Monday 17 February 2014

Getting Ready for Another Big Trip

This will be the longest trip so far and I have to say I'm starting to get really excited!!

The trip will start off with a group ride, then a weekend with friends followed by a week or so of rest and relaxation with my husband. Here's the story, it all started with the AGM of the Shadow Riders Australia last year in Dubbo, they decided to make it an annual event. And now that event is only weeks away!

We'd organised with the Queensland guys to ride down from Dubbo to Victoria at the last event, as they have to go through Dubbo to get there, and I thought it would be nice to ride with others for at least part of our trip. So in a little over three weeks we will leave with them and take two days to ride to Bright, Victoria.


From: Bright Victoria Tourism Page

It's a mountain village that's supposed to be beautiful during Autumn, and guess what, we will officially be there in Autumn. I'm not really expecting it to be like this though, we are getting there right at the start of Autumn, the middle of March and the seasons all seem to be running late this year. We are still getting more days of temps over 38Âșc than not, and that's just not normal for February.

We will be spending the whole weekend with the Shadow Riders. They have a lot planned for us, in the program there are rides and meals and even a darts competition. I haven't played darts for years and even then it was down at the local pub after a few beers, I just hope I don't disgrace myself too much and manage to get a few pointy bits into the board.

Here's a map of what the trip will look like.




View Victoria Trip 2014 in a larger map

Now after doing this map I realised that I lied. I know you are shocked but we are not all perfect :) It's probably not the longest trip we have done, not in kilometres anyway. It is however the longest in time, we will be away from home for 11 days this time. Normally that would drive Terry crazy, he'd be thinking about all the work he has to get done the whole time .. but I think I've hit on a solution this time. Let me tell you why ..

As you can see by the map we are heading down to the coast after the SRA meet to a little town called Lakes Entrance. We are possibly meeting up with an old work mate of mine who moved to Melbourne recently, if she can get the time off work for it. If she doesn't that's OK, we'll just spend the half day we have there wandering around looking at the sights. Then we are heading back up the coast into NSW .. and here's the clever bit.

We are staying for a few days in a little place called Bermagui (pronounced ber-ma-gu-ee) with a client of Terry's. Yep he offered us free accommodation a while back when Terry took on the job for the tourist accommodation he has in this little seaside town. I'm not sure even what kind of accommodation it is, but we have taken him up on it for this holiday. It means that Terry will be working while we are there, but that's alright, he will ease his mind, so we can both enjoy a long relaxing holiday. I'm living with the belief that while he is working I will be putting round looking at the sights or lazing on the beach, but I do have a feeling I'll get roped into helping with a few things. Not much though, I reckon we'll have more than enough spare time to explore.

Then after that little rest we'll just be heading home. Taking two days finding accommodation where ever we are when we feel we have to stop for the night.

And so I have started preparing the bike for the big trip. I've been planning the things I need to do for a while, as has Terry. I got some new presents for Roxy and Terry was busy looking for the things he wanted for the Black Shadow. I found a new screen which I'm rather excited about, it's easily removable so I don't need to have it on all the time but I'm really hoping it will help ease some of the fatigue I get after really long rides.

I also got some new highway bars. These were purely cosmetic as the one I had on worked perfectly well, I just never really liked the way it looked on the bike. I also never really liked the way it was fitted onto the bike, the top attachment point was using the small bolt that attaches the top of the radiator to the bike. It's always worried me that with excessive vibration coming from the bar my radiator wouldn't be particularly happy and I'm always looking for leaks from the radiator indicating a nasty crack. No more of those worries with the new bars, these ones have a more streamlined look, they look pretty sexy actually! And they attach as two separate pieces to the frame of the bike. They got put on last weekend, but no pics yet as there's one other thing I did while I was at it.

The light bar has been on the bike for a while, I'm not sure if I mentioned the little hiccup I found with it here. When I go over a particularly large bump, my driveway is one of those, or if I hit a bad bit of road too fast, the front guard hits the bottom of the light bar. It has spacers that came with it and it just hangs down a fraction too low. It's leaving a little mark on my guard which I'm obviously not happy about and don't want to get worse. So I took it down to my local bolt shop, where I know one of the guys from work. I asked him about it a while ago and he said yeah don't see why ya cant just shave a bit off one end. Sweet!! I took the lights apart while I was fiddling around and took them too him, he didn't have the right kind of grinder at the shop but he was more than happy to take it home and do it for me. The bad part is I told him to take his time and that I'd be back next weekend, now the bike is sitting with all her lights balanced in place and I cant do anymore work on her. Next weekend I'll get those lights back together and the screen on to see how she looks.

Terry couldn't find anything that he wants for the Black Shadow anywhere. He's at the very moment working on a solution, I'll give you that information when it happens. It's exciting! I only have that little bit more to do then book her in for a service and Roxy is ready to roll. I'll post up a few pics of her when I have her all back together.

14 comments:

  1. I can't help but think you've left out a fair bit of your wee island...

    Looking forward to hearing about it - have fun!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know right Andrew .. so much to see and so little time!!

      Cant wait to tell you all about it :D

      Delete
  2. I find that planning for and anticipating a trip is as much fun as the trip itself. Enjoy this!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The anticipation is nearly killing me Ally!! But then I'm like that before every holiday, I just want it to happen now .. impatient sod that I am :)

      I like the planning part, Terry used to be the one who planned all our holidays but then when it started being biking holidays I started doing all the planning for some reason .. with a little help from Terry I'll admit, but I do enjoy shaping our trips.

      Delete
  3. Planning is part of the vacation! Enjoy while it lasts. I am looking forward to your riding report. 11 days away from home seems a long time (in work days anyway) but on the road time will fly by...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 11 days at work seems unachievable at this stage Sonja, I'll admit I've already started counting down the days.

      I think it's going to be a long ride report :)

      Delete
  4. Brenda:

    Anticipation makes work more bearable. I'm learning how to NOT over plan. Go with the flow with a general outline. Makes for less disappointment. Stop often, snap a few photos, grab a meal and you will be wishing for more

    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Bob,

      Actually the anticipation is just making work so much harder for me at the moment.

      We plan to have no real plan as far as travelling goes, that's why our daily goals aren't too far apart, we'll be stopping whenever the feeling comes on us .. there's no rush on this trip :) We'll be travelling through some mountains and then along some beautiful coastline .. all things we dont get to see a lot of out here, so we want to take it all in.

      Delete
  5. Like Bob says, avoid the tendency to plan it too much. It's good to leave something unpredictable on a trip. Over here in the UK, it's the rubbish weather so we've got it made in that respect!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trust me Walter this is as far as the trip planning goes for us. I always plan for accommodation at certain points .. unlike you I definately dont camp so that's a must!! But the travelling is going to be laid back and taking it easy .. just a bit of a jaunt around the place taking in the sights :)

      Delete
  6. "The best laid plans o mice an men gang aft gagly" according to spoke Scottish poet!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exciting isn't it Nikos .. you never know what might happen! ;)

      Delete
  7. Fun!! Time will drag until the day you leave, but you will be busy with all the prepping and planning.

    Looking forward to reading your trip report and seeing the fabulous photos.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Work has been so busy you would think that would pass the time faster wouldn't you. Nope all I can think of all day is getting things ready for the trip and taking off, it is dragging Brandy!

      Delete