sorry i missed u at P.I i couln't find an internet cafe,an atm machine,and occassionally even petrol was hard to find,but i see u were there on fri and sat night at cowes ,so were we,so next time.
day one..melbourne,castlemaine,maryborough,st amaude,stawell hallsgap,or the Grampions ,then to the lookout at the top of the hill,390 kms,
day 2 ..halls gap dunkeld macarthur,port fairy on great ocean rd to warrnambool,port campbell,layers hill,apollo bay,then lorne ,on the ocean for the night......448kms 2 awesome days of riding.
day 3..lorne,torquay,then the car ferry to rosebud,flinders,hastings then cowes at phillip island.298 kms another perfect ride on the great ocean road with all the different sights,a special day ,the first time i have ever regularly ground pegs on open road at speed,i suspect my 1999 xjr yamaha has less clearence than the bandit,it was a neat bike with a pipe ,but only got 15 litres to 170 kms which was the odd bike out,aalso i'st time i have ridden a naked bike at speed for long distances,and it was good fun but harder work above 120kms per hour compared to my faired bandit.
phillip island was excellent,ducati had 3 gp bikes which were set up to take celebrity people out for 2 laps each,one was the girl who won the pole vault at the last olympics ,and it was ....yes i admit it...bloody frightening just watching it 2 up.no way would i get on the back of that beast.they were velcrosed to the rider...randy monola?
day 4 on the rd...left pi ,heading to the Alpine rd via wonthaggi,tarwin lower,foster,yarram,rosedale,stratford,bainsdale,omeo then the almost hilight of the trip ,a stop over at a 100000 acre cattle station COBUNGRA
lead most of the way by a bmw 1150 adventure type bike,the deal being no main roads where ever,only backroads,and i won't be rubbishing them any more either...the bmw's on the tight twisties both of them were bloody fast ;and only time they weren't there was the high speed sweeper roads,160 plus type roads as i think they ran out of grunt over that 530kms for the day
day 5....left COBUNGRA reluctantly,with the thought that there was a bikers hotel 420 kms away which we had been gauranteed that there were fleas in the beds,so in search of the complete motorcycling adventure we wnt up the alpine road to mt hotham ski resort,down the other side to bright,on of the best rides surely anywhere,over to mt beauty,red bluff,over the gravel road to tailangatta,talgamo where the shop who had the gas pumps ,wouldn't let the bikes put more than 10 dollars each in the tanks as we were using all the locals petrol,then to the Talandra Hotel who was bike friendly 420 kms for the day ,spectacular ride,besides the flooded valleys of the Snowy river most of the day,with roads you had to see to believe,all real fast with good vision and no traffic ,and race track finish enough said,
day 6...back to melbourne to get the bikes back...589 kms through as many back roads as we could find....Talandra,redbull,kiawa,beechworth,moyhur,whitfield to mansfield,a 70 km blast through the forest,with in almost every place we stopped ,the locals,and the old A J S and BSA riders chatting and telling us were the police cars and helicopters were last seen
2700 km round trip with 7 of us,5 of which are bandit 1200 owners,with 2 of the ist model and 3 with the gen 2 model,and while the xjr was a neat bike ,in fact i might stick my neck out and say it pulled to red line smother and more constant than my b12,i will be pleased to get behind the fairing of my bike as at 160 on mine felt 120 on the yammy
any way....i love a sun burnt country ....bla...bla...bla and if any of you get the chance to do that ride ,don't even think about it,gas up and go
cheers slo coach