Last weekend was Round 3 of Motostars, held at the picturesque Greer Park go kart track just out of Toowoomba in Qld. The plan always was for me to take the bike for this round, the furthest afield of all the 6 rounds of the championship, but a lot of ducks needed to be in line before that could happen.
Firstly, the overhaul of Rhonnda’s suspension had to happen and, as I have already detailed, these things rarely go as they are planned. For quite a while there it was looking like I would fall at this, the first hurdle. However, my whizz-bang group of mechanics at Oak Flats Motorcycles, came through, albeit at the last minute and the bike arrived back home on the afternoon before I was due to set out. Talk about cutting it fine. No time to check out the suspension to see if it was OK, just time to pack and hit the road on Thursday morning. More about this later.
Another duck that had to be in line was accommodation at the other end. Fortunately, this one was much easier to solve with the excellent Stuart Brown of Elite Motorcycles in Toowoomba offering me the use of “The Caravan of Courage” for the weekend as he and Donna had done last year. He towed the van down to the track, parked it on site, set it up and all I had to do was move in. Talk about service. After the meeting he towed it back home and the job was done.
Finances were another issue (when AREN’T they an issue?). It’s well over 2000kms up and back and fuel is at the expensive end of the cycle at the moment, around $1.50 p/l as luck would have it. Thus taking the bike was also an important consideration. Were it not to be available, the car would be the next choice and, while it does over 30mpg on the highway, it would still be a deal more expensive than taking the bike. As it was my fuel bill for the 2224km round trip was just $166, pretty incredible given the cost per litre and the distance travelled.
The weather always has to be factored in and, given my miserable Day 1 on the trip in 2017, I was anxiously scanning the BOM site for days beforehand hoping to see that the long range forecast was propitious. Thankfully, not only did the forecast look good but it also proved to be so, so that duck fell into line as well.
Amazingly, all the ducks DID end up being in line and I set out, as stated, on Thursday morning. The plan was to make it to Tamworth on Day 1, stay at a friend’s place and do the rest of the trip on the Friday. Having to leave on Thursday meant that I would miss the Practice and Coaching day on Friday, but, since Wednesday was my good wife’s birthday, there was no way I would be travelling THAT day! 🙂
The first thing that I found out, as soon as I hit the road, was that my bike actually has a rear suspension. I am now convinced that the shock absorber was not working at all before I put it in to Gary’s for the service. Yes, the bumps were still there (obviously) and. yes, you could still feel them, but the bike now glides over the bumps and moves on rather than jarring me out of the seat at the slightest ripple in the bitumen. What a relief! Given that I was to be traversing one of the roughest highways in NSW in the next week this was a wonderful revelation.
So I was able to attack the Putty with confidence rather than a sense of dread. After a quick stop at Grey Gum (I was the only bike there – Nigellated again), I headed off in anticipation of the Ten Mile. Absolutely traffic-free from one end to the other, so attack it I did.
Even with dud rear suspension the bike handled reasonably well but having a working rear shock made the exercise even better. No more chicken strips for me!
At a rest stop at Aberdeen, however, I made a bleak discovery. The tabs that I had fitted to my big top box to mate it to the Givi rack were bending alarmingly. I had sort of suspected that they may not be up to the task and I was right. Not having had time to test them out beforehand meant that I got on the road without proving them, bad move. It was clear that I could go on and keep bending them back into line but that would only mean that they would soon break, so my answer was to press on and hope that inspiration would strike me on the road.
At Guyra it occurred to me that, as long as the tabs were secured they could bend as often as they liked so I stopped at the servo, bought a pack of cable ties and secured the tabs to the rack through the holes provided. Frequent checking of the rack at each stop showed that this was working so I pressed on with plans to do something more permanent at Toowoomba.
The New England Highway is even rougher now than it was last year but it was great to have a suspension that was soaking most of it up. The poor condition of the road was more than compensated for by the scenery, however. Even though the area is plainly in drought at the moment, the autumn colours are just magnificent, especially the large stands of poplar trees that line the highway along its route. Worth the trip just to see that.
Tamworth was my overnight stop then it was on again in the morning. Into Queensland and more stops to ease the painful leg and check on the top box. By late afternoon I was in sight of Toowoomba and, having got there, I headed straight for Elite Motorcycles where I explained my dilemma to Stuart. No problem that he had a Metrakit 70 in a million bits on the floor that he was hoping to have prepared for Thomas to ride the next morning, When I went to take the box off so that he could fix the brackets I found that they were secured at the front end by the cable ties but both of them had fractured right through and the box was only being held by the Givi latch at the back; ignorance is bliss. Trooper that he is, Stuart devised a Q&D solution that solved the problem and meant that I didn’t have to worry about the top box for the rest of the weekend. It never budged for all the trip home so I could ride without having to worry about it.
After a great night’s sleep I switched into MotoStars mode and spent the morning watching the kids splash around on a very wet track.
Thankfully, by lunchtime the skies had cleared and practice continued unabated.
Sunday morning dawned clear and with the promise of a perfect racing day. Before that, however, I needed breakfast and, since I wasn’t in the Minibago with all the comforts of home, I sashayed back into Withcott (about 10kms west of the track at the foot of the mountain) and had a delicious breakfast at the wonderful Ooh La Latte Cafe. April, the proprietor, knows me from my frequent visits to the cafe’s Facebook page so I got the royal treatment. Highly recommended.
Sunday’s racing was entertaining and fun, as MotoStars events usually are. It is so good to see these little kids growing and improving their skills. I commentated the races and had a great time stirring everyone up over the microphone.
The meeting ran smoothly and almost without stoppages so it wasn’t a surprise to find that it was all wrapped up and done by around 3. Before this I had started to think that, if I could get on the road early, I could bank some valuable kilometres in the late afternoon ahead of Monday’s riding. When I was able to fuel up at the top of the mountain at Toowoomba at 4 I started thinking that, if I did that, I might be able to make it all the way home on Monday instead of making it a 2 day ride. Depending on how far south I could get on Sunday night, I just might be able to do it.
So it was hammer down into the evening, battling the crazy drivers, the trucks, the bugs and the heebie-jeebies over the possibility of wildlife intervention.
By the time I reached the outskirts of Tenterfield (back into NSW!!) my nerves were shot so I pulled into the first motel I could find and rented a room. $85 a single and $7 for a plate of steaming hot pumpkin soup and toast, gotta love the country. Unsurprisingly I crashed the moment my head hit the pillow. The best part of it was that I had travelled 200kms on Sunday night, so was much closer to home.
Monday morning dawned and it was COLD, like 6 degrees. Thankfully I had brought along the liner for my summer jacket so in it went and I set out. Surprisingly, it didn’t feel that cold once I got going and I started taking big chunks out of the remaining distance to home, determined now to make it home in one day. As the kilometres piled up so did the pain level and more than once I doubted the wisdom of trying to complete the rest of the distance in one day. But a combination of pain killers, stopping and resting/exercising often meant that my point-to-point time was not going to be great but my chances of getting home remained high.
As you know, if you’re aiming to be somewhere at a certain time, the closer you get to the destination, the more tantalising it becomes. By the time I got to Picton the light was fading fast but I had to stop and rest again before tackling the diabolical last leg home.
Now if I had a dollar for every time I have stopped at this toilet over the years 🙂
I rolled into home around 1900, around 13 hours to do the 800kms. Not fast but fast enough to get the job done and avoid problems. Once again the VFR proved to be the epitome of the sports/touring machines and the rear suspension rebuild proved to be more than excellent.
What a great weekend it was, fun and games at MotoStars and a great min-tour into the bargain. I wouldn’t back up for another soon, but I will do something similar as soon as time permits. Oh, and did I mention that I monstered the Ten Mile on the way home as well? No traffic, AT ALL, in either direction. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey, take that to the bank.
POSTSCRIPT: I should have mentioned that my total mileage for Monday, Tenterfield to Wollongong, was 861kms, not bad for an old crock, eh?
