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A little back ground: I have been lurking around this site (and that other one) literally for years. Researching and learning everything I could about the Tenere 660 and the KTM 690. The plan was that within five years (two or so years ago) myself and a mate, Bryson, from work would do a trip to western NSW. I used to work out at Menindee and am pretty familiar with the area. Bryson on the other hand hadn’t seen much of that part of the world but he was keen to. He owned a ’94 model XT that was a little bruised and battered but would do the job. Fast forward to December last year and Bryson was murdered at work. It cut me to the core.
From the evil of that came the good of my awesome wife (yes she read this… but is ultra supportive of my bike riding habits) in recent months saw me looking more and more at second hand bikes on the interwebby. There was one in particular that I watched like a hawk on ebay it was twice passed in without a bid on ebay. She told me that she was so close to buying it for me, except she didn’t want to forge my signature on the loan documents! So she told me her story and I told her this bike has EVERYTHING already on it. After a phone call I drove to Jervis Bay with my trailer and for the princely sum of $7700 I had this bike…
On the way home I had a conversation with one of my riding mates “Bucky”. Over the phone he basically says “That’s it, I’m going to get one too!”. He test rode a second hand jobby and decided he was loaded and wanted new. Within a week or so he had his brand spanking new WHITE Tenere on his trailer driving away from the dealer! I only have that Shane VOR bloke to convince of his need for a Tenere and the old crew will be back on the road together!
Bucky’s new machine… mmmmmmmmm white!
We need to get out and get it dirty!
I’m all over the shop like a mad woman, but from my research I liked the look of the Tenere, but coming from a trail riding/enduro background didn’t really want a bike that I would be disappointed in. TB stepped in years ago and offered me a ride on his bike “for a couple of hours”! What sort of lunatic is he? I’d never even met the bloke, let alone had a non computer conversation with him. But in reading TB’s experiences with the Tenere I knew the bike would suit my intended purpose!
So I had this bike in the shed for a week had done a snappy ten kay ride, around Richmond. I saw I had a few days off and decided I needed to go for a ride to test out the new ride. Shane and Bucky and I had been talking about an overnighter to Yerranderie, I decided it was a good idea but wanted to do as much dirt as possible. Many years ago the wife and I drove my Hilux from Duckmaloi Road to Edith Road. On google maps I had it as point A to point B, so I gave it the name of point to point!
On the night before the ride I dragged out all my old riding gear and lay it on the floor. Looked OK… helmet is a bit old, but you can’t have everything. Went out to the shed to give the bike the once over. Dropped it off the centre stand and hear this squeaky sound coming from the rear tyre as I pushed it from the back of the garage to the front… that didn’t happen last time I moved it!So I went to undo the dust cap and the whole valve just rotated with the stem…. FAAAAAARK me! No I didn’t have a spare tube either. So I made the decision I was still riding but I wasn’t going to stuff about and try and remember how to change a tube on a 5 degree morning when I should be riding.
A pissed idiot I know decided to “help” by posting on OBT seeking advice re tyre changes as he thought it was sacrilege that I should take it to a shop and say “Fix this”. Thanks for the encouragement Shane, but I’d rather be riding… the 16yo apprentice was happy to do it for me, and his boss was happy to charge $16 for the service. At the end of the day (or was it the beginning??) I just wanted to ride and this got the job done.
Raced home and threw it all together and got on the road…
Rediscovered something I’ve always known, well since my old enduro days… I HATE TAR TRANSPORTS!
I’ve driven Bells Line of Road literally thousands of times but this was the first time I’ve ridden it.
My first deviation off the black snake was down Hartley Vale Road… good to get off the tar!
Down through Hartley Vale, east on the Great Western Hwy to Cox’s River Road and then up Lowther Siding Road. Through Hampton and following some Google maps research discovered a back road into the pines behind the Hampton school.
Still getting used to the new bike but having a blast… always in the back of my mind that I’m on my own and mustn’t be too silly…
Made it to point “A” and set about finding my way to point “B”.
All was going swimmingly until I came across this…
Bugger.
Started to look for work arounds. Went east first. No luck, but was having fun finding out about the new motor.
Came back and went west this time. Mmmmmm… this is looking promising. I knew I had to be on the Bicentennial horse trail to get through to point B and this was working… so far.
Horse enduro arrows!
I went a little way down the saddle, but time was ticking, I was on my own and didn’t really want to have to pick up this behemoth on my own.
I went back to the first road block and accidentally found myself on the other side of the wire.
Followed the old track for about 250m before coming to this… someone really doesn’t want people down this track. They’ve really ripped the bridge out…
But I did find this bit of single track and I will bring Bucky back and make him ride it! By the way Bucky HATES single… he has mental health issues obviously.
Looks like you got a bargain there jtb2879,money well spent enjoy
Hope to catch you on a Nav ride
Cheers James
Time to get out on home, didn’t want to do Bells Line in the dark and still had to ride Marsden Swamp and Cox’s River before going home via Hartley Vale again.
At my mates parents letterbox…
Windmill that NO ONE has ever seen before :ohmy:
Everyone hates loamy windy roads… don’t they?
Hartley Vale Road then home
At the end of the day 275km done. Had a ball. But my bike fitness is ZERO. My let hand and forearm was killing me from all the gear changes. In the second half of the day I was really having a go so there were lots of gear changes! I also discovered that I was glad I didn’t have a GPS and couldn’t accept an offer to tag along on the June NAV ride. BUT I really want to get amongst it and hopefully make the next one, especially if my wingman Bucky and my trailer tower Shane can get there!
Dunno if it’s too long, too many words, too many pictures??? But I know it took longer to do the report than the bloody ride. But I had help from my friends TB, Mal and STM if they didn’t help it would have just been too many words on a page! Thanks men. :blush:
I dodgied up a $5 tank bag I bought at Walmart in the US when I went there five years ago… it worked well. In it I had my Canon EOS 550d the “good camera”. But as you can see I used my phone… way easier in and out of the chest pocket of my jacket. I’m going to buy a little compact camera that takes decent pics for this purpose but will wait until after I have my NAV ride GPS.
I also found that my gear had seen better days. My Alpine Star tech 8’s that were 13 years old were falling apart! But it wasn’t the leather that failed it was the PLASTIC which caused the failures… leather was 100% fine but plastics were poo! I am very disappointed.
To solve the problem I went out and bought a pair of Acerbis Graffiti boots for $100. If they last me two years it’s money well spent… no way in hell I was paying $549 for a new pair of tech 8’s!
My pissed idiot tyre changing non riding VOR owning “mate” has nicknamed the Tenere as the Grasshopper. He says the headlight and screen look like the head of a grass hopper. I have to say that I agree with him…
This is our new Team Grasshopper sticker that we are going to have made up!
Hey after we spoke the other day I went through some of my old routes and I have the route we spoke about!
Couple of weeks lets slip out on a shift workers ride, mid week special :whistle: we can do that route and some stuff not far from there I was exploring with Flying Fish the other day. Do a quick 4 to 5 hundred 99% off road, 12 hours, 4 stops should get you bike fit
:laugh: :laugh:Nah just a explore some hunches ride
Great ride report btw John
I have a spare GPS for Lithgow still on offer :huh:TB
Top report mate
i reckon you should get to Lithgow if you can mate, you will have a ball.PTW
Can’t do Lithgow… wish I could. Shame that I have to work to make the coin to spend when I’m not at work.
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