General Category > LONG DISTANCE RIDING, Proper preparation, Safety and Tips
OzSTOC SS1600K - the wrap up.....
tj189:
If we could put post reports, comments and photos in here it would be appreciated :thumb
If the mods could move any posts in the ......so it begins ..... thread that would be appreciated too please :thumb
Wombattle:
Home safe after a fantastic weekend and a great ride. Thanks TJ, Chris, Jean and everyone else who made this work so well. The best thing about a group IBA ride is the debrief and sharing the experience with others in a sport that's often quite solitary. TJ and Gadget it was great riding with you both, very laid back and cruisy, the way it should be (oh, "hello"). To all the brand new IBA members a huge congratulations. I really enjoyed listening to your thoughts on the ride and the quite different comments about whether there was another one on the way for you. I was very impressed with the way you all approached it, thoughtful, prepared and most of all with safety first! I learned a lot on this one about MYST and about riding longer stints, never having tested the limits of the tank feet up before. Some hydration system adjustments required for the ST but perhaps not the ones I used this time :-). And a first for me... sausage sangas after an Iron Butt ride instead of a Cherry Ripe twin pack... awesome. And the ride home today, nice and easy and thanfully not a sign of rain so I didn't have to put my wet weather gear on. Here's some pics.
Half way pics. Me first
TJ, after making friends with a couple of Gladiators
And Gary (do you reckon he's dome a modelling course?)
TJ in Cruise mode
Gadget giving the thumbs up!
On the road
There's a couple of more here http://s1263.photobucket.com/user/wombattle1/library/Ozstoc%201600K?sort=3&page=1 if you want to look guys and gals.
Biggles:
Here's a start for my report. More to come soon.
Marcus:
:popcorn:
Gadget:
Part 1: The outward journey
Firstly
My certificate!
Firstly I had considered this, but put in the "too hard" basket. After talking to TJ at an RTE, I considered it feasible, and then the idea a group ride came about and I thought this is the time to have a crack.
Now that I've done it, I don't know that I'll do another any time soon (Ms Gadget says never) however, it has given me the confidence to tackle a long trip safely on the bike. I think it will be a great hobby in retirement. ;-*
Thanks again to all involved in the idea through to implementation and fruition.
I'm glad to see that all were supportive of each other, no-one was pushing anyone to go beyond their limit and safety was paramount.
Now for the ride report.
Shiney and I met up near home and headed down to Boonah on the Thursday morning prior to the event to meet up with Streak for Breakfast at Cafe 17. Streak has a photo of us at Breakfast and here is mine of what was such a filling breakfast I didn't need lunch and the bikes lined up across the road
From there we rode down the Mt Lindsay Highway to Kyogle and Casino stopping for Fuel and a drink and a little break. then we continued on through to Coffs Harbour.
When we were almost there we spotted a red ST1300 heading North, gave a wave and got a very enthusiastic wave back which put a :grin on my face and later I discovered it was StinkyPete out doing a bit of sightseeing. ++ So we kept on trundling into Coffs and made our way to the Motel.
There we discovered Saaz was there, Lionel was expected and StinkyPete would be back soon. After we had checked in and had a good chin wag, and had waited for the others to arrive, we did the tourist bit and walked across the road and looked at the beach. What a view at Park Beach Coffs Harbour.
Over dinner at the Bowls Club that night, I hatched a plan with Shiney and StinkyPete to go down to South West Rocks (SWR) , to check it out for a possible overnighter to replace Inverell. We left Streak in the comfort of the motel room to slave away on work via remote. :eek Lionel and Saaz chose to have a well deserved rest day.
We took off for SWR with Google telling us that 106 km was going to take 1:29 hours, I looked at it being mostly highway and thought Google must have got it wrong for once. Well after what seemed like a million road works and umpteen dozen speed zone changes and an hour and a half later, we arrived in SWR and went straight to the beach. And this is what we saw.
Yes in the distance is a Caravan Park by the beach, where this photo was taken was next to a Cafe/Takeaway/Ice cream shop and 100 m behind was a Surf Lifesaving Club with really good menu prices. Here is the view from the veranda of the SLC.
We went and talked to the Caravan Park and they gave us a brochure which should they have 12 cabins and a variety of camp sites and across teh raod behind them was a couple of apartments for those that want some hard accommodation. On the way in I noticed a Lions Club sign, and StinkyPete had the sense to ask if the Caravan Park would mind if one of teh service clubs came in to do breakfast. Well as it happens, every 2nd sunday the local Rotary Club does a Breakfast (Bacon and Egg Buns) for a few dollars and free tea and coffee.
While we were getting ready to leave the car park, StinkyPete mentioned he had bought an AirHawk and after trying it he decided it wasn't for him. Out of curiosity, I asked if he had it with him. to my surprise he did, and he offered for me to try it. Well on the ride back to Coffs my one pressure point had disappeared and I could feel my ample weight was more evenly distributed. I decided that if Pete didn't want it, I would find out what he wanted for it. In under a minute we had a deal we could both live with and my derrière is most grateful.
When we got eventually got back to Coffs, Abe had arrived, so we handed handed the info over and eagerly await the announcement :popcorn No pressure Abe. :grin
By the time we got back it was time to meet the new arrivals for the day and think about food and getting a snooze in before the off. Someone recommended the Takeaway at the Servo right next door to the Bosun's Inn Motel http://www.motelcoffsharbour.com/ well the $10.50 Beef Works Burger, (soory no photo) took half an hour to eat and was very filling. After a bit more of a catch up with more OzSTOCers it was time for bed. I managed to get my customary 6:30 hours of solid kip and woke at 10:30 pm rearing to get going.
Eventually we were all up and made our way to the start point. After fuelling and getting a start docket ST2UP and Pockey doing their official Time keepers duties the first bunch of three were dispatched at 2:00am with an ambient Temp of 14 °C. I took a photo of the with every intention of doing that at every stop. But this was the only one I got.
Before I knew it they were asking for the next three, and Streak, Shiney and I accepted the challenge. After a while it started to rain and the slowed the pace a little, and we caught the group in front and eventually and overtaking opportunity presented and we took it.
Soon the more seasoned riders had caught us and for 50 odd kms there was a bunch of seven poking our way through the showers with some AWESOME illumination up front.
After a couple of hundred kms Streak and Shiney had found the wet going a little tougher and decided to take their first break. I had planned on doing this as three stops and then home, and as I'm used to riding all weather I pressed on with the more seasoned riders for a while. Their pace was a little quicker than I felt comfortable with on my old well worn PR3's so I let them slowly disappear up the road. In one way that was a mistake, as I had forgot to plug my phone in to charge, (Phone = GPS voice guidance through the bluetooth only) and on GPS the battery goes flat in a couple of hours. So as I reached Maitland I discovered the road had changed a little since I was last there and I got to the round-a-bout a the end of the Newcastle motorway and went straight ahead. Shortly I saw a "Welcome to Cessnock" sign and that gave me an uncomfortable feeling. I should have immediately gone with my instinct, but didn't like the idea of doubling back and being wrong, so a continued for 5 km until I came to the turn off for Blackhill Road and didn't recognise the landscape at all. So I stopped, plugged in the phone, powered it back took a quick look at where I was and found I was 5 km off course. :|||| A quick u-bolt and I was soon back on the motorway.
I kept an eye out to the east and I could see the glow of Newcastle lights and before long the first signs of dawn. this pleased me as I was sick off just getting high beam on to have to lower them again. So I adjusted low beam up a bit so I could still see well up the road.
Before I knew it the lovely lady on the GPS was telling me to "take the exit and you will reach your destination". I had made my first planned stop at Warnervale South (as my GPS called it) and my plan was on track.
As I pulled in the last of the lead pack (Biggles, Lionel, StinkyPete, Abe, and a couple of others whose names escape me) were pushing their bike from the pump and hydrating and munching and having a good laugh. I noted my arrival time (4:22 am), Odo, fuelled, as I went to pay the lead pack made preparations to go. My quick description off my detour gave them a good laugh and one kind dole offered me a GPS :p Which I graciously refused. Back to the bike, grabbed a museli bar, chomped it in seconds, gulped down some sports water relised I hadn't visited the toilet so I ducked in and relieved the bladder, back to the bike, stuffed a couple of Museli bars in my Jacket pocket and noted the time as 4:38 am. Quick maths and I worked out I had only stopped for 16 minutes and thought I probably could have done better.
With the GPS now programmed for the Pup on the Lunchbox, I tool off one my own, not expecting to catch up with the others. I continued on the beautiful Newcastle Freeway to Sydney. As the sun was rising, I was expecting the temp to climb. As I wend my way through the mountains it dropped to 9 °C :eek and only came back up to 12 °C through Sydney.
I made my way down to Pennant Hills Road and was in familiar territory, and soon found the M2 and then the M7. Before I knew it I was out the other side and heading towards Mittagong. After an hour I called up the Truckers and asked if they had seen a pack of 5 or 6 bikes like mine, to my surprise none had seen them. I began to wander how slow my progress was through Sydney and if I had fallen way behind Schedule. This caused me to do some mental arithmetic and workout my OA on the fly and I came to the conclusion I was still on track to arrive at the Dog at my estimated time of 11:00 am. About 30 km East of Yass one of the Truckers said he had seen them and they were just the other side of Yass, so I was reassured that everyone was still going well. the temperature had stubbornly refused to rise above 13 °C up until then and then it slowly started to ascend to the dizzy heights of 18 °C just as I pulled into the Servo at Gundagai. A quick check of my clock and I had arrived at exactly 11:00 am.
Continued here
http://ozstoc.com/index.php?topic=8053.msg92649#msg92649
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