A new direction

Its been a while since I have updated this blog, I used to keep it to describe my adventures in Massively Multiplayer Games. However a hell of a lot has happened in the last 3 years and my focus has changed from the computer MMO gaming which has really dominated my spare time for the last decade to Motorcycling.

I got into Motorcycling almost by accident. Like most guys I had always wanted a bike but had just never gotten around to getting my license. About 9 years ago, on a whim, I bought a 200cc scooter off a mate who needed the cash. I rode that little beast through the traffic of Auckland city for 2 years. It was on that scooter I had my first road accident when I was knocked off because a taxi decided he wanted to run a red light and took me at right angles as I was turning into work. The impact threw the bike about 20 meters up a hill and I rolled off his bonnet into the road.

I had just gotten it fixed and back on the road when it was stolen out of my garage one night. I had a bike cover worth about 400$, they left that behind and took the 2000$ scooter, go figure. I reported the theft to the cops but I knew I was never going to get it back, I figured it was already down a bank in the bush somewhere, or in pieces and being shipped to Hamilton.

I didn't ride again for a year or so until I decided I wanted to go back to school. The class I wanted to do was night school and was in the city. It also managed to fall outside of the public transport hours to where I lived. The perfect storm of you cant get there and back. So after much thought, I decided I wanted to buy a little commuter to get me to and from class. After looking around and a little research I found a Hyosung GV250. Hyosung is a Korean manufacturer and are very new to the scene of motorcycle making. They have been the primary parts suppliers to Suzuki, Kawasaki et al for many years, they have just never made bikes under their own brand till about 2004.

Lots of people give Hyosung shit, as the first year or two, the quality of manufacture was less than stellar. However they have consistently improved year on year and they now make a motorcycle to match any of the big 4. The GV250 is affectionately known by its riders as a "Hyobag" or a "Hoglet", the little bastards have tons of torque and like the advert says they just keep on going. I loved my Hyosung and rode everywhere on it for about 18 months. Too and from school and work, weekends up into the hills around Titirangi, off to parties etc.

When I bought the Hyosung a mate of mine decided he was going to buy a bike as well. He had previously ridden Suzuki Marauders and was determined to get another one. At the time I wasn't a big Suzuki fan and was considering my next bike to be a Hyosung GV650. So we took off one lunch time to go up to the local Suzie dealer and he took out a 10 year old Marauder and I wandered around the shop having a look.

First thing I saw was a C50. The 50 is a sexy little bike and fell exactly into the Cruiser style of bike I love. It looks a lot bigger than its engine rating, I sat on it a bit and chatted with a sales guy. Then I saw it, at the back of the shop was this giant yellow monster of a bike. The nose cowl looked down right evil, the paint shone, the gigantic rear wheel taunted me, the engine just looked like it wanted to howl. I walked over to it absolutely entranced and quickly attracted the attention of a sales guy who told me that was the new Suzuki Boulevard M109R. I was utterly in love. Unfortunately at that time in my life in NZ there was next to no chance I was ever going to be able to buy the 9 so I put it in the back of my head and decided my next bike was going to be a C50.

A little while later everything changed. My wife was offered a new job and to cut a long story short (told in more detail elsewhere) we ended up in Australia, in Sydney. I had sold the Hyobag in NZ when we left, but it only got me enough to basically pay off the existing debt. But by mnow I had the biking bug, I wanted another bike to get around Sydney. I did lots of reading on the web about NSW licenses, road rules etc and prepared myself as much as possible for riding in another country. I was still on a 'P' license thanks to a dick head in the first RTA office I went to to get my NZ license swapped over, so I couldn't jump to a big bike. However I couldn't bring myself to ride a bike on the LAM's list which I knew I was only going to have for a bit more than a year till the full license came through.

The other bonus to working in Australia was that I could now afford a bigger bike, so I walked into a Hornsby Suzuki dealer and bought myself a C50. The C50 was a nice bike and a lot of fun. I quickly realized it was going to be a nice commuter, but when I took it out on the freeway and wanted to give it some go, it topped out really fast at about 130KPH. I took it out for a few rides up to Newcastle and once or twice along the Old Road up to the Pie in the Sky.

Whille I had the 50 I had been debating and researching the 109. I had been reading and dreaming about it from the first time I had seen it in that shop in Auckland. I read all about its weight (315kg dry) its size (1800cc Vtwin), I debated with myself whether its power was too much, was it too big a bike for me?, could I control it, was it just too powerful?. I went back and forth like this for months. I looked at a M90 when they were released but it just didn't have the same soul as the M109 for me.

A year went by and my full Australian bike license came through. I continued to ride the C50 for another 6 months or so until I saw an advert for an M109 at 16,995+ORC. I wont go into all the details but essentially, I walked in with cash at exactly the right moment in that salesman's life. I walked out with a brand new black M109R for 16,000 flat.



I think I was terrified the day I picked up my 9. I had never been on anything remotely as powerful as this beast, I hit 100kph in second coming down the Pacific Highway back to home, I cornered like an old lady because I had no idea how to lean the damn thing. But I rode it every day, to and from work, up to the shops, out to PITS and up to Newcastle. Every time I got on it, I was a little bit better and every time I headed up a new road it was a little bit more fun. Even now 9 months after purchase, every time I look at it, I can't help grinning, I want to get on it and go for a ride every day.

While I was looking around and learning about the 9 I had come across a website in the USA which seemed to have been built around a community of 9 riders from around the world. They even had a sub forum for Aussies!. The day I bought the bike I posted there proudly proclaiming I had joined the owners club. About a day later I got an email telling me about a website for 9 owners specifically built for Aussies. I was invited to sign up and come along and have a look. That was the first time I met Big Bad Baz and found the Oz M109 riders site.

Through the site I have met up with a whole lot of fellow enthusiasts through the OzM109 riders forum. I have found some awesome people with fantastic knowledge of the 9 and a real passion for the bike. I have developed an itch to mod, an addiction you might call it. I have started going out on a number of weekend as well as longer runs. I have been off to Uralla and Urunga and I am planning to head down to the Snowies for a big charity run on the weekend of the 7th of November.

The biggest ride I have been on was the Big 109 ride to Victor Harbor South Australia. That has its own blog entry and is going to take me a while to write as its huge and was an awesome experience. I also have some piccies lying around of the Urunga and Uralla rides. I will put them up as a single post at some point.

Will I play MMO's again? I still do now and again but I just haven't found one that has gripped me in the same way that EQ did. I might go back to EVE for a bit. Who knows.

The Big Ride

The Big Ride.
The big ride had been proposed and started to be organized about 9 months before I found the OzM109 riders board. When I first heard about it I was so very new to riding the 9, the idea of doing a run all the way to Victor Harbor was a little scary, hell the idea of going up to Newcastle was a little scary. Oz is a big place and doing a 3000km round trip when I had only had the bike about a month was more than a little daunting.

So, over the next couple of months I started to participate on the ozm019riders board, I went on some small weekend rides and met a few people, both riders and their pillions. I went on two larger rides, Uralla (600km) and then Urunga (500km) with over night stays in each spot. I began to learn a lot about long distance riding and how much I still had to learn about riding a bike as big and powerful as this one. I was learning what the physical requirements were of doing 500+km in the saddle and what you need to take when doing a long weekend away on a bike.

I got to know several people a lot better and had a blast on each ride I did. I learned a bit about what I wanted to do to my bike ( I got the mod bug) and with the help of BigBadBaz I started to make some additions to the bike. Each little change made the bike handle better or easier to spend time on. Each change incrementally improved the ride and I got more and more comfortable with it. It was on the run back from Urunga that I stopped with Gazza at the Twin Servos for petrol. We had split off from the others at this point and we took some time, had something to eat and had a chat. It was then that Gazz said something that really resonated with me. He had been in Aussie 30ish years and he had never done the Great Ocean Road. It was something that he had always wanted to do, but he had never got round to, the Big Ride was his opportunity.

I really thought about this, I didn't just come to Aus to work and make money, I came here to have a different life, to see the country, to meet people, to experience and do things that I would not have done back in NZ. It was that conversation that convinced me to do the Big Ride. That night when I got back from Urunga, I posted on the board that I was coming and I paid my money for the "Ticket to Ride". From that moment on I was excited and just wanted to get on the bike and go!. I knew I was going to have to do a lot of stuff in a very short time (It was only about 3 months to the ride date) and it was going to cost me a bomb.

I sorted out new tires, I organized a service, I bought a new pack rack, new knee braces, boots and gloves, organized time off and I was good to go. While I was sorting all of this out, I was following the process of the ride organization on the board. It became very clear to me that this wasn't just a "get on the bikes and go" kind of ride. A backup truck was being organized, specific roads were being discussed, spare parts were being sorted, prizes and media coverage were organized, notice was sent to the Police in SA (who have particularly draconian anti bikie laws) to let them know we were coming. This ride was being very well put together and I felt more and more comfortable with the decision to ride 3000km across unknown roads.

Ride day came closer and closer. I think I was boring the shit out of the people of work, all they heard for 2 months was "big ride is coming!" Finally the day arrived and I was ready!. The first stop was Chris's place to meet up with all the people who had headed down from Queensland and were crashing the night. There were LOTS of cameras around, unfortunately the one thing I forgot to organize was a camera so almost all of these pics were taken by other people. I was the first to arrive in the morning and met Rockethead and Col for the first time (actually I had met Rockethead a few weeks earlier at Roadwarriors). They were only just awake after having a really big night the night before. Col was not feeling 100% and he was beginning to wonder if all that scotch was really a good idea. I had originally been planning on coming down to Chris's place the night before and crashing on a coach to get an early start. Looking at Col I was bloody glad I didn't.

Rockethead was up and cheery as hell, when I got there he had the coffee machine fired up and the BBQ going with bacon and eggs!.

Me and Coffee 1st thing

I got there early, about 745am. I had some of the breakfast that Rockethead had kindly made, had a coffee or 5 and waited for everyone else to arrive. They dribbled in one by one till we had the usual suspects gathered around their bikes and a whole lot of new people I hadn't yet met. It was a great start to the day so far!.

Everyone having breakkie, coffee and a chat

Just before we all set off, Chris pulled everyone in for a chat and we talked about the road rules. We were using the Sydney Knights pack ride rules for stopping, indicating turns etc. It turned out to be an imperfect system as there were a couple of corners over the next couple of days where we basically had to rely on peoples GPS to know which was the correct turn. For some reason, occasionally the corner marker either didn't drop off, or didn't wait for the truck to pass and took off before the whole pack had passed. Having said that, it did generally work and I for one was really happy to be looking out for the corner marker, see them and know I was generally on the right track. As someone who is never in the lead and usually cruising along at his own pace at the rear of the pack, knowing that a corner marker would be there was a real comfort.

One of the things that I was both really surprised at, and really happy to know was that there was a truck accompanying us. The truck was used to not only carry every one's gear (yay no heavy bag hanging off the rear of the bike!) and to allow us to carry any break downs, there was also a shit load of spares, heavy duty tools etc all of which would have been very difficult to carry balanced on a bike.

Mannie putting the finishing touches to the truck

Bowjet

Taking off, leaving Chris' place

Waiting for everyone to form up

The Truck, always the last of the pack!

NSW Impressions This is a road?
We left in the morning, it was cool start to the day but the sky was clear blue and you could feel the heat coming on already. We headed off down the southern freeway and then off onto side roads. It was a beautiful day, nice roads, nice curves, then suddenly we turned off onto what I can only describe as a track. I was headed up it thinking "In NZ this would be called a driveway. Where the fuck are we going?" Shit road, really tight, only barely enough space for 2 cars side by side. Oddly enough, half way up it a beautiful customized roadster passed us going the other way.
The road wasn't long, only 5 or ten km and we were back onto decent tarmac.

Oh Fuck I'm going to die
I was behind Chris (the last time that happened) and he indicated for me to mark a corner. It was an off ramp from the freeway, so I pulled off onto the shoulder and sat and waited for the rest of the riders. I considered completely getting off and taking gear off etc but I figured I wanted to be able to take off quickly once I saw the truck, so I stayed sitting on the bike.

 I was sitting and watching traffic coming in my rear vision when I noticed set of about 5 cars coming down the freeway towards me. About 3 cars into the 5 car pack there was a BMW who decided he was going to pull off the freeway early and head up the off ramp using the shoulder.

So I am sitting on the bike, watching this BMW pull off into the exact line I happen to be parked in, the BMW is about 750 meters behind me travelling at 100kph when he starts to pull into the shoulder. I had no time to do anything, I couldn't get the stand down, it was hop off and drop the bike and dive out of the way, or hope he notices me and pulls back in. My system was absolutely flooded with adrenalin and my heart was beating like a jackhammer when he noticed me, swerved violently back into the line of traffic and I realized I wasn't going to die.

1st bad corner
Coming down the Kings Road following Gazza; its an old trucking road, or feels like one, pretty rough and ready concrete, no one else on it but us. Coming down a hill into a left hand turn, wooden bridge across a small creek at the base of the hill. Coming into the corner and I realize I have been watching Gazza too closely and not preparing for the corner. I have to lay the bike over hard and go wide across the bridge. If anyone was coming the other way I would have been wiped out.

1st town stop
I don't know exactly where we were but it was the first town we had a major stop in. We pulled over and discovered that Rocketheads C109 had moved around inside the truck. In fact it had fallen over and damaged the rear vision mirror. While 5 of the lads were in the truck trying to get it sorted to not move about everyone else stopped and had a drink and some food. It was a pretty little town and a beautiful blue sky day.

Batemans bay - knackered
Pulled over at a gas station in Batemans bay only about 2 hours from Eden. It was at this point I began to realize how physically hard this trip was going to be. It turned out this was one of the short legs, but towards the end of the day I was aching and my hands were killing me. I had developed a bad case of "grip of death" and this was causing me serious pain.

Eden - Wheres my Bed?
We got to the hotel in Eden. It appeared that somewhere along the line almost all of our booking information had gone missing. I had paid but they had no record of my booking, I wasn't the only one. I ended up crashing in a room with about 5 of the boys. I settled in, went down and had a Pizza at the local Pizza joint and then headed to bed while everyone else got stuck in at the bar. Had a good chat with Rockethead as we were both dozing and settling to sleep.

I fell asleep trying to relax my hand and stop the tingling in my hands. My fingers were curled over and I couldn't straighten them out.

I dreamed of roads, long curving roads bounded by dark green trees and speeding along them.

Leaving Eden

We left Eden about 930 in the morning.
When I first got up about 7am it was clear but you could see the thin gray clouds beginning to roll in from the south. By the time we got our shit together and left the hotel it was beginning to drizzle. We tried to head down to Eden Harbor to get some photos of all the bikes but it just started to drizzle harder so after a while we said sod it and headed out of town.

When you leave Eden you are pretty much straight into a national park and heading up into the hills. The weather continued to threaten but for the first half of the day it basically remained as the occasional drizzle, enough to wet down the roads and make them slippery but not enough to actually be called rain. We rode hard through the national forest and up onto the plains where we started to encounter real rain. It hammered down for about an hour while coming across the plains east of Victoria, that wasn't too bad as we were by then on long straight roads, if we had had that sort of rain coming through the hills there could have been some crashes. By the time we pulled over for a bit of food in Bairnsdale we were all wet and pissed off.

We hit the Melbourne freeway system and I for one thought "Thank God" and opened the throttle. I haven't so far (touch wood) had a ticket from that run into Melbourne. To be honest I'm a bit surprised as I hammered it along a lot of that road. We had planned to get on a ferry on the south west side of Melbourne, cross the harbor and we would only have been 15 or so minutes from our next stop at Torquay. We pulled over for our last fuel stop at a gas station about 45 minutes from the ferry landing. It was at that point that we discovered that the last ferry was at 6:00pm and we weren't going to make it. So the decision was to head back around Melbourne to Torquay along the freeways. Now considering we were talking about 140km in city freeway traffic on heavily monitored roads we didn't know, I was a little apprehensive.

Now Eden to Sorrento was about 597km. By doubling back to Torquay we added 140km to the run making the day nearly 750km. By the time we got to Torquay I was desperate to get off the bike. I had well and truly had enough. It was pitch black, I was hungry, very cold, my hands hurt and I just wanted to get the fuck off the bike. Torquay was another spot where our bookings had been lost and we were all reduced to begging and borrowing rooms from each other. I joined Gazza in a cabin and gratefully dumped all my shit and had a shower. Three of us headed up the local pub only to find out their kitchen had closed. All the Victorian boys had met us in the pub so at this point it was a large contingent of bikers. The guys from Victoria all looked so fresh and comfortable!. Little did they know what they were getting in to.

So we headed up the road and had a very average Chinese dinner. I ate about 1/3rd of mine, Gazz had about 10% and threw it away. Its always a bad sign when neither of the staff in the establishment spoke any form of English at all. So after spitting out the food, we had a few beers at the pub and headed back to the camp ground

Victoria Impressions
State Highway Open roads, pine forests, gas stationsLeaving Eden and straight into the pine forests, tall straight pines, clear open roads for the most part with the occasional hilly, twisty section. The roads reminded me a lot of some of the roads around Rotorua and Taupo in New Zealand. We passed up into a hilly section and it started to piss down, with all the rain and the coffee I had been drinking I badly needed a bathroom. Gazz and I were alternating leads as we headed through the forest, as we entered a small open section in the forest we found a gas station. Quite literally a small clearing of red earth surrounded by green forest with a gas station and a cafe. We pulled over and I dropped about 4 litres of fluid and we moved on into the rain.

Crossing the borderComing down a long straight through the forest I looked up and there was a sign saying "Welcome to Victoria". Being from NZ it was weird passing into a territory where I knew everything from road laws to the colour of police cars was going to change. It was nice to know we had left NSW tho, it felt like we were actually on the way!.

Pissing down with rainComing along the plains towards eastern Melbourne. Long flat, straight roads, flat green fields. The weather had been threatening and spitting, then suddenly it hammered down. Everyone was soaked within minutes. I slowed right down as it was getting difficult to see. At one point the Triumph sprint passed me and I could see the water coming off his wheel as high as the pillion.

Pissing down with PissComing into eastern Melbourne. 3-4 of us had teamed up and were coming through the freeways together. A couple of the lads were following a truck ahead of me when I noticed them suddenly swerving violently into the lanes to either side. At first I couldn't figure this out, then I noticed a waterfall of yellow liquid coming out the back of the truck and spreading across the lane. I too took quick evasive action to avoid the large spreading puddle of piss which was pouring out of the back of what was now obviously a live animal transport truck.

Melbourne trafficAfter 8 hours of open roads, getting struck in Melbourne rush hour traffic sucked.

Get me off this fucking bikeWe had pulled over for gas 45 minutes out from the Ferry and discovered that we weren't going to make the last ferry. It was decided to turn around and head back around Melbourne to Torquay along the motorways. This was a 140km back track. We set off through the traffic, largely we kept together but there were a few times we all started to get pulled apart by the traffic. I remember going over a bridge and cutting hard through traffic to catch up with the pack. We got lost at one point and did a U-Turn on a freeway entrance. By the time we pulled into Torquay I was desperate to get off the bike. I was cold, damp, my body ached all over and my hands were worse than the day before.

The Great Ocean Road
We woke up in Torquay to a beautiful day. When I poked my head out of the window it was blue skies with only a hint of clouds. That was about 730am. It was going to change, oh how it was going to change. This was the first time we all got a good look at everyone's bikes as the Victorian boys were here and all parked up outside of the cabins. I had exchanged emails with Paul from Twowheels.com before but this was my first look at his bike and boy is she a beauty. If you ever get a chance to meet up with Paul in Victoria, do so and have a good look at his 9. We all formed up across the road from the cabins at a gas station. As we were waiting for everyone to get sorted the clouds started to come across heavier and darker. Eventually it started to spit so it was decided we would head to the GOR and get underway.

Leaving Torquay

As we made our way down the coast and along the GOR the rain got worse and worse. Several times I passed people who had started out with no wet weather gear on, who were now pulled over on the side of the road in the pouring rain trying to dig their wet weather gear out of their racks.

About 60 km down the road and just before the official start point of the GOR we pulled up at a little town called Lorne. Everyone was standing next to a little cafe warming up with cofee and bacon and egg rolls. It was a hell of an impressive site with 30+ 9's all pulled up and parked outside of the cafe. We all ate drank, pissed, hoped and prayed the rain would pass and hopped back on the bikes. Now the GOR was the primary reason I came on this trip, it is regarded as one of the greatest bike rides in Australia. I have to say that I agree with that statement with one amendment. The GOR is one of the greatest bike rides in Australia - In.GOOD.Weather. The further we got into the GOR the wetter and colder it got.

Leaving Lorne

Riding in hard twisties on a 400KG cruiser, with wet helmet, wet glasses and unlined leather gloves is not actually a lot of fun in my opinion.

The RATT bike

The Great Ocean Road

The Weather - Thanks Victoria

Pauls Bike

Gaz
Gaz parked up on the side of the road, a few miles into the GOR. I slow down to see if he is OK and I see him racing off into the bush waving a toilet roll...

GOR Wet
It hammered down. I'm from New Zealand, I have ridden in heavy rain and that day on the GOR was some of the heaviest weather I have ever ridden in. Hell just going to work in NZ in winter could be an adventure. Ive ridden to work twice in hurricanes. The rain that day was coming in big and hard, the temperature had plummeted from a cool but comfortable morning, to easily being able to see your breath. The GOR is cliff on one side, cliff on the other, hard narrow 180 degree twisties, do all that in pissing cold rain.

GOR Spectacular scenery
The weather may have been shit but the GOR is absolutely amazing. In some cases the weather actually improved the scenery. For example I came around a corner and could see the coast road for about 6km in front of me. The sea was breaking on the coast and the spray was coming right up the cliff, over the road and blowing over the tops of the cliffs and across the bush. It was like a spray curtain running along the road.

GOR Wind
Coming uphill into a 120 degree right hander, leaned over hard to my right, just as I hit the peak of the hill I also clear the cliff which had been sheltering me from the wind up until then. I get hit with a massive gust, pushing the whole bike back down the road and even further to the right. I am on the verge of both falling over and stalling. I lean harder, gun it and zoom round the corner with the back wheel sliding out, just a little...

GOR Cafe Guy
After the GOR you start to climb up into some hills. Apparently it reaches about 1000meteres and at the top of the mountain is an intersection with half a dozen houses and a couple of coffee shops. I am so cold I pull over into the parking lot of one of the coffee shops to wait for the truck that I think is only about 10 minutes behind me. A chap comes out of the closed coffee shop to have a chat and have a look at the bike. We get chatting, it turns out he has owned this cafe for about 9 years and has just sold it. He once had a business doing Harley tours along the GOR. His plan is to buy a bike and ride around Australia and he goes back into the cafe and comes back out clutching a wad of magazines with articles about the 9.

He loves the bike but is torn between it and a full blown Harley Tourer. So we chat for about 15 minutes and eventually Tony, who is driving the backup truck turns up. I waved him down, he gave me his sweater and we took off again, leaving a cafe owner staring after the freedom of the bike with envious eyes.

GOR Nirranda - WARM
Finally made it to Nirranda after been alternately rained on and blown off the bike. I pulled into Nirranda desperate for some warmth. I saw Chris's MT01 parked outside the Nirranda Suzuki place and I stopped in the driveway. First priority was a piss closely followed by buying some warm glove slip on's for my hands and a hotdog. The guys at the Suzuki place were awesome. I was well and truly late by then as I had only been there about 10 minutes when I found out that I had missed the press conference and we were all leaving. So I only had a really brief stop.

South AustraliaWe woke up in SA after a great night and a great dinner at the Mount Gambier Motor inn. The guys at Mount Gambier were awesome and I would recommend any biker to stay there. They put us all on one side of the building so we were together and the bikes were safer, they put together a private room and did us up a 3 course meal. We pulled out of Mount Gambier, happy, fed and warm. Initially we thought we were heading in to more rain but we mostly rode past or through the rain clouds so there was very little wet all the way into Victor Harbor.

Mount Gambier : Dinner

Leaving Mount Gambier

Gassing up at the Big Crayfish - Kingston

Chris on his MT01 ran out of gas just outside Kingston. I think he was only a couple of km from the gas station. While he was waiting for someone to come past and help him get some gas, a nice policeman pulled up to ask him a few questions about the large number of motorcycles that had been roaring up his roads. Apparently some of the local folk had complained to him about some 'bikies' traveling very quickly. Now the SA police had been warned in detail up front that we were coming, however it appears that this nice policeman didn't get the word.

So once it was explained that we weren't a bikie gang and we were in fact on a charity run the nice policeman called his friends up the road to spread the word we were on the way and left Chris with 10$ as a donation to the Charity and a request to "tell the boys to slow down". 3 cheers for the SA police!

Chris getting a donation from the SA Police department
See I let it go, its not a bribe!

We pulled into Wellington where the SA boys were stopped to meet us. We got about 35 9's on the ferry and pulled into the Wellington Hotel car park. That was cool, we got to meet new people, all the SA guys most of us had never met before, we got to drool over new 9's we hadn't seen before and just generally hang around like the smelly bikers we were.

Wellington Ferry

We pulled into Victor Harbor about 3pm, I think it was the shortest day we had spent on the whole ride. I was so looking forward to a bed, a shower and time off the bike. It took a bit of time but the folks at Victor Harbor Holiday camp got us all sorted out and assigned to rooms. I ended up bunking with a chap from Melbourne called Tibbie. Initially I thought we were going to have a bit of a break and the big photo shoot was going to be the next day.

I was surprised to realize that in fact we had to get to our rooms, find water and cleaning rags, clean (and polish ) the bikes and get them lined up for the big photo. I was the last to get in line as you can see from the long line of bikes with the yellow seat up front. We had about an hour and a half to get all that done. As tired as we were this was actually quite a big effort and there was much grumbling and "oh my aching back's" but everybody came through with flying colors. The bikes when all lined up looked stunning.

Finally Victor Harbour!

Wating for a room

Parked Up

The Big Ride: Parkup 1

The Big Ride: Parkup 2

The Big Ride: Parkup 2The Riders

South Australia Impressions
Open Roads
Long Straight clean roads, slight curves, good quality. It wasn't as thrilling as some of the heavy twisties we had been through, but I still enjoyed it. It gave me time to look around and just enjoy being out on the bike, the huge cloud banks were amazing, SA is really "Big Sky" country.

Speed
Long open roads, few curves, no traffic. Speed. Pissed off locals.

Silver Lakes and Curves
We came through a section just as we were left Wellington, I think it was Langhorne Creek road. The road was nice and had some great open curves but to the left hand side there were these beautiful lakes of mirror smooth silver. We knew the sea was close on the left but the water people were seeing wasn't ocean. I found out later they were slat flats with just an inch or so of water in them. Lots of people stopped and took photos as it was a stunning and temporary phenomenon.

Tired
I didn't realize how tired I was till the next day at the end of the big ride. I got back from what was supposed to be a short run (10 hours on the bike) and when I finally got to the pub all I wanted to do was sleep. I was utterly exhausted.

Wellington Hotel
Coming across on the ferry, catching up with all the SA guys, seeing all the bikes finally together, knowing that a hot shower and cold beer were only a few hours away was awesome. We picked up a couple of Harleys for the big ride in and I found it quite funny that they both seemed to struggle to stay with us.

Speed
We had been traveling so long and so hard that I began to realize that the average speed, or at least mine, had crept up. I think I left Sydney averaging about 100-120kph. I left Wellington and rode into Victor Harbor about 130-140 and felt really comfortable doing it.

After the big lineup we all headed up to the Victor Harbor Suzuki dealership where Camp Quality had set up a big welcome for us. There were lots of kids, parents and Camp Quality dolls and puppets around. As we pulled up I realized the place was smaller than I thought and on a much steeper hill than I thought. I honestly didn't believe we were going to get 40+ 109's in there. But the boys from VH Suzuki guided everyone in and like a jigsaw we got all the bikes in. Allan who owns VH Suzuki had set up a BBQ with drinks, snags etc and all proceeds went to Camp Quality. There was also an auction of gear donated by Suzuki and by some of the people who were on the ride.

The big items were the Suzuki Waistcoat (man I wish I had bought that) which after a fierce tussle between Tony and Col finally went to Col, and a hand made clock kindly donated by Lefty. That eventually went to Chris for pride of place in his M109 Barn.

Doc and the Clock

Doc and his mates

The official BigRide started the next morning. We all set off to Breakfast at a little local spot where the owner had kindly put on more staff as we had told him there was going to be 40+ people turning up for breakfast that morning.

Breakfast!

A blessing of the bikes had been arranged and a minutes silence was held for Peter Gundry, a 9 rider who was lost to us early in 2009. I have never experienced a blessing of the bikes and although I am in no way religious, having the words said and the final blessing of "ride safe" was a great experience.

Blessing of the Bikes

The Padre

Heading off on the Big RideThe rules were announced, no over taking for this ride, no one was to overtake the lead bike and no one was to drop behind the rear bike. We were going to ride in a safe convoy. It was supposed to be a simple cruise up into the Adelaide hills. We had riders of all different skills, ages and experience levels. So the rule was in place to try and keep the run from turning into a race. The first stretch of the run was about 60km or so and ended up at an intersection surrounded by lots of pretty buildings. Not quite a town, I couldn't figure out what it was. There was a Telstra stall there trying to sell mobile services in the car park. I think we scared the crap out of them when we first showed up as they probably through we were big bad bikies.

NFI where this is but it was pretty

After we took off into the second section it seemed to me that the lead bike absolutely took off. I was about 1/3rd of the way down the pack and I was riding well and truly out of my comfort level. I kept waving people past as I was taking the bike way further and way faster than I ever had before. I know that's how you learn, but its not a good idea to be learning at 90kph going through a 45kph marked corner with three bikes hammering right up your ass to get round you. I was trying to stay up with the guys in front of me and keep out of the way of the guys behind me,

I went into one hard uphill left hand corner, first the pegs scraped, then the rear frame scraped, I realized really quickly I was also in the wrong gear for the climb up the hill, I checked in the rear mirror to see a bike coming hard round the corner and decided this was a really bad spot to be in. I dropped a gear and took off, waving the biker behind me past. After that I slowed right down and rode much more to my skill level.

We got to the top of Mount Loftus where prize's and giveaways were handed out and then took off for lunch before entering "the Gorge".

Mount Loftus

The gorge was a hell of a ride. The rules got changed at lunch to say that the gorge was open slather, ride to however you felt best, overtaking was allowed. We headed in and I waved a lot of people past. the incident with scraping the frame on the corner earlier had led me to slow right down so I let everyone go in front of me and I quietly made may way through the twisties. I'm glad I took the gorge slowly as it was a spectacular space and I just enjoyed the view and cruised down to the gas station at the end of the road.

From the gas station I elected to head back to Victor Harbour. There were 5 of us and we managed to get thoroughly caught up in the Adelaide traffic which, after racing around through the hills earlier, wasn't a lot of fun. As I was coming around a roundabout heading for the Motorway my back tire unexpectedly jumped about 3 inches to the left, I felt it go and put my foot down and pushed the bike up hard to keep it upright. Scared the shit out of me and impressed Popeye who was behind me. When we got to the campsite he said he was surprised I had managed to keep it upright.

That night was the official Big Ride Dinner. We all got home, showered and headed up to the local Hotel where a room had been set aside for us all. Food was great and company better. Alan from the Victor Harbour Suzuki got up and said a few words and Camp Quality had brought along a family who were there to show us what all the hard work was about. Both Alan and the father of the young boy from Camp Qality got quite emotional in thanking us for our support.

Alan from VH Suzuki

Tim gets the Longest Ride award: 3800KM (he did it in two days to get back!)

The prizes!

Doc and Baz

The lovely family from Camp Quality

Speeches

The next day was a day "off" so me and Crazy wandered into town, had a very long and leisurely breakfast and just wandered about a bit. Eventually we hooked up with a few of the lads who were having a few quiet beers outside the Hotel.

Keeva and Jerone

Tony and our gracious Lord Wazza

Victor Harbour Impressions
Wind!
Woke up in the morning to a tremendous bang and the sound of howling wind through the trees. It was so loud I thought it was a bike falling over against the cabin. Shot outside to find it was a huge branch having come down and the bikes were fine. The wind was massive that morning, it was hard to stand up straight against it. It went on most of the day and didnt really start to drop away till late in the afternoon. It wasn't a good omen for the ride home starting the next day.

People set off and turned back
Several guys had decided to set off for home on the morning the wind started. A couple pushed through but a lot turned around and came back. You know its dangerous out there when Gazza turns back, he is an absolute machine when it comes to riding, nothing (well almost nothing) stops him.

Barbeque night
On the last night we decided to have a BBQ. Everyone bought stuff to share and we used one of the free BBQ's at the campsite. It was a great night with 10 or so of us just hanging around, sharing experiences and just generally bullshitting. I got a chance to talk to some of the people that had been around for the whole ride but I hadn't been able to talk to and made some new friends. It ended about 11pm and everyone headed off for an early night. The next day was a big day!

The Trip Home
Wind and the Hay Plain
We weren't lucky, the wind didn't drop the next day. About 5 of us set off across the Hay plain with the intention of stopping at Hay for the night. This is easily the toughest piece of riding I have ever done. The wind always seemed to be coming from the left and I was constantly on a 20 degree lean into the wind. Passing B-doubles was potentially lethal as you would have to get into his wind draft, then pass him, get into a clean spot of air and then back out into the wind and the 20 degree lean.

I was going down a straight piece of road and got pushed so hard in one gust I scraped my pegs.

I thought maybe I was just being a pussy but talking that night with the guys I was riding with, they all said that was the toughest day they had ever done in the saddle.

Exhausted in Hay/Dinner
We reached Hay and stopped at the first Motel we saw with a "Vacancies" sign. It was 750km run from Victor to Hay with that massive wind pushing us all over the road all the way. We all got a room, dumped our stuff and gathered outside for a beer, a smoke and a chat. After an hour or so we went back to our various rooms for a wash up and ventured into town for dinner. Hay is an interesting place. If it wasn't for the truckies passing through I don't think it would exist. It seems to be there purely for the purpose of being in the middle of Sydney and Adelaide.

We had a very nice dinner in a seafood restaurant that was about 1000km from the nearest ocean and headed back to the rooms. TonyTwoshoes and Wazza of course, found some girls and partied until the very wee small hours.

The Freeway
After 6 days of back roads, tight curves and a sore ass the Freeway near Goulburn was the prettiest thing I had ever seen. It meant we were close to home and an easy run all the way back into Sydney. Keeva had peeled off and headed into Melbourne leaving only myself and Rocket still running together. We couldnt go too fast as Rockets bike was literally loaded so high at the rear I couldn't see his head.

We cruised into Sydney and Mark peeled off for the last run home, another 300km from my place.

Me and Keeva on the way home the day after stopping at Hay

Home
Nearly dropped the bike, after 3500km from Sydney to Adelaide and back, the closest I came to actually dropping the bike was as I turned into my driveway.

It was a huge experience and I loved it. I was exhausted when I got home but if someone had said we are going to keep going and head to Cairns, I honestly would have jumped on the bike the next morning and just kept going. It took me two days to get my head "off the road" and back home.

When is the next one?