G’day to you all,

In February I rode to the Australian WSBK round at Phillip Island, Victoria. I combined this with a little touring around Southern NSW and Victoria. Most of the roads I had ridden before but I hadn’t seen the Great Ocean Rd for many years, so that was as good as a first ride. One of the roads I had intended to ride was closed due bush(wild)fires. This was the Barry Way, from Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains, through the Ingebirah State Forest, to Omeo. This road is real wilderness, very little population and with about 160kms of dirt. It is on my bucket list and I will save it for a planned ride to the Australian MotoGP later this year.

I won’t bore you with a km by km description but will, instead, write a short summary with a few photos. Click on the day by day headings in red for hyperlinks to maps.

The weather was variable, from stinking hot to cold and raining. Of course cold (and hot too I suppose) is relative, so to many of you emerging from the northern winter +10deg C and wet is probably balmy, so please indulge me. 360kms 6hrs 30 mins

Very hot, 35+deg C.  Total fire bans State-wide.  Cooking inside my leathers. Maybe I should be in jeans and teeshirt. But maybe not. The first section was through the Royal National Park just south of Sydney.  Wonderful road but very conservatively speed limited and heavily policed.  At Stanwell tops came across:

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With Oldie and Two Wheel Winnebago


Opened up the CB on the Nowra - Braidwood Rd and then after Braidwood headed to the Wyanbene Caves area on the Braidwood – Cooma Rd. A good ride through the Deua wilderness with about 40kms of dirt. Camped here:

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Soft grass. No rain. Looking good.

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The bush is tinder dry, and temperature still 30deg C, thus a total fire ban in force , including liquid stoves. No cooking at all so had a cold dinner and breakfast. There was no one to check on me but would hate to be responsible for burning umpteen thousand square miles of forest. And the CB!

[url=http://goo.gl/ksVcl6]Day 2: Wyanbene Caves to Bombala NSW

484kms 7hrs 55mins
Started the day badly. Ambition exceeds ability when, after about 15kms on the dirt, I took a downhill negative camber at about 70kmh and I got the wheels in an erosion rut. Remember that old, but wise, saying: “If in doubt, power out”? I guess I didn’t. I probably touched the rear brake. The inevitable happened and I found myself under the right side sliding off into the bush and rapidly becoming part of the scenery. I believe I may have uttered an expletive at this point. Fortunately there were no immovable objects in the strike zone and I came to a halt in the roadside dirt, under the bike with no significant damage to myself. Untangled myself and got us both upright. A check revealed all of me working well but a little bruised on the right forearm and hip. My right boot was full of dirt and gravel and leathers a little scuffed on the right forearm and hip area. (Thinks: Thank you Mr Dainese! I should send you a carton of good Aussie beer.) The CB was not too badly hurt. Right side mirror totally destroyed, gravel rash to the frame tube directly under the engine and to the engine case right side. The underside of the muffler was scratched and slightly dinged but not obviously so. Well not from the top anyway. I believe the CB was well protected by the soft luggage and me.
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Mmmmm........"Hullo Mr Staintune, do you have a.........?"

Took a deep breath, a drink of water, put a dressing on a minor scuff on my right elbow, buried the right side mirror remains, dusted myself off and continued on towards Cooma. No photos as I was just a tad pissed off with myself and didn’t need to be reminded at a later date. Those of you who are observant will see a generic type $20 mirror fitted in photos taken for the next few days. I got the mirror in Cooma. It was RH thread so I had to remove the LH thread mounting adaptor and fit the mirror directly to the brake reservoir.

From Cooma took the long way to Bombala, via Cabramurra (Australia’s highest town) and Jindabyne. A fantastic ride. Through to Jindabyne full of mountain twisties and then the Snowy River Highway to Bombala giving long straights and big sweepers to clear the cobwebs out of the headers.
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Tooma Rd, near Tumut Pond Reservoir. Do not, I say DO NOT, go over the edge. If you do then you better leave a note

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Snowy River Rd - Warp speed, licence endangering Km after Km

Camped the night on the riverbank in Bombala within walking distance of the pub. Pub-grub and a beer or two (to wash the dirt and gravel from the back of the throat) then a good nights sleep.

[url=http://goo.gl/8q9i07]Day 3: Bombala NSW to Inverloch Vic

515kms, 6 hours 36 mins
Both the Bonang Highway and Barry Way were closed ‘cause of bushfires so a dead boring run down the Princess Hwy to Sale, then country roads to Cape Liptrap (Plan A). At Sale, get the wets on quick! The weather turned to storm, rain and intermittent small hail powered by 50kts of southwest wind. Riding in this weather was uncomfortable (bloody scary). A wet road and reduced visibility with the wind at full blast then blanked off by stands of trees. All OK with some speed and momentum as the CB looked after itself, but in the slower stretches it was not so sure footed. Plan A was a nice little beach side camp, Bear Gully, on Cape Liptrap, but the wind and rain made setting up my tent impossible. And as an aside to those who may wonder - Bear Gully is not a big deal in Oz as the bears are of the Koala variety, rather than Brown, Grizzly or Polar!

So Plan B went into effect. A motel in Inverloch with hot food, a beer with a rum chaser and another good nights sleep.

[url=http://goo.gl/va0JHO]Day 4: Inverloch Vic to the Temple of Blood and Thunder - Phillip Island

50kms 43mins
Early morning start out of Inverloch and set up my tent at the Philip Island circuit. Rain showers but clearing to a great day.

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Can get windy here - note the lone tree.

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Rain showers, but looking gooood.

See you soon with Part 2 (the Temple of Blood and Thunder)
Cheers

If I'm telling lots of you something you already know, I'm apologize.

I went off to buy a new helmet the other day. I was particularly looking at the Bell Revolver Evo because I thought a flip-up helmet might save me taking my glasses on and off when I put it on. It didn't so I looked at others and ended up buying a Shark Speed-R full face helmet. For those, like me, who need to wear glasses all the time, the helmet is great as it has been specially designed with us in mind. The lining at the point where the wings of the glasses go in is carefully designed to make it easier.

It's a great improvement on it's predecessor KBC.

Thank you for reading.

I saw my first CB1100 in the wild today. I was in Saginaw, (North of Ft. Worth), this evening around 7pm local time, on Hwy 287 bus. He was riding northbound on a 2013 CB1100. We were probably 3 or 4 lanes apart, but I saw him and I'm sure he saw me. I nearly veered into the shoulder watching him pass.

A few forum members from Texas do not list their City/Town. If the rider is a member, we are pretty close. Would love to meet another CB1100 owner in the wild and compare notes.


Cheers

This is the future; anyone wanting to know how ECU tuning is done, click away...

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gCp1BNHhS68]Flash Tune Explained

The other cool thing about the ECU tuners is that all of them, that I've heard about at any rate, offer a free lifetime reflash of your ECU if you modify the bike further, that is, if you do your reflash to a stock bike, and then later add a full system or slip-on, or whatever, you send your ECU back, tell them what you've done to your bike, and they'll reflash it again to match the new configuration.

Of course this is depending on them having a "flash" for your new setup; very easy with most sportbikes since there are a multitude of machines out there being tuned, but if your "flasher" is nearby, you can just run on over and they'll redo it for free. So your $499 gets you free "flashes" for the life of the bike.

So stoked!

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/...?dssReturn

Says the bike should be here later this week...... Weather here has been warming up and drying out. Very excited. I will keep everyone posted.

I know, all this forum needs right, another "here's my new bike" thread.
(no offence to those posting there new bike, I love these threads and I live vicariously through you)

Does anyone know of a U.S. source for braided lines/banjoes (custom length)? I'm looking at a couple different bar/riser combinations, and stock won't work. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

bummer! went under the seat yesterday to get an allen wrench from the "tool kit" and all I found was a two-sided screwdriver, a fuse puller, and one allen wrench for the side covers! Called the dealer and he said "no tool kits installed on Honda's since 2004". He didn't know why and i don't either. For the price of a new bike, a kit seems like a no brainer for roadside emergencies! What gives?

Have any of you used this company's cruise control kits before? Would any of you have interest in such a kit for the CB1100 to maybe coax the owner to make a kit?

http://www.mccruise.com/

I really like the 2014 CB1100 Deluxe, but was hoping to have real cruise control on my next bike. (Any fun roads are very far from where I live). I contacted the owner of McCruise and asked if he had any intent to develop a kit for the CB1100, but he said no, he had no plans. He made a kit for the CBF1000 and has only sold a handful. IE his general (and probably correct) assumption is that naked bikes and their owners are not really in the market for such a device. Likely due to cost and also that naked bikes have no body work to "hide" the equipment. There is a general kit that one can buy and install on anything, but I don't think I have the skills or patience to figure that out.

McCruise does make a kit for the 2009+ Bonneville. But you can see a lot of the cruise hardware is visible after the install and to some extent clutters the "look".

I know there are throttle locks and cramp buster paddles that help on long interstate rides, but after riding my brothers Victory cruiser with real cruise control, I got a little envious of that feature.

so im considering adding a bike. im looking for something that me and mrs can ride 2 up comfortably over the road.
she is showing some interest in learning to ride too , but is 5ft and barely toe touches with my cb.

the cb is great and we both enjoy riding but my but gets soar after an hour and the wind at higher speeds bothers me.

i am partial to hondas cars, bikes , 3 wheelers mostly all ive owned.

never owned a cruiser