Andy, f800gs, doubled me out the 2km to Darkie with his pillow tank and we put a splash into the old girl; enough to get me back to 'town'.He and mate Mark along with Marks wife Maddy, all from Sydney on a weeks desert 'taster' had come up the Strze from Arkaroola today when Marks 1200gs spat the dummy 120km out and they were rescued by a passing Santos worker with a tray back landie. Good folk at Santos we were to find.I put the high consumption down to a clogged airfilter from the dust storm we had to ride in; 32L/425km, so next morning I was out there dismantling the bike( yes...990 filter is NOT roadside servicable by any means!!) and gave it a wee clean, it was not as bad as I expected. As we got on the road, Mark and Andy were pushing the 1200 to the bush mechanic who practiced locally....good luck i wished him, not confident at all that they would get it going!
We were fully loaded with fuel; 21L in tank, 10 in pillow and another 1.5 in a coke bottle!! No chances were being taken with 485km to get to Lyndhurst today. Took the 'old' strze outta town; had to show the BM riders that us Kt pilots were hard( mad?), and almost immediatly the track turned to shite, with lotsa sand patches( I later told Djoolz that the only reason I did not turn around was it was so narrow and sooo loose that I couldn't, when the real reason was I did not want to loose face to the Bm riders who would have surely noticed if we had come back thru town again!
1'5hrs and 46km later we cut the main Strze, bloody yay! Turn right and away we go.Right into the start of another dust storm. I also know with 1.5 hrs run time already up, we risk not having the range, running these doubts past Djlz, she says go for it and we do! For about an hour; we missed seeing the Moomba plant in the dust and didn't see trucks approaching the other way, visability was down to below 100m and we pulled off the road for a 'regroup' of ideas. As we did a Santos truck pulls in and asks how we doin? Well, you know! Go back 10k to the plant gate house and go into the smoko room he says, I'll radio it thru and tell them your coming.
Ok.
We do. Now I know we don't have fuel range anymore. We make coffee there and eat our sambos outta the weather. I do some emailing( there is a Telstra cell there just for the plant!), have some more coffee and we head back to Innaminkca a couple of hours later( have to get there before the servo closes so we can refuel tonite to be on the track before daylite tomorrow to beat this weather). Make it with 1/2 hour to spare, the visability got down to 10m, it was like real bad fog but it made you sneeze!
Mark and Andy couldn't belive their eyes when they saw our bike back there, however, I did not own up to causing our dilema with the time and fuel loss doing the old track this morning! They however had sucess with a fix on the 1200- fuel pump wires corroded, only $600 to have a couple of new wires soldered on! The mechanic was livid that Mark had accepted a recovery, for nothing, from a Santos guy, and done the garage out of their fee had they been contacted to pick it up! All are sure the bill reflected, and compensated this!
5am we were up and by 6-15 we rode outta there into a cold and clear morning, filled with promise! By morning smoko we were well down the track and it was warm now and we could see the dust storm way off to the north east of us; someone would get it today but not us! I kept checking my fuel usage a the light came on and a measured amount was replaced and the results looked promising. Even when the light came on the final time, with no more top-up, we had only 85km to go and at our usage rate we would do nearly 100km on reserve. We quietly celebrated roadside with a drink of warm water then settled in for an uneventful cruise into Lyndhurst. We thought!
7km out, she hesitates, 5km out she stops...dry again! Fark! You know, we are so over this! Its too far to push and we haven't seen anyone else on this road since early morning trucks going into Moomba ages ago.
Wait.......Djlz says lets drain the Coleman.....theres only about 300ml in there? In it goes and she fires up....we make it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Never argue with a practical woman, if you can recognse it in time............
I will spend my 3hrs in Sydney airport 2moro to gloss out the final coupla daze thru the Gammon and flinders.......stay awake( unlike me now..too many drugs!)....it is some of the best and really accesible
Originally Posted by ducatijim
Andy, f800gs, doubled me out the 2km to Darkie with his pillow tank and we put a splash into the old girl; enough to get me back to 'town'.He and mate Mark along with Marks wife Maddy, all from Sydney on a weeks desert 'taster' had come up the Strze from Arkaroola today when Marks 1200gs spat the dummy 120km out and they were rescued by a passing Santos worker with a tray back landie. Good folk at Santos we were to find.I put the high consumption down to a clogged airfilter from the dust storm we had to ride in; 32L/425km, so next morning I was out there dismantling the bike( yes...990 filter is NOT roadside servicable by any means!!) and gave it a wee clean, it was not as bad as I expected. As we got on the road, Mark and Andy were pushing the 1200 to the bush mechanic who practiced locally....good luck i wished him, not confident at all that they would get it going!
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. Arkaroola...bloody tourist trap; no food till midday and bad fuel 
)....then it happened.
??) then there was some quite extrordinary sights, like 2 with paraplegic riders, ooops, sorry.....drivers!
I FEEL THE NEED, THE NEED FOR SPEED 
)
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