Big Trip Monday

0630 Monday morning I am heading down to do the Putty, GOR, GAR, and any other iconic motorcycling road I can lay rubber on. Will update as I go. I am taking my laptop and every other electrical gadget known to man, so I should get lots of vids and pics. Feel free to butt in anytime and let me know of any roads or areas or must see / do things that you are aware of. I am going to camp mostly and get the odd motel room every now and then.

Regards

Sounds awsome. You'll love it.
And if you havnt done it before, you'll love the putty. Im having withdrawal symptoms cos i having riding it in a couple of months now.
But please do let us know how its all going. How long is the trip for?

Do you have a rough plan?

The Oxley (between Walcha and Wauchope) is a good road, the road from Grafton to Armidale was pretty good, I like thunderbolts way but it has some big holes in places at the moment.

I'm on holidays at the moment so might be able to ride a section with you.

I also enjoyed the road from Denman to Rylstone, maybe you can do different roads down and back and so get them all.

I can recommend the waterfall way, Dorrigo to Walcha .. and I beleive the Dorrigo Pub is a good accomodation.

I can ride a section with you .. I can PM you my phone numbers

I am coming down the New England Highway then joining the Putty and them taking the Bells line and heading to Jenolan. Two mates from here will be with me for about the first 2 days, then my son and I will break off and do our own thing and then rejoin them after the GP. One of them is going and one is not. I do have a plan , however it is subject to change depending on what we find interesting. I will be 2 up fully loaded so it's just a scenery run , not much scratching. We plan for 2 to 3 weeks and are planning to make the Bandit run at the end of October, all going well.

I look forward to running into any and all of you on our travels.

Yeah i really do hope we come across each other.
Bells is a pretty good road, but it can get a little busy on weekends. I forgot about the road from MT Vic to Oberon. Its also very very good.

As you may recall I am in Armidale, I am also on the contact list, so give me a buzz when you hit town, we could do lunch.

Dink

Well, best laid plans. What a balls up. Day 1 ran into a storm and had to stop at Toowoomba, so didn't make it to Armidale. Could not see 20 feet.

Day 2 More of the same, but didn't rain the whole day. Stayed the night at Singleton.

Day 3 Did the Putty Road, a bloke in the group ahead of us decided to see what would win in a fight between an R1 and a truck. Truck won. Headed to Bathurst and did a lap of the track. Still reasonably wet.

Day 4 Headed to Jindabyne in the rain. I am starting to curse NSW. Alpine way road was great although wet, still great though.

Day 5 Left Jindabyne in downpour and chose to head to Khancoban via Charlottes pass ( big mistake) , absolutely freezing and pouring and trees down on road. Just got through Corryong and the Police stopped us and told us to set up for the night as the road was blocked. Water was a 1m over the road. Again soaking wet and freezing.

Day 6 Has rained all night but road is open so we leave in the rain and IT ^%$^$&^ STARTS SNOWING WTF. Head to Albury and buy about a million dollars worth of brand new riding gear. Ahhhhhh. Headed to Torquay to do the GOR, intermittent rain.

Day 7 Did the GOR in the wet. And went to the 12 Apostles, which I think were great. Left there and headed to Bendigo. Just outside Bendigo the music stopped playing. This was because my pillion dropped my iphone onto the road at 100kmh. We know exactly where it fell and cannot find it. So I head into Bendigo to book a room.

Day 8 Am heading home.

Day 9 did the Western plains zoo and just rode.


Presently I am sitting in Armidale at a motel on the evening of Day 9.

All in all it was a very disappointing trip. My son and I had a really good time just being together though, even in the crappy times of which there were many.

Sorry for the massive dose of negativity, but.............

Oh and I got booked today by one of NSWs finest. He said if I apply for one I will probably get a caution as I haven't been booked for 17 years. Although I am unsure if any of those safety speeding and fatigue cams got me, I think I may have been photographed , not sure. I'm just a regular ray of sunshine atm.

After having gone to the SDRO site and looking at the form the Officer said to fill out. It would seem that being of "good character" is one reason they specifically will not consider. Why did he even ^%$&^ say it then.

I am so angry at myself for stuffing up. I'm sounding like a sook but this is really annoying me. I have had 12 points for 15 years or more dammit. My own stupid fault I suppose.

My brother had an infringement cancelled because of his "good driving record" because he hadn't had a ticket in something like 10 years, so it is definitely worth a go. This was only in the last year or two.

Sorry to hear that you had "one of those trips" my fault I guess, I've had 4 weeks holiday, usually I have to water the lawn in October but have had only a few fine/sunny days.

They always seem better when you look back later, hopefully this is the case.

Saikhan wrote:Well, best laid plans. What a balls up.

Mate thats why motorcycle touring is an adventure. Having said that I would have been pissed off too. Maybe you have had all the bad luck this time and the next one will be a pearler. Hope so anyway.

The iPhone could have ended up 100m from where it hit the deck but after something like that I think some things just vanish. I challenged a tree on my RF900R and picked up all broken bits except for the RH mirror which we couldnt find. I even went back a month or so later (to teach that corner a lesson) and I still couldnt find it

Plead your case with the fine. It does work. Not sure what the process is up there but I have been officially warned by letter here after a plea letter. And my driving record is not as clean as most

Sorry to hear you didnt have the worlds greatest trip.
Please dont let that stop you from giving it another go some time soon.

Too late I already paid it. I was speeding so fair enough I suppose. Anyway I think I'm over it

Yesterday on the way home (outside Stanthorpe) I looked at my rear tyre and the tread was shredding off and steel belt was visible everywhere, we limped into Stanthorpe and a very good shop ( Auto Two) did a change in 40 mins for me. Dropped everything and fixed mine. I rode the bike in and they removed the wheel and replaced it and didn't charge labour for the removal or refitting of wheel. Young bloke called John seems to be in charge. They only had one rear tyre that would fit (pilot power) but beggars can't be choosers.

Is it illegal to export soil and insect specimens across state lines, because I don't think NSW has any left. After I cleaned my bike today I even found some small feathers in under the tank.


Also thanks for the kind words guys, appreciate it.

Sounds like you had an Epic Adventure! At least you have something to talk about and you'll always remember that trip...

The best thing about those sort of trips is looking back at them, the bad ones make the good ones better.