This is a ride from the old forum:
After having a ball on the recent Iron Butt Scooter Insanity ride a couple of weeks ago, I thought I'd have another long leg stretch ride. The flat tyre on that run bugged me. The Piaggio handled the Hume Highway at the required speed, but I realised it could also do a long day on single lane roads so I looked further west: The Kidman Way.
Having coffee last Thursday with TigerBill, he said “So when are you planning it? August-September?”
“Tomorrow”.
We planned to leave Wallsend at the western edge of Newcastle and head west on the new Hunter Expressway to avoid Maitland and a string of villages on the way.
Up early, fuelled and on the road by 04:00, with TigerBill on his Kawasaki Versys 650.
There was a bit of fog around but only for a hundred kays or so out along the Golden Highway. Less Hilux miner traffic than usual - maybe the Chinese really are buying less coal? Bill and I swapped the lead a few times. He runs 6 spotlights up front, but with the fog it was mainly low beam anyway, so there was no disadvantage for the Xevo. Freezing cold out here. Well, 2C kept flashing on the dash, so cold enough. All ok by Merriwa where I put in 5 litres from the jerry can in the boot, then heading out past the Black Stump Way.
Not much wildlife for once which was a bonus and we made our first fuel stop at Gilgandra 2 minutes ahead of schedule.
I'd planned a simple route with a simple goal: based on the IBA ride and the time lost to the flat tyre, I thought the Xevo could do a 2200km day, so I mapped out a wide loop and calculated my stops based on an overall average of 92km/h for the day.
West from Gilgandra and on to the Oxley Highway with its 110km/h zones and a lovely morning emerged. Right turn at Nevertire.
Dead straight running from here, heading into Bourke (742km, 11:47am) on fumes, but 13 minutes ahead.
A quick break here for me, longer for TigerBill - his first trip to Bourke.
Being on his sweet little Versys 650 he had the ease of overtaking on his side. The Xevo does well - very well I think - but out on the road its hard to overtake as it lacks acceleration approaching 100. That said I overtook a couple of road trains on the way to Cobar.
The only near miss of the day was 30km form Cobar when a pair of adult emus decided the run back and forth across the road in front of me - hard on the brakes!
We continued our way merrily down the road named after Sid the Cattle King. Looking for fuel at Hillston I rode straight through town and plain missed the to Griffith, instead heading south on a ‘good weather only’ kind of road. I thought “That’s strange” and a minute later realised my amateur mistake, made a U-turn and back to Hillston for fuel (1184km, 17 minutes ahead). Another slight delay happened with getting a bit stuck in traffic in Griffith on dusk in 'peak hour' traffic.
Left turn at the BP at Darlington Point (1332km, 18:22pm - 7 minutes behind) to join the Sturt Highway at the edge of the Hay Plain. Black dark now and lots of trucks. Clear skies and full moon and travelling OK, I ran the numbers in my head trying to optimise the fuel stops for us both heading back up the Hume. I had the jerry with 5 litres on top of the Xevo tank's 12L. TigerBill had 19L in the bike and 10L in his jerry can. At Darlington Point he'd opted not to fill his tank, so that blocked my cunning plan: we were both happy doing jerry can stops on the side of the road ok, but I wanted to swap jerry cans for one fill so that we'd both have a similar range and get from Darlington Point all the way to Newcastle with just one petrol station stop. Nevermind.
Instead, I waved Bill on to Goulburn while I paused at Yass (1660km, 22:00, 8 mins behind) with the plan to meet up again at Pheasant's Nest. I don't mind the Hume Highway at night. As road it is efficient. As a first timer I think the scenery is fine - for maybe one trip in either direction. Once it has been done a bunch of times its best done at night. Lots of roadkill around so staying alert is no problem. The Xevo just hummed along happily. I ran the cruise control gizmo, an Airhawk seat, heated grips and all was well. Standing up, swapping foot positions between fore - mid - and pillion and it was a doddle sitting on 110.
A slight delay waiting for Bill at Pheasant's Nest gave time for a hot chocolate - no coffee as it keeps me awake for hours - and then we settled in for the dash around Sydney. It was getting late by then so not much traffic really. M7, M2, Pennant Hills Road, the F3 - oops M1 - and Bill peeled off behind me at the Wyong Twin Servos. It was great riding the day with him. He's an experienced long distance rider, but today was his first 2000km day and the Caltex stop was at about 2030km or so. I had a glance at the clock, re-ran the numbers in my head and headed ever northward to the BP at the end of the freeway in Beresfield (2086km, 02:39am, 9 minutes behind).
I knew the distances for all of 24 hour servos up here and first tried to plan an out and back to finish in Newcastle. That would require an extra fuel stop and some 80km/h roads. I kept going straight instead. Heatherbrae, Karuah, The Rock and Buladelah all passed by. Clear and dry and holding the speed limit I rolled in to the Coolongolook petrol station at 03:50am with 2201km on the GPS.
I just knew the Xevo could run a 2200km day. [
]
I minute or so later and an ‘Ok’ message from TigerBill and then one from Wombattle. He’d tailed us on SPOTWALLA, intercepted TigerBill and been witness for him at the end.
Then he remounted and chased me in the night meeting up on the side of the road at Buladelah to escort me back into Newcastle.
Like its normal go for a ride at 0400 in the morning or something.
After having a ball on the recent Iron Butt Scooter Insanity ride a couple of weeks ago, I thought I'd have another long leg stretch ride. The flat tyre on that run bugged me. The Piaggio handled the Hume Highway at the required speed, but I realised it could also do a long day on single lane roads so I looked further west: The Kidman Way.
Having coffee last Thursday with TigerBill, he said “So when are you planning it? August-September?”
“Tomorrow”.
We planned to leave Wallsend at the western edge of Newcastle and head west on the new Hunter Expressway to avoid Maitland and a string of villages on the way.
Up early, fuelled and on the road by 04:00, with TigerBill on his Kawasaki Versys 650.
There was a bit of fog around but only for a hundred kays or so out along the Golden Highway. Less Hilux miner traffic than usual - maybe the Chinese really are buying less coal? Bill and I swapped the lead a few times. He runs 6 spotlights up front, but with the fog it was mainly low beam anyway, so there was no disadvantage for the Xevo. Freezing cold out here. Well, 2C kept flashing on the dash, so cold enough. All ok by Merriwa where I put in 5 litres from the jerry can in the boot, then heading out past the Black Stump Way.
Not much wildlife for once which was a bonus and we made our first fuel stop at Gilgandra 2 minutes ahead of schedule.
I'd planned a simple route with a simple goal: based on the IBA ride and the time lost to the flat tyre, I thought the Xevo could do a 2200km day, so I mapped out a wide loop and calculated my stops based on an overall average of 92km/h for the day.
West from Gilgandra and on to the Oxley Highway with its 110km/h zones and a lovely morning emerged. Right turn at Nevertire.
Dead straight running from here, heading into Bourke (742km, 11:47am) on fumes, but 13 minutes ahead.
A quick break here for me, longer for TigerBill - his first trip to Bourke.
Being on his sweet little Versys 650 he had the ease of overtaking on his side. The Xevo does well - very well I think - but out on the road its hard to overtake as it lacks acceleration approaching 100. That said I overtook a couple of road trains on the way to Cobar.
The only near miss of the day was 30km form Cobar when a pair of adult emus decided the run back and forth across the road in front of me - hard on the brakes!
We continued our way merrily down the road named after Sid the Cattle King. Looking for fuel at Hillston I rode straight through town and plain missed the to Griffith, instead heading south on a ‘good weather only’ kind of road. I thought “That’s strange” and a minute later realised my amateur mistake, made a U-turn and back to Hillston for fuel (1184km, 17 minutes ahead). Another slight delay happened with getting a bit stuck in traffic in Griffith on dusk in 'peak hour' traffic.
Left turn at the BP at Darlington Point (1332km, 18:22pm - 7 minutes behind) to join the Sturt Highway at the edge of the Hay Plain. Black dark now and lots of trucks. Clear skies and full moon and travelling OK, I ran the numbers in my head trying to optimise the fuel stops for us both heading back up the Hume. I had the jerry with 5 litres on top of the Xevo tank's 12L. TigerBill had 19L in the bike and 10L in his jerry can. At Darlington Point he'd opted not to fill his tank, so that blocked my cunning plan: we were both happy doing jerry can stops on the side of the road ok, but I wanted to swap jerry cans for one fill so that we'd both have a similar range and get from Darlington Point all the way to Newcastle with just one petrol station stop. Nevermind.
Instead, I waved Bill on to Goulburn while I paused at Yass (1660km, 22:00, 8 mins behind) with the plan to meet up again at Pheasant's Nest. I don't mind the Hume Highway at night. As road it is efficient. As a first timer I think the scenery is fine - for maybe one trip in either direction. Once it has been done a bunch of times its best done at night. Lots of roadkill around so staying alert is no problem. The Xevo just hummed along happily. I ran the cruise control gizmo, an Airhawk seat, heated grips and all was well. Standing up, swapping foot positions between fore - mid - and pillion and it was a doddle sitting on 110.
A slight delay waiting for Bill at Pheasant's Nest gave time for a hot chocolate - no coffee as it keeps me awake for hours - and then we settled in for the dash around Sydney. It was getting late by then so not much traffic really. M7, M2, Pennant Hills Road, the F3 - oops M1 - and Bill peeled off behind me at the Wyong Twin Servos. It was great riding the day with him. He's an experienced long distance rider, but today was his first 2000km day and the Caltex stop was at about 2030km or so. I had a glance at the clock, re-ran the numbers in my head and headed ever northward to the BP at the end of the freeway in Beresfield (2086km, 02:39am, 9 minutes behind).
I knew the distances for all of 24 hour servos up here and first tried to plan an out and back to finish in Newcastle. That would require an extra fuel stop and some 80km/h roads. I kept going straight instead. Heatherbrae, Karuah, The Rock and Buladelah all passed by. Clear and dry and holding the speed limit I rolled in to the Coolongolook petrol station at 03:50am with 2201km on the GPS.
I just knew the Xevo could run a 2200km day. [
I minute or so later and an ‘Ok’ message from TigerBill and then one from Wombattle. He’d tailed us on SPOTWALLA, intercepted TigerBill and been witness for him at the end.
Like its normal go for a ride at 0400 in the morning or something.
