Rock Hard Junior's Brisbane to Perth ride

[rock hard]

Hey ASF crew,my youngest son Luke has shipped his bike to brisbane and is going to ride around s.e. queensland then zig zag down the great divide to sydney melbourne adelaide..then across the paddock home to perth...keep a lookout for a black Yamaha fzx750

[Elapid]

Good luck Luke.

Kris.

[Jockney Rebel]

good luck luke shame you wont be passing this way

[Booster]

Morry if he ends up in Northern Vic a couple of hours east of the great divide and needs a place to stay or any assistance let me know

[sharky]

Pretty much goes for all of us I reckon...we've got most of the country covered...

[rock hard]

Thanks guys il pass it on to luke,wish i was
with him just the thought of those mountain roads..

[Redmohawk]

yeah as booster said mate i got heaps of room in shep

[geesexar]

room at my place if he hits adelaide morry..just let me know

[boris]

same in coffs harbour but I'm guessing that zig zagging the great divide means he's going down the new england highway if he does come tyhe pacific highway tell him to call in for a beer or a coffee

[rock hard]

Thanks again Lads, il pass it on

[Gix11]

Same for Gold Coast mate. Let me know if he needs some advice on which areas to check out. When is he over?

[Mishdog20]

When he is down melbourne way, yell out, he can stay the night here at Ballarat an hour towards Adelaide if he wants, plenty of room, beer and beds.

[livewire]

Probably not on his planned route, but rack, feed, and a toolbox in Bendigo if he needs it.

[Gravel Shark]

Thanks to all of ASF for all the Beer and Bed offers its good to know that the road isn't so dark after all. I will try to post updates as often as possible to let everyone know how the trip is going, i'll be leaving for Toowoomba on thursday and should be heading down the New England hwy all the way to Armidale then head out east to Port Macquarie and the Pacific hwy, unless I freeze my tits off then ill try to head for the coast sooner like at the Bruxner Hwy but i'll soon find out in the next few days what the weather will be like and what my plan will be. Well anyway once again thanks guys for everything and i'll keep you all informed on the progress of the journey.

[boris]

mate if ur not in a hurry and want some nice tight roads then when u get to Glenn Innes head down the Gibraltar range (sweet road) then head back up the Nymboida road (also awesome road) then on to armidildo (sorry armidale I was born in the shithole) through Ebor

[Gravel Shark]

Thanks for that Boris I might just take those roads because once I reach the Nullarbor i'll probably blow my brains out from the sheer boredom of going in a straight line for a few days!:D

[Watto]

good luck on ya trip Luke - the memories you'll bring back will be etched forever

also many thanks for the assistance on takin the gixxer over the pits before ya headed off

Cheers
Watto

[Gix11]

Luke, if you wanted a nicer ride go this way mate: http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=beenleigh&daddr=beaudesert+to:boonah+to:glennie+heights&geocode=&hl=en&mra=ls&sll=-27.967721,152.769012&sspn=1.050367,2.377167&ie=UTF8&ll=-27.983487,152.468262&spn=1.050213,2.377167&t=h&z=10

Heaps more fun and a good taste of some twisties. Toowoomba to Warwick is pretty dull.

Shame you'll miss Springbrook as you're going past the Gold Coast. Ask your dad how good that road is....

[rock hard]

So Far so good Brisbane to Toowoomba pissed down, toowoomba to Armidale froze nuts off,armidale to taree half dry half wet freezing...im wishing i was there freezing but GRINNING...stay safe Son..

[Jockney Rebel]

morry im there if his in my manor and needs a lift or has any issues with the bike at all 100kms radius of my gaff.tell him to keep my number ive got 6 other firms associated with me covering QLD NSW and VIC good luck shark

[rock hard]

Thanks as always jim,hes trying to catch up with kenny booth who lives just north of wyong, pm me your number and il pass it on.thanks everyone for your support ...morry

[lurch]

quote:Originally posted by rock hard

So Far so good Brisbane to Toowoomba pissed down, toowoomba to Armidale froze nuts off,armidale to taree half dry half wet freezing...im wishing i was there freezing but GRINNING...stay safe Son..


Sheeit! I'm in Toowoomba, could have had a day off and given him some company on the ride for a while. Ah well...

[rock hard]

Well just an update,Luke left Sydney 7am min temp -1 arived in melbourne 7pm max temp +13..three pairs of socks and gloves with 2 sets of liners..frozen but happy...proud of you lad...

[Mishdog20]

Where is he headin through in vic mate?

[rock hard]

Hey Mishdog, not sure mate hes staying in boronia for a week or so il get him to post up when his fingers thaw

[puppet]

Tell him to get some heated hand grips. $50 from Ballards, real easy to install, virtually undetectable and very effective.

[wackyrider]

quote:Originally posted by rock hard

Well just an update,Luke left Sydney 7am min temp -1 arived in melbourne 7pm max temp +13..three pairs of socks and gloves with 2 sets of liners..frozen but happy...proud of you lad...


He just missed a good weekend then. Plus he'll be leaving before the bonfire at Mishdog's place too

[rock hard]

Isnt that always the case."missed it by that much" quote maxwell smart,agent 86..

[Gravel Shark]

Hey all sorry that I haven't put an update on the site in a while but I have been having so much fun that I hardly have a moments rest, also not having access to the internet can make it a little hard, and even if I did have access i'm a little like a caveman when it comes to tecnology lol. Well the trip so far has been so much fun but so fuckin cold! The day that I left Toowoomba I started heading south along the New England Hwy, which wasn't all that bad its was nice and sunny and I was able to wear just my normal summer gloves. At about 10 min south of Toowoomba (in greenmount I think) I saw this strange orange cloud hovering in the middle of the road ad it wasn't till I ploughed right through it that I realised that its wasn't a cloud but a massive swarm of butterflies who were nice enough to mess up my visor and clog the my nice clean vents which took a few min to clear up so i could get some nice cool air whilst it lasted. well after that I hung a left at Tenterfield along the Bruxner Hwy for a little bit until I noticed that I was riding into some clouds that were darker than a black guy at midnight (no racism intended that's just the darkest thing I could think of lol) so I did a u turn and kept heading south along the New England. I made it all the way to Guyra which was about 3pm... ish and then it started to get colder than a penguin skating on the shady part of an iceberg, so I pushed my frozen body that was attached to my bike all the way to Armidale and went to the first caravan park which was a little dodgy looking so I decide to thaw out my hands and feet in the cheapest hotel that night.

Well after that nice cold snap (and maybe because of the fact that I was to stubborn to put on my winter gear when it started to get cold ont he road the day before) I awoke the next morning with a nice cold and some pink eye in my right eye.... so I did what any young, smart bloke would do, I got my gear on and got back on the bike (if I wasn't so stubborn i would have got something for my eye in Armidale and it wouldn't have taken a week to fix both my eye and my chest, but you get that). I started heading south again along the New England through Uralla and along to Tamworth but the weather to the south and the east looked so bad I decided to use my phone to look at the weather back up north east along the coast where it might not be so cold, weather looked ok so I went north all the way to Glen Innes where I started to take the Gwydr Hwy around the storm clouds... bad idea, I got to the top of the hills then it started to bucket down and I couldn't see three feet in front of my face so I did a u turn and came back down again.... All that work for nothing, hours of travel north to just pussy out and come back south again .

So I came back to Armidale fuelled up and came through Walcha to connect up with the Oxley Hwy which was the best move of the day because not only did I only get a little patch of rain on me whilst riding, but I gave the bike some stick on the best road that i've been on so far this trip!!!!! This might sound a little strange but riding that road gave me such a stiffy! all until the point when the fuel light came on and the only thought in my brain was "shit i knew I should have got some Fuel in Walcha"( because Yarrowitch is not a fucking fuel stop... dumb ass!). I made it all most of the way up hill when it finally died and as I started to drift around this last corner where I thought I was going to have to park my bike and have a little cry but I then saw something amazing happen, it was as if god was sending me a monopoly get out of jail free card. There in the middle of the range where I hadn't seen any signs of civilisation i saw a nice little cafe with two fuel pumps outside! I did have to push the bike up the driveway but thankfully that was the only distance that I had to push it that day, so after my baby had a nice little drink I got back on and gave it everything I had, and i've got to say the speed for those corners are a nice touch because a sign that says 45km is ok but the 35km and 15km are the ones that make you feel alive! And i love those nice smooth hairpins with good visibility where I was able too look right up and see that no one is coming from the other direction go extra wide cut the apex and hammer it all the way out the arse end with half my body hanging off the side wwhhooo hoooo!!! it still gives me goose bumps and its nearly two weeks since i was on that road.

Well guys my internet is just goibng to run out so i've gotta run but i'll post the rest of the journey in the next few days, Gravel Shark out!

[Mishdog20]

good on ya mate, living the dream right there, except the wether that is, top stuff.

[Gravel Shark]

So to re-cap, there was once a young bloke on a motorbike on a road far far away........ and then it started to get dark. I had made it to Wauchope on the other side of the range safe and sound and although it was still very dark and cloudy the weather held out so it was still nice and dry, and because I still felt full of beans I thought that it must still be early in the afternoon because if it was late in the arvo logically I would be knackered. So I decide to skip Port Macquarie and take the Pacific Hwy south for a little while so I could spend a little more time on the roads the next day seeing the sights but still make it to Sydney before dinner time.... bad idea. Traffic soon became a nightmare due to the fact that the Pacific Hwy is still under construction and people in cars still don't know how to merge to save th life, and traffic was heavy and verry slow (about 40-50 km) in both directions so no chance of overtaking anytime soon. To make things worse it started to get very cold and very dark very quickly, I didn't realise that it was actually time for the sun and myself to go to bed. So I putt putt putted along for what felt like hours (was probably only and hour) eventually taking the exit for Taree, and as much as I wanted to prove that I was a mans man and camp in my swag outdoors that night, after seeing my eyes in the mirror of a petrol station bathroom I realised that having eyes that were a brighter shade of red than a baboons bottom is a good reason to stay indoors and have a nice hot shower and a rest ( if anyone is disbelieving of how red they were I will have photos that I can post up once I make it back home). Well once I got a nice cheap hotel room booked for the night I got out of my gear had a hot shower got rugged up again and put on some shades (so people would stop looking at me like I was higher than a kite) I went down and got some nice garlic bread (best garlic pizza in the world.... can't remember the name of the place though) and a big tub of spag bog and some garlic prawns on the side, I would live to regret that choice the next day when I ended up farting like a black dog the whole ride to Sydney.

Next morning woke up dripping mucus out of my nose like a slobbering slob monster and eyes crustier than Margret thatchers vagina with gonorrhea, not a good start to another long day but it could have been worse. The riding that day was a little dull but I was able to see quite a few nice sights and revisit some old territory. I continued along the Pacific Hwy all the way to Newcastle where I had a nice pub steak for lunch, then got lost for the next hour and a bit trying to find where the rest of the Pacific Hwy was so I could continue south to The Entrance. Well eventually I gave up, my cold and screwed up eyes must have broken my internal navigational device which was why I couldn't ask for directions because then people would just think that I was bad at directions, they wouldn't understand that I was in need of repair. So anyway I went back north and took the freeway to the exit for the Entranc and I ended up bumming around the place for a quite a while. I went to my old house, had a look at some of the places I used to play with my friends when i was a kid then finished with me looking like a peddo outside of my old primary school with my dark shades on. So after that I decided to go grab some fuel, a nice bite and then got back on the road again, traffic wasn't too bad until I got onto the M7. It was peak hour and there was a big crash in the right lane which slowed everyone to a crawl, but I wasn't worried I was on my bike so I would just split the lanes and continue along at a nice pace wich in Perth and Brisbane people don't really seem to have a problem with but in Sydney people try to close up the gap just because you want to pass by. Fuckin wankers! well I wish I could say that I kept calm and just went around them without saying a word, but where is the fun in that? You see its just like something my dad told me when I was learning to drive "if you don't tell them that they're a wanker how are they ever going to know? So I would let them know with a few colourful metaphors that they are very rude and its not a line at McDonalds, if I get past you it's not going to slow you up so much that your going to be another hour late home from work so just deal with it. well after I was off the M7 the traffic was still bad all the way to Ambarvale but I had a nice stop at krispy kreme and inhaled a whole box of doughnuts which helped calm me down lol.

So I then spent the next two weeks in Sydney where I did more partying than riding, but the wether was shit most of the time so it wasn't like i was missing out on much. But i've got to say the the roads around Camden, Narellen, Picton and Sir Bertham Stevens Drive to the east in the national park (I think thats what all those places were called) were a lot of fun on the few days when I went for a nice ride. After all that I left Sydney along the Hume Hwy and made my way south to Melbourne and the cold south but that's another story for next time, so until then thanks to everyone for reading and thanks for all of the support gravel shark out.

[Gravel Shark]

This post is only going to be a short one because I will be leaving Boronia and Victoria first thing in the morning, destination Mt Gambier. But as I leave this state behind me just let me make this one point..... Victoria is one strange place, you have snow in winter nice heat in summer, some of the best roads for motorcycling in the world in my opinion (that might be because I haven't left Australia just yet) and yet the police in this state seem to have the worst attitudes and the worst understanding in the whole of Australia (in my opinion anyway). I really don't think that doing one or two km over the speed limit makes someone a hoon or a speed demon or even a danger to the public so why is it that you only need to do like 1km over the limit and they are all over your arse giving you a massive fine for something so small? I get the fact that speed kills, and the speed limit is there to save lives not piss us off (even though sometimes it feels like someone did put that 60 zone for 10km there just to make you all red in the face) but come on 1k! WTF?! what if you have an older bike or car and the speedo is a little shakey so it looks like you are doing the speed limit when you are actually doing 2km over? Why is it that they cant be understanding? Ever since I arrived in this state i've spent more time watching the speedo than I have the road which is more likely to end up killing me than a a pathetic 1 or 2km over....... Well now that i'm of my soap box on with the trip.

Melbourne is bloody cold in winter... THE END!.... That's is probably the most vivid memory that I will have of this place on my ride back to Perth, but once I get my 20 layers of clothing, wet weather gear and protective gear on and i start up the bike I find that some of the roads in this place make me want to stay here till the end of days. The well known Black Spur is one hell of a good ride and I did spend a few days giving my bike holly hell all over that bit of bitumen but I found that on a sunday its best to avoid because so many retarded drivers get the good idea to drive slower then a snail and all congested like my nose. So some of the back roads up and around Marysville, Healesville, Hurstbridge, Warburton and Emerald but i'm sure all the boys in Melbourne already knew that..... but I didn't and I had fun exploring even though I didn't know where I was half of the time and I found myself riding on a shitty dirt road or two, but that's ok because half of the time I was riding with my uncle and his Moto Guzzi and the other half of the time I was just happy to be on a road without everyone else on it.

Well as much as I would love to tell more the fact is that i'm almost out of time, tomorrow I leave for Mt Gambier, Adelaide the next day then a ferry from Wallaroo to Cowell then head across the Nullarbor sleep where ever I can get some then once I hit Norseman head south again and ride up through the bottom end of W.A and the best roads before I arrive in Perth and the end of my journey. Well Perth save a beer for me i'm coming home!

[Hagarr]

Good stuff mate, lifes about the journey not necessarily the destination.

Hope to have a beer with you when you get back.

Maybe ride in with you a few k's if I can get the timing right.

Keep us updated Mozz with an ETA and where!

[rock hard]

Good Luck with your trip Luke,use your head youll be fine.keep the sheepskin undies on as it was minus6 at norseman this morning.looking forward to riding the last day back to perth with you..see your smiling face very soon..

[sickboy]

just a quick heads up,I dont think the Wallaroo-Cowell ferry runs anymore,I'm in Whyalla if ya need digs etc.

[rock hard]

Hey Luke, remember when the temp was above freezing here is a photo 2 remind ya
http://www.asfphotos.com/upload/1277787593.jpg

[geesexar]

Luke if ya need a bed in adelaide my No. is 0419826856..good to hear your enjoyin the ride

[rock hard]

http://www.asfphotos.com/upload/1277893858.jpg

[Gravel Shark]

I'm sorry to say boys but my trip back across the Nullarbor to Perth is at its end :(, after my crash on tuesday morning I was a little shaken up to say the least I had never fallen off a bike before and I was lucky to be alive with no broken bones and the bike only had a few broken bits and pieces (front fairing, blinker, radiator cap lost, bent peg n levers) and my gear had only a little bit of damage (Panniers warn, Jacket and wet weather gear torn, boot has a hole and tank bag cover fucked). But on the day after (yesterday) about 25km out of Mt Gambier I hit a fox which put me into a big tank slapper, I was able to hold on and get it back under control but my entry into the corner was fucked so I went wide and my mirror clipped the mirror of this little 4WD. I would like to say that I was brave and I pulled over got some air maned up and continued on with the trip but this time was too close, I was still a little shaken up from the crash from the day before and after this one I decided to call it quits. So after throwing up my guts I gave my friend Scott a call and he drove in front of me all the way into town because by this stage it was really starting to get dark, I slept at his place and early this morning I made my way back to Boronia...... Winter is no friend of mine and it has beaten me this time but that is not the end of this..... no way! I am going to beat this country, one day i'm going to ride around the whole country Perth to Perth, so as much as every km today back to Melbourne almost killed me with the regret for my decision to put off the trip I knew that it was the right thing to do. I've been lucky twice now and I still had a lot of days of travel ahead of me and only a small window to do it in (because I'm flying to Europe for a woking holiday in early July) and who knows how lucky I would be next time..... On another note I only went 397km today and my back felt fucked and my wrist almost snapped so even if I was still on my way home right now i'm not sure that I would have been able to make it back home because there is a lot of road between here and home and i'm just a little knackered. I'm proud of myself that I was able to make it across into South Australia, and proud that I have clocked up a whole 2987km and that I made it through four states riding on my own not an easy task. So I may be upset that I didn't finish what I set out to do but i'm happy with what i've done and nex time i'm going to go even further next time i'm going to see it all and next time i'm not going to go through victoria in the winter lol.

[Gravel Shark]

Almost 4got, big thank you to everyone and all the help, offers for burgers, beer and bed. Big thanks to Kevkatana, Mishdog, Rock Hard and to every one who gave any advice or put up any posts all of you are legends and i'll never forget what you guys have done for me!

[rock hard]

:D

[Hagarr]

Live to ride another day mate.

Good work. ;)

[KATO ZX7]

Hey Luke be proud at what you've done.
Ive had my licence now for 18 yrs and ive never attempted a trip as big as that before!

I hope my boys grow up like you!

[kevkatana]

Top effort Luke. Pleasure to meet ya and help ya out. Your last couple of days have been a bit rough to say the least. And it's been the coldest here for 10 years or so. Bad timing or what? Next time do it around March/April. All the best mate and have a blast O.S.

[Mishdog20]

Ah no good mate, bloody wildlife ey... Just be glad it wasnt a roo or an emu buddy. Still, it was an absolutely huge effort what ya have done so far mate. When ya get back from O.S. drop us a line and i'll go over the Nullabor with ya, gotta do it sometime, lol. Well hope ya enjoy Europe Luke, and just cause ya arent in Aus nor have a fighter, doesnt mean ya have to be a stranger on here. Anyways Good Luck Mate.

[wackyrider]

hey Mish, how about a trip up to Queensland in a few months??