Follow the adventures of MikeCoatesy and his trusty sidekick "Lisa the Wondergirl" as they muck up in their middle age adventures
Friday, October 30, 2009
Moto Guzzi at Oran Park
--
Mikey from Gmail
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Home again
not much wind. Fantastic roads and not much drama apart from a hairy
straight ahead on my way through the middle arm road. My bike almost
dissappeared over the bank into a culvert. I managed to drag it back
onto the road and get mobile again. I was by myself at the time so it
was a bit of a silly mistake.
Al told we did nearly 4000 kilometers over 7 days with a bit of every
type of road and conditions you could imagine.
Much better than being at work!!
Regards
Mike
River crossing
the river was too high. Silly me missed the sign and rode accross.
Silly Jace and Mick followed me over and then told me that they were
surprised I rode over it when it was closed. It was high enough that
the bow wave was almost at air intake height. Anyway we lived to tell
the tale
Monday, October 19, 2009
The trip home
stayed on the tar for the first few hundred kilometers. Finally we
started to have fun once we left Buchan. After yet another stop to eat
even more food we headed out onto the Barry way, which is a fantastic
alpine road that follows the snowy river. It is a challenging dirt
road that leaves no room for error. Towards the end it's very fast and
flowing. It's a real hoot. We popped put at jindabyne just in time to
you guessed it eat some more food.
Regards
Mike
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Best on track sight
around. Bath toilet and wash basin on board
Motogp
comfort. It's better to watch it on the tv than the track
Friday, October 16, 2009
Day 5
to the ferry at queenscliff. Had a great lunch at carl's house and
headed for the island. The highlite was definately the ferry ride
accross the bay. The other highlite was Hugo falling off his bike on
the bitumen at sorento. After riding all over 2 states in horendous
conditions he decided to block 2 lanes of traffic in yuppieville
Regards
Mike
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Dunkeld
a flat tyre from a flat spotted rim on hugo's bike. I got westy to fix
my front break as it stopped working after being upside down in a
fall. Mick and Jason are very handy to have on the trail. Their
combined mechanical expertise is huge. After a cold and wet ride
through the Grampians we arrived at dunkeld which is at the top of the
great ocean road. AJ organised a great house for us to stay in and we
had a great feed at the pub. Not looking forward to tomorrow as we
will most probably be riding on the tar in the cold and wet. That sucks.
Kissing the front fender
over about 20 kph to stay on top of the sand. But when you front wheel
caught an edge it would instantly bury itself and I would go over the
handlebars. I dropped the bike so many times that in the end I was
having real trouble picking it up. To add insult to injury I got
nearly all the way through the park and came to a locked gate. I then
had to turn back and ride back out the way I came. It was 3 hours of
gut busting and I only escaped by the skin of my teeth. Needless to
say I was completey exhausted and no closer to the days finish point.
Going it alone
straight down the highway. I couldn't cope with the thought of tiding
down the tar so I broke away on my own and continued on to the the
Wyperfeld national park. It was a big mistake as you will see. It was
a beautiful sand trap and I shouldn't have gone in ony own.
Day 4 drama's
going fine until we. Had to cross a clay pan. It seemed fine until we
got to the middle and it all turned pear shaped. Al decked his bike
but everyone else pulled up in time. It took quite a while to get the
bikes turned around and pushed out of the bog. It seemed a shame to
turn back but it was too risky to keep going. This photo is taken at a
lookout before the clay pan
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Day 3
could actually see where we were going. The roads were still quite
challenging at high speed as they were unpredictable with soft patches
of bull dust and deep sand ruts coming from out of knowhere. On one
section I was sitting up the back when I decided to go after the front
guys for a bit of fun. I sat on 140kph + for about 40 ks to catch
them. At that speed on those roads the bike is very twitchy and easily
upset. I had the steering damper wound full on so the steering was
basically locked straight. I had the rear air shock set really soft to
take the weight off the front wheel and I sat a long way back on the
bike. On the cattle grids the thing gets airborne for what seems like
ages. It is really good in the air and although it's scary it's huge
fun.
When I finally caught westy we decided to do an acceleration
comparison between the adventure and the HP2. On the 2nd gear roll on
the HP won easily. On the standing start I nearly flipped It twice and
mick's superior clutch work took him to victory. We then did a 6th
gear roll on that showed the Hp marginally stronger. Our analysis is
that there is not a lot of difference in engine power but the power to
weight difference is large.
I am absolutely in love with the HP and can't wait to attack the
Simpson desert next year. I think it will be awesome
We arrived at wentworth around 5 pm and did our usual maintenance
checks including air filter cleans. We went to the services club for
dinner. It was totally oz. Another good evening of bench racing was
had by all.
Tomorrow we head for the grampians on some really shitty roads. Can't
wait.
Regards
Mike
It's a small world
were when a guy in a semi pulled up and came over to say hello. After
a couple of minutes he turned to Laurie and said " your Laurie
Alderton aren't you. I raced against you" that started a great round
of bench racing and reminiscing.
Another pub
wills who stayed there at the start of their ill fated expedition.
Luckily we fared better than them and mad it safely to our destination.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Day 3 in the outback
roads are rough and sandy and lots of fun.
Hanging out the washing
river is in flood. This household has a inovative solution to the
problem
The boys take a break
steering damper helps make light work of the sand and bulldust on the
Louth road.