Howdy,
Earlier this year, @cjmckay planned his first 1600K run and six others decided to tag along, with five managing to set off. I was one of the five.
Similar to last time, @cjmckay once again floated an idea for a ride, the ANZAC themed ride this past 25th April. The missing 6th man from earlier in the year committed to attend. I am sure @cjmckay will file his own full report in due time.
I opted to not join the ANZAC theme ride because I wanted to ride this guy, (Note the title - "WOT" : wide open throttle!)
It is a Suzuki Address 110. You see them all around Sydney doing food delivery runs. The above bike does do the occassional food delivery when I have nothing better to do
Some pertinent info about the scoot,
I ended up using a modified version of @cjmckay planned ANZAC route sans the ANZAC requirements with adjustments to pad out the missing distance, reason why I co-opted his route a little later. Below was the final route that I used. It is a loop out west from Sydney then down south to Shepparton and finally home on the motorway back to Sydney.
https://goo.gl/maps/CUUqjxdis3R6CsjW6 (1656km)
Ride plan,
Being unable to join @cjmckay , I still wished to meet up with him and our mutual 6th buddy later in the day. Using a mostly similar route allowed potential for our paths to cross. Pre-ride calculations had using regrouping in Shepparton around 17:30. We would then meander back to Sydney somewhat together as a 3 person group. The ANZAC theme required riders to start or end their rides with a ANZAC service. This had @cjmckay departing Sydney at around 06:30-07:00, about 2 hours after me, giving him time to catch up. Remember that the scooter is speed limited
Actual day unfolded as follows,
My closing thoughts are as follows,
Thank you for reading. This was a much longer ride report than I was intending to document. Thank you again to @cjmckay for inspiring the crazy among our little "Foxy" cohort of riders. There will be 7 of us as certified riders among our humble Sydney based group, up from 6
Earlier this year, @cjmckay planned his first 1600K run and six others decided to tag along, with five managing to set off. I was one of the five.
Similar to last time, @cjmckay once again floated an idea for a ride, the ANZAC themed ride this past 25th April. The missing 6th man from earlier in the year committed to attend. I am sure @cjmckay will file his own full report in due time.
I opted to not join the ANZAC theme ride because I wanted to ride this guy, (Note the title - "WOT" : wide open throttle!)
It is a Suzuki Address 110. You see them all around Sydney doing food delivery runs. The above bike does do the occassional food delivery when I have nothing better to do
Some pertinent info about the scoot,
- 113cc / 7.2kw single
- Top speed of roughly 95km/h under ideal conditions (wind/gradient assist), cruising speed hovers around 85-90km/h. WOT, naturally.
- 5.2L tank / 150km open road range until it starts sputtering
- Less than ideal or reliable top speed. The scooter will be consistently 10-20km/h under the speed limits of the roads I will be targeting, which are predominantly 100-110km/h. I will be getting overtaken all day.
- Having to ride at wide open throttle. In terms of hand fatigue, cruise control is ideal, but not having cruise control is still okay as you can still throttle on and off and keep a realistic average speed. I toyed around with a throttle lock and palm rest options leading up to ride day, but opted to not use throttle aids. The throttle lock I was gifted had a tendency to quietly slip and I could not afford to unknowingly not be riding wide open. Clip-on palm rests do not really work as it causes serious problems if needing to grab the brakes in an emergency situation - the clip on palm rest, when adjusted for wide open usage, points skywards when the throttle is closed - safety first.
- Small tank. Not a huge issue as I already own a fuel bladder, which is ironically about the same size as the tank. With the bladder it theoretically gives me a 300km range. I much prefer to keep legs to around the 2 hour mark so will only rely on the bladder when available petrol stations are out of reach.
- 35W headlight, fairly common set up as far as scooters go. This will be a question mark on the return leg after dark.
I ended up using a modified version of @cjmckay planned ANZAC route sans the ANZAC requirements with adjustments to pad out the missing distance, reason why I co-opted his route a little later. Below was the final route that I used. It is a loop out west from Sydney then down south to Shepparton and finally home on the motorway back to Sydney.
https://goo.gl/maps/CUUqjxdis3R6CsjW6 (1656km)
Ride plan,
- Departure in the morning at 04:30 25th April
- 15x 12 minute stops (3 hours in total).
- 9-10 petrol station stops with 4-5 road side refuels.
- 1 hour unallocated buffer, targeting finish in 23 hours at 03:30 26th April.
- 20 hours on the bike. Average on road minimum speed calculated to be ~82.8km/hr, well under what the scooter is capable of holding and roads I will be riding.
- 150km actual tank range, will be carrying a 5.5L fuel bladder under the seat
- SWTracker for Spotwalla purposes
Being unable to join @cjmckay , I still wished to meet up with him and our mutual 6th buddy later in the day. Using a mostly similar route allowed potential for our paths to cross. Pre-ride calculations had using regrouping in Shepparton around 17:30. We would then meander back to Sydney somewhat together as a 3 person group. The ANZAC theme required riders to start or end their rides with a ANZAC service. This had @cjmckay departing Sydney at around 06:30-07:00, about 2 hours after me, giving him time to catch up. Remember that the scooter is speed limited
Actual day unfolded as follows,
- Punchbowl to Mt Victoria
Departure proceeded as planned. Bike and fuel bladder filled. DBR timestamped 04:33 25th April and straight onto tho M5/M7 towards the first stop in Mt Victoria.
Motorway ride out of Sydney was as expected and gave an idea of what the rest of the day was going to be like. Spent the first hour toying around with different throttle grip methods that would allow me to keep the throttle pinned using as many different muscles as possible.
I was very cognisant to relax and balance out effort in the right hand / wrist, this would be a constant mantra throughout the day.
Ride up the mountains to Mt Victoria was a little moist and mildly foggy. Fog by itself is fine, but when it is also extra cold, issues arise. Condensation on the outside of the visor is fine, wipe it away. Condensation on the inside of the visor is not ideal, crack the lid or worst case open it up. Condensation on my glasses is game over
If anyone has any tips for at least keeping my glasses from clouding over in extreme conditions, it would be greatly appreciated.
Fog issues aside, I noticed I was running 11 minutes behind schedule, or 8 minutes if you factor in the 04:33 "late" departure. Probably just the fog, plenty of time left to make up the difference.
- Mt Victoria to Bathurst / Orange
Next leg was going to be an unspecified fuel stop in either Bathurst or Orange, whichever was convenient and open at the time, it being ANZAC day and still early. The route had me going through the main roads of both towns and there are multiple fuel options along the way.
The promise of a couple of McD hash browns was on the cards - I like hash browns.
Arch nemesis was back - extreme fog as I headed up towards Bathurst, visibility was terrible, but at least dawn broke a short while earlier. I was hopeful things would quickly improve. I trundled ahead cautiously, but briskly into Bathurst. On the rare occasions where the fog cleared and the road had a break that afforded a view of the surrounding countryside, all I could see was a panorama blanketed in white with the odd tree or hill poking through - it was quite picturesque and surreal, if only it was not indicative of what lay ahead
I ended up stopping and refueling in Bathurst and taking a coffee (1st of the day) and a smoko. The idea was to spend a few extra moments to give the sun time to do it's job. I was behind schedule but I figured it was safer and less stressful to let the fog subside somewhat, the sun was well and truly out.
By the time I left, I was about 15 minutes (memory is a little "foggy") behind schedule - "No worries" I thought, I had a buffer and pre-ride calculations backed me up. The thinking was that I should be able to make up the difference within the next 3 or so stops.
Gave up on the hash browns.
- Bathurst to Parkes
Fog had largely cleared and I was riding the scooter in ideal conditions for the first time. This leg should allow me to make up some time.
As I left Bathurst, I watched the ETA to Parkes on Google Maps slowly decrease.
1 minute improvement - great. 2 minute improvement - awesome. 3 minute improvement - piece of cake!
By the time I rolled into Parkes doing as much of a race pace as the scooter can muster, my earlier elation about arriving early was short-lived. As the terrain evened out my ETA didn't actual improve, but got worse. It makes sense since the scooter can't do the posted speed limit and Google's estimation would assume the speed limit.
It was during this leg that something seemed quite wrong with my expected departure times versus how was I actually tracking, it didn't make sense, but it was the reality.
I was 30 minutes behind schedule. Expected to depart 09:19, Spotwalla refuel message 09:49.
Not to worry, I know I had budgeted for more stops than I actually needed with a reasonably generous amount of time allocated to each stop. On top of that, I still had that 1 hour buffer.
I am now refueling with a little more urgency, not panicking, but somewhat bewildered.
- Parkes to West Wyalong
Since I started to suspect something seeming off with my calculated departure times, I spent the start of this leg mulling over the "what", which didn't last very long. I have long lost the ability or motivation to perform mental arithmetic. It all went away after completing an engineering degree decades ago and falling into a IT career path
I just focused on the facts. I was apparently behind schedule. My departure times are slipping and Google Maps ETA requires a slow speed tax tacked on.
At a very high level, the scooter has the pace to make it within the 24 hour limit with quite a generous amount of time left over for faffing about. It is up to me to not keep the scooter stopped any longer than necessary.
My strategy at this point was simple. Head down, munch those miles and be extra efficient during fuel stops and see where I land at the halfway point.
Also, I am feeling kinda hungry about this time. Food deferred till next stop.
Departed West Wyalong at around 11:44, 20 minutes behind schedule. That's a 10 minute gain since the last stop, winning.
- West Wyalong to Goolgowi
I am still feeling positive, confusion aside, body and scooter are behaving well and I appear to be making up time. My thinking at the time was that the ride is still very doable and the extra allowance in planned stops, in addition to the 1 hour buffer should allow for some modicum of luxury at choice stops.
I am planning on, in fact need, a quick servo lunch at Goolgowi.
Rolling past Weethalle, spotted some silo art in the distance. Stopped and snapped the only tourist photo of the entire ride (I should take more photos),
Petrol receipt at 13:38 in Goolgowi. Grabbed a premade sandwich at the petrol station and had what I knew was going to be my last smoke for a long, long while. Actual departure around 13:54, 40 minutes behind schedule.
- Goolgowi to Jerilderie
This leg had the first forced road side refuel. Jerilderie also marks the 49% point in terms of route distance and will be a good gauge of progress.
Departed Jerilderie at 16:28. It is now just under 12 hours since I started the ride and 49% of the route has been covered. My 1 hour buffer is gone.
It is at this point that I know I will definitely make it if I can maintain at least the same pace. The first half of the route contained more scheduled servo fuel stops. The second half has fewer servo stops and more road side refuels meaning less time wasted with helmets, gloves and paying for fuel. The second half is also predominantly open highway (Hume/M31) with no transitions through town centres and associated lower speed limits.
I checked @cjmckay Spotwalla link at this time and noted that he and our 6th man was within a 5 minute range. I think I may have just missed them.
- Jerilderie to Shepparton
I have done quite a lot of non-IB level long distance day rides within NSW, including a few tours out towards Broken Hill and surrounding areas. This was my first time actually crossing a border on a motorcycle, or scooter in this case.
I had heard that Victorian Police tend to be severely critical of speeding - not a problem on with the Address
The sun is setting during this leg as planned. The goal was always to meet up with @cjmckay and partake in his Stedi spotlights. The Address only has a 35W headlight and I was somewhat concerned it may not cut it after dark.
My route had going through quite a lot of farm land on straight back roads and my goodness, the amount of bugs skyrocketed after entering Victoria. My visor was getting pelted with at least one midge like bug every 2-3 seconds. Catching the occasional glance in the mirrors, my jacket shoulders showed a similar number of casualties.
Rolled into my fuel stop in Shepparton covered in bugs from the sternum up. Visor was smudged to heck from constantly wiping away bug remains. On the plus side everything below the chest was blemish free - scooters are great in terms of weather protection
I made sure to dust off as many bugs from my jacket as I could before going into the Ampol to pay!
Linked up with @cjmckay and our mutual buddy. They were at the next servo, one block over. I relayed my time crunch issues, but otherwise it was good to see familiar faces.
Started rolling out of Shepparton at around 18:23 as a 3 man team. Sun has well and truly set at this time. I am still 1 hour behind schedule with no buffer remaining. Nothing for it now except to motor on home, because I do still need to get home one way or another.
Reminder that the next legs will all involve roadside refuelling.
- Shepparton to Albury
I semi-regularly go on rides with these gents as well as a few other people, including those that completed our first SS1600K earlier in the year. We all have Cardos and it was nice being able to ride and chit-chat along the way.
My entire day was done in silence sans any form of entertainment. Normally, I wear foam tipped corded isolating earphones with the Cardo for clarity purposes, but also because my ears do not line up with the speaker cutouts in any of the helmets I have owned. I had to eschew music, etc for conventional ear plugs in the interest of saving time. It takes me a good minute to put my earphones in and tuck away the cord whenever I put my helmet on.
It was good to check up on the guys and learn how their day went and vice versa. Leaving Shepparton felt as familiar as any of our typical group rides - it was nice.
Idle chit chat subject turned towards my companion's remaining fuel range, figures of 350km or more were being casually being thrown about and whether they needed to refuel or not. I kept silent, quietly laughing inside at my paltry 150km from full range.
No bugs to be seen on the motorway out. Huzzah.
What was truly incredible was @cjmckay new lighting set up. He was a literal ball of light some 30 metres in width and projecting forever into the distance.
The scooter started sputtering about 10 minutes shy of Albury about when I expected it to. Over the comms, I told the guys to go on ahead and conduct their ANZAC business, Albury being their second "A" with Canberra being their "C". Roadside refueling in the dark on the shoulder is not ideal, but it only needed a quick top up.
I refilled properly in Albury, topped up the bladder as a matter of course and left at 20:38. Only 30 minutes behind schedule my pre-ride schedule, the buffer is back in play - Looking good!
I left the guys in Albury to complete their side quest. Plan was for them to catch up to me on the M31 heading towards Gundagai where we would all refuel.
- Albury to Gundagai
This leg was going to be the first real test of riding in darkness with only my 35W headlight. There was a slither of a crescent moon out, which at least helped to trace out the tops of the tree line against the midnight blue sky.
I did toy with the idea of sticking a 55W bulb into the headlight, but worried about possibly melting or discolouring the plastic housing and lens and whether the wiring could support the extra couple of amps.
In summary, the 35W warm yellow standard bulb was actually okay. The motorway had plenty of cat eyes to show the way. Provided there were no other light sources around from passing vehicles or similar, I could see perfectly fine.
Folks rant and rave about high powered LED headlights, but my personal experience has been the even (important) orange throw of traditional globes provides better night vision. I find LED headlights tend to provide too much of a hot spot in the near field which counter productively reduces night vision. Reason being, the bright spot causes your pupils to contract reducing periphery and long distance night vision. This is probably why most everyone I know who has LED headlights feel a rightful need to run auxiliary setups to compensate with additional bright spotlight sources to provide a wider and longer throw. Brighter does not equal better.
Back to the scooter headlight, 35W - no problem
The boys caught me about 2/3 of the way to Gundagai. Cheers on the comms followed by more chit chat about plans and timings for the rest of the ride. Details such as Canberra not being a suburb and how to find a DBR with the word Canberra on it - something about ATM receipts from a specific location in Canberra being the go-to.
After the earlier non-ideal road side refuel in the dark, I decided to conduct my road side refuel stops prematurely at opportune moments. Plan was to burn through about 100km of fuel and then pull over at the subsequent interchange to make use of the fuel bladder. The M31 interchanges typically have street lights. Not refuelling in the dark means less time wasted stumbling around, but generally better quality shoulders and safety, etc.
We split up similar to before as I pulled over at the next available lit shoulder to top up the tank. I probably spend no more than 3-4 minutes topping up the tank, saves a whole bunch of time compared to proper fuel stops.
I caught up with the guys at the servo in Gundagai.
Fuel stop timestamped 22:49, 23 minutes behind schedule. I am feeling pretty confident now. Time for a moments respite and a food item to tide me over for the rest of the ride.
This was my second on the road "meal" of the day since Goolgowi, a hot Shell pastie.
The guys left me to it and they started making their way towards Canberra to complete the last of their ANZAC letter gathering and will meet up later, if not, then at the finish line.
- Gundagai to Goulburn
Up until Gundagai everything was going swimmingly. Sky was clear enough that you could see the Milky Way band and temperature matched well to the gear I was wearing.
Throughout the night run, I always had a niggling worry regarding fog. The morning experience through the Blue Mountains hinted as much.
We all knew it was going to get colder around this leg and as you rode you could feel pockets of cold, some more so than others. Forecast had the area in the 5-7C range. To get into Sydney involves a good amount of climbing before descending into the Sydney basin.
Cold air and mountains generally only means one thing and it happened.
It was about half way through that I saw the first wisps. Then more substantial pockets and finally a significant white haze. Dammit
Thankfully there were pockets where the fog abated, but the foreboding was real - how long will the abatement last. Answer, was not very long.
I took the next fog free, lit interchange to dump a bunch of fuel from the bladder into the tank to that need and soldiered on.
Interesting point I noted was that slowing down somehow made navigating through fog trickier. I think rolling through at a Goldilocks pace made it easier for the stream of cat eyes to provide some semblance of a track to follow with your brain interpolating the rest. Slowing down too much made lane resulted in updates being fewer in between making it harder to establish a line.
Trucks were regularly passing me all lit up in orange and red combinations only to disappear into the fog a few hundred metres down the road.
Highbeams were interesting. It made things 100x worse. Low beams would light up the road and minimally light up the fog. I had adjusted my headlight slightly higher for a longer low beam throw a couple days prior anticipating this night run, glad I did. Another plus point for my scooter's yellow lights regarding fog is that they don't get absorbed as readily by the thick vapour.
There was one extra heavy section where emergency vehicles were being deployed with flashing lights on both sides of the motor way. You could make out flashing yellow lights intermingled with flashing blue and reds whose vehicles were slowly creeping around the landscape. When I first saw the lights, I had assumed that there must have been an accident, but rolling through I could not spot any real signs of carnage. It seems the authorities were taking the heavy haze in that particular stretch quite seriously or had some alternate reason I could not readily discern. I believe I was doing about 70km/h through that section. It was pretty bad.
Unsurprisingly my helmet visor did not last long, but it was hanging in there. I could still see, but it was milky. The intermittent moments of no fog helped the visor recovery some clarity. Eventually though, I had to lift my visor right up as it was no longer useable. I was about 15-20 minutes out of Goulburn by this point. The glasses went shortly there after, I had to re-position it out of the way and I was literally squinting and doing all sorts of weird tilting and nose scrunchy to try and see. I made my way carefully and purposefully, cold air blasting into my helmet. I had no choice but to continue
My eye sight is not terrible unassisted compared to most. I typically only wear glasses for driving and watching TV. Under the foggy conditions, I had a sample of what folks with more severe prescriptions must suffer through. I was solely relying on the shimmering, mirage-like cat eyes to guide me. Red to denote the left shoulder, white for lane markings and yellow for the right most shoulder. Occasionally I would glance at Google Maps watching the ETA steadily tick down.
Eventually, the green Goulburn exit sign appeared. Extreme squinting to make sure I did not miss the turn off. Up the off ramp and into the safety of street lights, a lifting of temperatures and free of the fog below - a huge sigh of relief.
Rode into the service station, the Big Marino's arse looking happy and proud.
I'm covered in a layer of dew. Gortex gloves and multiple layers of puffy jackets kept me dry. My boots aren't water proof and one of my sock layers felt slightly moist. I had two layers of socks on throughout the day, a thin pair under a thick woolly pair because nobody likes cold feet
Waved to the servo attendant. Fuel pump kicked to life, I proceeded to refuel. Went inside, paid and walked out with a hot long black.
DBR read 01:17, only 21 minutes behind schedule. Still 39 minutes of buffer in play, last stop Sydney, you beauty. Time for a deserved "luxury" rest.
Moved the scooter away from the pump. Walked on over to the Big Marino, hot coffee in hand. I sat down on the kerb and had a much deserved smoke. I was shaking uncontrollably as I sat there puffing away. Part of it was the cold, but the rest of it was likely adrenaline, which I did not even realise was in my system, wearing off.
Pulled out the phone and gave @cjmckay a shaky call. Conversation was succinct.
Where are you now? Leaving Canberra? You had problems finding a good ATM? Got your receipt? Good! So about Goulburn...
Hung up the phone. Shakes mostly gone now. Time for an extra luxury, a second ciggie to go with the last half of my long black.
By the time I set off it was 01:53. From memory Google Maps had my ETA into Sydney at my last stop around 03:45, approximately 175km to cover with my IB cutoff being 04:33. Very doable even at a conservative 70km/h average.
I was keen given that the run into Sydney should be mostly downhill, I would likely be on the higher end of the Address's top speed more often than not.
The big question mark was what the fog situation was like on the Sydney side of Goulburn, my expectations were set way down...
- Goulburn to Punchbowl
Down the on ramp and fingers crossed.
Yes, there was more fog, but strangely very manageable. I took care to keep my breathing steady and shallow. Visor cracked the tiniest bit to help clear up what little formed on the inside. Only the outside of the visor actually clouded over, my winter glove finger squidgy took care of that. Fog dissipated after about 50km or so.
It has been my experience when expecting the worse and not experiencing it tends result in more happy surprises and general well being. This was no exception
I gunned it all the way home from that point onwards, aside from a mandatory roadside top up around the Picton interchange. Off the M5 and immediately into Punchbowl, the last destination.
Completed the ride successfully at 03:58... 28 minutes behind schedule, with a touch over a half hour to spare
DBR consisted of a drink and an extremely over baked pie. It was as dry as a bone, but I didn't mind. Not one bit, a little salty though!
Quick check of @cjmckay 's Spotwalla and I could see them about 30 minutes out. I hung around care and stress free.
Queue the Harley rumbles and my two compatriots roll into the servo. "Congrats" and "well-done" offered and received
My closing thoughts are as follows,
- The Suzuki Address was very comfortable. Having so many leg and butt room options is great for marathon rides. Being a step through design, I could even ride cross legged
- Downside to the Address. It really needs a few more horse power. Being able to keep to the speed limit at a minimum would have really helped. Having to hold the thing at wide open throttle is kinda sucky also. It is two days after the fact and my right arm has no pains to speak of, so that is nice, but I can imagine it not being a guarantee.
- Riding a slow bike with a small tank was challenging. The crux of the problem is that a slow bike gives you very little scope to adapt. You cannot make up time on the road because you are already flat out. You need a solid plan and can only make up time on stops, which in my opinion is not a particularly healthy way to conduct a ride. I would have liked to have more 1-2 more small meal breaks for example. Having limited scope to adapt feels like rolling a bad set of dice and hoping your numbers come up.
- I have a vague idea as to why my estimated departure times were somewhat off, but the short of it was that I was lazy with my time calculations. I used a spreadsheet to quickly work out departure times, but unintentionally used a distance based pro-rata type method that incorporated my allocated fuel/rest time. I was also lazily hovering my mouse over the route in Google Maps to quickly pull distance numbers to serve as inputs rather than getting it to tell me emphatic distances between stops. I do not have the spreadsheet saved to verify my above speculation and I most definitely cannot be arsed to recreate it. I'll spend more time calculating departure times correctly in future. Did I mention I haven't used a spreadsheet in years?
- SWTracker is a pretty nifty little phone app and helped make the IB ride submission a breeze. I submitted my ride via the premier store form and received my electronic certificate within 24 hours. Very impressed at the turn around and so happy to avoid all the paper work. Still waiting for the ride to appear in the IBAestore though, will give that a few days before poking and prodding
- I enjoyed the challenge and am glad to have completed it. I would not really want to attempt it again on the Address. If I ever do try again, it will be on something with just a touch more oomph and range.
Thank you for reading. This was a much longer ride report than I was intending to document. Thank you again to @cjmckay for inspiring the crazy among our little "Foxy" cohort of riders. There will be 7 of us as certified riders among our humble Sydney based group, up from 6
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