After an aborted attempt a fortnight earlier, due to a perceived electrical fault on my bike (a 2020 Harley Davidson Street 500), D-Day had arrived. The group had grown from what started as ‘my madness’ (a solo ride) to three (“Hey, can we join you?”) and the associated “Can we leave from Sydney?” route replanning to seven on a varied mix of vehicles. One member pulled out the night before due to sudden illness bringing the team to six – ‘six crazies’ none of which had every done an iron butt ride prior (I’d done a number of 500km+ days and the odd 900-1000km days) and no one knew whether any of us could actually do this. Thankfully (unlike a fortnight earlier) everyone slept reasonably the day/afternoon/evening/night prior arriving at the start location over the period of the 20 minutes prior to the 2am scheduled start time. The start location (Punchbowl, Sydney, NSW) chosen because it was:
Harley Davidson Street 500 (mine)
Honda Rebel 500
Honda CB400SF (still ‘to my ears’ the sweetest sounding bike ever)
Triumph Rocket III Tourer
BMW S1000R
Yamaha Niken GT
A look at the (two) ‘Big Lists’ suggests that an IBA ride has never been certified on the HD Street 500 (and only one has been certified on its big brother the Street 750).
The route planning was based around a journey I drive at least twice a year when our family drive overnight Sydney-Adelaide to visit relatives. Sydney-Goulburn-Gundagai-Wagga Wagga-Gillenbah-Hay-Balranald return. The advantage being I was able to ‘reccy’ the stop receipts and road conditions (including slow sections and those under repair) prior to the ride.
Leg 1:
The weather had gone south (cool and wet again – not your typical Sydney summer) so we all fuelled up, fired up and hit the road (0201 timestamp on the start receipt although we didn’t get moving until 0213 as a group).
On departing Sydney, we hit some known roadworks on the way out but kept good time getting to Goulburn – 175km done. For some members of the team – they’d never been out this way so it was all new sights – including the Big Merino at our first stop – the Service Centre, South side of Goulburn. A quick fill and we were on our way again (timestamped 0355) and we were ‘on the road to Gundagai’.
Leg 2:
Originally, I had planned to stop at the ‘Dog on the Tuckerbox’ service centre, but having scoped it out the week before, I noticed the entry/exit roads weren’t that great so at the suggestion of one member shortly prior, we decided the South Gundagai service centre would be out stop. A few of the bikes had shorter ranges and we didn’t want to push it too hard/close. A quick stop for those needing fuel (another 170km done) and the sun was just starting to rise. For some unknown reason, my SPOT tracker turned itself off shortly after I checked in at Goulburn. Being diligent (my planned intention was to drop a message at each stop, whether I was taking on fuel or not), I noticed this when we stopped at Gundagai so was able to switch it back on and drop the ‘spot’ for that stop. The was the only time the spot did this on this ride (it has happened to me once before on another ride).
Leg 3:
I didn’t pick up fuel as I would normally have an open road range in excess of 300km however just as we got back on the highway – on comes the ‘low fuel’ warning. Now the Street 500 doesn’t have a fuel gauge and when that light comes on – there is a little over 3.1L in the 13.1L tank. I hadn’t taken into account the ‘extra burn’ in the rain and with the hills and the odo displays how many ks you’ve done since the light came on. Staying quiet on the group chat (we all run Cardos) and doing some mental maths – I knew it was going to be a close call with 90km to our scheduled Wagga Wagga stop and on we went – with running contingency planning going on in the back of my head. As we pulled into the outskirts I knew I was close to empty but the stop was on the other (west) side of town. At one point I made it through a set of traffic lights but the rest of the group didn’t – I pulled over to wait for them however on taking off, the bike dig that sickening lurch and then picked up and I knew it was time for fuel – our scheduled stop within my sights. 13.21L (got the receipt to prove it!) of fuel added to the tank and we are running on schedule and have hit the ¼ way through the ride. People are feeling good (and possibly in need of their morning coffee). For some, this is the furthest they had ridden in a day and it wasn’t even 7am.
Leg 4:
Off we went – 95km leg to Gillenbah/Narrandera. Nothing too eventful and finally the temperature was starting to lift. This was a short leg and was to be a short stop for those smaller tanks to top up and for everyone to change into their cooler riding gear. We made good time however for various reasons we spent a bit longer (but nothing excessive) at this stop. This is the one stop where we needed to make sure we used the ‘right’ service station as the reccy had determined that my usual stopping stop did not carry the required details on their receipts. A phone call to the alternate establishment the day before my first attempt had confirmed that they did include the necessary information so we were ‘good to go’.
Leg 5:
Now, the Hay Plains are well known to be a boring stretch of highway but nonetheless, here we were – flat, straight, easy riding. Some of the team take advantage of the location and start fo have a bit of a ‘play’ on the open road. Another 170km and we roll into Hay. After some stuffing around the which service station to use (some of us run 98RON and despite one service station advertising they have it – they didn’t, we shuffled down to the other station). At this point, we are still riding to within 10 minutes of the ride plan.
Leg 6:
Onwards towards the turn around point – Balaranald we go. By this point, everyone is pretty much in the groove and picking up fuel at each of the stops whether needed of not. My ‘first’ plan had us stopping in Balranald itself however I then did a replan shortly before the ride to stop at the BP roadhouse just outside of town (in town is 50kph whereas the roadhouse was in a 90kph zone) and this was to be our lunch break however on pulling into the roadhouse we noticed that the restaurant appeared closed so a quick chat and it was back to plan A and into town we went – about 15 minutes behind the ride plan. People were still feeling good and the conversation turned to lunch. At the suggestion of one of the group – It was decided that the café at the Information centre would be good for lunch. We spent more time here than planned (now running behind the ride plan by 30 minutes) but I figured a good lunch and rest might help later in the day and I knew we weren’t yet running hard up against the clock (although I was conscious that people’s fatigue clocks were ticking away quietly). Another 130km done and we were half way – but that was the easy half – we still had to get home. Interestingly, we compared odometer distances as the Rocket was measuring way under and I was concerned it might not register the ‘minimum necessary’ kms – that said, it was good at the roadhouse (my plan ‘A’ was also a backup if we needed to drop a few extra kms onto that bike to get it across the line).
Leg 7:
Back the way we came was the instruction. With the sun again on our backs (part of the plan) the ride was pretty straight forward with some members of the team continuing with their ‘fun’ on the open road. Some found this leg a little more difficult, I suspect the energy dip after having eaten might have bitten a few but we got into Hay without adding to the time deficit, fuelled up and where off again pretty quickly (inside 10 minutes).
Leg 8:
More of the same (as it the way with the Hay plains) as we made our way home. Gillenbah/Narrandera was the next stop.
It was this leg that also contained the only real ‘event’ of the ride. We were on the open road about 45km west of Narrandera, we’d just overtaken a smallish car and there was a sweeping left hand curve coming up in the distance. One of the other riders had overtaken me to lead for a while but I hadn’t yet switched (mentally) from ‘leading’ to ‘follow the leader’ mode with my eyes still focussed well into the distance. Across the intercom I hear a “….Is that a…?” at which point I yell into my intercom “Yes, THAT is a truck on our side of the road, STOP-STOP-STOP, everyone off the road!” which the group promptly did. We were fast closing in on a road train (B-Double) approaching us – after they rounded the bend they had commenced overtaking a convoy of three cars in close succession and were now side by side with the B-Double on ’our’ side of the road. I’ve seen this before (but not when on the bike) and I know this often doesn’t end well – the overtaking truck is committed and they aren’t about to pull out of the manoeuvre now. The best thing we can do is simply kill speed and create as much space (i.e. get out of the way). We did that and got on with the ride without further issue, after dropping a few ‘select’ expletives.
By this time we were starting to get quite efficient at our stops including when I paid I’d tell the cashier that each of the motorcyclists filling up would be needing receipts. It was now heading towards 4pm, we had made up some time on the road and were back on plan (in fact, slightly ahead) and still had plenty of sunlight left but I was conscious that people needed to keep in front of the hydration curve so we stopped at little longer than planned to make sure everyone had enough time to drink up.
Leg 9:
Well, the plan was to stop at Wagga Wagga after a 95km leg but as we pulled into town, a quick chat over the Cardos confirmed everyone was feeling good, fuel capacity was ok and no one was particularly hungry so we decided to push on to Gundagai (being only another 90km) away. Another ‘fast’ leg had put us in front of our ride plan and we were now ¾ of the way through the ride. We could see some wet weather up ahead (having come through the odd sprinkle on the leg just completed) however as we turned off the Sturt Highway and back on the Hume Highway the talk turned to rain -when and where was it going to hit us. About 15km out of Gundagai, down it came. Some pulled up to get their wet gear on, others decided to just push on through. Everyone knew where the next stop was so it was a case of ‘stay safe and regroup at Gundagai.’ Slowly, everyone pulled into Gundagai for fuel, often coming back on the Cardo comms channel before we could see them. Tanks were filled and it was decided that McDonald’s for dinner was in order. By this time, the first of the group were just starting to feel the onset of the effects of fatigue so we were doing our best to provide some ‘recovery time’ while being conscious that there was still a good few hours of riding ahead in what was going to be less than ideal conditions. Some fun was had at the McDonalds as their EFTPOS facilities were down, making it a ‘cash only’ venue, but we made it work and all were fed. This was again a planned longer stop but we were now running pretty close to schedule, having avoided the stop in Wagga Wagga and prior to leaving everyone got back into their wet gear to prepare for the dark, wet ride with temperatures now starting to fall.
Leg 10:
Departing Gundagai just after 7pm, we headed north. The 170km leg to Goulburn was cold and damp. We had to deal with nightfall and increased traffic. As we pulled into the service centre at Goulburn, my instructions were simple – fuel and hot drinks everyone (consciously breaking the golden rule of ‘no coffee’ as at this point in time, warmth was mor important and coffee wasn’t about to significantly dehydrate). We only had the final leg ahead of us, and we were only 5 minutes behind the ride schedule – absolutely nothing to be of concern in terms of the clock. The cardos lit up with groans and sighs as we all dismounted our iron horses – we were starting to feel it but it felt ok. We checked in on our member with the fatigue – he was doing ok but we set up some assistance (pacing) and support (ride lines) for the final leg.
The final leg:
Getting back on the bike for the final leg was not easy for the group with us all getting a little stiff and sore but with only 175km to go, the rain looking like it was easing (although I expected another downpour for the last 15 minutes of the ride) we were all in good spirits – the goal was in sight, we just had to look after each other and get the job done. We fired up and pulled out of Goulburn just after 9:20pm. Traffic was reasonably heavy heading back into Sydney but we kept good pace sticking together and calling through any overtaking manoeuvres to keep us together as much as possible. The traffic lightened as we turned onto the M5 and, as predicted, we hit our last patch of rain. We were already all suited up, more for wind protection to keep us all warm than anything else, so we rode on knowing that the final receipt was only 15 minutes away. As we pulled into our original start location there was both a collective sigh of relief (we did still all have to get home though) and a newfound energy. We topped off the tanks, got our receipts and took that all important last photo – mine being timestamped 23:14 with the odometer saying we’d done 1694km. After that there were big grins, hands shook and hugs as the reality of having ‘done it’ sunk in – the group was buzzing. We stood around chatting for a little while before all heading our separate ways home – most of us had work the next day with some starting at 5am.
They say hindsight is 20/20…
In the days that followed there was a lot of banter about the weekend with our extended group of riding friends. One in particular asked “What did we learn and what would we do differently?” – always a good question. Looking back my initial feeling was that everything pretty much went to plan. Two ’reccy’s had been done a fortnight apart (with the failed attempt on the weekend in between) and on both those ‘reccys’ the overnight temperature didn’t go below 21 deg C. Unfortunately, on both the failed attempt and the ride reported above, night time temps got down to 8deg C and 10 deg C respectively. So my initial response to the question posed was ‘I’d love to have had better control of the weather (but that I can’t control).’ I pondered the question a little longer over the next couple of days and ended up responding as follows “I was thinking/reflecting more on this question. One change I’d make in the future would be around planning meals. When I planned this ride I was thinking of me – I’m happy to grab something, anything almost anywhere, chomp down and move on. That’s me. But, what I didn’t consider was ‘the group’… ‘the group’ has needs/desires/wants…. And I hadn’t taken those into consideration (a lack of consultation?, consideration?) – and that’s on me. Breakfast was probably the biggie – I had a decent breakfast before I left home (basically I started my daily routine just a few hours earlier – including my morning coffee) – I probably assumed that others had but didn’t check. I hadn’t planned on a ‘stop’ for breakfast… my plan was to keep it light, grab a snack, banana and muesli bar 0 east quick and move on. That wasn’t for anyone/everyone. Similarly for lunch – I’d allowed a block of time buy ‘my’ plan was to grab something from the servo, eat quick and get moving again. Again, lack of consultation/consideration on my part – that’s on me and I thank the group for prompting me when ‘they’ had a need. What did work – knowing the plan and knowing when to be flexible to accommodate those needs. If you don’t satisfy those needs, they are going to come back and bite you later in the day (including breaking the long distance riding rule of “Don’t drink coffee” at the Goulburn stop on the way back.)”
My only other observations were that:
SpotWalla: The SpotWalla record of the ride is: https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/6997-95bc85b-2dfd/view
And finally, a shout out to the group – Anh, Serhat, Betty, Shaun and Bruce (They each have ‘their story’ and I hope I didn’t give too much of it away.) You are truly champions and I thank you for your support and encouragement in undertaking this mad journey with me. The trip was all the better for your presence and contribution and I can honestly say it was a pleasure to have had the opportunity (and your blind faith) to lead us on this crazy adventure. This is a ride I hope to remember for a long time – honouring the old saying ‘You always remember your first!”
Certification: For me, the ride was certified at 1660km (3km less than Google Maps suggests) with a receipt-to-receipt ride time of 21 hours and 13 minutes. The IBA team turned it around very quickly. The auditor/reviewer was also incredibly complementary on the manner in which we’d documented the ride and made our submissions.
Cameron (finally and officially an IBA Member).
- Close to home,
- Had a 24 hour petrol station
- Reasonably central for the various participants, and most importantly,
- 4 quick turns and we were on the M5 and up to motorway speeds.
Harley Davidson Street 500 (mine)
Honda Rebel 500
Honda CB400SF (still ‘to my ears’ the sweetest sounding bike ever)
Triumph Rocket III Tourer
BMW S1000R
Yamaha Niken GT
A look at the (two) ‘Big Lists’ suggests that an IBA ride has never been certified on the HD Street 500 (and only one has been certified on its big brother the Street 750).
The route planning was based around a journey I drive at least twice a year when our family drive overnight Sydney-Adelaide to visit relatives. Sydney-Goulburn-Gundagai-Wagga Wagga-Gillenbah-Hay-Balranald return. The advantage being I was able to ‘reccy’ the stop receipts and road conditions (including slow sections and those under repair) prior to the ride.
Leg 1:
The weather had gone south (cool and wet again – not your typical Sydney summer) so we all fuelled up, fired up and hit the road (0201 timestamp on the start receipt although we didn’t get moving until 0213 as a group).
On departing Sydney, we hit some known roadworks on the way out but kept good time getting to Goulburn – 175km done. For some members of the team – they’d never been out this way so it was all new sights – including the Big Merino at our first stop – the Service Centre, South side of Goulburn. A quick fill and we were on our way again (timestamped 0355) and we were ‘on the road to Gundagai’.
Leg 2:
Originally, I had planned to stop at the ‘Dog on the Tuckerbox’ service centre, but having scoped it out the week before, I noticed the entry/exit roads weren’t that great so at the suggestion of one member shortly prior, we decided the South Gundagai service centre would be out stop. A few of the bikes had shorter ranges and we didn’t want to push it too hard/close. A quick stop for those needing fuel (another 170km done) and the sun was just starting to rise. For some unknown reason, my SPOT tracker turned itself off shortly after I checked in at Goulburn. Being diligent (my planned intention was to drop a message at each stop, whether I was taking on fuel or not), I noticed this when we stopped at Gundagai so was able to switch it back on and drop the ‘spot’ for that stop. The was the only time the spot did this on this ride (it has happened to me once before on another ride).
Leg 3:
I didn’t pick up fuel as I would normally have an open road range in excess of 300km however just as we got back on the highway – on comes the ‘low fuel’ warning. Now the Street 500 doesn’t have a fuel gauge and when that light comes on – there is a little over 3.1L in the 13.1L tank. I hadn’t taken into account the ‘extra burn’ in the rain and with the hills and the odo displays how many ks you’ve done since the light came on. Staying quiet on the group chat (we all run Cardos) and doing some mental maths – I knew it was going to be a close call with 90km to our scheduled Wagga Wagga stop and on we went – with running contingency planning going on in the back of my head. As we pulled into the outskirts I knew I was close to empty but the stop was on the other (west) side of town. At one point I made it through a set of traffic lights but the rest of the group didn’t – I pulled over to wait for them however on taking off, the bike dig that sickening lurch and then picked up and I knew it was time for fuel – our scheduled stop within my sights. 13.21L (got the receipt to prove it!) of fuel added to the tank and we are running on schedule and have hit the ¼ way through the ride. People are feeling good (and possibly in need of their morning coffee). For some, this is the furthest they had ridden in a day and it wasn’t even 7am.
Leg 4:
Off we went – 95km leg to Gillenbah/Narrandera. Nothing too eventful and finally the temperature was starting to lift. This was a short leg and was to be a short stop for those smaller tanks to top up and for everyone to change into their cooler riding gear. We made good time however for various reasons we spent a bit longer (but nothing excessive) at this stop. This is the one stop where we needed to make sure we used the ‘right’ service station as the reccy had determined that my usual stopping stop did not carry the required details on their receipts. A phone call to the alternate establishment the day before my first attempt had confirmed that they did include the necessary information so we were ‘good to go’.
Leg 5:
Now, the Hay Plains are well known to be a boring stretch of highway but nonetheless, here we were – flat, straight, easy riding. Some of the team take advantage of the location and start fo have a bit of a ‘play’ on the open road. Another 170km and we roll into Hay. After some stuffing around the which service station to use (some of us run 98RON and despite one service station advertising they have it – they didn’t, we shuffled down to the other station). At this point, we are still riding to within 10 minutes of the ride plan.
Leg 6:
Onwards towards the turn around point – Balaranald we go. By this point, everyone is pretty much in the groove and picking up fuel at each of the stops whether needed of not. My ‘first’ plan had us stopping in Balranald itself however I then did a replan shortly before the ride to stop at the BP roadhouse just outside of town (in town is 50kph whereas the roadhouse was in a 90kph zone) and this was to be our lunch break however on pulling into the roadhouse we noticed that the restaurant appeared closed so a quick chat and it was back to plan A and into town we went – about 15 minutes behind the ride plan. People were still feeling good and the conversation turned to lunch. At the suggestion of one of the group – It was decided that the café at the Information centre would be good for lunch. We spent more time here than planned (now running behind the ride plan by 30 minutes) but I figured a good lunch and rest might help later in the day and I knew we weren’t yet running hard up against the clock (although I was conscious that people’s fatigue clocks were ticking away quietly). Another 130km done and we were half way – but that was the easy half – we still had to get home. Interestingly, we compared odometer distances as the Rocket was measuring way under and I was concerned it might not register the ‘minimum necessary’ kms – that said, it was good at the roadhouse (my plan ‘A’ was also a backup if we needed to drop a few extra kms onto that bike to get it across the line).
Leg 7:
Back the way we came was the instruction. With the sun again on our backs (part of the plan) the ride was pretty straight forward with some members of the team continuing with their ‘fun’ on the open road. Some found this leg a little more difficult, I suspect the energy dip after having eaten might have bitten a few but we got into Hay without adding to the time deficit, fuelled up and where off again pretty quickly (inside 10 minutes).
Leg 8:
More of the same (as it the way with the Hay plains) as we made our way home. Gillenbah/Narrandera was the next stop.
It was this leg that also contained the only real ‘event’ of the ride. We were on the open road about 45km west of Narrandera, we’d just overtaken a smallish car and there was a sweeping left hand curve coming up in the distance. One of the other riders had overtaken me to lead for a while but I hadn’t yet switched (mentally) from ‘leading’ to ‘follow the leader’ mode with my eyes still focussed well into the distance. Across the intercom I hear a “….Is that a…?” at which point I yell into my intercom “Yes, THAT is a truck on our side of the road, STOP-STOP-STOP, everyone off the road!” which the group promptly did. We were fast closing in on a road train (B-Double) approaching us – after they rounded the bend they had commenced overtaking a convoy of three cars in close succession and were now side by side with the B-Double on ’our’ side of the road. I’ve seen this before (but not when on the bike) and I know this often doesn’t end well – the overtaking truck is committed and they aren’t about to pull out of the manoeuvre now. The best thing we can do is simply kill speed and create as much space (i.e. get out of the way). We did that and got on with the ride without further issue, after dropping a few ‘select’ expletives.
By this time we were starting to get quite efficient at our stops including when I paid I’d tell the cashier that each of the motorcyclists filling up would be needing receipts. It was now heading towards 4pm, we had made up some time on the road and were back on plan (in fact, slightly ahead) and still had plenty of sunlight left but I was conscious that people needed to keep in front of the hydration curve so we stopped at little longer than planned to make sure everyone had enough time to drink up.
Leg 9:
Well, the plan was to stop at Wagga Wagga after a 95km leg but as we pulled into town, a quick chat over the Cardos confirmed everyone was feeling good, fuel capacity was ok and no one was particularly hungry so we decided to push on to Gundagai (being only another 90km) away. Another ‘fast’ leg had put us in front of our ride plan and we were now ¾ of the way through the ride. We could see some wet weather up ahead (having come through the odd sprinkle on the leg just completed) however as we turned off the Sturt Highway and back on the Hume Highway the talk turned to rain -when and where was it going to hit us. About 15km out of Gundagai, down it came. Some pulled up to get their wet gear on, others decided to just push on through. Everyone knew where the next stop was so it was a case of ‘stay safe and regroup at Gundagai.’ Slowly, everyone pulled into Gundagai for fuel, often coming back on the Cardo comms channel before we could see them. Tanks were filled and it was decided that McDonald’s for dinner was in order. By this time, the first of the group were just starting to feel the onset of the effects of fatigue so we were doing our best to provide some ‘recovery time’ while being conscious that there was still a good few hours of riding ahead in what was going to be less than ideal conditions. Some fun was had at the McDonalds as their EFTPOS facilities were down, making it a ‘cash only’ venue, but we made it work and all were fed. This was again a planned longer stop but we were now running pretty close to schedule, having avoided the stop in Wagga Wagga and prior to leaving everyone got back into their wet gear to prepare for the dark, wet ride with temperatures now starting to fall.
Leg 10:
Departing Gundagai just after 7pm, we headed north. The 170km leg to Goulburn was cold and damp. We had to deal with nightfall and increased traffic. As we pulled into the service centre at Goulburn, my instructions were simple – fuel and hot drinks everyone (consciously breaking the golden rule of ‘no coffee’ as at this point in time, warmth was mor important and coffee wasn’t about to significantly dehydrate). We only had the final leg ahead of us, and we were only 5 minutes behind the ride schedule – absolutely nothing to be of concern in terms of the clock. The cardos lit up with groans and sighs as we all dismounted our iron horses – we were starting to feel it but it felt ok. We checked in on our member with the fatigue – he was doing ok but we set up some assistance (pacing) and support (ride lines) for the final leg.
The final leg:
Getting back on the bike for the final leg was not easy for the group with us all getting a little stiff and sore but with only 175km to go, the rain looking like it was easing (although I expected another downpour for the last 15 minutes of the ride) we were all in good spirits – the goal was in sight, we just had to look after each other and get the job done. We fired up and pulled out of Goulburn just after 9:20pm. Traffic was reasonably heavy heading back into Sydney but we kept good pace sticking together and calling through any overtaking manoeuvres to keep us together as much as possible. The traffic lightened as we turned onto the M5 and, as predicted, we hit our last patch of rain. We were already all suited up, more for wind protection to keep us all warm than anything else, so we rode on knowing that the final receipt was only 15 minutes away. As we pulled into our original start location there was both a collective sigh of relief (we did still all have to get home though) and a newfound energy. We topped off the tanks, got our receipts and took that all important last photo – mine being timestamped 23:14 with the odometer saying we’d done 1694km. After that there were big grins, hands shook and hugs as the reality of having ‘done it’ sunk in – the group was buzzing. We stood around chatting for a little while before all heading our separate ways home – most of us had work the next day with some starting at 5am.
They say hindsight is 20/20…
In the days that followed there was a lot of banter about the weekend with our extended group of riding friends. One in particular asked “What did we learn and what would we do differently?” – always a good question. Looking back my initial feeling was that everything pretty much went to plan. Two ’reccy’s had been done a fortnight apart (with the failed attempt on the weekend in between) and on both those ‘reccys’ the overnight temperature didn’t go below 21 deg C. Unfortunately, on both the failed attempt and the ride reported above, night time temps got down to 8deg C and 10 deg C respectively. So my initial response to the question posed was ‘I’d love to have had better control of the weather (but that I can’t control).’ I pondered the question a little longer over the next couple of days and ended up responding as follows “I was thinking/reflecting more on this question. One change I’d make in the future would be around planning meals. When I planned this ride I was thinking of me – I’m happy to grab something, anything almost anywhere, chomp down and move on. That’s me. But, what I didn’t consider was ‘the group’… ‘the group’ has needs/desires/wants…. And I hadn’t taken those into consideration (a lack of consultation?, consideration?) – and that’s on me. Breakfast was probably the biggie – I had a decent breakfast before I left home (basically I started my daily routine just a few hours earlier – including my morning coffee) – I probably assumed that others had but didn’t check. I hadn’t planned on a ‘stop’ for breakfast… my plan was to keep it light, grab a snack, banana and muesli bar 0 east quick and move on. That wasn’t for anyone/everyone. Similarly for lunch – I’d allowed a block of time buy ‘my’ plan was to grab something from the servo, eat quick and get moving again. Again, lack of consultation/consideration on my part – that’s on me and I thank the group for prompting me when ‘they’ had a need. What did work – knowing the plan and knowing when to be flexible to accommodate those needs. If you don’t satisfy those needs, they are going to come back and bite you later in the day (including breaking the long distance riding rule of “Don’t drink coffee” at the Goulburn stop on the way back.)”
My only other observations were that:
- I had no back or butt pain during or after (I was stretching on the bike and during breaks) and I did use an ‘air-hawk’ on the seat.
- I didn’t appear to hit a ‘mental fatigue’ limit.
- I wasn’t particularly tired or sore in the days that followed although there was some generally ‘recovery’ in terms of missed sleep.
- Surprisingly/unexpectedly, I did lose a significant amount of hand/grip strength for about a week or so after the ride. The strength was still there when I got home from the ride but the next morning, I struggled to hold a butter knife and butter toast. This caught me completely by surprise and I’d never experienced it before (despite some 900km+ ride days). I now understand this likely to have been a result of overloading the ulnar nerve in the outside of my hand with bar vibrations. Having been on the bike since, I have managed to notice (due to the hand/bar geometry) the potential for pressure to be placed in that region. I guess you live and learn.
SpotWalla: The SpotWalla record of the ride is: https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/6997-95bc85b-2dfd/view
And finally, a shout out to the group – Anh, Serhat, Betty, Shaun and Bruce (They each have ‘their story’ and I hope I didn’t give too much of it away.) You are truly champions and I thank you for your support and encouragement in undertaking this mad journey with me. The trip was all the better for your presence and contribution and I can honestly say it was a pleasure to have had the opportunity (and your blind faith) to lead us on this crazy adventure. This is a ride I hope to remember for a long time – honouring the old saying ‘You always remember your first!”
Certification: For me, the ride was certified at 1660km (3km less than Google Maps suggests) with a receipt-to-receipt ride time of 21 hours and 13 minutes. The IBA team turned it around very quickly. The auditor/reviewer was also incredibly complementary on the manner in which we’d documented the ride and made our submissions.
Cameron (finally and officially an IBA Member).
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