The "Not the Laverda Concours Run"

[AussiXS11G]

Guys....the western side (the video below) is much more fun when ascending for sure 

[excess.11]

Ev....that neck of the woods should be renamed seasonally to ...... Mount Inglorius..........or Dissmount Ingloriously.That road in the wet ain t all "Beer and Skittles"........but i can definately see where the Skittles might come into play.

[Eveready1100]

Just thought I'd attach a clip taken by Bryan AussiXS11g on the top of Mount Glorius to show you guys elsewhere the type of road it is, though we were riding right in the cloud across the entire top of the mountain with very limited visibility.

http://www.youtube.com/user/AussiXS11G?blend=21&ob=5#p/u/28/BVD46Qepn78

Now for the fun bit. I had my moment at 3:23 after the front tried to let go twice. The video doesn't show just how steep it is, but it's damned steep!

http://www.youtube.com/user/AussiXS11G?blend=21&ob=5#p/u/31/EN4bcQymqfk

That's why we got the incredulus looks from the Sportbikeriders at the end of the run......and they were complaining about how slippery it was!
Next time, we're gonna have a video with us.

[Jonesy]

Ev, Steptoe.
good on ya's,
 still able to put a positive spin on what would've been a real dissapointment (the ph call) with all the lead up, prepping, promise of good times and catch ups at the show.

Jonesy.

[steptoe]

the whole trip, we rode a touch under 1000klm, , some 350 of it in the rain  , but we returned home unscathed

can report the towbar and hitch works a treat, , the trailer however needs some "adjustments"  , especially if it's going to hit corners that hard all the time  -------at 100kph, it wouldn't budge, didn't matter what I did to it, but push it over 112 on a rough patch {our normal roads}, it was a whole different story, on the 4 lanes, 115 was comfortable, a slight wiggle with the passing of someone and the changing of air pressure maybe

the fuel was an interesting topic all trip, from full at my place, to EVs' is 50ish klm, used 6.4 ltrs,, our first thought was this is going to be an expensive trip, but it's not the first time I,ve seen a  "wrong" meter reading, {put 83 ltrs in our falcon once , and it wasn't empty,}
it didn't seem to matter whether we'd done 124 k's, or 74, or the big stretch 167, Ev was on reserve by now,  the difference was always 500 mls,  how ever after the colour tune it was coming down each fill to 460mls at the last fill,, both bikes were getting better, my last fill at home was 180klm using 12.4 ltrs

we both had "moments" in the slipperry wet,, at the top of mt glorious the landscape turns to rain forest for a short spell, trees over hang the road and join in the middle in some spots, it gets quite dark, add cold, wet hotmix covered in  breaking down vegetation and moss on the fog line, gives you some idea, put a covering of heavy cloud on that and you have yesterdays conditions, time is passing us by and as it does, we start to deteriorate, my eyes aren't what they were so I now wear driving glasses,, so into the cloud cover we go as per usual the visor gets foggyand wet, so that come up so we can see,  then the glasses started getting wet, not foggy at least could still see Ev in front, I don't know why but I hate wet hotmix,, Ev tells me it's fine as long as no water is sheeting across it, so I follow at his pace, except for 1 corner he braked a bit harder, so I did too, that's when my rear locked up and we started changing directions a bit to quick for my liking , so off the back, nothing to do but onto the front suck in and moan, lean to make the corner with out going over the line on a blind corner, we made it thru, then Ev's was bit further down,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, our "chicken strips" were wide, I'll call them " we didn't fall off strips"

so thank you Ev,, I got to ride on roads loaded b-doubles don't go on, found out were " lakeside raceway" is and learnt a bit more about riding, and had a great time with good company

one more thing,, I keep saying about the calibre of blokes on this site,, to get a personall call from the president of the organisation of the show we were going to, {AussiXS11G}  certainly puts it in perspective, although a disappointing call, a very cool thing to have happen, thankyou Bryan for thinking of myself and Ev

 all in all a decent w/end away on the bikes





 

[excess.11]

Ev and Geoff.....well done guys.........and a great ride report too, thanks Ev.Sorry to hear the anticipated event didn t occur.......but hey..look at it this way.......it was only postponed..so now you get to go twice.....cha ching.bonus!!! It also adds to the list of........."remember when...." stories that make up our adventures on these bikes.

[Eveready1100]

It was an omen, alright. Geoff and myself had just topped up our tanks at the Buxton servo just down the road from my place, and were waiting to turn back onto the Bruce Highway to begin our trip down to the Concours when a pair of ducks landed in the middle of the highway and started waddling nonchalantly in a southerly direction, right down the middle of the road!
Yep, it was going to be a wet one alright!

I’d spent the previous night fruitlessly trying to fab up a replacement for my broken speedo cable which had been ordered a week and a half ago, but only found out a few hours before that it hadn’t turned up yet at the shop in Bundy. First go was trying to get the E model speedo drive to go onto the Special legs, but there was no way the cable spigot was going to clear the slider, in any position, and surgery wasn’t going to solve anything either. Eventually resorted to screwing the standard’s cable onto a nylon sleeve snugged onto the blank spigot and wired into position. Perfect! Finally, I thought the problem was solved, but when I went to hook it up to the speedo, it was about 2 inches too short, bugger! So after a calming caffeine fix and a cig, on went the empty outer and I resigned myself that this would be trip that would be done sans speedo. All this time, the rain had been continuously belting down on the roof of the garage. I went to bed then.

I woke to the sound of rain still falling, but as this was going to be our big day out, had a quick brekkie, and started packing for the trip, something I should have gotten done the previous night, but it just didn’t happen after the speedo disaster. Geoff had said he’d be over about 8.30ish and I was ready when he rolled up. He had hinted at doing the colourtune thing to my bike before we set off, but I didn’t want to risk anything else theoretically putting the trip at risk. So after a quick brew, we set off splish splashing our way towards the highway.

Despite the duck episode, it didn’t really chuck it down anywhere along the highway. Just steady drizzle and light rain, though there were patches with lots of standing water on the road. My fairing proved to be very effective at keeping my upper body quite dry, but also had the undesired effect of water streaming off the bottom rear edge running straight down from my knees and filling my boots with water. Can’t win them all, eh? Besides, I had spares with me.

After a hearty lunch and a top up at the United roadhouse south of Gympie, where Geoff was treated like one of the family (from his days on the road), we set off again into the haze of road spray. The rain actually stopped as we neared Yandina, so when we got to our planned exit at Bli Bli, Geoff pulled over and asked “Whattyareckon?” Though the cloud was thinning overhead, one look toward the mountains with thick black clouds engulfing them put me off the idea of negotiating the mountaintop ride through the villages with the accompanying traffic, so we decided to veto that plan and head straight down to Beerwah and see how things were there.

Much better, in fact. Though the roads were still wet, the mountains to the west were clear of cloud so we headed up that way in search of bendy bits. The really nice section with the nice smooth hot mix and well cambered curves was still damp, so was treated with appropriate caution, plus one bit was still washed out from the big wet in January, so after a little wait at the temporary lights, we soldiered onwards and out to Woodford. A quick top up and then it was decided to see what Mount Mee was like. Hmmm. Wet all the way, though it was fun up the good smooth uphill bit even when lugging our trailers up the steep climb. Had the obligatory stop at the lookout for happy snaps, then motored on down the other side to Dayboro. We did get stuck behind a car on this stretch, though with the state of the roads (normal lumps, bumps& potholes) plus being wet, riding through the clouds in places, and 2 temporary sets of lights for roadworks (washouts again), we didn’t mind too much. Just sat back and enjoyed the scenery.



^Havin a spell


^ Geoff hamming it up at Mount Mee

Headed in along Dayboro road back towards our destination for the night, my son’s place at Moreton Downs. Had ourselves some nice coffees to warm the bones while we stripped off the wet riding gear and were treated to a barbecue dinner and all was going well till Geoff’s phone rang.
It was Bryan ringing to give us the news that the bike show was a washout and had been postponed.
Didn’t that news put a damper on the day, then? Oh, well we mused. At least we could have a sleep in instead of having to get up at sparrowfart to get to the show. We slept well after that.

I woke in the morning to be greeted by the sun beaming and not a cloud in the sky. Typical, I thought. We had a bit of a discussion over brekkie as to what we should do seeing we were in the vicinity of some very nice twisty bits, but it was decided Geoff could have his way with my bike and colourtune it before the ride started. We’d noted that my old girl was using about half a litre more fuel per fill up than his bike on the way down, so he’d give it a tickle up and compare the difference. Well, over the rest of the day, that had dropped to about a quarter litre so it really does work well, and would easily repay the purchase price of the kit over the years if the bike is kept in the ideal state of tune. We put the difference in economy down to the current set-up of my bike. It punches a bigger hole in the air with the Beemer fairing and also weighs about 45kgs more to start with, so that’s a start, though it could also be a myriad of other little thing contributing like me overpacking, as usual. Mind you, it was nice to be able to put on a completely dry set of gear to start with, so I’ll live with that.

We bid our hosts goodbye, and set off for the motorcycle Mecca, Mount Glorius. Had a slight detour on the way, when Geoff asked where lakeside raceway was, so I had to show him. A trackday was happening when we arrived with a gaggle of old classic cars running around the circuit. One old Jag mk. something was really carving them up and we could have watched all day, but we were on a mission, so we continued on.



^ Bikes at Lakeside

The run to Samford was promising with clear skies and dry roads but as we hit the foothills, the cloud closed in, the roads were wet again, probably still from the day before, and a number of 4 wheeled vehicles impede out passage up the hill. Nonetheless, we motored on through the now obligatory set of temporary lights and up past the tea room which was cloaked by cloud which made the old memory banks work hard by trying to remember what I could hardly see. The descent down the back side was taken cautiously, though I still managed to have a moment when the front tyre (I still don’t like it as much as my old Spitfire) decided to have some minor slips in a hairpin turn and nearly clipped a guidepost on the exit. Once down the bottom and out of the cloud, the causeway stretch was a lot better run with the road practically dry and a reasonably brisk pace was run through here. Stopped at the “T’ for a couple more snaps, and a couple of sportbike riders wandered over and seemed quite amazed that we’d come down the mountain with the trailers in tow. A little bit of a chinwag about the bikes, then came the question, ”Where are you off to?” came. “Bundaberg” Geoff said, and with that, we said goodbye, donned our helmets and took off, leaving them to digest what we’d talked about.



^ Bottom of the hill.



^Didn't miss a beat all weekend!

It was interesting following Geoff around Somerset Dam as at one point, he lofted one wheel of the trailer about 6 inches off the ground and carried it for about 30 meteres around the corner till it thankfully touched down again. That was close!

As we’d lost a fair bit of time back at the house tuning my bike, we decided that we should get going home so Stanley River Road got put on the “to do” list and we headed straight out onto the highway via Beerwah. Traffic again took the gloss off that stretch, but I’d explained to Geoff that in about a hundred trips on that road, I’d only ever gotten a clear run three times, so he wasn’t too disappointed. We rejoined the highway, then stopped at Ettamogah for fuel and a Pie (“living the dream”) It was a nice pie, though.
 It’s funny how as you get closer to home, all the little aches & pains start to become really pronounced. I went to stretch my leg at one time, which instantly cramped up on me and didn’t settle down for some time. If I’d been on my own, I would’ve pulled over to walk it off, but we still had some way to go and Geoff still had another 50klms after we got to my place, so we pressed on.

Finally pulled up at my place, and had a coffee stop as it was getting dark, so it was thought best to let it get fully dark before Geoff started the run home, to give his new HID light a better chance to spot the furry fellas that try to spoil our fun all the time. Much better than the feeble yellow glow that used to be cast from his headlight. Next job for him will be to clean the reflector as it’s got a fair bit of dirt in there from the bullet hole in the lens. Maybe a “how to Vid, Geoff?

Despite the disappointment of “That” phone call, I reckon it was still a great weekend. We got a bit of a ‘fix’ of the twisty stuff, Geoff got to try out his rebuilt solo version of his trailer, I got my carbs colourtune and the bike’s running sweeter than ever. Just don’t ask me how far we travelled in total. I haven’t the foggiest idea. Maybe Geoff can reply and let you know.

It’s nice to be able to report our 30+ 30- year old dinosaurs carried us both reliably & comfortably up hill and down dale, through rain & clouds and got us both safely back home to our families.
Geoff’s hinted that for the next trip, we leave the trailers home so we can go and play without a handicap, I reckon that could be a plan, but it’s still amusing to see the looks we get hauling the rigs through the mountains.

Go the mighty XS1100

Eveready