Cooma to Omeo . . .
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| Read all about the Bongang adventures! |
Mountaineers started appearing at around 7:30am ready for our 'huge' cooked breakfast . . . actually I thought Greg from the Royal did a wonderful job of getting all the meals ready at the same time. The bikes also needed their breakfast, so we started kitting everything up ready for a foray to one of the local servos . . . nearly losing each other in the process.
'Under Observation' . . .
It was pretty clear that the police were still smarting from last night's little incident outside the hotel and they parked a patrol car directly across from our parked bikes, took some photos and started doing a few registration checks (I guess). And there was the other police person who idled down the main street with a bunch of us bikes behind almost inviting us to pass on the inside. Normally we get along really well with the police and even have coffee and chat with them. After all, we are a bunch of normal law abiding citizens out enjoying the roads and landscape . . . I really think these guys thought we were up to no good! I was hoping they were going to ask which way we were heading as I would have said to Canberra!
Repairs . . .
On Tuesday morning the 'repair' team set off on a mission
to find enough bits and to install them to keep Tim going . . . and so they
did. Quite frankly, I thought this was
going to be a three hour (plus two hours contingency) job and that we would all get hopelessly and irretrievably split up! However, it was done
and dusted quite quickly and we 'mustered' back at the hotel for a 10:30am departure.
Mind you, the quality of the repair was somewhat basic
given the calibre of people we had on the job - the foot peg was a 5/8th
bolt! I reckon we could have come up
with something much more creative if we had assigned our absent meteorologist and concrete
expert to the task - but of course that was academic.
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"An intellectual is a man who doesn't know how to
park a bike." Spiro T Agnew
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Checking out Cooma . . .
The fact that some repairs were needed gave the rest of us a rare chance to have a bit of a look around Cooma . . . and specifically to check out Nanny Goat Hill which Tony ascended last night.
Cooma is 800m (2,620’) above sea level - which means according to Mr Adiabatic's dry formula it might be 5 or so degrees cooler than if we were at the bottom of a big hill. It has a population of 6,500 and the name could have come from an Aboriginal word Coombah,
meaning 'big lake' or 'open country' – but I could also be making that up!
The area
was ‘first’ explored in 1823 and became a municipality
in 1879. The railway was extended to
Cooma in 1889 but it was closed in 1986. In 1949,
the town became the headquarters of the Snowy Mountains Scheme and grew rapidly
with people from 27 nations working on the project.
A special highlight is the Aviation Pioneers' Memorial as it contains artefacts recovered from the Avro 618 Ten aircraft Southern Cloud which crashed in 1931 in the Toolong Range of the Australian Alps . . . but given yesterday’s diversion to the crash site I decided another excursion was out of order!
See . . . this is what normal people do when visiting a town!!
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| The Cooma Court House - where the local constabulary wanted to see us! |
We have been very lucky not to come across any bears this year . . . but we did find a goat! While we were trying to amuse ourselves we took a ride to Nanny Goat Hill so we could take in the wonderful vista.
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| No goats here! |
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| Don't even use the word goat! |
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| Doing what normal people do! |
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| Who is that annoying person - oh, it's Alex! |
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| Yum . . . looks like lunch has arrived! |
On Your Bikes . . .
After a bit of a search for fuel (we saw Alf and Tim going this way and that!) we were finally ready to head down the road. We had in fact dispatched Karen ahead of time so she could check the condition of the roads.
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| So why don't you get a Triumph as well Mel? |
This meant riding another 30km to the west to Jindabyne before heading towards Dalgety - and I must say that the scenery along that road was quite stunning. I know there are those in the A-Team who go so fast they cannot see anything but the road, but for the rest of us it was quite stellar. It even gets a mention in the Australia Motor Cycle Atlas and is described as 'rolling through the gentle hills of the Monaro high plains'.
We all pulled up at the Buckley's Crossing pub MUCH cooler than last year . . . it was here that I thought Josie was going to explode!
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| A really cool (relatively) Josie at Dalgety |
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| But last year we parked around the corner! |
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| Come on you lot - we're ready to go! |
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| Hey - who nicked our bikes? |
Power Pole Phil . . .
I am not making this up . . . we all know that Phil and some business partners have built a power station at Traralgon and many more are planned around the country. In all seriousness it is a wonderful concept that provides a lot of flexibility in the generation of relatively green power - and we wish him all the best for the success of the enterprise.
Some of us (me included) do get a bit consumed by an idea and it sometimes dominates our thoughts - like Phil says he has been riding along looking at the various types and configurations of poles, wires, transformers and the like.
However, I am here to report that I saw Phil standing behind a tree having a pee and looking longingly at the nearby power pole and its special equipment . . . I think you might need to distract this man Mel!
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| Phil heading to the tree and power pole! |
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| A very special power pole - I'm sure! |
Off Again . . .
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| Iconic Oz landscape . . . |
After our quick stop at Dalgety we all headed to Bombala for yet another stop. This is the conundrum of motor cycling . . . something like 'hurry up and wait'! We all enjoy passing as much traffic as we can, but passing the same caravan three times in 150km sometimes makes you feel a little bit like a dick!
The road to the highway was again quite stunning - these are the high plains of Eastern Australia and they presented themselves in their magnificent glory for those of us who travelled at a speed sensible enough to see them.
Bombala . . .
So we trundled into Bombala for a coffee/rest - and this was the A/B Team splitting point on our way to Orbost . . . the A-Team took the Bonang Highway via Delegate and the mere mortals travelled the traditional route via Cann River.
We understand that some new records were created on the Bonang - and in fact we came a across a couple blokes in Omeo the next day who were talking about two mad blokes on GSs . . . I wonder who they might have been?
So to clarify the matter I have happily plagiarised part of a thread from our correspondent 'Canning' who is a regular contributor to Bike Me! And a warning - what follows may scare some people and you should not try it at home!
Bonang Highway . . . by 'Canning'
I know many people here at bikeme have ridden the fabled Bonang Highway, and each time I've spoken to anyone about their ride, it always seems like the road delivers an experience in a way few others can.
It is without a doubt a dangerous road with logging trucks appearing, leaf and tree litter usually on the road, and bumps in the surface as the mountain soil substrate moves creating unexpected variations in the bitumen that at speed can provide for an exciting ride. Definitely not a ride for the faint of heart, especially if you want to extract the best out of this road and enjoy the challenge of attempting it with some pace.
Yesterday I found myself at the top end of the road after coming down from Cooma that morning, the weather was cool and dry, and I thought it would be the day to see how long this road takes from end to end.
My bike was my trusty old GS, with tyres at about half life, and loaded for touring. I actually had a stop watch in the clear plastic cover on the top of the tank bag, but whilst it was cool, the sun had cooked it and it no longer worked. Bugger, I thought....hmmm, what about the GPS? Well, Mr Garmin has a very handy feature which records average moving speed, actual moving time, max speed etc, so I reset the GPS to zero and headed off from right next to the "welcome to Victoria" sign, just on the NSW/Vic border.
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| Check the time and odo [click for larger image] |
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| At the border |
Because it was a timed run, I thought it would be good to try and get a reasonable time, so started to push once the tyres warmed up. The bumps in the road surface at that pace made it a little hard to provide constant surface contact, so the bike skipped about a fair amount over the bumps, but apart for the usual sliding and skipping I didn't really have any moments, until getting to the dirt. This dirt is around 14 kms, and I have no problem to push on dirt, which I did happily wheel spinning out of the corners, finding the hardest packed dirt I could, to get good drive and save seconds.....this was all good, and felt fast until I went over a section with some sharp rocks that I should of backed off on, but I it didn't, because trying for time...
After coming off that rocky section, the bike started to feel a bit off, and by the time I got to the bitumen at the other end, I knew the rear tyre was gone....bugger!
I thought, that's the end of that. Better just calm down, fix the thing and enjoy the road, forgetting about the time.
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| Bugga! |
The hole was right in the centre of a tread block. I usually know better than to wheelspin over sharp rocks, but with a desire to move quickly, I let the clock get in the way of good management.
I packed up once repaired, fired the bike up, and the GPS has a function that has "moving time", and "average move speed", so I thought, well, maybe take it easy for 10kms or so, wind back on the pace, keep the max speed below a certain limit, and hit some really hard bumps and try to blow the plug out, and it is stays, then maybe a bit more pace is possible.
So that's how it went. A break to fix the tyre, then a slowish 10-15kms, then back on pace except to keep the max speed down to a level where I thought I could save it if the tyre blew out.
It's such a good ride on the Bonang, you can really push, and whilst a little bumpy, the radius of most of the corners seemed to have been designed by a motorcyclist, and the road is a standout. Definitely a candidate for the best bike road in Australia, and this is the reason I wanted to see what kind of pace could be sustained on it.
At the other end:
Dash says 2.29pm, 67,412kms, and GPS has moving time of 1hour and 7 mins, over 107.3kms. I'm a bit spewing the 7 mins wasn't broken down into seconds, because it was giving seconds before it clicked over the hour...and I don't know how to extract this.
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| Check the time and distance |
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| Near Orbost |
I won't post the speed page of the GPS, but for reference, the average moving speed was 95.1km/h. Well under the speed limit, officer, sir. For the record, I would of course not break the law.
Considering the abuse that was dished out, the tyre plus held up pretty well...
Subtracting the dash time of 2.29 for the start time of 12.58 gives 1 hour, 31 mins for total trip time, and considering the "moving time of 1 hour, 7 mins meaning the tyre repair and slow ride cost 24 mins. Disappointing, but Mr Garmin was clever enough so the break in the middle didn't wreck the timing.
Please be careful if you're going to try this, it is a dangerous road. I recorded the time because I wanted a benchmark for myself, and maybe go back there on a faster bike to see if I could better it....much the same way as Victoria's other brilliant road - the Eildon Jamieson, and I thought it might be interesting to post for others.
So, 1 hour 7 mins end to end. Being that it was his local road, I bet Buckets would give that a good shake.
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| Waiting for the others |
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| Tony thoughtfully carrying a road sign! |
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| I say look out for these two!! |
Resuming 'Normal' Transmissions . . .
So while the A Team were off playing on the Bonang Highway us mere mortals continued on to Cann River . . . and our only fun was riding slow enough to avoid getting speeding tickets!
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| Karen doing another dash to the loo! |
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| We pick some lovely spots to stop |
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| Mmm . . . I am not qualified to judge the condition of this tyre, but !!! |
Fuel Efficiency . . .
Seeing all those pictures of the Cann River servo reminded me of something I was thinking about on the ride . . . have you ever wondered how efficient it is all of us blasting around on motor bikes?
Let's say our average fuel consumption (conservatively) is 6.0litres/100 per bike and there are 10 bikes . . . which is of course 60 litres per 100 km , or about the same as each of these B Doubles get while driving down the Hume at 100kph!
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Still, I am sure we'll find another planet by the time we really stuff this one up - or perhaps I will stop thinking while I am riding!
Orbost . . .
The A + B Teams met for lunch at Orbost . . . well away
from the Commonwealth Hotel from last year, I might add! We particularly enjoyed showing Biker Phil
from Byron Bay how good (and legal) it is to park on the footpath. We all fueled up - and we managed to find the
right kind this year as they had ran out the last time we were in this town.
It was in Orbost that Phil hatched the plan to visit
Alf's place near Swifts Creek - an offer that most of us took up. And what a damned good idea it was.
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| Perfectly legal here! |
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| I guess we were hungry! |
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| The table for the fashion conscious! |
Swifts Creek . . .
So after a 'boring' ride along the highway to
Bruthen we all headed north along the 'Great Alpine Road', which is one of my
favourites. As the Atlas says, it goes
back to an 'old fashioned' and unpredictable style of surveying with a few
corners that can fool you into thinking they're easier than they look' - and I
can only imagine what they must look like at A-Team speeds.
A Cunning Plan . . .
Now many of you will know I am 'not allowed' to have a GS
for a very simple reason - Lorraine thinks they are VERY ugly. In fact she has even invented a new
descriptive term of 'fugly' - you can imagine the extrapolated version. She also lives a very simple life when it
comes to most things - they are either great or crap. This generally applies to motor cycles,
except she puts the GS into a third category of its own!
So you can see some of the complexities and challenges of
my problem - so I have hatched a long term and somewhat circuitous plot. The first part involved buying a BMW jacket
so she would get used to seeing the brand plastered around the place. Second, I managed to convince her to buy some
new motor cycling gear which could be interpreted as being suitable for a GS.
The next step was more delicate and I needed to enlist
Phil's support - his job was to convince her of the merits of the GS in the
14km to Alf's place and back to the highway.
And I am pleased to report that he was up for the task and the mission
was a success.
So at this rate I might get a GS by about 2020!
Mind you, comments by that anonymous 'Canning' on Bike Me! sometimes don't actually help . . . here's what he said about his GS:
So at this rate I might get a GS by about 2020!
Mind you, comments by that anonymous 'Canning' on Bike Me! sometimes don't actually help . . . here's what he said about his GS:
Incidentally, a GS on pace, outruns it's suspension and
doesn't have enough power. You sit there twiddling your thumbs waiting for it
to build speed, and when the mid corner pace is really on, the suspension gets
loose in a manner akin to an albatross padding it's webbed feet like crazy,
trying to keep up with it's wings during take off in between the boiling waves
of a big sea - and with about the same degree of control - not much. It's still
fun though, in a very fast, clumsy overgrown duck kind of way.
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| Now - how would you like to go for a ride on a GS? |
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| I think she liked it - thanks Phil! |
Bacon and Egg Ice Cream . . .
I think that most people will agree that the idea of
riding a Harley at speed along a dirt road is somewhat incongruous - the two
notions just don't fit together, sort of like 'bacon and egg ice cream'.
Well, I am here to report that I sampled such a diet . . . that Alf can not only ride, he and the Harley (with me on the back!) demonstrated hurtling down the gravel road is entirely possible. I occasionally looked at the road and could feel myself putting my foot out expecting us to go 'A over T' at any time . . . like doing about 90kph into a negative camber right hander barely visible from the dust of Phil's bike about 10 metres ahead!
Thanks Alf - that was a real treat! And thanks Tony for taking it very steady on
the way back to Swift's Creek.
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| Well not quite . . . but close!! |
Alf's Idyllic Spot . . .
How lucky were we to be invited out to Alf's place for a
look around and a nice cold beer! What a
stunning part of the world and a real toy shop heaven - this guy has stuff most
of us don't even dream about! Many
thanks for your kind hospitality Alf - and it was lovely riding with you once
again.
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| Special clouds (Alto Cirro Stratus?) to remind Roger of home |
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| That is a bicycle launching ramp in the centre left - seriously! |
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| Every shed has some specials treats! |
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| Mmm - now I'm excited!! |
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| But these are even better! |
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| Tony looking right at home |
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| Another micro-step . . . both on GSs at the same time! |
So we settled into the Hilltop Hotel once again . . . and
I must say that I too am getting a bit tired of its crappy surrounds, small
rooms and grubby bathrooms. And I am
afraid that our meals were not very nice at all (almost inedible!), so that
might be the last time we stay there - even though it isn't my problem as I am
now successfully disqualified from organising MM ever again!
And thanks too to 'The Stig' Graham for kindly giving us all
a copy of the DVD at dinner - it was very kind and generous of you.
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| The new outdoor lounge area . . . |
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| Guess which table we had . . . |
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| Same place, same people . . . |
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| Mel - you really can't hide much! |
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| It was in Lorimer Street near the Customs Yard . . . |
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| . . and how DO you get a bike out of the Customs yard? |
My Numbers
Fuel Consumption - 6.1l/100km
Distance - 501km
Time on Bike - 5:33hrs
Average Speed - 90kph
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