BMWMCQ - October 2025 MAGAZINE

Committee

President - Geoff Hodge

Ph: 0413 180 101

president@bmwmcq.org.au

R1200RS; R75/5, R51/3

Vice President - Cindy Bennett Ph: 0401 610 671 vpres@bmwmcq.org.au R1200C; R1250GS

Secretary- Chris Bramwell

Ph: 0427 480 811 secretary@bmwmcq.org.au

K1200GT

Treasurer - Tony Gray Ph: 0438 083 996 treasurer@bmwmcq.org.au R80GS; K100RS4V; K1300R

Events - Vacant Ph: events@bmwmcq.org.au

Editor - Liezel Samuel Ph: 0481 004 738 editor@bmwmcq.org.au Pillion on R1200GS

Records- Chris Bramwell Ph: 0427 480 811 records@bmwmcq.org.au

K1200GT

Tools/Service - Bill Luyton

Ph: 0438 123 747 tools@bmwmcq.org.au

Regalia - Duncan Bennett Ph: 0458 293 569 regalia@bmwmcq.org.au R1250GS, Tiger 900 Rally Pro

Dealer Liaison - Don Grimes

Ph: 0411 601 372

R1200GS; K1300R

Sub-Committee Roles

Clubs Australia - Paul Hughes

Training Representative - Julian Davis

Club Details

This Issue - September 2025

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On The Cover

Tony

Liezel Samuel Editor’s Report

Spring riding in Queensland doesn’t get much better than three glorious days on a 1250GS, heading out to Roma for the Sculptures in the Outback exhibition with overnight stops in Dalby and Miles. A huge thanks to Cindy and Duncan who generously lent us their bike while ours (still) waits in Long Beach to return home.

Earlier this month, we took advantage of the splendid weather for a morning tea trip up to the Nest, Witta, where we met some friendly riding folk from the Historical Motorcycle Club of Queensland. One couple lives in our neighbourhood, Burpengary, and although they rode on a 1975 Honda that Sunday, they have also owned a BMW for years. They 'just never bothered to join the BMW club'. We strongly encouraged them to join our club of course.

This month’s journal is packed with great stories. Duncan continues his entertaining account of the Bennetts’ epic ride through the USA, while I share the first part of my own American adventure with Huw. Tony Malone contributes twice, first with his experience on the Cornering & Braking course, and then with a trip to Morgan Park to watch historic race bikes in action. Cindy reminds us why we took the journal online, while Tony and Jane share their awesome time in North Queensland while chasing river crossings. Don Grimes gives us the first instalment of his USA adventures and the Travelling Bennetts share some of their photos - spot the photos throughout these pages and find the great action photo Duncan took of Cindy riding in the Appalachians Mountains.

We’re also launching a new feature, Tech Talk with Ray Jay, where Ray shares his tricks of trade with us starting with ABS brakes and bleeding the brakes, and we welcome new members David Donaldson and Geoff French.

Plenty to read, and plenty to inspire your next ride!

Liezel

Submissions

Spring on full display with this Mass Wisteria in Cooyer, on our way to Dalby.

Geoff Hodge President’s Report

Well a quiet month for me . With sad news that we lost Bruce Allen after a short battle with cancer. Our condolences to the Allen family .

Great news that Trevor Dean is now the President of Clubs Australia congratulations to Trevor and his support for the BMW motorrad 100 year event that we ran.

We have the Xmas party happening in Harvey Bay again this year at Kondari Resort. Hope to see all there.

Thanks all keep safe and tyres down.

Geoff

Cindy and Duncan attended an interesting presentation at the Horizons Unlimited Travellers Meeting in Mariposa, California

Good company at the September mid-week ride - lunch at the Linville Pub

BMWMCQ Club Events for

October 2025

November 2025

UPCOMING EVENTS TO PUT IN YOUR CALENDAR

Back to the Bush Weekend: 4-6 October

Maryborough and Goomeri

Saturday 4 October:

Dinner: 6.30pm at the White Lion Hotel, Maryborough.

Accommodation: Kimba Lodge Maryborough, next to the White Lion Hotel. There are 7 rooms held at the Kimba Lodge for us.

Phone 07 4123 3999 and mention that you are joining the BMW motorcycle club event to confirm your booking.

There are other motels nearby.

Sunday 5 October:

Dinner: 6.30pm at the Goomeri Hotel.

Accommodation: Goomeri Hotel

Rooms with shared bathroom are available from $95 (2 x single beds), $100 (1 x double bed) or $125 (1 x double bed plus 1 x single bed). Phone 07 4168 4131. There is also a motel up the road at about $140. Phone 07 4168 4141.

BMWMCQ CHRISTMAS PARTY:

Saturday 6 December

Kondari Resort, Urangan, QLD

An overnighter with accommodation and function at the resort.

Further details to be released shortly.

Welcome to the first instalment of Tech Talk with Ray Jay, where each month we’ll dive into the nuts, bolts, and sometimes mysterious black boxes that keep our bikes on the road.

ABS brakes

Love it or hate it, BMW were first to put it on bikes, and like it or not, it’s a genuine safety net.

So how does the magic box work?

Pretty simple, really. Think of it as having two sides: the electronic brain and the wet, hydraulic muscle. The wheel sensors count the passing teeth on the rings and compare front against rear. If one starts slowing faster than the other, the system knows a skid is coming.

That’s where clearance matters – those little sensors only work properly if the gap is right. Anything between 0.35mm to 0.55mm (0.2mm to 1.7mm on some older systems) is fine but always double-check after a tyre change or when you’re poking around near the brakes.

Once the brain spots trouble, it tells the hydraulic side to back off the brake pressure for a split second, then to reapply it – again and again, faster than you could ever do with your fingers. The result? No wheel lock-up, no nasty slides. Here’s the part most riders don’t realise, there are basically only two companies making these units. And inside, they’re not as exotic as they look. A lot of the guts are shared with car ABS systems – think Fords and KIAs – so while the cases and plugs might look different, many of the internal parts can be swapped. If you’re chasing spares, find a car from around the same year as your bike and check the casting on the end plate for the right manufacturer. Don’t sweat the case shape too much.

So why don’t workshops touch them?

TECH TALK WITH RAY JAY

Simple: liability worries, lack of info, and a healthy fear of electronics. But here’s the good news – YouTube is full of clever folk who’ve stripped and explained BMW ABS units in detail. Armed with a decent scan tool, some security Torx drivers, an O-ring pick, and ideally a mate who’s handy with electronics, a faulty ABS module can often be revived and safely put back into service.

Bleeding the Brakes – Don’t Wing It

When it comes to bleeding a BMW ABS system, you’ve got to follow the book. The factory sequence matters, and it has to be done by hand – no vacuum pumps, no forcing fluid. Just use the levers and pedal as intended.

Now, here’s a little trick if you don’t have the fancy factory tool: grab a cheap garden spray pump, hook it up to the reservoir cap, and give it a few pumps. This keeps the reservoir topped up while you work through the bleed points. Take it steady, cover your paintwork (brake fluid is nasty stuff), and don’t be surprised if you have to run through the sequence a couple of times before everything’s spot on.

This trick isn’t just for repairs, it works for your seasonal fluid changes too.

And if the whole idea makes your palms sweat? No shame in letting a shop that actually understands BMW ABS take care of it. Better safe than sorry when it comes to your brakes.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Cindy Bennett Vice President’s Report

Hieveryone!

A highlight of our USA travels was attending the Horizons Unlimited (HU) Travellers Meeting in Mariposa, California from 21 to 23 September. We had deliberately planned our itinerary around this event, having thoroughly enjoyed the HU Queensland gathering in the Lockyer Valley in May.

For those unfamiliar, Horizons Unlimited is a leading global resource for overland adventure riders. Its Travellers Meetings, held worldwide, provide an outstanding opportunity to hear firsthand from adventurers on topics ranging from trip preparation and packing tips to challenges on the road and unique insights into different regions.

At Mariposa, we heard fascinating presentations: travelling across Africa with no plan, a French Canadian’s account of riding through Indigenous lands in Australia, and motorcycling legend Sam Manicom’s talk on the importance of laughter in overland travel.

A personal highlight was the presentation by Louisa Swaden, who returned to motorcycling later in life and went on to set land speed records on sand before competing at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Her philosophy of “saying yes” and embracing challenges was truly inspiring. I also picked up her book, The Stoic Rider, which promises to be an excellent read.

The event also included a light-hearted “farkle” competition, won by Darren (pictured), the Historian of the Southern California BMW Club. He expressed keen interest in learning more about our Club, and I’ve promised to share a copy of our next Journal with him.

Overall, it was a weekend filled with laughter, inspiration, and valuable connections. With fewer than 50 attendees, the smaller scale gave us the chance to make genuine new friendships with riders eager to explore our part of the world.

Cindy

Darren's 1250GS

Darren and his pride and joy

Chris Bramwell

BMWMCQ General Meeting

Minutes - 4 September 2025

GENERAL MEETING BMWMCQ

Venue: Geebung RSL

HELD GEEBUNG RSL 04/09/2025.

Meeting opened: 7:30pm

Apologies:

Minutes of previous

Secretary’s Report

Tony and Jane Gray, Mark Gilbert, Richard Mah er, Paul Hughes, John Eacott, Cindy and Duncan Bennett, Julian Davis, Kate Far rar.

General Meeting: Nominated L iezel

Seconded Chris Bramwell

Number of attendees: 28

New members

(Name & MC):

Rob Bell, Honda Forgiven and BMWK1600GT. Great Choice. Tony Willis, 1300GS

Merrily Will is, F800

Visitors: Nil

Returning members: Nil

Treasurer report: Treasurer on short vacation , however meeting with some members in Cairns.

Editor report: Liezel would like more articles please, even short ones with photographs. All articles in by 25 September please.

Tools report: Next service day will be in November, date to be confirmed. $145.00 raised last Service Day well done everyone.

Regalia report: Members can purchase regalia online now.

Records report: Currently 283 members

6 new members

Events report: Please look at face book page for all rides.

Secretary report: Only correspondence was BMW NSW monthly newsletter.

Dealer Liaison report: RT is now available along with 1300RS R1200 GS more info next meeting.

F- 900 Now for sale.

BMW clothing sale 30% off Uson VE Scotter unusual however features self - balancing and Roll cage.

RR has had a face lift.

Garmin L6RM GPS is the one to buy.

Don ’s Back to the Bush ride more details in flyer to be sent to all members.

Training Officer report: Training days are still subsidised for members.

Courses available include Making you aware of other road users Difference in braking is an excellent course to do.

Vice President report: Nil to report Cindy is enjoying her vacation so safe riding Cindy and Duncan .

Clubs Australia report: Nil Paul is also away.

President report: Biscuit ride very successful and Maggie out done herself with all the Bikkies and cakes.

30 bikes and 38 attended well done all. Glenbrook ride 12 members attended. No raffles tonight as Richard is away.

More detail of the Christmas Party will be sent to ALL members via an email with full details. Other rides as per Facebook and also on last months Journal available on web site.

New Event Officer and Regalia Officer to be elected if interested please advise either the President or Secretary.

Other Events/Buy/Sell/Swap: Nil to report

General b usiness: No General Business Closed: 8:15pm

Greg Gaffney

Hi all,

Record's officer Report

We are having some fantastic weather at the moment. After experiencing wet weekends for most of this year let’s hope we have a mild summer for some enjoyable riding.

New members in September:

David Willock,TAMBORINE, K1600GTL

Darryl Christie, SOUTH BRISBANE, R1200GS Adventure

Cheers,

Greg

Bill Luyten Tools Officer’s Report

Phone: 0438 123 747

Email:spares@bmwmcq.org.au

or: wluyten@bigpond .net .au

Service Day

The next Club Service Day was held at Rob Wynne’s place at Jimboomba in November.

More details to follow soon.

We have an offer for the use of a Static Wheel Balancer for club members, please contact me if you’d like more information and the contact to borrow this.

New purchases:

The club recently purchased 3 new Torque Wrenches; the torque range goes from 3 to 210 Newton Meters.

M12-thread-repair-kit-131-piece (Helicoil)

Tools for loan

There are special tools available including the GS-911WiFi and 3 pin diagnostic tools.

Special Tools

• 34mm socket for rotating crankshaft

• Twinmax electronic carburetor balancer (Twin BMW engines)

• SynchroKing - Carburettor & Throttle Body Balancer

• LambdaKing Mk II - Air Fuel Ratio Tuning Meter

• Clutch alignment shafts (3 sizes)

• Compression tester (cylinder pressure)

• Steering head bearing puller and seating tool

• Gearbox output flange puller

• GS-911 Wi-Fi Diagnostic tool (Wi-Fi and USB Version)

• GS-911 3 pin Diagnostic tool (for older bikes)

• Tyre Pressure Monitor Sensor (TPMS) tool

• Enduralast hall sensor tester

• M12-thread-repair-kit-131-piece (Helicoil)

• Torque wrenches, the torque range goes from 3 to 210 Newton Meters

• Battery tester

• Battery Charger

Club Tool Loan:

Tools can be picked up or brought along to the next meeting or Club ride. Please contact me by email or mobile.

Bill

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Tony Gray Treasurer’s Report

Club Life Member Tony Malone, Paul Hughes and I attended the Funeral Service for Club member Bruce Allen on 15 September. Bruce had battled cancer over the past 12 months. I was privileged to speak on behalf of the BMWMCQ members at the invitation of Bruce’s wife Robyn. Bruce was an avid motorcyclist being a member of the VJMC as well as the BMWMCQ. He was a rider as well as a bike restorer. Bruce was a regular attendee at our mid-week rides and Robyn mentioned how much he looked forward to and enjoyed those club rides. It was heartening to hear from Robyn the joy the club organised rides had added to Bruce’s life. Never take anything for granted and continue to do the things that bring you (and others) joy in this life.

Accounts as at 24 September 2025

Business Account:

Start Period 25 Mar : $ 27,650.85

Debits for Period: $ 8,489.74

Credits for Period: $ 1,960.98

Balance at 22 April : $ 21,122.09

Investment Account: $ 42,821.64 (unchanged)

Paypal Account: $ 48.25

Total Funds: $ 63,991.98

State Grant Funds Held: $ 2,975.00

RFDS Funds $ 0

Effective Funds Available: $ 61,016.98

Debits for Period: $ 1,046.00 Annual Insurance (arranged through Clubs Australia)

$ 5,950.00 Ride to Zero State Govt Subsidies

$ 1,150.00 Club $50 subsidies for Rider Training

$ 240.09 Administration Costs

$ 103.65 RFDS Donation from Biscuit Ride

Credits for Period: $ 3.42 Bank Interest

$ 1957.56 Membership Fees

On 31 August, 23 members (+ one non-member) took part in the Cornering & Braking course. Another 10 members attended other eligible Ride to Zero courses. All of these were supported by the State Government’s Ride to Zero subsidy of $175 per participant.

So far, 83 of the 100 allocated subsidies for 2024 have been used, with $14,525 of the $17,500 funding already expended. This is an excellent outcome and strongly supports the Committee’s decision to promote and encourage members to enhance their riding skills through accredited training. Each of the 23 Club Members who attended an approved Safe Rider Training Course received a $50 subsidy.

Safe & happy riding to all members.

Tony

Duncan Bennett Regalia Report

Akey for BMWMCQ regalia is quality.

We are 4 months into our current trip, and the items we have with us never let us down. The stubbie holder shows no sign of giving up even after the endless stream of IPA cans that have molested it. The Ice Tee is one of only 3 riding shirts I bring on long trips, so it has done a lot of sweaty miles, and still looks as good as new. The Mario insulated water bottle looks like it has been attacked by a bear, little chance of that on one of our trips unfortunately, but never fails in keeping the water and tempers cool as we march across the relentless deserts of Nevada and eastern California.

As we head into October and the cooling climate, the long sleeve tee which lives with the greasy rags and cans of spray in the top box has started to come into play, and it looks every bit as good out on the road as it does in the High Rollers Dining Room in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Do yourself a favour…… Cheers,

Duncan

Regalia Collection Set of 6 ....1 x Large Patch, 1 x Small Patch, 1 x Key Ring, 1 x Small Round Sticker, 1 x Long Helmet Sticker and 1 x 100th

Lady Shirts

Bloke Shirts

Neutral Hats & Bags

Hat

2025 REGALIA

Regalia Ordering Methods

Regalia is ordered through: regalia@bmwmcq.org.au

Method 1: Bling Your Own Wardrobe

You can get a BMWMCQ logo embroidered on your own shirt (or underwear, no-one needs to know). Purchase the item, call/email Regalia, and drop it off at a General Meeting or contact Regalia for the best way of getting the item transferred.

Method 2: Use the Inta Net

Click on the links on the previous page, or if you want something different, go to linked website (link below), and note supplier, item number and size and colour and send details to Regalia via email or contact number.

Note: Shirts, vests, and other items have the 2021 (current) logo:

Hats and other items with limited vertical space still have the old logo style:

Method 3: Bang on a Badge

Buy a big or small badge from the Regalia Officer, and iron or glue or sew it on your jacket or shirt:

Please contact your Regalia Officer for more help with options of ordering methods via email regalia@bmwmcq.org.au.

DavidINTRODUCING NEW MEMBERS

Donaldson joined in June, and owns a 1978 BMW R100S and a Honda GL000.

What got you into riding, and what was your first bike?

My mates all had bikes so I got one as well, after side-stepping my Mother's objections. It was affordable transport at the time. But I soon discovered that it also provided the opportunity to travel out of town and explore the world. I bought a Honda VT250 and quickly upgraded to a VF750. The VF was too much bike for me at the time, but I grew into it

How did you end up on a BMW?

I would never have seen myself on an R100 in my younger years. There was a later stage when I would have bought one to follow the 'cafe racer' trend. Fortunately I got over that phase and started to appreciate the older Boxer's for what they are - iconic bikes that will provide a reliable (sort-of) character-filled riding experience. I wasn't planning to buy one just yet, but a spur of the moment decision led to me selling a Ducati Monster S2R and buying a 1978 boxer sightunseen from an interstate auction. It certainly wasn't a great financial decision, but I'm very happy to now be the owner of this great bike. What has been your best bike, and why?

I honestly think your best bike is the one that’s in your garage right now, ready to ride, and for me that's the R100S.

That said, I have fond memories of long distance trips of the VF750 as a young bloke. History tells us the VF750 wasn't a wonderful bike. But for me at the time, it was part of some wonderful 'life experiences'.

What is your favourite riding destination, and what isa “bucket list” riding destination?

Anywhere with good coffee, a view and a toilet (not necessarily in that order). But as they say, it’s more about a ride than a destination. I don’t do adrenalin rides. I like to get an appreciation of the areas I’m riding through and not have the hassle of too much other traffic so I can concentrate on the bike and the road. You don’t usually have to travel too far to find something to fit that ‘bucket list’.

Do you have any advice or handy tips to share?

I'm the guy who's gratefully soaking up tips from other owners, particularly the ones who do their own maintenance. Being so new to boxers, I don't think I've much advice to offer others at this point. I'm always curious and looking for new things to learn. Owning a 45 year old bike and joining a club of enthusiasts is giving me plenty of opportunities to soak up the knowledge of others.

Any trips planned?

Local day-rides are the focus for me at the moment, but I'm looking forward to retirement and the opportunity to plan some multi-day trips. I'm recovering from a back injury at the moment and temporarily not able to ride, so my next trip is likely to be down to the local shops, and I'll be very happy to achieve that.

INTRODUCING NEW MEMBERS

Geoff French also joined in June, and rides a Triumph Tiger 1200. Geoff told us:

My first bike was an old Australian postie bike a Honda CT 90 when I was 14. As I grew up in Aspley in the 60s back then it wasn’t very far to push the bike before you were in the bush. However, I must confess, more often than not it was ridden there with great gusto and abandon on the footpath much to the disgust of some of our neighbours.

After the CT 90 disintegrated I moved onto a succession of trail bikes as my budget could afford, namely Yamaha DT 175, 250 and Honda CR 250.

1975 My first Road/Race Bike (The Widow Maker)

My first road bike was in 1975 aged 19. I purchased what seemed like a good idea at the time, a Kawasaki 750cc H2 Mack 1V. A bike I soon realised was appropriately named (The Widow Maker). As my family was involved in Motorsport, a natural progression followed which led me and the Widow Maker to the closest racetracks namely Lakeside and Surfers Paradise where I began to hone my craft mainly on my backside.

A succession of motorcycles of all Japanese brands and capacities, too many to name followed (sorry to all, no BMWs) during a 10-year period of racing around Australia in Production bike racing, which at the time, featured the best riders in what was the premier category.

Having not ridden for decades and never in a touring capacity, only competition, the time was right for this senior citizen to see what I was

missing out on. I am now riding a Triumph Tiger 1200 (nearly purchased a BMW - there’s always time) and funny enough it handles better than the Widow Maker.

I'm looking forward to many future rides as I’m thoroughly enjoying the riding experience and fellowship with other riders. Amaroo Park Raceway

1982 Honda CB1100R

1983 Castrol 6 Hour Pitstop

By Duncan Bennett, Member #4171

Everyone has a destiny.

But I had gone one better, and had a Destiny. Norleans Moto Julia’s Destiny said they had a tire for me. Mid-morning, roll up, and we’ll get you sorted. A bit of Garminising, the GPS wanted to go over Lake Pontchartrain. The longest overwater bridge in the world, which is direct, and reasonable value at $6 per vehicle. No bends, no deviations into quirky little towns, no traffic lights, just 38.4km of straight road over a lake. Impressive and yet a bit tedious at the same time. A lot of coppers, every cross-over had a parked unit waiting to do something, no ideas what.

So long it becomes boring

The bridge conquered without the bald front tire exploding and sending a deadly spray of shrapnel through the side of a bus taking disabled orphans to an amputee veteran’s fundraiser, seriously that was the level of thought running through the mind, and we rolled into Moto Julia.

There was Destiny, the most welcoming motorcycle dealership person we’ve ever met. You feel all problems disappearing – yes we’ve got our best people onto your bike – you must go into the city to see it – yes Cindy we can find you some new gloves, come and try some on. Into an Uber, we hit Norleans. Time to brave the HOHO bus again, the one in Lisbon in 2024 had been awful, but we’d decided to face our sweaty crowding demons, i.e. other customers, and get back on.

New Orleans

HOHO’d out, we decided to HO in the Garden District which has some gardens but more importantly excellent lunch venues. A gumbo was available, but was trumped by liver and onions for me and a Fried Green Tomato Po’ Boy for Cindy. A Po’ Boy is a sandwich, Cindy didn’t know why it isn’t called a sandwich.

A delay here with a bit of googs happening. It was created during a streetcar conductors strike in 1929 and given out for free to all the Po’ Boys who were struggling on strike. So it is a sandwich, and we’ve all learned something.

A Po’ Boy and a sandwich

L o W er 48M a T e P ar T 4

Back to Moto Julia after that cracking lunch, check out some merch but manage to remember the limited pannier space and avoid purchase, the tire was completed. Oh, and you know how problems come in threes? Here’s No.1, you’ve got a blown front right fork seal. Damn. OK, will try to sort that out at some time in the not right now. No longer any tire fears, it was back to Mandeville via the North Shore non-toll route. We managed to avoid a humungous rain event getting back to the B&B, but not the intense sweating that accompanied it. Dismounting, Cindy said she couldn’t turn off her Sena communicator. Weird. Insanity prevailed doing the same thing over and over but with no different result. Let’s just plug it in. OK it’s off, no worries. Little did we realise whilst hoovering big oysters and luscious IPAs, it wasn’t no worries. It was No.2.

Giant oysters equal a giant yeah

Day 26. Still February-like Brisbane sweaty as we trundled our way through the 20mph zones back to the main road. Attempts to get Cindy on the intercom to start the complaino-fest about how hot it was and how the ridiculous 4-way stops kept stopping air flow. Kept trying, that level of insanity must be tested. Then started looking at the random pedestrians all with small dogs and wondering if they would sympathise. But that would mean more stopping, not an option. OK, pull over. Approach Cindy. Why are you ignoring my attempts to connect? We’ve been married for 29.5 years, so has the intercom passion waned? Well of course it has, but not only can’t I ask where we are going, I can’t see where we are going. So what on earth has happened to your GPS? That won’t turn on either, the on/off

button repair you did back at home has failed. No.3.

Back

at home when I thought I was just super awesome

Nothing to break the peace of my Spotify tunes and the following of my magenta line except the occasional thought that Cindy was back there somewhere in a cone of silence and had no clue of where she was. I had become a human trafficker; poor Cindy is listening to her thoughts and has no idea where she is and…. hold on, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird is on, even people manning slave ships in the 1600’s stopped when the live version came on…. Suddenly out of Louisiana and back into Mississippi, we were on the Gulf of Mexico. Lovely, but still sweaty hot. Yes we expect that in Mississippi, but not with white sand.

Mississippi has a beach

Into the Pascagoula AutoZone, I needed a small Phillips head screwdriver to do something to the failed Sena. AutoZone is just fabulous for motorcyclists – tools, oils, stuff you can spray on everything, straps you can hold stuff on with, glues you can use to make sure they will never come apart, even if they are your own fingers, it is Nirvana. You’re from Australia? Wow we’ve never had anyone from there here before! Cheers mate, and as well as the screwdriver, do you know of a good seafood diner? Yeah, Bozo’s. Great tip, a huge crowd was in there and just fantastic food, including trying the local favourite - catfish. More questions about why on earth we were wearing spacesuits, and where are you going whilst you stand there sweating like piglets? Alabama. That’s where we’re going.

More naval power than my bellybutton

Keep rolling, out of Alabama which is narrow down on the gulf, and into Florida. Pensacola was the target, the Extended Stay Premier Inn to be precise. Cindy had booked this via Qantas Hotels on her points. Yes it was a bit out on the highway strip but we’d become used to this so it wasn’t a problem for 3 nights.

Cindy B52

Into Mobile, the tunnel under the Mobile River is a true ironic immobile traffic horror. Two lanes, the traffic builds up for miles beforehand. We assume Queensland rules apply, so rode up the side at reasonable pace, before cutting in. Then the USS Alabama park appeared. We’d decided to skip this as we were very late and it was brutally hot. But the battleship Alabama is practically on the road. OK, a quick run through, we’ll take a photo from the car park and roll on. Next thing we knew we were taking a tour on the battleship. How had that happened? It is simply that awesome, it sucked us in like a succubus using the Black Hole App.

As soon as we saw it, we realised there was a problem. It was gritty, and people unlikely to ever be invited to dine with King Charles III were hanging about in numbers. Don’t like it, but let’s just ignore that and check in. Up to the desk, it was 3:30pm, and almost all hotels in the USA start taking sweaty people in at 3pm. Sorry, check in here is 6pm. What the word that rhymes with Fire Truck? 6pm? That’s after our bedtime! 2½ hours standing around in full motorcycling gear in 36°C and 4,000% humidity wasn’t going to happen, so plan B, a Quality Inn on the other side of the city.

Another question, why were we going to stay 3 nights in Sweatsville USA? No one knew, so let’s cut it back to 2, which gives us 36 hours to do the laundry and never leave the air-conditioned room.

Right, 3 problems to solve on Day 27. Firstly, Cindy’s Sena which wouldn’t turn on even after I’d taken it apart and stared blankly at the circuit

L

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board for 3 minutes. Dead. Where on earth will we find one of these? Let’s google. Unbelievable, there is one back in Mobile. Only an hour back there, and not having comms is literally not a tolerable thing. Then the GPS which wouldn’t turn on even after I did nothing but poke at the on/off button 70 times. This wasn’t a disaster – I’d had no confidence in my fix back home so I’d bought a spare. Swap the USA maps SD card over, and we’re a go. Off to Mobile in the killing heat, of course it was a Saturday so all of Florida and Alabama were out on the highway.

No stopping sign was too small to read until we’d stopped

Lots of riding up the side, don’t care if it’s legal or not. Eventually through the Immobile Blast Furnace tunnel cloggage, and out to the Cycle Gear shop. Yes, we’ve got that Sena, and have had it for a very long time, we thought we were never going to sell it, because it only fits one helmet and is eye-wateringly expensive. No choice, we’ll take it. Oh by the way, onto one of the other problems, you don’t have a fork seal cleaner do you? Yes we do. Perfect.

Back to Florida in ridiculous traffic and ridiculous heat via Foosackly’s for some very nice chicken fingers and into the hotel air conditioning. Never leaving it again, except I’d better try and fix my fork seal after installing the new Sena into Cindy’s helmet. Managed to reduce the leaking volume a bit, good enough, three problems all solved or improved in one day. Or were they?

No, that’s just a little ice-cream

No they weren’t, Cindy’s new GPS wasn’t working, and as her new Sena was working perfectly I could hear all about it. Something was weird going on and similar detail to a seventeenth century map, and she wasn’t even riding on the line.

Cindy’s GPS wasn’t helpful

After loads of googlin’ it turns out that you can’t just swap an SD card map to another GPS, it is registered to the GPS the map was originally downloaded onto, i.e. the one that wouldn’t turn on. OK, another US$100 to buy a new map. Then make 5 attempts to download it, using 15GB of my 20GB data allowance. But problem solved and only residual anger management issues left to address.

Pensacola hotel cat swarm. Let’s leave.

Enough east and south, let’s north long-time starting Day 28. The motored cyclist is assisted in border crossings here by Pinckney's 1795 Treaty which is the 31st parallel and originally was set between British and French/Indian territory then between US and Spanish territory. So not long in Florida, up into Alabama again. This was a big day. Target was Talladega, or a bit west of there at Childersburg. Here is a good example of the route planning methodology back home – wow, Talladega Nights, what a classically hilarious movie, let’s go to Talladega! But we need to avoid the big city of Montgomery. So west through Selma. This was an important place during the Civil War and produced a lot of arms and ammunition but has gone backward since. To add another notch to the FF (fast food) experiences we decided to dine at the Selma Sonic. Sonic is a drive-in diner and provides a Flintstones experience by bringing your meal to the car window, but they also have outside tables so the motorcyclist can eat. Unfortunately that also means no barrier between the motorcyclist and the Selma residents, with the skills developed avoiding the Pensacola hotel cat swarm used on a particularly disturbing person.

Sonic FF experience

A huge moment occurred this day, we went around several nice sweeping corners, the first since a few states ago, thinking the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks. Another huge moment was our first Home Depot. Didn’t get what I was looking for, so not as good as Bunnings back home, but we could tick it off.

Synergy

Pushing up north-east, we managed to avoid Talladega because we’d realised it was ridiculous going into horrible hot cities because of the name. Other towns went the same way, such as Nutbush Tennessee, and in the future Allentown Pennsylvania, sorry Tina and Billy.

Fairly late in the interesting day, we arrived into Childersburg. Our accommodation was in a quirky tiny cabin on the Coosa River, just west of the town. OK, let’s go and have a look. After some slightly technical off-road, we managed to find the correct roads and the cabin, which was very isolated and very pleasant. Cindy had

the door code, but it didn’t work. Of course, she must be doing something wrong, let me try. It doesn’t work, there must be something wrong with it. No numbers to call, no people, no phone reception. Hmmm. OK, let’s go back into town, do the shopping, and try to get in email touch with the cabin organisation. A full Walmart experience later, Cindy’s email had not been responded to. The only phone number was to a call centre which was only open when people aren’t trying to check in to accommodation. Hmmm, OK, let’s develop a layer of plans. Plan A, we’d seen a staff building access road so let’s try up there. Plan B let’s try and break into the cabin, bears can’t do it so therefore we hyperevolved motorcyclists can. Plan C, check out other hotel options in Childersburg. Amazingly, Plan A worked, the staff were there albeit just about to go home. After getting the correct code, Plan C was retired but we might give Plan B a go if we get bored.

Plans A & B included flame-grilled sausages

Day 29 was a relax day with a walk along the river and a ride back to experience our first Piggly Wiggly supermarket. No television, no social media, we didn’t discover we actually had Wi-Fi until 5 minutes before we checked out on Day 30. Childersburg was a happy time.

Couldn’t avoid a city forever. Especially Atlanta, and not because it was a fictional island that sank beneath the Atlantic Ocean before being discovered and moved to the Deep South by property developers, thank you History Channel show which I only saw non-contiguous bits of because it was the afternoon, and I drifted off. The lost city held a border crossing into Georgia, and a new Klim helmet visor, but unfortunately it also held loads of heat and traffic. Fortunately the dealership had some water, and allowed me to take my time assembling the helmet in the glorious air conditioning.

Site of the 1987 Head Trapped Under the Doona Disaster

A real slog developed getting out and heading northwest, but as all roads lead to Rome, possibly also brought over from Italy to the Deep South by property developers, we nearly ended up there in a B&B just outside a small-ish town called Rockmart. Yes, it had been a market place for rocks, everything made sense. The B&B experience turned out to be a good exposure to the culture of the Deep South, we were the only guests there so socialised with the owners and their family and friends. It was their first exposure to Australians, so the pressure was on, especially to not blurt out things like Jesus Harold Christ it’s hot!

Deep South people are slightly more religious than us

Georgian people believe that Georgia is the true South, and all the rest try to take credit for Georgia’s hard work. Exactly why is a bit difficult for them to define, but as the owner’s son was a motorcyclist and knew all the fabulous roads, we could but heartily agree.

One of the owner’s friends had a fireworks business, another opportunity to explore the differences between the US and Nanny Australia. Fireworks shops are just everywhere, and they are huge. I asked her what I needed to provide if I came into her shop to buy fireworks. Could I even do it as a foreigner? Assume ID and some sort of permit, like in Australia do I need to have a certain sized property and be able to prove the local Fire Station has inspected it? She looked at me strangely. Money. Money is what you need, you must pay for the fireworks.

Another USA feature – a grocery, hardware, and casino shop

Day 30, and 16 states in, just more than one every two days. The plan for the day was back into one we’d already done, Tennessee, just. Joyously Georgia is the start of something we’d been missing for a long time, mountains.

The Appalachians extend down that far south and armed with our B&B owner’s son’s tips, we could get into them quickly while avoiding all the roads that led to Rome.

Lunch in the lovely little town of Ellijay, with a handy drive through ATM experience - and then it was back west into Chattanooga. The ChooChoo was partly to blame for this, but the Civil War battle site of Chickamauga was the main reason. This was a key location, even though

the Union forces lost the battle they eventually drove the Confederates out of Chattanooga, which opened the door into the south and resulted in the capture of Atlanta. It was hot.

Damned hot.

The traffic was a clogged mess.

Cities ranking dropped yet again.

Another person that was totally surprised by a corner

Obviously a Man-Flu cluster

Day 31, a quick and sweaty trip out to Chickamauga, once again an excellent visitors centre and film and diorama showing the geography of the battles. There were a series of them around here in late 1863, with the Confederates being pushed south, then taking the hills around Chattanooga by winning Chickamauga, then being pushed off and back south in a very well conducted campaign led by U.S. Grant. After that, we decided the Choo Choo was a no-no and opted for Rock City instead.

Not sure about the Dream Big, but tomorrow we always Triumph

Rock City is in Georgia up on Lookout Mountain, as is Chickamauga, so we’d crossed the border numerous times before lunch. Rock City is a tourist attraction with lots of nice gardens and paths through the rocky mountain cliffs, and it was a bit cooler than down in the city so made for a pleasant wander.

The

fat head

was the major problem

Back down to the hotel, a new record was set for getting an Uber out into the craft brewery district for dinner, nearly an hour. This cancelled out the Uber record set back in Pensacola, when I could actually see Barbara accept my request for a ride and we got into her Hyundai five seconds later. But that’s Uber life.

Up and excited on Day 32. Another state planned, North Carolina. Pretty much due east, we rode to Ducktown, named by Cyrus Q. Quincy in 1879 after his small settlement was attacked

Best of the 11,000 photos taken in 30 seconds by a teen girl

by ducks, one of which signed the treaty to end hostilities and later became mayor.

Sums it up beautifully

Fuelling up in Ducktown, a lady asked us where we were from. Not bloody Ducktown I said, I would have kicked duck and named it Duncantown. Everything apart from the physical lady may not be strictly true, however she said she worked nearby at a motorcycle friendly diner, and kindly invited us to swing by. We weren’t going there, but asked whether

she knew where we might get a coffee? The Yellowbird Coffee Shop in Copperhill, just down the road, run by a friend of mine. Excellent. Into Copperhill, this place is literally right on the border, we somehow ended up 3 feet back into Georgia at the café. Pulling up, there was a Triumph Bonneville parked outside. Quality establishment.

Inside, a bloke was in conversation with the barista. Hello, hello. Where are you from? Australia? This gentleman is from New Zealand! Wow that’s close to Australia! Gidday! Our natural suspicion of New Zealanders quickly overcome, we started talking. We’re Duncan and Cindy from Brisbane. I’m Nan Miao from Te Waipounamu Motorcycle Tours in Christchurch, NZ’s biggest motorcycle rental company. I’ve just been to a BMW Rally in Nashville advertising our existence, I’m riding back to catch a plane home today. We know people who’ve hired bikes from you, thus we had none of the usual awkward silences one has talking to people from NZ. We really need to get back there.

we’ll force one, but first some excellent roads up to Tellico Plains. Then a scenic road east. The Cherohala Skyway. These sorts of roads are a USA specialty, there isn’t a road in Australia that was built simply for tourism, but there are many here. We met Tom on this, a very interesting bloke who considers humungous miles are only for the weak. It was 2pm and Tom said he was very nearly home, in fact a tiny 400 miles to go. Practically there. It is a very rare day we do 640km, so can only pretend we are in the same league.

Second fun and interesting person for the day, Tom

A fabulous road completed, we were over the border into North Carolina and down into Robbinsville. We weren’t done yet, we were booked into the Ironhorse Lodge out of town. This is a motorcycle accommodation place. Surely there will be a full bar and a plethora of carbs and fatty foods. Turned out not, which was a bit weird. We expected to meet heaps of riders and have a mutual ball, but instead met only one random bloke, who like everyone else had done the famous Tail of the Dragon and regretted it.

Off north, Tennessee is relentless. It teases with other states but doesn’t allow a crossing. OK,

Day 33 plan was a non-negotiable, as we needed to tick off South Carolina. The fact there were fantastic roads into and out of it was a bonus, and we also loaded the panniers up with laundry and did a cycle on the way back. A successful motorcycling day always includes laundry. Day 34 was completely slack. All we achieved was to roll about in a pile of clean clothes and wash the bikes, which were a bit grotty after 5,000 miles.

Nan Miao from NZ’s Te Waipounamu Motorcycle Tours

Death, and South Carolina

A crossing of Tennessee was the objective for Day 35. Into Kentucky. This was the hardest state to try to work into the route planning, as it is just out of the way of everything, unlike Tennessee which seems in the way of everything. So to tick it off we were going to sneak about 100m over the border into Middlesboro. Fortunately in eastern Tennessee the roads are just fantastic so it was great riding.

The Deep South summed up – A Baptist church, Billboard Glenda, and Dollar General grocery/ discount store every mile

Up through Cherokee. Another feature of the US is the places named after the tribes we used to represent when playing Cowboys and Indians, although Apache were always the preferred goto.

Winding our way north, we got through the Great Smoky Mountains, although they should have been called the Great Misty Mountains as it was fog rather than smoke. Then down the other side into Pigeon Forge. Surely a small village and we’ll be through it quickly. No, Pigeon Forge is a theme park extravaganza that goes on for miles in the stifling heat with squillions of traffic lights. Just incredible. But that was the price we had to pay to get to the final place on our - OK my - nuclear bucket list, Oak Ridge Tennessee. Oak Ridge was enormous back in the 1943 to 1945 period, with the sole purpose of enriching uranium to increase the U-235 content, the reactive isotope useful for making a bomb. Little Boy to be more specific, the first one dropped and onto Hiroshima. So we’ve seen Hanford used to produce the plutonium for the Fat Man Nagasaki bomb, Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The K-25 building in 1945 at Oak Ridge was the biggest in the world, and summarises the incredible efforts made during the Manhattan Project.

Little Boy

Sweating it up big-time, we finally got over the border into Kentucky. First building over the border? A KFC. Just perfect. Middlesboro was a pleasant little town, and we had a pleasant craft beer/wine and a pleasant dinner. It still had some of the “abandoned” feel of some US places, which is unusual in the smaller country towns, but it wasn’t too weird.

Welcomed into Kentucky by the Colonel himself

Righto. We’d managed to weave through and pick up the difficult states, now it was up through the unavoidables, starting with the most unavoidable: Virginia. Target for Day 36 was back into North Carolina though, can’t get enough of that. So due east, and some spectacular riding. Zero traffic, misty mountains, and a hint of banjo coming from the double-wides.

Hope bootleg is still a thing here

Then over the border at Pennington Gap near where Daniel Boone’s son was killed by Indians. The circumstances weren’t described. That meant going the googs. That isn’t clear either, but no-one involved was riding a motorcycle so it wasn’t worth pursuing.

Cruising east, a sign appeared. The Natural Tunnel State Park. Finally, a natural tunnel, we’ve seen way too many man-made tunnels, maybe 3. Let’s swing through. Ride up to the booth. Gidday. We’ve got National Parks passes, but this is a State Park. The young lady says I’m not sure that the NP pass is valid for a State Park. But I will make the decision that it is. Have a nice day. You’re bound to have one now under the laws of Karma I say, and off we go.

Natural Tunnel is literally a natural tunnel. Two sinkholes in a limestone formation, one each side of a ridge, with a river flowing between them creating a tunnel. Lots of coal on one side, let’s run a railway through the tunnel. Too easy. We went down into it and back up by chairlift, even more too easy.

Too much information

Still an active coal railway

Through Gate City, and into Bristol. This is a very unusual city, a main road through the middle

is the border between Virginia and North Carolina. A GPS nightmare. What happened during Covid is anyone’s guess, but we could take photos entering two states while standing in a major intersection. Fuelled, we did the final awesome curves into Boone. We convoyed in with an intense thunderstorm, complete with torrential rain and stopped traffic. It is not fun sitting in rain and lightning like this, but we eventually made it into the hotel like drowned rats. The manager didn’t care, could not have been more helpful, and soon we achieved ensconced. Boone was a planned record long stay of 4 nights, simply because of a very important date. The 4th of July. But that was in the future. Your future.

Here’s the now-standard map of the weaving progress:

THE BIG ISSUU

Cindy Bennett, Member #4170

Back in 2016 the decision was made to move the BMWMCQ from the increasingly expensive printed copies of the monthly Journal to a fully digital Journal.

Research by the Committee landed on the digital publishing platform of Issuu. There were several clear advantages of a digital magazine. Firstly, the Editor was not constrained by the size of the Journal, it could be 50 pages or 100 pages – same cost!

There was also the potential for interactive

links to be embedded in the digital format. This could be a link to a YouTube video, or as our major advertiser utilises, a link to their website promotions. We do need to share our Journal with all other Clubs Australia Members, and using a digital platform makes this an easy matter.

The lead time for the Editor to publish was also minimised as the copy did not need to be sent for printing and the subsequent “stuffing and bagging” was no longer needed as well. Lets not talk about escalating postage costs. Our Issuu subscription costs work out at under $3

per member per year, pretty decent value in my mind.

As with any change there was some resistance, and it is surprising that there are still occasional rumblings.

For those who don’t want to read the Journal on the Issuu platform there is the magic “download” button which will save a PDF copy to your device. Members could even choose to print it if they so desire (however the interactive features would not be available…) Emailing out a + 10GB document is not practical and not all members could download/ store this size file easily.

A PDF copy is also placed on the BMWMCQ website each month, so Members can access from there and not even have to open the Issuu website!

A criticism is that non-members or lapsed members can also access the electronic Journal “for free”.

I contend this is a positive aspect – I know a few who have enjoyed reading the online Journal and subsequently joined or re-joined as a Member. Our advertisers surely appreciate the wider readership, giving them more “bang” for their advertising dollar.

The first digital Journal – June 2016 (Ian Sayce in Japan gracing the cover)

A feature that I found really valuable when using Issuu as Editor is the statistics page. It shows how many people open, read and download the Journal. Also shows where it was opened –most countries of the world have now been covered.

At this years BMW Clubs Australia AGM, the BMWMCQ were commended on our digital magazine and interest was shown in other Clubs moving to the Issuu platform – isn’t it great to be a trail-blazer!

Some Statistics:

In the 30 days to 13 September there were 484 readers of the Journal and 43 downloads.

The map shows reader locations since 2016

Source: Issuu statistics page.

By Jane Gray, Member #4300

LUCKY

JEGAug2025

How lucky are we in this State we call home

Spoilt for choice & freedom to roam

From city to country, from outback to coast

Over the years we’ve ridden to most

Fuel, coffee & lunch stops here and there

Chatting to locals, their knowledge to share

Wide open spaces with no end in sight

Tight twisty mountains, a rider’s delight

There’s nothing better than “hitting the road”

Quite often not knowing each night’s abode

The beauty of nature is everywhere

Till “roadkill aroma” pollutes the air

The scenery changes, the towns big and small

Try as we might we can’t see them all

Covering the miles of our great State each day

Much more enjoyable the motorcycle way

Photo: Jane on the Gray Ghost outside Winton, Qld

Liezel Samuel, Member #4412

The adventure began...

At last, 9 June rolled around. With our departure flight set for the very civilised hour of 8pm, the day left us plenty of time for relaxed, almost smug, packing. Our carefully curated packing lists made sure everything had its place. Well… almost everything.

Somewhere between “we’re perfectly organised” and “oh no, what if…?” we reintroduced our Plan B: a tent, pegs, peg hammer, mattresses, and sleeping bags – just in case our accommodation plans hit a pothole. On top of that, I slipped in my new pair of riding boots that fit better than the pair we shipped off with the GS. All told, our bags came in at a respectable 14.3kg combined. Not bad for two months of roaming! Of course, in the excitement, Huw’s summer riding gloves never made it past the front door.

LA greeted us with no drama at all. After hearing endless horror stories about stern border guards and the new travel restrictions, we braced ourselves for interrogation, only to be met with smiles, friendly greetings, and even a joke from the officer who stamped our passports.

One slightly less reassuring announcement over the loudspeaker did catch our attention: two fellow passengers (Muhammad-someone and his mate) were instructed to skip Customs altogether and report directly to Security. We don’t know whether they made it through.

After twelve hours of uninterrupted sleep, we felt almost human again and caught an Uber to Compton suburb to collect the GS form the shipping agents. On the way, we spotted our first Cybertruck on the highway. Let’s just say it didn’t improve with proximity.

The warehouse turned out to be an eclectic space, home to a curious mix of cars, some proudly polished, others stoically weathered, and a scattering of motorbikes that had clearly seen better decades.

With the warehouse staff on their lunch break, Emre, our local contact who greeted us with easy friendliness, suggested I use the men’s

toilet to change into my gear. A quick inspection revealed the filthy little room best avoided, so I opted for the dirty picnic table and bench in the (dark) corner office. At least it was practical. Unlike Huw, who can perform a flawless outfit change while balancing flamingo-style on one leg, I need a bit of stability (and a seat) if I’m not going to topple over with one boot half on.

Some Harleys have been waiting for a while to be collected

The GS seemed genuinely pleased at our reunion, starting on the very first try as if it hadn’t been sitting in storage for 3 months. With a quick reminder to ourselves to keep to the right side of the road, we set off.

On the ride back to the motel, we passed a long stretch of makeshift homes: caravans and mobile units lined up along the highway for nearly a mile. People were gathered outside, some cooking meals over camp stoves right next to the road.

) usa & C anada P ar T 1

We gave ourselves a day to adjust and headed for a walk in El Dorado East Regional Park. No sooner had we parked than a squirrel started negotiating with Huw for the right to guard the GS in our absence. Terms seemed acceptable, and we left it in his capable paws.

Negotiating a service fee

From there we visited the Queen Mary, the great liner that first sailed from England in 1936 before retiring to Long Beach in 1967. Legend has it that when the ship’s directors asked King George to bless their plan to name the vessel after “England’s greatest Queen”, by which they meant Queen Victoria, the King replied that his wife Mary would be delighted with the honour. And so she became the Queen Mary.

Dinner was at a local diner, where we encountered our first American meal for two that could comfortably have fed five. Unfortunately, I still suffered from ageusia after a recent flu, so I couldn’t properly judge the food. Huw, however, confirmed it wasn’t just me, it was as bland as it looked. Around us, most diners seemed equipped with mobility aids, and the bulk of the custom appeared to come from the senior crowd stocking their fridges with leftovers for the week ahead. Mental note: don’t trust Google reviews when it comes to food.

Long Beach to Joshua Tree

Our departure began later than planned when, quite inexplicably, our carefully prepared packing lists abandoned us at the final hurdle. No matter how we shuffled and repacked, there was simply too much to fit. Mild panic set in

until salvation appeared in the form of a “stuffit” bag (thanks Cindy). Over my shoulder it went, carrying Huw’s puffer jacket, a shirt, and a dozen clip-on koalas destined for random distribution along the way.

Barely five minutes into the ride, mercifully while stationary at a red light, I noticed the bag looked a little lighter. Huw’s puffer jacket had already made a bid for freedom and was lying in the middle of the traffic a few metres behind us. A frantic retrieval later, we were properly on our way. We chose the scenic route south along the coast towards Dana Point rather than the highway east, only to spend more than two hours crawling out of Long Beach traffic. The views of Huntington and Laguna beaches helped to restore some patience, with swimmers happily braving the brisk 21°C and gusty winds.

Turning inland, the Ortega Highway offered exactly what we needed: a quiet, winding ride up through the mountains, corners flowing one into the next. The descent brought us into Lake Elsinore, where the temperature had leapt from cool coastal breezes to a searing 35°C. Quite the contrast in just a few hours.

Snack break after leaving hectic LB traffic

Not far into the day we discovered the Garmin had developed a mischievous streak, leading us in circles. We eventually found a scrap of shade beneath a reluctant tree to consult Google Maps, only to discover there was no reception.

Before despair could settle in, a young woman in a Ute pulled over to help. A seasoned traveller herself, ten countries over each of the past three

summers, she was delighted to offer directions towards Joshua Tree. Only when she walked away did we realise we were parked near her farmhouse. She soon returned with two bottles of water and a carefully handwritten set of directions (the printer, she apologised, wasn’t working). With great enthusiasm she explained the route, firmly advising us not to follow the Garmin, as it “will take you the long way round”. It was, of course, impossible not to compare the two as we rode along. Amusingly, her instructions and the Garmin’s were polar opposites: when hers said right, the Garmin insisted left. Huw decided to trust the Garmin, and, much to my relief, we still arrived at each of her waypoints.

Interesting directions

Past Cabazon we rode through endless lines of wind turbines, their blades turning lazily in the heat. By now the temperature had climbed to 39°C and stayed there all the way to Joshua Tree. Salvation was meant to come in the form of a motel pool, but we were strongly advised against swimming. One look at its murky state convinced us the warning was sound; starting our trip with a mysterious rash or stomach bug seemed unwise. A good dinner, at least, redeemed the day.

Joshua Tree to Kingman (Arizona)

Even with an early start, it was already nudging 30°C as we entered Joshua Tree National Park, just a few miles from our motel. First stop was Skull Rock, followed by Keys View where, on a clear day, one can see across to Palm Springs. The haze dimmed the distance but the views remained striking.

Somewhere along Highway 62, I used my pillion’s privilege to take off my gloves and adjust my jacket against the rising heat. Moments later, horror struck: one glove had slipped free at highway speed. Huw spotted a safe gap to turn around, though our manoeuvre earned us an unexpected shadow - a car that mirrored our U-turn and followed close behind. Our irritation dissolved when the driver pulled up, waving enthusiastically to let us know where the glove had landed: “Right where the double line starts.” Thanks to their tip, the search that could have taken ages was over in minutes. Thoughtful strangers make all the difference.

Later, desperate for a shaded stop in a landscape that seems allergic to trees, we gratefully pulled into Parker and found a picnic shelter. It looked perfect for a quick snack break, but a shirtless man who had made one of the tables his home, shared his rap music at a volume more suited to a stadium. Our ears lasted only a few minutes before we packed up and carried on.

We reached Lake Havasu City by mid-afternoon, where the heat had intensified to a punishing 43.5°C. Searching for a parking spot to see London Bridge in such conditions was less than enjoyable, and when we found it, the sight didn’t quite justify the effort. We were thankful not to be spending the night in such a hot place.

Instead, we joined the historic Route 66 and wound our way up into the mountains on a road that felt lifted straight from a film set. The stark desert landscape, dotted with motorhomes baking in the sun, looked more than a little

Keys View, Joshua National Park

like Breaking Bad territory, complete with the suggestion that someone might be cooking up more than dinner in an old RV.

We reached Oatman just before five, the temperature still stubbornly above 40°C. Donkeys wandered the streets as if they owned them, while we cooled down sipping homemade lemonade. A wall plastered with stickers drew our attention, and we searched in vain for one left by Cindy. If she had indeed placed it, it eluded us.

From Oatman we continued along the scenic Sitgreaves Pass, boasting more than 190 sharp bends, steep climbs, and sheer drop-offs through the Black Mountains. By the time we rolled into Kingman at 6pm the temperature had eased to a comparatively pleasant 33°C. With plenty of daylight still on our side, we indulged in a photo stop at the unapologetically touristy sign.

Had to get the photo

When Huw suggested the Ramblin Rose Motel in Kingman, chosen for its historic charm and swimming pool, it sounded like a fine idea. Reality was a little different. The first thing we noticed at reception was the pool, now serving as a sandpit.

As for the “historic” part, it rivalled the motel in Camooweal where we’d been stranded for three days back in 2021, but you already know that story. Still, credit where it’s due: the Ramblin Rose at least provided shampoo.

Oatman break

By Tony Malone, Member #67

Sunday 31 August 2025 was important for a few reasons. Firstly it was the last day of (the Roman Calendar) Winter (the true end being the equinox on Tuesday 23 September 2025 with the Sun directly over the equator at 04:19hrs EST –the 12-hour day). Nextly, the Club Events page showed a Club Lunch Ride with a get yourself ride to Cambooya Hotel at 12.00PM, or the Smart Rider training at Lakeside at 08:30hrs. As I had booked to be part of the latter, my choice was set.

Unlike the previous day (overcast and Westerly windy) Sunday dawned bright and clear – a great day for the event. It has been quite a few years since I have been at Lakeside (the place where I came close to losing my life on 18 August 1991 with the help of my 888 Ducati Superbike) and I had a little trouble finding my way in. After relying on my Navigator IV to get me there, suddenly the golf course appeared, and memories flooded back. Turned in, found my way to the gate to the race-track and out the back of that to the training course circuit and presentation room. I was a little late, but had missed nothing.

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seek to employ most times. It turns out that motorcyclists should be leaving about 3 seconds to give appropriate marginal space. This theory was to be demonstrated as set out below.

It was then time to get out to the track. A bit of instruction was given “trackside” and followed with a test of how far each of us would follow the car that was on the tarmac. I overlooked pacing it out and failing to remember that vehicles at 60kph cover about 17 metres each second. This was followed with a demonstration of the stopping distances of a car vs. motorcycle from 60 kph., and the demonstrated realisation that cars will stop in a shorter distance than the motorcycle. Quite a few facts that one might learn from the Internet were discredited, such as trail braking. The road is different to the racetrack.

The presentation started with Julian and Steve giving a bit of a rundown on technical terms and what acronyms mattered. My head started swimming with all of the words, and things like the 12/6/3 second rules about observation and the road ahead. Fortunately, I reconciled all of these things to what I hope that I normally do, and it seemed to work. An exception to this was the 2-second following rule that I

We then got on our machines and (individually under direction) accelerated to about 60 kph, kept our vision up, and braked heavily to a stop, holding our clutch lever in, changing down to 1st gear, and stopping with the left foot down. I found this very difficult, as of habit I do not use my rear brake lever very much, and have a habit of finding neutral before I stop. The reason to be in gear was to have the ability to move off quickly if needed. I tried about 3 times, and in the end decided it was something that I needed to practice. The next test was slowing to negotiate an anticipated corner, at taken 0 kph. I found this difficult, as I overlooked the instruction to not use the front brake lever when ending the

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slowing process. In any event I took on board the recommendations, and will put them into practice.

We then took a break in the class-room for morning tea, with some discussion on what had been learned and explanations of what is happening on the roads. One of the interesting things was that speed limits were explained, and there seems to be some scientific justification for reductions from 100, to 80 to 60 etc. While I had some trouble accepting this justification, the fact is that the road is a public space, and Government needs to cater for the lowest common denominator. We must obey the rules; safely.

We then went back to the tarmac for the next session, dealing with cornering (now that the delights of braking had been explained). This was enjoyable, with each of us under the guidance of one of the instructors (I was fortunate to be in Julian’s group, which was even better as there were 3 other riders to make our group of 5, where others were of 8 meaning less individual time in each exercise). Cones were set out to mark the course to take, and each group seemed to find its space with sessions of 2 or 3 laps ending with the instructor making observations on braking and cornering etc. After a few sets the direction was reversed, and it became a whole new road.

What I learned from this was that I was treating the course like a race-track, not from a speed point of view but of setting corner markers to set braking points and entry points into corners (called transition phases in the lectures). This is not how it is on the road, and I then realised that

the topography of the road (surface, camber, entry points) change according to what one sees; the variable features of the road that one needs to appreciate from scanning ahead and making decisions about lines and entry points. To give an example, in the last of the reverse sections there was a slightly downhill right hand corner of about 90 degrees with a negative camber. I realised that the tarmac apron extended about half a metre to the left of the edge of the road, meaning I could set-up to have a less acute angle of entry.

The day was over, and each of our groups gave reflection on what they took out of the day. An interesting comment within my group was from a rider recently introduced to BMWs who had felt out of sorts with his machine. What he gained was the confidence of knowing what it could do and why it was doing what it did. I think that this course will have greatly improved his enjoyment of motorcycling. Others had interesting innovations revealed to them; overall a worthwhile exercise.

My next suggestion was that we take a few laps of the racetrack proper, but this was denied.

To pause for a moment before ending; the motorcycle I had chosen to take was my 2014 BMW R1200RT. The reason was plain, and it related largely to insurance, where my insurer specifically excluded rider training as something which it would cover. My first choice would have been my R100CS, but this has stalled in its repair and was not useable. My 2023 R1250RT stands a little higher from the ground than my R1200, and I was concerned that something as silly as losing my footing and falling to the side could cause damage that was expensive to repair. I also overheard someone saying that

a member chose not to take part as they were not insured. All bad news. However the bright side is that there was nothing challenging about the course or format, and I think that the next stage will be doing something to make insurers see the light and realise the benefit of training probably outweighs the minimal risk taken in covering riders for the training process.

A great day, and one that gave me a number of things to think about with my riding. It all takes a lot of practice. One addition I will make is of something that I learned from the Internet and relates to where to place your machine on the road. With my history of road racing, I often take the best race line, which means that I can intrude onto the other side of the centre line even if my wheels are on my side. This can be off-putting if the corner is a little blind and a vehicle approaches from the opposite direction, causing me to need to change my line (which I can do, but it takes a lot of attention). I have started using my mirrors as a guide on where to set my machine on the road, using the off-side mirror as my sight on the middle of the road,

nearside mirror doing the same on the edge of the road. I have found that this has greatly improved my enjoyment of riding, with less attention paid to dealing with hazards arising in corners. As Keith Code wrote in “Twist of the Wrist” (Keith being a trainer to riders such as Kenny Roberts and Kevin Schwantz) you have a dollar of concentration to spend on each lap. If you spend 50 cents on one corner, you do not have a lot to spend on the rest. I keep this in mind at all times, to make my riding simpler and safer. The Smart Rider course has given me much to think about.

To end on an even more personal note; I spent a lot of time competing at Lakeside Raceway. I loved it, and despite its dangers we justify that as being the same for everyone. Recently joined Club member Jeff French also spent a lot of time in competition; indeed he came out to spectate our training, and in my conversation with him we reflected on the greats such as Len and the late Warren Willing. However when it comes to memories which include accidents such as mine, I guess that I amAlone

W eeks W i T hou T a P L an

By Tony Gray, Member #3905

Iadmit that I do not over-plan any of our trips but this year’s escape was a bit looser than usual. Jane, as Minister of Home Affairs, had organized a three-week window straddling late Winter/ early Spring to get away on the Gray Ghost. One week before D Day and she was asking - where are we going? Depends on the weather came the stock response. Well the weather Gods made our decision easy - south there was snow & rain, north there was sunshine & warmth. North it would be, but where?

When Jane and I did our lap of the Big Island in 2016 we covered lots of stuff but missed out on others either through ignorance or circumstance. One of those missed opportunities was the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Centre outside of Winton. A very wet season had rendered the access road impassable. We planned to correct that this time round so set sail for Winton. Day one took us over very familiar roads to Roma where we encountered our first stroke of good luck. On the entry to town near the ‘Big Rig’ Tourist attraction was the free and open air ‘Sculptures Out Back’ exhibit. This had been running since June but was closing within a few weeks. The artistry on display in metal sculptures using materials from barbed wire to star pickets was absolutely stunning.

Echinda Sculpture

We called into Augathella for a bite of lunch and our first real encounter with foreign backpackers who have returned in numbers to these remote outposts. It is great to see and hear

the foreign accents and energy they bring to otherwise quiet places. A mandatory stop and photo at the Black Stump in Blackall then our next overnight stop at Barcaldine, the spiritual home of the Labour Party in Australia. Sadly the town is looking a bit tired since our last visit nine years ago. It was almost impossible to get a feed on a Tuesday night when we were there. Only one pub open and serving a very limited menu for a short time only. Miss and you went hungry.

Black Stump

Moving north to Ilfracombe and a stop to take in the roadside machinery display before dropping into Longreach for lunch. We didn’t have the time or inclination to revisit the excellent QANTAS or Outback Museums so continued on the road to Winton where we had a bit of a setback. Jane is very adept at taking pictures from the rear seat and secures her compact Nikon camera with a lanyard on her belt. It was very windy and we were running parallel with the Longreach/ Winton rail line where there were service crews along the line on their little diesel powered carts. Jane went to return a wave only to loose control of the camera which bounced on the pannier at a point that fractured the battery cover allowing the battery and memory card to both eject at 110kph. Bugger. She was now down to a mobile phone camera for the rest of the trip and all earlier shots were lost.

We had also noted on the roads either side of Longreach large flocks of raptor birds feeding on fresh road kill - these were identified as Black Kites. They presented a real risk as, somewhat like galahs, they would rise off the road-kill then

appear to wheel away before wheeling back and cutting across our path. We later spoke to a worker in Winton who said he had done several windscreens because of this behaviour and would shoot everyone of the bas…ds if he had the opportunity.

The long straight rail

Our lodging in Winton was at the Historic North Gregory Hotel. Last visit we had been allocated the LBJ suite but we were not so lucky this time. Yes LBJ had stayed here during WW2. We like Winton, it is a friendly and vibrant place. We had booked a Dinosaur Tour for the following day as well as a night trip to the International DarkSky Sanctuary that evening. We also toured the Walzing Matilda Museum and visited the open-air Royal Theatre. The previous Waltzing Matilda Museum had been raised to the ground in a fire in 2015 so this was our first opportunity to see the new centre and it is very impressive.

The Dinosaur digs and museum as well as the Dark Sky Sanctuary are located at what is locally called the ‘Jump-Up’. This raised high level terrain is approx 24km from Winton. You must get there under your own steam unless part of an organised tour. We faced the reality of a night ride in country thick with roos - a somewhat

daunting prospect. Our reward had been a beautiful red sunset of the kind made famous in the Australian Outback. The return jouney turned out to be quite safe as we arranged to tail gate one of the cars of another attendee. Both exhibits were excellent and well worth the effort to attend.

Winton had been our destination so with that box ticked, consideration was given to our next port of call. We opted to keep heading north to the Atherton Tablelands & beyond, across land thick with Mitchell Grass as far as the eye can see but with very little signs of life. Park, kill the ignition and just listen to the ticking sound of the warm engine. Very peaceful and very Australian. The 740km stretch from Winton to Atherton was a bridge too far in one day on the untried Kennedy Development Road. Maybe when we were a few years younger but hey, we

Waltzing Matilda Museum.

Winton Sunset.

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were quite chilled and not in any hurry. There aren’t many enticing overnight stops along this route. The Mt Garnet Pub had closed and other accommodation in the town was unknown and a bit dubious sounding so we opted for unexciting Hughenden. It lived up to our low expectation. When we did get to Mt Garnet we were pleased with our choice of Hughenden as the accommodation options looked very thirdworld indeed.

Outside Winton

As we were leaving Hughenden there was a mobile sign advising of unsealed road ahead and to exercise extreme caution. Before getting to the dirt we dropped in to see beautiful Porcupine Gorge. The sealed road was in good condition and the unsealed road OK until we encountered a water crossing with a river stone base. It wasn’t too bad but just as we were crossing, a B Double Cattle truck bore down on us at speed and in a cloud of dust. It was the first truck we had encountered that morning - Murphy’s Law strikes again! Just as the dust was clearing a second truck arrived, stirring up even more dust. Everything that was wet from the water crossing just turned to mud. The Oasis Roadhouse at ‘The Lynd’ is aptly named, providing sustenance for the journey ahead. We compared notes with travellers’ heading in the opposite direction and we were advised of a couple of water crossings as well as some very significant potholes. They hadn’t exaggerated. Big advantage of a motorcycle was the need to only pick a single track past some of these huge holes in the pavement. Our Grey Nomad caravan

journeymen were not so lucky. Working on the old adage - no pictures then it didn’t happen - we crossed one of the water crossings then I dropped Jane off and repeated the crossing for the photo. The Gray Ghost needed a bit of a wash so two birds with one stone.

Water Crossing

The road here is called the Savannah Way and it is a happy hunting ground for the Police. We saw two Kia Stingers and a 4x4 all with caravans pulled over for a chat. Couldn’t have been speeding as they all seem to tow at about 90kph to save fuel. After all of the straight flat roads it was a delight to hit the Atherton Tablelands with plenty of twisties including a run down & up the

Kennedy Development Road

Gillies Hwy and the short but sweet Herberton Range. We spent 3 nights in Atherton and had a great time exploring in perfect weather. The tablelands have a lot to offer with their two crater lakes, Tinaroo Dam, Tea plantations, waterfalls and the very touching Afghanistan War Memorial. We also found a very picturesque back-road (Beatrice Way) through a tropical valley leading into Millaa Millaa.

Tablelands backroads

Tablelands backroads

The relaxing time gave us an opportunity to consider our next move. Jane had not been to Cooktown and it was many years since my last visit so we kept heading north. I remembered the Post Office at Mount Molloy as a beautiful log timber building with many turned timber ornaments and features created by the talented Postmaster. Sadly the building is no longer the PO so no displays anymore. We settled for a coffee at ‘Ahoy Molloy’ Coffee Shop flying the Jolly Roger - yes they are a bit quirky in Mount

Molloy. Our cafe table carried 2 rocker covers and a timing cover off an airhead. Further investigation found a barrel and head (piston & valves still seized inside), airbox cover and two R100S identification plates. I asked the owner/ manager about these remnants and he said the bike was with the property when he bought it a couple of years ago. Other remains were under the lowset building. Now that would be a restoration challenge but way beyond my interest.

BMW Parts

The stretch from Atherton to Cooktown is about 300km but after Mareeba there are excellent fuel/food stations at Palmer River and Lakeland which is the junction with the Cape Development Road. We had seen very few bikes which was surprising given the time of year and beautiful weather. We did encounter two big Harleys at Palmer River. These were hire bikes out of Cairns and were being ridden by a middle aged couple from Melbourne. They asked where we were going and advanced that they were thinking of riding the ‘Coastal Road’ south from Cooktown as they were looking for some more exciting roads before heading home to Melbourne. I clarified on the map that what they were considering was the ‘Bloomfield Track’ a notorious stretch of 4WD only track which is impassable in wet weather. Neither of these people looked like Toby Price nor did their Harleys look like they could clear a low gutter so I used my powers of persuasion to point them towards the Atherton Tablelands for some fun rides. I am 100% sure their Bike Hire would have

a BIG exclusion clause as well. It was to transpire that this encounter came back to taunt us.

We had only booked for one night in a beaut Guest House in Cooktown as we arrived mid afternoon and were planning on backtracking to Mount Molloy and then over to Port Douglas. My memory of Cooktown was that a couple of hours and it would be done and dusted. I was wrong. There has been a lot of investment along the promenade on the bank of the Endeavour River and some nice eateries (Shipwreck Cafe served a superb curry), the museum and plenty of history. We also had very persuasive hosts who showed us pictures of the coloured sands at Elim Beach just south of Cape Flattery. We extended an extra night and rode up to the Aboriginal Lands at Hope Vale (about 75km) down some sand tracks, parked the bike and changed into walking clobber for the 1km walk along the beach to the coloured sand cliffs. It is beautiful and isolated and well worth the trip.

No

The extra time in Cooktown also gave us time to think about that Bloomfield Track as well as catch a red sunset over the Endeavour River

to go with a earlier one from Winton. Andrew, our very persuasive host, said it had been dry for a while so the track would be fine. No worries on your bike - this from an experienced non-motorcycling 4WD driver. I did as much checking as I could - yes the track was definitely open - watched a couple of 4WD youtube vids - but was still undecided when we left Cooktown. Jane had graciously left the decision up to me. We were going to drop down along the Bloomfield Road to the iconic Lion’s Den Hotel and Andrew had pointed us to another ‘feature’ which he would not describe - just see and draw your own conclusions. He also said the Bloomfield Falls at Wujal Wujal (another Aboriginal Community) were well worth seeing. Once we crossed the river we would be at the start of the Bloomfield Track. As it transpired, the 40km long Bloomfield Road to the start of the track was one long roadwork full of trucks and stop/go sections. Whatever lay ahead on the track surely couldn’t be much worse than backtracking over that road. Our fate was sealed - go forward intrepid travellers.

Gray Shost on this beach

Outback Art on way to Bloomfield Track

An early section was very sharp shaly rock that gave me concern for our tyres - Pirelli Scorpion Trail 2 which are an 80/20 road biased pattern. The road then turned to better graded road with some corrugated sections so it must have been graded fairly recently and then back to more shaly s..t. The road has plenty of warning signs that it is 4WD only and not suitable for towing vehicles. Clearly people cannot read (mostly southern plates) as we saw several towed camper-trailers, not that there was much traffic on the track and most of it was heading north. We spoke with a few who had added the Bloomfield to their route as an added adventure on their way to the Cape. If two of these met on the really tight & narrow steep sections it would be a Mexican standoff as it would be impossible for them to pass or to go back. The two steepest climbs are 1:3 and 1:5 and are 2 km long. One has a very, very tight hook turn. Fortunately the peaks have been concreted so no trouble in the dry. The Gray Ghost in 1st gear pulled up and over them easily. The creek crossings were quite narrow and shallow. The track is about 32 km in length.

Lion Den Hotel

Bloomfield Track

W eeks W i T hou T a P L an

We had crossed the two major peaks and several creeks and I was starting to feel a bit cocky with about 7km to go when we came across Emmagen Creek. This was wide and about 300mm deep but not fast-flowing. I watched one 4WD cross to gauge the depth and noted how much its wheels moved side to side as they slid off the large rocks. We had come this far and there was no going back so in we went carefully trying to pick a path through the large mossy river rocks. Progress was slow and awkward and I decided that we had to lessen the weight over the back wheel - yes Jane had to bail out (not easy in the middle of a creek. Oh did I mention the crocodile warning signs?

I continued slowly but the back wheel had no purchase on the slippery rocks and I had to keep rocking back to change the position of the front wheel and move a metre forward at a time. Jane had crossed over and engaged in conversation with two interested female backpackers. The girls and another lad offered to give me a push and their assistance got me over the worst section in the middle of the creek before I was able to get some purchase closer to the bank and gun her out. I must admit that both me and the Gray Ghost were feeling a bit knackered after that. It was a heck of an experience and one neither of us will forget. To put absolute icing on the cake we encountered two giant Cassowary further along the track. Fortunately Jane saw them early so I was able to kill the engine and let her get a close photo. Just brilliant. Cassowary

Emmagen Creek.

Once we were off the track and back on tar road the tourist traffic picked up as we made our way along Cape Tribulation Road to the ferry crossing of the Daintree River with some spectacular views along the way. There were several roadworks stoppages along this sector. On one unmanned section on a tight single track we had to dodge a Landcruiser whose driver did not believe red lights applied to him. If we were in a car it would have been a head on smack. The Ferry is operated by the Douglas Council and I was hit $20 for the short crossing. It wasn’t until preparing this story that I discovered I had been charged for a return trip - single trip for a motorbike is $13. Bugger. We dropped into Daintree Village for a snack then continued south through Mossman to Port Douglas for a day off the bike and a bit of well earned R&R. The Gray Ghost was given the once over and she was not showing any scars from her travels thus far.

I was looking forward to a ride along the Captain Cook Highway to Cairns which is one of the great picturesque rides to be had in our great land. Sadly it is currently just a long string of roadworks. We turned off up the Kuranda Range Rd only to encounter more road works. Food was at the forefront of our thoughts as we had yet to eat that day so we parked the Gray Ghost and tucked into some food. Klaus & Kerry Zillner, who had taken the train up to Kuranda with southern visitors, spied the GG and sent us a message. We had planned to catch up on the following Monday after their friends had departed and before we left Cairns but sadly Klaus came down with something that laid him up so the GG meeting was as close as we got. The Barron Gorge was very dry but the views still impressive from the Range. Cairns was in the midst of a Festival so we got bonus entertainment along the promenade as well as a ride in a temporary Ferris Wheel. Very ‘daring’ of us after what we had just been through.

Heading south we had an overnighter in picturesque Cardwell where we looked across to Hinchinbrook Island as the Moon rose on a glorious evening. Townsville only scored a quick visit to take in the views to Magnetic Island from Castle Hill on another bright sunny day.

We were headed to Bowen to meet with friends Grahame & Gloria who were relaxing and fishing having just returned from riding the World’s highest trafficable roads in the Himalaya on a Royal Enfield. Their pictures and stories made our traverse of the Bloomfield Track look like

Cape Trib Views.

Port Douglas

a doddle. My Dad was in the RAAF flying in Catalina Flying Boats towards the end of WW2 and the RAAF base was in Bowen after it had been pulled back from Darwin. There is an excellent memorial with information panels on the site of their old base. After another relaxing day off the bike in beautiful Bowen we exited the Bruce Hwy just north of Mackay.

With friends in Bowen

We had covered approx 700km on the notorious Bruce Highway and ticked off this horror sheet - single car overtook us, a towing vehicle and another car on a blind bend over double lines and just missed an on-coming car at 100kphan unmarked Victorian plated tandem pantech trailer whose driver was so aggressive and dangerous that I put in a Police report as soon as we got into Innisfail - a major accident on a straight stretch of road between Bowen and Proserpine which saw a woman & 2 kids in critical

condition airlifted to Townsville and another woman and 2 other kids taken by ambulance to Proserpine Hospital - a B Double rollover on a gradual bend. Nothing we saw could be blamed on the road conditions, just inattentive, dangerous, incompetent or aggressive driving habits.

After the Bruce we headed in through Marian, (over the nice Eton Range) to Nebo, Middlemount and Emerald. Fuel prices in Middlemount came as a shock ($2.55 pulp) as even the far west and north had been quite reasonable. I suppose everyone out there expects to earn big bucks, even the poor petrol giants. We were now only 2 days from home as we went through Springsure, Rolleston and Injune with the last night spent once again in Roma. Rolleston had a cute little coffee wagon as a community project raising funds to maintain and improve the town park while Injune has an impressive community building that has a cafe as well as library and museum. Our last morning in Roma we spied an old Chevrolet with Qld number plate Q 73-862. The workshop owner also owned the car - only its 2nd in 99 years. It was registered in Roma in 1926 and has been continuously registered ever since. Amazing! There is always things to see and do in these small towns if you take the time to look.

Horsehoe Bay Bowen

Nebo

We had been away for 20 days with 3 days totally off the bike in Port Douglas, Cairns & Bowen. We had covered 5,400km over some truly stunning country, seen magic things and made more lifetime memories all without leaving our home state. The wet weather gear stayed in the bike and the Gray Ghost ran trouble free only consuming about 300ml of oil as she passed the 280,000km mark on her life clock.

h is T ori C a L a T M organ P ark

By Tony Malone, Member #67

By word of mouth, or more precisely by SMS from Bill Allen on 12 August, I learned that the 2025 Queensland Historic Road Race Championship was to be held at Morgan Park Raceway on 10 and 11 September. Of course, I probably would have known this if I were part of Facebook – but I am not, and do not intend to be to protect what privacy we can in this modern world. Checking closer to the date Bill confirmed that he was going, and that Murray Brown and Gary Stirling would be there as well, staying at the Criterion Hotel in Warwick. The flyer that Bill had sent me showed the event was free.

Having fitted the 1070 Siebenrock kit to my 1981 R100CS I felt that this would be a good running in opportunity, with a few hills along the way (even on the Cunningham Highway). Having avoided this road of late and used to the slow speed limits up the range, I was not happy about the speed limit being 60kph past the Gap. The problem is with car drivers behind not willing to

Rolleston Chevrolet

h is

ori C a L a T M organ P ark

abide by that limit, and tailgating. It is too easy to cop a 20kph over the limit fine with 3 demerit points, so I did what I could to avoid watching my mirrors. I decided to take the Cedar Route towards Freestone, as I know a back way from Swan Creek onto the Warwick-Killarney Road, and thence to Morgan Park.

Having left around 9am, I arrived around 11am. The weather was quite overcast, and while there was some hint of rain it was holding off. Fortunately, this had me arriving relatively warm but dry, parking my machine under cover near the pit exit onto the track, and old favourite spot of mine.

One of the things that I had overlooked when reading the flyer was the age of the machines which would be competing. These were historic race bikes and sidecars from 1920 to 1999. My road racing career having ended on 18 August 1991 it was not surprising that the types of machines that I competed on are now classed as historic (25 years seems to be the age limit/ qualification). The historical meetings that I had been used to in the past featured grids of things like Manx Nortons and BSA Gold Stars, but machines of this type now seem to be quite rare. The owners might be averse to risk.

One of the main reasons to be there was to witness Chris Robertson putting his (much modified) Richthofen R75 through its paces. Finding him in the pits it seems that he had fronted for qualifying, only to have one cylinder refuse to fire. He was so disappointed that he was packing to leave for home. Regardless we had a nice chat, as we experienced the weather closing in with light sprinkles of rain.

Having a tour of the pits I enjoyed seeing the

innovations put into action. It was now time for lunch, so I found my way to the Café which gave shelter from the wind and rain. One of the Historical Road Race Club members saw me and pressed that Club’s 2026 calendar upon me. $10 or $12, pretty good value. The machines shown for each month cover an extensive period, with fewer “older” machines.

As written above, the weather had closed in. I decided to use my connections from the past and take shelter with Rachael the timekeeper in the warmth of the tower next to the start line. With machines now being fitted with transponders (to give an individual electric signal each time they pass the start line) timekeeping has now become a one-person job, and Rachael does it very well.

While I had intended to ride back to my home in Ipswich that afternoon, the wet weather helped me decide to see if there was accommodation at the Criterion Hotel. There was, at a reasonable cost, and so I informed my fellows that I would be joining them for the night. For some reason I had forgotten that this was not a weekend event and was a mid-week (Wednesday and Thursday) show. How this changed my plans! Anyway, I found my way to the Hotel and up to my room, parking behind the building; but not with my fellows in the motorcycle friendly areas as it seemed a little cramped.

We then joined for a beer at the bar. It was very nice, and I thought that there were 6 of us, but there were now only 4. Never mind, we spoke about everything and nothing (with my machine having drawn some comment from other spectators, noticing my improvements/ modifications), waiting for the dinner bell to chime. This happened in due course, and we made our way to the dining room. It was clear that some of the competitors/participants were also staying at the Criterion, most notably Team Africa from Victoria. I had wondered all day what this name meant, as no-one seemed to be competing on a Honda Africa. The fellow we spoke with explained that it was an acronym for Another Frigging Race I Cannot Afford. Of course, I use an alternate adjective in case younger eyes are reading this piece.

Having been drinking Gold beers to avoid forgetting the evening, the wonderful, panelled surrounds and the bonhomie of fellow members had me move to the red wine. I think that my fellows thought along the same lines, and we fell to greater enjoyment. The young lady behind the bar was quite conversational and made our evening more enjoyable. I might be corrected, but I recall that she was from Corsica (or somewhere in the Mediterranean). Murray had found a great place to stay.

Rising the next morning I heard the rubbish truck, and before my head had cleared I wondered why this was happening on the weekend. Reality struck, and it was time to find somewhere for breakfast. A short trip down Palmerin Street was The Cherry Tree Café, which opened at 7am. We all met up and proceeded to breakfast. It was a fine and sunny day, and there is something about the hospitality offered in these towns local to Brisbane, as tourism is a booming industry. My bacon and eggs with a flat white fuelled me for the day, and my fellows were similarly well fed.

Back to the track for more racing. With due respect to competitors, but the qualifying and the first few races on the Wednesday seemed to me more a demonstration than a competition, and the same was true for Thursday. It is probably my heritage, but if I was out there, I would be

wanting to go as fast as I could to beat as many as I could. I just need to remember that my racing days are over.

We had separated somewhat, and I was spectating by myself in the stand along the straight. My fellows had taken shelter in the Café, there being a strong and particularly cold wind blowing. I decided to ride up to the top of the course near the control tower, to have a different vantage point. There were some stands up there, and it was great to see the machines accelerating along the back straight. I did not venture over the bridge, as I was happy where I was, with my machine parked close by. A 1978 Triumph Bonneville turned up and parked right next to my machine. It brought back memories of my TR7RV.

While the day was not over, the light was growing dimmer and the wind increasing. I decided to call it a day, and ride back through Killarney, The Head Road down to Boonah (I feel more confident on the steep winding roads on the CS as opposed to my larger, heavier RTs). This is always a great ride with spectacular views, and I was home before dark. And so there it was my weekend mid-week at the races.

I guess that if I had Facebook I would not need to rely on information from others, and that in this respect I amAlone.

onder F u L a dven T ure

By Don Grimes, Member #4200

Well, I think I am a lucky soul getting to travel through some lovely areas around western and central USA!

Here is my brief overview of a couple of bits only from this recent adventure!

Prior to leaving Australia, I successfully downloaded USA maps into my BMW Navigator 6 to use on our USA hire bike, however a couple of days before leaving I discovered my Nav 6 had gone faulty. With great assistance from Morgan and Wackers I was able to swing over to the shop and grab a new device at short notice which would draw on the USA maps downloaded onto the SD card. I checked operation of the maps on the new device and felt all was good.

The trip started with a “Part One” week in a car with a friend (Mark – current owner of several BMW bikes) travelling around Yosemite and Monterey area before my other “Part Two” great adventure with Kate around some of the USA Rocky Mountains area on the bike.

So, Part One: Started with some fun at San Francisco amongst some strange people and some good friendly people too. Then Mark and I hired a car and visited Yosemite for a couple of days and then made our way to Monterey and Pebble Beach area in time for the Classic Car week.

On the way to Yosemite I checked the Nav 6 and worked out that the USA maps didn’t want to allow any new interactions with the USA routes I had made before leaving Aus!

After a fair amount of late night googling at our Yosemite accom, and discussions with Garmin USA the next morning, I concluded that I would need to download a new map from Garmin for the new device. All good but I would need a computer connection to do this. Hmmm, do I wait until we get to the Monterey Motel? Too dicey as they might not like me connecting anything into their computer! Maybe a BMW dealership could help! So we made a beeline to a Fresno BMW dealership that showed up along the way (sort off) to Monterey.

With great relief, I am happy to report that we had an excellent experience at Herwaldt Motorsports - BMW motorrad Fresno where Paul Kinnear welcomed us like family and went to great lengths to set up the maps onto the new device.

Paul then gave us tips on an interesting route to take from Fresno and even threw in a couple of Tee shirts which made us feel like we had landed in some sort of heavenly motorcycle adventure dream!

Don and Paul from BMW Herwaldt Fresno

So with my hand on my heart I want to give a shout out to the Morgan and Wackers team in Brisbane and to Paul and the team at Herwaldt Fresno for all being a great part of the motorcycling community!

Part two of my great adventure with Kate will have to wait for another journal entry as I have a bathroom renovation I am supposed to be focussed on right now….

on

ATM drive thru in the USA

USA rider

Duncan taking notes

packing at HU

Cindy at the HU

BMW Motorcycle Club of Queensland

PO Box 3669

SOUTH BRISBANE QLD 4101

Dear Valued Supporter

Supporter ID: 40793 Date: 27/08/2025

Thank you so much for your wonderful contribution of $103.65. Your fundraising efforts are truly appreciated by the entire Flying Doctor team. From our team to yours, please pass on our thanks to everyone involved.

And on behalf of the 90,000 Queenslanders who rely on the Flying Doctor to be their lifeline – thank you.

Our team of flight nurses, doctors, pilots, engineers and clinicians work around the clock to provide the best possible care to those who count on us. You are all part of our team too and we are so grateful that you choose to support the Flying Doctor. We just couldn’t do it without you.

Your wonderful support is helping to train our doctors, nurses and pilots, purchase aircraft and vital aeromedical equipment, and deliver mental health and wellbeing programs.

Thanks to your kindness, people in remote and regional areas of our beautiful state can rest assured knowing the Flying Doctor is there for them – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year

I look forward to keeping you up-to-date on the impact of your generous support.

Warmest regards

Meredith Staib Chief Executive Officer Royal Flying Doctor Service (Queensland Section)

Club Mileage Awards

Have you clocked up 100,000km, 200,000km or more on one bike?

To celebrate the epic achievements of these milestones, the Club will be issuing Mileage Award Medallions and Certificates to those who qualify. It can be for any make and model of bike that has reached these impressive kilometres in your ownership, and must still be in your ownership.

To nominate your bike, email our Secretary: secretary@bmwmcq.org.au with:

• Photo of the bike or you with bike - this photo will feature on your certificate so a good quality photo will enhance the certificate.

• Where and when purchased and mileage at time of purchase

• Photo of the odometer to show the kilometers.

Presentations at the monthly meetings for those that live locally – so get your details in!

Smart Rider Academy have the below courses scheduled for just $50, including the Level 2 course. Remember you can claim the $50 back with the Training Subsidy program (see below).

BMWMCQ TRAINING COURSE SUBSIDY

Our club encourages all members to continue to improve as a rider and offers a financial incentive to foster greater uptake in rider training. A broad interpretation of training has been adopted to include First Aid Training and Traffic Accident site safety management. The intention of the subsidy scheme is to not only improve the road craft of individual members but also to enhance the safety and enjoyment of club runs and events for all participating members. These are the simple rules to qualify for a subsidy:

1. Every financial member is eligible.

2. Subsidy is limited to one in two years for each member eg subsidy June 2024 re-eligible June 2026.

3. Subsidy provided in the form of a $50 reimbursement after course has been completed and invoice presented to the Treasurer.

4. The applicant must present details and receive approval for the intended training course from the Club Secretary prior to the course being undertaken.

There you have it, an incentive to help to make you a better and safer rider. If you undertake a course please let us know your thoughts on the success of the course, positive or negative.

& BMW suPPorTs

Brisbane BMW Motorcycle Specialists

Need your BMW motorcycle serviced? We can also help ensure your pride and joy stays in top nick. Northside Motorcycle Tyres and Service has the latest software for BMWs enabling us to re- set service reminders, and assist with diagnostic testing and component testing making it more efficient to solve any problems with your bike. Log book servicing which won’t void your warranty. Book in for a BMW motorcycle service today with our expert team and you can be confident that Your pride and joy is in good hands.

BMW Motorcycle Tyres & Accessories

Planning on hitting the road soon? Stop by our showroom to check out our great range of tyres, luggage bags and riding gear to suit Adventure or Sport Touring.

FREE BMW Motorcycle Safety Inspection Report

But perhaps more importantly, be prepared before you head off! Book in for your FREE safety inspection report. This simple check can mean the difference between a hassle-free ride versus getting stuck on the side of the road with no phone coverage a long way from the nearest town. SHOP ONLINE FOR ALL YOUR MOTORCYCLE TYRES & ACCESSORIES WITH THE ADDED BENEFIT OF AFTERPAY “BUY NOW, PAY LATER” HTTPS://NSMCTYRES.COM 1/14 Paisley Drive Lawnton Qld 4503, Phone 07 3205 6505 Email info@nsmctyres.com

From business card to full page, all sizes are available. The BMWMCQ electronic journal is distributed to members and interested parties throughout Queensland and basically anywhere that has the internet. In addition, the journal is issued to other BMW affiliated Clubs. Get your message out to people who own, ride and restore BMW motorcycles Phone your requests toDon Grimes - Ph: 0411 601 372

Cindy riding in the Appalachian Mountains (Thanks Duncan for the great action photo!)

BMWMCQ BOOK EXCHANGE

NEW BOOKS AVAILABLE!

Race to Dakar

Extreme Frontiers

Charley Boorman

Charley Boorman (Racing Across Canada)

What If I Had Never Tried It

Valentino Rossi (The Autobiography)

The Road to Mali

Craig Carey-Clinch

No Room for Watermelons Ron & Lynne Fellowes

A Motorcycle Courier in the Great War

Australia Motorcycle Atlas

Captain W.H.L. Watson

With 200 Top Rides (6th Ed) Hema Maps

Overland Magazines - issue #’s 11; 19; 21; 22; 25; 26; 27; 28 and 29.

Adventure Bike Rider - issue #’s 44; 46; 51 and 53

The Touring Motorcycle Jeff Ware & Kris Hodgson

BMW Twins Mick Walker

BMW Boxer Twins Ian Falloon

BMW Motorcycles Bruce Preston

A Century of BMW Manfred Grunet & Florian Triebel

The BMW Story - Production & Racing Motorcycles Ian Falloon

Bahnstormer - The Story of BMW Motorcycles LJK Setright

BMW Company History

1972

BMW Munich

Berry on Bikes - The Hot 100 - Steve Berry

2UP and OVERLOADED

2 x On Tour with Compass Expeditions DVDs

The initiative is being overseen by Jane Gray and you can communicate with Jane via email at:

library@bmwmcq org au Arrangement can be made with the librarian to pick up & drop off at the monthly General Meeting or other arrangements can be made