soft roads in Aus?

[motelbob]

Must be really soft roads on the gold coast . Just got back from Aus and 80% of bikers were wearing the good old jeans and tee-shirts. Obviously safety gear must be pretty expensive over there. Bugger me. Coming up h/way 16 the other day a dude riding along in jeans,sneakers and tee-shirt with elbow gaurds on. I guess if he cans off and his body gets munted ,at least his elbows will be okay. Theres some hard case bastards in this world thats for sure!

[myvice]

Incase of emergency, stick entire body in helmet.

[Matt Bleck]

Incase of emergency, stick entire body in helmet.

LOL, I'll be sure to try that one!!

[SixPackBack]

Must be really soft roads on the gold coast . Just got back from Aus and 80% of bikers were wearing the good old jeans and tee-shirts. Obviously safety gear must be pretty expensive over there. Bugger me. Coming up h/way 16 the other day a dude riding along in jeans,sneakers and tee-shirt with elbow gaurds on. I guess if he cans off and his body gets munted ,at least his elbows will be okay. Theres some hard case bastards in this world thats for sure!

Motelbob i lived on the gold coast for nearly five years., and your are correct there are a lot of riders with shorts, nikes and there t-shirt blowing up ther back. I rode with lots of different people during my time and many of them wore less clothing [its bloody hot!] however never met the t-shirt crew.....a hell of a lot of thes people rode r1's...must be a testosterone thing [ or a simple lack of commonsense].......could never figger it out?

[Pickle]

when living in Sydney it was usual to see bikers in jeans & t-shirts often also wearing jandals
Mind have ridden in 40' C+ and can understand t-shirt, we were stopping every 60kms to soak ourselves

[Big Dave]

Must be really soft roads on the gold coast . Just got back from Aus and 80% of bikers were wearing the good old jeans and tee-shirts. Obviously safety gear must be pretty expensive over there. Bugger me. Coming up h/way 16 the other day a dude riding along in jeans,sneakers and tee-shirt with elbow gaurds on. I guess if he cans off and his body gets munted ,at least his elbows will be okay. Theres some hard case bastards in this world thats for sure!

Climate mainly, and you are less likely to be 'betrayed' by the road surface. It's flatter, straighter and far less demanding to ride. The roads are also made differently and have a much firmer suface.
(all that said - i'll take a Coromandel Loop any day)
It's also very heavily speed patrolled - whole sections of the Pacific hwy have overlapping cameras, so lots get a cruiser and just pootle aboot at a very moderate pace. gold coast isn't the sort of place you need to be in a hurry to get anywhere anyway.

[myvice]

Climate mainly, and you are less likely to be 'betrayed' by the road surface. It's flatter, straighter and far less demanding to ride. The roads are also made differently and have a much firmer suface.
(all that said - i'll take a Coromandel Loop any day)
It's also very heavily speed patrolled - whole sections of the Pacific hwy have overlapping cameras, so lots get a cruiser and just pootle aboot at a very moderate pace. gold coast isn't the sort of place you need to be in a hurry to get anywhere anyway.

One main road had 3 cameras within 500mts (every 100mts is consided a new part of the road over there)
Cool, drive to the shop for a loaf of milk 10ks over, cilck, click, click, no more licence.
3 fines and your out of points!

[Timber020]

Alot of parts of the US are the same. Took me ages just to find riding boots in pennsylvania as nobody wears them. we are spoilt to live in such a mild climate.

[mstriumph]

leathers? not in West Aus either if you want to stay in any way confortable here... should imagine it would be unBEARable

[skidz]

Alot of parts of the US are the same. Took me ages just to find riding boots in pennsylvania as nobody wears them. we are spoilt to live in such a mild climate.

You call it a mild climate? I froze my nuts off this morning when I went for a ride.
Never mind, I'll go for another later as it might get to 10 degrees.

[oldrider]

Hello skids, I grew up in Woodville, couldn't see far through the fog most of the winter, damp but don't remember the cold. Last time I road my bike to Dunedin it was minus -8c when I left home! and about the same when I got back.
We describe that as "Bracing" cold is further south.
Good memories of Wararapa/bush area great place great people. Cheers John.

[Lou Girardin]

I saw two sportbike riders in full leathers up at Port Douglas last year. 30 degrees and that was a cooler day, I damn near got heat stroke watching them.

[DEATH_INC.]

I wore leathers when I was over there(sydney) on holiday....it wasn't that bad.Certainly better than sliding down the road in yer shorts....

[Big Dave]

I always wore a leather jacket, bike boots and gloves for hard out riding in the bush. Regardless of the temperature. It gets so hot out west that a breeze coming in under leather keeps you cooler than direct exposure to the 100+kph wind and sun. Once it gets to about 38c. (quite regularly west of newcastle in the high summer)

Worst was passing through Iron Knob (there's an aussie Place name for you) - it's near the edge of the Simpson Desert, north west of Adelaide - it was 48 degrees celsius and raining - the co-plot still gives me shit about not letting her take her leather off. If we were doing 60kph ok - but we wuz hookin' cross continental style.

Cruising up the Hunter valley a leather vest and an open face and slow down was the trick.