I have been lucky enough to be doing some decent kilometres on the Ducati of late. Some of that was because I located it in Sydney at Steve’s place so I had transport to get out to Orange to visit Dad and some is because I just love riding it. 😁
What this means is that I have arrived at the half way point to the 15 000km service. Talking “oils” usually opens a can of worms on the various forums around the net but in my opinion going 14 000km (it got a change at the first service 1000km mark) on just three litres of the slippery stuff isn’t that conducive to engine longevity.
Ducati specify Shell Advance as the only oil to use. Just like KTM specify “only” using Motorex to ensure warranty compliance. Well, a mate in the industry enlightened me to the reality of this prescribed oil brand use. Apparently Motorex give a cash kick back to KTM dealers if they sell a certain amount of Motorex. I don’t know about the Ducati/Shell tie up but I would bet all of my biscuits that it is the same kickback deal.
So, my mate, who I trust very much, is a Maxima agent (yes, I see the potential conflict here but I trust him) and as such I can access Maxima fully synthetic for a very attractive price. Obviously with this offer on the table I went ahead with a bottle of Maxima’s finest and a genuine Ducati oil filter. I read somewhere that the genuine filter has a pressure switch in it (ala a thermostat I guess) while the engine warms up, hence the genuine purchase there.
Lucy gave me a hand with the change as I had given her a hand changing the oil and filter on her bike last week (yes, she is on Maxima 10W50 as well now). The little Z400 only holds 2 litres so we will change hers every 5000km in future.
I was a bit surprised at how black the Shell Advnce oil was after just 7000km. I would be horrified to run it to the 15 000km mark! I was also amazed at the torque on the sump plug. Admittedly, Ducati use some sort of sealant on the plug but I reckon it was a 40+nM undo. I didn’t have their sealant when reinstalling so went with some Permatex Blue and used the “elbow feel” 20nM “click” when tensioning it up.😉
She comes with a magnetic sump plug, which I think every bike should come with. Like, how much could it cost? Anyway, It looked pretty clean with just some very very fine swarf on it.
So, it was a very straight forward job and the apprentice Ranga did the refilling honours for me. I am really enjoying showing her how to do these jobs as she is very keen to learn and as an electrical engineering student she is showing me a thing or two with her knowledge. Yes, proud Dad moment here.🤗
So, I am done until the 15 000km service, which I will let Ducati complete so that my warranty remains unblemished. I did stress a bit about mixing the oils put through the engine during it’s lifetime but surely getting fresh fully synthetic oil every 7500km has to be better than letting the Shell stuff run for a full 15000km? I guess time will tell.
Next job will be fitting the Unifilter when I have some spare time.
Last week I was perusing the Ducati Desert X Owners Australia FB page and came across a post from a bloke in Sydney who was wanting Steg Pegz for his DX. He had been in touch with Steve, the owner of Steg Pegz to tee up a bike for a measure up and fitting. I had a couple of days free so volunteered to ride the 150-odd kilometres up to the Sunshine Coast to be there at 0730 and have my bike measured.
Steve thought it might take all day so I organised to catch up with a mate who lives up this way for a coffee at 10am. I was surprised then when Steve rang at 0945 to say the bike was done!
After a leisurely coffee with Deano I Ubered it back to Steve’s workshop where my bike was waiting. It hadn’t taken long to make the brackets up as they are very similar to the Africa Twin’s brackets.
I think they look pretty good and blend in with the overall appearance of the bike.
I guess I could always paint the brackets black if they start to hurt my eyes.
The first set of Steg Pegz for a Desert X in the world. Trail blazing! 😎
So here I was, in the middle of the Sunshine Coast with my bike done and a cracking, clear afternoon at my disposal. What to do?
Best I head out west and try these Pegz out on some dirt! I have never ridden a bike with Steg Pegz but those who do, swear by them. Heading west to Yandina I stood up and was instantly a believer! The Pegz support the back of your boot, behind your calf so you go from 4 points of contact on the bike to 6. This not only feels far more stable but it takes all the load off of your hands and arms, especially on uphill sections.
I decided to climb the range up to Mapleton, then head out to Kenilworth and Jimna, via Conondale Forest. It had rained this morning so the roads were damp, yet grippy. Perfect conditions for the Pirelli Scorpion STRs that come standard on the DX.
I stopped briefly at the Ghurulla (pronounced Cheerulla) trail bike area for a look. I hadn’t been here since about 2006 on my XR400R and was excited to be reminded of it’s 18km one way loopy goodness. I must bring Will and his SWM out here.
I continued through Kenilworth for a splash of fuel then headed off for the 40-odd kilometres along Sunday Creek Road. My last visit here was in 2013 on one of my first bikepacking rides.
Sunday Creek road is a great ride through beautiful lush bush land but it does get quite rocky in the centre of the forest. This looks to be man laid as the road would be red clay otherwise and probably slippery as hell because it is often wet.
I had a couple of slips in clay puddles but just let the bike track, then corrected when I came out the other side.
😳
These STR tyres aren’t so good in the slippery stuff.
I stood up for most of the dirt sections of the ride and must say I love the Steg Pegz. I will be grabbing a pair for the SWM now as well.
After a spirited ride up over Mt Mee, I bashed my way through afternoon peak hour traffic but I had had a great day out on the bike. 425km was a pretty decent effort and I was home before dark. (I hate these short winter days)
The hashed section depicts dirt.
For my trouble (getting on the road at 5am) I was given the gift of these Pegz and the dubious honour of being the first owner in the world with a set! 😎
Thanks to Steve of Steg Pegz for hooking me up. It is an amazing business he has built, operating out of a small unit in an industrial complex. You would never suspect this is where the worldwide supply of Steg Pegz comes from!
I look forward to putting them to good use with some leave I have coming up in August.
Note - This post is a bit personal and mainly for Steve and I. It has been hard to write and I am still at odds with myself about what or why to post.
My Dad, Robert George Hoswell, passed away on the 19th of April 2023.
Steve and I were able to spend quite a bit of time with him by his bedside over the last two months. For this I am eternally grateful to work for giving me all the time off that I needed and to my family for doing the same as well as being there for me.
Orange, NSW with his father, Gordon and mother, Blanch ~1942
Dad was born in 1940 and grew up in a small country town in central New South Wales. He left school at 14 years of age, as many did in the day, and worked hard all of his life. As a mechanic he WAS the guy they got the idea from for the shirt that says “ I fix stuff and I know things”. He was an old school mechanic who could look at a problem and come up with a fix to get the show on the road, working with almost nothing. We had a vague awareness but the stories that have come out about Dad helping people out who were in a pickle, back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, have been heart warming and sometimes eye opening! They certainly make us feel proud.
Marrying Mum, Forbes NSW, 1969.
Dad loved his fishing, shooting and camping which he did much of before marriage and kids slowly put a stop to that.
Mum and Dad - sometime in the '80s.
Myself, Steve and Dad ~ 1980
Dad fostered my interest in flying by supporting me into radio control model flying when I was a teenager. He built a model, paid $699 in 1983 dollars for a radio control set!! and drove me to flying lessons 40 kilometres from home. After I learned to fly Dad joined me in learning to fly himself. Not a bad effort at all in his mid forties. He went on to build and fly many more model aircraft over the years.
Dad with his much loved Sig “Kadet” in our sheep paddock airfield ~ 1985.
My interest in aviation continued as I went on to learn to fly gliders, then powered aircraft and while Dad wasn’t directly involved in that, he was the bedrock that provided the family with a solid foundation that saw we never wanted for anything.
Once I moved to Western Australia for work I bought my first motorcycle. Dad (and Mum) hated bikes but respected my choice (I think)(and later Steve’s) and helped us with our bikes whenever we asked, no questions asked.
Myself, Mum and Dad - January 1991 with that first bike..
Dad and I, March 1992. Bike number 2 about to head back to Western Australia.
I can still remember vividly Dad teaching me to use a dial gauge to set the points on my T250 post classic racer. He also spent hours with me trying to fit badly aligned header pipes to my ZZR600, which also sticks vividly in my memory. Then there was the time he used the crowbar to straighten the rear sub frame on Steve's CBR600 after he crashed it at a track day at Eastern Creek. No, Dad might not have liked bikes but he always helped us, no questions asked. 😞
During his retirement Dad turned his hand to restoring old bicycles and motors that he had been holding on to for decades. Of course, they were amazing because he knew those old motors inside and out.
But the thing he loved most during retirement were his grandchildren. Lucy, Will, Georgia and Olivia were the light of his life and I am so glad he got to spend so much time with them, despite the vast distance that separated us.
Dad and Lucy in 2004.
Dad, Lucy and Will ~ 2005
Dad with Will ~ 2006
Dad and Lucy ~ 2012.
Dad and Will ~ 2015
Olivia, Dad and Georgia in 2021.
Dad and Will 2021.
Will, Dad and I, July 2022.
Dad (and of course Mum) were great role models for both Steve and I. They worked hard, they lived their lives with discipline, honesty and integrity, traits that I think (and hope) has been ingrained in both of us.
Over the last few months I find myself going to pick up the phone to call him to see how he is, then remembering.....
A mate (Shane) and I managed to get away recently for a few days mountainbiking in Derby, Tasmania. This trip had been booked for a while so I left Steve to look in on Dad, shot home to Brisbane, packed up my bike and gear then jetted down to Launceston. It was nice to finally kick back on a plane knowing that we were going somewhere fun.
A friend of Shane's has a Prado stationed in Launny which he kindly let us borrow to get our bikes and gear the short distance across to Derby.
Only, we couldn't get accommodation in Derby for that first night. So we pulled up just short and stayed in the Lords Hotel in Scottsdale. It was a pretty clean little pub and made a great spot to stay. The next morning was a cracking, crisp, clear stunner.
Derby to the right.
Rolling into Derby literally the first person we saw was an old friend of Shane's - Glen Jacobs! Glen is from Cairns in Queensland but is the man behind World Trail. Actually, he is World Trail! World Trail builtDerby's trails and put Derby on the world MTB map. After chatting for a bit he invited us to come ride with his crew this afternoon. Cool!
We quickly booked a shuttle for tomorrow morning to take us to the Top 13 of the Bay Of Fires trail as it had been highly recommended by many people, then we headed down to the trail head to put our bikes back together.
We decided to pedal ourselves up the hill for the first run. It was still a cracking day!
Not much further up the hill we came to the realisation that our fitness wasn't up to the job and very fortuitously we happened upon a shuttle van stopped on the side of the road. Shane rode up to the driver to say g'day and ask how the shuttles work when the driver said "g'day Shane!" He was an old mate that Shane used to race in BMX as a kid! Needless to say we spent the rest of our stay in Derby shuttling up the hill with Up Down Around shuttles.
At the end of one of our runs down the hill we passed Jacob's crew going up the hill for their ride. We quickly shuttled back up the hill and managed to tag on just as they were pedalling off into the bush. The plan was Black Stump/Dambusters/Krushka's/Trouty trails in a big loop back to Derby township. Yikes!
Dambusters fireroad.
Rest stop with Glen and Shane at the Trouty entrance.
Trouty isn't a trail that I would choose to ride for myself. It is very steep and extremely rocky in places - well above my skill level but I am glad I did it as the views across Derby were pretty cool. I could always walk down the stupidly steep, gnarly bits too.
Why is the trail called Trouty I hear you ask? Well, there is a huge split rock granite boulder that looks like the head of a trout coming out of the hillside. It has been painted up accordingly
Trouty is one of the trails that get raced during the Derby round of the Enduro World Series. Here is what it looks like from the seat of a bike whose pilot can actually ride a bit....(I love how he was coaching himself toward the bottom)
I was happy just to get down in one piece.
Happy to get back to the cottage that would be home base for the next few days and to stoke the fire up.
We were located right across the paddock from the pub!
2023 Derby was a much more mature place than 2017 Derby. There were numerous eateries to keep us fuelled up as well as numerous bike shops if we needed any repairs. Of course, Shane knew the owners of the Derby Bike Shop so we were sorted if we had any issues. We picked up a coffee each morning and had lunch at Two Doors Down cafe' each day. The food was good which kept us coming back.
Two Doors Down.
Return To Sender trail.
Return To Sender. (sorry about the poor quality - it is a screen grab from a slo mo video)
Mark from Up Down Around shuttles.
Kingswall Trail with Shane and Damo from Derby Bike Shop.
Not all the trails are granite boulders. Most are actually wide, smooth and FAST! Shane can really ride having raced nation level BMX as a kid and proper downhill as a young adult.
Air Ya Goin trail is steep, smooth and FAST! Shane hit the jumps and drops and was having a ball. Needless to say we did this trail a heap of times.
Launch.
Mid flight.
Touching down.
I mentioned above that we organised a shuttle for the Top 13 trail on our second day. We did this with Vertigo shuttles and they were pretty regimented and seemed nowhere near as accommodating as UDA. (didn't know about the awesome UDA shuttles at that stage🙄)
It is quite a long shuttle drive up to the trail head where you can head west on the iconic Blue Tier trail or east on the Bay of Fires trail. We had been advised by multiple people to not bother with Blue Tier as it is very pedally these days and that we MUST do Top 13.
Righto - who were we to argue?
Smiles galore. Top 13 for the win!
The deal here was that we needed to cover the first 13 kilometres (8miles) in one hour to meet the shuttle to then be shuttled back up to do the last 7 kilometres of the Top 13 (got that?!😁) Not knowing how long it would take or how difficult the trail would be we all took off at race pace! I didn't stop to take a single photo despite the amazing views just before we dropped into the forest. Luckily Shane stopped for one!
Looking toward the east coast.
My only stop, 2km in, was for "comfort". Riders were piling up, catching their breath.
So bumpy that my watched vibrated through my arm but sooo much fun!
Top 13 is a MUST DO.
Back in Derby we grabbed some lunch at Two Doors Down cafe' (again) before normal programming was resumed.
Shuttle up the hill, blast down, then repeat.
Kingswall trail.
Some post ride beers were enjoyed at The Dorset Hotel.
As you can see Derby is a happening place....😄
Little Rivers 23 Stitches Pale Ale on tap. Mmmmmm......😋
Our final day took in a couple of trails we hadn't ridden yet. This one was named because the build crew reported back that the new trail they were building was rock and rocks and rocks and rocks...... Roxanne was born!
Blue Derby really is THE place to mountainbike in Australia. It has a huge network of trails and those trails suit a wide variety of rider skills.
Some are very family friendly while others will test the best riders in the world - hence Derby's inclusion on the Enduro World Championship calendar again this year. In fact, we were there just two weeks before the Derby round so the trails were in tip-top condition for our visit.
Looking over a beer to the Dorset hotel.
It also has a wider variety of dining options with all that we sampled being excellent. The Hub and The Dorset Hotel being our two favourites.
Our air bnb, Riders Hut, proved to be a great place to stay. It was a bit of a pedal up the hill 😳 but well worth it. It was extremely well presented with new linen in the bedrooms, new cutlery in the kitchen, a fireplace with plenty of firewood and instant hot water in the showers (important for soft QLDers in a cold climate 😄)
We didn't do a massive amount of riding distance wise - only 138km over 5 days - but pretty much all of the riding was high quality and intense.
Packed up and heading for home.
How good was it? Well, we are already planning for another visit later this year. 😎
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Aeroplanes, Mountain Bikes and Motorcycles are the toys that make me tick. If you have an interest in any of these things feel free to have a nose around in here. I hope you find something of interest.
