Over the shoulder: Rides of a decade

**glitch_oz** · 2nd August 2012, 11:24

Sometime in Sept, I think...and the last time we went.

Dave was taken by the Tiger...

...while Marty's finally seeing the light

Or not?

T.B.C

**glitch_oz** · 3rd August 2012, 16:15

Late September.

Man, 2006 was starting to look like a race.
Remember Guenther's Strom, bent on the Bonang? (just flip back a page)

Yo, it was written off after I'd repaired it the first time around with 2 boxes of parts I'd bought in Canada...
Bought it again after Guenther's little prang and turned it into the first of the WTF's.

Goodie took it for its maiden ride on a sunny Sunday....

Tanjil Bren

Mt. Baw Baw

More pics here:

http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1122

**glitch_oz** · 3rd August 2012, 16:17

Late October

The Balla-Rats were back for more!!
This one was for real and it was on for young and old.

Tim was there...and Young Will from the CBD on his L-plates and hell, was he up for some educational paint-swapping!

Busted chains, this and that falling off, some towing....and laughs 'til the tears came. In hindsight, much of what I saw that day would prove a huge bonus lateron.

Go for a giggle and some more pics:

http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1166

**glitch_oz** · 3rd August 2012, 16:20

November 2006

The first AT-Rally

Great weather, plenty of warm sunshine, plenty of good miles and best of all....GREAT company and loads of laughs.
Graham (whitey) from Sydney, Dave(dmtl15) from Nowra and the bunch of clowns from down south.

The burn up the Alpine Way was a cracker....like the day before when a Strom and a DR went mental across the top from Kiandra in an effort to "shake the old fart" ....it nearly made the Postie-ride a few weeks ago pale in comparison

Couldn't say it much better.

Goodie

Jo on the Scarver (red helmet) and Moira on the DR650

Graham (whitey)

Tim on the DR

Tim squirting it up Tallangatta Lookout

Nev on the Budgie

Yours truly

Big Thanks to Marty for some of the pics.

More here:
http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1193

**glitch_oz** · 3rd August 2012, 16:22

2007....was the start of an UNBELIEVABLE string of rides which are still roaring along at full tilt right now.
Beyond rides.... a tour-de-force that's turned into a lifestyle-choice.

January brought along the "We Deliver" postie ride....2 weeks of backroads, and sometimes footpaths/ tracks, of the High Country and Snowies.

Been there often enough, heh??....but this was different!!

Copped thunderstorms and hail in Tumut on New Years Eve

Saw some superb countryside

Roamed the backtracks of Cabramurra (and there's quite a few of them).

The old Cabramurra Airfield that was used in the '50s through the construction period, since abandoned.

Tawonga Gap after the fires

Hotham, the Blue Duck twisties and the Bogong High Plains Rd. before is was rooted by getting sealed.

Found some alternative ways along the Trappers Track

Had a pearler of a time jumping cattle gids near Lake Eucumbene

...then sweating blood and water crossing the ridge between Eskdale and Dederang.

Man, it was grouse!!!

:lao

More here:

http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1271

**glitch_oz** · 3rd August 2012, 16:24

Only a few weeks later...Australia Day Long Weekend, late January.

3 days and nearly a 1000k's on the little CT's, fully packed with camping gear and pots/ pans.

Tim was along for that one :chug:

Donna Buang... Toolangi State Forest...the roundabout way into the Strathbogies...

...flats...some paddock-bashing when the tracks peetered out...

Mt. Wombat

Found some obstructions....

...found some memorials in the bush

Some playing around

The whole box'n dice:

http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1293

**glitch_oz** · 3rd August 2012, 16:25

February

Just a little tootle around the Acheron Way, Murrundindi Stat Park, Donnellys Weir and a few waterfalls in between.

\

**glitch_oz** · 3rd August 2012, 16:27

April Fools Day....and the raving-mad basterds from Ballarat were back with their gaggle of posties.

Mayhem in the Bunyip State Forest
This quote pretty much set the tune for the day:

The 2 L-platers Will and James (only 3 months on L’s), the bunch of Ballarat rednecks.... Stoo, Jeremy, Paul and Jeff (sp?) and some local drop-ins/-outs :-P Tim, Goodie and I.

A sedate start only saw a couple of 360s and an attempted burnout….and we weren’t even off the car park!! CHRIIIST!!

The video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2XPT0uonc0

And the full yarn here:

http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1350

**glitch_oz** · 3rd August 2012, 16:28

Damn those itchy feet!!
A glorious Indian Summer in Australia's South stoked the fires for another 9 days of Tassie....as always, it was easy enough to find a bunch of mates to come along.

With the Tornanti-Ride (Euro-Alps) only a few months down the track, this also got the crew together for a chance to bed-in and get used to eachother's little quirks and general flow.

The smallish troupe of 7 (or rather 8 with TimTim the only local) turned out to be the best and smoothest bunch I've ever ridden with!!

Moike (100RS) was on again...Tim on the DR....and Marty on the Strom.
Another 3 Stroms with Karel (carver), Goodie and Yours Truly.
Steve (from BikesandScooters forum) on the FJR....and TimTim from Hobart on the Capo joined us for most of the time.

Started off with the youngest AT-member having a dribble...

Smoking up the A5 to the Great Lakes

Checking out the Ida Bay Railway

Seeing the rest of the world in Adventure Bay, South Bruny Island

Spending a night at Joe's Garage and having a chat, a beer and a laugh with Matt (RIP, mate!!)

The Western Explorer, Cradle Mtn and the backroads of the North Coast...what a humdinger of a trip!! :glu:glu

More here:

http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1390

**glitch_oz** · 3rd August 2012, 16:34

September/ October 2007

Nearly 3 years of planning, scheming, dreaming, yearning and saving were coming to a close as early September rolled along.

We'd had our own saving scheme for over 2 years... we'd planned, checked, double-checked and written a million emails.
There was a 67 page itinerary... accom-list.. contact addresses and phone numbers...and a 1000 other details and bits.

This was it!!
THE BIIIG MOMMA!!
6 (SIX!!) weeks of carving the European Alps

Anything and everything from the gorges in the south of France, the Mediterranean Coast, Route Napoleon through the French Alps, Switzerland inside-out and upside-down, Southern Austria, the Dolomites, the Alto Adige and the little-known Friuli in Italy... Northern Slovenia, Liechtenstein and various little tax-havens...100s of passes, 9000km of twisties without end....and literally, carve-'til-ya-barf.

Until you just can't take it anymore, can't get to sleep bacause the head is spinning, the callousses on the right hand are hurting from working twister and brake til they melt...and you start to howl and squeeze your eyes shut at the sight of more and more white-capped mountains just up the valley, or yet another 15meter breakfast-buffet.

Starting with the bikes we DIDN'T book and pay for, to finishing up in a brothel in Milano/ Italy.

From 2ft. of overnight snow on the Stelvio to sharing the "Roof of Europe" with a fashion model on the glaciers above Grindelwald, Switzerland. From a meet with the Alpenbikers near Neuschwanstein Castle in southern Germany and Hitlers Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden/ Germany to the tiniest single-laner dirt roads above Martigny in the Rhone Valley (Switzerland/ French border), the list is endless.

The ride-report has turned into a reference-works even for the locals (it was also translated)...and has had over 200.000 hits through the various forums around the globe.
The pics are scattered around everywhere, from Brasil to South Africa, Sweden to Canada. It's certainly one of the biggest (at least in volume) ride-reports ever published on the WWW .

Where you shouldn't go, definitely not on a hire-tourer :bs Col de Tende/ Italian/French border

Col d'Izoard, France OMG!!! :glu:glu:glu

On the Stelvio

The tiny Mortirolo Pass/ Italy...with all the Giro d'Italia Bike Race markings

Dolomites

Check the road through the trees...Mangart/ Slovenia

Segantini Hut, St. Moritz and lake at our feet

Riding Skilifts...bloody dangerous, I tells ya!!

And here's the full yarn with over TWO-THOUSAND-FIVE-HUNDRED gobsmacking pics.

Lock the door to your office, arrange hourly coffee-infusions, and....
have a nice fortnight :thumbs:

Don't mind the shakes and that terrible yearning in yer belly at the other end....it's just part of that sort of thing :so
http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1506

**glitch_oz** · 3rd August 2012, 16:36

December

Still chewing on that incredible HIGH of the Tornanti ride, nothing local would really cut it.
No offence, but after those 6 weeks, our perceptions had somewhat shifted.

So we took the cage for a few days, threw a tent in the back and went for the hills.

Acheron Way

Mt. Buffalo from Powers Lookout

Mt. Buffalo

At Mt. Hotham

More pics etc here:
http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1582

**glitch_oz** · 3rd August 2012, 16:37

Early May 2008

2 weeks

After plenty of talk, it was time to either shit or get off the pot.
Which left Goodie and Yours Truly.

Freighted the 2 little CT's to Brisbane, then rode them up the coast to Cains....via Cooloola....and Fraser Island...and...and...

A quick quote from the ride report says it best:

It’s a tale of deep joy, of desperate situations, of lots of warmth and the best of human interactions.
A tale of making mistakes (and learning from them)…of “impossible” routes and nearly getting beaten by the circumstances.

Of busted engines, T-shirt-riding along 90km beaches and cruising the twisties through the sugar-cane fields and banana-plantations of Northern Queensland.

Of getting bogged… running against incoming tides and ferry-departure-times….of saving the precious camera while sinking rapidly into sandy creeks, arse first.
Of shivering into the sinking sun on the washed-over decks of the barge to Hervey Bay in a half-meter swell…and of meeting lots and lots of wonderful people along the way.

Best-Of-All??
Doing all this as an early celebration of our 30th anniversary with my best mate in life

Bowen, Yacht Harbour

Dunk Island from Mission Beach

Lake Tinaroo, Atherton Tablelands

Stored the bikes with Heath from Gilders Transport in Cairns...ready for part 2 of the tale.
If you thought this was crazy...just wait for the sequel!! BWAHHAAAHHA

For all of the yarns and pics:
http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1734

**glitch_oz** · 3rd August 2012, 16:39

August/ September saw the 2. part of this stoopid caper

The Run To The Cape:

Glen from Brissie and Rowan from Hobart had come good pretty much at the last minute...no time for details, just get the bikes ready as best you can, get a seat on a winger to Cairns and ....let it rip.
No backup, no 4WD coming along for spares or supplies, just carry everything and hope for the best.

Cape York and ~3000km of dirt, dust and 4WD tracks in 3 weeks....

...on a dinkytoy.

Oops....

The day after it was out turn...

Another local

A "shower" on the Cape

The mighty "recovery-CT"...just helping out

Punsand Bay, The Cape

Whaddaya mean, Bulldust??

RAW Postie-POWER!! :guff

It's still a bloody long way home...

This...THIS....was one trip, I'll never forget!!

For all the pics, the yarns and little chinks:

http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1925

**glitch_oz** · 3rd August 2012, 16:41

Another Cup Weekend (November), might as well make a week of it.

Only Nev (on the Buell Uly now).... Jo on the new BM650GS twin just after an offroad-course... Marty on the "Toothy"-Strom and the 2 WTFs with Goodie and I signed in for this one.

Things got a bit dusty sometimes

Busted belt on the Buell in the bush around Tolmie

Rode the Whitfield-Lake Buffalo Rd, Trappers across to Mitta Mitta and enjoyed the hospitality, bumfluff included

Crunchy mornings before hitting the Namadgi National Park and some old Apollo13 tracking stations in the ACT

Captains Flat area...looking towards the coast

Bermagui...Tathra and cutting back via some choice tracks to Jindabyne

The Bonang, The Barry Way, Mc Killops and the Dargo High Plains....

....whoohoo, what a cracker of a week!!

C'mon....go and have a look at the whole lot!!
http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1975

T.B.C.

**Quasi** · 3rd August 2012, 17:49

Am just loving these images. A picture says a thousand words and this is the most incredible story I am reading. Thanks for sharing and keep it coming. We still got five years to read about!