The CB1100 Community Forum

As always, great narrative and photos Cormanus.

Cormanus, another great tale of two biker 'bros' livin' the life.

BTW your fuel economy seems amazing to me. My CB only gets 5.7 Lt/100 Km, probably all that Powercommander / Autotune stuff just messing with Honda's finely tuned instrument.

My fuel economy is way, way worse since I moved back to the city. Around town I often get between 6-7 litres/100km. I'm sure my average is what it is because of the amount of long-distance riding I do.

Cormanus you have way too much free time to ride Awesome read!

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Great narrative of a great ride... Thanks Cormanus!

How did I miss this thread? this is epic! Wait, isn't this the dead of winter for you???

Cormanus, you are like the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_O%27Brian#Aubrey-Maturin_series]Patrick O'Brian of CB1100forum.com and I mean that as the highest compliment. The richness and detail of your ride reports is unsurpassed, yet you avoid any semblance of mere reportage. I feel as if I've been immersed in Australiana, almost to the point of feeling like I was there. You've imparted a full measure of the sights, culture, geography, geology, terrain, climate, flora and fauna, history, economy, the Zen of CB1100 fuel economy, and the challenges and rewards making this epic ride. Thank you for taking the time to share these insights into a fabulous journey on two wheels!

Random thoughts:
[ul] [li]Broken Hill and The Palace look like bucket-list material[/li] [li]The Mad Max Museum...dystopia at its finest! Love Australian cinema...[/li] [li]The woolshed was absolutely fascinating. I really enjoy old wooden structures and equipment. Fascinating to think about the romance of the wool being carried south by paddle steamer on waterways long since vanished![/li] [li]Road trains! Wow[/li] [li]Bikes + campfires = awesome[/li] [li]Thanks for posting maps[/li] [li]Nice "ridecam" work[/li] [li]I'm gratified that you get out there and ride in the winter; waiting for ideal weather just means not riding in my book!
[/li][/ul]

Thank you all for the kind words. Stichill, the comparison to Patrick O'Brian is flatter indeed. Of the three British fiction writers on the Napoleonic navy that I'm familiar with—CS Forester, Alexander Kent and Patrick O'Brian—he was the best, I think. It's interesting because something came up about him recently and I learned of the controversy over his early life.

I'll have to go back to Broken Hill and spend some time there. There is lots to see and Pterodactyl and I saw very little of itas our riding trips tend to be about riding not sightseeing. If one were doing a bucket list visit, the time to go may well be early September when the [url=https://www.bhfestival.com/]Broken Heel Festival, celebrating all things Priscilla, is on. Friends of mine are going this year so I might see if I can get a report from them. Mid summer might not be so pleasant out west.

The Woolshed is pretty good. As an adolescent I spent a couple of days helping in working shearing shed. The Aussie shearer was a tough bloke and worked hard and long for not a lot of money. Manhandling heavy sheep all day is, as they used to say down here, 'hard yakka'.

On the question of winter, it is heading to the coldest part of the year now, but we're pretty blessed on mainland Australia in being able to ride pretty much all year round. Sure there are high bits that get covered in snow, but snow rarely falls anywhere near sea level on the coast, even in Tasmania. The temperatures don't get below freezing the way they do in parts of North America, so, if you're prepared to wear the right gear, all-year riding is no problem. As you can see from some of the photos, the weather can also be magnificent—clear sunny days mean you can go from multiple layers to manage wind chill on the bike to shirt sleeves if you can get out of the breeze. Except for the Friday to Sunday in Mildura where the weather was uncharacteristically gloomy, we had lovely weather.

In some ways, like those of you, for example, in Arizona and other warmer parts of the US, I'd prefer to ride in winter when I can rug up against the cold. When the temperatures get much above 32ºC the pleasure of riding starts to diminish.

I forgot to mention in the report that, while Pterodactyl and I were on the ride, water reached Lake Eyre where Donald Campbell set a land speed record of 403 mph in 1964 There's usually not a lot of water about; but, when there is, you get to plan for it way ahead of time as the water that flows into the lake lands 1,000 kms away and then runs along various ancient natural watercourses to get there. Birds come from all over the place and fish and plants that can lie dormant for years return to life. A possible bucket list trip for me is to go to Lake Eyre when the water arrives. If you're interested, there's a report [url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-26/lake-eyre-and-the-ancient-rhythms-of-our-red-centre/9864010]here.

I didn't have time to read this when it was written. Over the next couple of months (don't ask...) I'll have some time when I'll have the computer, plenty of time on hand and no Internet connection. I'm figuring out a way to download the whole thread for off-line reading, with due attention and great pleasure. Thanks.

I also had to reread it as i skimmed the 1st time mostly interested in the most interesting photo's . what a wonderful read and so well written it almost makes you think your there minus the dust and dead animal smell

here in the southern US we have a long history of problem solving that actually had a very none politically correct name that is better to have gone by. however when implemented it would have solved your broken snap problem in most haste by using Duct Tape or for a more high tech repair Gorilla Tape