Ace 50 Slowverland trip. QLD > SA

Forgot to say earlier-Tea. Take tea bags and a flask and make tea every morning. No reason other than it is tea, and tea and bikes go together so well.
Much better than that silly beardy coffee nonsense. Tea is the answer. Always has been and always will be.
Enjoy.
 
So looks like i might be getting a bit wet during my trip, which isn't what i was expecting, but then again can we trust the BOM? Fingers crossed this wont cause additional issues, and will only be a sprinkle, as i kinda got summer kit not rain kit.

Stroker: thanks Mate, At the moment i'm planning inland a bit more, Tamworth > Dubbo > Parkes, But always good to have a contact in case of an issue :)

Spotty: No i plan to be asleep as soon as the sun sets ;)

Sneikz: thanks for the picture, i got a Ram mount just hope that it will mount with no issues.

Bean: tea.. got it :), i did almost forget it
 
Re: Ace 50 Slowverland trip. QLD > SA

Good luck with trip . I’m sure it will go great


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super storm has turned out to be a load of arse, bit of rain and one clap of thunder so far. by this time of the day we were supposed to be washed out into the bay (except for my house, we live on top of mount Dandenong, it'll take a noah sized storm to get us up there)
 
I wrote a longer post the other day but I think the forum got reset and lost it.
Day One;
Was just a load of delays, the plane was delayed because of storm by 2 hours, my pickup was 1 hour late, and then 35 minutes into riding up in the hinterland the front tube went. Lol so I was on the CB trying to get someone to lend me their compressor, no dice a person at home finally helped, I rode down and got about 6kms to a tyre shop in Landsborough about 10 minutes before they close. They didn't have a tube to fit, they called ahead to another shop about 5 km up the road, I remember then saying" better get going fast they close in 5 minutes" and I'm like "55kph is all I got" lol anyway they thankfully waited for me and fixed it on the spot. By this time we're close to 5pm. I kept on riding Google maps kept sending me down bicycle only tracks which was annoying.
I stopped after one of these bike tracks, frustrated, put it in neutral, hand off clutch, apparently not in nutral in 1st lol fell over, I laughed people laughed lol. Anyway so I kept on going it's real dark now, headlight on, being overtaken every 2 minutes.. at about 20 KMS out from the northern Brisbane burbs the headlight globe went, so I rode 30 minutes in the bike lane manually flashing hazards when a car came.. I made it to a red dog service station, but no spare globes, so I still had about another 90kms to go but I realised no chance so pulled into a motel for the night.

The bike is running fine, a few small things, jumping into gear is a bit brutal, 1st to nutral when warm is dicky, 2nd to nutral is fine, and when in nutral or first she revs like crazy, but riding is fine (jetting, side effect of derestriction?)

I will write day 2 later today.
 

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Re: Ace 50 Slowverland trip. QLD > SA

Hope you are enjoying the trip between the problems. Don’t sweat the speed issues. We have a sail boat that does about 12 kph , still is exciting as hell. Be kind to your bike and have the trip of a lifetime!


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Good luck. Many years ago I nursed a tired xt600 1/2 way across OZ. I was helped by a lot by the people I met on the way. An adventure I will never forget. Try not to stress out and enjoy. You have many great, good, bad and ugly moments ahead of you. For me they were great times (OK flats are never fun), just make the most of good bits and take care
 
"55kph is all I got"

Hahahaaa... reminds me of a t-shirt you can get from a bike mob in the U.S.A. who specialise in small-bore bikes like the Hoda Rukus etc.

Printed proudly on the back is "Sorry... it's already wide open !"
 
So day 2, Going across Brisbane North lakes to hopefully glen Innes realistically barely outside Brisbane at Wooloomam.

Got up and went to super cheap, they told be to go to Bunnings for the globe lol, went back to the bike and started the trip, the day started out as standard Sunday drivers in stop Start traffic, I had told Google to avoid the highways but it decided the M5 was perfect for me ( I wish I could have used it gotten across Brissy in 30 mins). I stopped at the onramp big sign no mopeds. Told Google to find another way, it took me down a dead end road and onto a bike path along side the M5. I stayed on this to the next exit because I couldn't find an easy way around, I got quite a few abuses thrown at me from the Sunday bike riders, gave them sorry waves. Finally got to a repco again no globe, walked out of repco rain, still 27c but raining. Looked for a bike shop and found one in Ipswich. Headed up into the hills on the old Highway up hill 25kph down 60kph repeat for an hour. Constantly moving into the bike lane to get people off my ass. At about 1 I got to the bike store in Ipswich and finally got a globe + spare. Fitted, kept driving south pulled over at a pub for some lunch. TBH I remember saying my bag is still too heavy to myself. During lunch I got a phone call, my accommodation cancelled on me for that night due to rains, road closures. Luckily day ones accommodation that I couldn't get to on day one offered to let me stay on day two. I pulled in at about 3pm no more than 80 KMS out south of Ipswich. Beautiful Queenslander parked the bike underneath. Big storms in the horizon, bad mobile signal but enough to re plan around the next days travels, BOM looked bad. Off Highway road getting closed. At about 1am it was pouring. Day three I'll write up soon, doesn't go to plan but that's the adventure. I had a play with the fuel mix screw I could get it to idle nice but then a pita to start. But still runs once it starts.
 

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Waze, use Waze. It's a Google company and a better option with support from the community. Set up as a motorcycle.

We're with you.

Enjoy the trip!
 
Re: Ace 50 Slowverland trip. QLD > SA

Or use maps.me. Works offline so you don't use your mobile data while riding. Download the maps in advance when you have wifi. Maccas is good for that
 
Day 3, turn around.

I got off fairly early, realised I'm way behind where I need to be, I took a few extra days of work because of the rain but I needed to get close to 300 this day. As I started to head south, big black storm clouds were racing towards me with the haze of rain under them. I got about 60 km in and the rain hit, at first it's fine, but slowly the road became a river, at one point the water was 10-15cm deep and as cars went past I would literally float off the road ( unfortunately no pictures as I was in a huff, wet, tired, and realising I'm not getting to Adelaide). I finally stopped and turned around and headed back to Brisbane. I grabbed an Airbnb in Wooloowin for the next 4 days. Took the test of the day to get back to Brisbane, I wanted to take the A4 but again reached it and no mopeds. So back through the hills of Brisbane luckily the rain had stopped by now. Funnily enough I didn't have gloves on and I got major sunburn lol. Stopped for Breakfast/lunch colleges crossing and just realised this is all part of the adventure, and to just enjoy myself.

Day 4 I had a play with the Carby, and couldn't understand why the high idle kept going, also this day it literally rained the whole day, didn't stop until about 7 when I went to get a cheese burger lol. Oh also I think today was the day I realised my manual kickstart lever had fallen off lol. I also did maths and realised even if I drove 8 hours a day I can't make it back to ADL, so I put a transport request out on truckit.com.au. and booked a ticket back to Adelaide for the night of day 7.

Unrelated I'll try those various other mapping solutions.
 

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bad luck, good try though. if at first you don't succeed etc

did the toilet paper come in handy anyway?
 
Bugger...

Tell you what though, I'll give you 100/10 for having the guts to try it. I wouldn't have had the courage to, I can tell you. It mightn't have ended the way you had hoped but it sure was an experience you won't forget in a hurry,and the ACE is still running :)
 

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those ain't balls.....these is balls, and adelaidian ones too
 

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