AB-Oz Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 G'day all, About 23 of the OzVFR crowd, including some hangers-on, had 5+ days in the Snowy Mountains, NSW Australia. Here are some pix, and a ride report will follow, when I write it SinS07 Summer in the Snowies – SinS2007 History: The official Snowy Ride is held in November each year to raise funds for the Children's Cancer Institute of Australia, and attracts approx. 2500 riders to the Snowy Mountain Region of NSW. 2 years ago the weather was so awful that some of us decided to have a ride in the actual Summer, in February. All references to speed are in Km/h, and purely made up to sound glamorous. We didn't break 1 speed limit the whole trip Roll Call: AB (red 99 VFRSP2), Terry (red 00), RAB (Blue 00), Garrie (Red 99), Paul (K4), Brendan (VTR1000) Trevor & Sandra (Red 94), AndrewS (ZX12), Daniel (red 02), Kev (Green 97), Greg (Red 99), RoY (Blue 04), Hayden (Bluebird), Irena (K5), John S (Anniversary), Glen (Blue 03), Scotty (929) Brent (K5), Fay (R6), Kirby (Red 03), Taxus (Red 96), AndrewQ + Mrs (Blackbird SP1), Sharon (Blue 01), Darren (Blue 01) A map or 2 may be handy… Shoalhaven: http://www.maps.com.au/PDFS/Maps/shoalhvn/...lhvn_Region.pdf Sapphire coast: http://www.maps.com.au/PDFS/Maps/sapph_cst...hire_Region.pdf Snowy Mountains: http://www.maps.com.au/PDFS/Maps/snowy_mtn/Sn_Region.pdf Friday 9th February: The Canberra contingent were to meet at my place for a 10am departure, in order to meet the Sydney mob at noon in Batemans Bay. RAB and Terry were at my place the evening before, and we set up all the static and rider sags. RAB looked on in envy at Terry's and my Ohlins Right on time me, Terry, Trev & Sandra, RAB, Paul, Garrie, and Andrew departed for Bungendore, to pick up Helen and Peter. Helen on some sort of Aprillia, and Peter on a Red 04 Here's where we regrouped to discuss my disregard for wildlife: He said I needed to up the compression a bit, so I wound it up full hard, backed off 8 clicks (I have 24 to play with), and wound on a little more preload. Thanks Roy, that had it sorted !! We took off from Adaminaby and soon this road becomes the "Orange Brick Road", orange painted lines, fantastic smooth hotmix, and some excellent 35/45 corners. We were to regroup at the Kiandra turnoff, but after being there a bit too long we saw John turn up on his Anniversary 99 to say Brendan had had a slight mishap. Trev, Terry and I turned around and scooted off to see if we could help. Terry had the Satellite phone just in case, as there is no mobile coverage in the mountains. It turns out the VTR got tired and had a lay down, after Brendan failed to negotiate a right hander: RHS all trashed, broken brake lever. Terry jury rigged his spare viffer brake lever to give Brendan some front brakes again, and Trev took it for a quick blat to test its roadworthiness. Trev reported that the forks had a slight tweak to them, but the bike was rideable. During this time the one and only cop we saw all day stopped in a pursuit car: Cop: "everything all right?" Me: "Yep, just a breakdown" Cop: "Not a crash, no injuries?" Me: "Nope we all fine here thanks mate" Terry, being clever: "Hey mate which way are you headed?" Cop, being cleverer: "We're everywhere today mate..." Terry: "Gee you guys are a lot smarter than the last car load of police"!! Cop: "ha ha very funny" Only a big jovial Greek with an infectious grin like Terry can get away with saying things like this to the plod!! After they left, Terry decided to accompany Brendan back the way we had come from Jindabyne, as Brendan was still pretty shook up, and a bit of a sore leg. He was very lucky to get out of this one so easy – check the lack of run off and whats beyond the Armco… As we left Terry and Brendan, we carried on to Cabramurra (CurryMurray), to find the others, some eating lunch, some looking at the sky. It turned into a mad scramble to gear up as the rain started to fall, and the clouds looked ominous… RoY: We rode down the mountain in the rain, I passed Hayden on the Bluebird as he slowed due to a fairly bald rear power, and to put his video camera away. We managed to stay ahead of the storm front, until we pulled into the servo at Khancoban to find shelter. The heavens opened, thunder and lightning very very frightening !! We waited out the storm and had some lunch. Then went on our way. the road started out really wet, with branches, bark, and gravel all blown and washed onto the road, making it very treacherous. Trev and I caught up with the rat pack to find Hayden fixing about 10 punctures in his tyre, the wet tyre proving no match to the abrasive roads. Lucky nearly all of us carry repair kits, and Hayden had a compressor in his top box for just the occasion. The roads started to dry out and we had some great fun from Tom Groggins to Dead Horse Gap, and the road into Thredbo was relatively clear, with me, Trev, Darren and AndrewS forming a 160kph conga line into Jindabyne. There we met up with Taxus and Sharon who had just arrived from Sydney, and AndrewQ on his FrankenBird with his wife on pillion, and mate Paul+pillion on a rented FZ something big touring thing. They had lost a day due to Paul's Hayabusa suffering a cracked rear subframe just before they got to Sydney. My wife Donna and daughter KB rolled up in the Carrera 4 - OzVFR support vehicle, and we all had an excellent Chinese "and then" dinner. Hayden fell asleep and Terry found some nail polish: Sunday 11th February The morning greeted us with inclement weather. Trev, Kirby, Glen and Scotty decided to go for a ride anyway, Scotty deciding to start his long ride home to North Queensland. For the rest of us it was nasty rainy stuff all day, every time I looked out of the window thinking I'd go for a ride it would start raining again. So we stayed at the chalet and watched some movies, drank some beer and Turkey. It turns out that after Adaminaby the weather was great for the other lads, and they ended up scooting down Elliot way, another OzVFR favourite. They came back to find us drunk and ordering pizza again!! Monday 12th February Raining again, but we were all determined to ride, so the rain gear went on, and a procession of 15 VFR's headed to Thredbo, albeit very slowly due to the constant drizzle. I didn't like road conditions much, and let people by, then could see Kirby behind me but no Sharon. Knowing she was last in the group and not wanting to leave her behind, I waved Kirby past, and Sharon showed up shortly after, having a couple of rear end slideys was slowing her down !! To the top of the mountain was pretty bad conditions, but then the road dried and we rode into a sunny day, so I scooted away to have some peg scraping fun. I had to stop at the bottom of the mountain to get my rainsuit off and change to tinted visor and summer gloves, and Sharon was never too far back. At Khancoban, Sharon and I caught up with the Monday gang, and we lined up the bikes for a group shot. Now you see them: Now you don't: Greg left for Melbourne; Glen and Darren were going North thru Tumbarumba and beyond as they had to beck in Sydney that day. Trev accompanied them and made his way back via Adaminaby to Jindabyne, to sooth his aching limbs and bum caused by the red bikes hard suspension. AndrewQ and his other 3 rode into Khanco after doing the loop anti-clockwise, and I herded the gang together to venture into Victoria. The plan was to go Northwest to Towong, Tintaldra, Walwa along the Murray river road. This road was superb, and quite ahem fast, one bit had us fanging up over a hill, front wheel airborne, to see a series of 5 or 6 sweepers switching back and forth down the valley, good for a 160 tootle. After leaving Walwa we started heading towards a huge bushfire, just the other side of the river. We could see the flames reaching 50-60ft high, and 3 or 4 helicopters doing water bombing. Thinking that riding thru the smoke, embers and fleeing wildlife would not be fun, we turned around: Taxus needed fuel, so we headed to Jingellic, then back to Walwa for lunch: Then back to Jingellic and Tumbarumba for fuel for the rest of us (don't you just love the names!). From there we tootled up Elliot Way, fantastic stretch of sweepers in the forest then tightening twisties to just near Cabramurra. I almost put the frankenviffer down, hitting a rock mid corner on a 35, big wobble, left foot down, pucker, and tip in to keep going! We stopped to regroup and coming down the other way to this intersection of 3 roads, RoY just sailed past, but Hayden and Irena spotted us and stopped, with Roy realising what was going on and also stopping. From there we got to play on the Orange Brick road again. I was tailing Terry, and we caught Taxus, who waved Terry by – I also scooted thru, then we were all braking and blipping down the gears for a surprising 35, and just throwing the bikes around the corner ! After that Terry waved me thru, then we had a tired ride back to Jindabyne. A lot of bench racing and fluid intake went on that evening, and into the night… Tuesday 13th February Home time for me, Terry and I rode to Canberra, where he peeled off for the superslab back to Sydney, the rest of the people stayed to venture south to do the Bonang Highway. A fantastic ride – thanks everyone, top fun, top roads, top company. Same time next year? Cheers AB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turtlecreek Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 G'day all,About 23 of the OzVFR crowd, including some hangers-on, had 5+ days in the Snowy Mountains, NSW Australia. Here are some pix, and a ride report will follow, when I write it SinS07 cool pics. i hope one day to get there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 We rode many of the same roads last year coming up from Vic. Here's a pic from my much abbreviated 3 day ride this year in the Vic high country - got home yesterday actually. This probably the very best motorcycle road I have ever ridden on! The Bonang Road, Orbost in Vic to Delegate just over the border in NSW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baileyrock Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 Very nice, thanks for sharing! :thumbsup: :beer: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Phantom Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Someone was keen to save some weight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
911man Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 I would have 'popped over" the ditch for that! Cool pics and I take it you all had a great time. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Phantom Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Great report AB, so how did that Vtec sound with the shorty pipe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinyminds Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Great pics. Good to see what roads in other places look like. I want to take a trip through Canada some day, Looks beautiful up there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AB-Oz Posted February 20, 2007 Author Share Posted February 20, 2007 Peter's bike sounded ok, very un-VTEC , he'd also put 2 baffles in the short pipe to give the engine some back pressure. It looked really weird from behind though, 2 huge spaces where the stock cans go. Hey Jason, I'm sure Canada does look and have some nice roads good but my story(and this slice of the forum) is all about Australia !! :unsure: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobie1dog Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Super write-up......great pictures too. Really enjoyed reading about it. Thanks for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Chev Posted February 20, 2007 Member Contributer Share Posted February 20, 2007 Looks like an incredible trip. Nice writeup, too :unsure: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer JustinR Posted February 20, 2007 Member Contributer Share Posted February 20, 2007 great write up :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Thanks for sharing - really enjoyed the excellent write up and pics. :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superfunkomatic Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 great post. i was down in that neck of the woods in 1994, lots of bushfires then. loved the area around thredbo - cooma, bega (good cheese) and eden (really like heaven on earth) the blue mountains and snowy mountains were awesome driving, i hope to get back one day and do it on a bike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zRoYz Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 Great write up AB, the Bonang on Tuesday was just too good for words & hope when I do again the surface is in same condition. The dirt at end also wasn't to bad but then again I didn't think about it after the buzz the Bonang left. The ride to get to the Bonang & back to base was also done at major speed & I don't think I saw under 180 very much with a max of 224 GPS reading, but speedo said allot more :-) Only mishap for full week I was there was on way home when we did a dirt detour & I hit a big rock at 100 odd & dented my front wheel but it's fixable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AB-Oz Posted February 25, 2007 Author Share Posted February 25, 2007 Excellent! Always good to have a good Bonang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer quicknick Posted February 25, 2007 Member Contributer Share Posted February 25, 2007 Great write up and cool pics. Never knew they had those goanna's up in Canada. Crazy stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Phantom Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 You'd be surprised by what we have here in Canada! >; ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soichiro Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Thanks for sharing - really enjoyed the excellent write up and pics. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Thanks very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer skuuter Posted February 27, 2007 Member Contributer Share Posted February 27, 2007 Enjoyed the reading and pics..........looks like some great roads..................... :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer rollme Posted February 28, 2007 Member Contributer Share Posted February 28, 2007 Nice! Thanks for sharing. Those pics could be mistaken for California. Someday, if I'm lucky, I'll come down under and tear up those rodes with y'all. :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AB-Oz Posted February 28, 2007 Author Share Posted February 28, 2007 Come on down! Happy to play tour guide, I dont need my arm twisted to do these roads!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zRoYz Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 You'd be surprised by what we have here in Canada! >; ) Maybe some of these, the Turkey drinking Koala are very rear :-) You know when there close buy due to empty Wild Turkey bottles everywhere & as you get closer the constant "Koala Koala" chanting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AB-Oz Posted October 20, 2007 Author Share Posted October 20, 2007 hmm, cant edit the original post for some reason, to fix a link... anway, here's the link to all the pix. Linky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 Nice pictures (v. dramatic with the fires in the background) Great idea to have the ride in February, Snowy ride is great but October can be tempremental weather wise Really good to see plenty of VFRs in Canberra, and with a new lease of life (pleasantly seperated!) look forward to meeting a few of the locals sometime soon :rolleyes: Tony 'Greenwing' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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