As promised, the following are my notes on my preparation for this attempt and a summary of events leading into and Day 1 of the ride.
Trusting this may be of assistance to other LD riders in their preparation for multi day rides.
Ride Plan. As previously acknowledged, I planned to use the Lynne and Fatman Ride Plan from their ride in 2019. My reasons for this included the following:
A major service was completed in mid-August and included a new battery and new Dunlop Trailmax Mission tyres. (more on these later)
I arrived in Melbourne on the Friday afternoon, which allowed me a full rest day (Saturday) ahead of departure on Sunday morning.
On Friday afternoon, news broke that the Bruce Highway north of Gin Gin was closed due to a major incident/explosion, with a detour in place up through Monto. My grateful thanks to Giggle (Paul Giggs) in QLD who was providing me information on this and what it might mean for the ride. While I was comfortable with the additional km’s required for this detour, I was worried about the time it would take and the potential loss of sleep on Day 2 leading into Day 3. My best assessment at the time this detour (assuming it was still in place) could lead to a 2-3 hr time loss. Not ideal, but also there was no certainty around the extent of the detour and how long it would be in place.
In addition to this, the weather forecast for Victoria and SE NSW was dreadful with extreme winds and rain forecast.
Other than worrying about this, I was well rested on the Saturday and went to bed early in anticipation of getting a good sleep ahead of the ride start.
Alas that was not to be. I must have eaten something that disagreed with me, plus there was a function on at the motel, with the corresponding level of noise that kept me awake. Finally, at 10:30pm I abandoned any thought of sleep and finished packing the bike, checked the latest on the Bruce Highway closure, before making my way to the start point at the BP Truckstop in Officer, Victoria.
A real highlight for me was seeing Fatman, Lynne, Derek (Wildman) and Hackle at the BP Truckstop. We shared some notes and laughs, I appreciated the gifts of a bag of nuts and the Vaseline (Lynne can explain) and all too soon, it was time to depart with Hackle leading the way out into the darkness.
The Ride. Day 1
Officer to Bairnsdale went very well. It was super windy, and I was worried about trees being down, but the stars were out and we made good progress. Hackle is a great pace man! We did have company at one point near Moe when a Highway Patrol did a u turn ahead of us and sat quietly a few hundred meters ahead until the next town when he (?) departed the highway. Fueled up at Bairnsdale, waved goodbye to Hackle and continued on my way to Lakes Entrance.
From Lakes Entrance to Eden, it was incredibly windy. The good news was there was no traffic and I had the aux lights on full for almost the entire leg of this trip. In the forests past Orbost I hit a small tree branch which got tangled up in the front and gave me a good smack on the foot, which hurt as it exited out the left side. The other thing of note was how variable the temperatures were. It would go from 2 degrees up to 15 degrees and then back down to 2 degrees. Rolled into Eden slightly ahead of schedule and was pleased to see the servo open. All went to plan, and I was fuelled up and back on Highway 1 efficiently.
Eden to Sydney, the kms rolled by comfortably, reasonably light traffic for a Sunday and I made good progress through to Engadine. This is where the Sydney traffic kicked in and it was just a matter of patience while threading my way through this part of the ride. I used to drive this route during the late 90’s for work so was very comfortable with the route. The temperatures got up to the high 20’s through Brighton Le Sands, and I was glad to pull into the Chatswood service station to fuel up and rehydrate.
Sydney to Newcastle to Taree. Heading up through the Pacific Highway to the M1 all was well, the traffic was heavy but flowing and once back on the M1 north of Hornsby I settled back into the freeway rhythm. It was at this point the cruise control started dropping out at odd times, usually over a large bump or crossing a bridge. There was no consistency with this at all, sometimes it would happen, other times all was well. Weird, but just another thing to consider while riding. Once through the Newcastle traffic at Beresfield and heading north, the error messages started to flash up on the screen consistently, (ABS and Traction Control errors) combined with the cruise control dropping out. Having stopped a few times to reset the bike (switch off/switch back on), the engine fault message flashed up on the screen. OK, this is not good, and I need to stop and take stock of what’s going on, as this can’t continue.
Fortunately, I was near the truck stops at Coolongolook, NSW, so nursed the bike to there, praying this was doing no damage to the engine. I let the bike sit for a few minutes and then ran the engine again, but the warning light was still there. Damn, I mulled over the implications of this, and after a few minutes made the call to Roadside Assist, who were excellent in providing advice and arranging for a tow to the nearest BMW dealer and accommodation for me for the evening. Long story short, for me the ride was over, and my focus was now on addressing the bike issues.
The bike was delivered to Rocks in Port McQuarrie on Monday and they were excellent in looking at it, with a diagnosis being a problem with the front wheel ABS sensor/ring. There wasn’t an easy explanation for the engine fault message and after a thorough check and road test by the mechanic we felt the engine was fine, with the error messages cleared and no longer occurring. (famous last words!)
Ox and Tigerbill gave me a lift from Taree to Rocks on the Tuesday, thanks fellas, it was great to see you again and that trip passed way too quickly! I set off back to Sydney, where I overnighted with family and then rode home to Canberra on Tuesday, collecting a few Gran Turismo locations along the way. (this trip hadn’t been a total waste of time) Unfortunately, the cruise control and ABS/Traction Control faults came up again, and at this stage remain to be remedied. Advice from the Canberra workshop is the front wheel ABS ring had a slight bend/dent in it. This will be replaced next week, and then I will retest the bike on a longer day ride. Further update to follow.
Post ride thoughts and reflections. While Day 1 wasn’t going that well, the question of what to do on Day 2 with the Bruce Highway closure was also weighing heavily on my mind. A detour was definitely in place, and what was most important to me was how much extra time this was going to take and the impact on the scheduled rest time.
It now seems highly likely given the volume of traffic on the is detour, I would have lost a considerable amount of time (in excess of 3 hours). Given I hadn’t slept the previous night, this would not have been ideal, so in all likelihood the Day 1 mechanical issues ultimately meant I dodged a larger problem on Day 2 and Day 3.
Without recognising it during Day 1, I was becoming dehydrated. A combination of a mildly upset stomach and the heat in Sydney. This manifested in severe leg cramps etc on Sunday night.
The tyres I had selected for this ride were Dunlop Trailmax Missions. They come highly recommended for there longevity and all-round suitability for the range of conditions I was likely to encounter on this ride. Frankly I struggled with them, they are good, but I just couldn’t get comfortable with how they felt while riding. Will I use them on the next attempt? Maybe….
Lastly but by no means least, and most importantly, there are so many people to thank for their advice, support, encouragement but also the difficult discussions had/listening to my whining when things weren’t going well on Day 1, and what lay ahead for Day 2 and 3. It’s greatly valued and appreciated.
There will be another attempt, maybe autumn 2025, but for now I have some bike issues to sort out!
Trusting this may be of assistance to other LD riders in their preparation for multi day rides.
Ride Plan. As previously acknowledged, I planned to use the Lynne and Fatman Ride Plan from their ride in 2019. My reasons for this included the following:
- The east coast portion of the ride is dealt with at the start of the ride, followed by.
- Day 3. Barkley Homestead to Borroloola to Darwin. I felt it best to ride this early to mitigate the risk associated with these roads.
- Reasonable rest times every night of 4-5 hours
- A continency at the back end of the ride, which if required could be used earlier.
- The K1600GT was a very close call, due to its existing farkles, specifically the aux tank providing an extended range but with 140, 000kms on the clock I was worried about reliability. (ironic huh?)
- The R1200 RT and the Goldwing were discounted also, primarily due to their smaller fuel ranges, and the need to carry more spare fuel, and a general lack of comfort across the multi day rigours of this ride. (especially the Goldwing!)
- That left the R1200GSA as the logical choice. Having owned this bike from new and completed a few multi day LD rides, plus the bigger 30 litre tank combined with the adventure tourer suspension, made this an ideal choice for me for this ride. I also carried an extra 12 litres of fuel.
A major service was completed in mid-August and included a new battery and new Dunlop Trailmax Mission tyres. (more on these later)
I arrived in Melbourne on the Friday afternoon, which allowed me a full rest day (Saturday) ahead of departure on Sunday morning.
On Friday afternoon, news broke that the Bruce Highway north of Gin Gin was closed due to a major incident/explosion, with a detour in place up through Monto. My grateful thanks to Giggle (Paul Giggs) in QLD who was providing me information on this and what it might mean for the ride. While I was comfortable with the additional km’s required for this detour, I was worried about the time it would take and the potential loss of sleep on Day 2 leading into Day 3. My best assessment at the time this detour (assuming it was still in place) could lead to a 2-3 hr time loss. Not ideal, but also there was no certainty around the extent of the detour and how long it would be in place.
In addition to this, the weather forecast for Victoria and SE NSW was dreadful with extreme winds and rain forecast.
Other than worrying about this, I was well rested on the Saturday and went to bed early in anticipation of getting a good sleep ahead of the ride start.
Alas that was not to be. I must have eaten something that disagreed with me, plus there was a function on at the motel, with the corresponding level of noise that kept me awake. Finally, at 10:30pm I abandoned any thought of sleep and finished packing the bike, checked the latest on the Bruce Highway closure, before making my way to the start point at the BP Truckstop in Officer, Victoria.
A real highlight for me was seeing Fatman, Lynne, Derek (Wildman) and Hackle at the BP Truckstop. We shared some notes and laughs, I appreciated the gifts of a bag of nuts and the Vaseline (Lynne can explain) and all too soon, it was time to depart with Hackle leading the way out into the darkness.
The Ride. Day 1
Officer to Bairnsdale went very well. It was super windy, and I was worried about trees being down, but the stars were out and we made good progress. Hackle is a great pace man! We did have company at one point near Moe when a Highway Patrol did a u turn ahead of us and sat quietly a few hundred meters ahead until the next town when he (?) departed the highway. Fueled up at Bairnsdale, waved goodbye to Hackle and continued on my way to Lakes Entrance.
From Lakes Entrance to Eden, it was incredibly windy. The good news was there was no traffic and I had the aux lights on full for almost the entire leg of this trip. In the forests past Orbost I hit a small tree branch which got tangled up in the front and gave me a good smack on the foot, which hurt as it exited out the left side. The other thing of note was how variable the temperatures were. It would go from 2 degrees up to 15 degrees and then back down to 2 degrees. Rolled into Eden slightly ahead of schedule and was pleased to see the servo open. All went to plan, and I was fuelled up and back on Highway 1 efficiently.
Eden to Sydney, the kms rolled by comfortably, reasonably light traffic for a Sunday and I made good progress through to Engadine. This is where the Sydney traffic kicked in and it was just a matter of patience while threading my way through this part of the ride. I used to drive this route during the late 90’s for work so was very comfortable with the route. The temperatures got up to the high 20’s through Brighton Le Sands, and I was glad to pull into the Chatswood service station to fuel up and rehydrate.
Sydney to Newcastle to Taree. Heading up through the Pacific Highway to the M1 all was well, the traffic was heavy but flowing and once back on the M1 north of Hornsby I settled back into the freeway rhythm. It was at this point the cruise control started dropping out at odd times, usually over a large bump or crossing a bridge. There was no consistency with this at all, sometimes it would happen, other times all was well. Weird, but just another thing to consider while riding. Once through the Newcastle traffic at Beresfield and heading north, the error messages started to flash up on the screen consistently, (ABS and Traction Control errors) combined with the cruise control dropping out. Having stopped a few times to reset the bike (switch off/switch back on), the engine fault message flashed up on the screen. OK, this is not good, and I need to stop and take stock of what’s going on, as this can’t continue.
Fortunately, I was near the truck stops at Coolongolook, NSW, so nursed the bike to there, praying this was doing no damage to the engine. I let the bike sit for a few minutes and then ran the engine again, but the warning light was still there. Damn, I mulled over the implications of this, and after a few minutes made the call to Roadside Assist, who were excellent in providing advice and arranging for a tow to the nearest BMW dealer and accommodation for me for the evening. Long story short, for me the ride was over, and my focus was now on addressing the bike issues.
The bike was delivered to Rocks in Port McQuarrie on Monday and they were excellent in looking at it, with a diagnosis being a problem with the front wheel ABS sensor/ring. There wasn’t an easy explanation for the engine fault message and after a thorough check and road test by the mechanic we felt the engine was fine, with the error messages cleared and no longer occurring. (famous last words!)
Ox and Tigerbill gave me a lift from Taree to Rocks on the Tuesday, thanks fellas, it was great to see you again and that trip passed way too quickly! I set off back to Sydney, where I overnighted with family and then rode home to Canberra on Tuesday, collecting a few Gran Turismo locations along the way. (this trip hadn’t been a total waste of time) Unfortunately, the cruise control and ABS/Traction Control faults came up again, and at this stage remain to be remedied. Advice from the Canberra workshop is the front wheel ABS ring had a slight bend/dent in it. This will be replaced next week, and then I will retest the bike on a longer day ride. Further update to follow.
Post ride thoughts and reflections. While Day 1 wasn’t going that well, the question of what to do on Day 2 with the Bruce Highway closure was also weighing heavily on my mind. A detour was definitely in place, and what was most important to me was how much extra time this was going to take and the impact on the scheduled rest time.
It now seems highly likely given the volume of traffic on the is detour, I would have lost a considerable amount of time (in excess of 3 hours). Given I hadn’t slept the previous night, this would not have been ideal, so in all likelihood the Day 1 mechanical issues ultimately meant I dodged a larger problem on Day 2 and Day 3.
Without recognising it during Day 1, I was becoming dehydrated. A combination of a mildly upset stomach and the heat in Sydney. This manifested in severe leg cramps etc on Sunday night.
The tyres I had selected for this ride were Dunlop Trailmax Missions. They come highly recommended for there longevity and all-round suitability for the range of conditions I was likely to encounter on this ride. Frankly I struggled with them, they are good, but I just couldn’t get comfortable with how they felt while riding. Will I use them on the next attempt? Maybe….
Lastly but by no means least, and most importantly, there are so many people to thank for their advice, support, encouragement but also the difficult discussions had/listening to my whining when things weren’t going well on Day 1, and what lay ahead for Day 2 and 3. It’s greatly valued and appreciated.
There will be another attempt, maybe autumn 2025, but for now I have some bike issues to sort out!
