Border Ranges Ride

 So with the Ducati finally all set up (well, pretty much) with accessories and having had it’s first service I took the opportunity to get her out on a multi surface spin. I planned a quick 300 odd kilometre loop through the border ranges on Gaia GPS, despite rain being predicted for the afternoon.

I wanted to be able to explore any other roads while down there, on a whim, so I topped up with fuel at Tamborine. Probably not strictly necessary but better to be safe, eh?

Out through Beaudesert and on to Rathdowny for a coffee. Another cracking morning in south east Queensland!

I took the Lions Road south out of Rathdowny. Clearly they have had plenty of rain in this part of the world as it was bright green grass everywhere I looked. Cloud wrapped over some of the hills that flanked the road making for spectacular scenery.

Some sections were more spectacular than others.

Climbing up to the border crossing I was soon in the bottom of the cloud and getting covered in dewy, misty precipitation. The road gets very twisty here and I was interested to see how the Pirelli Scorpions would feel in the wet. Now, while it wasn’t driving rain, the road was thoroughly wet and I am pleased to say the tyres gripped exceptionally well. I pushed it a bit hard just to be sure and apart from some rear abs activation while braking hard into some corners they were absolutely rock solid.

I turned up Simes road at Grady’s Creek to begin the climb to Tweed Range road but after a few kilometres it became obvious that it was going to be very wet up there. Having a brand new bike that was shod with road oriented rubber, it wasn’t a situation that I wanted to be in. With the escarpment located inside a cloud this morning there would be absolutely no view and I was intending to ride up there as much for the view as for the ride.

So, I backtracked and got onto Forest Road, then Lynch’s Creek road to head back out to the Summerland Way at Wiangaree and on to Kyogle. The rain soon stopped and the road dried up as I descended so I was happy with my choice.

I rode straight through Kyogle and out the Uki road. The road was dry and I enjoyed hooking through the traffic free twisties. I was impressed with how well my Africa Twin handled on the winding roads but this Ducati is next level on the black stuff. The highly muffled exhaust note belies how wickedly fast the engine pushes you from bend to bend!

I turned left into Link road at Wadeville to enjoy some quiet dirt across to Tweed Range road. Yep, I wasn’t giving up on the dream of taking in that view just yet!

The road was damp here but that just made for great traction. In fact, these tyres were proving to be pretty damn good. That was until I started hitting patches of wet clay. They weren’t super-slimy but I could feel the bike moving around a bit now. Stopping at the location below for a “comfort stop” a car coming the other way wound it’s window down and said in a slightly pissed off tone “the roads closed up there”. Hmmm, interesting. 🤔 So I wouldn’t have got through from the other end and I won’t go much further from here anyway. So, I turned around and enjoyed the ride down the hill to the Uki road again. This is why I wanted a full tank of fuel because you never know where you might have to go.

I wasn’t on the black stuff for long though as I soon turned off at Mt Burrell onto Cadel road. This took me through Mebbin National Park which is on the western side of Mt Warning. I have done some mountain bike races here in the past and I did feel some familiarity with bits of the forest. Of course, on the mtb you can duck past the gates that block many an interesting fire trail. Today I contented myself with cruising through and getting to know my bike/tyre combination with nary a soul to disturb me.

Cutters Campground was very familiar. Many a muddy mtb race was started from this point!🙄

I cruised into Tyalgum for lunch at the General store - even though I am only a lowly captain 😜.

They do great fresh food here and I enjoyed a simple, fresh sandwich and an iced coffee milk while swinging my legs like an 8 year old.

Things went a bit south from here as I noticed a number of missed calls from the neighbours who live either side of Dad, my wife and my little bro. 

Shit.

This can’t be good.

Returning the first neighbours call I found that Dad had had a little lie down on the carpet - for about 30 hours. Luckily we (Dad) have good neighbours who regularly check on each other. They called the ambulance and he was on his way to hospital at that very moment. Seems I had only missed those calls by about 5 minutes or so. 

I think I need a Cardo in both helmets.🤔

So, here I was, only 100ish kilometres from home but about 1000 bends in between. I jumped on the bike and hooked it for home. Once I got onto the Advancetown road things slowed up a bit as it had rained and the road was thoroughly wet. Riding into Nerang I began to become concerned as lightning bolts began to rain down. Needing fuel I ducked into the 7-11 at Nerang to top up and wait the storm out.

This is what the radar looked like….

I had several chats with bike owners (who were in their cars) about the weather with one guy showing me a photo a friend had just sent him from Beaudesert showing a massive cell that was green looking!

 Shit!

Checking the radar again and events were evolving rapidly! 45 minutes had elapsed and checking the radar it looked even worse! (Yes, I was under that big red bit under “Nerang”)

I was stuck at the servo until the weather cleared but the silver lining here was I got to make a stack of phone calls to Steve, my wife, the neighbours to generally sort some shit out. 

I eventually decided “fcuk it” and rode out into the weather. I got absolutely soaked by a massive downpour and can safely say that the Pirelli Scorpion tyres on the Duke can walk on water!

313km for the day through some magic countryside proved that this bike was the right choice. I am trying not to be a “fan boy” but can I just say that I am quietly impressed. 😎

Thankfully, I have an awesome brother who also cares about our parents too and he dropped everything to head straight out to see Dad. I organised to drive the 1000km a few days later with Lucy and we are spending some important time with Dad. He isn’t out of the woods yet and at 82 and some change he might never be but at least we are here for him. 🤗

Despite planning with Gaia GPS maps I find Ride With GPS the perfect interactive mapping tool to post to the blog.

Cheers.

I needed a beer after today…….

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.