Adventure Rider Issue #43

It’s we what do

Tom

Foster - Editor

expect everyone has had a heap of riding cancelled. I possibly had more cancelled than most, but in a backhanded way I didn’t feel that stress too badly. For me nearly all the riding was for work, and I thought staying home would be a luxury.

IIt was, too. For a while.

It didn’t take long before I was dragging my bottom lip around and scowling at not being able to do rides I’d been looking forward to, especially as state borders closed, then opened, then began to shut down again.

But one big advantage we have in Australia is our states are big bastards, and staying within NSW still leaves a lot of riding room. A rider going hard and heading west from the coast can still

ride two full days before hitting an administrative border. That’s pretty impressive. And if the rider decided to wander around a bit instead of travelling in one compass direction the whole time, a week or more can be frittered away in some truly superb riding covering everything from desert to chilly mountaintops and subtropical jungle.

Members of the adventure-riding fraternity in other states are even better off. Queenslanders can slope around the Gold Coast wearing boardshorts and sunglasses before spending a few days trailing up the coast, stopping in at places like Airlie Beach, Townsville and Cairns, then head into serious adventure

“ One big advantage we have in Australia is our states are big bastards. ”

country all the way to Cape York. If they feel the need for some variety they can track south and west along the Gulf Of Carpentaria and through places like Cloncurry, Mount Isa and Birdsville before spearing off toward the coast again through places like Windorah, Quilpie and Charleville.

That’d be a very pleasant and interesting few weeks for anyone not in a hurry.

Our germ-bag Victorian chums probably have the best riding of all, even though they’re in the smallest state. They can kick off in Geelong, wander along the Great Ocean Road to get warmed up, then strike north for the goldfields of Ballarat and Bendigo. From there they’re spoiled for choice. Bonnie Doon and Eildon, Benalla and Wangaratta, Bright, Beechworth and Myrtleford are all fabulous adventureriding destinations, and the whole of Victoria is pretty much an adventurerider’s playground.

Tasmania’s one of the world’s most fabulous destinations. Stick a pin anywhere in a map of the Apple Isle and it’ll be a fantastic place to go. West coast? North-east? North-west? South? The east coast? The mountains?

It’s all nearby and it’s all fabulous all year round.

South Australia and Western Australia offer an even more massive palette of choice thanks to their sheer size and the sparsity of their populations. The Flinders. The Otways. The Kimberley. The Great Australian Bight. Port Hedland and Eighty Mile Beach. Weeks and months could be spent riding in each of those states and there’d still be plenty left to see.

And there’s not enough room here to list the stunning, heartbreaking offerings in the Northern Territory. Just think about connecting Uluru, Alice, Tennant Creek, Kakadu and Darwin. That doesn’t even get you close to covering the NT.

There’s an incredible amount of glorious riding to be enjoyed in each state of this amazing country, and, best of all, the most premium riding is far, far away from any population centres.

Our restricted-riding situation may be far from ideal, but Australians have been gifted some of the world’s most fantastic and wondrous opportunities.

Let’s make the most of it.

WATERPROOF RATING - 28,000 MM/24H BREATHABILITY RATING - 25,000 G/M2/24H

Adventure Rider Magazine is published bi-monthly by Mayne Media Group Pty Ltd

Publisher Kurt Quambusch

Editor Tom Foster tom@maynemedia.com.au

Group Sales Manager Mitch Newell mitch@maynemedia.com.au

Phone: (02) 9452 4517 Mobile: 0402 202 870

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The WA crew rides Kennedy Range

A National Park about 820km from Perth beckoned to Shaun Terblanche.

Words: Shaun Terblanche. Images: Shaun Terblanche, Izak Nieuwoudt, Chris Karanikich, EJ Woolfrey, Mark Bohle, Gary Rehbein and Lisa Potter.

The first and final days were planned as travel days to get to and from the areas we set out to explore. The plan was to include Kalbarri, Murchison Oasis, Kennedy Range National Park (two nights), Mount Augustus and then head home via Mount Magnet on the final day.

Let’s just say plans are based around expectations, and it was perhaps a little ambitious thinking we’d complete the Kennedy Range loop on fully loaded bikes in a day-and-a-half.

But let’s start at the beginning…

Manageable

It must have been just after Western Australia’s tight travel restrictions had started to lift I suggested to a mate from Karratha we should plan a trip and meet somewhere in the middle. I spoke to a few other GS riders in Perth who’d been riding with me for a while and things started taking shape. Before we knew it we had nine riders onboard. Considering we didn’t know exactly what to expect and we’d be traveling through some remote areas, the idea was to keep the group relatively small.

Left: Paddling, lifting, pulling and pushing nine loaded bikes across the river sand.

Below: Nine riders, two support vehicles and 2500km.

Prep

Early days in the planning process were interesting.

Some riders had never done moto camping, only a handful had motorcycle luggage to carry all their belongings, and riding loaded bikes was generally not something anyone in the group had considered before. A lot of preparation was done, involving visits to Motorrad Garage for luggage systems, Tent World for camping gear, BM Bikes for tyres and last-minute bike upgrades. There were also impromptu shopping trips to get meals, water and fuel containers/ bladders, equipment and more.

One of the rules to join the group was to attend one of two overnight camp-preparation rides leading up to the expedition. We had to work out what we needed, what worked and what had to be ditched when it proved to be useless or ineffective.

Our first overnight trip was a 900km loop to Baladjie Rock, east of Perth. It was

a pretty easy run but a few people quickly realised they needed to change their setup and buy smaller/lighter equipment. We also worked out the importance of appropriate wet-weather gear when we returned in bucketing rain as a cold front moved across WA, making the last 250km of the ride wet, cold and miserable.

Some lessons were learnt.

Take two

Three weeks later we set off on another overnighter, this time closer to home but more challenging.

We headed to Julimar State Forest northeast of Perth, renowned 4WD country where hills, pea gravel, sand, rocks and more were all on the menu. Perth and its surrounds are generally flat, and pea gravel covered the tracks south and east, so the rocky hills of Julimar were a great change of scenery.

The weekend proved to be another learning experience for some and revealed some final tweaks required to everyone’s kit.

Top: A 350km run from Kalbarri had everyone at Murchison Oasis and ready to camp for the night. Below: Extraordinary clifftop views.

Right: Author Shaun Terblanche.

End of the road

The time arrived for us to take off on our expedition.

The first day was a bitumen run from Perth to Kalbarri along the coast, with a few stops which included the Port Gregory Convict Hiring Station. The facility allowed local farmers to hire convicts for labouring tasks, but lasted a mere three years or so from 1853 to 1856. The ruins are spread around a main housing facility of about 17m x 9m which was designed to accommodate 80 men (on a double row of hammocks). Some of the other ruins included a blacksmith, hospital, lock up and the captain’s homestead, but most of these are now only piles of rocks.

The next stop was the pink lake, also at Port Gregory.

It’s normally an amazing sight as sunlight intensifies the pink colour, but unfortunately it was quite overcast when we arrived. We only caught a glimpse of the intense pink here and there when the sun peeked through the clouds and a few rays hit the water.

→

A final stop before Kalbarri was at Pot Alley, a picturesque ocean gorge along the cliffs overlooking the Indian Ocean. Kalbarri was our one-and-only night of sleeping in a bed during the trip. The rest was all camping.

Blue-sky time

After breakfast in town we headed off to see the new Kalbarri Skywalks over the Murchison River Gorge, about 40km from town.

The breathtaking twin skywalks project 25m and 17m beyond the gorge rim, more than 100m above the Murchison River, and the view from up there was quite spectacular.

Nature’s Window was next, one of WA’s most iconic natural attractions. It’s a rock arch at the top of the cliffs which perfectly frames rugged views of the Murchison River.

Moving on

With the sightseeing done, and Kalbarri added to our list of destinations for a future dedicated tour, it was time to take off and make our way to Murchison Oasis.

We gave it some thought after the locals told us the tracks we planned on taking were the harder option. We had to allow some time considering it was rated a 4WD track and could throw a few surprises our way.

This was the first time we’d be on the dirt roads since departing Perth, and the initial 60km or so was easy going. Then we progressively saw more sand appear on the track, reminding me a little of riding through Chowilla and Danggali in South Australia. Some deeper patches of sand were responsible for GS-tango action and some of us had good fun weaving across the road. A total of 350km from Kalbarri got us to Murchison Oasis where we camped the night and caught up with a group of sidecar riders who were heading to the Off Centre Rally.

Getting serious

Day three started off with an easy 300km run to Gascoyne Junction and a couple of stops to stretch our legs along the way. Chris led, and as the terrain became more rugged and rocky I felt the excitement and anticipation building. We were nearing the main attraction of the trip, the Kennedy Range. Very few people ever do the western side of The Kennedy, and I hadn’t heard of anyone doing it on bikes.

At Gascoyne Junction we met up with Izak on his DR650, who joined us for the Kennedy Range and Mount Augustus loop. With tanks filled, water and other beverages stocked, and water and fuel bladders topped up, we covered 30km of bitumen to the west, followed by a u

Above: The middle of the twin track was either a raised sand mound creating deep ruts either side, or patches of spinifex growing along the middle of the track. Left: Some deeper patches of sand were responsible for GS-tango action. Below: Early morning clifftop views in the Kennedy Range.

short, 6.5km run of relatively easy tracks to the Gascoyne River crossing.

And that’s where things got interesting.

I was the first to set off, following the tracks created by 4WDs, but my run was interrupted when the loaded bike got the better of me and went down about 100m into the 500m sandy riverbed.

This was the moment the whole group knew we had a challenge on our hands.

The next hour was spent paddling, lifting, pulling and pushing nine loaded bikes across the river sand.

Exhausted, we regrouped on the other side and the next mission was reaching a campground for the night. The sun

was fast approaching the horizon and we were about 20km from our intended campsite, but it was never going to happen. As soon as we crossed the river we were presented with a mixture of rocky, hard-packed terrain with sections of deep, twin, red-sand tracks and my worst nightmare was hearing a horn behind me and a scream from a fellow rider.

Was this where we were to spend the night waiting for an evacuation team?

Reality bites

Luckily it was only a scare. A bike trapping a rider can be quite unnerving, but

wearing the right gear gives the rider a fighting chance, even with a 300kg bike pinning them down.

There were quite a number of bike drops as everyone tried to find their mojo riding loaded bikes in deep sand, and the likelihood of reaching camp diminished by the minute. But there was a sigh of relief when we reached Mooka Creek Campground less than 30 minutes before sunset. It wasn’t our intended overnighter, but my parked bike was a welcome sight for everyone. We set up camp, and when Nic from the support vehicle approached us with cold ones from the Engel it was the icing on the cake.

Above: The intriguing rock formations of Honeycomb Gorge.

Below: A sunrise campfire.

Right: Mookarite Rock – only found in the Kennedy Range.

Kennedy Range

It had been a tough afternoon, and silently each one of us hoped the next day would give us a reprieve from the challenging conditions. We’d only completed 50km of our 285km loop, and I’d expected it to take us no more than two days.

Good spot

By now we’d already forgotten which day of the week it was. We didn’t have any mobile reception and appreciated the break from technology and everything that accompanied it.

The fourth day started with working out who else had heard the wild dogs howl in the early morning. It turned out it was only Chris and I. Everyone else was fast asleep getting much-needed rest after the previous day’s demanding efforts.

The second challenge of the morning was to find the track.

A rocky climb straight from camp was hidden in plain sight, and after a walk up the hill we found the tracks heading further north. I suggested Gary take the lead for the day while I rode sweep, helping out with lifting bikes and any other issues.

The tracks started off better. Hardpacked rocky sections were easier to deal with than continuous red-sand twin tracks. Some sandy creek crossings and the odd sand patch kept us on our toes, but we made some good progress. The landscape was rugged and rocky, and spinifex seemed to be about the only

Above: Kalbarri Skywalk Views over the Murchison River. Below: GS camping.

Right: Port Gregory Convict Hiring Station ruins. Far right: Nature’s Window. A rock arch at the top of the cliffs which frames the Murchison River.

thing that survived out there, with the exception of beautiful, lush, green creeks where it hadn’t dried up yet.

The further north we traveled the more rocky and technical it became. Stony hills and deep-water ruts across the road meant we all had to focus and continually scan the tracks. The key was to keep a steady pace, maintain momentum and make good progress, but do so in a controlled manner without damaging the bikes.

The lunch stop came abruptly. Gary

turned a left corner in a creek bed to be faced with deep sand and large slabs of rock with not much room for error. That was where his bike decided it was a good rest spot for lunch.

Day’s end

After lunch we were presented with a hill climb to get to the top of the escarpment. The terrain on the escarpment could’ve been referred to as red dunes with spikey spinifex shrubs growing as far as the eye could see.

The red sand was relentless. The middle of the twin track was either a raised sand mound creating deep ruts either side, or patches of spinifex growing along the middle of the track. Along the sides of the tracks were bushes growing high and big enough to bash the handlebars of anyone riding in a wheel track no wider than the pages of this magazine. Along a few sections the sand had compacted and created a hard edge ranging from about 50mm to 150mm right along the wheel track. It seemed endless and was tough going on the big bikes.

By about 3:30pm we knew our plan to

be on the eastern side of The Kennedy was long gone, and we still had another 20km of crazy sand before we would reach an area we could call a camp spot.

‘Tired’ was quite an understatement by that stage, and Nic, one of our two support-vehicle occupants, had been running up and down helping with fallen bikes, as had Izak and I. But the group’s resilience was quite impressive. Everyone pushed through to end the day at a most spectacular clifftop campsite, with the most amazing views, right on sunset.

By now we were already a full day behind schedule.

The plan had been to be back in Gascoyne Junction by the end of the fourth day, but we’d only completed 110km of our 285km loop.

Rock show

The next morning we were spoilt with an extraordinary sunrise over the rugged landscape, and a dehydrated breakfast got us going before we headed off for some more sandy twin tracks. It seemed like we would never see the end of the sand.

We wound our way along the edge of the escarpment, enjoying astonishing

Kennedy Range

views, until a winding downhill sandy track led us into the valley below.

We had made it around the northernmost part of The Kennedy!

We now had to make our way to a large, dirt, main road heading to Gascoyne Junction, but that wasn’t without some additional challenges.

Two long stretches of fast-paced sand were the final hurdle, and we all had a feeling of relief and accomplishment after completing some of the most grueling riding any of us could imagine.

It was after midday when we headed down to have a look at Temple and Honeycomb Gorges, the most intriguing rock formations, and areas where the cliffs had broken away leaving perfectly smooth vertical rock walls. Photos do not do these places any justice.

Job well done

We finally completed our Kennedy Range loop and arrived back in Gascoyne Junction at around 3.00pm on Friday where showers and a pub dinner were much appreciated by everyone.

The original plan wasn’t feasible anymore and we’d received news a major cold front and storm was approaching Western Australia, due to hit on Sunday, scheduled to be our final day of the trip. Some options for the return leg were considered and after throwing a few ideas around all agreed the best plan would be to make the 1100km journey home on Saturday. Most of the riders in the group had never done more than about 500km-600km in a single day, so the push home was yet another challenge. Longdistance master, Nev, briefed us on how to make it happen efficiently.

We got up at 5:00am, packed up our tents and set off at 6:30am, just as daylight started breaking through the clouds, and dodged a few kangaroos and some cattle between Gascoyne Junction and

Carnarvon. Eleven hours later we pulled in at the final meeting spot to have a coffee and go our separate ways home, having all completed our 1000km challenge for the day.

We concluded the trip after six days, 2500km, extremely tough conditions and had no major damage to the bikes – not even a puncture – and no major injuries. Mount Augustus, which we missed out on, will now be part of a Karijini trip in the next year or two.

Would I do the Kennedy Range loop again?

It’s unlikely. But if I did, it would most definitely not be on a loaded bike.

Hats off to the crew who made this happen. The west side of the Kennedy Range is a special place. It’s easy going in a 4WD, but not so much on a bike, and each challenge was well rewarded with stunning views.

On to the next one we go.

Main: Sunset at Mooka Creek. Below: Tracks hidden in plain sight.

RJAYs Adventure

The brand’s been around a while, but the new RJays Adventure apparel has had a big boost for 2020. Mathew ‘Secret Squirrel’ Potts has been trying a suit for Adventure Rider Magazine and shares his thoughts so far.

What’s to say about an adventure-riding outfit?

A lot when you think about it.

The designers have a huge task. Their product has very wide design criteria. At one end of the scale is a hardcore enduro pilot, and at the other someone on an around-the-world adventure. In the middle are commuters and weekend riders. The gear will be expected to cope with temperatures and conditions from Arctic blizzards to tropical humidity, and from monsoonal downpours to dry desert heat.

All this while still looking good, being comfortable on long rides and lasting for years with minimal care or maintenance. That’s not an easy job.

From the top

To start with, the RJays Adventure jacket has nice contemporary styling and colours. It doesn’t look like it’s come from the local op-shop bargain bin, nor does it present like something that wouldn’t be of place on a mardi gras float. It’s a nice-looking outfit and fits well. It even made Squirrel look good riding the new 1050 V-Strom, and that was a big

ask for any outfit.

To cover the heat side of things, both the jacket and pants have neat, almost-hidden panels that simply zip open and fold down out of the way letting air in. It’s a simple and reliable system that keeps the rider cool while maintaining protection.

The cold?

Well, I ride to work and it’s a 100km round trip. Most mornings and evenings have been below 10 degrees – cold enough to freeze a squirrel’s nuts. But I’ve only been wearing shorts and T-shirt underneath the RJays suit, and I’ve not been cold. Not even once.

Left: The RJays Adventure suit even made Squirrel look good riding the new 1050 V-Strom.

Insert: Mathew ‘Secret Squirrel’ Potts. AKA ‘Pottsy’.

A feature I really like is the zip-off neck warmer/windbreaker. It doesn’t sound like much, but it works a treat and it saves having to use a thermal sock-type neck warmer. I also think it’ll keep the hot wind at bay and help prevent wind burn which can be a problem on long summer days in the saddle.

There are plenty of pockets for phones, wallets and so forth, both inside and outside the jacket.

Below the waist

The pants do their job and cover the bits they should. They have inbuilt knee guards adjustable for height, useful pockets and big zips on the legs to let

RJAYS Dune glove

Features

v Four-way stretch and microfibre

v VISCOLAB CE knuckle protection

v Tricot lining on back of hand

v Double-layer palm with Air-Gel antivibration padding

v Carbon palm slider

v Neoprene cuff for comfort

v Finger gussets enhance mobility and wick away moisture

v Silicone print on fingers for lever grip

v Touch-screen compatible tip on thumb

v TPR wrist closure with velcro

v Available in sizes S – XXL

v RRP $89.95

the pants fit over motocross-type boots. For me the winner was the clip-on, over-the-shoulder braces.

That might not sound like a big deal, but it keeps them up where they should be, on and off the bike. They’re especially good when transitioning between sitting and standing while riding, or during a stop when going for a walk around. The pants stay up where they’re comfortable and you don’t end up looking like a broken plumber with a big crack at the back every time you bend over.

The waterproof and thermal liners go in and out easily and are stowed in a pocket in the back of the jacket when not in use.

But they have a really cool feature.

The button tabs at the ends of the legs and arms that hold them in place are colour coded, so it makes putting them in very easy. There’s no getting twisted top-to-bottom with everything out by 180 degrees. It’s so annoying trying to fit liners in the middle of a ride in the cold or rain, only to find you can’t put your arm or leg through because the liner’s twisted.

Or is it just me who always gets that wrong?

The colour coding on the RJays is a clever, simple idea, obviously designed by someone who actually rides and has had to fit liners more than once before.

Hands down

The Dune glove, while looking like a motocross glove, is actually a bit different. All the materials are thicker and reinforced in areas where my normal motocrosstype gloves usually fail. They’re super comfortable to ride with all day, and although I’ve only had them a few months I’m confident these gloves will easily outlast several normal motocross-type gloves while offering just as much comfort and feel.

Yet to get wet

The only thing I haven’t been able to test is the waterproofing.

I haven’t been caught out in the rain yet, but the way the liners zip in and out is very smooth, and with the rest of the suit so well thought out, I’m pretty sure this will be up to the same high standard and work great.

I’m fairly confident the RJays gear will be as good or better than other clobber I’ve tried in the rain.

So far it’s a great set of riding gear. It’s built tough, should last for years, and is very versatile in that it saves having to buy a winter and a summer outfit. That makes it easy. You only have to take one set of gear on a ride.

And the suit’s available at a great price. I like it. It gets Squirrel’s five-out-of-five nuts rating of approval.

An all-season, high-spec suit for touring or adventure. A strong comfortable outer shell is overlaid with nylon in key impact areas. Large ventilation points allow a high level of air flow,

RJAYS Adventure Jacket

Features

v Outer Shell: CH3532 and nylon 1000D on shoulders and elbows

v CE armour in the shoulders and elbows

v Elbow protectors are height-adjustable

v EVA rubber back pad

v Waterproof and breathable liner (15,000mm/10,000mm)

v Removable, 100g thermal liner

v Detachable all-weather collar

v Air-Ventilation System (AVS) for cooling

v Multipanel mesh comfort lining

v Stretch comfort panels

v Four outer pockets including hand-warmer pockets and four inner pockets

v Arm and waist adjusters for a customised fit

v Reflective print

v Connection zips for matching Adventure pants.

v Available in men’s S – 8XL and ladies’ 10-18

v RRP $499.95

while removable waterproof and thermal liners allow adjustability for any weather or season. With multiple stretch panels for dexterity the Adventure suit offers good comfort.

RJAYS Adventure pant

Features

v Outer Shell: CH3532 and nylon 1000D reinforcement

v CE armour in the knees (height-adjustable)

v Waterproof and breathable liner (15,000mm/10,000mm)

v Removable 100g thermal liner

v Air-Ventilation System (AVS) for cooling

v Detachable braces

v Multipanel mesh comfort lining

v Stretch comfort panels

v Two outer pockets.

v Waist adjusters for a customised fit

v Reflective print

v Connection zips for jacket

v Available in men’s S – 6XL and ladies’ 10-18

v RRP $369.95

Keeping balance

Graeme Sedgwick squeezed in a ride just before Victoria’s second round of travel restrictions

Iheaded southwest from Mount Napier, one of the youngest volcanoes in Victoria’s western district. It rises 150 metres above the surrounding plains and is one of the highest points north of the small rural township of Macarthur.

From there I pointed the Beemer towards Mount Eccles, another volcanic high point on a landscape scattered with larva blisters, before taking an assortment of less-used gravel roads and tracks which generally followed the western side of the Fitzroy River north to Lyons.

Then it was a cruise along the bitumen to what turned out to be a quick, enjoyable charge along the main Winnap-Nelson Road. This section offered a plentiful mix of dips and rises joined by fast links and get-your-attention curves at the southern end.

A scoot west along a gravel detour beside the Glenelg River then ran toward Nelson.

Shanty town

The 27,000-hectare Lower Glenelg National Park, abutting Cobboboonee National Park to

u

Words and images: Graeme Sedgwick

the east, the South Australian border to the west and Southern Ocean to the south, boasts a surprising choice of riding options.

The Glenelg River is Victoria’s thirdlongest and flows from the Grampians in Victoria’s midwest to the shores of Discovery Bay, deep in the state’s southwest. At the mouth of the river is the town of Nelson and the curiously named

Left: Inch-by-inch becoming a little better at the adventure-riding game.

Insert left: Rides and adventures can balance sanity.

Above: Some tracks were hard-packed between towering pines and hardwoods.

Above right: Some three million tonnes of plantation-timber products depart Portland, the mainland’s single biggest port for export hardwood chips.

Below right: Author Graeme ‘I’m stuffed’ Sedgwick (left) and instructor Paul Bray in Mathoura, NSW.

Below: Pondering on the future.

Nelson Boat Shed & Landing, an eclectic mix of boatsheds and jetties that haven’t just stood the test of time, but have survived a divided community, environmental challenges and government opinions to become getaways for their owners. It’s a quirky assortment of structures, some more than 50 years old and all with odd proportions, which boasts some fascinating individual stories.

Aside from the unusual buildings at Nelson Boatshed & Landing, from Simpson Landing north of Nelson to the edges of the National Parks something like 135 structures still stand. There’s another 30 or so hard up against the border in South Australia between Donavan’s Landing and Dry Creek, including some commercial piers.

Pipe dreams

The unique nature of the Nelson Boat Shed & Landing buildings is magnified when their stories of survival are peeled back.

The period from 1981 through to 1982

is interesting. Parliamentarian – and later Victorian Premier – Denis Napthine took up the cause for existing structures to be retained and used by leaseholders. In contrast were those people who wanted them removed on the basis they were unfit for habitation and an environmental liability.

It was a complex discussion in which emotion clashed with logic. Thankfully for owners, and maybe from an historical perspective as well, it was successfully argued in favour of keeping the huts, provided owners maintained a standard of good repair within the structure’s original footprint. An outbreak of Teredo Worm – naval shipworm – around the turn of the century meant many owners had to undertake works to minimise and eliminate the risk of structural failure, typically establishing new foundations using fresh timber or PVC pipe filled with concrete.

Learning

Away from Nelson my journey in part

u

retraced the Portland-Nelson Road, which gave the opportunity to explore an overwhelming number of forestry tracks. Some were hard-packed and snaked between towering pines and hardwoods, some were heavier going through hectares of replanted plantations, and others had amazing views across to a very blue Southern Ocean. There were even a few which stretched across the open expanses harvested to serve multiple commercial enterprises. Some three million tonnes of plantationtimber products depart Portland, the mainland’s single biggest port for export hardwood chips.

I’d spent some wise bucks to help gain a better understanding of riding basics in

Above: Nelson has an eclectic mix of boat sheds and landings.

Above right: A quirky assortment of structures, some more than 50 years old.

Above insert: The boat sheds hold some big memories.

Below: Spoiled for choice.

Right: Lunch stop.

heavy conditions coached by Paul Bray. Paul was a great inch-by-inch help before the ride with his training in sandy country west of the railway township of Mathoura, just north of Echuca.

Don’t give up

My return ride took me through small towns like Hawkesdale and Framlingham, along many and varied secondary and less-travelled laneways that run south to Laang, then north of Brucknell skirting Lake Elingamite.

The late-afternoon sun gave Camperdown’s Mechanics Institute a crazy pink glow as I concluded my ride.

I’m an optimist at the best and worst of times.

Prior to the COVID 19 problems I’d imposed upon the patience of a considerably more experienced mate for some good riding advice, laughter and encouragement to assist my riding confidence. I’d planned a ride from Cape Agulhas, South Africa’s southernmost point, to Windhoek in Namibia, but the restrictions imposed on travel forced the abandonment of the ride and, as it’s turned out, the closure of Compass Expeditions with whom I was to do that ride.

If nothing else this ride heavily underlined for me that we must all continue to seek out those rides and adventures that can balance sanity in a world that seems to have gone mad.

390 Adventure KTM

KTM’s LAMS-approved adventure offering punches way above its slinky weight.

There’s a lot to like about small-capacity bikes. They’re light and usually nimble, chains, sprockets and tyres last a long time, and they don’t get scary when the throttle’s cracked open.

On the other side of the coin, small-bores ask more from a rider when the pace goes up, and loading them with luggage to do long trips tends to take the shine off them a little.

KTM’s 390 Adventure gets a lot of interest

because while it’s light, nimble and easy on final-drive components, it’s a KTM, so there’s an expectation performance will be a step up from similar bikes in the class.

And that pretty much sums up our experience with the bike.

Up spec

Our review bike had some nice upgrades from the KTM PowerParts catalogue, including a Titanium Akrapovic slip-on, a seat, quickshifter, soft panniers and knobbies. Things like the TFT screen, two-channel cornering ABS, a lean-angle sensitive tractioncontrol system, LED lighting, and compatibility with the KTM My Ride phone app are all standard.

KTM claims the 373.2cc, Euro 4-compliant motor is the most powerful in its class at 44hp, a 14.5-litre tank should give a range of a touch over 400km,

Right: For experienced riders looking for maximum enjoyment and perhaps less hard-core physical commitment, the 390 must be a great option.

Left: The 373.2cc, Euro 4-compliant motor punches out 44hp and 37Nm of torque.

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Images: Wilkinson Photography

KtM 390 adventuRe

and ride-by-wire ‘force feeds optimal linear power delivery’.

That makes for a fairly eyebrow-raising package at a price that’s hard to believe.

Our review bike was all but brand-spanking new. It had something like 500km on the odo when we touched the button, fired up the smooth, chuckling single and started trying to find our way around the menu.

Pedigree

The 390 not only looks like the little brother of the 790, it feels a lot like it as well. As we sat thumbing through the menu options, memories of the glorious and fantastic riding we’d done on the incredible 790 Adventure R came flooding back. The TFT screen looks the same and the seat and body position felt familiar. Naturally, the colours and shapes combined with

the orange trellis frame are KTM throughand-through. Even allowing for those things, the first impression of the bike was strong: it felt kind of slim and smallish, but a really capable, beautifully finished bit of gear.

“ The 390 not only looks like the little brother of the 790, it feels a lot like it as well.”

While all that was running through our minds we were stepping through the menu options, switching off the traction control and selecting Offroad ABS before rolling the bike on to the trailer. That turned out to be another good experience. Rolling 170-odd kilos of bike on to a trailer is a piece of cake compared to the heavier outfits we’re used to.

Truth

We might as well ’fess up early: riding the 390 Adventure was seriously good fun. We’ll try and be all pro and give sensible opinions, but it’s not easy when every time we think of the 390 we crack a huge smile and start remembering some of the crazy stuff we did. A lot of the fun we had on the bike wasn’t too sensible at all.

We kept telling ourselves this was a LAMS-approved bike, and a small-bore, and we needed to keep in mind the bike’s intended purpose. But no sooner had we thought that than a greasy-rocked creek bed would beckon, or someone on a bigger bike would challenge around a corner, or there looked to be a sneaky line through some lantana that would give us the lead. Such is the nature of the 390 that every time something like that happened we didn’t hesitate to have a crack at it. Other bikes may well have caused us to pause due to their weight or insane power output, but with the 390 we put our brains in our bumbags and didn’t hesitate about anything. Not once. And the result was sensational, awesome-fun riding every time.

Left: The 390 Adventure will pretty much answer the call no matter what’s asked of it.

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Intended purpose

KTM’s adventure models, like the 790, are renowned for being strong in performance areas like power output, handling and especially suspension. The 390 has those characteristics to a degree that should satisfy even the most critical KTM fans, allowing, of course, for its engine capacity.

The motor is very smooth right through the rev range. It’s not a stump-puller at low revs, but it’s no weakling dawdling through the city either. A light, smooth, slipper clutch makes it easy to let a rider deal with stop-start traffic, and the quickshifter on our test bike worked really well in that situation. As long as the bike was moving we hardly needed to think about the clutch at all.

Braking was strong and the ABS was excellent. We tried the standard ABS setting on a bitumen run on a rainy afternoon and it worked well, but the Offroad setting suited us better, and once we’d tried it we pretty much left it selected for our whole time with the bike. It meant no ABS on the rear.

WP suspension front and rear?

Say no more.

The forks have easy-to-use adjusters on the top for compression on the left and rebound on the right, and we found the factory settings of 15 clicks out on both worked well for us. The shock was the same. It has rebound and preload adjustment only, but the standard rebound setting of nine clicks out suited us fine – which was good, because we don’t like messing around with rebound too much – and the static sag as delivered was near enough to cover the variety of riders who tried the bike. We did manage to crunch the shock once during a poorly executed manoeuvre that didn’t go to plan, but in general it coped with everything well.

We reckon a bike like this one is probably going to spend most of its time with young riders going to and from uni or work, with maybe some lightweight trail riding on weekends and perhaps that one big adventure

Above: “Reckon it’ll handle deep sand?”

“Dunno. Let’s give a try!”

Left: A TFT screen on a LAMS bike! It’s so easy to read and nice to use.

ride in a year. For that kind of rider in that kind of setting the 390 Adventure is superb. It’s a great pleasure to ride, the electronics will help look after an inexperienced rider in the best possible way, and both on and off road it’ll hold its own, even in among much bigger capacity, higher-specced bikes.

KTM has done an excellent job with the 390 Adventure.

Toughen up, Princess

What about some rougher going with more experienced riders?

This is where the bike became interesting for us.

The first reaction of probably 90 per cent of people we crossed paths with was, “Can you get spoked wheels?”

There are no spoked wheels for this bike in the KTM PowerParts catalogue –KTM advises spoked wheels for the 390 are ‘in the works’ – but having ridden the bike for a while we’re not totally convinced we’d make the change if there were. The cast aluminum rims copped some reasonable abuse and didn’t show any damage we could see, and we’re comfortable enough with tubeless tyres these days. A 21-inch front wheel would definitely suit our regular riding better, but we didn’t feel limited by the 19-inch rim, and the thing handled really well on the road.

The comparatively low power output will put off some potential owners for

sure, but in a strange anomaly, good riders will get all they need from this motor, while inexperienced riders will find it so easy to use they’re likely to perform above their expectation on it too. It’ll only be those carrying around a big self-image not supported by riding competence who’ll blame a lack

“ The cast aluminum rims copped some reasonable abuse and didn’t show any damage. ”

of horsepower for any shortcomings. Compared to the current crop of grunt-monsters the 390 is a horsepower lightweight, but geez, it’s a sensationally good-fun motor to use, and when it’s used, and used hard, the race heritage shows. It’ll spin up quick and run at highway speeds or gobble up fast, off-road tracks without any complaint. Another way of looking at it is the 390 Adventure offers a rider a chance to show how good he or she is. Whatever level the rider sets, the motor on the

390 Adventure will match.

As a stray thought, when we pushed the bike the quickshifter didn’t cope as well as at it did in city riding. It tended to hang up on upshifts when the bike was being fanged. Fortunately the clutch is light and smooth and made things easy.

D’oh

As is often the case, some of the bike’s strengths can, in some situations, also be its weaknesses. For the 390, there were a couple of things that really got our goat.

The one that really porked our chop was the traction control resetting itself to the ‘on’ position.

We realise this is a good thing for our LAMS chums and it’s a Euro-spec requirement. Really, a big part of our frustration with the feature came from the steps needed to switch off the traction control. If it was as simple as pushing a button it probably wouldn’t have bothered us, but it takes a few steps through the menu, and one step needs holding the button pressed for a few seconds. That’s every time the ignition is turned off. Or even when the ignition is left on, but the rider hits

Top left: A PowerParts seat was comfortable and looked horn. The seat-to-’pegs distance will favour riders less than about 175cm tall. Above: The 390 Adventure is a little smaller than its KTM stablemates, but it still looks the goods. Right: When it’s used, and used hard, the race heritage shows.

KtM 390 adventuRe

the kill switch. We even had one occasion where the motor coughed as though it was going to stall, but kept running. That was enough to reset the traction control to ‘on’. By the time we’d done the reset 10 or 12 times in a day we found our patience tested. It needs to be switched off for pretty much any kind of off-road riding because it’s very intrusive.

We’re being careful there because the traction control is an excellent safety feature and plenty of bikes these days are offering different levels of control. The 390 has only on and off. It works well for its intended purpose – keeping riders safe – but makes no allowance for mud, sand, clay or corrugations, and the bike’s almost unrideable in those situations if the traction control is on. The bike was so much fun we wanted to do a lot of that type of terrain. Again, the motor having less punch than the bigger bikes made traction control less critical in off-road situations, so an interesting balance presented itself.

Another thing that gave us cause for thought was KTM’s claim of a fuel range of around 400km from a tank. We couldn’t get that range in our time with the bike.

Above: Navigating the menu is all done from the left-hand switchblock and is fairly straightforward. Below: A family affair. The similarity between photographer Wilko’s 790 and the 390 are obvious and welcome.

We averaged around 23km per litre, and that meant about 340km from a tank. The warning light came on at around 230km and the readout insisted we had around 160km left, but the fuel gauge dropped so fast we panicked and filled it each time it happened. We felt like even 340km from the tank was possibly optimistic, but we admit we did push the bike a little at times. For its intended purpose the fuel range is good. Anyone wanting to head to the wide-open spaces might want to consider carrying a little extra.

Happy, happy, joy, joy

As we said at the start, the 390 Adventure is an insanely good-fun bike to ride. It’s smooth but still has enough snap in the motor to offer good performance from those who know how to ask for it, it’s light and easy to move around, the stock suspension and brakes are really good, and it’s loaded with features we don’t expect to find on a LAMS bike. For its intended purpose – LAMS riders and perhaps those just beginning their adventure-riding journey – it’s superb. For experienced riders looking for maximum enjoyment and perhaps less hard-core physical commitment, it must be a great option. The seat height is comparatively low too, and there’s a lot of riders who’ll consider that a major bonus.

We’d rate the bike’s adventure capability and versatility as ‘high’ and would be happy to point the 390 Adventure at a ride of just about any kind. In fact, we wish someone, anyone, would challenge us to do some more crazy shit on the 390.

Now we’re grinning again.

Above & below: KTM’s OEM soft luggage was brilliant. The panniers aren’t huge, but they’re awesome for an overnighter or carrying bits and pieces. They stayed dry inside after a couple of fair soakings, too.

K e S pe CS KtM 390 adventuRe

Recommended ride-away price: $8,995.

Web: www.ktm.com/en-au.html

Engine type: Single-cylinder, four-valve, liquid-cooled, DOHC four-stroke

Displacement: 373.2cc

Bore x stroke: 89mm x 60mm

Power: 44hp (32kW) @ 9000rpm

Torque: 37Nm @ 7000rpm

Compression ratio: 12.6:1

Starter/battery: Electric starter/12V, 8AH

Fuel system: Bosch EFI (46mm throttle body)

Lubrication: Wet sump

Primary drive: 30:80

Final drive: 15:45

Ignition/engine management: Bosch EMS with RBW

Traction control: MTC

Exhaust: Stainless-steel primary and secondary silencer

Clutch: PASC slipper clutch, mechanically operated

Transmission: Six-speed

Frame: Steel trellis, powder coated

Subframe: Steel trellis, powder coated

Handlebar: Aluminium, tapered Ø 26mm/22mm

Wheels front/rear: Cast aluminium 2.50 x 19”/3.50 x 17”

Tyres front/rear: 100/90c x 19/130/80 x 17

Front suspension: WP APEX, Ø43mm, adjustable compression and rebound

Rear suspension: WP APEX shock absorber, adjustable rebound and spring preload

Suspension travel front/rear: 170mm/177mm

Front brake: Four-piston, radially mounted caliper with Ø320mm disc

Rear brake: Single-piston, floating caliper with Ø230mm disc

ABS: Bosch 9.1MP, two-channel (including cornering ABS and Offroad mode)

Chain: X-ring 250

Seat height: 855mm

Wheelbase: 1430mm +/- 15.5mm

Ground clearance: 200mm

Dry weight: 158kg

Fuel capacity: Approximately 14.5 litres/3.5-litre reserve

Service intervals: First service 1000km, then every 7500km

Final Flinders Fling solo mission

Hopper farewells his 1090R.

Words and images: Hopper

019 saw Easter and ANZAC Day close together, and that meant I only had to take three days annual leave to gain 10 days of freedom. I normally head to Cameron Corner for the Easter weekend, and, with a few extra days, an obvious extension to that was South Australia’s mighty Flinders Ranges.

A new 790 was on its way, so it was time for a final fling on the big girl – the 1090R – which had been with me for the past 15 months.

Good Friday

Departure from Newcastle was at 7.00am and with the temperature at a very pleasant 18ºC I breezed through Denman, Merriwa, Dunedoo and into my first stop at the Dubbo bakery. With doubledemerits in place the time taken was just over four hours and I rewarded myself with the usual pie, apple turnover and extra-shot coffee, and of course some 98-octane for the 1090.

From Dubbo I pushed on to Narromine then followed backroads and finally dirt into Warren for another splash of fuel and a final check of luggage.

This was where the real riding started.

Egged on

There was more dirt as I headed for Canonba and Brewarrina, taking Monkey Face Road as a more interesting option, a 10km link road across to Gongolgon. Plenty of ’roos in large groups kept me alert, and as I pushed on over mixed terrain to Tarcoon, plenty of ’roos, goats and emus and a big patch of deep sand about halfway almost brought me undone - thankfully I stayed upright - past Mount Oxley turnoff to join the Kamilaroi Highway for an easy run into Bourke.

A fuel top up after a 325km leg was welcome and finished an 840km day before settling in for a good night at the Port Of Bourke Hotel. The normal buffet set-up had been

replaced with a traditional pub menu and was thankfully still a good, filling feed.

Being Easter, the annual Back To Bourke weekend was in full swing with a big crowd and a very loud band, but, as it was Good Friday things shut down at 10.00pm.

Saturday

One of the reasons I stay at Port Of Bourke is the secure parking, although this time I was blocked in by the chef’s car. Thankfully a young bloke was on hand to man-handle the beast clear and allow me to leave at 8.20am.

The first 80km out of Bourke on the notorious Bourke-to-Wanaaring Road was tar – 35km extra since last Easter –and now there’s only 110km of dirt and sand. Several sections still get the heart rate up though, like when I caught up to a Kombi van on a 20km stretch of deep sand. There was no way to pass in the total whiteout so I had to stop. That caused me to lose my mojo and it took me a while to get to the well-stocked Wanaaring Store for a good catch up with Ben and Margaret.

The next 250km section of dirt was in great condition and included a close encounter with two large eagles who were very reluctant to leave the road-kill feast they were enjoying. I also stopped to pick up a tent from the middle of the road – almost certainly from one of the three bikes I’d passed going the other way. A ute pulled up so I gave the driver the tent hoping he would catch the bikes at Wanaaring. The temperature was in the high-30s, so Tibooburra servo with its

Left: Author Hopper and his 1090R. A new 790 was on its way, so it was time for a final fling on the big girl. Below: Just over 4500km in nine days.

cool beverages was a welcome sight.

A run north out of town towards Warri Gate and through Olive Downs Station, once part of Sidney Kidman’s pastoral empire, included several old dams and tanks to check out. One had plenty of water, but a cow floating in the middle didn’t make it real inviting.

Jump-up Lookout was certainly worth the slight detour, and from there a track joined Toona Road, out through the Dingo Fence via the Toona Gate, and a sandy track through to Nocconora Road and Cameron Corner completed a 650km day. I shot the obligatory photo at the cornerpost marking the intersection of the three states (NSW, Queensland and South Australia), then had a great evening with Wayne and Greg on a KLR and 1200GSA. We had a top feed and a few ciders to wash down the dust.

Bored

Cameron Corner was in the rearview mirrors at 8.00am on a fine, but very cloudy, Sunday morning as I headed west. The road was sandy but well-packed past Bollards Lagoon and red flags marked large holes which were usually just over the crest of the many dunes.

The 1090 roared past Twilight Bore where an old yellow 1952 double decker bus used to be parked. I’d camped at the bus several times in the past, but, unfortunately, with people not doing the right thing the bus is no longer there. The shortcut track linking this road to the Strzelecki Track and saving around 70km is now closed as well, and it’s due to people not doing the right thing.

There were several quite sandy sections as I got closer to Merty Merty and joined the Strzelecki Track.

The Strzelecki is now an iconic Australian outback track, but originally it was created by a cattle thief trying to

move 1000 head of cattle from South Australia to Queensland. Back in the 1870s (when the editor was a boy) it would’ve been quite a feat.

Montecollina Bore was the first stop of the day. There’s no facilities at the bore, but it’s an excellent camping spot and great for a dip. Fed by a hot spring bubbling from the ground, it’s not as warm out in the middle. Two couples in 4WDs arrived and we had a good chat.

Onward

After a swim I was back on the beast and heading south for Arkaroola.

I knew I needed to turn at Mount Hopeless and head through Moolawatana Homestead, but the GPS was playing up and tried to take me along fence lines with no tracks. I stopped to glare angrily at the screen, and I wasn’t there long before one of the 4WDs from the bore pulled up. I explained I was looking for the turn. The lady in the passenger seat responded, “I have a map right here.”

I heard something about ‘35kms to the turn off’.

Above: An old, yellow, 1952 double-decker bus used to be parked at Twilight Bore. Unfortunately, with people not doing the right thing, the bus is no longer there.

Left: Tibooburra was a welcome sight (servo with cool beverages not shown). u

Final FlindeRS Fling

Enquiries showed the 4WD was travelling at around 90kph. I was moving a bit quicker than that, so, offering my thanks, I set my trip meter and took off.

About three kilometres down the road I sailed past a faint track on the left with a very small sign. At 30kms I started to watch for tracks. By 45kms I’d seen no turn offs at all. I definitely had enough fuel for my intended route and was fairly confident I could make it to Lyndhurst, but I certainly couldn’t go back.

Caught short

Long before Lyndhurst I had to fuel from my RotoPax, and the trip meter showed 450km as I rolled into town. I was very low on fuel and headed straight to the servo, only to find it closed and offering only diesel via credit card. It was the same at the pub: diesel only.

I gingerly pressed on, covering the 33km to Copley and, it being Easter Sunday, found it closed as well.

I finally made it to Leigh Creek. The trip meter showed 500km and my 23-litre tank took 23.1 litres. Thankfully, someone upstairs was looking after me.

Out to Arkaroola via Nepaburra I went,

logging 620km for the day.

While I was having a cool ale at the bar, the lady who’d given me directions earlier came up (obviously recognising my good looks).

“We were worried at the way you sailed straight past the turnoff not long after we spoke,” she said. Apparently she’d said ‘three to five kilometres’. With my earplugs in and helmet on I’d heard ‘35km’.

We all had a good laugh at my expense.

The only option for a feed was the $30 all-you-could-eat barbeque, and it turned out to be a good one. I met Bevan on another 1200GS, and he turned out to be Greg’s brother from the night before at Cameron Corner.

After plenty of tall tales and cold ales we called an end to a really good night.

Steep

Plunger coffee from a neighbour made a relaxing start to the next day, which I’d decided to spend doing some of the local tracks at Arkaroola Sanctuary.

After some pointers from

reception I headed to Paralana Hot Springs, which turned out to be very rough, rocky and slow going on the 1090. I’d had the bike lowered so I could at least get the balls of my feet on the ground, and the lack of ground clearance was an issue several times.

A reasonable hill climb detoured to a water tank for good views. There was one vehicle in the parking area at the Springs, and it was two older guys in a 4WD with a flat. I changed the tyre for them, then walked a kilometre or so up and down stream. Upstream was very picturesque, like walking through a painting. I found water but no obvious springs. I backtracked along the 4WD track into Arkaroola Springs and found one small, stagnant pool with dozens of ’roo carcasses. There were several live ’roos too, but only just. It was quite depressing really, to see the drought taking hold.

The Mount Jacob Backtracker 4WD trail was rutted and rough but had great views, and I joined the main road before taking Station Backtrack back to base. A steep detour to Frome Lookout was

Right: The Strzelecki was created by a cattle thief trying to move 1000 head of cattle from South Australia to Queensland. Below: Cameron Corner completed a 650km day.

Final FlindeRS Fling

rewarded with great views and I arrived at the campsite at around 4.00pm for another great evening with fellow campers.

Boared

With not much planned for the fifth day I eased into it. Coffee was again supplied by the friendly 4WD campers, and I was happy to chat. They were two motorbike cops away with their families and they had some interesting stories and even a few tips.

I left Arkaroola at 10.30am and had a good run through to Blinman for a nice lunch, including one of their famous quandong pies at the general store – a quandong is a wild peach, an Australian native bush food, and very nice.

A good winding descent down to Parachilna Gorge followed a creek lined with large river red gums and I noted some awesome campsites. The

Angorichina Tourist Village has a wellstocked one-stop shop where I enjoyed an ice-cream and cool drink before joining the main highway at Parachilna, well-known for the Prairie Hotel and its feral-food dishes. I’d sampled some on previous trips, and they’re nice, but pricey.

From there a brief squirt down the tar had me on the road to Brachina Gorge, then an adventure rider’s favourite, Bunyeroo Gorge which runs through the Heysen Range. It was great riding, and after the steep climb out several awesome lookouts with good parking offered stunning views of the ranges, including Wilpena Pound. Razorback Lookout was the pick of them, I thought.

Good advice

Out onto the main Hawker-Blinman Road I thumped.

I’d booked accommodation at Willow Springs homestead but rang them to

Left: The obligatory photo at the cornerpost marking the intersection of the three states (NSW, Queensland and South Australia). Below: The road was sandy but well packed.

check on availability of a feed. I was advised there was no food sold on site, so I detoured to the well-stocked Wilpena Pound minimart for a few tins and cans.

Back toward Willow Springs I went, stopping at Hucks and Stokes Hill Lookouts where a large number of people had parked waiting to watch the sunset. Apparently, it’s really good from there, but I didn’t want to be heading into camp in the dark so I kept rolling.

My reason for staying at Willow Springs was to do the famous 4WD Sky Trek the next day. I asked the lady running the place if it was suitable for large adventure bikes.

“No worries,” she replied. “A large group did it today on big bikes. Why don’t you go and talk to them?”

I tracked them down to find they were all on 250s and 450s, and their consensus was, “Don’t do it on a big bike…especially the last 20km.” They pointed out there were lots of large bulldust holes with big rocks buried in them, and even the small bikes had struggled.

Back to my nice little cabin I went to cook up a feast with a nice few ales, and even watch some TV.

Washed up

A sleep-in made for a very relaxing start to the following day, the sixth of my ride. I sat out on my own veranda in the

middle of the bush and sipped a nice coffee.

With Sky Trek off the agenda I had a day to spare, so I headed south and side-tracked into Sacred Canyon. It was 14km of dirt plus a short walk into a beautiful little gorge with some engravings, and I could see why the place had special significance.

I trundled into Rawnsley Park hoping for accommodation, but found it fully booked out, so I rang ahead and booked into Hawker Caravan Park.

After a long, late, lunch at Hawker chatting to fellow adventure riders, I even managed to do some washing –after five days my socks were very ordinary, to say the least.

Nice folks

ANZAC Day kicked off with a service right opposite the caravan park. Some 200 people attended and shared plenty of ANZAC biscuits and chatting.

Although the weather had been fine for me, both north and south had experienced several days of heavy rain and roads to the north were definitely closed. That made it an easy decision head south, where the GPS sent me 30km on a track into a private property with no through road. I eventually found Craddock and headed east to Old Baratta Station, then onto the main road to Yunta. The ruin of the Old Waukaringa Hotel was worth a photo stop. From the ruin you can see a chimney at the old gold-mining site, and a track takes you there. There are other remnants to explore as well, but care is needed.

Having fuelled bike and belly at Yunta I didn’t fancy the 200 clicks up the Barrier Highway to Broken Hill, so I asked at the servo about a road on the map through Lilydale Homestead then east to Broken Hill. I was clearly told the road was rough, but access wasn’t an issue (the locals would know wouldn’t they?).

I punted 70km to Lillydale on a good dirt track but couldn’t find any tracks going east as shown on the map, so I went into the homestead and found an old stockman.

“Yeah, mate,” he gummed. “There used to be a track, but it no longer exists.”

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Final FlindeRS Fling

He advised I’d need to keep going to Oatdale Station, and although not on the map, a track went through to the Silver City Highway.

I pressed on.

The track was mostly good with some deep sections of soft sand just to keep me on guard, and at the entrance to Oatdale Station an old car (dating back to the editor’s time) and a sign proclaimed 192km to Broken Hill.

I pushed on through Loch Lilly Station, even after sunset, emerging on to the Silver City Highway with still about 90km to Broken Hill. Fuel was an issue again. The GPS said the nearest fuel was at Coombah Roadhouse, 28km the other way. ‘That’ll do me,’ I thought, and arrived not long after – to find the place all locked up with a pay phone that didn’t

work. Thankfully a lady came out and allowed me to use the roadhouse phone to report in to The Bride. The lady also volunteered her reluctant husband to cook me a pizza and let me set up the tent on their lawn.

The day finished with a nice pizza and chat.

Roughing it

I was packed and ready to go by 8.00am to avoid being in the way of any customers, but I purchased breakfast, fuel and a strong coffee and waited till 9.00am when the RMS was due to update road conditions. By 9.15am nothing had changed so I pushed on over the 30km of highway then took the dirt haulage road towards the Ginkgo Zircon mine, then

picked up the road to Pooncarie.

Pooncarie allowed a fuel top up before coffee and cake at the little café on the Darling River. I checked out the historic wharf site, which, back in its day, was very active with paddle-steamers plying the wool trade from outback NSW and Queensland to South Australia.

George at the local store warned me about the state of the road from 30km to 60km out of town and he was spot on. During that 30km stretch there were plenty of long sections of deeply rutted bottomless sand. Knowing I should’ve been floating over the top of it (like the editor would) didn’t help. Instead, I did plenty of first-gear paddling on the big girl.

As I neared Ivanhoe there was plenty

Left: Razorback Lookout was the pick of The Flinders’ vantage points. Below left: Rewarded with great views.

Above: At the entrance to Oatdale Station a sign proclaimed 192km to Broken Hill.

of evidence of heavy rain, and apparently the Cobb Highway had only just reopened. I fuelled up and pressed on.

Unfortunately, the two normally good dirt options to Hillston were closed due to the heavy rains, so I did a 140km stretch on the Cobb Highway to Booligal. From there the Lachlan Valley Way dirt road to Hillston was open, but very chopped up from the rain and some very interesting navigation was needed to get through and around the obstacles.

A splash of fuel at Hillston set me up for the run to Lake Cargelligo, but due to time restrictions and road conditions it was tar the whole way.

The mirrors were filled with a great sunset as I pulled up and booked in to a $40 pub room with a good feed and loud music – which thankfully stopped at 10.30pm.

Rewarded

It was a cool morning as I made my way down to the lake for photos.

It was a bit of an ugly situation at the start of the day as I was unable to get a real coffee anywhere in town and set off along the back way to Condo uncaffeinated. I trundled past the airport and followed the Lachlan River past the weir. There were some great camping spots and I stopped to check out the painted utes which used to be Utes In The Paddock at Ootha, 30km east of town, but are now just outside Condobolin. The display is certainly worth a browse.

The bakery supplied real coffee, cake and a pie and then I was on the backroads, a lot of which had been tarred since my last visit.

From Filfield I followed a nice little dirt option to Tullarmore then Narrowmine and Dubbo for another bakery and fuel stop and then the Golden Highway took me home.

It was a most enjoyable trip. I covered just over 4500km and the bike performed well – it was only the rider who let the side down a few times.

And as a special treat for getting home a day early I was dragged along to Spotlight for several hours exciting shopping. There’s definitely a lesson there!

Glory days Nigel Locke’s 1990 Africa Twin XLV750

As the years roll on and bikes come and go, sometimes there’s just a bike which captures a rider’s heart and imagination.

Nigel Locke has a passion for bikes which stretches back over many years. His shed holds a selection of favourites from modern Japanese dirt bikes like a KLX450 and the venerable DR650 through to older European boxer twins and quite a few varieties in between.

He’s a keen member of his local restorer’s club but doesn’t consider himself a restorer.

“I like to buy bikes in as original condition as possible,” he said, having clearly asked for sugar in his coffee even though he didn’t take sugar.

Above: A 1990 Africa Twin XLV750 and one very happy owner. u

“You never find them 100-per-cent

original, but I get them as close as I can and then fix them up. I try and stay as close to original as I can.

“Every week I trowel through Gumtree and Ebay for classic bikes. This one came up on the day I was looking and I phoned the guy straight away and said, ‘I’m going to come down there and buy that’. We arranged it and I went and picked it up the next day before anyone else could grab it.”

Quick decision

Despite having a selection of great bikes, Nige was rapt to find this one.

“This model wasn’t actually available in Australia,” he explained. “The first Africa Twin was released in 1989, and if you read back through the magazines of the time, this is the sought-after model.

“It came standard with some great features: the big aluminium bashplate, an easy-access airfilter, a little glove compartment in the sidecover for tools, adjustable suspension which was well ahead of its time, and there’s no ABS, traction control or computer.”

Nige also points out the dual Nissin discs at the front as being forward thinking for 1990.

“To even find one of these Africa Twins is very difficult,” he beamed.

“I’ve always been looking around, just in case one became available, and when this one came up I jumped at it.”

Nice ride

Nige was good enough to let Adventure Rider Magazine hop on board the XLV for a lap, and it’s no wonder he’s keen. The bike is super

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Below left: Love at first sight.

Right: The double headlight was a signature of Honda’s dualsporters of the era.

Below middle: The instrumentation is simple, effective and easy to read. That can’t be said of a lot of modern bikes.

Bottom right: Owner Nigel didn’t want to change the bike away from stock, so he added a few bits and pieces which could be easily removed to achieve different aims…like the rubber tops on the footpegs to stop the narrow ’pegs from chewing out the soles of his boots.

Above: A happy couple – and some happy riders, too.

Below: The shock reservoir is easy to get to and adjustments are simple.

Right: Imagine what it would cost to buy a bashplate like that one. It was standard equipment on the Africa Twin.

smooth. The engine has plenty of grunt but delivers in the nicest way possible. Handling is exceptional for a bike of this size and age, and the comfort level for the rider is extremely high. The suspension worked really well, and it’s a strong reminder that it was bikes like this one which forged the incredible reputation for the Africa Twin. That reputation played a big part in the successful relaunch of the model in 2016.

The more we tooled around along dirt roads, through damp rainforest and along some lazy bitumen, the more obvious it was just how well the bike was performing. It’s an absolute pleasure to ride as a sightseer, but still had a surprising amount of grunt on offer if the throttle were cracked open. Stopping at cafes and fish’n’chip shops just underlined the bike’s intended purpose and reinforced how bloody lovely it was to ride.

Nige does a little buying and selling of bikes, and we asked about his intentions for this one.

“This is the pinnacle,” he said with a faraway look in his eye.

“It’s a keeper.”

Do you have a bike like Nige’s Africa Twin? A bike with a story, a bike you’ve had for years, or perhaps the bike of your dreams? Adventure Rider Magazine would love to share your passion for that bike with other Australian adventure riders. E-mail tom@maynemedia.com.au and tell us about your bike and its glory days.

Three of a kind

The Honda family

Whilewe looked forward to riding with Nige and his Africa Twin, his wife, Lianni, was a welcome surprise when she tagged along on her 2004 TransAlp.

The bike was bought new, and aside from the very interesting crash bars, it’s stock standard.

“It’s a really practical, comfortable bike,” said Lianni, who, along with Nige, frequently rides with Dave

and Karen Ramsay.

The crash bars are fabbed up from the handle of a Victa lawnmower.

“Most crash bars run around the side of the bike,” explained Nige. “With this bike it’s easy to grab the front and drag it if it’s stuck or bogged.”

A quick lap on the TransAlp showed it to be a very comfortable bike with a nice motor and well suited to covering distance.

Although it wasn’t intended to be a Honda outing, the editor had his 1995 Honda NX650 Dominator along as a camera bike, and it rounded out a set from the brand’s glory days.

The bike was purchased in 2010 and served as a magazine workhorse, clocking up some big, tough rides and copping some serious abuse. Replacing body panels became increasingly difficult and the bike was retired in around 2017.

The air-cooled motor is a little underpowered by today’s standards, but as with other Hondas from the era, it’s a very smooth, easy-to-ride proposition that still has teeth when asked to deal with a tough section or cope with long days.

V-strom

Old versus new

Adventure Rider Magazine was lucky enough to ride the new V-Strom 1050 alongside The Boss’ 2019 1000XT. A quick, non-scientific, head-to-head comparison was inevitable.

Suzuki’s all-conquering all-rounder first came on the scene as a 996cc, 90-dgree V-twin in 2002. It was offered as a ‘sports tourer’ and used the liquid-cooled, four-stroke, DOHC, four-valve engine from the hoo-aah TL1000 sports bike, but with revised low- and medium-speed throttle response. The donk was installed in a lightweight, aluminium twin-spar frame

which also supported a bikini fairing.

‘DL1000’ was the original model designation, and the V-Strom name, Suzuki says, combined the ‘V’ from the V-twin engine with ‘Strom’, short for ‘a stream of storm’.

The DL1000 did well for Suzuki around the world, and in 2004 a 645cc DL650 joined the stable and it too proceeded to take the world by a stream of storm.

For no reason we can explain, the 650 ’Strom caught on with Aussies in a much bigger way than the 1000. Anyhoo, it’s the 1000/1050 we’re looking at here.

Main: The 1050 is definitely a step up from the 1000XT, but the older model is still an extremely capable adventure mount.

Below: Where it all started. The 2002 DL1000. u

v--StRoM old veRSuS new

The DL1000 was redesigned in 2014 and ended up with a bigger engine capacity, an updated ECU, traction control, and the front-guard beak Suzuki had used on earlier off-roaders like the DR BIG. The model diddley-bopped along, quietly winning a big and welldeserved following as a bike which did lots of things really well without being a specialist in any particular area, and of course it offered sensational value.

In 2018 things took a bit of a leap forward for adventure riders with the introduction of the XT model. The big giveaway when spotting an XT is the spoked wheels, but there’s also a bashplate, tubeless rims, and the pipe was a little lower to allow panniers a closer fit.

A 2019 1000XT is the bike you see here alongside the 2020 1050XT.

Both the 1000XT and 1050XT are great adventure-ready dualsporters.

New

We went through the upgrades to the 2020 model last issue, but one we didn’t mention was designation. The bike is now officially the ‘V-STROM 1050XT’, all in capital letters. Suzuki has been understanding in allowing us to just call it a ’Strom or a ‘V-Strom’, so that’s what we’ll continue to do.

The 2020 bike looks a little more angular and has a couple of obvious differences to the previous model. The screen’s adjustable, the LCD instrument panel is an amazing palette of information, and, biggest of all, a new six-direction, three-axis IMU offers amazing ABS, a hill-control system, and ‘slopedependent’ and ‘load-dependent’ control systems. Cruise control has been added – it was sorely missed on the previous model – and an easy-to-use, OEM

luggage system is available.

The new bike is great, and we had a ball riding it.

But how much better is it than the previous model?

Not fair

Before all the keyboard warriors start wailing in on us, we totally accept there’s nothing scientific or controlled about our upcoming observations. We were blatting about willy-nilly on the 1050 and having a great time when The Boss showed up on his 2019 model.

As if we weren’t going to swap around a little and make comparisons.

The Boss’ bike is fairly personalised while the 1050 was bog-stock, and the older bike was loaded with luggage while the new bike was unburdened. Also, Suzuki fitted up the 1050 with

Pirelli Scorpion STRs in place of the standard Bridgestone Battlax rubber – because we’re so hard-core and everything – and The Boss’ bike had knobbies front and rear.

In a lot of ways the two bikes were very similar, but there were couple of immediately noticeable differences.

Still the same

Probably the most overwhelming impression from riding the two bikes back-to-back was the 2019 model being a frigging great bike. It’s very comfortable, the motor and handling are sweet as, and it doesn’t give much away to the new bike as an adventure tourer. Even if we did think the new bike was the better performer, it could easily have been because the 1050 was new while the 1000 had had some use.

The seating position, allowing for the 1000 having a tankbag, luggage and having been set up for The Boss’ fairly lofty tallness, felt very similar, and considering the load there wasn’t much to pick between the handling and suspension of the two bikes.

So that was all good.

We reckoned the 1050 had stronger low-down torque. As we mentioned in issue #42, the tech material Suzuki supplied with the 1050, which had a little room for interpretation, suggested that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t a huge difference, but it was one aspect of newversus-old which all riders noticed and commented on.

The big step forward

Undoubtedly the biggest difference between the 2019 model and the 2020

V-Stroms is the electronics, and it’s interesting that such a big difference only shows in subtle ways.

The new bike is absolutely streets in front of the previous model in terms of electronic rider aids, and those things really only show when they intervene. If the 1050 was never pushed to dangerous braking, poor throttle control or insane cornering, the electronics wouldn’t get to show their stuff. Owners might be left thinking they may as well have an older bike.

Don’t get us wrong. There are some substantial updates on the new bike, and as far as we’re concerned they’re all good, but riding the bikes head-to-head doesn’t make the rider go, “Geez, this Euro-5 compliance is the go, eh?” or “Crikey. Does that LCD instrument panel give some snort, or what!”

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Above & above right: An update to the right-hand switchblock accommodates the cruise control on/off button and a new rocker switch for ignition and starter button, as well as a switch for the hazard lights. It does look a bit more modern than the older model.

Below & below right: The left-hand switchblock looks the same, but the grey rocker now adjusts the cruise-control speed as well as scrolling through the modes.

v--StRoM old veRSuS new

Naturally the cruise control is a big, obvious plus as soon the new bike hits the freeway, and the hill-hold control is nice for the oncein-a-while occasion where it comes into play, but their absence isn’t a huge downfall on the older model. For the overwhelming majority of the time both old and new fulfil their intended purpose beautifully.

But when things do get a little wriggly the new bike shines. Cornering ABS is a big safety asset, and the IMU watching out for a careless, tired or unwary rider gives the new bike a considerable advantage when it’s most needed.

Cosmetic stuff like an adjustable screen and a speccy instrument panel are nice, and the new bike just looks plain sharp. But again, that didn’t make us feel the older bike was at any disadvantage when measuring the pleasure of riding.

Not much in it

So there it is. The 1050XT is undoubtedly a step up from the 1000XT, but whether or not it’s a huge step will depend a little on your view of things. For us cruise control is enough to sway our decision. We’d opt for the 1050XT every time. The electronics would be a bonus and we’d be glad to have them, but not so much we’d offload what we feel is a great bike – the 1000XT – before its time. Some riders don’t like a lot of electronics, but even then, the intervention from the 1050 systems is so smooth it’s sometimes hard to pick, and when they do step in it’s usually to save the rider’s bacon, so we can’t see how that could be a problem for anyone.

But would we bust a gut to change over the 1000XT for the 1050XT?

No. We definitely wouldn’t. The 1000XT is still a great bike. When the time came for an upgrade we’d be slapping the cash on the counter for the 1050XT with a big smile and plenty of excitement. But until the upgrade is due, the 1000XT is still a fantastic adventure tourer.

Not your average 650

Seeing as we’re doing a totally uncontrolled and unfair comparison, we’ll cast a weather eye over a ring-in: Pottsy’s 2012 650.

Matthew ‘Pottsy’ Potts has filled a few pages of the magazine in the past for things like the build of his DR650 in issue #12 and for making an amazing transformation to our work KLR. Nowadays Pottsy’s punting around a 650 ’Strom, and naturally it came along on the 1050 shoot. While there shouldn’t really be any comparison between the 1050 and an older 650, Pottsy’s

Right & above right: The new LCD display marks a big change from the previous model.

bike is a bit special – like Pottsy, really.

Some obvious changes include an Akro and Givi crash bars, pannier racks, top-box rack and tank bag. Less obvious are a braided front brake line, heavier fork springs and Teknic T-valves, a raised front guard to accommodate a knobby, a heavier Eibach shock spring, a Power Commander, Scott’s oiler, Pro Grip pillow-top grips, a Puig screen (which is taller than standard) and Pirelli Scorpion STRs front and rear.

The rear of the bike has been raised 20mm courtesy of a dog-bone link and the seat has been customised by Sunshine Coast Seats to change the shape and raise the seat height by 20mm.

The bike is a scorcher. It’s a dead-set competitor for its 1000cc bigger sisters in getting power to the ground and holding a tight line, and it’s an absolute hoot to ride onor off-road. We’ve chased Pottsy around some good rides and can tell you he doesn’t spare the bike a thing on a tough off-road section.

The bike has no real relevance to the 1050, but it was so horn to ride we wanted to show it to you.

Our Bumot Soft Panniers fit straight onto your BMW OEM pannier rack. Bumot Xtremada Soft Panniers $1049 A PAIR

The 1050’s nod to bikes like the DR BIG is obvious.

Our unique outback ride experience

Izak Bakker, Mark Goddard and few mates decided to give Big Red a go.

Words and images: Mark Goddard and Izak Bakker

Main: Plane Henge on the Oodnadatta Track.

Right: The 10 riders – one heading in from the UK and the rest split between Queensland, NSW, and Victoria – and one support vehicle would converge on Bourke as the official starting point. Insert below: There was many a butt-squeezing moment over 6000km of predominately red sand as the change from ‘soft as’ to bone-jarring corrugations occurred instantly.

The plan was hatched over dinner at the Old Fire Station Bistro And Grill in Mansfield during the 2018 BMW Safari in Victoria.

After many late nights checking out everything on Google, reading heaps of ride reports and coming up with excuses to be glued to the computer, the route was decided. The 10 riders – one heading in from the UK and the rest split between Queensland, NSW, and Victoria – and one support vehicle would converge on Bourke as the official starting point. Bikes were dominated by the big Beemers, but the go-to DR was covered by both a 400 and a 650. A lone XT660R represented Yamaha and held up the badge well.

The route from Bourke took in Louth, Wanaaring, Tibooburra, Cameron Corner, Lyndhurst, Marree, the Birdsville Track to Mungerannie and then Birdsville. After a single day in

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Birdsville to ride the infamous dune, Big Red, the plan was to head home via Innamincka, Thargomindah, Hungerford, and back to Bourke.

Over 6000km of predominately red sand there was many a butt-squeezing moment as the change from ‘soft as’ to bone-jarring corrugations occurred instantly. The more senior member of the crew was heard to offer the wise advice: “Get up, get back, get on the throttle, give the pony its head and hope for the best.”

It became my mantra and was some of the best advice ever for riding in the sand.

Back up

Some long and challenging sections, including the Strzelecki Track, greeted us and our fast-wearing tyres with rocks, rocks and more rocks. The Englishman, who was reliving his ride from 30 years ago on his trusty XT250, was constantly pulling the DRZ apart in the hope it

would somehow morph into the 1200GS he had sitting in his garage in the UK. He was spotted on the side of the road tinkering with the suspension before eventually riding into Lyndhurst flat on the tank as the freezing southerly headwind sucked the drive out of everything, including the riders’ motivation.

This was when good planning and the support vehicle carrying heaps of fuel kicked in. There was no fuel in Lyndhurst.

A stick up

So far it probably sounds like every other rider’s Birdsville trip, but three calls to the RFDS and the most amazing 18 hours parked up at the Mungerannie pub made this ride stand apart.

The docs in the sky were first called about 40kms out of Cameron Corner.

One of the Beemers was seen heading at speed into a big corner with bulldust as deep as the bike. The outcome wasn’t

Above left: It’s important to make sure of a basic first-aid knoweldge and kit, or better still, ride with a doctor and a nurse. Above right: The RFDS picked up a rider at 11:15pm from Cameron Corner.

Left: Well organised. The group even had stickers. Main: Bikes were dominated by big Beemers but included a couple of Suzukis and a lone XT660R.

Right: Ready for Big Red.

good, and the sad rider (who will remain unnamed) did the journey over the ’bars and ended up with a fractured collarbone and, even worse, a smashed ego. The support vehicle and driver came in handy again with the very sad GS being trailered off to Cameron Corner. The hospitality of the staff at the hotel was outstanding. They organised the airstrip, fed us and kept us well lubricated – that last assisted in raising funds for the RFDS by testing our skills at throwing money to the ceiling and making it stick, Cameron Corner style.

And again

The second call to the RFDS was after spending the night in Marree and

meeting a couple of the local girls. They recommended we head to Mungerannie and say hello to Phil Gregurke, the publican and only resident of the establishment, who does everything from selling tyres to making a bloody good coffee.

Phil was pretty happy to see us as we were the first to get there after the 2019 floods. He loaded up the DVD with clips of riders’ attempts at conquering Big Red then poured the beers.

With beds organised, the barbeque fired up for lunch and self-catering packs provided, everyone was happy. As he was on his lonesome with no staff, Phil did it all. He aimed to do everything possible to make our stay memorable, and he certainly achieved that.

Phil’s hospitality extended to allowing us to use his workshop to repair the subframe of the Yammie. The rider

reckoned the problem must’ve been the rocks on the Strzelecki Track (he was sure it was nothing to do with the weight being too far back). The only condition for use of the full workshop was, “Help yourself to anything, but don’t expect me to help.”

Perfect. The Englishman and The Nurse set about emergency XTZ surgery.

Serious

The rest of the crew got in early, fueled up and nabbed the best rooms away from the generator, known snorers and any possible debriefing/party room. Publican Phil continued to be a congenial host and was handing out beers and stories when a sickening thud was heard. The crew turned around to see the hotelier facedown on the concrete. A bend in a post indicated it had come in contact with the Gregurke head on the way down, and a

Left: The Gun Rider arrived at agreed destinations a good 30 minutes ahead of the everyone else.

Below: Some long and challenging sections greeted fast-wearing tyres.

Right: Keep riding to those remote areas and support the locals to halt the rural decline.

telling symptom of the possible severity of the injury was no movement from the subject and the stubby dislodged from the hand.

Phew

This was where good planning kicked in again.

It’s important to make sure of a basic first-aid knoweldge and kit, or better still, ride with a doctor and a nurse. After our BMW-riding doctor attended to Phil’s immediate medical needs he was back on the phone to the RFDS in Port Augusta.

“Are you the same doctor we were talking to a few days ago from Cameron Corner?” was the greeting.

We were getting a reputation.

Some others in the crew also required attention due to tripping over obstacles, dropping beers and over exertion in their haste to help, but everyone looked on as Phil slowly regained consciousness.

Furrowed brows were wiped and tensions eased.

PAYG

Our good doctor received instructions from the RFDS on how to access the life-saving goodies stashed away in the onsite RFDS emergency cupboard. Some pain-relief medication was administered

and further diagnostic pokes and prods were executed. Questions only doctors can ask were answered. There was no sign of a rubber glove or lube, but the assessments did identify Phil should get on the plane and head down to Adelaide to see the neurosurgeon.

There was no plane available until the following day, as it turned out.

It was decided things were under control. Phil was in good hands with a neck brace on, his own medical team, a crew to run the pub, pull the beers, keep the DVD playing and cook up a feed for everyone, including the local grader drivers and a couple of tourists.

This gave Phil enough time to recover further and give his situation some serious thought. He came to the conclusion he should stay put. His decision may have been influenced by seeing us making a mess of his well-stocked kitchen and not keeping the beers up to the patrons as he would’ve liked. Even direct phone contact with the neurosurgeon and RFDS couldn’t change Phil’s mind. We roped the tourists in to running the pub while Phil would be away, and even that wouldn’t convince him.

The RFDS plane was cancelled, Phil was well medicated and headed off to bed with regular wellbeing checks provided by his personal medical team. The accountancy skills of the support driver kicked in and he diligently kept the bar tab. u

So the story goes

The next morning everyone pitched in and completed the paving in the courtyard to remove the trip hazard before settling up prior to jumping on the bikes and heading to Birdsville.

The country looked sensational as the floodwaters moved through to Lake Eyre. We did the trip out from Marree to see the lake and bumped into Chris Urquhart and Miles Davis mapping out the next BMW Enduro Safari ride.

Settling up the account at the Mungerannie pub provided insight into the importance of adventure riders doing what we do best: supporting rural economies while having a good time.

Phil is The Man at Mungerannie. He had a sore head and bruises to show for his experience, but was last seen sitting

behind the bar waiting for his mate to turn up and the next group of bikes so the yarn could be spun.

Almost famous

The third contact we had with the RFDS was a far more positive experience. Hungerford pub is full of character and a place not to be missed. We camped nearby in Currawinya National Park next to Lake Numalla (possibly the coldest place in Queensland as the tents were totally iced up), and the pub had not only great hospitality but hosted community events. We happened to turn up on Wellbeing Day, sponsored by various organisations, providing the opportunity for the community to get together and access preventative health and wellbeing services. A quick yarn to the RFDS doctor and IT person identified they’d heard of our exploits. It seemed we’d earned quite a reputation and it was great to see the community work being done by the RFDS.

Happy endings

Did the bikes need any first aid?

There was the broken subframe of the XT of course, but the Yamaha continued on to complete the journey. The Englishman never did turn the DRZ in to

Above: The publican and only resident of the Mungerannie pub does everything from selling tyres to making a bloody good coffee. Left: It must’ve been noisy in the bar. He shouted himself hoarse.

a GS and ended up throwing in the towel on the last day of the trip as it continued to have fuel issues…or perhaps the last 400km of blacktop looked so boring he elected to throw the bike on the trailer and keep the support driver company until we hit Toowoomba.

The Gun Rider, on another GS, paid the price for arriving at agreed destinations a good 30 minutes ahead of the everyone else by absolutely shredding his rear tyre just outside Mungerannie. The rest of us watched him endeavour to plug a tyre that looked like a cheese grater. The spare tyres in the support vehicle came in very handy.

The very broken GS made its way back to its recovering owner on the back of a truck from Cameron Corner and the benefits of having a good insurance policy kicked in. The replacement – a 1250GS – was delivered with new riding gear. The smashed ego remained though, and still causes pain whenever the topic is raised.

Key lessons

v Support the RFDS whenever you have the means

v Be prepared. If possible ride with your own medical team, but if that can’t happen, make sure you’re sorted on first-aid skills, have the right gear and know how to access support wherever you’re going

v Keep riding to those remote areas and support the locals to halt the rural decline

v Get up, get back, get on the throttle and give the pony its head in the sand. It worked for most of us and we all came back better riders and better people.

Lightweight, nimble and awesome fun for a rider who knows how to make a small-bore work.

Junior Ténéré? WR250R Ténéré?

Yamaha WR250R

With safari Tanks tank and fairing.

This is one insanely good performer. Never mind the engine capacity. Just keep the throttle pinned and grin all the way to the front of the pack. For the distance rider, the increased fuel capacity and wind protection are the icing on the cake. u

Yamaha’s WR250R has been a giant killer from the day of its 2008 release in the stunning Mackenzie region on New Zealand’s South Island. Since then the bike has earned an enviable reputation for lightweight, trouble-free durability and, thanks in no small way to the efforts of Greg Yager and RideADV, has become accepted as a genuine adventure mount in the way no other small-bore has. Yager has seemingly made light work of just about every challenging adventure ride Australia has to offer on the WR250R, including blatting across The Simpson and back multiple times. The stock suspension is good, the

motor is an absolute screamer, and the bike is comfortable.

But there was still room for improvement.

Above: Lance Turnley, National Commercial And Government Fleet Manager at Yamaha Motor Australia, was heavily involved in the development of the WR250R Safari Tanks equipment.

Below left: The engine is a screamer. It seems to be almost unbreakable.

Below: The Safari Tanks fuel cell gives a 14-litre capacity. The sticker kit looks cool.

Below right: Looks like a rallye-bike nav tower, but weighs heaps less and does a good job deflecting windblast.

Although the bike you see here was sitting around in the Yamaha Motor Australia warehouse, it isn’t an official Yamaha model. It’s mechanically a stock WR250R with a couple of critical aftermarket additions.

Adventure

Despite lacking big horsepower, the WR250R is light, nimble, and a surprisingly good performer. As we’ve written often enough, horsepower is only part of the equation. The mass of the bike and torque delivery play a big part in the final performance result, and with a stock WR250R weighing in at a measly

134kg full of fuel – the shadow of the editor’s KLR weighs more than that –the low horsepower figure from the small-capacity motor becomes far less important.

But the two potential limiting factors for adventure riders on the stocker are a fuel capacity of 7.6 litres and the bike being naked. Windblast over long distances takes its toll, and 150km or so from a tank just isn’t enough.

Lance Turnley, at the time working on Trail Zone magazine but now National Commercial And Government Fleet Manager at Yamaha Motor Australia, thought the bike too good to leave

those factors unaddressed.

“Robin Box at Safari Tanks had designed the tank and the bike started to demonstrate it had the range adventure riders were looking for,” said the Sydney-based Turnley, “but it was still too much like a trailbike.”

Lance knew from experience what adventure riders wanted: a long-range tank, protection from the elements, and some way of carrying gear.

“Seeing how well the WR went at highway speeds,” he Ténéréd, “and that it was so lightweight, I thought it warranted further development as an adventure mount.”

Air flow

Lance, a graphic designer before moving to Yamaha Motor Australia, drafted up some drawings and worked with Safari Tanks to come up with the design seen here, and it’s a good one. Both Lance and Robin Box at Safari Tanks were keen to avoid a nav tower anchored to the frame of the bike because it made construction complex and expensive. The rigidity of the structure comes from the angles and shapes moulded into the composite itself, and it mounts with a few screws into brass threads embedded in the tank during its manufacture.

The result is a lightweight, tough, u

protective fairing which looks very similar to the nav towers used on rallye bikes, and which sits rock-solid in place. It offers good protection from windblast and, a bonus, gives an aerodynamic advantage which results in better fuel economy.

The final addition was the rack which, although small, was a tough little bugger that carried a fair load during our time with the bike.

Surprise!

The WR250R with the Safari Tanks additions ended up a light bike with a capability which far exceeded the expectation conjured up by the engine capacity. The little 250cc motor is amazing enough, but the suspension on this example was first class. There have been some staff changes since the project was kicked off and we couldn’t get clear and absolute answers to some of our enquiries. We remember the standard suspension on the WR250R being good, but not this good. We suspect Teknik Motorsport has tweaked up this bike some, because holy Mother of Dog it works well. On rough and choppy ground it floated like a cloud, and even on the road it let the bike scythe its way through turns in a manner we found hard to believe. With the motor offering a smallish amount of power we asked a lot of the suspension and we’re still in awe of how good it was.

Driver

The motor’s a ball-tearer.

A lot of riders won’t find the best of what the 250cc single

Below: Yamaha’s WR250R is ready and willing for just about anything. The addition of a fairing and long-range tank makes it a very viable adventure-bike option.

For right: The standard light and blinkers fit straight on to the Safari Tanks fairing. The only addition is the 100mm wiring-loom extension – the orange one in the pic – supplied with the fairing.

yaMaha wR250R

Bi K e S pe CS

Yamaha WR250R with Safari Tanks fairing and tank.

Ride-away price for standard bike: $9599.

Safari Tanks tank: $590. Safari Tanks fairing: $572 Web: www.yamaha-motor.com.au

Engine type: Liquid-cooled, DOHC, four-valve, single cylinder four-stroke

Displacement: 250cc

Bore x stroke: 77.0mm x 53.6mm

Compression ratio: 11.8:1

Lubrication system: Wet sump

Fuel management: Fuel injection

Ignition system: TCI

Starter system: Electric

Transmission system: Constant mesh, six-speed

Final transmission: Chain

Frame: Semi double-cradle

Front suspension system: Telescopic forks, 270mm travel

Rear suspension system: Swingarm (link suspension), 270mm travel

Front brake: Hydraulic single disc, 250mm

Rear brake: Hydraulic single disc 230mm disc

Front tyre: 80/100 R21M/C 51P tube-type

Rear tyre: 120/80-18M/C 62P tube-type

Length: 2180mm

Width: 810mm

Height: 1230mm

Seat height: 930mm

Wheelbase: 1420mm

Ground clearance: 300mm

Wet weight (including 7.6 litres of fuel): 134kg

Fuel capacity: 14 litres

Service intervals: First service at 1000km, then every 10,000km.

Valve clearances every 40,000km.

has to offer because they won’t take the time to understand it. But for anyone who knows what they’re doing, the WR250R motor is sensational. It delivers good power right up to the 10,000rpm redline, and competent riders won’t be afraid to keep it at high revs while they flail up and down through the six-speed box like a madman – or mad woman, of course.

While it’s light and easy to move around, the WR250R asks more of the rider than a bigger capacity motor in its own way. There’s no punting along trails with the motor chugging away at low revs. It needs some aggression and confidence from the rider to attack the terrain if things are to be kept moving at a good pace. Cruising along at freeway speeds is fine, but overtaking requires a little patience and a big handful of throttle.

We know from experience how tough the bike is. It’ll take everything just about anyone can throw at it, so what would seem insane mistreatment in a big-capacity bike is just everyday riding on the WR250R, and

when it’s ridden like that, it’s a dream. We loved it.

Details

The tank and fairing, predictably, fit together nicely, and offer a very affordable approach to the rallye-bike look and function. The fairing does keep a great deal of wind off the rider and offers a great platform for mounting GPS or other instrumentation, and the only part of the set-up we couldn’t get quite right was the Barkbusters just grazing the top of the fairing when we had the ’bars where we wanted them. Raising the ’bars a smidge would solve the problem, and for us, would’ve suited just fine, although the standard ’bars set as they were when we received the bike were okay.

We’ve always thought the WR250R an amazing bike, and the addition of the larger tank – which gave a range of around 250km of mixed riding for us – and fairing offer a genuine step in the adventureriding direction.

Texas

The Mac Attack and Adventure Rider Magazine’s editor headed out for another well-planned, well-executed KLR adventure…sort of. It was no worse-planned and executed than the last one, anyway.

Words: TF. Images: Mac and TF

“Let’s go to Menindee Lakes,” I blurted happily down the phone. “I busted my leg on the way out there in 2009 and never made it.”

“Okay,” said The Mac Attack in his usual happy-to-ride-anywhere-anytime way. “You’re the tour director again.”

The die was cast. Menindee-bustedleg-Lakes was to be the destination… until the Bureau Of Meteorology forecast a bit of a storm and the media went crazy with headlines claiming the world would probably end. As it turned out, the predicted Armageddon amounted to a bit of rain in western NSW and some of the roads I wanted to use were closed.

Not to be put off, a new destination was chosen – Texas in southern Queensland – a new route was planned – more or less – and on a chilly, sunny, winter morning The Mac Attack and I admired the view over the Mann River

at Jackadgery in the Clarence region of NSW. As we adjusted multiple layers of apparel in an effort to bend our otherwise supple and muscular bodies into the shape needed to sit on the bikes Mac reminded me of my navigational responsibilities.

“You are the tour director,” he muffled through his balaclava, unnecessarily it seemed to me. Our last ride out to Longreach for issue #40 had worked out okay in the end. There may have been a little uncertainty here and there, but surely that only added to the adventure? And in any case, after his radiator split I’d been alone for a substantial part of the ride and hadn’t got lost. I thought he was being a little touchy over a few missed turns, incorrect road names, wrong directions and a stretch or two of really shitty road.

Glorious

After the ridicule of my navigation

u

Below: Huge views of valleys and ridges as the route swoops and winds through a gently rolling landscape.

Above: “You are the tour director.”

Below: The kickoff. Overlooking the Mann River at Jackadgery in the Clarence region of NSW.

attempts last time I went all out and raided my DualSport Australia collection of discs. The result was a purple line on the GPS which took us along one of my favourite NSW routes, Carnham Road.

It’s actually Cangai Road as it leaves Jackadgery and it changes its name a couple of times before ‘Carnham’ appears on the map, but it’s essentially the same dirt road the whole way. The route wanders through some incredible scenery following the Mann River and gives huge views of valleys and ridges as it swoops and winds through the gently rolling landscape. There’s a couple of bridges built very low over the river, and that often means the route’s closed during heavy rain, but on this occasion the majesty of the terrain was as good as it had ever been. The low temperature wasn’t too brutal – especially for a couple

of tough ol’ leathernecks like Mac and I dressed in six or seven layers of every shred of clothing we could squeeze into – and regular stops ensured we made the most of one of those days which fill adventure riders’ daydreams.

Stopped for a leak

About 100km along the dirt loop we pulled up on one of the low bridges to grab a couple of pics. The sunshine beat down and warmed our shoulders as we watched the clear riverwater tumbling over the rocks and reeds not so very far below our feet. I looked over at the bikes, pointed, and said to Mac, “What’s that?”

A fluorescent green splash under his KLR was something we’d both seen before.

As my high spirits plummeted Mac squinted, looked closely and said,

“Looks like it’s split the radiator again.”

Just like that.

No swearing. No threatening to push the bike off the bridge into the river, and no stomping around screaming at the unfair world.

I think I did some of those things, but Mac unfolded the route sheet I’d thoughtfully provided, scoped out the situation, filled the radiator from his water bottle and in an unhurried manner rode off into the distance.

It actually looked like he thought it was all a bit amusing.

Family matters

At a roadside rest stop on Clarence Way Mac called his family and organised a recovery. The bike was running fine and hadn’t overheated, so the new plan was for me to continue on to Texas while Mac trailered his bike

home – thanks to his family, who seemed to find the whole thing funny – fitted the spare radiator he had in his shed, then bolted out to Texas the next morning to resume the sightseeing.

My role was to push on to Texas, check in to the motel which was already paid for, then await a text advising the radiator transplant had been successful. If that was the way things went I was to scoot back along the highway to Tenterfield the next morning to meet Mac and we’d head to Texas via the Glenlyon Dam, one of the tourist

sights on our list.

Too easy!

’S no joke

The temperature in Tenterfield when I arrived was savage.

I don’t know what the actual number was and my teeth were frozen together as I paid for fuel so I couldn’t ask. I stumbled into the first café I could find and ordered a litre of boiling-hot coffee and a toastie.

“Which way you goin’?” asked a cheerful bloke.

“T-T-T-Texas,” I tried to reply.

“Ah. That’s good,” said the bloke, who looked remarkably warm and comfortable sitting beside the slowcombustion stove, “because it’s snowing just to the south and it’ll be here soon. If you were planning on going that way I’d recommend you stay in town for the night.”

A look out the window showed a dark line across the sky which was clearly approaching. I trembled across to the counter, swallowed as much coffee as I could without sustaining third- u

Above: One of those days which fill adventure riders’ daydreams. Below left: How low are the bridges? About one foot above sea level. Below: A stop to soak up the majesty of it all.

degree burns to the oesophagus, stuffed the chicken-and-tomato toastie into a pocket and headed back into the unwelcoming, harsh world of the adventure rider.

Low down

Fortunately Tenterfield was at a higher altitude than Texas, and as the Touratech KLR effortlessly chugged along the Bruxner Highway, gobbling the distance like a group of shed rats gnawing their way through the expensive brake lines and composite parts of a GSXR, things became a little warmer. The cold front couldn’t keep pace with the bike, and swooping along the winding hilly sections became enjoyable.

Mingoola came and went.

It wasn’t as if anyone would notice a place as small as Mingoola, but in my capacity as tour director I’d marked it as the turn to get to the Glenlyon Dam lookout. However, although the temperature had eased to the point

where the wedding tackle could almost reach past the zipper, it was still low enough that I wasn’t going to mess about looking at dams.

I thumped on, keeping within the speed limit, through Bonshaw and, finally, into Texas itself.

The NSW/Queensland border is never very far north of the Bruxner Highway once a rider leaves Tenterfield, and the crossing at Texas was in fact right next to the ‘Welcome To Texas’ sign. The motel, with its promise of a hot shower, reverse-cycle heating and electric blankets, was no more than about 1500m away, but I patiently dug out my border pass and licence and handed them over to a friendly Queensland rozzer who noted the details and sent me on through.

Once in the Sunshine State I checked in to the room, wrapped up warm and waited for the SMS which arrived shortly after.

The radiator was fitted and good to go.

Top left: ‘Frog pee’ according to Mac. A sure sign of a split radiator on a KLR.

Above: A quick consult of the route sheet.

Top right: Rolling in alone on a very chilly afternoon.

Below: The border crossing near Glenlyon Dam – the most wide-open bit of closed road on the whole NSW/Queensland border.

Cough

After most of the frost had melted and the heavy fog burned off the next morning I decided to go for a quick look at the dam. I thought I could grab a couple of pics so if anything else went wrong I’d at least have that covered, even if it was only with the single bike. A look at the map showed it was about 130km via the Texas-Stanthorpe road around to the southern part of the waterway which had the wall and viewing platform, but the northern edge didn’t seem too far along.

Off I thundered into the still chilly

morning, past a sign just near the edge of town which said the dam was only four kilometres further on.

On I rode. And on. And still further on.

Eventually I gave up and returned to Texas, only to have a grinning local in the coffee shop slap his thigh and guffaw at how many people had been caught by the altered sign. It seems it did say ‘40km’ until someone with a sense of humour got to it.

Short of time, I hit the highway and headed for Tenterfield to find the crossing back into NSW felt a bit of a snub.

Apparently anyone can go south. No-one cares what germs may be incubating in Queensland mucous membranes waiting to pounce on the friendly and carefree respiratory systems of hospitable New South Welshmen. The police and ADF staffing the border post didn’t even leave their chairs as the KLR puttered on through, and the ride back to Tenterfield was pleasant, right up until the KLR coughed, chugged and died.

I muttered unsavoury words through gritted teeth as I threw off gloves and helmet in preparation for some mechanical work.

I don’t know why, but I touched the starter button, just in case. To my surprise, the motor roared into life, the horrendously loud FMF muffler stunning nearby cattle and causing the grass within a six-metre radius to wither and turn brown.

I pulled on helmet and gloves and set off again with no idea what had happened, but glad to be moving.

Mac was waiting at the bakery as promised. We drained the KLR float bowl thinking it was probably a contaminant in the fuel, devoured some snack treats and drinks and headed for Texas with everything back on track.

Damn!

By the time the Bruxner Highway was once again under the wheels of the KLRs it was close to midday. The sun was shining and the temperature rose noticeably as we descended from Tenterfield.

At Mingoola we peeled off at the appropriate turn and headed for the dam, only to find the road closed. There was no reason displayed for the closure, but odds-on it was an unmanned border crossing. Concrete barriers blocked the road but were largely ineffective. For starters the bridge

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which marked the crossing was over a dry riverbed, and the wheel ruts where people had been ignoring the barriers and driving across the riverbed were obvious. On top of that, someone had nudged one of the concrete barriers to one side and there was easily room for cars and small trucks to drive through.

KLR riders don’t embrace that kind of wild lawlessness, though. Hell, no. Apart from anything else we thought there might’ve been cameras hidden in the trees, so we turned tail and resumed our Texas-bound drone along the Bruxner.

Full stop

After 100km or so of faultless running my KLR died and restarted a couple of times before finally calling it a day about 35km from Texas.

I gazed wistfully at Mac’s bike, hoping his radiator had split again so I wouldn’t feel so bad about everything, but it wasn’t to be. His KLR was running like a well-maintained example of highperformance machinery – much like Mac himself.

“We’ll have to tow it in,” he said, his

enjoyment in the whole situation clearly visible.

At least I had a tow strap.

As I ferreted through panniers and backpack for the missing lifeline – which was safe and sound in the shed at home, as it turned out – Mac produced some manky nylon rope which was knotted together to form a suitable length and attached it to the left handlebar.

The first takeoff didn’t go well and after dusting myself off and getting the bike back on its wheels we tried a few different variations before settling on a stick tied to the end of the rope so I could hold onto it – a bit like a waterski set-up.

This innovation got us to the border post where I threw the stick high and wide so it wouldn’t tangle in Mac’s rear wheel as I rolled to a stop.

“What the hell was that?” asked the Queensland police officer, peering at the stick and coil of rope on the road.

“Tow rope,” said Mac, not even trying for any deception.

The officer levelled a steely gaze at us, thought for a second, then checked our passes and sent us through.

Left: There’s not a whole lot to do in Texas, but whatever people want to do needs to be done mostly between 9.00am and 12.30pm. That’s when things like the Heritage Centre and Tobacco Museum are open.

Below: Peeking around the blind from the motel room on a chilly Texas morning.

Right: Not quite to plan. TF stuck in the main street of Texas.

Bottom right It would’ve been a vastly different story if Mac’s family hadn’t been such great people and his new HiLux not so warm and comfortable.

Not over

With the law looking studiously the other way we took up the tow again for the short run to the motel.

There’s a big median strip runs up the main street of Texas – such as it is – and it meant we’d have to tow the full length of town, do a U-turn, and return to the start to make the motel driveway. With my arm feeling as if it was about to be wrenched clean out the socket I decided it would be clever to roll down one of the short pedestrian stairways. I chucked the tow and, with a loud clunk, dropped the bashplate of the KLR on to the top step… where it jammed. After much grunting and heaving – while Mac grabbed a couple of pics, rolled up the tow rope and had a look in a couple of shop windows – my ride partner wandered over and helped heave the whole thing forward and down.

But my total humiliation wasn’t over.

Outside the motel room I thanked Mac for his patience and assistance and pointed out my own bike was ‘dead as a doornail’. By way of demonstration I hit the starter. Of course the engine fired up immediately and settled into a gentle, happy idle.

I was so happy (not).

Family planning

Mac’s amusement at the situation increased as I rode laps around the motel on a bike that was going like a cut snake, muttering and cursing under my breath and trying to stop my stretched right arm from dragging on the ground.

The bike was running, but could it be trusted for the 400km or so of the straight run home?

Neither of us thought so.

Some possibilities were discussed. I had to return to southern Queensland

the following week. My thought was to leave the bike at the motel and come back with a trailer. We could go two-up on Mac’s radiator-splitter KLR.

We both looked at each other and imagined how frigging uncomfortable that would be.

The Touratech KLR is covered by NRMA Premium, and there was every likelihood I could use that service to get myself and the bike home…eventually. As Mac pointed out, we were in Queensland. Who knew what complications that may cause for a NSW-based outfit?

Mac put forward the idea we could remove tank and plastics and pull the carby apart, but I wasn’t overly keen. I thought the problem was electrical. We’d drained the carby float bowl a dozen times and run plenty of fuel through it, and the problem was still there.

After some discussion, Mac, with a glint of anticipation in his eye, phoned his family again and suggested another recovery was in order. The clearly audible gales of laughter from the phone showed his nearest-and-dearest enjoyed the scenario as much as he did, and when he explained he wasn’t the one with a problem, the hilarity seemed to increase.

But they’re a champion mob. Without any hesitation the Macs – wife Kerrie and son Alex – downloaded their Queensland border passes, hooked up the trailer again, loaded the vehicle with snack treats and headed for Texas.

Not so bad

And that’s how it happened.

I sat in the opulence of a new HiLux, occasionally looking over my shoulder to check on the bike in the trailer. Sometimes, as I reached into the esky for a muesli bar, musk lolly or other toothsome tidbit, I could see Mac shivering behind in the cold and wind and I thought, ‘What a top bloke’. He certainly had the full measure of adventure from our time away, especially when the jockey wheel fell off the trailer and went cartwheeling down the road like a 60cm ninja star, missing him by millimetres. It was probably very dramatic, but the passengers in the HiLux were busy discussing the ins and outs of the latest TV reality show and didn’t know anything about it until Mac rode up alongside waving the jockey wheel around and making rude gestures.

As the sun set and the temperature plummeted the heated seat on the HiLux was a heavenly luxury. The sunset was gorgeous as we rolled off the Gibraltar Range and I wondered if Mac, back there in the darkness, was enjoying it as much as we were.

‘Probably,’ I thought, nudging the heater up a notch or two.

Ends well

It’s not easy to explain, but it was still a fantastic few days and a great ride. Virtually nothing went to plan, but the ride unexpectedly involved some great people, and while it’s frustrating to have a problem cause a DNF, for once it didn’t

mean ambulance rides, pain and huge expense. It was that one-in-a-million chance where the unexpected things which make a ride an adventure all ended up with everyone smiling and having a good time.

After all the occasions where it’s gone the other way, I was happy to take this one with a smile.

As cold, dark and uncomfortable as the ride back must’ve been, Mac must’ve enjoyed it too, because he’s already nominated the next destination: Pooncarrie, NSW.

The only bummer from the whole trip was finding the toastie still in the pocket of the Touratech suit several days later.

ride share your

Adventure Rider Magazine wants to help make your favourite rides available to everyone.

he next big thing for Adventure Rider Magazine!’ said the text from The Boss. ‘We’ll share the GPX files from everyone’s stories and rides.’

‘Where do we get the GPX files?’ texted back the editor.

‘The readers will send them,’ came the reply.

So that’s the plan.

Your part

You, the stalwarts of the Australian adventure-riding community, should please send your GPX files to reception@maynemedia.com.au with a brief outline of the ride. We imagine an e-mail with:

v ‘GPX file’ in the subject line

v An attachment with the GPX file, AND

v The text of the email to say something like: ‘Slacks Creek – Esk – Mount Mee –Redcliff – Slacks Creek.’

It’d be great if you also included a name and pic of yourself so we can make sure everyone knows which champion rider is making all our adventure-riding lives so much more interesting.

If you want to be really flash you could include a couple of pics from the ride, but we’re probably pushing our luck a little there.

Of course, if you’re submitting a story, it’s only a matter of including the GPX file with the images and copy.

That’s all you folks need to do.

Our part

We’ll take the GPX file and put it on our whizz-bang website. Everyone will be able to download the track for your awesome ride, and they’ll spend the whole time thinking you’re a dead-set champion for sharing such an amazing adventure-riding experience.

Above: Sharing your GPX files will let others know where the great, hard-to-find routes are. Below left: Looks good! Below: Send your GPX files to reception@maynemedia.com.au

They might even get on our website and tell everyone how brilliant it was, and how your selfless sharing helped enrich lives and spread joy through the adventure-riding community.

Select

That’s all there is to it.

Check the manual – or get on Google – and find out how to record a route or track on your phone or GPS. They all have their individual operating systems and menus, so we can’t give you instruction. You’ll have to work it out for yourselves.

Once you have that sorted, go riding, send us the GPX file and be revered and honoured by thousands of fellow riders across the nation, even in Victoria. We’ll look forward to hearing from you.

Australia’s

One year

Six issues of the magazine that has the same passion for adventure riding you do. Save $4.70!$55

Two year

12 issues choc-full of the world’s most isolated destinations and the country’s bucket-list routes written and photographed by the people who were there.

For a two-year subscription we’ll include a unique, specially designed Adventure Rider Magazine tee* worth $24.95. That’s a whopping $144.35 value for just $98!

Visual

Signal

Very fine batsman

Mike and the Border-crossing ploy.

Captain’s log: Stardate 41322.7. Destination Kashmir.

The actual date in Earth years was July 2004. My soon-to-be-wife Denise had not yet acquired her own bike licence and was therefore on the back seat of my Enfield for her first trip across the Himalaya.

Our group had been delayed, yet again, by interminable roadworks and the notoriously impenetrable Indian bureaucracy. Since the ‘undeclared’ – but very real – war of 1999 between India and Pakistan along the Line Of Control more stringent traffic restrictions had been put in place.

Challenges

The highway’s classification was something of an enigma, it being both a public road and a major military supply route to the front line. The Indian

Top left: Denise wasn’t entirely comfortable at the sight of an AK-47.

Above: A magazine full of Bullets.

Below: The road at various points was partially visible from, and definitely within range of, Pakistan-held high ground.

army had built the road and therefore had a reasonable say in how it should be used. The top brass had declared for the previous four or five years that during daylight hours the highway was to be used for military purposes only. All other minority traffic, including nosey tourists on motorcycles, was obliged to travel under the cover of darkness and without the use of headlights.

The road at various points was partially visible from, and definitely within range of, Pakistan-held high ground in the surrounding mountains. Headlights in the darkness would have clearly

Words and images: Mike Ferris

pinpointed the precise location and presented a great temptation to Pakistani forces, no doubt keen to lob a few shells over in an attempt to damage the road and interrupt the military supply route.

So we were in the less-than-desirable position of having to ride in the dark, and there was precious little help from the moon. There had been further recent unrest in the Vale of Kashmir, an almost perennial state of affairs to which I had become quite accustomed, but which was inevitably unnerving to any newcomer to the region.

Paperwork

We were riding through a remote mountainous plateau on our way to crossing the Zoji La, the steep pass leading down into Srinagar within the beautiful Vale of Kashmir. We’d already run the gauntlet of passing through several checkposts where inspection of our passports had elicited a range of reactions, from arrogant disinterest to almost hostile suspicion. And the filling in of many forms, most of which demanded ridiculously redundant information such as a father’s profession, the rider’s profession, the rider’s education level, and of course, the rider’s religion.

But patience and calm attitudes prevailed and we continued on our journey.

Above: A spectacular pass. Below: Approaching Kashmir.

Hit for six

With a dozen bikes close behind us we swooped along a dark valley full of shadows and swung through a corner to arrive at an iron bridge. Suddenly, out of the darkness, appeared two bright torchlights and we heard a shrill whistle. I heaved the Enfield to a halt and flagged down the others as two soldiers aggressively approached. I could feel Denise’s body language registering no small discomfort behind me at the sight

MiKe FeRRiS

of their AK-47 machine guns being prominently displayed.

“Stop!” commanded a rough voice. We had already stopped.

“Where are you going?”

We couldn’t see the owner of the voice because the bright torch was being shone directly into our faces.

“Srinagar, sir!” I replied in a relaxed and friendly voice. I had played this game before, but Denise’s grip on my waist was far from relaxed.

“What purpose?” the voice demanded.

“Tourism, sir. We happen to be tourists.” I made a point of putting my hand up to deflect the light from the interrogation beacon in our eyes. I was expecting yet another demand for our passports but instead he lowered his torch a little and simply asked, less aggressively, “What is your country?”

“Australia, sir.”

“Australia?” he queried, with an animated eyebrow. We could at last see his face.

“Australia,” I confirmed.

His dark, bearded face broke into a broad, white grin.

“Ah, Ricky Ponting very fine batsman! Please proceed.”

Himalayan Heights is one of the tours in the World On Wheels portfolio. Check out the website at: www.WorldOnWheels.tours

Wheelies: part one

Lifting the front wheel is something many riders dream of doing. Miles covers some of the finer points.

Wheelies can be scary, illusive and frustrating. But in many forms, controlled frontwheel lifts can be very helpful in navigating certain types of terrain.

Over the next couple of issues I’ll work through the different styles of wheelies and suggest a progression to achieve some confidence at a level that suits your bike and your style of riding.

Where does it begin?

Wheelies can come in many different varieties and apply to lots of different situations. We all know what can go wrong and you definitely want to avoid messing it up, especially on a big and/or expensive bike. If possible, it makes a lot of sense to learn on a smaller, low-horsepower bike in a controlled situation, like a grassy paddock. The benefits are obvious.

It’s safer, easier, and there’s less chance of injury or damage. You can learn on bigger bikes, just take it slow and steady to avoid disappointment.

Some of the different types of wheelies can be described as: sit-down, slow, throttle, clutch, stand-up and balance-point. Some things you need to be able to do and master are: throttle control, balance, finding traction, timing, and – for some wheelies – clutch control.

Bike set up

A good off-road tyre will help, but good technique will help more. Tyre pressure shouldn’t need to be dropped, but if you’re having trouble getting traction maybe try reducing it a bit.

Some tyre/surface combinations may be tricky, but try to understand what you need to do to get

Left: Many modern bikes have lots of power and having the necessary throttle control to mange the power delivery can be difficult.

Above: When the stars align you should get a slight lift of the front wheel without any significant acceleration.

Below: Standing allows a rider to use their legs to soak up the impacts of the rear wheel going over the obstacle the front wheel floated over.

MileS daviS

log. In fact, the correct trials technique for logs is to kiss the edge of the log with the front tyre as it goes over.

the best result from your package. Many modern bikes have lots of power and having the necessary throttle control to manage the power delivery can be difficult. Lots of riders get wheelspin, not frontwheel lift. If your bike has modes, try a mode with a softer or reduced power delivery. If your bike has traction control, maybe try some of the exercises with traction control on to start with. That’ll give a bit of protection/insurance, but some styles of traction control will inhibit the wheel lifting, so you may need to turn off the traction control eventually.

One step at a time

Someone with little or no wheelie experience should probably start with a sit-down throttle-wheelie pop. The practical application for this could

be to ride over a small log or ledge. Your aim is to make the front wheel light and only raise it up to 300mm, no more. Even raising the wheel by a couple of millimetres means the suspension has fully extended and it’s amazing how much this helps with riding over an obstacle. So don’t think the front wheel always needs to be 50mm higher than a

The ideal location to practice this could be a flat surface, either grass or hardpacked dirt, but nothing too loose or slick. A slight uphill rise is ideal, so a sloping paddock of dry grass is perfect. You can try this on bitumen, like an empty carpark, but there is a lot of grip and things might get crazy quickly, so I suggest focusing on off-road surfaces. But try out the tar if you’re interested to see what the extra grip feels like. Just be cautious. For this type of wheelie sit towards the back of the seat. This puts weight over the rear wheel for traction, lightens the front wheel and allows good access to the rear brake. That can be handy if the front wheel goes higher than expected (more on this point to follow).

The more traction you’re looking for, the further back you sit, until your arms are dead straight.

Depending on your bike’s size and power delivery you want to ride along

in first gear at a constant low rpm –this may be somewhere around five to 15kph – then snap the throttle back to zero. This should weight the front of the bike and compress the forks. Then, straight after you go off the throttle, with the forks compressed, add a short burst or pulse of throttle, then off again. Depending on your bike the amount of throttle required can vary a lot, maybe somewhere between 30 per cent and 100 per cent.

When the stars align you should get a slight lift of the front wheel without any significant acceleration.

If your engine bogs down you may need a slightly higher roll speed. You want to avoid wheelspin, you want the increase in rpm to unweight the front wheel, but you don’t want to keep the throttle open and create acceleration or a lot of lift.

To improve your timing start using fake obstacles, like tufts of grass and cow pats, and imagine there are three or four 100mm-diameter branches or logs about five metres apart. If you can repli-

cate this lift repeatedly and consistently you are ready to start wheelying over small obstacles.

Between the obstacles you need to reset. Find the same rpm and speed approaching the next obstacle and replicate. This may require a slight touch of the front brake between obstacles as you shouldn’t be increasing your approach speed at each obstacle.

If you’re getting the front to lift that’s great! Avoid bending your arms and pulling the bars towards you, straighter arms allow you to pivot and use your upper-body weight to get more height when you are ready to do so.

Rear-brake insurance

I already mentioned having your right foot in a good position over your rear brake.

The reason for this is, if the front wheel gets higher you may flip the bike, especially the first time you get more height. So before you go looking for higher wheelies you need to program

your brain to dab the rear brake while the front wheel is in the air. Obviously reducing the throttle will also help drop the front wheel, but not always, especially if you’ve launched it past the balance point. The rear brake really brings the front end down, so it can be a life saver.

The sooner you practice this skill the less likely you’ll be to flip the bike and the sooner you’ll have the confidence and skills to execute higher wheelies. Make sure your foot is above the rear brake lever. Have your foot positioned against the engine so you simply slide it down and don’t miss the lever when you really need it. With the front wheel in the air, pull in the clutch and dab the brake. You don’t need to smash it, just get a feel for the pressure needed to bring the front down.

Standing

Once you have a feel for the seated front-wheel lift you can do the same in the standing position, which has more real-world benefits.

Left: Adventure Rider Magazine’s ad manager is a star at sit-down wheelies. Note the body positioned toward the back of the seat.

Above: You need to be strong in your standing position so you don’t fall backwards when you pulse the throttle and accidentally wind it on. Below: It makes a lot of sense to learn on a smaller, low-horsepower bike in a controlled situation. With a bit more practice this bloke might be ready to try some more advanced techniques.

The main concern is you need to be strong in your standing position so you don’t fall backwards when you pulse the throttle and accidentally wind it on. If that happens, you’re likely to wind on more throttle as you flop backwards. This is called ‘whiskey throttle’ and has been well documented on Youtube and Funniest Home Videos.

If you haven’t learnt about correct standing position and you don’t feel strong and agile in this position, maybe you shouldn’t be attempting stand-up wheelie pops.

One of the benefits of standing is the extra body inputs you can put into the bike to squash the suspension. A bounce on the footpegs and handlebars together can increase rear-wheel traction and front-end compression and rebound. This makes wheelies more achievable on less-grippy surfaces. It also allows a rider

to use their legs to soak up the impacts of the rear wheel going over the obstacle the front wheel floated over.

So the technique is similar. Use the same approach speed with the engine at a low but responsive rpm, throttle snap to zero at the same time as you bounce into the ’pegs and ’bars, then pulse the throttle to gain some front-wheel lift with the foot covering the rear brake. Then immediately dial the throttle back to zero.

Before you start trying for longer wheelies, try to increase the repetition of smaller ones. Short low wheelie, reset. Short low wheelie, reset. And so forth. It’s this repetition that develops skills and

instinctive reactions. Going for longer wheelies too soon can end up in you becoming a Youtube sensation.

Another benefit of standing up to wheelie is the approach speed can be a little higher, and depending on your bike and its gearing you may try second gear, or even third gear on some smaller obstacles.

Step by step

I’ll roll out wheelie techniques in a few parts. I know this has been quite basic so far, but it’s always best to start at the beginning.

Next issue we’ll bring in the clutch!

sand,

the great divide

It’s a silly con.

Words: Andy ‘Strapz’ White

Awhile ago at the amazing Burt Munro Challenge, Mrs Strapz and I were mounted on a Yammy GT Tracer and the approach to the Oreti Beach Races divided the spectators into two camps: those who rode through the soft sand

blur, like a skier crashing on a giant slalom course.

After a bit of training I learned to ‘get up on top’ of the sand and float across the surface with some style, but still the corners loomed and more outback Winter Olympics seem to follow.

Dr Z is naturally much easier to handle in the soft stuff and I’ll never whinge too much if we have a sandy section, but generally…yer can shove sand where it irritates the most. As a lapsed surfer I’ve had plenty of sand where the sun do and don’t shine and it’s never pretty!

Kudos

onto the firm beach and the pussies who parked and walked in.

“Relax love. I got this,” I proclaimed with confidence (a little bullshit goes a long way).

True grit

We’ve done a bit of two-up dirt over the years and I’m comfortable standing with a pillion (sitting). The Tracer is on the R1 end of the adventure continuum but still got up on top of the sand. Luckily, there was only one gentle curve to deal with.

I can ride sand in straight lines, but cornering really does my head in.

In the early days the campfire advice was to lean back and gun it. It did work… until I found I needed to slow down or take a corner. A spectator might have seen me head bush, arms and legs a

‘It takes all sorts to make the world go around’ my granny used to say, and I guess that explains the rich tapestry of adventure riders. Sand riding doesn’t seem to be a ‘take it or leave it’ situation, it’s a love/ hate thing. You get it or you don’t. That familiar saying ‘as slippery as glass’ comes to mind. Sand is pre-glass and I reckon nature is trying to tell me something. Its only plus I can see is it tends to be nice and soft.

Quite a few riders I’ve talked to after a demoralizing Simpson trip have expressed a variation of the “Musta had rocks in my head,” opinion. Dropping the bike and picking it up repeatedly is exhausting, and mistakes breed mistakes as we tire and struggle to keep up with hydration. The bigger the bike the more frequently I hear it.

Battling deep, soft, sandy, rutted tracks in Victoria’s Little Desert on a recent 4x4 trip with said spouse had me working hard enough. “Bugger doing it on a bike,” I bellowed. Moments later we saw bike tyre tracks join the snaking white, ‘bush

andy StRapz

beach’. We’re not talking about a couple of metres above the waterline here. It was more the cut-up, treacherous, top-of-thebeach stuff.

Hats off to those riders. That was an epic effort.

Tough call

My theory is the great divide between lovers and haters of sand is their background.

I’ll lay a pretty sure bet the majority of sand haters are road-riding converts, while the lovers grew up on dirt bikes. Brother Tontine (the soft) grew up on a chookie in outback riverbeds and loves the stuff. But ask him to do it on his 1200GS and there’ll be more expletives than an Emergency Department waiting room on a Saturday night.

The word ‘confidence’ continues to come up when we talk adventure riding, and two-wheeled sand surfing is where we need it in spades. Pull the plug and it drains away remarkably quickly. Add the exhaustion that falling off and getting going again adds and a fun ride can deteriorate into a nightmare very rapidly. It’s an awful feeling, stuck between a bog and a soft place. Being the mug holding up everyone and feeling like a complete dick only adds to the feelings of total dejection. The spiral only continues south. I remember it clearly and it sucks!

At that point keeping going or giving it away takes about the same dollop of guts and sense. Many a rider has pushed on into the back of an ambulance.

Managing self is another key adventureriding skill and sand challenges us to put a Viagra drop in each eye and have a long, hard look at ourselves.

Karen Ramsay

Not to plan: part one

Words: Karen Ramsay

“W

hy are there feathers on your exhaust?”

It wasn’t necessarily what I’d expected to hear when Dave and I pulled up at Greg and Kylie’s place on the Saturday morning at the very start of our 10-day ride.

I was in a hurry to show off the 2015 DR650 I’d bought two days prior, and in my excitement I’d stripped off my helmet and jacket and thrown them over the seat. But that also included a brand-new, down-filled vest I’d bought on the way over and had stuffed down my jacket. Anyone would think I don’t read my own articles. If I did, I’d probably know to keep things away from the exhaust.

So, after a slight delay while Kylie and I sewed a patch over the gaping, feather-belching hole, we were off.

Current affair

First up was Tenterfield.

If you enjoy reading about trips that have gone pear-shaped, you’re going to love hearing about Karen’s ride.

When Dave realised there was no one there to pay for his coffee he came back. I sent him off to find a battery before shops closed at midday, and luckily, we were soon on our way, again.

A free plug

With those couple of delays we decided to stick to the tar to make up some kilometres.

Although we didn’t have a firm itinerary, we had a rough idea for the 10 days that included Mutawintji National Park, White Cliffs and Hungerford (spoiler alert – we didn’t get to any of those places) and the rest of the afternoon passed without incident. After a late picnic lunch at Yetman we were on track to get to our first camp, almost in keeping with the four o’clock rule. However, a couple of kilometres after fuelling up, just as we were finally about to get on to our first dirt road of the day, Dave’s bike died. He’d decided to ride our other DR650 (have I mentioned we have a couple of bikes we probably need to sell?).

We fuelled up then headed towards the nearest COVID-safe coffee shop. At least, three of us did. I was left at the servo with a shiny new bike that wouldn’t start. The battery was as dead as a doornail.

It was about then I began to doubt the merits of buying a secondhand bike from people you know.

Greg’s mechanical prowess kicked into gear as he and Dave started eliminating causes. They ruled out fuel and battery, so next was spark. That meant unloading the bike to get the seat off to remove the tank to test the spark plug.

Well, we all learned a valuable lesson: check your

spark plugs if you do your own services. When they eventually freed it, it was pretty obvious the little thing had been punching above its weight for some time. We figured it wasn’t a big a problem. We’d just been to a big servo and there was a good chance they’d have a spark plug. Kylie and I rode the couple of kilometres back, only to find the place had no plugs. The woman behind the counter was really helpful, even making a couple of phone calls to see if she could find one for us and suggesting the last hope was to go see Dick – the local wrecker – as he might have something. As you can probably guess, Kylie and I were rolling around laughing about how we were riding around town looking for Dick.

Unfortunately, Dick wasn’t in, but his number was on the yard. We phoned

Top left: Unloading the bike to get the seat off to remove the tank to test the spark plug.

Above: Beginning to doubt the merits of buying a secondhand bike from people you know.

and he suggested an auto store in the next town.

Fantastic…apart from a couple of minor details, one being that they were already closed for the day. The other being it was on one side of the border and we were on the other (older readers will remember the days when people could freely cross the NSW/Queensland state line with no other inconvenience than perhaps not knowing the correct time).

Meanwhile, Greg had the idea of swapping out the dodgy spark plug for a good one from another bike (that would be mine). He phoned a friend to check it would be okay, so we unloaded my bike to do the swap.

That was when I learned my bike has two spark plugs!

KaRen RaMSay

All going well

The next day had some pretty nice riding along some gorgeous backroads and tracks after we’d purchased the new plugs. Nothing untoward happened. All the bikes behaved themselves and we even managed to set up camp at a lovely spot beside the Barwon River before four o’clock.

That was mainly so we could put the new spark plugs in, but it still counts.

Private joke

Rolling into Walgett on day three we decided to treat ourselves to a coffee. We did the right thing and socially distanced ourselves at a table out the front of the coffee shop, and, as you do in town, took advantage of the flushing toilets. I was slightly hesitant when there was a unisex sign out the front and two toilet stalls inside with one already occupied, but it was all good. I pee in the bush, so I knew could do this.

Below: All smiles. u

Despite the experts, I was sceptical and thought someone would have to tow Dave or we’d have to set up camp on the roadside. But both bikes fired up first go. Kylie got online to organise border passes for us all and we crossed into Queensland as the sun was setting.

I’d sat myself down and got on with business as quietly as I could when I started to hear noises from the stall beside me. Not normal noises, mind you. I would describe them as increasingly anxious

door rattling and progressively louder swearing.

‘Oh great,’ I thought as I realised it was a bloke beside me. ‘Hurry up and leave so I can enjoy this non-squatting luxury in peace’.

There was a moment of silence, then banging. Then a voice called out, “Don’t mind me mate, I’m just climbing over.”

I like to think of myself as a polite person, but I don’t know what etiquette dictates the reply should be in that circumstance where you’ve got your pants around your ankles and you’re

definitely not his ‘mate’!

I looked up to see hands grasping the top of the stall and a head appeared.

I was speechless.

‘Oh, waters flow fast and free and let me get my pants up!’

I’d just pulled them up as he perched himself on the door and looked over. Our eyes locked and he gave a little exclamation. It wasn’t at seeing a female in the next-door cubicle that surprised him, but the fact that the door had now opened!

Mildly traumatised, I raced to get my

pants done up, wash my hands and get out of there as quickly as possible while Ol’ Mate stood in the now open doorway complaining about his sore knee.

Turn for the worse

While that won the award for probably the most ridiculous incident of the trip, a few days later we had the scariest one. We were heading west out of Cobar on a crisp, cold morning on the way to Mount Grenfell historic site. It was a chance to do a small walk and check out the Ngiyampaa rock art. If you don’t know

Left: Greg in Macquarie

Below: The Bourke Wanaaring Road. The bitumen’s creeping out further every year, but there’s still plenty of bulldust.

the road, it’s fairly straight with lots of safe opportunities to overtake.

We’d passed a fancy 4WD with a camper trailer parked beside the road and at some stage it caught up to us. Greg and Kylie were at the rear and slowed down a little to let them go past, but they didn’t. When the (absolutely huge-arse) sign announced the Mount Grenfell turnoff was 500m ahead we all began to throttle off. Dave doesn’t remember if he’d seen the 4WD behind us, but the rest of us certainly had. As we got closer we all put our blinkers on, and it was just as the turn off came up that the 4WD started to overtake us. It all played out simultaneously in slow motion and at warp speed. It kept coming – past Greg, past Kylie, beside me. I blasted my feeble DR horn in the hope that either the 4WD or Dave would hear. Dave was just starting to turn as he caught sight of it in his mirror and straightened up at the last second.

More to come

As for the rest of the trip, we had some terrific camps, ate some Michelin-star quality meals cooked in the coals, rode for half a day in fog, laughed a lot and upset the National Park hierarchy (while simultaneously being the hero of National Parks’ workers. Greg will happily tell that story). We got permission to ride some sandy shortcut tracks and there was even a day where we only rode one small section of road any of us had been on before and that was through the Macquarie Marshes. There’s a place in there that’s almost always got water over it. As we approached we saw a line of four 4WDs parked on the other side with all the occupants standing on the water’s edge. We pulled up wondering what was going on, then the next thing, Dave charged across through the water. I was expecting him to be swallowed up in some enormous hole, but he made it through without any issues, so the rest of us followed and

were congratulated by the folk on the other side.

I’d like to say that was a ‘one-off’, but a few days later some grey nomads in various campervans and caravans had crossed a small causeway and stopped to take photos and videos of us coming across. They actually clapped as we made it over! It was barely a puddle though, and unfortunately for them, they thought it was the ‘big’ water they’d heard about. I guess by the time they got over the next rise and saw a couple of hundred metres of water stretched out ahead of them, they probably realised it wasn’t.

Next issue

This seems like a good place to wrap up the first part of our trip. I’ll conclude it next time, but I’ll let you know now it involves blacksoil roads, weather, a rescue mission, and a pugnacious goat named Buddy.

R Always check your mirrors

R I don’t like unisex toilets

R Check your spark plugs as part of a service

R Garlic bread in the coals is the best

R Look for the fish-and-chip shop if you see a seagull in an inland town

R Listen to your own advice

Marshes.

Right: Marra Creek camp.

Checkout

Eldorado SafEty dEvElopmEntS (ESd)

E30 advEnturE hElmEt

Made for every riding occasion with the adventurer in mind.

R Approved for use in Australia under ECE-R 22.05 standard

R Integrated sun visor

R Three configurations

R Multivented with four inlet vents and two large outlet vents

R Comfortable, fully interchangeable and washable sweat-wicking liner

R D-ring buckle

R Interchangeable clear visor with multipositioning

R Available in black or white

macna Bora pantS

Ideal for warmerweather riding.

R Constructed from tough 600D Ripstop polyester nylon and polyester mesh

R Light and comfortable, yet tough

R Maximum air ventilation through the legs and thighs

RRP: $179.95 including GST

Available from: All good motorcycle dealers Web: eldoradohelmets.com

modEka panamErica jackEt

Go-anywhere adventure jacket.

R 750D Tactel tear-resistant outer fabric

R 1000D Cordura reinforcements on crash zones

R Air Draft Technology: ventilation pockets with strong magnets and AirVent ventilation zips

R 3M Scotchlite reflectors

R Detachable Sympatex membrane

R SAS-TEC shoulder and elbow protectors (EN 1621-1:2012, protection Level 2)

R Two waterproof outer pockets, one waterproof inner pocket

R Elbow protectors are height adjustable

RRP: $699

R RISC Level 1 ventilated CE knee armour

R CE hip-protectorprepared pockets

R Heat shields on the lower legs

R Available in black

R Available in men’s sizes S/30” to 3XL/40”

RRP: $249.95

Available from: All leading motorcycle dealerships Web: macnaridinggear.com.au

Available from: Motorcycle Adventure Products 1300 898 560 Web: motorcycleadventure.com.au

mc

cruiSE cruiSE

control

for ktm690 Enduro r from 2019 (throttlE-By-wirE only)

An aftermarket ride-by-wire cruise control!

R Everything needed is supplied in the kit

R Purpose-built switch with backlights

R CAN compatible using the bike’s CAN signals

R Sophisticated, built-in, LED-driven diagnostic and trouble shooting features

R Built for motorcyclists by motorcyclists

R Waterproof computer module and harness connections

R

RRP: From $799

Available from: mccruise.com

andy Strapz aa Bagz

One of Australia’s favourite bike bags has had an update.

R More dirt and wet riding friendly ladder-lock style buckle

R Drop it on the passenger seat or rack and tie it down with its own strap system

R Storm flap covering the top of the bag

R Extremely high quality, made to last

R Constructed of black, 600 denier Cordura

R Approximately 18-litre capacity

Web: andystrapz.com

rEv’it! offtrack jackEt

Ideal for hot-weather adventure touring.

R Polyester, 450D, 3D air mesh and polyester 600D, PWR/shell mesh outer shell

R Detachable thermal liner

R Detachable Hydratex/ mesh G-liner

R Seeflex CE Level-2 protection

R Pocket for optional divided chest protector (sold separately)

R Pocket for optional Seesoft CE level-2 Type RV back protector (sold separately)

RRP: $599

Available from: REV’IT! Australia Web: revitaustralia.com.au

Sidi atojo SrS BootS

A boot that balances protection, durability, comfort and light weight while maximising the rider’s connection to the bike.

R Anatomically shaped PU shin plate

R Micro adjustable and replaceable buckle system

R Upper velcro closure

R Three hyperextension systems

R PU bootleg on the back

R Inner PU bootleg

R Elastic gaiter

R Toe wrapped in plastic protection with geometric design

R Made in Italy

RRP: $799.95

Available from: Your local motorcycle dealer Web: mcleodaccessories.com.au

Dealer enquiries phone: McLeod Accessories 1300 300 191

arai Xd-4 hElmEt

Adventure, grand touring or off road, and without the peak looks pretty good on a naked bike too.

R Can be used without visor with goggles, and without peak but with visor

R Complex Fibre Laminate (CFL) outer shell

R Dual intake front ventilation

R Pull-down chin spoiler

R Pinlock insert lens

R Replaceable cheek pads/ear cups

R Replaceable interior

R Emergency Release System (ERS)

RRP: Solid from $799.95 ($899.95 for model shown)

Available from: All good motorcycle retailers

Web: araihelmets.net.au/product/xd-4

danE nimBuS gorE-tEX jackEt

Ideal for long-term wear and tear and extreme conditions.

R Constructed from Gore-tex Invista Cordura three-layer laminate with material reinforcements made of Gore-tex Armacor

R Windproof, waterproof and breathable

R SAS-TEC protectors certified to

EN 1621 – Level 2 on elbows, shoulders and back

R Removable collar and internal thermal lining with overlap at front

R Two outside pockets with labyrinth closure system and additional side access

R Waterproof document pocket and inside pockets

R Close-fitting cuffs with Stormcuff made of stretch Gore-tex material with short zip

R Ventilation through waterproof YKK zips at the front, back and upper arm

rad guard ktm 1290 SupEr dukE r 2020 radiator guard

An essential aftermarket part.

R For the hardcore adventure rider

R Easy to fit

R Video fitting instructions available

R Lightweight and doesn’t restrict air flow

R Made from 6060 T1 – T5 aluminium

R Available in black, polished alloy and orange

R Three-year worldwide warranty

R Australian made

RRP: $195. On special for $159

Available from: Rad Guard

Phone: (02) 6658 0060

Web: radguard.com.au

motodry zXt-3 tankBag mini

Heavy-duty reinforced 600-denier material (PU backed) and stylish modern design.

Includes extra strong ‘Rare Earth Neo-Dymium’ magnets

3M Scotchlite reflective

Use with backpack straps or with shoulder strap

Internal, easy-see-through storage pocket and key clip

Mobile phone or GPS storage pocket

Non-slip tank-bag base

Storm/rain covers included

Expandable to 12 litres

RRP: $1596

Available from: Adventure Bike Shop

Phone: 0428 536 519

Web: adventurebikeshop.com.au

RRP: $99.95

Available from: Moto National Accessories

Web: motonational.com.au

klim Baja S4 pant

Designed to fit with Enduro S4 pant for cool and/or wet weather.

R Schoeller-Dynatec high-tenacity nylon mesh main chassis

R Perforated goat leather on inside of knees

R 3M Scotchlite C790 carbonblack reflective material

R CE AA rating certified to PREN 17092-3

R D3O CE Level-1 LP1 vented adjustable knee armour

R D3O CE Level-1 LP1 vented hip armour

R Moisture-wicking antimicrobial Polygiene anti-odour liner

R Fits over off-road boots

RRP: $775

Available from: AdventureMoto

Web: adventuremoto.com.au

rmStator

Specialists in designing and manufacturing innovative electrical and electronic components for many motorsport applications.

R Stators

R Regulators

R Aluminium MOSFET regulators

R Ignition coils

R CDI modules

R Stator/flywheel upgrade kits

RRP: Depends on component

Available from: Whites Moto and your local RMSTATOR

motorcycle dealer

Web: whitesmoto.com.au/pages/rm-stator

klim Baja S4 jackEt

Designed to fit with Enduro S4 jacket for cool and/or wet weather.

R Schoeller-Dynatec high-tenacity nylon mesh main body and arms

R Comfort-mapped mesh chassis (shell and liner)

R 3M Scotchlite C790 carbon-black reflective material

R CE AA rating certified to PREN 17092-3

R D3O CE level-1 LP1 vented shoulder and elbow pads

R D3O CE level-1 back pad

R Full-time chassis ventilation through SchoellerDynatec mesh panels

R Moisture-wicking Polygiene anti-odour liner

RRP: $865

Available from: AdventureMoto Web: adventuremoto.com.au

hEld SamBia mEn’S SummEr glovE

A summer/enduro glove.

R Highly abrasion-resistant and tactile kangaroo leather palm

R Spandex leather detailed back

R Colourfast and sweatproof

R Velcro adjustment at cuffs

R Air vents on fingers

R Hard-plastic knuckle protection

R Available in black, grey-black, black-greyred or grey-blue

R Sizes seven to 12

RRP: $145

Web: heldaustralia.com.au

Email: info@mig.bike Phone: 1300 916 916

macna aErocon jackEt

Ideal for warmer-weather riding complete with CE protection and maximum breathability.

R 600D Ripstop polyester nylon and polyester mesh outer shell

R Maximum air ventilation through the chest, sides, arms and back

R RISC Level 1 ventilated CE shoulder and elbow armour

R CE back-protectorprepared pocket pre-fitted with a 12mm EVA foam back pad

R Strong, jacket-hanger loop at the rear

R Expandable pockets

R Internal waterproof pocket

R Available in men’s sizes S to 3XL

RRP: Black $329.95. Night-Eye/Fluoro $349.95

Available from: All good motorcycle retail outlets Web: macnaridinggear.com.au

touratEch lumBo-X

Developed to reduce back strain during long rides.

R Made of a breathable mesh material

R Wicks up to 80 per cent more moisture than traditional materials

R Integral stabilisation belts can be adjusted individually

R New ortho-tech protection system dampens impact of external forces and protects the lumbar region

R Coil chain follows the forward movement of the body but prevents the spine over-stretching

R Easily combines with the Ortema P1 light back guard

R Has a back height of 24cm and comes in four different sizes

RRP: $115.26

Available from: www.shop.touratech.com.au Web: www.touratech.com.au

vSm cuStom EXchangE SEat

Specially made using the original Suzuki seats.

R Available to buy or exchange

R Slightly concave

and then send the original DR650 seat and, provided it’s in good condition, VSM will refund $100

Available from: Vince Strang Motorcycles Web: vsm.net.au

atlaS throttlE lock

A universal and intuitive throttle lock.

R A mechanical cruise control

R Made of hardened stainless steel

R Clamps to the plastic throttle tube

R Clamp to any throttle-tube diameter, from 22.2mm to 31.75mm

R Holds the throttle in any position

R Override at any time

RRP: $234.35 plus postage and handling

Available from: Rocky Creek Designs Web: rockycreekdesigns.com.au

touratEch watErproof innEr BagS

Specially designed waterproof inner bags to fit Touratech tank bags.

R Manufactured by Ortlieb

R Valve fitted to the top enables squeezing out even the last remaining air and allows the bag to fit every tankbag or rucksack

R Volume of approximately 22 litres

R For universal use

R 100-per-cent waterproof

R Proven Ortlieb roll zipper

RRP: $110.48

Available from: www.shop.touratech.com.au Web: www.touratech.com.au

alpinEStarS Sm5 hElmEt

Designed to deliver optimum protection and comfort.

R Hipro high-impact polymer parametric shell

R Five-density EPS liner

R Integrated collarbone protection

R Patented visor-release system

R Oblique impact protection

R Ultra-ventilated design

R Lightweight construction

R Emergency Release System (ERS)

pit poSSE tow Strap

A handy tow strap to keep in your kit.

R Doubles as a handy everything strap

R Light, small and compact

R 3.7m long and 25mm wide

R Sewn loop on each end

R Rated at 707kg

R 15cm carrying pouch included

RRP: $34.95 plus postage

Available from: Adventure Bike Australia Web: adventurebikeaustralia.com.au

kominE jk-574 rama ii full yEar advEnturE/touring jackEt

A three-layered jacket with removable waterproof/ thermal liners.

R Large chest and arm vents

R Level-2 shoulder and elbow protector

R Level-1 back protector and standard chest protectors

RRP: $299.95

Available from: All motorcycle stores Web: monzaimports.com.au

R Cordura outer shell with YKK zippers

R Volume adjusters on the arms, waist and neck

R Removable thermal collar and waist belt

R Thumb holes built into thermal liner

R Available in black and ivory/black (ladies sizing available in ivory/black)

RRP: $549

Available from: Zarkie Web: zarkie.com.au

Motorrad Garage KTM 390 Adventure

Motorrad Garage is all over the KTM 390 Adventure with tough, durable and good-looking gear to get the bike ready for just about anything. Check out www.motorradgarage.com.au to work through a huge range of equipment for all makes and models of adventure bikes.

Race into Motorrad Garage.

Our Sydney headquarters, including warehouse and retail showroom, has relocated to new premises. From 1st September 2020, you’ll find us at Race

Motorrad Garage is the winning destination for all your motorcycle accessories.