hey guys ...

a few of us got together again on a ride south of here .

the main intention of the ride was to hook up with k-freak to invesigate the bulb monitoring unit failure on twbs bike , and with k-freak having a spare goodun , a bit of exploring new places was in order on the way down.

the route we took was rather inland but still on the coastal strip ....following the "scenic rim" (which is basically the foothills of the great dividing range ....a mountain range that starts in the verry far north and continues way down south... i'd have a guess at over 4000 ks in total )

well you know what that also implies .....twistys ....woohooo

what a glorious day ....bright blue sky ...not a cloud to be seen ....at our start point ...in the souther suberbs of brisbane heading down the "not so developed" roads in rural queensland heading for the border between queensland and new south wales .

today not so many motor bikes were on the road as i would have expected..i guess the chill in the air and reported weather changes expected .

a breif stop at a small country town "rathdowny " basically a pub , a service station ,a convienience store, a bowling club, a school and the usual "show grounds" surounded by several houses maybe 20 or so .

looking south to the border ranges ...covered in clouds



wet weather gear on ...just in case


we traversed the range with some amazing sights to behold ......the aproach was wide open corners on fast flowing road ....with an incline to tight twisty corners on the step rise to "mount lindsay" through amazing eucalypt forrested grannit tors (remains of long ago volcanic activity )
we were in rain forrest around all the tight little inside corners and open air drop offs around every ridge outside corner for about 40 killometers

at woodenbong the normal route would be go left back towards the coast , we decided to explore the wee little roads directly south ,,, through small remote communities of urbenville , old bonalbo , bonalbo and tabulum...all these are on the far north catchment of the fabulous "clarence river" which enters the sea some 200ks south and east of us

some absoutly original tall wooded stands of eucalypt and again jungle like conditions engulfed us on this back road ....totally awesome ...with bright green moss covering the road on southern side of some hills .


at tabulum we rejoined the more travelled route west towards "the big hills " the bruxner highway with a awesome reputation ...

drake our intended destination was acheived after some awesome road, well surfaced open high speed corners ...a real blast of about 50 odd ks ...always climbing, out of the valley below . (trip so far ,,, about 250 ks)

to our surprise the small town pub carpark was populated by many varied 2 wheel steeds .
even a small museum of classic 2 wheeled motors greeted us in the "main bar"


what a greeting place to meet our mate k-freak

a yummy seafood platter and a beer to wash it all down

some awesome stories and welcome break


an hour or so later after perusing the fine machinery in the car park we headed west ...up the most awesome twistys of about 35 ks ...a really steep incline with tight decresing and opening radius corners up to one of our most famous townships
"tenterfield " as in the old song "tenterfield saddler"



now attop of the ranges the temperature had dropped quite signifcantly ...with that special bite in the air.

we turned right (back towards queensland) and through small townships, orchards and wineries district of the high plateau
on towards stanthorpe ....our mates (k-freaks) home town .

greeted by margerat, loving better half ... and a nice warm cuppa .

some fiddling about with different bulb monitoring relays ..proved that all was good on the electrics backbone of the globe warning system ...and that infact there was absolute definition that the bmu was at fault on twbs bike .
i attempted a reflow of the contacts to the pins on the internal pc board of the "bmu" ....without a positive result . oh well !!! nice to be sure .

return trip through warwick and back to brisbane was without incident or anything special ...but as we were running quite late by this time ....a lot of ground was covered in a short time ....

on night fall i was suffering from "blackout syndrome" ....thats when you have a dark smoked visor , no reference lights to avoid and a tightening up of the corners aproaching cunninghams gap ...the hole in the hill access from the coast up to the highlands ...crikey ...ima hafta get me a clear visor ...lots of rear end puckering happening here .

aside from twbs disasterous missing of his turnoff to take him over to the northside of town .....a really good day ride
about 550 killometers through some amazing sights and country side .

Good description, Charlie! I didn't whip out my camera we flew along past those "gotta get a picture of that" views that you often see on motorbike rides. "Oh, well, I'll be back this way again and will have another chance", is what you tell yourself. but this time I will. The chosen route and the roads through hidden rainforests, tall stands of eucalyptus and grazing lands for mile after mile was truly awesome, even if the damp Wintertime air at times got into the nippy range (for us, at least). My handlebar thermo saw anywhere from a morning low of 9c (48f) to a high of 20c (68f) in the weak Winter arvo sunshine. Watching Charlie and K Freak disappear into the road ahead of me at the really tight and twisty end of the Bruxner highway on aging RT's suggests that a decent rider with a will and more than a little skill can tear up the tarmac as well as a few hotshoes on naked or sportsbikes, and on skinny, bias ply tyres too! I wanna go riding with youse blokes again!

The mad three-hour dash back to suburban Brissy and environs from the granite belt, orchards & vineyards of Stanthorpe (at 980metres above sea level) along mostly fast, two-lane New England & Cunningham highways to Cunningham's Gap in the gathering darkness was exciting. Who knew that C's Gap would be down from four lanes to one under construction and we were the lucky two stuck at the back end of a very long queue of cars and heavy trucks for the long, winding crawl down to the bottom of the gap at Aratula. Charlie held up all right with his dark visor, sticking close, as we made up time after overtaking a good many slower and less-determined vehicles on our way eastward. I landed at home after my motorway miscue an extra hour later and a further 90 kilometres, to a warm plate of home-cooked food (and a decent bottle of red) lovingly prepared by my lovely.

Thanks to K Freak (and his lovely wife Margaret, who rides her own lowered K75RT, for the nice hot cuppa), and also to Charlie for their help with the BMU in venerable old K. What an incredible day of riding. Cheers!

Sounds like a great trip/adventure guys. Love the pics'. And how to tell the age of a K100 in the carpark....? the really early ones are on the centre stand to stop the plume of smoke that would result if left on the side stand! Lol.

lol geord ......just a small price to pay for the awesomness of a k

hey i'd like to think of it as... my bike "marking its territory "

huh ?
go on grin it dont hurt .....

Sorry I missed it, it sounded like such a good ride.

You're right geordnz, I always park mine on the centrestand for that very reason!

Yep it sure was a good day with great company. That part of the Bruxner highway is one of my favourite bits of road the other is the run up the Gibralta Range from Jackadgery but there is only 32k of winding road on that one.
I have just finished cleaning mine and put it away with a good cover so it'll be ready for me when I am ready to ride again.

well do that ride one day k-freak ...dontcha worry about that ....i can feel a camping trip comming up ...but a little closer to summer i guess

hope that surgery goes well .....and we'll be looking for the next oportunity to blast the tarmack when all is well.