WA Overnight RTE 20-21 September - Jurien Bay

[HOFFY]

I was in Geraldton just after midday on Sunday and sighted a great bike followed by a red and white checked tear drop trailer and I said to the missus, That's WINSTON from Northampton.

We were in a car on top of the bridge near BP Tarcoola and it was so windy and the rain was coming sideways directly at us in the car and never let up all the way back to Perth (430km).

Congratulations to the riders who made the trip and I hope you all made it home safe and dry, I didn't see any ST's on the side of the road but I was overtaken in extremely heavy rain by a couple of road/trail bikes.

I'm Sorry I couldn't make it.

Regards

[Pezzz]

Thanks to Winston66, West Aussie Glen, Blackduck, and Excopper for a great weekend.
Left home at 9:30 and met up with Blackduck at 10:06 at just north of Carramar. I had 3 other family members with me as well as they are doing a run next weekend south and just wanted a quick refresher run on the bikes before then. One was a learner and another has confidence issues so about 10:20 we embarked on a slow stroll up as far as Gingin Brook Road.
Waved goodbye to them and then it was time to get moving.
Arrived in Jurien Bay at 12:30 and was going to drop gear off until we saw Winston already at the pub so a quick U-Turn and it was beer o'clock :-)
Met Rob and his new friend Doug and had a pleasant chat for an hour until the tummys told us it was lunch time.
Back on the bikes around the corner to the local Bakery and full stomachs later it was Goodbye to Rob followed a short time later by Doug and then off to the house.
Change of clothes and then a sit around on the couch chatting for a while until Glen rocks on in.
Bit more talking and then a walk back to the pub / tavern for dinner. I think everyone enjoyed to food even though mine took a little while to get out to me.
A stroll back to the house via the servo for some nibbles and drinks and then more chatting until we headed to bed.
Before bed we decided to take a look at the World Wind map that someone put up on here to try and gauge the weather for today and decided on an early start.
I set the alarm for 7:30 and around 6:30 heard people up and about so got up as well. A cuppa later and many tries of hot water (to no avail) we decided to just head off.
Left Jurien Bay around 8am. Had a nice run apart from some really gusty winds right up to the point where we started to get back in to civilization. From there the heavens opened and in moments I was drenched. I neglected to look at the weather before i left home so I only had mesh jacket and normal kevlar pants on. Needless to say it was a very cold 1/2hour ride from there to home.
I was back at the same servo I filled up at yesterday exactly 24.5 hours later (10am).
Total distance for me was 452km and used 25.5L of 91 so I am happy enough with that. Spent the afternoon watching movies on the couch with the family 
Once again a big thanks to all who attended and once I find out how the hot water works, if happy then will do again some time.

[Turtle]

Glad you all had a good ride 

Turtle

[Shiney]

Great RR Pezzz, thanks for sharing

[excopper]

 :bl11Hi all,
           pezzz,worked out consumption for my trip,got 19ks per ltr(412k), using premium. last time did checks got 17.6 using unleaded, so depending on what price you get your fuel for,whats better for me premium is a touch better,but really much of muchness,

                                  cheers  Bob

[winston66]

Ok.
Since we are talking about fuel usage and economy, I did a little experiment with my 2003 1300 whilst towing the mono wheel trailer this last weekend  from Northampton to Jurien and back.
The conditions for riding a motorcycle were in my opinion quite horrific, especially whilst towing. Very strong and gusty head and cross winds ,Particularly on the way home, caused by the very strong storm front that came in at a great speed. At times it could have gusted up too and even exceeded 40 kph.I had a very strong cross and head winds for the ride home
For at least half of the  total distance traveled ie. 250 ks.  (a total of 504 for the weekend), because of the windy conditions I just set the cruise on 90-95 Kph and selected 4Th. gear and let the Steed run somewhere around 3500 to  maybe 4000 Rpm.It pulled evenly and extremely smoothly with very little variation in rpm. or speed, the torque of the motor seemed to be in a very sweet spot.and handled the extra loading beautifully.
I found it quite OK. just to let the bike move around under me when I was hit by a heavy gust, I just made sure that I had some room left on the black stuff if the bike wanted to wander a bit off line, however in the main it was a very well behaved and easily controlled situation once I managed to relax and go with it. I got the impression that the mass of the trailer seemed to  help steady things and I even forgot that it was there on a couple of occasions.
However he point of all of this palaver is that running on 95 Ulp with the laden trailer of an all up weigh of an estimated mass around 105 Kg. when arriving home the bikes computer told me that I had averaged 17.2 kilometers per liter for the whole trip. (it said 18 .9 on the way down)
So considering all of the contributing factors I feel very pleased with the  construction and the  slippery streamlined design of the little trailer, and the success of the RTE.
Thanks to Pezzz the organizer and the participation of the other guys.
Cheers, Winston 66