Not really anywhere but almost everywhere

[Jonesy :-)]

Good write up mate, glad you took the time to drop in.

[steptoe]

7300 Klms later, and 25 days, , I’m home,
       Whilst in Melbourne it was decided another rear tyre would be put on because it wouldn’t, make it home, that in itself was a bit of a debacle, in as much as courier loaded the tyre in the van, drove to the shop unloaded everything but my tyre and drove away and never came back, another had to be fitted the next day at a different shop.

                           The Dandenongs, 😎😎🤪👍👌💕wow,

another set of hills on the edge of a city that are worth the effort to get to, from Lilydale I went out to Reefton and did the spur, then the ensuing hills and corners for 3 1/2 hrs whilst waiting for the no show delivery, just spectacular riding even with all the speed zones
      After fitting the tyre on the Saturday morning it was up the highway 640 odd Klm to Lou in Canberra, I arrived with enough time for a beer before one of his mates came over for tea, turned out to be Scarfey😁, so we chatted and caught up before George headed for home.
      Sunday saw quiet a turn out for an all ford day at the local show ground, that filled in a hour or 2 before heading back to the shed and a top end adjust, just because we could and it was there, basically it was all good, we replaced a couple of shims and removed and recorded all the others for numbers for future reference
      I left Lou to his weekly grind and headed east across to the coast to spend another night with Christian, another motorcycling day weather wise, just beautiful.
      Whilst rolling through the scenery I happened upon another downward decent this time named mt Clyde, we rolled down old Clyde having a great time and upon reaching the flat bit at the bottom it was decided by oneself we should accent again, so we did, straight back up and then straight back down again,, just because I could, and then it was leisurely stroll up the highway to Berkeley.
     The next day was going to be a business day of getting north bound and home, except the putty was shut at Colo heights, so a u turn was done and we ended up out on the freeway, not without incident mind you, coming back into Wilberforce the storm front that smashed Sydney that afternoon was happpening, winds strong enough to lift the leaning into the wind bike and rider up and off the road, that was pretty scary so I stopped and fueled up, put all the wet bags and suits on and started east again into the aftermath. Galston gorge and the following suburbs where covered in sticks and branches and leaves making the very tight road even more interesting to navigate much like the debris I encountered across the top of the Dandenong snow and ice line that I forgot to mention, I called it a day at Raymond terrace and relaxed.
      Raymond up to Brissy was a much easier run but instead of dodging storms it was blocked roads from the fires, first the main #1 was closed nth of Grafton, so a detour was made up the Summerland way only to be closed at Kyogle heading over towards Beaudesert, a right turn was made and headed nth through the corners I’d encountered on my second day to Murwillimbah and then Beenleigh.
       The last day was the 500 klm to home done without fuss or holdups arriving home around 8.30 after a couple of hour debrief with Ev.

All in all a super 25 days,  7300 klms, running at around 13.5 k to ltr or 7.5 per hundred which I’m pleased with, the bike used well under 2 litres of oil for the run, the camel tank went onto reserve at 380 Kim for 25ish litres the most I put in it 29 Larson so I still don,t know ho w far it’ll go🤔 I have wear holes in the engine protection bars and no chicken strips at all,
       thanks to the generosity of everyone, total costs were 3 nights accom and 3 meals out of
25 days and 1 1/2 tanks of fuel on the big travelling days,

A Huge thank you to all who put me up and fed me, for the wives and neighbours that put up with 12,30am finishes, Mark and Jennifer in Narrabri {even though they weren’t there, Mark was getting a new hip} Andy in Sydney, Danica and the kids and Brett, Eddie for the full use of his shed on that stressful day, Jonesy for lunch, Glenn and his wife for the 2 nights and my introduction to Vietnamese food in Junee, a quick hello with Dan on my through Wodonga, Dale for bed and tea the first night in Melbourne, Jordan and Elisse in Melbourne for 2 nights and letting me drop oil and tinker a little more, Lou for his 2 nights of gourmet food and bed and a couple of beers
And last but not least Christian, {for without him none of this would of ever happened} for his couple of nights and teas on the water

Next yrs idea is Sa and Nt but it’ll be done a little earlier in August most likely, depending on where I’m situated with work obviously

[steptoe]

Almost 3 weeks on the road now,
   After the day at Eddies, it was a travel day down to Glenn in Junee with his set that I’d resealed and cleaned internally,
   It just so happened Bathurst is in the flight path so a coffee and lunch was had before a quick workshop job that needed 2 hands, then it was full steam ahead for a couple of hours through some beautiful scenery to Junee.
   Arrival was prior to sunset so into the shed we ventured to conduct the pre-restart and handover meetings  of mechanical responsibilities, there may have been an aluminium can painted red and gold involved somewhere as well
    Glenn’s attention to detail is outstanding, over the length of the build he has been using molasses and water mixed @ 6 to 1 in a 60 litre drum to clean,  de-rust and bring everything that isn’t alloy back to original condition, the chrome is mirror finish, all the bolts and bracket ray and lock washer plates are back to factory finish, the mix has taken all the years of grime and dirt off with ease, but it takes time, the chrome guards have been sitting in it for 4 weeks now and nearly ready to come out
     A valve adjust was conducted with all valves wearing at exactly the same rate across the head, we put the top on and buttoned her all up, the start button was pushed and it idled straight up, then colour tuned her and runs sweet as a nut.

The run over to Cooma through Tumut was something I’d never done before, never have I seen a sign that has corners symbol  for 60klm I think it was, Glenn came along for the run acting as tour guide and back road knowledge, a coffee was had in Tumut, then more mountains and corners, which was travelled at the speed limit giving time for a look around and forward looking for wild brumbies that were everywhere, we parted ways at Adaminby after a pub meat lovers pizza which was more than a bit scrumptious.
   It was another relaxing 50 k ride arriving with enough time to have a snooze on the ground beside the bike before Mark turned up to unlock the shed. A thought was had to put the sync gauges on the bike before barefooting the carbs so we could compare apples with apples, 1 and  2 were a touch higher than 3 and 4
    2 1/2 hrs later we had the carbs barefooted and back together, the difference in the way the carbs were breathing was quiet spectacular, they’re vacuum values were all over the place, with everything adjusted once again it was a different machine.
    The next days ride over to Thredbo and along the alpine way was something I’ll never forget, rolling on and off the throttle, leaning left and right for so long was exhilarating and relaxing at the same, at one point a zxr 13 or 14 {I’d imagine} caught up to me, I don’t know wether he was playing with me or he was happy to sit behind and listen the my old girl screaming through the cuttings and rock faces, probably the latter but it was fun trying to stay in front of him,
    As it stands tonight after fixing Jordan’s bike in Melbourne, which was another re-seal only because he’d been through them and put kits in, having watched several of the workshop videos, as the jobs rolled on times were dropping for carbs in and engine running was done and tuned and test run inside 3 hrs with another very satisfied owner,,
      This makes it a trip with 100% success rate bikes worked on and running with owners
satisfied, which makes me feel like I’ve achieved a goal, from here it,s running down mountain range rides as far north as they’ll take me before landing in good old flat, straight Queensland,
   The rest of the story will basically be days of riding and catching up with who I can
More to come
 

[Andy H]

Enjoy being back on the road with confidence.

[steptoe]

My oath it did, followed by tea out and 3 schooners👍👍

[Jonesy :-)]

And a feeling of relief settledover the glenorie garage of XS

[steptoe]

Wow, what a stressful day,
Following an afternoon of having a quick look over all the electrical components and most showing readings within spec,  end of play was called,
       Today was about double checking electricals and fuel, swapping carbs and coils almost pick ups, because they were newish and I felt confident by readings it wasn’t them.
       
       The one thing that kept popping in was a pause in the idiot lights after turning the key on   
It turns out the starter solenoid relay, so much to my surprise Eddie had a spare,🤔 it still wasn’t 100% and wether it was my ears imagining the rough running we swapped pipes as well, returning back to a transac 4 into 1,
       Then it was an instant improvement on sound. We buttoned it all up and sent it for a run, smooth responsive and pulled like it should,
      The difference between Christians motard and the tranzac is the motard is obviously a restrictive pipe not suited to motors with oversized 1179 motors, as soon as the tranzac went on with its larger pipe diameter and tail pipe it breathed easier straight away

Thank goodness that’s over, it was starting to get concerning having tried all obvious issues that are put up as fixes by us for other owners,
 
Back to Steptoes awesome adventures ride

[steptoe]

I’m not sure what day I’m up to anymore, There have been a lot of late nights and brain strain moments,,
    After Brett’s weekend I headed up to Christian’s place, it was planned that a change of exhausts would take place because my home made was causing a lot of grounding moments in the twisties, what has happened since then has been pure coincidence and was going to happen anyway I’d reckon,
 It started with swapping my pipes for the 4 into 1 set that Christian had before the set that came from Germany, at the same time I pulled my carbs off thinking the bike had a blocked idle jet, (little did I know), as I left his place I grabbed a load of fuel from a local servo. Not 10 minutes later looking forward to the hills and corners the bike started seriously misbehaving, it wouldn’t pull up the hill in first, it wouldn’t run under 3500 rpm, I’ve pulled up in a safe spot and gone down the dirty fuel rd, draining bowls and checking filters, to no avail, so I nursed to the next nights destination with the thoughts of new plugs in the morning
     That didn’t work either, I made to my sisters place in the blue mtns and between chatting and catching up I stripped carbs again, drained the tank and let it dry and cleaned filters, then refilled with fresh fuel,
So now I’m sitting having a coffee and meat pie at Richmond air base waiting for time to pass before heading back 2 steps to Eddies to sort diagnose and replace faulty parts,
Will keep you posted,, the adventure continues 

[Andy H]

A huge thanks to Jeff for doing the carbs. It was a long evening and I felt the need to take the neighbours a bottle of wine the following day. We were running the bike and the air compressor on and off until close to 2330hrs. They were very understanding. I'm used to cooking dinner late, but not that late, after the fix we ate and a couple of cold ones. Knowing that the carbs were perfectly set up I was then able to chase down an electrickery fault. There was a bodgy connection on one of the pickups that was intermittently failing. Had a good run on Sunday and the bike never missed a beat, ran better than ever. Thanks again Steptoe.

[steptoe]

We ran out of time, what a day,
     Sunday morning saw the cases being assembled, initially they weren’t happy to seat, so a bit of lifting and giggling saw them home, however once torqued down, a cam lobe effect had made itself at home on the main shaft.
     I could hold and turn it by hand, each over centre movement was a touch over 90 degrees.
We started problem solving by doing the second gear thing trying to get away from re-splitting the cases, the gears wouldn’t come out of the engine because of what looked like wrong placement of gears on the shafts.
     We eventually split the cases, {the time was being eaten away at a rapid rate}, all we could find was a missing spacer washer that goes under the large flange nut on the lay shaft, that may have been allowing the bolt flange to effect the bearing by contact in some way, we replaced the washer/spacer, cleaned and resealed and re-fitted the cases and all was good.
     That little exersize cost us the best of 4 hrs, with out that hic-cup we may have the motor running last night.
     As it stands now, the engine is in the bike,
     

    We’ve had it turning over and have confirmed oil to the top of the motor, it’s now up to Brett to put the finishing touches on it, pipes, carbs, he needs to put a neutral wire connector on and hit the button and that should be happy days.
    It was a successful weekend, although quite large, each day was 8 am till midnight everyday including Sunday night with Brett having to be up for a weeks work, we looked a site at 5.30 for a coffee this morning,
From here it,s north to Christians for a night or two before and a day off before heading south for another couple of carb jobs
   

[steptoe]

Oh my goodness the first week is almost done,
    After having spent my last “holiday” day riding around the central highlands of NSW which included hills and roads around the Macquarie pass and Jamberoo pass and a very scenic place called kangaroo valley it was time to get done to business at Bretts.
    I Arrived around very early lunchtime on Friday walking into a garage where poor old dusty had exploded all over the room, he covered an enormous area but was well catorgorized and segregated.
    Friday lunchtime turned into midnight meticulously going through every component cleaning and rinsing all evidence of a whoopsy
   


Who ever put this motor together however long ago needs good talking to, I don,t know what product they used for gasket sealant but they used the whole container, the crap was a mm thick as it solidified running down the sides of the casting, they’d managed to get in behind the bearing shells and into the oil gallery under the shell,




Saturday morning was bit of a sleep in abruptly shortened by the arrival of Eddie, so a beeline was made for the garage again after a hearty brekkie by Brett.
   

[Jonesy :-)]

good write up mate, keep'm coming

[steptoe]

Day 2, what a ride,,
 starting from the Gold Coast, I turned off the main roads and went out through Nerang and the hinterland, down or up to chillingham then tyalgum and some other small village before deciding to stop for cool beverage at the top pub in Casino.
Most of the roads now are 80kph through the corners, so in keeping with riding at the speed limit and the fact that I’ve a long way to go before home, I decided I’ll not do anything to risk me or machine, so all corners were taken at 80 kph, not much of a challenge until you make the bike follow the left or right wheel track and not deviate from that one line, more than once I scraped hard, a lot of fun and quite technical I found out.
The landscape being so dry and the wind that was letting itself be known was blowing leaves and bark all around in the forest parts of the ride, a couple of times I was riding through a full
On heavy shower of dried leaves as they were shaken off the trees, 
By the time I reached Ballina, I’d successfully turned a 550klm trip into and 860klms

Day 3, Ballina to Narrabri
after having spent the night with friends and being shouted a brekkie to boot, I headed down to Grafton via the freeway, just to see the progress being made since my last trip many months
 before hand, its coming along quiet well,
Form Grafton I head west up over the Gibraltar range to Glenn Innes, Inverell then down to Bingera and Narrabri.
the Gibraltar was having some tree removal work being done so there were a couple stop goes, the second of such already had an Audi stopped as rolled up to the lollipop, with about 5 or 6 good corners left, once the order was given the flag dropped and as expected the Audi did what you’d expect one to do,, so  I followed at the same pace having a little fun.
We came out over the top at a high idle and out into open country and was met with a wind that’d blow a kiwi off the dole, and it was coming straight out of the freezer isle of woollies, it was also coming from over the left mirror at a 45 trying to remove my right shoulder, that was a bit of a struggle maintaining pace and keeping the bike on my side of the line.

Day 4, Narrabri to Sydney
After having a quiet night at Mark and Jennys’, with no service across the area, {hence tonight’s long report} an hour or so spent with the olds in Gunnedah, it was south bound for Sydney town.
 Arriving around 4 and before the peak hr, with only getting lost a little bit I soon found Andy Hs’ place and set about my first project for the trip, to replace a very sad set of carbs with a resealed set that had come off basket case, and here is the labours of our evening
Tomorrow will be  another me day as I catch up with a very dear friend



https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=_xgnm4TtyDA

[Jonesy :-)]

Sounds good, wish i had a month to go touring

[AussiXS11G]

good for you - speed safely
drop in on the way back north