It’s the time when most bike magazines and websites will be announcing their Bike Of The Year.
I always grimace a bit when I see these pronouncements. I’m a cynic, for sure, but still, I struggle to understand how a single bike can be anointed as better than every other bike. How can that be? If my riding is mostly long-distance grinding west of the Great Dividing Range, how can the latest, multi-cylindered, mega-horsepower, crotch rocket possibly be the best bike I was offered this year? Or if most of my riding is done on the Great Ocean Road and the Oxley Highway, how could a tough, lightweight bike with a single-cylinder motor and long-travel suspension possibly get a look in? In their element both of those bikes could easily be exceptional. Even within just the adventure market we have bikes as diverse as Yamaha’s WR250R through to the big guns like BMW’s R1200GS and Triumph’s
Explorer. Putting them head-to-head is plainly not sensible.
Adventure Rider Magazine won’t be making any pronouncements about a single best bike of the year. We’re happy if you’ve found a bike you enjoy and are out there riding it.
Still, I’ve been gifted with a job that allows me to try more bikes in a single year than
“Adventure Rider Magazine won’t be making any pronouncements about a single best bike of the year. ”
many riders will get to sample in a lifetime. Not only that, I get to ride a lot of new models with very high-powered technical people looking over my shoulder and making sure I’m getting the best the bike has to offer. So, probably with a little flash of self-importance, I’m going stick my neck out and name one bike that’s impressed me as really outstanding from the great
bikes I’ve ridden in 2016.
In the best traditions of adventure riding, I’m not going to hedge my bets with honourable mentions or nominees. I’m going to make a stand-or-fall commitment and just name one.
Be careful. I’m not about to name the best adventure bike of 2016. I said at the start I just don’t think that’s possible. I’m going to single out one bike from those I’ve ridden this year that I think is really remarkable. There’s lots of bikes I haven’t ridden. Don’t bother sending me hate mail if I haven’t chosen your favourite. There aren’t any ‘bad’ bikes on the adventure market that I know of – another good reason for not awarding an Adventure Bike Of The Year.
The single bike that’s impressed and excited me most in 2016?
Congratulations, Ducati. The 2016 Multistrada 1200 Enduro was a really excellent adventure motorcycle that, in my opinion, offered new levels of performance matched with excellent comfort and an impressive, relevant list of OEM accessories that made it a real standout in the fast-growing adventure market. I felt privileged to have experienced the joy of riding that bike.
I can’t wait to see what will be on offer in 2017.
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12 Kashmir: mystic adventure – Over the top…literally
18 25 years, 280 DRZs and only one Roy Kunda – Suzuki’s best customer? 22 BMW Safari Enduro –No bull! No wait…
34 Triumph Tiger Explorer 1200 –Updated, upgraded and up to the job
42 WTF – Not what you think 50 LEDs – Light work
52 The Precious 3: Peter Payne’s XT1200Z Ténéré
60 HARD Kits Husky 710 –Phwoar!
On the cover: David Steele barrelled his GS through BMW Safari Enduro, rocks, hills amazing scenery and all.
The Triumph Tiger Explorer rides new routes across new countries, but doesn’t have to stop when the road runs out. Ruggedly dependable with a powerful, torque-rich engine, extended fuel range, agile handling and practicalities such as a centrestand on all models, the Tiger Explorer also features ABS, traction control and cruise control as standard. And for even more capability on unmade tracks, the Tiger Explorer XC includes wire-spoked wheels, aluminium sump guard, engine protection bars, fog lights and hand guards. Learn more at www.triumphmotorcycles.com.au
Contents
Adventure Rider Magazine is published bi-monthly by Mayne Media Pty Ltd
Publisher Kurt Quambusch
Editor Tom Foster tom@maynemedia.com.au
Sales Director Marcus Hucker marcus@maynemedia.com.au
National Advertising Manager Mitch Newell mitch@maynemedia.com.au
Phone: (02) 9452 4517 Mobile: 0402 202 870
Production Arianna Lucini arianna@maynemedia.com.au
Design Danny Bourke art@maynemedia.com.au
Subscriptions (02) 9452 4517
Accounts Jeewan Gnawali jeewan@maynemedia.com.au
ISSN 2201-1218
ACN 130 678 812
ABN 27 130 678 812
Postal address: PO Box 489, DEE WHY NSW 2099 Australia
Website: www.advridermag.com.au
Enquiries:
Phone: (02) 9452 4517
Int.ph: +61 2 9452 4517
Int.fax: +61 2 9452 5319
The ultimate mid-sized adventure tourers, built to take on whatever you throw at them. Both come standard with ABS, heated grips and centre stand. Class-leading options like ESA and Riding Modes Pro provide the rider with extra comfort and control, while the torquey, fuel efficient parallel twin engine is an adventure rider’s delight. The F 800 GS Adventure is for serious outback journeys, with a 24 litre fuel tank, weather protection, crash bars, spot lights, wide foot pegs and an enduro rear brake lever. Book a test ride today at bmwmotorrad.com.au
Kashmir:
mystic adventure
There’s something about India and the Himalayas that beckons to adventure riders. Ian Bowden felt the call and bit the Bullet.
Words and images: Ian Bowden
The first time I visited India I told myself I’d never ride a bike there. Sometime later
I watched a TV series depicting rides run in the Himalayas. The scenery in the mountains and Kashmir looked fantastic. “Never!” became, “When can I go?”
I checked all the details with Mr Google’s aid and found the Ferris Wheels ride ticked all the boxes, including traversing several of the highest mountain passes on this planet, venturing beyond Leh and through to Srinagar.
I traded a few emails and, luckily for me, a few others were interested in the same date. I committed and paid the deposit, and I also let three keen adventuresome friends know and they joined the tour as well.
Powerless
I’d been to India and had been working there so knew what to expect. But no words could prepare someone who hadn’t been there for the chaos.
Another culture shock was what we’d be riding – The Royal Enfield Bullet!
The bike was designed by the British in the 1950s and is still built in India with not a lot of changes. Not only was I risking being mowed down by a Tata truck, but I wouldn’t be able to get out of the way since I’d be riding a bike with less horsepower than my wife’s lawnmower. Yet in a strange way I was looking forward to it.
Desperate times
Our group of four met up with Mike Ferris at New Delhi airport, keen to experience the mighty Himalayas. There was myself, Terry, Craig and Greg, all from New Zealand. Karl from Australia had arrived earlier.
The first problem arose before we even got started when Craig’s bag didn’t arrive. Fortunately, between all of us enough riding gear was found for Craig to start. His bag turned up a few days into the ride and it was just as well, too. His underwear was starting to ripen and we were on the verge of drawing straws to see which one of us was going to lend him a pair of jocks.
Crew’s control
We didn’t ride out of Delhi, but instead took the train 250km north to Chandigarh where we were introduced to the mighty Royal Enfield
Main: Stunning mountain roads and scenery on the road to Sarchu.
u
Left: The first breakdown was before the group even cleared the city. Ace Enfield mechanic Hafiz sorted the issue quickly.
KashmIR mystIC adventuRe
Bullet, our close friend for the next three weeks. It had rained all morning during the train trip, but someone from above was looking after us and it cleared as we rode out of Chandigarh to the purring chug of the single-cylinder motor.
The day was a relatively short ride to get used to the bike and the conditions, and we hadn’t even cleared town when Mike’s bike spluttered to a stop. Fortunately we had ace Enfield mechanic Hafiz along and he had the wiring issue sorted fairly quickly. We called him ‘Fingers’ because there wasn’t an Enfield problem he couldn’t fix. We had a few and he fixed them all.
We had a great team along to make things run smoothly. Amar was our gentleman guide and ‘Mr Sorts Anything’. Sanju, our van driver, we named ‘Schumacher’ because of how he amazed us by never being far behind even in the worst traffic jams, and riding shotgun with him was Fingers Hafiz.
Parwanoo, the first destination, was soon reached and a neat cable-car ride ferried us to our hilltop hotel where we relaxed over a cold Kingfisher beer while surveying the surrounding hills.
Shimla and Mandi
The next day made a damp start as we climbed the twisting hill roads and
headed towards the Himachal State capital of Shimla.
Shimla was the summer national capital in the days of the British Raj. The entire government would relocate there for three months every year to avoid the sweltering heat of Delhi. At 2000m in altitude it was a bit cooler and is popular as a tourist town. Don’t think of the Swiss Alps though. It’s a bit more ramshackle than that. The traffic was madness and a lot of fun, but you had to be defensive and be very aware of the craziness to survive. Another thing worth mentioning is the food – it was fantastic! The Indians are masters of spicy, tasty food, and even away from the nice hotels the street food is amazing.
Our destination the following day was Mandi. We were greeted with fine, clear weather and wound through some great cornering roads with little traffic and continued into the foothills of the Himalayas. This all changed in the afternoon when the road deteriorated into a potholed muddy ‘B’ road. Safety required a lot of line selection to avoid some of the larger holes as Enfield Bullets don’t have modern
Top: The ride featured lots of fantastic twisties like these.
Left top: Sarchu, the entry into Jammu and Kashmir.
It was a cold night in the tents at 4400m and difficult to sleep in the thin air.
Left: Craig, Greg, Terry and Karl enjoyed a celebratory Black Dog whiskey at the Taglang pass.
adventure-bike suspension. I arrived dry at our hotel but the rest of the team got caught in a cloudburst and were soaked on arrival, and this led to the discovery of the local rum named ‘Old Monk’. Over the following weeks quite a few bottles of this fine rum disappeared under our belts.
Gunga County
Late the next morning on the road to Manali the Enfield clutch started to play up. It was difficult getting in and out of gear. While we visited a local factory which made fine Kashmir wool shawls, Fingers Hafiz had the clutch apart and repaired the fault. It only took him about 30 minutes.
The shawl factory was fascinating, with dozens of Fred Flintstone-type weaving machines operated by enthusiastic locals turning out beautiful, high-quality shawls.
For those readers who don’t know what gunga is, think ‘weed’. There was plenty about, even growing on the side of the road. The town of Manali, especially Old Manali, is the dope capital of northern India and a quite few lost souls reside there in a haze of bliss. It’s a very picturesque area and the Kulu Valley is spectacularly beautiful with lush green hills, steep gorges and great winding roads. We had a rest day there.
Big cat
“If you go down in the woods today or you’re in for a big surprise!”
Remember those words from The Teddy Bears’ Picnic? Well, when walking through the woods near Manali we came across a lot of fresh blood not far from our hillside hotel. It turned out a leopard had escaped from a nearby wildlife park the day before and was stalking and killing local dogs. We’d come across the remains of one poor Fido. It probably wasn’t really a good u
place to be wandering. Typically of India though, there were no warning signs, barriers or police about.
At the start of this adventure there had been alarming news reports of flooding in the areas we were to travel through, but it didn’t cause us any problems apart from having to put on the wet-weather gear a couple of times. Still, it was evident a lot of rain had fallen and most of the larger rivers were running at close to flood level. In fact, the road closed behind us for three days after leaving Manali due to severe flooding.
Into the clouds
We were told the real Himalayan riding would start shortly after leaving Manali.
We started to climb the incredibly scenic Rohtang Pass. This road featured in the TV series about the world’s most dangerous roads and it was easy to see why. It was rough and narrow with huge drop offs and plenty of evidence of previous casualties in the form of unrecovered wrecks down the steep sides. This was the first of many high passes we were to travel and to celebrate we stopped at the almost-snowing 4000m summit for a nip of antifreeze – Black Dog whiskey.
After descending the other side and having a tasty roadside meal we made our way through the remote Lahaul Valley, and the landscape and views were amazing. The roads were rough and dusty, just the way we liked them!
We arrived at the small village of Keylong, deep in the mountains, the day before India’s Independence Day and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering about and watching the colourful celebrations.
Sarchu and the Old Monk
After watching the morning celebrations we left Keylong. Every turn into a new valley produced a breathtaking change of colour,
texture and formation. Enormously deep river canyons combined with wind, rain and ice to carve impossible sculptures out of the rock and gravel. The Enfield only just made it to Darcha as the battery had cracked and all the power-holding juice had leaked out. Again this was no problem for Fingers. He replaced it while we had lunch.
After lunch it was up and over the scenic Baralacha Pass at 4850m. We crossed several cold, clear streams of glacier melt before arriving at our destination for the day: a group of a dozen tents in a semipermanent ‘town’ just before a police checkpoint at Sarchu, the entry into the State of J&K (Jammu and Kashmir). It was a cold night in the tents at 4400m and difficult to sleep in the thin air. This created the need for more antifreeze and Old Monk came to our aid again. It’s good stuff at only $6.00 a bottle.
Into Kashmir
It was out of the sack early the next morning as we had a big day planned. The air was very crisp at 7.00am as we purred down the valley.
Not far along the road we started climbing the 21 switchbacks of the Gata Loops. It’s a steep-sided, rocky mountain with amazing views over the surrounding landscape. Karl thought he was on his dirt bike on this road and took one of the many steep, dirt shortcuts between the loops. This came to a sticky end as the old girl didn’t have the horsepower and stopped for a rest. It needed a little manpower to conquer the last couple of metres.
Climbing over two more high passes, the Nakeela and Lachalang, both
Above: Rohtang Pass, featured in the TV series about the world’s most dangerous roads.
Below: The Indian constabulary must’ve known about Old Monk.
around 5000m, we continued on fantastic dirt roads before a great run down a massive valley to Pang, where we stopped for a morning lemon tea. After the refreshment we rode across a huge lunar-landscape plateau where nomadic people tended their goats and yaks. The animals appeared to survive on a diet of gravel and sand.
Then it was up, up, and more up as we climbed to the Taglang pass at 5328m, the second-highest road in the world. At that altitude the Enfield, as well as ourselves, had difficulty breathing the rarefied air. There’s not a lot of oxygen up there. In fact it was snowing, bloody cold and I struggled just getting my wetweather gear on. Then it was down, down, and more down, out of the snow and rain to the town of Upshi. We’d just gone from zero degrees to 30 degrees after riding down another huge valley and had to get all the gear off before we dissolved.
So, scattered amid a pile of bike gear, we basked in the hot sun, shirtless, sipping iced drinks in the town centre.
A final 50km blast into Leh to ice-cold beers and showers never felt so good and completed a long, fantastic day.
Here ends the first part of the Himalayan adventure. Next issue the ride conquers the highest motorable road in the world and heads towards the disputed border region with Pakistan and deep into Kashmir.
Roy Kunda 25 years, 280 DRZs and only one
Cape York Motorcycle Adventures is celebrating its 25th year.
Cape York is still one the world’s great adventure-riding destinations. For riders, the ultimate way to get to there, with maximum adventure and the last word in support, is to sign up with Cape York Motorcycle Adventures and its owner, Roy Kunda.
After two-and-a-half decades running tours
back and forth from Cairns to the Australian mainland’s most northerly point, Roy, 52, has some amazing stories to tell. But the most amazing thing he told us this time was how many Suzuki DRZs CYMA’s purchased over the years.
“Around 280,” offered Roy in his usual quiet and thoughtful way. “It only occurred to us the other day. We started adding up the numbers, and they really added up.”
Cape York Motorcycle Adventures has run other brands and models over the years, including DR250s and 350s, but since the DRZ has been available, it’s been the company’s unchallenged choice of bike.
“The DRZ has the resilience,” said Roy. “With a rider that’ll thrash it, or a rider that shortshifts it, a rider that’ll slip the clutch or a rider that doesn’t u
Roy Kunda
use the clutch at all, the DRZ copes. There’s no wear pattern. It just puts up with the whole lot.
“And the dunkings!” he rolls his eyes and laughs. “They get plenty of dunkings. There’s nothing else on the market that would put up with the punishment we give those bikes.”
After that many units, tours and hard kilometres, if the DRZ had any problems, Roy would know about them.
“There’s really only two things to watch,” he said, supervising the placement of some very large, very tender steaks on the nearby campfire and ripping the shell off a prawn or two. “The seal around the clutch actuator arm is one, and the countershaft seal is the other. They’ve been pretty much the only problems we’ve come across.”
On past tours with Roy we’ve seen those two seals replaced in less time than it took to grab a soft drink from the immaculately appointed support vehicle.
“That’s right,” smiled Roy. “They’re easy to slip in and out. The sweeps carry a couple of each.”
The long haul
The 25-year milestone is a big one. Cape York Motorcycle Adventures has been an industry leader for all that time, thanks in no small part to the vision and energy of Roy’s wife, Renae. While Roy’s doing the hard yards, riding through some of the world’s most amazing terrain, camping in exotic locations and leading groups to fulfil dreams, Renae runs a tight administrative ship and ensures the company keeps moving forward at the headquarters near Cairns.
In 2016 Cape York Motorcycle Tours celebrates its tenth year of eco-certification, and in areas as sensitive as The Daintree, Cape Tribulation, Seisia and a dozen other regions traversed by CYMA many times every year, that’s a big nod of approval
from the people who nurture the area.
“Renae has achieved so much for the company,” explained Roy. “The ecocertification means we’re audited each year on sustainable practices, environmental care and treatment of communities among other things, and it’s not an easy thing to get through. Renae keeps us up to the mark and compliant on these important issues as well as running the business.”
Office worker
We had to ask, “What’s the highlight of the last 25 years leading motorcycle tours to the Cape and back?”
Gazing thoughtfully into the distance, reaching for another slice of Brie and a couple of crackers, the Cairns-based adventurer sighed and offered, “It’s every tour, to be honest. I can’t pick one highlight. It’s just enjoying the job I do and the people I meet.”
Gesturing around the campsite on the banks of the Palmer River where music played, riders relaxed on the clean white sand and the moon blazed overhead as the scent of medium-rare rib-eyes wafted across mirror-like water, he smiled and said, “After all the years of working my arse off, here I am in the office. How good is it.”
‘From Streaky Bay to Broken Hill!’ the cry echoed across the land. Around 110 BMW riders and supporters answered the call and measured themselves against the challenge of the GS Safari Enduro.
Streaky Bay in South Australia is on the coast of the Eyre Peninsula. Tourism material shows clean, clear water, sunshine and so many shiny happy people it’s a wonder all those smiles can fit in the tiny ocean-front town.
The residents may have been smiling on July 24 when the Safari kicked off, but it would’ve been difficult to tell. After a great deal of rain leading up to that day, and low temperatures combined with a wind that must’ve been blowing straight in from the Antarctic, any smiles were hidden behind layers of scarves and wet-weather gear.
That didn’t matter to the BMW
riders. Their smiles were in place –possibly due to frozen facial muscles – and under an overcast sky and with a with a few light raindrops here and there, an optimistic and excited bunch checked route sheets, loaded GPSes, or just followed everyone else. The 30 or so who’d done the pre-Safari training were busting to put their new-found skills into practice, and the more seasoned riders were busting to just get riding.
So began a 2000km journey heading north through some of Australia’s most remote, isolated and uninhabited terrain. This was to be a ride where the extremes
Safari Enduro BMW GS
of Australia would be on show.
The remoteness was offered as a feature for riders to look forward to at the briefing, but about an hour into the first day many riders had eyes poking out on stalks as they negotiated the slippery, wet, dirt roads, desperately trying to see through the misty rain and stay upright. As an added bonus for those on GS models rather than GSAs, the first fuel was 300km away, which is about the range of a GS if it’s getting a bit of throttle.
Some crazy lines criss-crossed the slippery bits and there were fragments of colourful language here and there, but Kingoonya
u
Main: It wasn’t all wet and slippery leaving Streaky Bay, SA, to start the event. Some of it was wet and sandy. Adam Rotzinger made his way north.
Right: A happy group of BMW riders and supporters posed for a group pic at Rawnsley Park.
1&2: Crikey! Riders weren’t allowed panniers or large loads. The luggage truck took most of the gear. Getting to and from the event was a different story, though.
3: Arriving at Coober Pedy at the end of the first day, Gary Buttery, Sydney, Julian Hofer, Central Coast NSW, and Dave Boulter, Melbourne, grabbed a couple of pics.
saw a happy crew lined up for lunch and fuel, already chattering excitedly about all they’d seen. A few had exhausted their fuel within pushing distance of the bowser, much to everyone’s amusement – except the people doing the pushing.
From Kingoonya to the opal-mining town of Coober Pedy was another 300km or so that included riding some amazing iron-ore country and a curious property called The Twins. It had missiles and a bomb shelter. The missiles weren’t on display as we arrived and there was no-one about, so we missed them. Riders arriving a little later got to check them out though. The projectiles and shelter were all due to the proximity of the Woomera Test Range.
After 600km the entire field rolled in to Coober Pedy in high spirits, busting to get sightseeing and enjoy hot showers before learning what the second day had to offer.
Easy does it
One of the best features of the Safari Enduro is the way there’s always time to enjoy the amazing places the event visits. It doesn’t get much more amazing than Coober Pedy – although Arkaroola and Rawnsley Park might qualify – and with only 423km planned for the second day riders had the chance to check out the town. Safari organisers had set up some good deals for participants, including a visit to an underground opal mine for just a fiver.
From Coober Pedy the Safari was set to get seriously remote, so riders stowed the provided lunches into backpacks and headed up the famous Oodnadatta Track to the equally famous William Creek Hotel, the site of fuel, cold drinks, snacks and great coffee.
The rain had been left far behind but it was still just a little chilly as riders continued up the Oodndatta Track to their first view of Lake Eyre, and, a surprise inclusion, a ‘creative’ festival called Burnout.
Burnout was…um…how can we put this…‘interesting’. Dreadlocks, humungous, industrial-sized sculptures and whale noises made a colourful contrast to the brooding desert at Planehenge. Dick Smith himself paid a visit and had a chat to the guides.
The night’s stop was Muloorina campground, the headquarters for Sir Donald Campbell’s attempt at the world land speed record in the 1960s. California Superbike School technical director Steve Brouggy mistimed a chicane near the u
Top: Wet boots for Tony Shuman.
1: Mick Harvey fuelled his big-tanked 800 ahead of the queue at William Creek.
2: From left: Grant Evans, Miles Davis and Sophia Evans. An excellent management team.
3: Now that’s a serious support truck! Damn! Greg Murdoch punted the truck through some very tough terrain.
4: Peter Rautenbach was trying to enjoy a sausage roll at Blinman store when we caught up with him. The Sydneysider was a good sport. His sosso roll was cold and softdrink warm by the time we’d finished with him, but he kept smiling.
entry gate and ended up with a sprained ankle that had him in the support vehicle for the rest of the week, but that worked out well when Mick Ryan’s bike blew its shock. Travelling tech Ben Pettit was keen to swap the shock from Steve’s bike to Mick’s, but Steve was good enough to just swap bikes, and that meant everyone was free to enjoy Muloorina.
It didn’t look as though the pristine natural habitat in the campground had been disturbed much since time began, and, as always, the catering and facilities were superb. A massive pasta bake was dished up to hungry riders and everyone was full as fools by the time an unexpected, but surprisingly large, fireworks display exploded into life on the banks of the dam.
When the BMW people decide to do a ride, they don’t miss a single thing. It was frigging amazing.
Serious
It may seem we’ve glossed over the first couple of days, but there’s no shortchanging Arkaroola. It’s one of the world’s standout adventure destinations and the Safari’s arrival marked a very high point of an already astonishing tour. Farina ruins made for great historic viewing on the way, and thanks to some excellent routing by the Grant Evans and the ride leaders, the route included a run through a fairly challenging loop that cleared away any cobwebs for the aggressive members of the group looking to hook in.
The bright-red rocks towered over the roads and resort, and riders were in real danger of neck injuries just from trying to swivel their heads around and see everything.
Fortunately the Safari was scheduled to spend two nights there, and that gave the opportunity for maintenance, laundry, and best of all, the best and most challenging riding of the whole event.
Hoo-ah! There was one little fivekilometre loop called ‘Station Backtrack’ that sorted the wheat from the chaff and the round front wheels from the square ones. The longer Gammon Ranges National Park loop set new levels of spectacularness (too bad if we made that word up. It suits the scenery).
Sand
Riders helping each other was a big and very enjoyable facet of the Safari.
On the day spent at Arkaroola itself there was a tough and scenic loop which included a delightful, dry, rocky river bed. The riders
Main: The turnoff from Idninha Track outside Arkaroola. Awesome.
1: The ruined town of Farina, not far north of Lyndhurst. Sydney’s Frank Kohlman, Steve Carter from Darwin and Michael Hayley from Yackandandah had a look around on a freezing morning.
2: Eugene Kwon made the journey from Seoul in Korea, checking out the ride to hopefully bring some of his countrymen over to ride in future. By the end of the event Eugene was one of the most popular people in the field.
3: The Safari Enduro organised permission to transit the Nantawarrina Indigenous Protected Area, and it was scenic delight. Michael Fowler, Jason Glossop, Adrian Ansley, Toby Price (Mick Harvey kept insisting he was Price) and Darren Jongebloed took the time to make sure they enjoyed it.
4: Adrian Soligo and Michael Risi had a yarn and enjoyed the view on a lookout above Bunyeroo Gorge between Blinman and Rawnsley Park on day five. The guys from the ’Gong were lovin’ it. “The ride’s been a true experience,” beamed Michael. “I’ve never been outback and I don’t think I’d’ve done it otherwise.”
5: Boris Topolovec powered through the Lake Frome sand.
had to cross the riverbed several times, and that was interesting, but the sections where they needed to ride along the loose rocks for a while, following the river’s direction... well…didn’t that cause some laughter and hilarity! There were a few falls and some unkind comments about the ancestry of the route setters, but everyone made it through okay and all was smiles at the end.
Arkaroola allowed a great deal of relaxation and sightseeing, while at the same time threw up the most challenging riding of the event. The area is rocky, and while the crags, cliffs and valleys make for breathtaking stops, they meant riders had to be on their game to avoid mishaps. Stony trails made up a big part of the challenge, especially rocky uphills leading to absolutely astonishing and heartbreaking views, but a second, less-challenging loop offered some relief…sort of.
A short run of 60km or so out to Lake Frome offered a far more relaxing, rock-free jaunt. Except there was sand. Deep sand.
The actual ‘deep’ sand was only a very short section of maybe 50 or 60 metres, but it caught out a lot of riders. Bikes went down like a Census website and, once again, it was uplifting to see riders helping each other through. There was a great deal of leg-pulling and joking as groups formed to lift bikes and get riders going again. The soft landings meant no injuries and no real bike damage, so it was all good.
Lake Frome looked suspiciously like Lake Eyre, but the ride out and back was brilliant, and everyone was keen to soak up as much of the amazing outback as possible. Who knew when there’d be another opportunity to ride to places as isolated as these?
Last night
Some riders may have felt that anything following Arkaroola could only be an anticlimax, but they were soon climaxing all over the place. There can’t be too many places in the world to rival Arkaroola for incredible, remote majesty, but Rawnsley Park Station is one of them, and it was the destination for the final night in the Flinders. Arkaroola to Rawnsely was only 268km, but the section included more incredible, National Geographic-standard scenery and a lunch stop at Blinman, a favourite destination for all Flinders Ranges’ travellers. The tiny village served up amazing choices for lunch, covering everything from big steak feeds through to scones with Quandong jam and all stops in between. The barista meant the shop was a very popular place.
From Blinman the route took in the
“I’m
get his picture in the mag.
2: Ben Pettit stood in for Safari regular Craig ‘Benno’ Bennett. Ben made sure everyone had the very best of technical support, from spare bike batteries through to emergency repairs. Got a sharp eye for front-wheel damage, has Ben. AdvRiderMag’s editor was the offender.
3: A quick snack stop suited Condo’s Matt Lewis before he hit one of the hard options. Matt’s living in Broken Hill at the moment, so he was ‘headin’ home’.
4: Paul Nettleton fair fanged his 800 through the hills around Arkaroola. The 50-year-old from Melbourne sure seemed to be enjoying himself.
1: All the way from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Bob Chua selemat pagied through the course on his F800GSA.
a religious reader of your magazine,” said Bob in an obvious – and successful – attempt to
Main: The Flinders Ranges is one superb vista after another.
Brachina Gorge and Bunyeroo – both of which would have David Attenborough in tears of rapture – before skirting the monumental Wilpena Pound and arriving at Rawnsley Park Station itself. The short day meant riders had time to enjoy scenic helicopter rides, change tyres or just sit around trying to come to grips with the impossibly wonderful riding they’d done so far.
Not over yet
The final day from Rawnsley Park Station to Broken hill looked to be a bit of a doddle. The last 100km or so was bitumen, and the dirt sections didn’t seem too threatening after all the group had conquered so far. The whole day was only 352km. It’s funny how things often aren’t as they seem.
First up the lead riders, Grant Evans and Craig Bernard, made an early start to get the arrows up and clear the track. Even though the field was told not to leave before about 8.30am, that meant the lead riders leaving as early as they dared. Unfortunately, the first real incident came about when Craig Bernard collared a ’roo about 30km into the first section, and resident, ridin’ medic Dr John had to swing into action. Despite being a tough bastard – and a nice bloke – Craig ended up with a broken collarbone. He never stopped smiling though, and after a visit to the Broken Hill hospital showed up at the dinner and raged on with everyone else. No sooner was Craig sorted and on his way than Wayne Litzow nailed a bull. Yes, a bull. A big, bovine poo machine that unloaded its fragrant bowels all over poor Wayne. He finished up unhurt, but his bike was a bit how’s-your-father. No-one’s sure how the bull ended up. He gathered his pride and wandered off.
RFDS thank you
This was another day with a long section between refuels. The route sheet said 352km, but the folks at Kalabity Station threw some 44s on a pallet, and for a donation to the Royal Flying Doctor
Main: There seemed to be a lot of salt lakes on this route. These two – Julian and Gary –battled through the short sandy section to check out Lake Frome on the easier of the two Arkaroola loops.
1: Andrew Connors wore the mile-wide grin of a bloke who’d just tackled six serious days and made the finish. It was smile that’d still be in place when he arrived back in his hometown of Dapto.
2: The tyre guys – Stuart Tait and Tony Williams – were kept hard at work from start to finish. They did an unbelievable job.
3: Kalabity Station turned on fantastic service. While the bikes were fuelled from 44s, Maggie, Jemma, Xanthe and Zoe provided tea, coffee and biscuits. All proceeds from snacks and fuel went straight to the RFDS.
Service, a few litres were pumped into the bikes with small tanks. The children of the station ran a stall offering tea, coffee and biscuits, and it became one of the favourite stops of the whole six days.
Aside from those little mishaps on the last day, everyone rolled into Broken Hill, tired, dirty and justifiably proud of themselves. It may well have been a beautifully organised, superbly run event – special thanks to Grant and Sophia Evans, Dave Coop in the Allianz support vehicle and the tech and tyre guys for making it happen – but there was so much more going on than just great riding and once-in-a-lifetime destinations. Aside from everything else that was fantastic about the 2016 BMW GS Safari Enduro was the ongoing support for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. A bucket was passed around at briefings and over dinners, and aside from generous donations a few tonguein-cheek fines were happily paid by offenders who were judged at fault by jeering, cheering peers, and of course the cash raised by the folks at Kalabity Station was chucked in to the pot.
At the end of a glorious, amazing, awesome week, a tidy $4300 was handed over the RFDS.
Adventure riding just doesn’t get much better than that.
1: It’s Ol’ Mate Iain Murray! We’d ridden with Iain before, and he’s a bloke who loves a good laugh. He was up for a chat at Kalabity Station on the final day.
2: Craig Bernard, happiest lead rider ever, hit a ’roo on the morning of the final day while clearing the course. A broken collarbone was the result. He’s a tough bugger, though. We bet he’s back on a bike before this story’s even written.
Main: Sunrise at Rawnsley Park Station. There’s nowhere like it.
Blue-ribbon service at Kalabity Station. All proceeds to the RFDS.
off-road test
2016 Triumph Tiger Explorer
Triumph’s updates to its Tiger Explorer mean it’s a big hitter in what’s fast becoming the hardest-fought class in adventure riding.
We first rode the Triumph Tiger Explorer 1200 back in issue #03, and while we reckoned it was a great long-distance bike with a sensational motor, we felt the suspension was a smidge light on for anything more than casual off-roading. We reckoned the traction control was just a little intrusive and the ABS was good in the off-road setting. It was a great long-distance bike with good off-road capability.
For 2016, Triumph has pulled apart the Explorer, kept all the best bits, and rebuilt the bike with a stack of great components and up-to-the-minute electronics. The first incarnation of the bike was great, but with upgraded brakes, suspension, electronics and looks, the 2016 model is really something special.
Updates
Triumph’s three-cylinder engine is a gem. It’s linear power and torque delivery and proven reliability make it a great asset to any bike, and we’re glad to say the 1215cc, liquid-cooled, 12-valve powerplant looks to be pretty much the same motor we’ve rated so highly since its first appearance. It
has a couple of extra horsepower and a bee’s dick more torque than the first incarnation of the Explorer, but it’s essentially, mechanically, the same.
The big refinements for Triumph’s high-end adventurer are in the electronics, rider modes and suspension.
Sticking with the motor for a moment, the Explorer steps up to the mark with Road, Rain and Off Road modes on the XCX, and an additional Sport and fully programmable Rider mode on the XCA. The base model XR and XC won’t be offered in Australia, and that seems entirely sensible to us. For just a small addition to the purchase price the features on the XCX and XCA would make it very difficult for a buyer to choose the base model. We rode the XCA, and while the additional two rider modes were nice, the heated seats, electrically adjustable screen, pannier rails, Tyre Pressure Monitoring System, Hill Hold, CNC machined footpegs and LED auxiliary lights made for a premium touring package.
TSAS
For 2016 the Explorer gets WP suspension,
Images: Wilkinson Photography
The Explorer is well suited to long distances, high speeds and to negotiating challenging terrain of all kinds.
oFF-Road test
and it’s a very noticeable step up from the KYB components on the previous model. We still found the forks a little unforgiving in the initial part of the stroke over corrugations and sharp-edges, but we felt the overall performance of the suspension was much improved, especially on big hits.
Why didn’t we try and twist a clicker or two?
We’re glad you asked.
The Explorer now has electronically controlled semiactive suspension. A rider can select ‘Auto’ and let the bike do the rest. That’s where we ended up. It’s a set-and-forget option, and we went for it.
The other setting is Off-road, and we sheepishly admit we don’t remember what happened there. We tried it, but can’t remember whether it gave us any advantage. There are so many options within each mode and setting we were in danger of ignoring the ride and concentrating on the menu, and there was no way we were falling for that.
The suspension system is sensibly named ‘Triumph Semi Active Suspension’ – TSAS – and the difference in feel between some of the options is quite marked. Once a suspension option is selected, a rider can fine tune on the fly. A touch of the menu rocker offers a sliding scale from Sport through Normal and on to Comfort. Rocking the switch up or down allows stepping in graduations until a comfortable spot is found.
The electronics package also allows optimised cornering traction control and ABS. We still haven’t managed to clear the poo stains from our jocks after our experimenting with cornering traction control on the Ducati, so we were a little more reserved with the Explorer, but we once again found ourselves comfortably riding at speeds we felt should’ve been way beyond us, and we never once in the four-day test had a scary moment.
The Triumph guys encouraged us to grab the front brake during high-speed cornering on asphalt, and while we couldn’t summon the courage to ‘grab’ the lever, u
Main: There’s still plenty of sportiness in this dualsport package. Left: Triumph Semi Active Suspension works well.
oFF-Road test
we did give it a tentative squeeze, only to find the stopper sort of refused to hook up. As the bike leans over, the rider aids make the appropriate adjustments to stop ham-fisted journos doing anything life-threatening with either throttle or brakes.
Phew.
But wait. There’s more
The suspension and electronics are major upgrades for this bike, for sure, but we feel as though the Brembo brake on the front could be overlooked, and it’s a big contributor to the Explorer’s comfort and performance. The previous model had Nissins front and rear, and they were great, but man! The twin-disc, four-spot-caliper Brembos on the front of the new bike are really, really nice. Feel is excellent and stopping power is strong.
The rear is still a Nissin set-up, and it’s excellent, but the front is something a cut above.
Of course the ABS has a few different choices in the menu, and we liked the front in Off-road and the rear off. That worked well for us on the dirt. If we were on
bitumen we’d just turn the key and ride away. The default setting is Road, and for about 99 per cent of the bitumen riding we’d do, it’s an ideal choice. We got a little feisty at times and ran in Sport. That gave a shorter throttle pull and seemed all racy, but we doubt it made us any quicker across a day’s ride. It felt good though, for sure.
The electronic windscreen is a nice touch. Again it’s a matter of hitting the menu button and rocking up or down to have the screen whirr into position. We kept the screen in the low position on rough ground because it seemed to be oscillating just a little too much for comfort. It didn’t flap or wobble, it just didn’t seem right to have it putting up with the punishment when a touch of the button could have it snugged down and under far less stress. On the open roads at speed we were glad to be able to ease that puppy up and enjoy a very much quieter and smoother ride.
Noice, Kimmy.
And…
We don’t want to get too carried away with minor details, but there’s a lot going on with the new Explorer, and even the
minor things impressed us.
The sound of the bike from the stock pipe is just plain horny. There’s an aftermarket Arrow pipe available, and it’s probably a good option, but we’d take some convincing. The stock pipe is a stainless-steel can that’s a little shorter and lighter than last year’s model, and while it’s fairly quiet, it still lets the Tiger roar.
The single-sided swingarm/drive train means the off side of the bike has that open-wheel look. It doesn’t mean anything performance-wise, but geez it looks good. The wheels are a tad wider in the new model as well, and combined with the shape of the bike the whole package just has a brooding, compact, athletic look.
As far as accessories ago, Triumph has adventure riders, especially long-distance riders, well covered. There’s top boxes, panniers, crash bars and all sorts of Triumph-branded gear available.
Finally, we just want to tip our hats to Triumph for the seats on the Tigers. They’re probably the most comfortable on the market, and even though we didn’t use the heating on the seats of the XCA on our ride, we’d look forward to flicking that particular switch when the temperature dropped – as would we the heated grips. Adjusting the seat height to gain or lose 20mm takes just a few seconds. It’s one of the best set ups we’ve seen.
Seat of the pants
With all that high-end engineering and electronics taken into account, what’s it like to actually plonk your bum on the seat, hit the starter, and set it all in motion?
It’s really frigging nice.
The smooth, three-cylinder motor offers the same fuss-free riding it always has, with plenty of horsepower and one of the most manageable torque curves in the market.
The ergonomics seem to be designed to encourage destroying large distances with a minimum of fuss in maximum comfort, and the pleasure of equipment like the braking and ride-by-wire cruise control make every facet of the riding experience a pleasure. Fanging along the bitumen at highly illegal speeds is way too easy, and battling sand, river crossings, wet clay and all the other
Left: The left-hand control block looks a little involved, but it’s easy to master. Our bike had heated grips and spotties that added a couple of extra switches. u
Top: The dash hasn’t changed much from the previous model. Anyone who’s used to the Triumph display will be comfortable with it in seconds.
aspects of off-road adventure riding is mother’s milk to the Explorer. The bike’s heavy, but it’s a 1200, ferchrissake. They’re all heavy. It’s not designed to finish Erzberg. It’s meant to be, in Triumph’s own words, ‘the ultimate transcontinental adventure motorcycle’. If it’s not the ultimate, it must be very close.
About the only thing we felt still needed refinement was the traction control in the Off-road mode. We think it’s still just a little too over-protective. It’s fine about 80 per cent of the time, but on an uphill with corrugations or even in sand or rocky creek crossings it’s just a little too intrusive. The Off-road mode on the XCA can be preset with traction control off so it doesn’t need to be dealt with every time the mode is selected, and that’s where we ended up.
Most riders choosing a bike in this class won’t be expecting to do some of the tougher terrain we covered, and for them, the stock settings will be fine, but for us – being so manly and rough’n’tough an’ that – we preferred the wheel-spinning, tyre-destroying option of 139 horsepower let loose. Hoo-ahh!
Add ons
The accessory catalogue for the new Explorer is impressive, and includes everything from luggage through to accessory lighting and protective clobber to little bags and mounts for phones and GPS units. A rider heading out on a round-the-world epic could pick up a bike and everything he needed with one
stop at a Triumph dealer. Of course the equipment to upgrade the XCX to XCA spec is available separately.
The
hard part
The 2016 Explorer is a superb long-distance, all-terrain bike. It’s comfortable and very capable, on- and off-road.
The electronics package is well up to the mark with its competition and it has some excellent equipment on board. At $26,700 plus on-roads for the XCA and $24,200 plus on-roads for the XCX and XCX Low, it’s priced in about the right spot, so anyone looking for a big dualsporter should consider it a frontrunner.
The problem we see for Triumph is getting through to people just how good the bike is. It takes a little time to appreciate how well the bike and its systems work, and a rider probably won’t see that in a test run around the block from a dealer. The bike itself is the problem. It’s so damn comfortable and fuss-free riders won’t understand how good it is until they’ve spent a little time with it.
Make the time if you can. You’ll be on a winner if you do.
Swingarm: Single-sided, cast aluminium alloy with shaft drive
Front wheel: 32-spoke, aluminium rim for tubeless 19 inch x 3.0 inch
Rear wheel: 32-spoke, aluminium rim for tubeless 17 inch x 4.5 inch
Front tyre: 120/70 R19
Rear tyre: 170/60 R17
Front suspension: WP 48mm USD forks, rebound and compression
damping, electronically adjustable with 190mm of travel
Rear suspension: WP monoshock, electronically adjustable semi-active damping with 193mm of travel and automatic preload adjustment
Front brake: Twin 305mm floating discs, radially mounted monobloc four-piston with switchable ABS Brembo callipers
Rear brake: Single 282mm disc with two-piston Nissin sliding caliper and switchable ABS
Length: 2230mm
Width (at handlebars): 830mm
Height (without mirrors): 1400mm (1470mm with screen in ‘high’ position)
Seat height: 837mm – 857mm. Low-seat version 785mm – to 805mm
Wheelbase: 1520mm
Fuel capacity: 20 litres
Dry weight: XCA 258kg. XCX 253kg
Intended use
We often write about reviewing bikes and considering their ‘intended use’. By that we mean there’s no point in taking a Postie bike to Eastern Creek or Phillip Island and complaining it gives poor lap times. The bike’s intended use is by people delivering mail who need one-handed operation, incredible reliability and maximum return on financial outlay. To test the bike properly a reviewer should go deliver some mail.
The Triumph Tiger Explorer is a long-distance dualsporter, and, embracing the intended use, Triumph Australia took reviewers on a four-day run through northern Queensland which included some fast bitumen, some tough off-road, some amazing scenery, great fishing, fabulous
dining and brilliant stops that included everything from luxury resort accom through to five-star, fully catered camping.
In short, exactly the purpose the Explorer was designed for, we reckon.
Good work Triumph Australia, and thank you.
Wine trail to the Flinders WTF
This magazine’s publisher organised an ‘ADV de Wineries’ in issue #08, and it wasn’t bad for a first attempt. I wanted to work out a DIY wine tour that covered some mustvisit wineries and some great scenery connected by interesting backtracks (and be better than Kurt’s effort).
If you live in Victoria, ride an adventure bike and want to visit the Flinders Ranges, which way do you go? The direct route via the Danggali National Park is sandy and might deter some big bike owners. The highway is boring. What about using local knowledge of the backroads and maybe visiting a few wine regions on the way? Kym Stock has some ideas. u
To find the roads less travelled between Melbourne and Adelaide a quick search on www.transaustraliatrail.com.au – TauT – resulted in several use-
ful routes from central Victoria’s Pyrenees Wine Region to the Coonawarra region just over the SA border, then up towards Adelaide via the Coorong National Park and then on to the Clare Valley. These routes took in several wine-growing areas, some established and some just starting to become well known.
I asked for help from the Green Triangle adventure riders (GTR) group from www.advrider.com, and having a winemaker in the group
Main: Bruce (left) and Jon at Mclaren Vale.
Left: You’d be smiling, too. It’s probably the third or fourth winery of the day.
Above: A big ol’ wine vat. Timber is important to flavour.
made identifying the leading wineries a simple task. Bruce Gregory’s BMW F800GS has wine racks in the panniers, and everyone likes camping with Bruce!
The plan was to meet at Moonambel Pub and visit the Pyrenees Ranges wineries. Plans have a habit of not working 100 per cent and this time I began the pre-ride alone. Just me, my Tiger 800 and my SPOT tracker.
I’d allowed 12 days for the ride, alternating between one day riding and the next day wine tasting.
On track
Moonambel was a thriving town of 40,000 people during the 1800’s goldrush era, but now has only 140 residents. It’s situated among picturesque rolling hills of central Victoria, and using the Moonambel Resort Hotel as a base, the first winery visited was the Warrenmang Resort. It truly is a resort with fine dining, cabins and tennis courts, as well as the wine-tasting room.
I learned my first lesson about wine tasting: wineries keep civilised hours and usually don’t open until 11:00am. I took the opportunity to enjoy a coffee and read the newspapers in the comfortable bar area.
Once my caffeine fix was finished, I rode out to the next valley to taste at Dalwhinnie Wines and Taltarni Wines.
Dalwhinnie is a modern construction at the end of the valley and I was the sole
customer. The grounds looked like a perfect setting for a grasstrack motocross. Taltarni was a hive of activity as its annual ‘Long Lunch’ was being held the next day. I was impressed with the wines at Taltarni and joined the club, which gives me discounts and information via email about product releases. I then made a brief stop back in downtown Moonambel at the Summerfield winery. It’s not nearly as grand as the other cellar-door facilities, but it does offer gourmet food as well.
Mounting up again I took the adventure option to ride over to the Blue Pyrenees winery via backroad tracks.
Spitting image
The cellar-door attendant was very happy to show me around the bottling facility after sampling the latest vintages. Some wineries spend a lot of effort on their grounds and Blue Pyrenees is a green oasis.
The next stop was for lunch at Sally’s Paddock wines in Redbank. They’ve gone for the rustic look at this place, rather than oasis-style, and I had a wonderful ploughman’s lunch and a glass of their finest Shiraz. Sitting outside in the sun was very pleasant indeed.
Suitably refreshed I set off towards Great Western using backroads.
Before you think I would have to be pissed by now, (ie: over the legal blood/ alcohol limit) I’d probably only consumed
left: Jon, Greg and author Kym enjoy a swill-andspit at Chapel Hills. The idea is to taste, not drink. Above: A little multitasking for the winery ag machinery. When not actually working in the fields the tractor can double as a sign.
the equivalent of two glasses of wine all day. The sidebar on cellar-door etiquette will explain all about spitting out the wine and rinsing with water between tastes.
Spitting out really high-quality reds is very hard to do at times.
End of the road
Great Western is known for its sparkling white wine production by Seppelt. It’s not really a touristy town with just a basic pub and motel on the main highway between Adelaide and Melbourne. During the night I calculated one B-double truck went through town every 20 seconds.
After an egg-and-bacon sandwich from the shop I waited for the arrival of Tori Dunn, a keen rider from the Grampians region who’s getting back into bikes after a 20-year break. Following my GPS plot (see the ‘how to’ article in issue 11), we set off down the east side of the Grampians looking for the turn-off to Mt. William picnic ground. Once off the main dirt road the tracks became narrower and started to climb. We were on ’roo alert and dodging emus even though it was 11:00am.
Top
ADVENTURE IS EVERYWHERE. You don’t need much to find it, just get out there doing what you love most and don’t plan a thing just explore. The Husqvarna 701 ENDURO is the ultimate all-terrain machine to do just that. With its stylish modern design, high-performance engine, state-of-the-art engineering, and long-distance travel capability, this is the motorcycle designed to take you where you dare to explore.
We went west over the passes in the Grampians and wound our way around on dirt roads, stopping occasionally to admire the view. On the far side of the range I came to the end of my GPS track. I must’ve missed transferring the next section from Basecamp, so we had to do a little exploring – Plan Error #02. Trying to skirt south of the Rocklands reservoir we came to a dead end where blue gums had been planted – PE #03 – and roads on OZtopo no longer existed.
Once past Balmoral we were on a mission to find lunch at the Pub In The Scrub in Dergholm. We rode some shallow sand tracks just outside of town, but were soon enjoying food and drink at the pub and refuelled the bikes after 280km. After a rest we set off into SA, crossing the border near Penola.
Make a point
Jon Deakin had ridden his V-Strom 650 from Adelaide and we met him at the Backpacker’s Lodge in central Penola. The lodge met our needs well and was within staggering distance of the pubs.
We conversed with the German tourists and, after a ’roo-steak meal, we turned in for the evening. Trying to behave like gentlemen, we had a leisurely breakfast before starting our winery tasting day.
We were spoiled by Bruce at Majella Wines. He gave us a full tour of the facility, explaining the process of wine making as he went.
Having travelled with Bruce I knew he was OCD by nature. His workplace is spotless and well organised. Tasting, spitting and rinsing was the order of the day as we visited the other wineries nearby. Bruce gave me a Majella hat he insisted I wore in all the other wineries and I got some good-natured flack from the other cellar-door staff. Tori couldn’t imbibe because of her licence restrictions, but she enjoyed sniffing the wines.
I don’t think we experienced any anti-biker discrimination from any of the staff. The Coonawarra does tourism very well with a spirit of regional co-operation. They have some well-designed cellar
Top: Author Kym at Seppeltsfield in the Barossa Valley. Looking forward to a Tawny or two.
Above: Meechi Brewery in the Langhorne Creek wine region, Murray River, SA, offers a palate contrast. u
door facilities, but the staff’s welcoming attitude makes or breaks the customer’s experience. Lunch was pizza at Oteliers in the Coonawarra township and one glass of their wine was our limit with lunch; it was very good indeed!
I weakened at Brand’s Laira and ordered a box of wine, which will earn brownie points with my wife.
Bolted
Next day Jon and I set off towards the coast via Millicent. The route took us through some winding roads into dairy and timber country and some dirt roads that paralleled the coast. The weather had turned cooler and it rained a little. They don’t call it The Green Triangle without reason.
It was about then Jon’s gearshift mechanism broke. We diagnosed the problem, jury-rigged a shifter and proceeded with caution into Robe. I booked a room at the Robe Hotel on the foreshore while Robe Auto And Marine drilled out the broken bolt and fitted a workable solution to the gear shifter.
We battled some strong winds to visit the Wangolina and Cape Jaffa wineries. Once again the cellar-door people were very hospitable. We met a fellow Triumph owner working at Cape Jaffa, and we’d noticed quite a few riders work in the wine industry.
I couldn’t resist buying some Wangolina wines to ship home. The Shiraz at Cape Jaffa is great value and is available over the web.
Find of the day was the Robe Town Brewery, a small handmade beer facility. Marus gave us a tour and a beer tasting, and
Left: Don’t be afraid to ask questions. The people who work in cellar doors are usually knowledgeable about wine, especially what they’re selling. They’re a happy bunch, too.
Right: Jon makes a purchasing decision.
Below: Using local knowledge of backroads means an excellent ride can be combined with a few days sampling some of Australia’s most sought-after wines.
we took a sample four-pack to enjoy on our balcony at the hotel. Bliss!
The outlook over Guichen Bay is fantastic.
More to come
Plan Error #04 was known before I’d started the ride. My stepfather-in-law had passed away the day before the ride and it was time to return for the funeral.
What we’d achieved was to prove you can do wine tasting on a motorcycle, and we’d recorded a scenic path riders can use to find the wineries and is now listed on TauT. Finally, we agreed Bruce’s must-visit winery list is very good, but it’s not necessary to try all five listed wineries in one day. Sensory taste overload can occur and riders get tired of gearing up so often. For a small fee most wineries will freight home boxes of wine purchased, and they all seem to have membership deals that offer discounts and e-mail updates on their products.
I look forward to finishing part two of the Wine Trail to the Flinders sometime in the future.
Winery cellar door etiquette
Cellar door sales are great for a number of reasons: you can taste the wines before you buy them and you can often get wines unavailable anywhere else.
Tasting and buying wine in a cellar-door environment is a little different to browsing in a shop. Here are a few tips…
v Very few wineries are located anywhere near public transport, so you have to transport yourself around. You have to be very careful about the quantity you drink
v Four or five wineries in a day is a sensible number
v Don’t wear strong aftershave or perfume as fragrances obscure the scent of the wine and will hang around for ages after you’re gone to obscure the smell of the wine for everyone following you
v Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
The people who work in cellar doors are usually knowledgeable about wine, especially what they’re selling
v Don’t be afraid to spit. Cellar doors always provide something for this purpose. You’re there to taste, not drink
Must-visit wineries
Pyrenees wine region, central Victoria
R Blue Pyrenees
R Summerfield
R Warrenmang
R Taltarni
R Redbank
R Dalwhinnie
Coonawarra wine region, south-east SA
R Balnaves
R Majella
R Wynns
R Brands
R Rymill
Limestone Coast wine region, coastal SA
R Wangolina Station
R Cape Jaffa Wines
Langhorne Creek wine region, Murray River, SA
R Lake Breeze
R Bleasdale
R Bremerton
R Wine House cellar door and function centre
McLaren Vale Wine region, Adelaide, SA
R D’Arenberg
R Kay Brothers
R Coriole
R K1 Geoff Hardy
R Wirra Wirra
R Chapel Hill
Adelaide Hills region, SA
R Lobethal Bierhaus
R Hahndorf Hill wines
R Chain of Ponds winery
Barossa Valley region, Adelaide, SA
R Henschke
R Chateau Tanunda
R Chateau Yaldara
R Yalumba
R Sepptlesfield
R Rockford
Clare Valley region, mid-north SA
R Jeanerette
R Jim Barry
R Skillogallee
R Paulett
R O’Leary Walker
R Eden Valley region
R Thorn-Clarke
R Eden Valley wines
R Irvine Wines
R Riley’s Wines
R Sorby Adams
Download maps on the internet of each region for directions to the wineries or visit local information centres.
In a nutshell LED lighting
ED – Light Emitting
LDiode – is the new force in motorcycle lighting. An LED is bright, illuminates instantly and is usually more compact than other forms of lighting such as HID – High Intensity Discharge – and halogen. LED lights also draw less power and have a vastly increased output life, so much so they can mostly be installed and forgotten. A quality LED is also waterproof so there’s no
HID, is LEDs are extremely efficient compared to filament or gas-filled globes. LED lights run cooler on the surface because more energy is converted to light rather than heat.
So LEDs are an ideal type of light source for headlights, tail lights, blinkers and auxiliary lighting on bikes. For example, a six-watt LED has around the same lighting grunt as a 35-watt halogen bulb, but uses less power and therefore puts less drain on a battery.
They’re long-lasting, energyefficient, lightweight, cost-effective, and don’t generate a lot of heat.
Light work
The technical aspects of an LED are very appealing for motorcyclists, but the LED itself is only part of the equation. Mounting the shiny little champions is another important factor for consideration, and that’s where quality of manufacture
and clever design plays a big part. The nature of the LED also means a light can be designed as very directional – a spotlight – or in an array to give a diffused or broad spread, more like a floodlight. Riders have to make a sensible choice when they’re purchasing.
Steve Smith at Adventure Moto has recently taken on Denali, a company offering some specialist lighting solutions for adventure riders, and he has a few words of wisdom on the topic.
“A rider can now look to very compact and durable lighting packages that’ll also allow a choice in the intensity and spread of the illumination,” he said. “Clever design can even mix those factors to varying degrees.
“Bike lighting is a really high-end,
Left: LEDs allow very compact enclosures. The idea with this one is daytime visibility. The smaller optic intensifies the brightness of the light when seen from the front. It’s important to buy the right light for the right purpose.
hi-tech area these days, but it’s one of the few things that’s becoming simpler and easier for owners. Brands like Denali understand what adventure riders are looking for and offer quality product to suit. All the rider has to do is decide what he wants.”
Give that some thought when you’re planning the lighting rig on your bike.
Below: An array allows mixing focussed and spread lighting beams. This pod is equipped with two 60-degree elliptical flood lenses and two 10-dgree spot beam lenses to create a hybrid beam pattern.
Quick points. LED lights:
R Have an estimated lifespan of between 15,000 and 50,000 hours
R Use a fraction of the energy of incandescent or compact fluorescents
R Can shine light in a targeted direction (unlike other bulbs that emit light in all directions)
R Can be installed individually or in an array
R Don’t expel a lot of heat energy when they emit light
Pumps
» Actual Pump size: 13 x 17 x 5.5cm » Light weight and portable - weighs only 497g
The
3 Precious
Another refinement of Yamaha’s XT1200Z Super Ténéré.
Yamaha Motor Australia’s Brand Development Manager, Peter Payne, has built a bike or two. In this case it’s three. The third incarnation of The Precious, his XT1200Z Super Ténéré, continues refinement started a few years ago. This bike’s been doing service since March, 2016.
Peter Payne’s
Main: The Precious 3 carved around the 2016 Ténéré Tragics ride. Left: We rode the first Precious back in issue #05.
We rode the first Precious, a 2013 model, back in issue #05 and were impressed at how the bike packed some serious muscle into a package that felt a lot lighter and slimmer than a standard Super T.
“Initially I rode the standard bike in New Zealand,” explained Payne, known as ‘Mr Clean’ in his enduro days. “All we’d fitted was tyres. I could see the ingredients were there for a damn good bike, even though it was big. I thought, ‘Let’s see what we can do’.”
The first Precious was great to ride and could be a lazy, cruisey sort of bike when the rider was in that kind of mood. But in the right hands it worked as a bare-knuckled trail shredder as well. The traction control and ABS had been disabled, a heap of weight had been stripped off, and we really enjoyed hammering through some loose dirt and hanging on for dear life as it carved up everything from bitumen highways to fire trails. With Peter on board it made short work of some reasonably serious enduro terrain, too.
More of the same
The new Peter Payne Super T, unsurprisingly, has been shaped according to the same ideas as the first and second, but now the stock Super T itself has had a little refinement. There’s cruise control on this the new bike, actually a 2015 model, and the ABS and traction control is switchable via an aftermarket set-up. That makes things easier.
As we’ve seen on the previous two Super T’s the pillion seat, ’pegs and support framework for the pillion ’pegs have been removed, as have the sidecovers. A Barrett pipe replaced the stock can and a few AltRider protective items – bashplate, master-cylinder protector, exhaust heat shield, universal-joint guard – Pivot Pegz
1: The third incarnation of The Precious, Peter Payne’s XT1200Z Super Ténéré, continues refinement started a few years ago.
2: AltRider gear features in the guards and plates. There’s a few Giant Loop protectors here and there as well.
3: The standard fork protectors have been replaced with AltRider items because they offer more coverage and simply because ‘they look good’.
and Barkbusters have all been fitted. Where the previous bikes ran Barkbusters handlebars as well, the new bike has swapped to Pro Tapers because the switchblocks are larger to accommodate switching for the cruise control and rider aids, and the Barkbusters ’bars taper out too quickly to allow the same set up from the previous models. Scott grips are the choice on this bike, replacing the TAGs on Precious 1 and Precious 2.
“The Pro Tapers have a good bend that’s more off-road oriented,” explained the quietly spoken Payne. “They allow you to stand up properly without cramping your arms and they promote a better seating position.” Peter uses the seat at the highest setting.
near the rider’s leg, but now there’s a Giant Loop guard available and that classy looking item is in place instead.
Probably the biggest step forward is the reduction in the bike’s mass.
Teknikally speaking
Suspension, as usual, was handled by Nick Dole at Teknik Motorsport.
Nick’s been tuning the Yamaha Motor Australia bikes for quite a while, but with this particular bike there wasn’t so much to do. The standard spring rates stay as delivered. It’s only the damping that’s altered, and that’s changed to give the big Yamaha more off-road capability. Peter Payne rates the suspension on this bike as ‘pretty damn good’.
4: The screen is adjustable, and it sits in front of an instrument mount bar which doesn’t get used on this bike. u
Previous bikes also ran fibreglass heatwrap around the exhaust where it rises up
“A lot of people are putting extenders on the suspension to raise the height of the
the pReCIous 3
bike and give more ground clearance,” he said, “but I didn’t want a bike this size higher up in the air, particularly on single trails. I’d sooner fit the protection and then just be a little more careful in rough terrain.”
The 2015 model Super T also has rider modes, and Peter’s a fan. He uses the Touring mode for gravel roads, and off-road he likes the Sport mode for the sharper throttle response.
Protection
AltRider gear features strongly in the guards and plates on The Precious, including a bashplate that bolts directly to the frame, frame guards, rear master-cylinder guard and lower-pipe protector. There’s a few Giant Loop plates here and there as well, and the standard rack in combination with a small Giant Loop tankbag does the job for luggage. Peter travels light and with the pillion seat removed there’s more than enough room for all he needs to carry, even for seven-day rides.
The screen on the 2015 model is adjustable, a change from previous models, and it sits in front of an instrument mount bar which doesn’t get used on this bike. Peter mounts his GPS on the ’bars because it’s much easier to get to.
The standard fork protectors have been replaced with AltRider items because they offer more coverage and simply because ‘they look good’.
Speaking of looking good, the standard radiator/tank sidecovers have been replaced with genuine Yamaha Worldcrosser carbon-fibre covers, and they are super horn. “It’s more cosmetic than anything,” smiled Mr Clean, “but they do allow more airflow.”
Tyres are always a consideration on the big-horsepower bikes, and The Precious 3 has settled on Metzeler Karoo 3s. “The Karoo 2s are good,” said Payne, “but the 3s are better off-road.”
Standards
When a builder has all the resources of Yamaha Motor Australia behind him, you have to think anything he leaves standard must be pretty good. On Precious 3 the motor and gearbox are bog stock, as are levers, mirrors, indicators, seat and really, most of the mechanicals. The changes are all bolt-ons.
There’s no centrestand as a standard fitting on this model, but the electronicsuspension models have one, and that’s the stand on this bike. It’s available as an accessory from Yamaha dealers.
That begs the question: why wasn’t an
electronic-suspension model used for Precious 3? “The electronic suspension is really nice,” said Payne, “but I just like the lighter weight. If I was riding around Australia, sometimes two-up, sometimes with different amounts of luggage or whatever, I’d have the electronic suspension and be glad of the adjustability. But this bike is built for one person, off-road, with a set amount of luggage. I’d sooner have it set up the way I want it and not carry the extra weight.”
Lessons learned
With this being the third Super T in succession under Peter Payne’s care, he’s had a good opportunity to learn what to look out for on the bike. It’s a very short list. The spoke tension needs to be checked after some bedding-in time because the offroad running gives them a bit of a pounding, but once they’re settled they’re fine.
Why the name?
How did this bike come by its unusual name?
Peter Payne is a bloke who likes things clean and ordered. Polite people might say he had a tendency to be fastidious. Less polite people say he’s ‘some kind of clean freak!’. When Peter builds a bike, there’s a heavy emphasis on it being immaculate. We mean everywhere, all the time, not just a squirt of the pressure washer after each ride. When most people hit the end of the day looking for a shower and a cold drink, Peter gets a little unruly if he can’t find a car wash to make sure that bike’s squeaky clean. And when he builds, he has the same philosophy. Nothing is left to chance, and just because it’s out of sight doesn’t mean it doesn’t get checked, measured and, often, modified or improved.
The pillion seat, ’pegs and support framework for the pillion ’pegs have been removed, as have the sidecovers.
Other than that, regular air-filter maintenance and oil changes complete the list. The XT1200Z Super Ténéré has proven itself fairly bulletproof. Regular, sensible looking after is all it needs.
The riding experience
The result of the build?
Keeping in mind this bike is built to suit the personal aims of a specific rider, Payne says the bike is ‘tauter’.
We looked a little blank at that description, so he went on to explain.
“The bike doesn’t move around as much. The bike’s better off-road. It handles much better on real dirt surfaces. The standard Super T is more set up to handle on-road and cope with the occasional off-road riding. This bike, keeping in mind its size, is aimed at off-road riding. It’s still good on the road, but the focus on this bike has been shifted a little.”
Some people might even say there was a little touch of fanaticism in the man.
We don’t know about all that, but when he hands you the key to his personal Super T, he gets this steely look, and he doesn’t let the key go until you’ve met his gaze and he warns, “My Preciousssss.” Message received, loud and clear.
In fact Yamaha Genuine Parts are
...So good we build our bikes with them!
Only Yamaha can manufacture their replacement parts to the exact standards needed to guarantee reliability, performance and correct fit every time. We even offer some of the consumable parts in handy prepackaged kits, such as Fork Seal Kits, Bearing Kits, Clutch Kits, Plastic Kits and Gasket Kits.
Industry players
Phil Hodgens
The Motorbikin’ DVD series has just hit disc number 20. It seems such a short time ago we plonked down in front of the telly to watch the first instalment. We remember being very excited about that, because we’d known something of Motorbikin’ main man Phil Hodgens for quite some time. On the occasion of his 20th disc we thought it time we learned some more.
Above: The Motorbikin’ team was the first to ride the entire Madigan Line through the northern Simpson.
Main: Phil Hodgens: dairy farmer, adventure rider and main man at Motorbikin’.
There’s not too many more colourful characters in the adventure-motorcycling world than Phil Hodgens. He’s a dairy farmer, a devoted rider, and the driving force behind the Hard-core Posties movement that’s raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. He’s also a handy rider and a bloke who’s happy to have a laugh at his own expense.
We asked how the primary producer got involved in bikes in the first place.
“I didn’t get my first bike until I was 17,” explained the farmer from Bald Knob in Queensland. “Until then I only rode horses.”
The bike which gave Phil his first two-wheeled taste was a Suzuki DR250, and the love was immediate. “It was so much easier than riding a horse,” he said, sensibly.
A great deal of bush riding followed, as did a move to a Husqvarna, but then came a pivotal moment.
“I saw a SideTrack magazine in a newsagent one day and thought, ‘Shit! I want to do that!’ At the time I was smoking and the missus said if I gave up cigarettes I could do whatever I wanted with bikes. I gave up the smokes and a couple of months later bought my first DR650 and started doing long-distance riding.
“I haven’t been able to give up riding yet.”
That was about a decade ago, give or take. Phil’s not too fussed on dates.
Motorbikin’
It was the Postie-bike runs that started the Motorbikin’ phenomenon.
“Our second Postie-bike run went from Birdsville to Alice Springs,” remembered Philth. “We had a huge mob and Matt Wordsworth and big Mark Smith – Marky-mark – from the ABC came along for the show Australian Story
“We hit the Finke track and broke 13 collarbones in about 30 minutes, and we hospitalised both the ABC guys. When I went in to the hospital to visit everyone, I found Mark under sedation with his arm in a sling and he said, ‘That was awesome. We have to start making some DVDs.’”
That started the ball rolling.
Tough stuff
As time passed people came and went meeting family and work commitments, but Phil’s passion for his DVDs never faded. Mark Smith shot and edited the first disc, and Phil was always shooting footage himself, but over time Phil taught himself to edit, and, as he puts it, ‘went solo’.
That Postie trip was in 2007. Nearly 10 years later we’ve had some first-hand experience of the Hodgens’ sense of humour and photojournalistic talent. Both are considerable, and are possibly a little overshadowed by his success with the Motorbikin’ series.
After all those wild adventures in Australia and overseas, and all the amazing people, what sticks in Phil’s mind as a highlight?
• WA adventure bike riders now have a dedicated store for riding gear, panniers, service items, travelling & camping gear, books, maps, DVDs, communication systems & much more
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international
“We love doing stuff people haven’t done before,” he said with surprising sincerity. “That’s what we get a big kick out of. Stuff like the Madigan Line, which hadn’t been done before, and rides like the Coast To Coast and Geocentre runs.
u
They’ve been done, but it’s a big thrill when you’ve got no definite outcome or information on what the tracks are going to be like. You’re pioneering. We get a huge buzz out of that.”
Plenty more to come
What about any low points? Motorbikin’ often presents some wild, off-centre concepts. Is there anything Phil thinks of as a low point or disappointment?
“I guess every time I kill a camera is a low point,” he grinned.
“I was looking through the cupboard the other day and we’ve killed about $20,000 worth of cameras in the last decade or so. It’s part of it I guess, but every time it happens it’s a low point.”
What’s the future hold for Motorbikin’?
“As long as it’s fun we’ll keep doin’ it,” said Hodgens with a straight face. “We’re obviously not doin’ it for the money.”
Main: The Carson River Track from Motorbikin’ 20.
Above: For Motorbikin’ 19 the team rode from Queensland to Adelaide to race the South Australia 24 hour Enduro, then rode home again.
Below: Phil and Tugboat Bill had some awesome times filming in the early days before Bill was tragically lost to depression.
Win a copy of Motorbikin’ 20: The Kimberley
Phil says Motorbikin’s done about all there is to do in Australia, and a fair chunk of overseas adventuring as well. To get some new ideas flowing, Phil’s offering a free copy of Motorbikin’ 20: The Kimberley to stoke the adventuring pot. All you have to do is e-mail your idea for a great Motorbikin’ theme or idea to motorbikin@westnet. com.au. Phil will sift through the concepts, and each of the three he likes most will score a free copy of the new disc. That’s all there is to it. G’warn! Get sending!
Grab a copy
The Motorbikin’ discs –including the latest, Motorbikin’ 20: The Kimberley – are available from the Adventure Rider Magazine e-store. Log on and stock up on some Aussie classics.
OUR HOME – OUR PASSION
• Fully guided and catered, off road motorcycle tours
• Operating since 1990 - Varied range of tours to suit any time frame or budget •
HARD Husqvarna 710Kits
What happens when HARD Kits takes a bike as good as the Husky 701 Enduro and specs it up to rallye standards? Adventure-riding magic happens.
Images: Wilkinson Photography
It’s not easy to take a great bike, bolt things to it, and end up with an even better bike. HARD Kits has managed it. The Gold Coast-based company came up with a kit for KTM’s 690 which we rode in issue #03 and loved. Basically, the HARD Kit gave the standard 690 a rallye-style fit out with a nav tower and bigger fuel capacity. It was an excellent set of mods with some beautiful fabrication. Refinement continued and the company released the Series Two HARD Kit for the 690 – which we rode in issue #09 – and now, there’s a Series Three. The concept is the same –taking the base bike anyone can buy and offering a substantial upgrade in kit form – but HARD Kits is offering its latest rallye set up for Husky’s new 701 Enduro as well as the KTM690. It’s a world first for a Husqvarna kit with additional fuel capacity. u
The bike is slim and compact, and it handles technical terrain with ease. It’s just as at home at high speed on open road.
The Series One and Series Two kits were good, but the Series Three is a considerable step forward, and on the Husky 701 it creates a bike that’ll have wanna-be rallye and hardcore adventure riders frothing.
The Husky 710.
Appearances
Just to remind you of our opinion of the stock Husqvarna 701 Enduro, we thought it was a great bike. We said, ‘…there’s no problem about loving that motor and the bike’s general performance, on- or off-road. Fitting luggage and a screen would no doubt make the Husky a distance hound, and we’re guessing there’ll be long-range tanks available very shortly. With those accessories fitted, this bike will be one scorching hot time waiting to be enjoyed.’
That’s almost what HARD Kits is offering. The two obvious additions are the 18 litres of fuel capacity in the Nomad tanks fitted to the front of the bike and the screen/fairing and nav tower in front of the ’bars. There’s actually a lot more than that going on, but because of the clean, compact look of the bike, it takes a closer scrute to see some of the excellent additions and mods.
The kit
The new set-up now has a handful of genuine, OEM 450 Rallye components added, mostly to the front of the bike.
The use of readily available OEM parts is preferable to unique fabricated parts, we reckon. It means those components are far less expensive and are much easier to replace.
Starting from the front, KTM-brand clear, polycarbonate screen, headlight support tray and headlight protector bolt on to a custom-built HARD Kits nav tower.
The three-millimetre, aluminium sideplates of the Series Two tower have been upgraded to three-millimetre
Top: The HARD Kits 710 Husqvarna is a sensational package. The stock bike is one of our favourites, and the Series Three HARD Kit makes it even better.
Right: Whopping footpegs. We thought they were going to be too big, but when we rode the bike they were spot on.
Below right: The smaller dash and clear screen make for a very uncluttered and unobtrusive cockpit, but everything needed for a rallye set up is there.
The carbon-fibre dash is designed to take a Garmin LM GPS or an iPad mini.
carbon-fibre units. There’s a slight weight reduction with the carbon-fibre, and the clear screen gives much-improved vision at the front, and the carbon fibre looks horn.
The new floating dash is narrower and simpler than the Series Two version is designed to take a Garmin LM series GPS or iPad mini in the portrait position. Nomad Tanks fuel cells have also been
u
redesigned to accommodate the shape of the Husky. The HARD Kits tanks now hold 300ml less than the KTM version, but the Husky on-board tank holds a litre more than the KTM, so overall it’s still an increase in capacity to just over 30 litres. The tankprotector guard on the lower section of the Nomad tank is now plastic instead of carbon fibre, with the plastic being more crash-resistant and less expensive. So that’s a double winner.
To accommodate the extra fuel, the stock pipe is changed to a HARD Kits down pipe and it’s around 110mm shorter than the Series Two header. It moves the Wings muffler in tighter with the bike and keeps it a little more protected.
Mechanicals – engine, gearbox, final
Above: The same nice, snag-free lines we’ve seen on previous HARD Kits. The Nomad Tanks are a really nice build.
Above right: A shorter downpipe keeps the muffler in tight with the bike.
Below: Darren ‘Big Dog’ Wilson, the main man at HARD Kits. There’s a Series Three kit available for the KTM 690 as well. The 660 Rallye is Darren’s own ex-Andy Caldecott Safari bike.
drive and so forth – are all standard.
Owner’s privilege
The bike we rode here is the HARD Kits demo bike, and it has a few options which will be available to purchasers but which won’t be included in the standard kit price. Things like Öhlins suspension internals for the forks, Öhlins shock, a pair of supertrick Highway Dirt Bike handguards with little fold-in mirrors, and some whopping HARD Kits footpegs. A New Zealand-based company is doing some fabrication for HARD Kits.
The seat has to be modified to suit the new tanks, and at the time we rode the bike it wasn’t certain whether the kit would contain instructions for the owner to do the mod, a seat would be supplied, or perhaps HARD Kits would do the seat mod with each order. You’ll have to research that one for yourselves.
The ’bars on the demo bike sit nice and high over an underbar steering damper with vibration-suppressing mounts.
The demo bike also had some CNCmachined trimmings in the HARD Kits billet fuel-cap mounts and some cosmetic trimmings here and there.
Done right
The first question any potential buyer will probably ask is, “How’s the balance?”
The extra tanks and turret give the bike a front-heavy look, but as we found with the first two versions of the HARD Kits, balance is something that’s well-sorted. We rode the bike with probably half its possible fuel load and couldn’t feel any penalty in weight bias at all. It was the same slim, sure-footed, dirt-bike feeling mount we enjoyed in the stocker. Naturally the motor and mechanicals felt great – they were stock after all – although maybe the engine was breathing just a little better. We might’ve imagined that, but we admit we were in a fair state of ecstasy as we rode the bike and were ready to believe just about anything.
That sums up the HARD Kits Husky 710 for us. Everything we loved so much about the standard bike was still there – great motor, great handling, superb build and feel – but we had serious fuel range, excellent protection from the wind and elements, the bike was more comfortable than standard, and, a major step up from previous HARD Kits in our opinion, fabulous visibility thanks to that clear screen. The rider can see the terrain right in front of his wheel and that gives a very big boost of confidence.
The suspension on this demo bike was excellent, even without any adjustment, the handling matched the suspension, and the power delivery and sound rounded out a really fantastic package.
We’re seriously in awe of how good this bike is. We want one.
Who do you call
So how do we – or you – get a HARD Kit?
Cross Roads Motorcycles in Grafton is now the national distributor, and Lee Palmer, who Adventure Rider Magazine readers have met already, is the man to talk to. Give him a call on (02) 6643 1933 and have a chat about the Husqvarna options and costs.
See the Series Three kits at the Melbourne Moto Expo
HARD Kits will officially launch the new Series 3 kits at the Melbourne Moto Expo. Lob along and ask the guys for any information you need, get a good, close-up look at the gear, and maybe even have a chat to The Big Dog himself. Head out to Melbourne Showgrounds between November 25 and 27 to take in all the action.
Reader ride
I Finke
therefore I am
Eight mates set out to tackle the tough two: The Finke Desert Race and The Simpson.
Eight of us were heading out from the NSW east coast to the Simpson Desert, catching the Finke Desert Race on the way. We had three brandnew SWM 650s, two KTM 690s, a DR650, a DRZ plus a Land Rover support vehicle.
Winter kicked in cold and wet as we started and got worse as we went through the blue mountains.
We sought refuge in the Lithgow Woolworths carpark, tooled up with garbage bags under our jackets and headed back out into the storm. We enjoyed the beautiful countryside, greener than usual, through chattering teeth until we arrived at Dunedoo, via Mudgee, for a late lunch.
The further west we went the more sunshine we got, though the rain continued to dog us. We called it quits for the day at
Nyngan and rented a couple of cabins to dry out. We were short of our scheduled stop at Mulga Creek, 120km up the road, but night had fallen and the stop gave the Land Rover a hope of catching us.
A session at the Nyngan pub with a big feed provided a great lift.
When we got back to the cabins at about 10:00pm the Land Rover was just pulling in. After much handshaking and backslapping we heard Charles, the driver, had had a rough day with radiator dramas stopping him every 40km. We spent some time discussing the problem. The easiest to rule out was the thermostat. We removed it and still had the problem. An air-lock was a possibility. The worst candidates were head gasket and/ or a warped head.
We decided to press on to Bourke in the morning.
Cool
We sped past the famous Mulga Creek Hotel where we should’ve spent the first night and the Land Rover boiled religiously at the 40km and 80km mark. Then Charles had an epiphany: he parked the vehicle facing up the steep side of the road. Like burping a baby the result was miraculous as a big airlock cleared. The radiator then took on an extra few litres of fluid and the Land Rover made it through to Bourke without further boiling. Problem solved! Eureka!
But our tormentors weren’t finished with us. We filled up and were about to head to Cunnamulla when someone asked, “What’s that fluid pouring out under the Land Rover?”
The Omega Protocol
The call was made to enact the Omega Protocol.
This meant disgorging the contents of the Land Rover and then each of us picking the
Words and images: Bruce Graham
essential components to take with us. Matt, for instance, had a predilection for rumand-raisin chocolate, so filled his boots with it. Jack thought a 500-watt RMS boombox (with apparently only one song – AC/DC’s Highway To Hell) was absolutely vital to the success of the mission. An axe and a 1.5-litre bottle of ethanol also made their way into the kit.
When we were finished there was a neat pile of unessential items to put back in the Land Rover…things like packets of assorted nuts and bolts, wire, a chain breaker, spare chain links, tubes, sprockets, a 12mm spanner, food and that kind of thing.
We headed off to Cunnamulla, loaded to the gunwales with useless junk. Charles spent a few days in Bourke and replaced the head gasket. That got him as far as Tennant Creek where he replaced the head and finally fixed the problem.
We never saw Charles again on the trip as he couldn’t cut back to join us due to road closures. He went home via Port Augusta and Wilcannia and had an adventure of his own.
Cunnamulla and Eulo
We were in Queensland at last, but so was the Flying Doctor Rally which consisted of about one million cars, all lined up for petrol at the only bowser for a squillion kilometres. Even after queue jumping it took nearly 45 minutes to fuel up.
By then it was dark so we were looking for a place to stay. There was nothing left in Cunna-bloody-mulla and we were advised to head on to Eulo, about 70km and 500 kangaroos west.
Eulo coughed up a great, friendly pub with dry camping spots out the back.
The publican, Jacko, proved a font of outback knowledge and helped us plan the path to the NT border. Our exact route remained fluid (in two senses of the word) as roads opened and closed due to the rain moving around what is normally very dry country.
Toompine, Quilpie and Windorah
On the long bitumen thrash to Windorah we were accompanied by our car-rally mates. It cost us an extra hour at Quilpie and nearly two hours at Windorah. They were onto us now and had developed a tactic to stop us queue jumping. One tactic was weapons-grade friendly chat, “Where are you from? And where are you heading?” repeated by each of them. The other tactic was a 1960s Buick with a 160-litre secondary tank fuelled through a four-millimetre hose three drops at a time. When we finally left Windorah it was getting dark – again. Having vowed at the start of the trip never to travel in the dark we were three out of three.
I love all the outback country. The vast plains of never-ending scrub, the mulga, the silver gidgee and their Acacia cousins that seem to thrive on sand and air are all fabulous. But as you leave Windorah the country changes dramatically to a Martianlike landscape and everything becomes red earth and sun-varnished rocks with craggy low hills
shimmering on the horizon.
Jack off
From Windorah we headed up through the Channel Country in the Diamantina National Park. There was a lot of dirt road and track at last, but no petrol or drinking water for 650km. Naturally we forgot to get water in Windorah and were looking forward to a thirsty few days when, like a mirage, we came to a freshly made rest stop about 80km out of Windorah that had a rainwater tank.
On dark we camped at the side of the road and helped ourself to a magnificent campfire made with
Main: The wet weather and heavy traffic had turned most of the track into a kind of dark, desert highway. Below: The SWMs were a pleasure to ride on any surface and could handle the toughest stuff with ease. u
Above: Heading north to Cunna-bloody-mulla. Below: Some rocky sections made a muddy track look good.
Bottom right: The Channel Country in the Diamantina National Park. No petrol or drinking water for 650km. Far right: A happy crew.
heavy lumps of craggy old mulga which was there in abundance.
Having watched a lot of war movies as a kid, I’d developed the habit on this trip of starting each day with a ride briefing where I would run through the riding plan for the day, pointing out proposed destination, key turning points and rest stops. This day was like every other and as usual nobody turned up. They were too busy listening to Acker-Dacker’s Highway To Hell
Ahhh, the serenity!
Around 200km later Chris went screaming past the one turn we had to make that day. It came as no surprise. The fact we’d already stopped and were waving him down made no difference –he’d engaged zombie mode.
We sent Jack after him and an hour later they returned, now both depleted in petrol and all of us depleted in goodwill. When we finally got sick of kicking him we headed north into the famous Channel Country.
What channel to watch
It was now my son Henry’s turn to shine. Henry had never ridden a motorcycle until he got his L plates three days before we left. They do a good job when they give you L plates these days, because Henry had led us all in speed and daring. He was soon able to show us what he was made of – as it turned out mostly blood, bone and
gristle. He hit a channel at 100kph. The bike cartwheeled, the petrol tank cracked, the headlights and instruments disintegrated and a resulting spark caused an explosion. In addition the subframe bent to the left by about 10cm. He was lucky enough to be thrown clear to land on something soft: his head.
Henry was doubly lucky. Not only was he thrown clear, but we also had mechanical geniuses in the form of Andrew, Shane, Chris and Matt who were able to sort through the pile of metal, bones, bolts and blood to rebuild something that almost looked like a DRZ – and something that looked a bit like Henry as well.
Maybe they made a few mistakes. Henry is now partial to a warm glass of 10W-50 on a cold day and the DRZ just asked me if it could borrow $10.
Top his credit, Henry stood up, dusted himself off, jumped on the wobbly DRZ and soldiered on.
Diamantina Lakes
After some funny muddy river crossings we were getting near to our camp for the night, the Diamantina Lakes. It had been an eventful day in an area I’d wanted to see all my life. The rolling Mitchell-grass plains criss-crossed by the life-giving channels are unique and worth the trip if you ever get the chance. The SWMs ate it all up as if they’d been waiting for it.
Driving on sandy roads full of channels wears you out, but trying it in the dark was suicide, especially with no light on the DRZ. As Henry and I trailed into camp late we were fully spent, battered and bruised by the pounding we’d taken.
The campsite was worth the effort except for one small problem. We’d chanced upon the mosquito State Of Origin training camp. Not for us your normal southern mozzie. Here we discovered the Jonathon Thurston, Cameron Smith and Sam Thaiaday of
mozzies. We tried our normal mozzie repellent, but just like a NSW State Of Origin defence it proved weak and gutless against Queensland might.
Boulia, Tobermorey and NT
We powered out of the beautiful Diamantina and on to Boulia. Before we left we’d agreed on a detailed signalling system should things go wrong. About 30 minutes outside of Boulia I could see Jack on the DR pulled up and gesticulating. Carefully reading his signals as: “Dad, you arsehole, you’ve ruined my life. Pass the maramalade,” I knew he didn’t need my help. Waiting in Boulia for quite some time later it transpired Jack had run out of petrol. He was sorted by Chris and it was time for a new signalling system.
Tobermorey is a cattle station on the QLD/NT border. There’s a nice, grassy camping area, fuel, water and snacks. Once again we found ourselves in the middle of ’roo hour, but arrived safely. We’d heard bad reports about the Plenty/O’Donohue Highway that runs from Boulia to just north of Alice Springs, but in reality it was a very good dirt road with quite a few bitumen sections. Sure, some bits would rattle out your fillings, but these were few and far between. Maybe it had been graded after the recent rain.
We received advice not to go through to the Stuart Highway and onto Alice, but to take The Binns Track south off the Plenty Highway about 100km before the Stuart Highway. What a find! It wended its way through the hills and creeks then through the East MacDonnell Ranges towards Alice and was a fantastic ride. The only issue was a rock that caught in Matt’s chain, busting the joining link and snapping a tooth on the front sprocket (maybe a riveted link would have helped, but maybe not). Matt flew into action, punched out the broken link, tossed in a spare Shane just happened to have and, using Jack’s axe, had the bike back on the road in no time.
Weld one
We rolled into Ross River campground in ’roo hour yet again. The people that run that place are the most obliging, kindly souls on earth. They fired up the closed kitchen, cooked us seven meals plus dessert, plied us with beer and had a slap-up breakfast ready for us in the morning. On top of this they gave Shane and Andrew the keys to the workshop where they were able to weld the panniers on the DR. The owners’ local knowledge was great too, and they set us up with some great tracks to finish the trip into Alice.
Alice Springs
Since we left Sydney we’d heard constant reports: “There’s been a stream of guys through here headed to Finke...”. We now could see and feel how true that was. In fact they weren’t just heading to the Finke race, they were heading to the main ’bike shop in
Above: Is this what’s meant by ‘naked bike’?
Below: Road trains get right of way.
Alice, the same as we did.
No matter how you ride to Alice you’ll end up there. The trip inevitably will have worn, shaken, tossed, vibrated, and smashed 30 per cent of the stuff on your bike and you’ll need to replace some of it to go any further. Given we still had to make it across the desert and Alice was the last opportunity for us to re-equip, there was even greater urgency.
The shelves of the bike shop were stripped bare as were the nearby Repco, auto and hardware stores. In spite of this we managed to build up a treasure chest of loot that included oil, chain lube, sprockets, chains, various M6, M8 and M10 nuts and bolts, epoxy for Henry’s tank and headlight and a clutch lever. The one thing we couldn’t get was a rear sprocket for the
DRZ. That was a bit surprising and very troubling as it was now a buzz-saw blade and wouldn’t make it much further. I had packed a spare to change en route but left it in the Land Rover.
The race
While the Finke Desert Race was the nominal focus of the trip, the journey so far had been all-consuming and we hadn’t thought much about the race itself. But once you dip your toe into Alice at this time of year you get sucked in. The excitement and activity around town is incredible and it’s all focused on the Finke. We were soon wading in, and heading out to the track for scrutineering was like being a kid heading to the Easter Show.
A large chunk of the excitement and energy was coming from the Toby Price team.
We waited an hour in the signatures line but when we got there he didn’t want our
signature, so that was a waste. But it was as great to see the Dakar bikes and his mount for Finke up close as it was to see Toby looking very relaxed and enjoying every minute.
After grilling the locals we found the thing to do was now head out to the actual track and find a place to camp. The Finke track from Alice to Finke is like two roads running in parallel a few hundred metres or so apart. The old rough track is what they race on, the other is a made dirt road. In the dark, it’s the worst road on Earth as you inevitably pick out every rock, pothole, wheel rut, sand drift and corduroy patch there is. In the daylight you can pick a good path through it all and it’s quite good. So the advice was to head down to about the 50km mark to avoid the crowds.
We made it to about the 30km mark before our bones said, ‘No more!’
As it turned out we found a great campsite a few metres away from the track and our neighbouring campers turned out to be fantastic people (as was everyone else we met on our trip). They provided us with tools and equipment and took a great interest in our bikes –particularly the SWMs. One neighbour had towed down a wood-fired pizza van and kept us fed on the best pizzas we’d ever had, plus a slap-up bacon-and-eggs breakfast with coffee. Seven of us! And refused any payment.
We’d have loved to catch the race prologue but had to call a maintenance day.
Race day
The first hint you get of the race is a helicopter screaming over the horizon heading towards you, but faster than any helicopter you’ve ever seen because it’s trying to keep up with the race leader doing around 200kph in a machine Mad Max could only dream of. For the few nanoseconds it takes for this tonne of metal, fuel and noise to go from one horizon to the other you stand transfixed as it affects you at the most basic level.
The cars are good, but bikes were what we were really there for, and the epitome of Finke bike racing is Toby Price in full flight, a helicopter trying to keep up. Toby seemed only loosely attached to his machine which seemed to have exemptions from the laws of physics as it floated about the track only occasionally kissing the earth to comply with race rules that forbid the use of aircraft.
The Rock
After three days of sleeping in the dirt, imbibing cartons of Fourex bitter, doing manly mechanical stuff and watching 200kph machines all day, someone rang the bell and each of the 100,000 or so spectators, like us, loaded up their vehicles and headed back into Alice.
We’d foreseen this and had sorted all our requirements the day before.
We scooted down the side of the traffic and just brushed the edge of Alice as we headed out to Hermannsberg to turn south down the Finke River en route to Uluru. Once more, through careful planning, we arrived in camp in the pitch black having negotiated some great, rocky, sandy, mud bogs in the process. A roaring fire and some food and beer set us right for a good night’s sleep u
to wake up in one of the gorges of the spectacular Finke River.
We’d heard this trail was worth doing but were surprised at how beautiful the river actually was. There’d been some rain so the river had plenty of water and water crossings, but we understood there were a number of spots with permanent water. That was surprising given the surrounding arid countryside.
The sandy trails at the southern end of the track were a real test for man and equipment and a taste on a minute scale of what we would be up against in The Simpson.
We pushed through to the bitumen and got to Uluru just before sunset.
Uluru
An Uluru sunset on a cloudless day is legendary, so we were lucky to see it go through its spectrum of colours. The campground at Yulara was a welcome touch of relative luxury with grass and hot showers.
The next day we did the tourist trot, fuelled ourselves on bacon-and-egg sangas with coffee and were all packed up ready to take in the sites heading to Curtin Springs by nightfall. Before leaving Uluru we bumped into Magnus of Outback Adventure Treks. Magnus was running a trek across Australia with a group of guys on DRZ 400s. He proved a lifesaver by coughing up a new sprocket for Henry’s DRZ. In addition Magnus proved a wealth of information on tracks and bikes. What luck!
We’d left the rain way back at Nyngan. It’d always been close by, but kept just
missing us. Doubling back to Curtin Springs gave it the chance to catch us and we were drenched as we pulled in to what would have to be the worst campground in the world – although it was free. It consisted of rock and mud. A nice steak dinner and a few beers made the ground a bit softer but we were glad to leave the next morning.
We were heading to Mt Dare and, rather than take the bitumen to Kulgera, we took the dirt road via Mulga Creek. We were worried this may have been a tough, slow option, particularly given the rain, but a few enquiries and we were happy it was worth the risk. It turned out to be a great stretch of dirt road. It was very scenic as it went down and around Mt Connor and then followed on the northern side of the Musgrave Ranges east until it hit the Stuart Highway just south of Kulgera.
We fuelled up in Kulgera and were ready for the final run to Mt Dare on the edge of The Simpson.
Bang on time
The dirt road from Kulgera to Mt Dare goes through the township of Arratula, which has also become known as Finke in recent times. About 12km outside of Arratula is the road that takes you 12km north to the geographic centre of Australia (and thus the universe). Overall, it’s beautiful country and a good road that becomes more interesting the further east you head.
With the recent rains the interesting bits came thick and fast, usually in the form of clay bog. If you looked at the interesting countryside you found yourself looking directly into an interesting pile of crap
as you and bike parted company.
The landscape changed again as we neared Mt Dare. Sweeping green plains with a pungent perfume/onion smell presented themselves. The rain had given rise to a proliferation of this green stuff, transforming the usual black, stone, gibber plain completely.
As we rolled into Mt Dare with a sense of relief it dawned on us we were missing Andrew on his KTM. A mild panic started to creep in. The only sensible thing was to start drinking until we could think clearly what we needed to do.
After about an hour of the clear thinking it became even clearer we should keep drinking, then, just when we were about to order another round, Andrew appeared. Looking a bit worse for wear, covered in mud and, as it was now his shout, with brilliant timing. Apparently, he’d visited the centre of the universe as per plan 11.2(c) and waited for us, subsequently drowned his KTM in mud and had to get a push start from some fellow travellers.
Springs water
Mt Dare is a fantastic place in so many ways. The family that runs the place and their staff do such a good job of looking after everyone. Visitors can be divided into two camps: those that have just crossed the desert and those that are about to. There’s a great camaraderie as stories and information are exchanged in an atmosphere of good food and drink.
The next morning we hopped into a half-day of mechanical work, changing the remaining tyres and sprockets,
A sticky situation for the DRZ.
tightening bolts, filling petrol and water cans (tip certainly fill your water here, but there’s probably better water at Dalhousie Springs if you’re lucky).
The Desert beckons
We were now ready for the hardest part of the trip: over 500km of desert, including 1100 sand dunes. Some of us had done it before and knew what lay ahead.
The fact the Finke crowd had already been back and forth both ways meant the tracks had been cut to shreds with wheel ruts you could lose a whole car in – or so went the stories.
This was really what our trip was about: proffering our bikes and our carcasses to the desert to receive judgement.
It was a beautiful sunny day with nice crisp air – great for riding. We got to Dalhousie Springs without any trouble and enjoyed the soothing hot springwater bath, a slightly unreal experience for a desert. The plan was to push on to Purni Bore for the night. It turned out to be a most enjoyable ride across very solid sand/clay roads – nothing like we remembered.
We arrived at Purni bore just before dark and set up camp on the spacious mud flat. Matt spent an enjoyable night re-seating his petrol pump which he’d initially installed in a bit of a rush and pretty well effed it. After several tries he cracked it and went to bed a happy man.
Henry, at the same time, was re-attaching his pannier rack to the DRZ.
These pannier racks had already done one Simpson crossing and a Cape York trip. The design was groundbreaking and possibly bike-breaking. If you can imagine two steel cradles joined in the middle with a thin, flat piece of steel with all the stiffness of a rubber band, then you’ve got it. The amount of movement in these things was
terrifying, but somehow they continued to work…although they live on a diet of M6 nuts and bolts.
Running hot and cold
One of the attractions of Purni Bore is the hot showers. The way to get the hot shower to work is as follows:
v Announce there are hot showers and you are going to have one
v Loiter for a few moments, then watch as at least two other people race across and beat you to the shower
v Wait until they’ve each stopped screaming about the cold water and cursing you. The shower is now ready, but hang out for another minute or so to be sure the water has completely made it across from the hot bore to the cold shower.
The real thing
We knew we’d got off lightly so far in terms of track, so with a steely resolve we headed east to soak up the increasingly bad terrain.
After a few initial sand-dune crashes my worst fears were confirmed: Hell on Earth awaited…except it didn’t.
Each kilometre was easier than the last. The wet weather and heavy traffic had turned most of the track into a kind of dark, desert highway.
We held a great pace and decided to slow up to enjoy the scenery. We’d planned a route that would have taken us to visit the Lone Gum Tree. It was about 50km longer than the French Line, but most of it was straight up a mud flat between the dunes and was reasonably easy going. We had 40 litres of petrol each so should’ve had just enough to take this on.
Speaking with some 4WD guys who’d just visited the Lone Gum Tree, we found the route we’d planned was blocked by water and needed a 150km detour which we
Left: The bike cartwheeled, the petrol tank cracked, the headlights and instruments disintegrated and a resulting spark causing an explosion.
Right: Outback sunsets rule.
couldn’t afford petrol-wise. No problem. We stuck with the French Line.
Hangin’ in
The landscape in the Simpson Desert is incredible. Sure there’s a common theme to it all, but the variations and combinations of colours, vegetation, salt flats, dunes, mud flats, sand hills and sand flats meant every part is a winner and you really want to stop on every dune and soak it all in.
The last night we stopped more or less where we’d planned, just short of Eyre Creek, due to Chris getting a flat. The flat seemed to have been caused by dodgy installation. We recalled this was the tyre fitted at Mt Dare at about midnight after a night of beer and wondered if that contributed.
Our plan was to have an easy last day and enjoy Big Red (the massive final dune 30km west of Birdsville), then have time to clean up in Birdsville.
It was a very enjoyable day as time seemed to slip by. We cruised between the big sand dunes then saw Big Red looking majestic like a massive, red, sand wave ready to break. There were a number of tracks up the western side facing us. The direct path looked terrifying from below as it had a steep, sharp lip at the top.
This was the showdown.
We chose a representative from each of the teams to take on the steep approach: Matt on SWM, Andrew on KTM and Jack on Suzuki.
Jack fired up Acker-Dacker on his boombox and set up about a two-kilometre run up. He hit Big Red in top gear and the combination of weight, crap suspension and high gearing meant he got within a whisker of the top. When the dust settled we could see Jack hanging from the lip by a fingernail.
Next Matt fired up his SWM near the base and masterfully picked out a route among the wheel ruts so he could finish off with a burst of power and sail over the lip to make it look easy. When Andrew let slip the KTM it didn’t disappoint either.
The rest of us took the scenic route up the right-hand side, still a challenge due to the heavy traffic and wheel ruts, but less steep than the direct route.
The view from on top was great and
I relaxed while some of the others had fun going up and down until they were completely shagged.
Hot and wet
The road into Birdsville from Big Red was nothing short of a dirt superhighway. We did the 30km with ease and headed to the Birdsville bakery where they have a great selection of pies – including camel and kangaroo – and other food and drink.
Next was a stop at the Birdsville bore hose, a facility just around the corner from the pub, where you can hose down your vehicle with hot borewater for free. The salty mud from the mud-flat crossings dries and leaves a ceramic layer 10cm thick on most of the lower parts of the bikes. The extra weight and thermal problems meant we were glad to get rid of this stuff and a hot hose was the only way.
Get outta town
With stomachs full, bikes clean and tents up, we were off to do some quick laundry before hitting the pub for afternoon tea. The ride across the desert was very intoxicating, but nowhere near as intoxicating as a 10-hour session at the pub followed by a rum party back at the camp.
Thank goodness Shane and I knew when we’d had enough and drank for only a few more hours before staggering back to our tents. The younger guys left their staggering for much later and added in a bit of brawling among themselves, marauding, yelling, howling (it was a full moon) and petrol explosions.
When the police turned up in the morning I told the boys to act dumb (they found this very easy) and let me do the talking. At first the sergeant was going to run us out of town, but after I explained the circumstances he was more inclined toward a lynching. When the angry mob turned up we thought it diplomatic to pack and leave. We might have used the line, “We’ve been thrown out of better places than this,” except that Birdsville is a fantastic place and it is to our shame we haven’t been thrown out of anywhere better.
A great trip
Our plan was to head south to Innamincka and then Cameron Corner.
After ringing through we confirmed all roads to Innamincka were closed by the recent rains and so were the top parts of the Strzelecki and Birdsville Tracks. The only way to Sydney now was back to Windorah, east
through to Charleville and down through St George and Moree.
After a couple of days of hard slog we ended up at the fantastic Nindigully Pub, 45km south of St George and, as luck would have it, just in time for State Of Origin 2. We’d taken the scenic route from Charleville – dirt farm roads with flooded river crossings – so we were ready to dry out by the fire, relax with a XXXX Bitter and watch our champions thrash NSW yet again.
We were almost home. With the wisdom of youth, the five lads decided to extract some more adventure by going via the freezing and flooded New England Highway and through the ice and snow of Barrington Tops. With the speed of old age, Shane and I decided we would make a final dash for home via the wet, but less flooded, cold but less frozen, Newell Highway.
What a great trip – a fantastic 7500 km of unbelievable country, people, tracks and challenges. All the bikes held up well, especially the SWMs, which were a pleasure to ride on any surface and could handle the toughest stuff with ease. For the type of rides I like, long-distance with plenty of rough stuff, I couldn’t think of a better fit than my new SWM.
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Karen Ramsay
Cornered
F
or many people the coast, with its rhythmic tides and deepgolden sand, is paradise. Others love the rainforest and its soft undergrowth, towering trees and abundance of life and trails. People like me, however, feel a deep connection to the red landscape and endless space of The Outback. The isolation and unforgiving environment heightens awareness of mortality while making a person realise how insignificant we each are. Every time I return, it feels like coming home. I really do feel like there’s red dust in my veins and these revisits are restorative to my very being.
Shocker
Always keen to do things on a whim, husband Dave and I decided five weeks out we’d make a trip to Cameron Corner. Of course my bike
turned out to have a leaking shock. And of course no one could fix it for at least three weeks. ‘No problem,’ we thought, but to be on the safe side we’d get the DR650 ready too. This included borrowing racks and bags.
As it turned out, that was a wise decision. The shock for the Terra didn’t turn up until three days after we left.
Trip advisor
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about going to Cameron Corner. In 2013 I failed in the attempt and developed a bad taste for sand. Work had been really busy and I hadn’t made any time, other than riding to work a couple of times, to get out on the bike. The way it worked out, we didn’t even get to do a shakedown ride. In place of any actual riding, I asked Mick the mechanic for some riding tips, and
Karen Ramsay rides like a sand witch.
A tear in the eye at the gate.
Along the fence near Cameron Corner
Gum Vale Gorge
Words Karen Ramsay Images David Ramsay
he basically told me to control the bike I should do all the steering through the ’pegs. He told me to keep practising it and I’d barely have to use my hands. It was wonderful advice, except the only time I got on the bike was the morning we left.
Dave thought it’d be good to turn the first night into a group ride, so we had 23 bikes of almost every persuasion camped on top of Mt Kaputar near Narrabri, NSW. There are so many lovely back tracks from the coast to the mountain, and it was a very interesting ride to get there. The facilities up the top are terrific, with showers and gas barbeques, and the company was great.
Karen Ramsay
Mind games
After staying the night near Quambone with Dave’s groomsman and his family, we felt like we were truly setting off on our trip. The occasional locked gate on tracks we thought should’ve been open were a nuisance when it meant we had to take tar instead, but is it really an adventure if everything goes to plan?
I got my first real taste of sandy tracks in Gundabooka National Park and most of the way to Louth and Tilpa. Dave cruised along on his F800 and the DR handled it like a champ, as long as I followed the golden advice of loosening my hands and going with my feet.
If it was possible to hear my thoughts as I rode along, you’d have heard a constant dialogue of commands including:
u
Can’t beat this. Leaving Tibooburra on the way to Wanaaring
“Get your arse back,” “Use your feet,” “Relax your hands,” “Look where you want to go,” and questioning myself with, “What would Toby Price do?” (I haven’t met him so I don’t feel like we’re on first-name basis just yet).
To say riding in tricky conditions doesn’t come naturally to me is an understatement, but repeating these mantras focussed me on what I should be doing rather than the fear. I see competent, experienced riders making it look easy and I can’t help but wonder what they’ve got going on in their heads as they make the hard stuff look easy.
Tank traps
My first trip to White Cliffs won’t be my last. We got there after the servo had closed and the people at the pub told us it’d be open at 8:00am. That was later than we were planning on getting away, but there’s nothing you can do about that. Nothing that is, until the lady from the servo came out and offered to switch the fuel bowsers back on so we could fuel up. We gratefully accepted then went on to have a lovely night at the pub listening to the fascinating life story of the publican. I’m kicking myself now I didn’t take up his offer of a fly-over of the town the next morning.
Although we had additional fuel with us, we had to give some thought to our fuel strategy.
For the record, there are some places where you can get fuel half an hour after closing without even asking, and others where 10 minutes after closing, lots of pleading and calling in connections make no difference. Then there’s places with flexible hours subject to the bar staff fitting in other jobs and not opening the pub with the only fuel in town until they’ve finished their other work for the morning. The upside of waiting a couple of hours for fuel was we got to meet people and see sights we would’ve missed otherwise. This included spending time with the local police officer and her mob of orphaned kangaroos, and a visit to the nearby Currawinya National Park. We also found out signs (both road signs and electronic maps) about the availability of fuel weren’t always accurate. The size of the town or locality was also no indication of whether they’d have fuel. We discovered this both to our detriment and delight at various places.
On the SPOT
Dad told Mum to stop panicking because ‘they’re probably having sex’!
For the record, we had a flat tyre.
The journey
I think riding into Cameron Corner as the sun was setting was fitting. Even though we’d planned to be there midafternoon, it was how it was meant to be. Three years prior we’d ridden into Wanaaring at the same time of day and I’d been shaky after a number of falls. This time we’d made it to Cameron Corner, relaxed and enjoying every moment. And no offs. I’m not ashamed to say I had a tear in my eye as I crested the rise and saw that gate. It’s a cliché, but everything really was bathed in a golden light. It wasn’t until that moment I realised just how important this journey was to me. Also, how much a relief it was to Dave that I’d made it.
Before leaving we bought a SPOT tracker and we had our parents teed up with what to do in case of a breakdown or emergency (not that we couldn’t rely on one of the kids…) Their main instruction was not to panic if we were stopped for a while – they would get a message saying: ‘Food, fuel, photos, flapping gums or flat tyre’. We found out afterwards Mum started to get a bit worried about how long we stopped 60km from Cameron Corner, despite the prearranged comforting message.
What I’ve learned
R My riding has improved out of sight in three years
From there I gained a new confidence. If riding comes naturally to you, it’d be hard to understand. But hopefully you’ll get the opportunity to experience someone’s reaction when they finally achieve a milestone or master a skill. As for my next adventure, I don’t really know, but I do know there’s some big, red sandy deserts in the middle of the country. I’ll just have to organise some long-service leave, sort a bike, and get some sand practice…
R Parents must always think their children are having sex
R Using legs and feet properly when riding helps
R Be prepared (leftover from my Girl Guide days)
It really was a flat, no matter what the parents thought. Made it.
R My riding still has a lot of improving to do
preparing for adventure Meetingthechallenge
This issue trauma nurse and trained paramedic Andrea Box prepares for adventure and puts her hand up to represent Australia in Touratech’s inaugural United People of Adventure, scheduled to be staged in Madagascar.
The very nature of motorsports so often has countries competing against one another, and it was with this in mind Herbert Schrawz, cofounder of Touratech Germany, and his wife Ramona, had the idea for The United People of Adventure.
They wanted to bring together a team of adventure riders from all over the world, from different countries, cultures and walks of life, to share an end-of-theworld ride.
The ride destination was an easy choice. A previous trip to the west coast of Madagascar
had left Herbert and Ramona hungry to see more. Spurred on by stories of the Route National 5, which commonly makes the list of the world’s most difficult roads, they set about finding a group of adventurers brave and crazy enough to go with them on the journey.
Images: Touratech. Words: Andrea Box
How it started
This was when I first heard of United People of Adventure (UPoA).
I didn’t think I stood a chance of making the cut though. I’d been riding for 15 years, but I’m definitely not a seasoned overseas motorbike traveller. I haven’t even seen all the Australian States on a motorbike yet. I later found out that, at 25, I was the youngest of all the applicants. I hoped my positive attitude and emergency-medicine skills would make up for what I lacked in years of experience.
Video applications had flooded in from all corners of the world, and Herbert and Ramona began the difficult process of narrowing down the finalists. Much to my
amazement and excitement I was chosen as one of two Australian finalists, and less than six weeks later arrived at Touratech headquarters in the snow-covered Black Forest of Germany for the selection weekend.
Finals weekend
We’d been given basically no information about what the weekend would entail other than details of our flights. Week by week prior to our arrival the Touratechequipped bikes had been allocated to each continent. Africa would be on a Yamaha XT1200Z Super Ténéré, Europe would ride the new Africa Twin, Asia was allocated the KTM 1190 Adventure R, South America the Suzuki DL 1000 V-Strom, North America
andRea Box
got to ride Ducati’s Multistrada Enduro and Australia scored the Triumph Tiger 800 XCx.
We were welcomed into Herbert and Ramona’s home and told we would all be living, cooking, and eating together like a family. Bonding quickly over our mutual love of motorbikes and eager to find out about our 11 new friends there was never an atmosphere of rivalry, and it became apparent we’d all be observed to assess far more than just our riding ability. We’d be judged on how we worked as a team, helped out and interacted with each other. My fellow Aussie was Robert Davis, a quick-witted surgeon from Perth whose dry sense of humour did Australia proud.
Left: The task sounded simple: ride untimed laps of an indoor motocross track…on a 1200GS.
Top: To cap off a most unpredictable weekend, winners were announced in a hot tub.
Below: A weekend of excitement and challenges had everyone feeling like old friends.
Together with the other finalists we did interviews, personality analyses, psychometric testing and completed team activities that looked at how we worked together and problem solved frustrating challenges.
We’d all been contemplating how they would check our riding ability when the ground was covered in a metre of snow. Much to our surprise we were taken to a motocross track inside an old brick factory. The task sounded simple: ride untimed laps of the motocross track. The only catch was you had to do it on a BMW 800GS or 1200GS, definitely not the size
of bike the course was designed for.
I’d not ridden either bike before, but at 1.65m tall and 56kg I hedged my bets and went with the slightly lower seat height of the 1200. With my heart racing and a belly full of nerves I completed my laps while everyone cheered from the sidelines.
As the weekend of excitement and challenges went by we quickly came to feel like a group of old friends.
Selected
When the final task arrived it wasn’t what we expected.
We were asked to give a sales pitch, not for ourselves, but for the other finalist from our continent. We had to pitch why they were the best person to take to Madagascar. What happened next blew everyone away. One by one we stood behind our new friends, hands on their shoulders, and
spoke honestly and genuinely about the talented people we’d had the pleasure of sharing the finals with.
To cap off what had already been one of the most unpredictable weekends, the winners were announced in a hot tub, much to everyone’s amusement.
As one of those lucky enough to be chosen I couldn’t help but be disheartened we wouldn’t all be meeting again in Madagascar. I couldn’t possibly have a higher opinion of my fellow Aussie, Robert, and I hoped one day we would get to ride together.
Suprise
Getting to Madagascar was a mission in its own right: Melbourne, Perth, Johannesburg, Antananarivo (Madagascar’s capital) and finally Sambava. In all, 46 hours.
After our last bumpy little flight and a hair-raising van ride that saw local chickens and cows fleeing for their lives, the sight our bikes lined up in the morning light was a colourful and impressive display that had us all acting like kids on Christmas morning. It looked more like a family reunion than the beginning of an adventure ride. After our time together in Germany we all felt like old friends. Much to my delight the man taking photos and hiding behind the camera turned out to be my compatriot Robert Davis! The original photographer had been hit by a car and Robert, being quite handy with a camera, had been called to step in as the official photographer.
Ready
Packing my bike was a welcomed and familiar ritual. I always enjoy that part of beginning a trip. Perhaps it’s because of years of hiking, but I find a special satisfaction in getting my gear packed so the weight is low and kind to the bike, and equipment is stowed in an easy-toaccess way.
Lying under my mosquito net that first night I realised with a stomach-churning combination of nerves and excitement I had no idea what would happen next. I did know I’d be in good company, no matter what this adventure held in store.
For the next couple of issues we’ll follow Andrea’s story as she and the Touratech group makes its way through some of the world’s most amazing, heart-breaking, bike-bending terrain on the Touratech United People of Adventure through Madagascar. Hold on to your helmets. This story gets wild!
Above: Touratech headquarters in the snow-covered Black Forest of Germany.
Below: Author Andrea Box and fellow Aussie Robert Davis.
the Adventure Without the Drama
Experience the fantastic riding, food and culture of Thailand, Laos or Cambodia
Small groups, fully guided and supported 7, 14 or 22 days options suit every budget
For more information please visit www.twogethertouring.nz
Email: info@twogethertouring.nz
Phone: +61 417 417 464
www.centralwangarattamotel.com.au
Email: robn7967@gmail.com
adventure-riding tips
Love your
Words: Miles Davis
bike
Miles Davis explains a basic, but important, concept.
Tyres
It’s pretty amazing what good quality adventure tyres can cope with, high speeds, sharp rocks and intense heat to name a few. Considering the circumstances, I’m constantly surprised at how few flats occur. That said, you should give your tyres a look over at the start of each day to check pressures, look for any cuts or slashes and assess the general condition of your rubber. You might spot something before it causes a problem on the trail.
Fill ’er up
It’s a great practice to fill your bike up at the end of the day if possible. If everyone in your group does this you save time the next morning. Plus, that way you don’t forget and leave with quarter of a tank.
luggage
Make sure it’s staying on and straps aren’t working loose. Losing luggage or having it slip onto the muffler or into the rear tyre can cause major problems.
Anyone who’s done one of Klaus Mueller’s Australian Motorcycle Adventures tours will have heard him say, “Your bike is your best friend, look after it and it will look after you”.
Klaus has probably been riding and running tours for longer than anyone in the country, maybe in the world! I’m pretty sure he’s seen it all, good and bad.
It makes a lot of sense when you think about it. A lot of us take our bikes to some pretty crazy places and it’s always good peace of mind to know your bike is well-sorted and up to the challenge. At recent BMW Safari events I’ve been using the saying, ‘Love your bike and it will love you back,’ but not going into to much detail.
Over a beer one night, one of the riders asked: “What does it mean? I don’t know what I should be doing?” It’s a fair enough question, so I thought I’d go over some points that might help some riders know what to look out for on their bikes, especially during a longer adventure ride.
Chain and sproCkeTs
Keep an eye on adjustment and know how much free play your bike’s chain needs so you don’t overtighten it. It’s a common mistake. Look for excessive wear. The teeth should be beefy and symmetrical. Any hooking shows significant wear. Lube the chain every day. Some don’t bother, but I think it’s well worthwhile to get the most longevity. It also shows your bike that you love it!
Wheels
Check for loose spokes or any rim damage. You can use a screwdriver, small tyre lever or something similar to simply run around your spokes and play a tune. The noise should be quite sharp and consistent. A loose spoke will give a very dull or flat noise. Once you’ve located any loose spokes you can tighten them with a spoke key or very small adjustable spanner. Just be careful not to strip the nipple. Some bikes have different systems to adjust spoke tension, so make sure you have the right tools on hand. Be careful not to overtighten the nipple or you may strip it and cause a bigger problem. Use your tapper to play the tune after any visible looseness is gone to see if it matches the other spokes. It does pay to lubricate your spoke nipples with WD40 or
other lube from time to time to ensure that they don’t sieze. You can do this after washing your bike. Use the spray nozzle to direct lube on the spoke just where it goes into the nipple. This will remove water and introduce lube to keep your nipples happy.
be prepared
Carry key spares (clutch and brake levers, brake pads, tubes, joining links, and so forth) and tools to do all of the basics listed above as a minimum. Pack cable ties, metal putty, safety wire and a few spare bolts, too. Not everyone is a mechanic, but you can have your bike in good running order and be prepared for various situations that are likely to come up from time to time. It’s great to learn from others with more technical knowledge and experience.
see and be seen
Rocks can crack headlights, bulbs can fail from constant vibration or lenses can just be covered in mud. A headlight guard is a great idea. Keep it and your headlight clean and in good shape.
FREE PLAy
Having the correct throttle and clutch (non-hydraulic-clutch bikes only) free play is important. An experienced rider will pick it as soon as they sit on the bike. Your clutch should have about 10-20mm of free play at the ball end of the lever (between one and two millimetres where the cable goes into the housing). Don’t wind all the free play out, and don’t ride with too much free play or your clutch may not disengage properly. Your throttle tube should only have about one or two millimetres of free play before the cable engages the carby or injectors.
FRESH AIR
Riding in dusty conditions in a group can cause a lot of dust to get into the air filter. With a good air filter this isn’t as drastic as some may think, but it’s still wise to be aware of the filter condition so you can service as required. Many riders fit prefilters, often an oiled-foam sock that fits into the air intake (check out www.unifilter.com.au). These are a great idea as they can be easier to inspect and service than the main filter element. You can carry a spare, oiled, in a zip-lock bag and do a quick swap mid adventure.
WHEEL BEARINGS
Check your wheel bearings. A failed bearing can put you out of a ride. Just bend down beside your bike, grab the top of the tyre and check for side-to-side play. If you notice any, the bearings could be on the way out. Wheel bearings can wear faster than normal if you ride a lot through water, or pressure-wash your bike a lot and direct high-pressure water to the area. You should avoid this as it forces water past the seal and into the bearing. It’s a great idea to grease your wheel bearings every time you have your wheel off the bike for a tyre swap or whatever. Just remove the wheel spacer and clean the area before reapplying grease. This can drastically increase wheel-bearing life and is worth doing, especially if you’re having issues in this area.
GOOD OIL
Check oil levels and for any signs of leaks. If the oil light comes on try and get to a servo ASAP to top up. Go for the closest spec to manufacturer recommendation, but don’t worry too much if you don’t get it perfect. If you’re doing lots of creek crossings or have drowned your bike, check the oil for signs of water. It’s easy to notice as the oil will generally look like a caramel milkshake. If you see this, change the oil right away. Continuing to ride the bike may cause an engine failure. If you’ve drowned your bike and are sure there’s water in the donk you have a chance to do something before you start the engine and turn your oil into milkshake. You can remove the sump plug to bleed out the water. It’ll be sitting at the bottom as the oil sits on top. Be careful to pop the plug back in as soon as oil starts draining.
HEAD CHECK
Steering-head bearings should be checked for correct adjustment. If you notice any clunks or free play in the front end, it might just need a tweak. If your steering feels tight or notchy you probably need a new set of bearings.
STAy COOL
Keep an eye on your bike’s cooling system. Problems here could be a big and expensive issue. If your bike is water-cooled, check the coolant levels regularly and check radiators and radiator guards for signs of damage or blockage. Sometimes mud and leaves can partially block the guard and reduce cooling, and this can be cleaned up easily once noticed. Check hoses and carry a spare hose clamp in your spares kit.
BOuNCy BITS
Suspension can cop a pounding, so keep an eye on it for leaks and general function. A blown seal will be easy to spot because it’ll be very messy. It’s not the end of the world so don’t panic, just get it fixed at the next opportunity. It’s not a bad idea to have your suspension serviced from time to time. Fresh oil and seals can really improve its performance. Maybe look at spring rates while you’re at it, so your bike is set up for your weight and type of riding.
STOPPERS
You can easily check your brake pads and discs for signs of wear. If you ride a lot, I’d suggest having a set of pads at home to fit when you notice it’s time. It’s quite common for riders to run out of rear brake pads during a multiday ride. One reason is that some riders actually ride along with their foot on the rear brake while they’re in the seated position. It’s more common than some of you may think. Sometimes it’s because the rear brake is set high, which is great for access to the brake while standing. But the side effect can be the foot actually rests on the brake when the rider’s seated. If this happens the pads can wear really fast, or the whole braking system may heat up and fail completely. If you see a mate riding along with the brake light on, ride up beside them and see if their foot is on the lever. If it is let them know! Brake pads may also wear quicker riding in the wet, especially if it’s sandy or gritty. Check your pads and if they’re even half worn, fit a new set. Pop the used set in your kit to fit in case they’re required out on a ride.
Don’t lose It
Constant vibrations can loosen nuts and bolts. Check as much as you can with a shake and a visual check. Crash bars, pannier racks, subframe bolts, brake-calliper bolts, gear-lever bolts/linkages… everything! It’s a great feeling to catch something before it’s too late. Carry cable ties for the times you lose a nut or bolt. They can
sometimes help you get through. Also keep an eye on your luggage and straps. Losing your kit sucks. Having it go into your muffler can cause a fire, and if it goes into the back wheel can cause a crash.
Love your bike! Happy Trails.
new products Checkout
klim krios helmeT
Klim says this is ‘the lightest adventure helmet ever created’.
R Multifunction and modular helmet
R Hand-laid carbonfibre shell
R Weighs under 1500gm
R Optically correct faceshield technology
R Adaptive smartfoam padding
R Klimatech fabric liners
R Quick-change, quickrelease shield and visor system
R Intelligent ventilation
R Premium polycarbonate anti-scratch shield with Pinlock
RRP: $795
Available from: AdventureMoto
Web: www.adventuremoto.com.au
Forma predaTor neon
For those who like maximum boot protection and visibility.
R World MXGP and Dakar proven
R Dual Pivot Flex Control System with carbon-fibre dual-pivot connector
R High-tech rubber Heat Gripper inserts
R Injection-moulded plastic protection
R Adjustable four-strap
R Unbreakable alloy security-lock buckles
R Zama molded toe caps
R Anti-bacterial replaceable insole
R High-quality, 100-per-cent European production
R Hi-vis colour options
RRP: $579
Available from: All serious dealers in Australia
Phone: (03) 5792 3888
Web: www.formaboots.com.au
held baCkFlip glove
Enduro apparel for hard-chargers.
R Chamude synthetic leather palm
R Spandex and mesh fabric back
R Colourfast and sweat-proof
R Unlined palm
R Upperhand lined in Coolmax and DuPont
R Velcro adjustment at cuffs
R Air-vents on fingers
R Visor wipe
R Silicone-printed palms
R Hard-plastic knuckle protection
R Ball of thumb underlaid with shock-absorbing gel
R Sizes: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
R Colours: Black. White-black
RRP: $75
Available from: www.heldaustralia.com.au
marmoT TungsTen TenT
For seriously comfortable camping.
R Three square metres of living space
R Tent dimensions: 104cm x 137cm x 224cm
R Three tent poles DAC press-fit 9.0mm/velocity 8.5mm
R Minimum weight 2211g. Maximum weight 2400g
R Packed size 2.3 litres
R Two D-shaped doors and two vestibules
R Sleeping zone pre-bends create vertical walls
R Footprint included
RRP: $499.95
Available from: Overlander Adventure Equipment Web: www.overlanderae.com.au
bikeserviCe Chain-breaking and riveT
No-nonsense drive-chain replacement kit.
R Essential for removing and installing drive-chain rivets, including hollow type
R Supplied with press plates, punches and anvil
R Manufactured from hardened alloy steel
R Adjustable, three-position handle ideal for left- or right-handed use
R Suitable for chain sizes: 415, 420, 428, 520, 530, 532, 630, 632
R Instruction manual included
RRP: $226.49
Available from: www.motoplace.com.au Web: www.motoplace.com.au
miTas Terra ForCe-r Tyres
In the Mitas TERRA FORCE-R design, the tread groove depth follows the shape of actual tyre tread wear.
R 90/10 road/off-road
R DOT approved TL V-rated
R Immediate grip, excellent traction on wet or dry roads, strong carcass and high puncture resistance
R Easy steering and manoeuvrability with good straight and corner stability
R Consistent performance through its lifetime and under heavy loads
R Most modern elastomers and high active fillers for excellent grip in all conditions, optimum balanced wear rate and maximum confidence
Great off-road saddlebags that fit most rack types.
R Available in grey or black
R Waterproof and dustproof
R Up to 22 litres capacity each bag. 44 litres combined
R Designed and manufactured in Australia
R Made from heavy-duty, 900GSM PVC
R Very tough or straps required
R All webbing and clips are tough and made in New Zealand
R Two compression straps per bag
R Replaceable rear rub pad
RRP: $370
Available from: Adventure Motorcycle Equipment
Phone: 1300 883908
Web:
www.adventuremotorcycle.com.au
R Made from high-grade titanium and stainless steel
R Suits 1050/1190ADV, 1290 Super ADV
RRP: $1599.99
Available from: your local KTM dealer
Web: www.ktm.com.au
held CloudbursT overpanTs
Full-length side zips help you get them on before you get drenched.
R PU-coated nylon fabric
R Reinforced double-layer inside-leg area
R Special fixing allows clipping of leg to waist hem to increase speed and ease of getting them on.
R Full-length side zips for easy entry, even while wearing boots
R Detachable stirrup to keep legs in place
R Anti-slip seat patch for comfort
R Reflective details for added visibility
RRP: $135 plus postage
Available from: Andy Strapz Phone: (03) 9770 2207 Web: www.andystrapz.com
moTopressor Tyre gauge
WiTh spare 45-degree ChuCk
A tyre-pressure gauge you can rely on.
R Measures PSI or KPA
R 0-60PSI/0-4.2KPA readout
R 50mm analogue dial
R 300mm braided flex hose
R Push-button air bleed valve
R Protective rubber gauge guard
R Self-locking air chuck plus a second 45-degree chuck included
R Can be used in-line with a compressor
RRP: $85.95 plus postage
Available from: All good motorcycle stores Web: www.rockycreekdesigns.com.au
nexx xd1 helmeT
Easily switch between off-road/adventure and full-face street riding.
R X-Matrix shell of carbon, kevlar, fibreglass and 3D organic fibres
R 80-per-cent tint, retractable sun visor
R Pinlock anti-fog visor supplied with the helmet
R Three bespoke camera supports
R 3D lining, removable and washable
R Chin windstopper
R Removable breath guard
R Special chin shape to reduce breast-injury risk from frontal impacts
RRP: Plain colours $699.95. Baja graphics $799.95
Available from: Carlisle Accessories Web: www.ctaaustralia.com.au
barkbusTers advenTure-bike speCiFiC hardWare kiTs
Available for many adventure, dualsport, trail and even street bikes.
R Custom designed for the perfect fit and easy installation
R Aluminium backbone is heat treated for optimum strength and impact protection
R Two mounting points secure the full wrap-around aluminium
R Compatible with JET, VPS, STORM and CARBON guards (sold separately)
R Comprehensive application chart available at www.barkbusters.net to find ‘What Fits My Bike’
RRP: From $121.95 to $129.95 depending on model
Available from: your local bike shop Web: www.barkbusters.net
rad guard Triumph explorer radiaTor guard
Protection for your radiator, don’t wait until it’s too late.
R Protects your radiator from rocks and other debris
R Allows adequate air flow
R Easy to fit
R Available in polished alloy or black
R Made from high-grade aluminium
R Three-year warranty
RRP: $195. On special now for $159
Available from: Rad Guard Phone: (02) 6658 0060
TouraTeCh Companero hydraTion sysTem
A lightweight pack to prepare you for any challenge.
R Two-litre capacity Source reservoir featuring ‘Helix’ valve with integrated bayonet closure
R Valve does not require a special bite position and delivers high flow with minimal bite pressure.
R Layered, insulated, main pocket keeps cold liquids really cold
R Extra external zip pocket with carabiner clip
R Two mesh pockets at the sides
R Mesh shoulder straps and AirStripes back system provide all-round ventilation
R Fully detachable waist strap (up to 127cm)
RRP: $159.64
Available from: shop.touratech.com.au
Web: www.touratech.com.au
Triumph 35-liTre drybag
Good adventure-bike luggage.
R 35-litre waterproof dry bag
R 75-denier lightweight fabric
R Roll top with secure buckles to ensure contents stay dry
RRP: $45
See more at www.triumphmotorcycles.com.au
bmW moTorrad mulTiFunCTion Tool
Made by Victorinox in Switzerland!
R Functional, light, compact, handy and user-friendly
R 40 functions, adjustable blades, includes reversible ratchet with screwdriver bit extension and nine screwdriver bits
R Enables simple care and maintenance work
R Suitable for many activities
R Tools and housing made of stainless steel
R BMW Motorrad moulding on housing
R Includes black leather case with BMW logo
R Dimensions: 115mm x 46mm
R Weight: 372gm
RRP: $330
Available from: From all BMW Motorrad dealers Web: www.bmwmotorrad.com.au
genuine yamaha Fork servi
Look after that Yammie.
R Genuine Yamaha components
ugar sho
From Teknik Motorsport. Powerful stuff! Replacement shocks for adventure bikes
Made in the Netherlands, built just
R Contains all necessary oil seals and dust seals needed to service your forks
R Kit contents are: 2 X 4PU-23145-01 (oil seal); 2 X 4PU-23144-00 (dust seal)
R Genuine quality at an affordable price
R Suits: Super Ténéré, Ténéré and XT660X
RRP: $41.82
Available from: your local authorised yamaha Dealer or y-Shop Web: yshop.yamaha-motor.com.au
Available for GS, KLR, DR and V-Strom, Triumph Tiger, Ténéré and more Different versions from E-RS with spring and damping adjustment to F-RS with separate reservoir and high/low compression adjustment
Optional extras like a shock length adjuster and hydraulic spring preload adjuster are available for most shocks
Fork and shock springs are available in both linear and progressive spring rates, as well as an extensive range of lowering springs
RRP: E-RS $795, F-RS $1200.
Preload adjuster $350. Length adjuster $150
Available from: Teknik Motorsport Web: www.yacugar.com.au
duCaTi
enduro jaCkeT
Style to match the performance.
R Removable sleeves
R Efficient system of air vents
R Recommended to be worn with a vest equipped with protectors
R Fabric with water-repellent finish
R Numerous volume adjustment options
R Many functional pockets
R Supreme outfit with the coordinated pants
RRP: $555.59
Available from: Authorised Ducati dealers Web: www.ducati.com.au
suzuki dry hip bag
Personal luggage some of us would call a bumbag.
R Made from durable black welded tarpaulin
R Features an adjustable waist belt
R Reflective details for safety
R The capacity of this Dry Hip Bag is approximately 2.5 litres
RRP: $53.50
Available from: your local dealer Web: www.suzukimotorcycles.com.au
ae moTorspor
dr650 dashboard
A dash panel so you can power multiple electronic devices.
R Choose between straight 40mm drop or 40mm drop with 25mm rearward offset
R Use the two pre-drilled holes to attach your RAM mount and place your phone or GPS unit on that while charging
R Can also be used for accessory lights, heated grips or gear
R Panel is manufactured from laser-cut steel and powdercoated black
R Included are two marine 12V cigarette-lighter type outlets, two weather-resistant switches and a wiring harness with a 10-amp fuse
airoh aviaTor 2.2 helmeT
An upgrade to Airoh’s Aviator 2.1.
R Available in three different shell sizes
R 100 per cent carbon kevlar
R Extra light weight
R Expanded field of vision
R Supplied with everything needed to mount it and connect the outlets to the battery
R No drilling required for installation. Instructions and cool sticker supplied
R Note – dashboards also available for KLR650 Gen II
RRP: $79.95
Available from: Adventure Bike Australia
Web: www.adventurebikeaustralia.com.au
R New vent chin guard, rear spoiler and peak
R Optimum ventilation and breathability
R Equipped with a dust filter
R Emergency system for the release of cheek pads (AEFR)
RRP: Check the website
Available from: Moto National Accessories
Web: www.motonational.com.au
yramid plasTiCs nine-pieCe plug seT
For tidying up those gaps on the BMW R1200GS, R1200RS and R1200R.
Designed and manufactured in-house specifically for the three bikes mentioned above
Comes as a nine-piece kit with two large, custom-made, angled caps, four medium-sized caps and three smaller caps
A simple, effective and affordable solution
Gives the bikes the aesthetic style and detailing they deserve
R Injection moulded in high-quality, synthetic-rubber material
RRP: Around AuD$47 (as we go to print)
Email: sales@pyramid-plastics.co.uk
Web: www.pyramid-plastics.co.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1427 677990
Motorrad Garage
The new Triumph Tiger Explorer impressed the hell out of us when we rode it for this issue. Imagine that bike with this gear on it! Phwoar.
Triumph Tiger Explorer 1200
THINK ADVENTURE, THINK ROTOPAX.
No matter where your journey takes you, make sure you have Rotopax on board for your fuel and water supplies.
The Rotopax 3 layer manufacturing process eliminates vapor permeation and creates the toughest fuel pack available. NO LEAKING, NO COLOUR FADING.
Cells can be carried inside panniers, strapped to a rack or fitted with Rotopax’s specific mounts, which also allow for cells to be mounted on top of each other.
Fuel cells are available from 3.7 to 15.1 litres and water cells from 3.7 to 7.5 litres.
MOTORRAD GARAGE - EXCLUSIVE AUSTRALIAN DISTRIBUTOR OF
