This topic contains 4 replies, has 0 voices, and was last updated by 
-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuDSZOC5a_s
Gloucester to Taylors Arm and Back.
2 big days of riding, thanks to Lotsa, Tryhard and Gavb for allowing me to come along on what was a bit of an epic adventure with numerous turn arounds, bike dramas (both Suzuki’s had trouble, mine was electrical and Lotsa’s countershaft seal didn’t want to stay in place), deep creek/river crossings and some awesome leafy mountain trails.Disclaimer: the sequence of events as listed may have occurred in a completely different order to how I remember them.
Met up with the guys getting some breakfast in Gloucester just before 9, I had already eaten (2 bananas) so went to get some fuel then came back and had a drink while they finished then we set out to the start point.
We left the cars at a farm about 30km outside of Gloucester and headed back in to Gloucester but not without a few detours along the way. I don’t know what it is but I have an urge to wheelie every time there is a bridge or a tunnel, shame I can’t wheelie to save my life though. Gavb and I had trouble trying to wheelie in the same little railway tunnel, I tried and the front wheel came up but the bike went sideways as well pointing me towards the wall then Gav nearly flipped it seconds later.
The offending Tunnel
Not sure of the route (but then again I’m not sure our leader wasn’t either :whistle: ) but we headed out of Gloucester along the buckets way and we turned left heading out into a valley with magnificent scenery and nice windy gravel roads. With all the rain that had been around the roads were in surprisingly good condition and there was even plenty of dust (not that it’s a good thing). The early going was pretty open and we were making good speed.
More to come
Beautiful Country
As we headed further into the mountains the roads narrowed somewhat and became steeper with more twists and turns. I was having a great time with the exception of right hand bends, for some reason I was struggling to turn to the right. I never felt comfortable with the front end and it felt awkward even putting my leg out. On one corner I ended up drifting of the edge where it slopes away quite steeply and was covered in leaf litter but somehow managed to keep it upright and carry on but that only made me feel worse on the following right hand corners. Left handers were no problem, I could feel the front shifting around under me and wasn’t bothered by it but as soon as I felt the front start to go turning right I would panic and back off, straighten up and nearly miss the corner.
I was also having some minor bike issues, I had a similar problem once before where it wouldn’t idle and whenever I hit the steeper, rougher sections the bike would cough and fart. Last time the problem went away mid ride but this time it stayed with me the whole way. Fortunately there weren’t too many rough steep sections so it was only the not idling that was a pain in the you know what. Around 1.00pm I noticed that I had no instruments display, the bike was still going ok except for the coughing and farting getting a little worse but then it started to get a lot worse to the point where if I tried to give it any more than about ¼ throttle it would backfire and die then eventually just died. We pulled over and checked all the usual DRZ problem areas but apat from some dirty connections everything seemed ok. We then tried bypassing the ignition switch which got the headlight working but only just. Tryhard thought the battery may have died so we hooked up some jumper leads and the lights and instrument display all came back on an I was able to start it. After we disconnected the jumper leads everything looked to be working fine but as a test a switched it off then on again and again there was no power. We decided the battery must have died and so headed for Wauchope to see if Mud & Tar were open to get a replacement battery. On the trip into Wauchope the bike was running good again with none of the misfiring and when we got to the bike shop (and they were closed for the Boxing Day holiday) the battery was fine again. I think the dirty connections were stopping the battery from getting charge and it eventually went flat from the starting and lights which are what caused the problem.
By this time it was 1.30pm and we hadn’t had lunch, as Lotsa headed off again I assumed he would find somewhere to eat but no, back out of Wauchope we go and into the forest (don’t know where, I accidentally deleted the GPS log from day 1) and just kept riding. There was really only 1 stop all afternoon for about 10 minutes, the other stops were only for a minute or 2 while Lotsa and Gav worked out the next trail to take.Not too many more photos, mainly video for this ride from me, too busy riding to take pictures,
EAGLE`02 wrote:Good ride by the looks of it mate, nothing like not being quite sure where the hell you are goingThat’s half the adventure
Too bloody right
,,,
Thats exactly how I was on the return leg form Nundle half of the time :whistle:
I knew we were heading south (sort of) but at times it felt like we were getting further away from home as the day got longer & longer :laugh:Cheers
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.