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Eight days of riding.


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In an effort to escape from the endless miles of straight roads in North Queensland I headed 1500km south to  Kyogle New South Wales for a few days of riding the twisties  around Northern NSW and Southern QLD with my brother in law. Had the bike serviced prior to departure including a small hole in the bottom radiator fixed ( I now have an R&G radiator guard fitted) 

On my way through Brisbane I had a new set of pilot 5s fitted and some new rear brake pads. The weather was cool (actually freezing for a Nth Queenslander) 4 to 6 deg in the mornings, otherwise it was perfect. 

My brother in laws bike is a 1979 Triumph Bonneville Special that he has owned since new, only his second bike and probably the last bike he will ever own. Having lived in Kyogle for around 20 years he is a human GPS for a radius of about 300km. It was of course over all too soon. 1500km of straight roads later I was back in Townsville. All up I did just over 4500km the bike ran perfectly the whole trip. It may be useful to know that over the first two days I used all the coolant in the reservoir/overflow tank. I was panicking that I still had a leak in the radiator but since topping up the tank on the morning of day three it hasn’t moved. Was obviously a lot of air in the system after the radiator repair.

The bike is now cleaned and polished and I am planning my next escape from straight roads.

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Would have been a terrific ride mate. SE QLD and across the border into NSW has some of the best roads alright. Throw a few more trip pics up.

 

Your brothers bike looks like a gem!

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Hi Phantom, unfortunately I took very few photos, I left Townsville around six in the morning and stayed the first night in Gin Gin (996km) I was tempted to ride another 2 kilometres past the motel and back again just to make it a 1000km day. The next day I rode to Team Moto at Springwood got two new tyres and a radiator guard fitted then continued on to Kyogle. Wasted

some time the next day replacing brake pads that were supposed to have been replaced as part of the service I had done just prior to leaving Townsville, and having my radiator checked as I thought I had a leak (long boring story) radiator was fine. We did ride as far north as Mt Glorious, where we had lunch, a great road apart from the cows. Returning home was a similar story. My brother in laws bike turned 40 yesterday he spent the day out riding!!!

 

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  • 2 months later...
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I don’t recall if we went right in to Dum Dum but we rode along Kyogle Road through Uki to Murwillumbah and back several times. Also rode to the Hinze dam, had lunch there. Rode up to Beechmont and down in to Canungra. Have done several trips down to this area two on the VFR, and have also flown to Brisbane and rented bikes (BMW S1000R, photo attached, and a Yamaha MT09, they don’t have a VFR ☹️)from “Rent this Bike” in Slacks Creek not far from Moss St in Springwood where most of the bike shops are located. Great guys to deal with if you want to rent a bike around Brisbane. Have also ridden through Ipswich up to Mt Glorious.

Have you ridden in this area? It’s a long way from Spain. Have recently being watching some videos of riding in Spain, around Picos De Europa it looks fantastic.

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Spain is an awesome country for motorcycling... good weather (most of the year round) and mountain ranges galore. I can get from Murcia to Valencia in 2 and a half hours on the tollway but if I choose the twisty mountain roads I could take all day, hardly see another vehicle (nor police car) and wear out a set of knee sliders. Grew up in QLD. North QLD to be exact which hast the Gillies, Kuranda, Palmerston and Julaten highways and little else. Then it's straight down the Bruce highway all the way to Brisbane for two-three days. For some perhaps the Alps in Europe are more breathtaking but you can't ride almost all year round on them like you can in (most of) Spain's mountain ranges.

 

Don't talk to me abouthe Picos de Europa. Thorn in my side. Went to do them in April 2018 on my way back to Spain after a couple of years working in England and got off the ferry in Santander, slipped on some mud while taking a photo (not even on the bike). Grabbed the handlebar on my way down and brought the 215Kg Triumph Tiger down on my ankle, breaking the Tibia (ankle). Yet I will return one day...

 

I once spent two weeks in the Pyrenees going through two sets of tyres and wow what scenery, there are even glaciers you can hike to in the highest parts. Basque country, Aragon, Navarra, Catalonia. That's three different languages and many more dialects. Non-stop curves. Even did some bits twice but reversing the loop the roads make.

 

Oh plus I have the MotoGP Ricardo Tormo Racetrack at Cheste, Valencia, another smaller one at Cartagena, another nice racetrack in the Tabernas Desert close to Almería and then there's a small one at Albacete.... all within a 3 hour radius on all sides... from my home in Murcia... although I'm currently 20 minutes away from the Catalonian MotoGP track, Montmeló for work reasons. we used to head there every spring, early summer for a 24 hour race they hold there and camp in a small pine forest up the top of the hill!!

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29 minutes ago, Auspanglish said:

 

 

Oh plus I have the MotoGP Ricardo Tormo Racetrack at Cheste, Valencia, another smaller one at Cartagena, another nice racetrack in the Tabernas Desert close to Almería and then there's a small one at Albacete.... all within a 3 hour radius on all sides... 

 

So when are you buying an SP1 or 2?

 

 

 

Be the quickest paella delivey man in town!!!

 

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Hahaha Dutchy... my 6'4" and almost half century just aren't made for such torture racks anymore.... but I may one day get back on track... (Honda VFR800 VTEC takes on BMW KT1200, among others)....

 

 

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Well Auspanglish now I am depressed 😞 The Gillies and Atherton Tablelands are about 3 1/2hrs north of me and as you said about the only decent roads in North Queensland. That said the Gillies has to rate right up there with the best motorcycling roads. The police certainly love it, and it now has a 60kmh speed limit If I am not mistaken, as well as no overtaking except in the three or four overtaking lanes. Rules were meant to be broken though. 
You seem to have a lot of choices for track days, seems like the perfect place. I have been to Spain but unfortunately not on a motorcycle.

I am heading to Japan on Friday for some skiing so that will put a smile back on my face, bad timing with the Coronavirus though. Japan is having a funny winter this year great snow for a few days then warm weather and rain but we will take what we get. 
Enjoyed the video too by the way. Ride safe.

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2 hours ago, Philois1984 said:

Well Auspanglish now I am depressed 😞 The Gillies and Atherton Tablelands are about 3 1/2hrs north of me and as you said about the only decent roads in North Queensland. That said the Gillies has to rate right up there with the best motorcycling roads. The police certainly love it, and it now has a 60kmh speed limit If I am not mistaken, as well as no overtaking except in the three or four overtaking lanes. Rules were meant to be broken though. 
You seem to have a lot of choices for track days, seems like the perfect place. I have been to Spain but unfortunately not on a motorcycle.

 

Haha, well, Philois, I have been to Australia but never on a motorcycle! Specifically two years ago the Atherton Tablelands that you mention, west of Cairns, see photo below, unfortunately with only my rental car in the picture. Oh how I wished I was on my bike--perfect paving, great twists, turns, and elevation changes, and--right after this shot--a supercar (Turbo Carrera I think) on my tail. I let him by.

 

 

 

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I know the spot well, wish there were more people who pulled over and let people go by, everyone wants to be a member of the fun police these days. Hope you enjoyed your holiday.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Not really sure where to put this as it is not bike related, but I will stick it here and hope for the best. Saw this concept car at the Nissan showroom in Ginza Tokyo, looked amazing. Thought it might be of interest to some. Hope the link works.

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On 2/11/2020 at 12:52 AM, St. Stephen said:

Haha, well, Philois, I have been to Australia but never on a motorcycle! Specifically two years ago the Atherton Tablelands that you mention, west of Cairns, see photo below, unfortunately with only my rental car in the picture. Oh how I wished I was on my bike--perfect paving, great twists, turns, and elevation changes, and--right after this shot--a supercar (Turbo Carrera I think) on my tail. I let him by.

 

 

 

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You can rent bikes, though!  I had a free day in Cairns several years ago and rented a VTEC (from a dodgy dude--that's another story--but the VFR worked fine!)

 

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Ciao,

 

JZH

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