The CB1100 Community Forum

Day 1
In early January, I put my wife on a plane to visit her daughter overseas and went riding for a few days with @Pterodactyl, [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=13844]a tale already told.

Then I came home.

I had an important social event and a doctor’s appointment and the bike needed a new rear tyre before I headed out for a couple of weeks riding. The Michelin PR3 rear is no longer available, so I decided on Bridgestone T31s, but my usual supplier wasn’t able to source them.

I was under the pump. A young lady, known on the Australian forum [url=http://www.netrider.net.au]Netrider as Valvoline, had booked me a room at the end of day 1 of a ride she was organising. Having completely ignored my request to cancel it, I felt I should make every effort to use it rather than pay to have it sit empty. Besides, I’m stingy.

Valvoline’s bike—a KTM 390—is known to her readers as ‘The Lawnmower’. Their adventures are many and varied and popular amongst the readers of ‘Seat Time’ like posts on Netrider.

It came to pass that, having sourced some tyres on 24 January, driven the wheels miles to have them fitted if they arrived, driven miles to collect them after lunch on 25 January, changed the disk pads and reinstalled the wheels, changed the oil, adjusted and lubed the chain, packed clothes and camping gear, I was on the road by 0600 on 26 January making my way to Valvoline’s favourite meeting spot at Nerang.

The only memorable moment on the ride down was a [url=https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chooch%20de%20louche]chooch de louche on a sports bike who passed me travelling at an instant-license-loss speed before cutting off a truck. I saw the truck’s brake lights come on and the faintest hint of a wiggle in the trailer. Even before I could begin to ponder the folly of cutting off something with the sheer mass of an articulated truck, the rider re-appeared to make an exit.

From the freeway.

I’m not confident of seeing him again.

I met Valvoline and another Netrider, JoshKTM, at Nerang. Having filled up, we set out for the Sphinx Rock Café for breakfast. Valvoline’s partner, Kaiser Soze, was busy that morning, but planned to catch up with us later in the day.

It got hotter and hotter all day, but it was a good ride. Kaiser Soze caught up with us at the service station in Armidale.

Map:

[url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZbapFkLEoD-NL6gZlOAqNge1ZTMdA5qL&usp=sharing]The Map.It’s actually the map of the entire first part of the ride. As usual you can toggle days on and off and zoom in and out should be so inclined

Leaving Nerang, we were quickly out of town.
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The photos above were taken on the Numinbah Valley Road where Cormanus achieved a milestone.

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Valvoline seems to collect people and we had soon acquired a tribe. They had no stamina, though, and abandoned us at the border with New South Wales

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Mt Warning

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Valvoline and JoshKTM inspect one of Australia’s better letterboxes

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JoshKTM’s travelling companion

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Somewhere along the Summerland Way

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JoshKTM

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Valvoline in her natural habitat
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Just as well her feet can’t reach the ground

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Oh, gawd we were clever. Carefully lined our bikes up in the shade at the BP in South Grafton and went inside to hydrate and eat. We came out after half an hour or so to find the sun had moved and the bikes were cooking. So much so that the petrol in the tank I’d just filled had expanded and some had spilled.

We stopped for a rest at Ebor Falls.
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Looked to be a storm brewing as we rode to Armidale

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We dodged this one

I’m a big fan of lateral thinking. Someone installed a new toilet in the Caltex Armidale and then discovered the door wouldn’t close. Easy fix.

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We didn’t dodge this cooling shower on the Uralla-Walcha Road, but it didn’t amount to much and was welcome. We passed a comfortable and suitably lubricated night in the Apsley Arms at Walcha. For dinner, I had lamb cutlets which would have been excellent if not drowned in gravy. But it was Australia Day and eating lamb is expected.
Day 2

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[url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZbapFkLEoD-NL6gZlOAqNge1ZTMdA5qL&usp=sharing]Link to map

With the forecast promising temperatures around 40ºC, I pondered which of the inland or coastal routes would be wiser. Neither looked inviting, so I chose the less trafficked route down Thunderbolts Way to Gloucester and Dungog, before heading to Maitland, Cessnock and Wollombi. I filled the bike with petrol and myself with water in Gloucester and stopped to eat in Dungog. Frequent stops for hydration were important.

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[i][size=small]Outside Walcha

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A pretty stand of Eucalypt along Thunderbolts Way
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Soon after the turn off to Nowendoc, the road starts to descend and the nature of the forest changes. It was cool and pleasant for riding until this point.

At Carson’s Lookout I took the last photos (bar one) I was to take that day. It was too hot.
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I planned to refuel at Millbank, but arrived to discover the place closed. I parked in a bus shelter and got off for a quick drink. My weather app said it was 40.7ºC. I tried to ride with the visor of my helmet open to allow air to circulate; but it don't work. The temperature of the air made it even more uncomfortable.
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A little further on, after Laguna—little more than a small shop, petrol station and bar, where I got fuel and plenty of water—it started to get cool. A change had come in and a cooling sea breeze made riding pleasant again.

I stopped for tea and a pie at the Old Road Café at Mt White and watched a storm approach. As there was no one much around, I moved the CB under cover.
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I shouldn’t have bothered. Not much rain fell and I soon left for Sydney where I spent the next day.

Another great road trip chronicle
Love the pictures and the story along the way
40C!!!! I wouldn't be able to handle that in riding gear. I was down there when it was 40-41C and could barley handle it in shorts and a light T-shirt!
Eskimo blood and all that don't you know

I understand wearing the equipment for reasons other than crash safety: Sun burn! We've all been there. But still, the sauna build-up inside, particularly when there is no air movement still makes me cringe sitting here even while -8C outside and 15 cm of fresh cold snow has fallen. Maybe the sauna-effect isn't as bad Down Under?? Certainly in southern Ontario summers, the energy-sapping humidity is unavoidable.

This was very enjoyable to read. And I didn't miss ...



Cute.

Always enjoy reading and viewing you riding adventures.

Blooming chooch de louche.

Good stuff as always Cormanus.

Can't imagine " touring" on a 390 Duke.

Great trip Cormanus! Mickey I was thinking the same thing about the Duke, especially for Josh

Another great chronicle Cormanus! Keep them coming.

(02-19-2019, 01:48 AM)The ferret_imp Wrote: [ -> ]Good stuff as always Cormanus.

Can't imagine " touring" on a 390 Duke.

(02-19-2019, 01:57 AM)Desert viper_imp Wrote: [ -> ]Great trip Cormanus! Mickey I was thinking the same thing about the Duke, especially for Josh

Apropos the discussion elsewhere about inseam length, the main reason Valvoline has the KTM is that she makes you and me look tall, Ferret. Josh, now, is a different kettle of fish. I have to say, though, having followed them all day, they manage to get along on them pretty well and could be hard to keep up with when the road got twisty.

That, of course, may be more a reflection of my riding ability.
Day 4

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[url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZbapFkLEoD-NL6gZlOAqNge1ZTMdA5qL&usp=sharing]Link to map

Day 3 was a no riding day spent in Sydney.

I met Pterodactyl via a ride to the lighthouse on Sydney’s South Head. After coffee and a chat about proposed routes, I headed south through the Royal National Park to Woollongong.

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The lighthouse on South Head

From Woolongong, it was up the Macquarie Pass to the Robertson Pie Shop for a chicken and leak pie.
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Then down the Kangaroo Valley Road …
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Across the bridge …
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A short length of the busy coast road to HMAS Albatross and thence up the much quieter and more enjoyable road to Braidwood and Tarago.
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All the while keeping a leery eye on the daily build up that could produce a good soaking.
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I overnighted at the Loaded Dog Hotel in Tarago where, as I recall, Inhouse Bob had his first encounter with Vegemite.
Day 5

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[url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZbapFkLEoD-NL6gZlOAqNge1ZTMdA5qL&usp=sharing]Link to map

Overnight I’d done some emailing and arranged to visit friends in Melbourne two days hence. I had a rough plan to get there which involved passing through Canberra to visit a virtual reality “Antarctica Experience”. My booking allowed me time to take a ride to the Mt Stromlo Observatory for a look. I then planned to get as far through the mountains as time would allow so I’d be two reasonable days ride from Melbourne.

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In the yard at the Loaded Dog ready to roll

The Australian Capital Territory is surrounded by wind farms. I find the huge mills strangely attractive.
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Lake Burley Griffin with the National Library in the background

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Filling in time with a side trip to the west of Canberra

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The Cotter Dam west of Canberra. Harrison Ford’s fate would have been quite different had he jumped from this one.

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[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Stromlo_Observatory]Mt Stromlo Observatory

The virtual reality tour of Antarctica was interesting, partly because it was the first VR experience I’ve had. It was also a pleasant hour and a bit in air conditioning.

Leaving Canberra, I rode to Cooma along a not very exciting road, all the while watching the build up of the afternoon’s entertainment.
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In Cooma, I ate, hydrated (it was hot again) and then made my way into the mountains.

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I stopped at the Sawyers Hill Rest Hut, but I can’t remember why.
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The Kosciuszko National Park is infested with brumbies (wild horses). They’re not native to Australia and cause immense damage. To preserve the natural habitat, they should shoot the lot, but a romantic attachment to horses and a national attachment to the Banjo Patterson poem [url=https://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/paterson-a-b-banjo/the-man-from-snowy-river-0001004]The Man from Snowy River makes it impossible. The plague of horses in the National Park is quietly being overtaken by a plague of deer, but that’s another story.
Signs warn motorists to look out for brumbies.
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Blow me down if I didn’t get around the next corner and meet this bloke and the 4 or 5 brumbies he was looking out for. First time I’ve met any.
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I stopped to take the photo and, as it was clear he was not going to move, rode quietly past his head. We maintained eye contact until I was safely past. I gave thanks for the gentle burble of the OEM exhaust system wondering what he might have felt about loud pipes.

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In winter this would be covered in snow

The Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme is an important source of electricity for mainland Australia. It’s currently being expanded to try to reduce the reliance on coal-fired generation. This is the entrance to one of the underground generation stations.
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Shortly after leaving the power station, nature delivered a few drops of rain, fulfilling the promise of the earlier build up. It looked as if it would be a light shower, which was not totally unwelcome, so I left my wets off. Bad call. By the time I reached O’Hares Rest Area, I was thoroughly soaked.

Luckily it was a pretty place for a rest.
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To digress for a moment, the grammarians amongst you will have noticed the oddity of O’Hares Rest Area. It should be O’Hare’s Rest Area, but the correct use of the simple apostrophe has defeated authorities in this country to the point where it’s been decreed it will not be used in its possessive sense in public nomenclature. Having, as I do, an apostrophe in my surname, it irritates the crap out of me.

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“Out came the sun and dried up all the rain”

By the time I got to the lookout with a view of the Snowy Mountains, I was hot again and largely dry.
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A notice at a look put about Australia’s first major civil aviation incident

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The Snowy Mountains

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One dousing a day is enough, and I was happy to have skipped this one. I stopped for the day at the Walwa Hotel. It did rain, but not much.

Day 6
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[url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZbapFkLEoD-NL6gZlOAqNge1ZTMdA5qL&usp=sharing]Link to map

It promised to be hot again and I was full of good intentions about getting on the road early. Like so many good intentions, they didn’t amount to much and it was around 0930 when I got under way.

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Walwa is on the southern bank of the Murray River which divides New South Wales and Victoria. I decided to pop over to Jingelic on the NSW side to check out a campground. I found a good one on the banks of the river next door to the pub.

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Back in Victoria, the CB inspects the Murray River.

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It’s a pretty ride west from Walwa along the banks of the Murray until you come to the man-made Lake Hume. The next couple of photos show it to be a bit short of water.
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Two letterboxes I found at the northern end of the Omeo Valley Highway

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Hiding in the shade at Mitta Mitta. It was getting very hot by then

This abandoned church at Granite Flat just south of Mitta Mitta was built from locally made bricks in 1875. For a time during the Australian Gold Rush, Granite Flat boasted about 500 miners. The last settler left the area in 1919. The last service held in the church was the funeral of one James Walsh in 1936.
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How could a motorcyclist not love a sign like this? What makes it even better is that it’s slightly misleading. It’s around 100 kilometers from Mitta Mitta to Omeo and very little of it is straight.

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Gotta love a good letterbox

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I stopped at Anglers Rest for water and something to eat. It was hot. As I finished lunch, these two bikes arrived. The bloke on the Triumph didn’t want to talk to me; but I had a pleasant enough chat with the other bloke. He had a neat ornament on the front mudguard of the Midnight Special. I think they were on the way to a big Triumph rally.
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It was still hot when I got back on the bike, but I noticed it getting cooler and cooler as I rode the 30 kms to Omeo. So much so that I stopped, put two layers in my jacket and donned heavier gloves. The weather app told me the temperature had dropped at least 15ºC.
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It didn’t rain, but it was cool and occasionally misty. I stopped for this photo which marked 100,000 kms that I had ridden on this bike. When I bought it, with 2,091 kms on the odometer, I had no idea I would spend as much time on it as I have; let alone that I’d ride it for 100,000 kms. It is thanks in no large measure to this forum and accepting an invitation from Pterodactyl that it has happened.
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Above: Misty conditions and some attractive alpine bush for the milestone photo opportunity

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Just west of the Mt Hotham township (largely deserted in summer), is this high point on the road

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Looking east from The Cross

If you follow the link to the full-size version of the following image, you will see the scar of the road I followed on the other (western) side of the valley. It is a reasonable ride to that point as the road follows the ridge to the lest in this photo.
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This photo shows the view from the western side of the valley looking back to where I took the one above.
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Soon after that, having stopped to strip out the thermal layers to deal with the rising temperatures, I set up my tent beside a stream in the Bright Caravan Park.
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To my delight, I walked out the back entrance to the park and discovered the local brewery. The woman behind the bar apologised and said the only food available was pizza or chips (fries to those in the US) as the kitchen staff were having a golf day to thank them for the efforts over the holiday season. The beer was welcome and the pizza surprisingly good.
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Day 7
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[url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZbapFkLEoD-NL6gZlOAqNge1ZTMdA5qL&usp=sharing]Link to map

Heading west from Bright, I wanted to ride up the Mt Buffalo Road which comes recommended, but didn’t think I could afford the extra 2 hours it would add to my trip. Next time.

It started out cool, but that didn’t last long and I stopped after about half an hour and returned to tropical riding attire. It was hot, flat and dry to Whitfield where I stopped for coffee and food.
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After Whitfield there’s a pretty climb up the hill ...
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... until you come to top of this enormous power pylon rising above the road. It’s more spectacular when you come upon it riding from the other direction, as you feel you're about to be hurled from a mighty precipice.
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After the pylon, there’s a little more bush and then more relatively flat, straight, riding to Marysville where you get to turn left on to the glorious Reefton Spur. It’s basically too much fun to be bothered taking photos as it winds its way through a lovely eucalypt forest. There are few advisory speed signs so the rider really has to concentrate on the road to get a sense of how to take the upcoming corners. It’s a lovely ride. Thanks, Aussieflyer, for introducing me to it.
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At Reefton, one is into the outer reaches of Melbourne. It was not too far to my destination of Ferntree Gully where I would largely spend days 8 and 9.
Day 9
It was too hot to do as I’d hoped and spend the day admiring the rear end of Aussieflyer’s bike as we rode around some of outer Melbourne’s more interesting roads. Aussieflyer generously gave up his afternoon to drive me to Healsville where we had an excellent lunch and an ale or two at a local brewery. He then took me along a lovely riding road to the St Andrews Hotel, where we took in another refreshing libation and admired the few bikes that were out and about.

Then it was to his home where I got to drool (discretely) over his CB.

Great day, Aussieflyer, I’m sorry we didn’t get a ride, but that was the next best thing for sure.

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I came across a bloke from the Australian Netrider Forum who I'd not met, and I thought this was his bike. It wasn't, but it was worth using up the strorage space for a picture.
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