

This is going to be interesting.

Cheers.

He is NOT happy the Twin is being replaced! 😏

Using Gaia GPS, Planning A Route, Transferring To Garmin Basecamp And Getting It All Onto Your GPS Device

 

After about a decade of using Garmin gps equipment to navigate my way around various mountain biking routes I have to admit, I am honestly (and sadly) not much of an expert on how to do it! I have struggled to create routes, then get the track from Basecamp to my eTrex30 or Edge 1000 and sometimes have the frustration of not having the track show on the device. A lot of this comes down to my basic lack of computer savvy - I am an old school, hands-on kind of bloke and there is no hammer use in computing.....sadly. Sitting at one of these computer things usually bores/frustrates me quickly, I lose interest and yet another fail ensues when I think I can nut-it-out on the fly. 🙄

Thankfully, there are a few people around who ARE interested in taking tracks from their computer and having them seamlessly appear on their gps device and are happy to graciously share their wisdom. I have previously linked to Matt On A Moto here with his take on what software to use. 

I have now found an even better and much more in depth tutorial that has been posted to YouTube by Brent Pearson. You may remember Brent helped me out with planning my Flinder's Ranges rides earlier this year (actually, I just stole the fruits of his labour and used his .gpx tracks to follow during my ride! Thanks Brent!!)

Brent goes into GREAT detail with how to use all of the features of the Gaia GPS app which IS a fantastic planning tool. He then explains how to use Garmin Basecamp to tidy those files up so that your gps will accept the tracks/routes. A note here, Basecamp is 10+ years old and was previously called Mapsource waaay back when I purchased my very first cycling Garmin, the Edge 305. As Garmin hasn't monetised the app, there has been zero development of Basecamp since around 2010 or perhaps even earlier - note to Garmin - a huge own goal there!. It is a great throwback though to remind one of what programs looked like just over a decade ago! Oh, how far we have come!

Anyway, so that I have them all in one place I am going to link each of Brett's four tutorials here for convenience - I hope he doesn't mind and I hope you find these as useful as I have. Again, this is all Brent Pearsons hard work.

Grab a cool drink/coffee and settle in!

Part 1.

Part 2.

Part 3.

Part 4. 

There. Almost everything you need to know about how to create a route/track, get it onto your device and then ride it.

Cheers Brent. 😎

So, 2022...How did That Pan Out ?

 

Here we are, starting into 2023. So how did the taunt in the last line of my review post on 2021 pan out I hear you ask...?

"Roll on 2022......DO YOUR WORST!!"

Well, actually things picked up a bit. We still had rolling Covid restrictions as each State's Premier tried to fcuk with the Federal government's plan to get us clear of the pandemic (it was a political pandemic, not a health one it seems ) but they eventually became less and less restrictive once the population came to realise it was time to move on and stop the politicians playing politics.

I was still picking cherry tomatoes on a friends farm to help them out as their regular supply of pickers were still locked out of the country. It is hot, hard, backbreaking work that is hot. Did I mention how hot it is? Well, standing in a paddock in full sun in a Queensland summer is hot, m'kay?

We must have picked hundreds of thousands of these little buggers. This was just one morning's worth.... and it went on for weeks.....

I attended a rider training day in early January called "How To Keep It Upright" that was sponsored by QLD Police Service and hence only cost participants $50 to attend. Having been subjected to MUCH training for work over the last 20 years or so it was an eye opener at how unreceptive and defensive most of the other participants were. The organisers (who were not police) spent a big portion of the classroom session just trying to put people at their ease.

I definitely took something away from the day but it was more a refresher on things I already practice when on the bike and very much aimed at newer riders. It was certainly no California Superbike School day but I guess that is reflected in the price. Did I mention how hot it was doing the on-bike drills? No, well it was almost dangerously hot just standing around in all of our riding gear (and that is from someone who had been picking tomatoes all day in the summer sun for a few weeks and was used to it!).

Deano and I were planning on riding the Victoria Divide 550 in late February so I was trying to get some cycling fitness happening. This was a struggle as it was proving to be a very wet summer. At least it is warm here in Queensland!

Unfortunately, Deano contracted Covid early in the new year and it did a number on him. The lingering effect on his fitness meant we had to scrub the Vic Divide. Bugger - but I had some leave coming up, so what to do?

What to do? I set the Africa Twin up with new chain and sprockets, plus an automatic chain oiler then had her put through a 24 000km service in early February. All of this was in aid of a cunning plan that a mate at work and I had hatched to get our bikes to Tasmania for some riding, making the most of our bunches of days off work while the flying was still spasmodic. I set off southbound on the 7th of February with no particular route in mind, just a destination of Forbes to visit my Dad.

This ride would turn into a seven month epic!

  I jumped on the ferry in Melbourne and kept the bike in storage in Launceston and then later, Adelaide. I flew in on my days off (one of the few benefits of working for an airline) to "ride like a local".

This allowed me to see much more of Tassie than the average motorcycle tourist who maybe spends a week or ten days circumnavigating the island state. 

It.Was.Awesome!

My whole "Not A Midlife Crisis" trip, which includes Ride With GPS route maps, can be found at this link - 

Start here ......

...and just keep clicking "newer post" at the bottom left of each post. It is quite an extensive series of posts covering 20 000 kilometres of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia rides.

As a result of all of this travelling to ride the Africa Twin my cycling was very much neglected. Combined with plenty of Tassie pub food, washed down with some fine beers, my fitness declined at about the same rate as my girth expanded. I was probably the most unfit I have been in 15 years and definitely the heaviest I have ever been. My Strava stats for the year back up my lack of exercise with only a lowly 2386 kilometres for the year. Less than a third of my normal output.

I did start pedalling much more vigourously from September onward as the motorcycle was finally home and Deano and I were going to have another try at the Victoria Divide in December. This would make the stats for the year look better than they actually were.

In May I rolled up my sleeve - quite literally - and did something I have been meaning to do for years. Giving blood is pretty simple and as much as I hate needles, I am thankful to be a very healthy person so the slight discomfort is easily bearable for this worthy cause. I even got a sausage roll and a coffee for my efforts!

I got a bit of a surprise mid year when out of the blue my daughter booked herself in to her Motorcycle Learners licence course! While I have always had a passion for motorcycles I deliberately steered the kids away from them while they were growing up. Sure, we did TONS of mountainbiking together and I did have an R1 in the shed but I barely rode that bike until they were in their late teens. I had basically left it up to them when they were old enough to make their own decision.....so she did and acquired herself a mighty CB125e (a great choice to learn the basics) and began to gain some skill and confidence.

It wasn't long at all (about 8 weeks) before she was dragging me along to check out a very low kilometre Kawasaki Z400 for her. It was immaculate and the price was right so now she had two bikes! 

Around this time I thought it might be prudent to grab another dirt bike for my son as he has shot right up and is far too big for the little TTR230. A very low kilometre SWM300R came up for sale and basically being a ~2012 Husky 300 design, thought it would be perfect for the price. So, now that we had two dirt bikes the kids were out at Willowbank MX park having a ball! (I may have snuck in a ride or two as well 😇)

Not surprisingly, Will was soon booked in for his motorcycle Learners course. Passing it with no problems, I had a slightly proud Dad moment when I took both my kids on a road ride! 😎

September saw a new mountain bike enter the fold and an old faithful move on to a new owner. I had the opportunity to purchase a well maintained Santa Cruz Tallboy at well under half retail price so I grabbed it. It is very different to my Cannondale Habit and might take a bit of getting used to.

Unfortunately, the Habit was moved on. I loved that bike and after six years and 6000 kilmotres off road it was hard parting ways.

Getting into the theme of trying new things, an Aprilia test ride day for their new Tuareg came up and I thought why not go for a look? My impressions were posted here but the day got me thinking.

Watching a few Tuareg reviews on YouTube, I came across reviews for the new Ducati desert X. This was to be Ducati's first proper foray into the adventure bike scene. I must say, it looked pretty bloody ugly but going by the positive reviews it was getting, I thought I might hunt one out for a test ride anyway. 

That test ride got me thinking....... and this thought process led me to considering thinning out my fleet. The photo below from November proved to be my last ride on my Tuono. I advertised it and a few weeks later it was on it's way to a new owner from New South Wales. No sadness on my part. It had been a fun bike and a good dipping of my toes into Italian bike reliability waters. I hadn't got frostbite or lost a toe....

The above test rides certainly got me thinking about where I want to go with my ADV bike riding. As much as I LOVE my Africa Twin, being the best bike I have ever owned by quite a margin - it did get me thinking about it's weight and how it carried it.

Hmmmmm....🤔

I rounded out 2022 with a couple of mountain bike rides with mates. I managed to catch up for a beer ride with Deano (he got Covid AGAIN so we had to cancel Vic Divide - again😔 but the weather was abominable so he did us a favour😏) where we possibly inappropriately chugged a beer as we watched them load some poor schmuck into an ambulance on our local mtb trails...

Goodbye 2022. 

You weren't bad but you didn't have much competition from 2020 or 2021..... I have a few plans in place for 2023. Lets see what pans out.

Roll on 2023!

Cheers.

Ducati Desert X Test Ride

Not that I am in the market for a new bike.....but lets call it research....and through a bit of boredom, I have watched a couple of ride reviews of the new Ducati Desert X. When I first saw pictures of this thing I thought it had a face only a mother could love. However, after watching these reviews and in fact, after re-watching the MAD TV Aussie review a couple of times as it is sooo in depth, I have come to some sort of "appreciation" for it's look. Some may suggest it is a form of Stockholm Syndrome which may be true but hey, here we are - it isn't that ugly.

In contrast to it's potentially polarising looks, it is getting nothing but praise from ADV test riders world wide. (for an in depth review in Aussie conditions see the YouTube video at the bottom of this post)

So as not to be counted amongst the keyboard warriors assuming it is this or that, I thought it best to judge for myself. I sought out a test ride at Brisbane Motorcycles in Windsor (no affiliation) to see if they had the big white rhino on the floor. Upon arrival I was pleased to see four examples of the Desert X on their showroom floor and on closer inspection I could see tyre wear and dust on one of them. 

A demo! Awesome!

First thing I noted was that the bike is in no way as big as it looks in photos. All of that white acreage makes it look like a big behemoth but in fact it is quite a compact bike. Not as compact as the Aprilia Tuareg mind but nowhere near an Africa Twin or GS1250. The extremely bland styling gave me the willies initially when I first saw pictures of this bike but now I see it as a great opportunity to peel that stupid red stripe off and customise the hell out of the graphics. Ducati left us a clean canvas if you will.

Anyway, I didn't beat around the bush and asked straight up if I could test ride it. Being an "older gent" these days has it's advantages as there was no stuffing around, it was just a case of "where's you licence?" and "sign here" then I was off on a solo test ride!

While I waited at the first set of lights I messed around with the ride mode and changed it from Enduro to Rally, Very easy considering I had 30 seconds experience with the bike!

The immediate thing I noticed with the Desert X was how low it carried it's weight. Just like the Tuareg last week, the Desert X felt light and nimble (it did only have about 4 litres of fuel in the tank so that may help). Well, maybe not as nimble but better than my AT. Standing up I had a slight hunch to the bars but I noted that they were rolled back. If I rolled them forward 20 degrees there would be no need for bar risers.

The dash is quite easy to read, even in the bright, summery morning sunshine today. Maybe not quite as easy as the new Africa Twin though but close enough for my old eyes. The dash was pleasingly uncluttered too.

I flicked around some of inner north Brisbane's hilly residential streets and found the bike very easy to ride with planty of power on tap, though a smidge doughy off the bottom of the rev range. Nothing I have ridden yet in the ADV segment seems to pull from low down like the Africa Twin does (mind you, there are plenty of bikes I haven't ridden yet). The exhaust note is very much a strangled XR200-Honda-with-a-standard-pipe-fart-in-a-jar type noise, not any kind of a roar you might expect from a Ducati L twin. It does concern me as to what it might cost to extract some decent exhaust notes from the bike with Ducati being so proprietary with it's electronics. I hear the Termignoni and it's supporting ECU flash is about $2k US!

But, and this is a big but, the price of the bike here in Australia is $24 700 ride away. That compares to about the $20K that they are selling for in the US. So, with the exchange rate where it is, it would seem that we are getting a very sharply priced ADV bike here. 

Perhaps it is because Ducati are trying to lure a new cohort of owners who have never been Ducatisti before? That price range is right in Africa Twin grounds and an AT will be around 4-6 months away from placing your deposit where as the Desert X is here, in stock now. By all accounts the Desert X is a better bike both on and off road. 

The fly in the custard though is the lack of perceived owner serviceability with the Desert X. The owners manual tells you to take it to your dealer for everything from an air filter change to a drive chain adjustment to a rear wheel removal. Now that is just not cricket for most ADV riders and simply will not fly here in Australia!

I would imagine a whole aftermarket segment will spring up around this bike because when a manufacturer tries to lock people out of the chain, well...people find a way around that lockout. Especially once the 24 month warranty period is over and you are on your own as an owner.

So, what do I think? Who cares I hear you ask!

 

This bike has a LOT of potential as for the money you get the best electronic package on an ADV bike as of 2022. You get great suspension straight up. You get a strong, proven engine (Multistrada V2 heritage). You get Brembo brakes. You get a steering damper as standard. You get usable foot pegs that don't need changing out. You get a height adjustable rear brake lever. You get 21 litres of fuel with a slick 8 litre auxiliary tank (yes, at a price). You get cruise control.

These are all things (well, apart from the engine) that you need to ADD to most other ADV bikes to make them work properly in the dirt.

The bike really only needs crash bars, a bash plate and perhaps heated grips before you leave the showroom and these will set you back $1700ish AU. Yes, I have checked.....

On my way home I also stopped in at Motorcycles R Us (again, no affiliation) in Springwood as they are my "local"  Ducati dealer. They would be happy to take my Tuono back as a trade on a Desert X....as would Brisbane Motorcycles.

Hmmmm. There are some pretty saucy decal kits out there.

What to do......

Cheers. 

 

Aprillia Tuareg 660 Test Ride

 

I recently had an advert pop up on the Facebook feed for an 'event" that was happening near me. Normally I just ignore these annoying ads but this one caught my eye. It was for the new Aprillia Tuareg AND it was for the opportunity to test ride in in my own backyard, namely the Mt Glorious area.

There was a small fee of $39AU attached for the privilege but to sweeten the deal one would recieve an official Aprilia hat and t-shirt. 

Free merch!! Or free test ride with cheap mech!!

Either way, it looked like a great opportunity to do more than the "lap around the block from the dealer's yard" that normally constitutes a test ride so I was IN.

The down side was that the test ride day was on a Saturday. The problem with that I hear you ask? Well, the Mt Glorious road is THE road that riders use that is oh so close to Brisbane and I avoid it like the plague on weekends as it is populated with too may dangerous wanna-bees and plenty of down right incompetent newbies plying the multitude of tight corners on this narrow strip of bitumen. Yep, dumb shit like this happens every day and quite often into the oncoming lane.....

Anyway, back to the test ride..... I left home at 9am on a soon-to-be-quite-hot Saturday morning and got across town to the start of the Mt Nebo/Glorious climb without issue. I had a good ride up the hill without anyone really getting in the way. (hey, I'm not fast on a knobbie shod Africa Twin but it is surprising how many bikes get rounded up on a ride) 

Arriving at the Mt Glorious cafe' I wheeled around to park up and it was busy! Aprillia had a big section of parking roped off for their demo bikes so I guess that compressed everyone into a smaller space making it look even busier. That is my Twin down the far left end.

I wandered down to the organisers and filled in the usual paperwork, collected my hat and shirt then grabbing a coffee sat down to enjoy the morning. I was there early so we had to wait a bit until everyone arrived and the 11am timeslot kicked in. 

Lots of nice backsides to look at.....

This was to be my steed for the morning. Number 2 out of 12. The yellow actually looked pretty good in the flesh and surprisingly my normal "go to" of red, white and blue looked a bit plain and ordinary in the flesh. Black and red was..well...black and dusty and red.

One of the ride leaders looked familiar but I couldn't place him. That was until the introductions started and it turned out to be none other than I.O.M. TT winner Cam Donald! Steve and I had met Cam waaaaay back in 2003 during a tyre buying stop in Melbourne during our Tassie trip that year and as a young up and coming Aussie racer he had impressed us with his down to earth, genuine manner. Fast forward 19 years and it was the same easy going, genuine bloke who gave us a run down on what the ride would involve and how to set up the rider modes on our bikes. 

I was impressed on two fronts here. First up was that we were going to get a taste of dirt by climbing The Goat Track (not as rough as it sounds but gravel none the less) from the Samford Valley. Second was how easy the rider aids were to set on the Tuareg. I had to read my Africa Twin manual a couple of times then fiddle with the switches to get the Honda sorted. Score for the Aprillia!

Saddling up I instantly noted how soft the suspension was and how low the seat height was. I could easily hold the bike up, almost flat footed, unlike my Twin. The clutch and brake levers were a bit goofy for my hands (rolled up too high) and would be the first thing I moved, rolling them forward for comfort.

Rolling off it was quickly apparent how low the centre of gravity was on this bike. Having just ridden the Twin up here I had a direct comparison of how nimble and light the Tuareg felt. It was very confidence inspiring.  All the bikes were shod with Continental TKC80 tyres. I have never used these before but from all of the good things I have read about them I was confident to throw the bike into corners on them (plus, hey, it wasn't my bike, right?!). They didn't disappoint but what did was being stuck behind some really slow riders. I couldn't get too sporty as I kept running up the back of the guy in front every corner we rolled into.

Stopping at the beginning of The Goat Track, Cam gave us a demo of the Tuareg's ABS and traction control systems by blasting from the sealed surface to the loose gravel while braking hard or accelerating hard. The bike remained very composed under the very skilful control of Cam but it was obvious that the latest generation ABS is excellent on the dirt and doesn't need disabling like older generation systems (my 2018 AT).

We saddled up again to try the bikes on the 3.1km gravel climb and this time I made sure I was the first bike behind Cameron. Partly to avoid the dust (I have choked on plenty of dust on this climb on my mountainbike) and partly so I wouldn't be stuck behind some super slow rider as many on this test ride were not dirt riders. 

Right away I switched the traction control down to Level 1, stood on the pegs and roosted around each corner, trusting the TKC 80s to do their thing. The Tuareg was instantly comfortable in the standing position as standard. I didn't feel the need for bar risers at all (2" risers on my Twin to feel comfortable).

The power output is far less than the Twin at low revs but once I got the engine spinning up around 4-5000rpm the bike took off, sounding great through the standard pipe. I think I would miss that low down torque of the bigger AT, especially loaded up on a long trip but then again, I guess one could get used to it. Like riding a Supersport 600 after a Litre sportsbike.

Where the Tuareg would really shine is in the snottier, tighter tracks that I will simply NOT take my Africa Twin. The Twin is fine for fast dirt road cruising or carefully picking your way along rougher dirt roads but I feel the Tuareg would be awesome in the snotty stuff with the way it carries itself. Having the fuel tank down low in the frame gets that C of G low. It would make the bike much easier to pick up after a spill and combined with the low seat height would inspire more adventurous exploration (IMHO-YMMV).

Thanks to Aprilia Australia for this opportunity to test ride the Tuareg in the real world. This just doesn't normally happen for us mere mortals, it usually being the realm of journos only. As an aside, these bikes were the same bikes the journos rode during the Australian launch of the Tuareg. Cam was along on that launch and said the bikes copped an absolute thrashing through the sand of Hattah National Park (where the Hattah desert race is held here in Oz) and stood up to the test with flying colours. He said he wouldn't have wanted to take any ADV bike other that the Tuareg or the T700 through there to give you some context of the difficulty of the riding and the capability of the bikes.

I have attached the MAD YouTube video review of that launch for your viewing pleasure.

So, is there a Tuareg in my future? 

Like any of the ADV bikes, there is compromise to be made between how much on road versus off road ability you want. A Tuareg would lure me into tougher off road riding for sure as I would be more confident of being able to handle it (and pick it up!) BUT I do ride solo quite a bit and being solo in riskier riding situations may not be the smartest option. I like the Africa Twin's mile munching and gear carrying ability a bit too much at the moment, plus I want to see how the Tuareg's reliability and dealer support network interact here in Australia. Aprilia dealers sure aren't on every corner....🤔

Cheers and thanks for indulging me.

Edit: this just came out -

https://www.bikesales.com.au/editorial/details/aprilia-tuareg-660-2022-bikesales-bike-of-the-year-winner-138518/?fbclid=IwAR3a-rV8frRpsPfv7JKMkmcSJlioBf8JYXPDv8q9DHwfOCiZYQAb8gt03qs

Post Script  - To highlight my concerns about riders on this road I followed a couple of riders down the hill. It took me several kilometres to get past the first bloke as I didn't want to be silly but he wouldn't make any room to let me past.

The second rider (on a SV650) was the same but much slower and again, I was stuck for several kilometres until we came to this flick left, then hard right, divided corner. Old mate was slow to flick left, then obviously got target fixation and very slowly rode onto the incorrect side of the road and was trapped on the oncoming traffic side of the barrier, all on a tight 30km/h posted corner! 🫣

VERY LUCKILY for him, there was nothing coming and all I could do was shake my head as I slowly rolled up the left side of him (I was on the correct side of the road).

He was going soooo slowly when he went onto the wrong side of the road that any amount of left steering input/left lean would have seen him back on the correct side of the road.

This was a massive reminder for me to STAY OFF MT GLORIOUS on weekends.