Tassie Ride December 2011

As some of you guys may have noticed, I have mentioned I was planning a ride around Tassie for some time.

Here is the ride report.

Bikes , 2011 GSX1250FA, 2006 GSX750 or teapot, 2009 SV650s (lams version)

On Thursday 1st December the three of us left my place in Carrum Downs Vic at about 4pm. Rode up the Frankston Freeway and made our way over to Beach Road. Following Beach road to Station Pier. Now the Spirit of Tassie people will tell you that the gates open and loading commences at 5pm. This is only partly true, they don't start loading the public until 6pm! So we had a long wait on the pier in the sun until we were instructed to board.

On the Ferry they tie the bikes down well. The straps they use go across the handlebar and down to cleats on the deck ( I wish I had taken a photo) They didn't seem to pull down the front forks excessively, and the straps were well away from touching the fairings. We had a fairly smooth sailing and the bikes didn't move.

Arriving in Devonport we quickly left the city and headed west to Somerset along what is mostly 110kph freeway. At Somerset we topped up the tanks and head south along the Murchison Hwy taking in the twisties at Hellyer Gorge. The Murchison Hwy in this section is pretty broken up, lots of patchwork, pot holes, broken edges and loose gravel, but it is sealed and we did manage to maintain a reasonably good pace.

Rest stop on the Muchison Hwy


After stopping for a break we turned off the Murchison and headed up to Cradle Mountain, the road here is in much better nick and we managed some good speeds getting up there.

One the road to Cradle Mountain, Cradle Mountain in the distance


After leaving Cradle Mountain we headed back to the Murchison and continued on south stopping again at the Macintosh Dam head near Tullah

Back on the bikes we head to Zeehan and then onto Strahan. We Arrived at Strahan at about 3pm, refuelled and found our Cabin for the night. We had an excellent dinner at the Strahan pub.

Saturday we woke to the sound of rain. We knew we would get some but after such a great day yesterday it was such a disappointment. We donned the wet weather gear and got going. Heading out slowly towards Queenstown. At Queenstown with me in the lead I half expected a request to stop, unfortunately our Scala Rider headsets weren't working as expected and the guy on the SV didn't get his message to me until we were heading out up the windy uphill road out of town. By now the drizzle had turned to rain and I had to continue on until I could find a safe place to stop. While stopped waiting I watched a bike come around one of the lower hairpin bends and go down! It was Stewie on the SV his front wheel slipped out as he came around the bend and he came down. Luckily it was a slow fall and he wasn't badly hurt. Unfortunately the bike suffered a little worse. He'd snapped the end off the gear shifter, broken the LHF indicator and cracked the fairing. After a rest Stewie said he could still ride it by putting his foot under and over the gear shifter lever. I admire him for his attitude and tenacity. we got going again continuing on slowly, other bikes passing us until we arrived at the Derwent Bridge Pub.

So much for wet weather gear my gloves were soaked through, my pants had let water pool in front of me while sitting on the bike until it eventually soaked through making me look like I'd pissed myself . Not as bad as the other two though, who along with having soaked gloves also had wet feet. We tried drying off the gear in front of the pubs open fire, while have lunch of hot soup. Eventually we took to the pubs one and only hand dryer in the toilet to dry of our gloves and boots.
When we left the pub the rain had eased and we headed down to the servo for a topup. The ride to Hobart was uneventful and the weather improved to light isolated drizzle patches.

Sunday
Mainly set aside for a rest day or if needed to catch up a day after a break down. The plan was to do pretty much nothing. Late in the morning Mike the guy with the GSX750 and myself decided to go for a ride around the Channel Hwy taking in Snug, Gordon, Cygnet and Huonville. This turned out to be an excellent ride, the weather held off and made good time getting to Cygnet for a late lunch at the Cygnet Pub

We got back around 3pm then later we went out for dinner in Hobart as the pub next-door to our cabin was closed for the night! (employees christmas party)

Monday
Leaving Hobart Monday morning, in light drizzle. we rode out to Sorell and topped up both the bikes and ourselves. Heading north we stopped again at Orford for a quick break.

After Orford we headed off to Bicheno. On the way we met another group of riders mainly on cruisers, resting near Mayfield Bay. They too were heading north to St Helens.
We stopped for lunch at the Bicheno Sea Life Centre. If you want to eat here bring lots of money. The seafood is delicious but not cheap, $50 for half a medium size cray
Heading out of there we went on to St Helens. Along this stretch of road Mike an Stewie decided I was going too slow for them so they passed me and proceeded to burn up the bitumen. Luckily we never saw any cops... They arrived in St Helens, with me not too far behind them (that's what traffic will do to you ) then had a very average dinner in the St Helens Pub. However the Big4 caravan park I do recommend.

Tuesday
Fuelled up in St Helens and headed out towards Derby. After a rest stop at Derby we headed up to Bridport for a lunch of scallop morney pies .

Beach at Bridport

Onwards from there to Bell Bay, over the Bateman Bridge, down to Exeter and back up to East Devonport ready to catch the ferry back home.

Overall it was a great trip, apart from the little mishap with Stewie on Saturday morning. We had a great time. 1553kms later we arrived home Wednesday morning. I was very impressed with the 1250 the fuel consumption was excellent, on par with Mike's 750 at about 5lts/100

Nice report MM - thoroughly enjoyed it.

good report / sounds like a great place to visit

Godd RR madmax. I did 10 nights in Tassie last year in the car and with the family. Very nice place though, with some great twisties, sweepers and open roads and I promised myself I would go back on a bike. The only radars I saw were between Hobart and Port Arthur. The rest looked nicely under-policed.

Grover wrote: The rest looked nicely under-policed.

Just the way we like it

And yes it was awesome on the bike. I'll be doing it again, next time longer