FarFail September 2012

I had taken Friday off work and woke up to the sound of thunder.  Of course, it's a FarRide!  I briefly wondered if this was some kind of omen...

I had a buckload of things to do, so I sat about on the couch thinking about it all for a while before nailing it and having some time to kick back and relax.  All packed up, I was just getting into the bike gear when more thunder boomed overhead... I briefly wondered if this, also, was some kind of omen.

I headed out at about 11:45am, I had to drop my keys into the real estate agent's, so I did that, then to the servo for fuel and my start receipt - my start receipt was 12:00:36!  (according to the clock on my bike it was 12:09).  I didn't have a pen with me, so I decided to take a picture of my odo and write it on the receipt later... pulled my camera out and "MEMORY CARD FAILURE".  Bugger.  Spent some time stuffing around getting my phone out of it's waterproof hidey-hole, took my photo, and off I went.  Heading up Southern Cross I tried turning my heated grips on and they promptly turned themselves off.... I figured that I had left the ignition on too long when stuffing around taking my picture and didn't think too much of it..

It was raining fairly heavily and I headed out on the Barton towards Yass.  By Murrumbateman my feet and chest were soaked.  By Yass (about 50km) I was soaked to the skin and freezing!  Luckily my heated handgrips had recovered and at least I had toasty warm hands.

I had to pee really bad but I managed to make myself wait until I got to Gumly Gumly for fuel, I also had a little dim sim to warm up :D  It continued to rain and I headed through Wagga Wagga trapped between B-doubles.  Eventually about halfway to Narrandera the rain stopped, HURRAH!  It still looked pretty nasty.

Splash and Dash at Narrandera... "you're the kawasaki" says the servo attendant.  Yep.  "Is it a 250?".  No. a 600.  "A 600.  WOW!!!!".  le sigh.

Headed out towards Hay and the weather stayed dry, hurrah!  Got into the 110km/h zone and was pleasantly surprised at how far ahead of schedule I was.  About halfway to Hay my heated grips turned themselves off again :(  A bit further along I lost the dash... it's a bit weird to be cruising along under power and for my bike to appear "off" (0RPM, nothing on the screen).  Crap.  I was still probably 50km/h from Hay then so I flicked the indicators, nothing.  Flicked the high beam on and the bike immediately started losing power... screw that, high beam off, bike recovered and a few minutes later dash came back on.  Phew.  Let's just get to Hay.  40km... the dash died again.  Crap.  30km/h.  the bike started losing all power so I started pulling over and the motor cut out.  Pulled the seat off and couldn't see anything amiss however when I turned the ignition off and on again I had very faint lights on my dash, but the bike would not start.

Sad 6

Luckily I had service :D  Put in a call to the NRMA, while I was on hold a Spyder came by... I knew it had to be Dene and it was!  She turned around and came back.  Nothing she could do but wait with me, NRMA would be there in half an hour they said, so she continued on and I went back to waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting.

Another bike approached and pulled up.  He had a FarRider sticker on his bike, but I don't recall ever meeting him before, it was Shannon, who decided that he was going to wait with me until the NRMA came, even though I insisted that I was okay!

When after an hour the NRMA had still not shown up, I called back, turns out they had gone the wrong way out of Hay.  By this time it was getting quite dark.  and the mozzies... they were giants!

Eventually the NRMA turned up, he just brought the truck to bring me back so he could work on it in the workshop.  But the bike started!  So I took off with the towtruck behind me, but only made it about 5km before I lost the dash again... then watched as my headlight got dimmer and dimmer... so I pulled the plug.  Loaded him up and road the rest of the way in the truck.

As we got into Hay Ian (my NRMA White Knight) we noted the large motel on the right being full up... Ian's daughter was with us and had predicted that the town was going to be pretty full that night.  "that's 50 rooms!!!" says Ian.

Left the bike on the truck and he started looking at it, thought it might be a partially collapsed battery, rang around and got the number for the local bike shop guy who would have a battery available in the morning.  Meanwhile Ian's daughter said she would try and find a motel for me... first one she rang had just had a cancellation so HURRAH I had a room!  Apparently everywhere was completely booked out.  So she drove me up so I could sort the room, done, back, still nothing on the bike so left it there, back to the motel where I had one of the best showers of my life (my knickers were still wet from the rain earlier... EWWWW TMI).

As it was pretty late, the Roadhouse was going to be my best bet for some dinner so wandered up there (it was quite a walk).  Saw a few bikes heading in and when I was just about at the roundabout a BMW pulled up... "MELLIE".  It was Karl!  I bitched at him about my predicament for a bit while Kimmie and their friends caught up, then they set off for their accommodation and I went and had a big sulky burger with the works, bought a Marsbar for dessert and made the hike back to my room.  Pretty tired so pretty much straight to bed.

Up and at 'em at about 7am.... COFFEEEEEEE!  Wandered down the street a bit, nothing looked particularly open, but then I found Robertson's Hot Bread... what a find!  Best coffee I have had in a long time.  I also had a muffin which was pretty good but nowhere near as spectacular as the coffee.

Ian's daughter had given me a card with a number to call... "call about 8" she had said.  I duly did so, only to get the answering machine.  I left a message.  And waited.  at 9 I called again, answering machine again.  So I called Ian's mobile (he was heading to Melbourne for the grand final).  He called me back "bike should have been dropped at the bike shop first thing this morning".  Righto.  I knew where that was!

Wandered up to the bike shop and met Marg and John.  John had had enough of a look at the bike to confirm that it definitely wasn't the battery and it was going to need some parts... we're not going anywhere :(  So they started  a job card while I went back to talk to NRMA about getting me home.

Chris from the NRMA Premium Care was very helpful.  He reminded me that I had the option of getting a tow truck to take me and the six back to Canberra if I liked... that sounded easiest to me so I agreed to that.  I rang Marg and they were fine with that too.  So Chris said he would try and find a tow truck and would give me a call back.  In the meantime the 10:00am checkout time was looming... the motel only had two rooms available for that night, the owner said he would hold mine for me while I sorted myself out... but the cleaners had cleaned all the other rooms, so I had to get out of mine 'just in case'.

I headed over the road back to Robertson's and this time I had a pie.

It was fabulous.  (so was the second coffee).  While I was there Chris rang me back... a tow truck was coming from Narrandera, would be here in about two hours.  Awesome.  So I finished my pie and coffee, headed back to the motel to get my stuff and the owner kindly drove me down to the bike shop :D

John was really good, he didn't charge me for looking at the bike.  I had quite a wait and they were happy enough for me to hang out there while I waited.  I put all the bits back on my bike and then we just chatted for ages.  a couple of years ago various chapters(?) of the Rebels had all met up in Hay and all fuelled up at their servo... she showed me all the photos from the event, it was pretty amazing.

Eventually after a lot of hours waiting the tow truck turned up and the 6 was loaded up.  I thanked John and Marg for all their help and then we were off, back to Canberra.

It was a pretty uneventful run back to Canberra, getting home about 9pm on Saturday night.

Sad panda =(

(turned out the stator was gone - Kawasaki covered it under warranty, replacing the reg/rec again at the same time).

Canberra Riders Birthday Ride

I haven't had much to do with CR for the last couple of years for various reasons.  Was talking to Lurch on MSN one day and he mentioned the birthday ride and I consulted with the calendar and the stars and they all aligned so I said that I would attend.

I rolled up to the meet point in Bungendore to a large group of people of which I only knew about five LOL. All good.  I volunteered to be arse end arnold for the day and off we went, through Tarago and into Goulburn for a splash of fuel - and Esther was missing!!! she'd gone to another servo.  Eventually she turned up (phew) and off we went to Taralga for lunch - man it was windy!  Lunch took a while as there were so many of us, and I think I managed to eat someone elses lunch as well as my own, oops.

Eventually it was time to move again so off we went towards Oberon then onto the Great Western Highway for the last stretch into Katoomba - lucky someone knew where they were going, I would never have found it!  I can say that the Great Western Highway sucks big hairy donkey balls.  Anyway into the YHA where we were staying and I was told that I had been nominated to share with Leen away from everyone else so into the room, got changed and then went in search of some supplies (ie coke for the booze).  Sorted and into it :)

Dinner at the RSL was pretty good (all you can eat buffet yeah!) and before long it was bedtime because I was tired.

I don't know what came over me but I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed (okay that might be overstating it a bit) but anyway I decided I was going to actually go on the ride.  Not only that, I went on the early morning one with DJY also!  (we went and had a look at the lookout).

For the main ride we were going out to Bells Line of Road, through Lithgow, up to Ilford then back to Bathurst through Sofala.  I was again arse end arnold so off we went... onto Bells Line of Road and uh oh! There was a group pulled up so I pulled up too, unfortunately the less experienced rider in front of my lost the front in the gravel, he was okay so was the bike so we got moving but around the corner the leader pulled up again - turned out he'd binned the bike and it wasn't really rideable.  Ooops.  So we sent most of the group on, and Esther and I stayed.  One of the guys came back from Lithgow with a brake lever so with that, some gaffa tape and cable ties we managed to get the bike rideable again.  We just went straight to Bathurst and found the pub we were supposed to be having lunch at and it was good :D

After lunch we went and did a few laps of Mt Panorama then we split with most of the group heading straight back to Katoomba and a handful of us going through Tarana and Oberon (me included - quite the joiner this weekend I was).  I had not done that road before and it was quite lovely.

Eventually back to Katoomba for a few chicken sticks for dinner and then some more drinkies and another earlyish night.

For the ride home it was a bit of a free-for-all.  Nobodies plans really appealed to me so I made up my own.  With spelling words and farchallenge photos to be had I headed out to Lithgow and up to Rylestone where I consulted the map and realised I could get a D and Dunedoo, then back across to Wellington where I stopped for one of THE MOST AWESOME KFC meals I have ever had :D  Snapped my Wellington Caves shot then out through Dripstone and onto Stuart Town for an S for spelling and Euchareena as well.  Lovely rolling countryside out there :o)  Through Molong and Cudal and I was starting to run out of daylight, I wanted to make Boorowa before dark and I just about did...

That's just after the Cowra turn off so just a few kays out of Boorowa.

I had fuelled up in Cowra so I just picked a car to follow and followed them pretty much all the way home (I still had dark visor on).

Collecting The Seven

Well as some of you will remember I had a ZX7R with a stupid amount of kms up, I rode him around Australia and after I got back he was nothing but trouble and kept breaking down but I still loved him, and eventually I had to sell him to raise funds because I thought buying a house was a really good idea.

The day that his new owner came and picked him up, I waved him goodbye, went back upstairs to my little flat and promptly bawled my eyes out.  Seriously.  It was like a huge break up!

Fastforward 18 months, I'm in the house now and I found another ZX7R on the internet, but it was in Bundaberg.  Turns out there is a FarRider in Bundaberg so he went and checked it out for me, gave it a thumbs up so I bought it (Thanks Eddie!).  The dealership delivered it to Springwood Suzuki and I flew up to the Gold Coast on the Thursday night.

Friday morning bright and early Jen and I headed up to Springwood and I took collection of the ZX7R II.

He is so beautiful!  I had forgotten just how wide these bikes are, I can get my heels on the ground - just - but I cannot put weight on both of them at the same time.  So after a final check over, off I went.  I found my way back to the M1 and started heading south back to Jen's place (Jen had to go to work).  I saw a sign that said Tamborine and Beenleigh and I almost turned off there for an adventure but decided not too.  Got to the Oxenford turnoff and instead of turning right at the lights I went straight and headed out to Canungra.  The 7 purred along beautifully though the brakes are seriously lacking in comparison to the 6.  Found my way out to Tamborine which is a challenge location, but I couldn't find the right spot.  I decided to leave it and headed towards Beenleigh but not far up the road I changed my mind, chucked a u-ey and headed back to Tamborine for the photo.

I had also forgotten just how far over the 7 sits on it's side stand.  Putting it down here was quite scary and getting it back up quite difficult!  and his dainty little foot... LOL

Anyway got my picture and headed back towards Canungra.  I decided to just go back to Jen's place as it was getting quite warm and I was a bit sleepy.  Rolled back through Maudsland, thought about going up Tamborine Mountain but decided not to as I was still getting used to the brakes (or lack thereof) and also all the extra weight.  I then spent a few hours playing with Jen's puppies and chilling out in the sun and had a nanna nap before heading over to my aunty's place for dinner.

Jen had work on Saturday morning so it was early to bed and early to rise.

We had breakfast together on Saturday morning, and all too soon it was time to get on the road.  I waved bye to Jen (and had a pat of her belly, bye Dinobaby! See you in January!).

I had a plan for the ride home that saw me getting a few challenge pictures as well as the spelling word VALLEYS.  I headed out on the M1 looking for the Varsity Lakes turnoff - and I never saw it.  Oh well, too much riding to be done, I'm not going to stuff around trying to find it!  I crossed back into NSW (boooo) and turned off for Murwillimbah.  Rolled through Condong and thought that was where Charlie lived so a big mental hallo as I passed through, then out the other side of Murwillimbah and on the road to Nimbin.  The road was in pretty poor condition, very windy, bumpy and shadows hiding the potholes!  There were also a few stretches of roadworks, including one coming into Nimbin behind the watercart... so much for the clean shiny bike LOL.

Got my challenge pic at Nimbin and continued on to Lismore just down the road for an L for spelling

It was starting to get really hot here and I thought I was going to have to take the winter lining out of my jacket (I was already minus neckwarmer, thermals, and jumper!)  Just beautiful :o)

Headed out through Casino and had a good run through the twisty bit of the Bruxner Highway.  Coming into Tenterfield I decided I was going to stop for some lunch, once in town I saw a sign for "world famous pies" so I found the shop and purchased a very expensive steak and bacon pie.  And it was TERRIBLE!  The casing was overcooked, at my first bite the lid fell off, it was full of PEAS (Ewwww) and the chunks of meat were floury.  Didn't spot any bacon either.  So I only ate half of it (and the lid - the tomato sauce made that the best bit).  Had a drink and headed up the road for fuel and continued on down the New England Highway to Deep Water for the Emmaville turnoff.  This is a nice alternative to the highway, even if it only saves you about 40km of highway (I think).

I had originally found Emmaville while out hunting spelling towns over summer.  This time there was roadworks, roadworks everywhere!  The entire town was pretty much dirt LOL!  Anyway, snapped my challenge pic and headed out for Glen Innes.  The road from Emmaville to Glen Innes is very nice, gently winding its way through the countryside :o)  All too soon it was back on the highway.

A quick stop at Llangothlin for spelling.

and into Guyra for the next Challenge pic.  It got really cold around here!  Was missing my heated grips and had to make do with swapping the summer gloves for winter gloves (didn't add any other layers though).  A decent break here while I warmed up a bit in the sun.

I was meant to stop for a spelling picture in Armidale but didn't for some reason, so just got fuel and kept going, hoping that it would get warmer as I dropped down to Tamworth.

Through Uralla and I almost stopped to take a photo of the horsey in the daylight (instead of the dark and fog like in the rally) but didn't.  Had a good run down the hill :D

Thankfully it had warmed up again by now.  Heading into Tamworth I started thinking about where I was going to spend the night.  I generally don't do the New England Highway south of Tamworth but there was the Scone picture to get... I really wanted to head for Coolah but in the end decided to stick to my original plan and go to Scone so I rolled straight through Tamworth.  As the sun started to go down it got cold again and as I lost the last of the daylight I started thinking it was time to stop.  I had picked Murrurundi as my next fuel stop and that was the first place that I found accommodation as well.

$45.00 saw me a room with a queen bed (and two singles) so I parked the 7 round the back and lugged all my gear upstairs.  I thought about a shower, but decided dinner was more important so headed back downstairs.  The pub was quite... 'posh' I guess, if a pub can be posh, anyway I sat in the corner and ate my steak (quite good) had a quiet drink and then just headed upstairs, had my shower and crawled into bed at a stupidly early hour.

Which meant I woke up at a reasonably early hour and it was pretty cold.  My phone told me it was 6 degrees so I took my time getting ready, I was just putting the last couple of things in my bag, I had left the door open and then someone appeared in the hallway LOL a dude in his undies... obviously he, like me, didn't realise there was anyone else there!  I assume that because he looked a little bit embarrassed (so did I, I am sure).  Anyway he said gidday and so did I, he disappeared and I lugged all my stuff downstairs only to find that the door was locked and I couldn't get out.  Went back up and got my key and tried the spare key on the door, nope won't unlock.  Back up and tried to find some other way out, nope.  I ended up going down a hallway, round a corner, through another room and then I finally found a door to the outside that I could unlock from the inside.  Was beginning to think I would have to wait for them to open up.

I had been a bit worried about leaving the 7 out overnight, as the old 7 used to have problems starting if left uncovered on a cold night, but this one he started first go - YAY!  So loaded up and warmed up we headed out... and I remembered that 6 degrees in other places is not like 6 degrees in Canberra, there was a noticeable absence of ice from the wind.

My phone had also told me that overnight a new spelling word had gone up - plateaus.  Hmmmmm. Next town along...

  I still hadn't got fuel but wasn't on reserve yet so headed down to Scone where I filled up at the BP and then copied the Harley riders group I met there on the Rally and rode the huge ride to Maccas next door :o) A rosti wrap thingo and a coffee later, we were both filled up and ready to roll.

My original ride plan had me turning off at Scone and heading over the lovely road to Merriwa, then over to Wellington and Cudal for challenge pics.  I changed my mind over breakfast, continued south on the NE HWY a bit more for...

an "A" and then I took the road from Muswellbrook over to Sandy Hollow... and didn't stuff up this time (last time I came this way I misread a sign and ended up on a dirt road through paddocks complete with creek crossings LOL).  Saw the first alive wildlife along here, I think it was a pig??? it was a fair distance ahead of me anyway.

Across the Golden Highway and onto the Bylong Valley Way... spectacular scenery along here... and I started seeing plenty of bikes.  I had a really good ride along here, apart from a rather hairy moment crossing some railway lines in which I thought I was going to go over the handlebars!

Pulled into Rylstone for fuel and an Ambulance came screaming through town, out the way I had come :o(  the guy in the servo said over summer the ambulance is up there once or twice ever weekend for bike accidents :o(

Continued on and stopped for a bit of a break at Ilford for a drink, etc.  It was just a perfect day for riding now :o)

I had forgotten to clean my visor at Rylstone.

Back on the road and headed over towards Sofala.  Had a really good run through here with no traffic.  Stopped at Wattle Flat for another challenge pic

And then it was on to Bathurst where there was some kind of Event on which had people running and the SES stopping traffic to let the runners through.  Eventually I made my way through to Mt Panorama for the next Challenge pic :o)

No Micky to take my picture this time!

This is the challenge pic, up the top of the hill

On the first lap, just when I reached the top of the hill, a car pulled out in front of me and then the rest of them had to give way to me - it was a huge line of Holdens.  I pulled over to let them all past once I got down the bottom of the hill and decided that seeing as I was there I had better go round a second time :D  I am still too chicken to go down the hill without braking though! lol.

Found my way back out to the highway and onto Cowra where the little evil voice inside my head convinced Sensible Mel that KFC for lunch was a really good idea... so food for me and fuel for the seven and then it was the final stretch home through Boorowa.  Got in about 4pm and tucked the 7 up next to the 6 <3