The Edge Of Madness

And it gets better.

Sell the BMW R1150 GSA.

This beast was perfect for two-up luggage touring. I don't need her for this trip now.

Now my thought was to replace her with a smaller hybrid road/dirt bike. Like the KTM Adventure or BMW F650 Dakar. That way I can do the Dirt bits & a bit of touring.

Then I had another genius idea.

Keep the monster. I love that bike, and she is now set up perfectly for my body/twisty work.

Buy a cheap dirt bike for the other fun stuff.

A cheap dirt bike will be around 2-3k. For the fun stuff like fire trails, pure dirt, beaches etc.

That way I get the best of both worlds, a sports/tourer for the twisties, and a dirt bike for the fun bits.

Only minor problem is the rego on the monster runs out in October. Hopefully I don't need to pink slip it, or it's going to be fun to have to pull back into NSW for that

A mate had a genius suggestion.

Get a Ute. Load the bike into the back of the ute for the boring bits (i.e. straight highways) or when you're feeling social.

Frigging genius.

Now I'm looking at utes, and am going to have to decide if I'm a Ford or Holden man

If I had worked all this out earlier, I would have bought a much smaller bike (i.e. the F650 GS Dakar). Oh well, still time. Worst case I'll be out the $600 in stamp duty for the bike. And considering I've had a few weekends fun on her, that means I'm up on what it would have cost me to hire

Month to go.

(And yeah, I'm now going to be one of those lame asses who trailers their motorbikes, the things I do for you Lana )

Realised I hadn't made this public knowledge.

Now as most of you know, me and Lana have a planned 3-4 month round Oz trip planned.

Orginal plan is on the back of a bike, the 1150GS in particular.

Unfortunately Lana's knees haven't recovered enough, after a day's riding she can't walk. So that's out the window.

This left us with the following options.

• Attach a sidecar
• Both go in a car
• Postpone the trip
• I go solo
• Car and Bike

Option 1. Sidecar. Bleech. I do know at some point I will get an outfit, but for now, nope, not an option.

Option 2. We went camping out to Cowra a few weeks ago. Driving up there, I was getting the Joneses bad for a fix, esp whenever I saw a bike whizzing by. I'd be whinging non-stop if we're both in the car.

Option 3. After getting the GS only a month or so ago, I'm loathe to do this. Also life has a way of stopping this stuff happening again.

Option 4. A week, maybe 2 would be fine. Any more than that I'll be going a little stir crazy.

Option 5. Looks to be what we are going to do, but it raises a bunch of other issues/problems

There's multiple options/issues here.

Comms I've got fairly well sorted. I can hook up a CB on the bike via helmet, and in car. Gives a 5 km range of communications. Okay if stops are fairly well planned.

Now here's the issue of the car & bikes. Adding a car to the trip is going to boost cost of trip by about 3k. That's servicing costs + fuel. It will boost my piece of mind a bunch though, having two vehicles.

But that brings me to another issue. Our car. The mazda is falling apart. Doing a main highway run, I've got no issues with it. It breaks down badly, we dump it and move on. It does mean any of the more remoter trackes (including fraser) are out.

Which also gives me the freedom to either take the Monster or BMW. The Mazda ain't going to go anywhere the Monster can't go. And I love that bike.

But after thinking about it, and how long it takes to get parts, the Ducati ain't a good idea for a longer trip.

So option B. Get a 4wd. I've taken a look and we can get a reasonable one for around 10k. Now we're going to lose 2k at least on the sale at the end, plus 1k in stamp duty. Means that adds an extra 6k to the trip costs + an extra 8k outlay which we'll get back. Now since our budget was 15k, almost half of that is gone on the car itself.

Ouch.

But having a cage along means we can pack a lot of stuff, making camping out a breeze.

Getting the 4wd does mean we can go a lot of places I wanted to go, even including a few tracks that the GS wouldn't have been able to do unaided! (Fraser, Stylezki track, etc). And with two vehicles, the chances of both of them breaking down in the same area are slim, removes a lot of the safety issues at the back of my mind.

Anyway, I've got till the end of the month to decide. Whether we do the trip at all, do it on the Monster/Mazda combo, GS/Mazda, or GS/4wd.

Decisions, decisions.

Okay, I dropped the GS once on the way back from Melbourne. It took 3 guys to lift her. She was wedged against a petrol pump, making it rather difficult though.

I was slightly worried about dropping her in the middle of nowhere, so I decided to do a test drop.

Nick came over to help us out in case we couldn't pick her up, and also to check the new bike out and take the monster out for a spin.

Lana was coming along on the back of the GS.

Firstly Nick jumped on the GS to see if his feet could touch the ground. They did....just.

Then I wheeled her out

Finally decided to drop her on the grass outside.

This lead to a bunch of staring before we got down to the dirty business of picking her up.

I have a go at it first.

She's stuck. I could probably do it, but don't want to bugger myself.

So Lana gives a hand.

Up she comes fairly easily. I am still winded after doing it though.

Gave her the once over.

After that we geared up, and headed off.

It was going to be a very cruisy ride. Just the old road. The lower speed limit was also going to help us behave. Me as I am just getting used to the GS, and Nick as he hadn't ridden for over 6 months.

The GS's 30 Litre fuel tank meant I didn't have to refuel, but Nick did.

I then explained the finer points of Odometer settings to him.

Had a quick drink, and then we hit the Old road.

Haven't been up this way for a while, not since they dropped the speed limit. And man is it slow, and empty. For a fairly good Sunday afternoon, no-one out there.

I behaved for the trip out to road warriors, only slightly leaning in, not exceeding the speed limit, but on the way back I had to let rip a little. Nothing too bad, but getting the GS nice and low, and maybe just exceeding the speed limit

Got back, after about a 3 hour ride. Everyone was a bit sore, including me. I hadn't fixed the handlebar positions on the GS to suit me yet.

Going to take Nick on a slightly longer Putty-Wollemi loop ride one of these weekends.

So I've been on the lookout for a BMW 1150 GS Adventure for the past 4 months. This is for mine and Lana's 3-4 month round Oz trip kicking off in August.

Seen a couple, but none that I wanted for the price.

My goal price was $16.5k for a 2002 model with BMW standard panniers (plastic), no top box, with around 25-30k on the clock.

Managed to track down a 2002 model, 20k on the clock, aluminium panniers (3k in value), bunch of other mods located on the Gold Coast. Problem was this bloke was asking 20k for it. I made him an offer of 17.5k, but he wasn't interested.

Then up comes a 2003 model, full aluminium panniers (including topbox), only done 11k, sports exhaust. Located down in Melbourne. I give him a call. Bike's got a ding in the tank (which I don't care about). Have a bit more of a chat, he got it at 10k on the clock, he's added 1.5k in the past 2 years. He also owns a GSX. I've chatted to him on Friday. And he's asking 17k for it. Bingo, for the km's done and with the full luggage system, bargain.

So I decide to head down to Melbourne on saturday, check it out, pay him and ride her back if it's sweet. Go to the bank to get out the cash.

For a joint account it's fairly easy to take out a large sum of cash without the other person's permission.

Want to see what 17k looks like?

On a 6:30 am flight. Meaning we had to get up at 5:15am. Meaning I went to bed early.

Couldn't sleep as Lana was snoring and there was a party on upstairs. I went to sleep at 2am. Okay, now I've got 3 hours sleep with a 11 hour bike ride back to Sydney in front of me.

Get to Melbourne early, cruise over to the guys place. He was celebrating his one year anniversary the night before, so drunk as a skunk and passed out on the couch

Check out the bike, take her for a test ride. She's fine. More powerful than the monster, abs brakes fantastic. I tried to lock her up at 80km slamming on the anchors, stopped faster than I ever could have down without it.

Go back. Tell him his got a deal. We then have to dick around a bit to get the topbox as it's in his gf's boot. End up leaving his place at 11 am.

Somewhere in my trip I snapped the mouth piece off my camelback, so unfortunately haven't got that to use.

Thankfully before I left Sydney, I zipped the gortex liner into my leathers. But stupid me brought my summer gloves, and didn't bring a balaclava. Nor did I pack my thermals.

Got lost getting out of Melbourne, and wasted an hour and a half trying to find the Hume highway.

Once on the highway, it was a fairly good cruise. I have to put risers on the GS to sort out my bad shoulder, but apart from that it's sweet.

The thing is a beast though. Like riding a small car. I am slightly worried about if I can pick her up if I drop her, which will happen at some point. That's my only main concern with her. Two-up with luggage, a 600 is going to struggle. Though I am fairly certain if me and Lana go ahead with the RTW, I will get a 600cc instead. The roads in OZ will be fine for this one, and with an EPIRB and sat phone, I'm not too worried about getting stuck in Australia, if we can't pick her up.

Back to the trip. Making good time, stop for lunch. Oh my god, I don't realise how cold it is till I get inside. Got the shakes bad. My hands aren't too bad, the GS has heated hand grips.

Get back on and away we go. Hume is a boring highway, so no highlights here. I do have a cocktail party to get too, but no chance, my ETA back to Sydney is around 11pm.

6:00 pm. Pull over to refuel. Decide to use the centre stand. Mistake. Firstly I overfill the tank. No biggy, I just wash the spilled fuel off the tank. Then I check the oil. Burn my finger on the engine. Now I take her off the centre stand for the first time. Bang, over she falls to the right away from me. Wedged right up to the fuel pump.

I try to lift her up. It's awkward as I can't get a good grip. No luck. Another bloke comes to help me. No luck. One more guy and up she comes with a struggle.

One of the panniers has come off, and I can't seem to lock it back in. No biggy, it's locked in enough to stay on.

Now I go to start her up. The ABS brake failure light comes on...and stays on. Frig. I check the cables. No damage. I do a few parking lot laps and slam on the anchors, everything seems fine. I'm about 500km's out of Sydney at this time. I decide to go on. It's starting to get dark.

Now my trick with highway riding at night is to slot in behind a truck, and stick with them. The truck's light show the road ahead, and more importantly the truck easily clears the road of wildlife.

Granted you don't go as fast, but with my lights on full beam, plus the floods, my max speed is 80km/h. That is with what I see ahead, I can react in time.

I avoided a possum when I wasn't following another vehicle, so yep, my gap/speed was right.

Pull over around 7, give Lana a call to let her know I'm still alive, and my eta back to Sydney is around midnight. This time when I start her up, the ABS warning light turns off. Water must have got in somewhere when I washed the tank.

Ride on for a few more hours. See the golden arches, so pull over to warm up and get some dinner. Around 9 now.

When I get inside, I can't stop shivering. It is frigging cold. The temptation to pull into a motel room is overwhelming. But I'm determined to finish this trip.

Gear up and ride off.

Now it's starting to get damn cold. I go past an RTA inspection station. It's frigging 4 degrees. I'm freezing. My teeth are chattering, and I've got the shakes. I'm shaking bad enough that the bike is wobbling within the lane.

Bike needs fuel. I also know if I pull over, I'm going to have to really persuade myself to get going. I pull over to refuel. I really persuade myself to get going.

Finally around 11 I can see the lights of Sydney up in the distance. Still got a 100 odd klicks to go.

Have to pay 2 tolls, which I hadn't really prepared for. Took about 10 minutes each time. Stop the bike, remove glove, get off, get wallet, pay, put glove on, get back on, go.

Finally get home. Lana's been waiting up for me, so runs down to see me. I can't stop shaking as it's so frigging cold. She likes the bike.

I've whacked on a little over 1,000 km's on the clock since I got her 12 hours earlier, she's now at just over 12,000 kms.

Go upstairs, warm up with a shower and some whiskey. Go to bed, sleep. Wasn't tired till my body hit the couch. Woke up feeling good, little sore, but no-where near as bad as if I would have done that trip on the Spada/Monster.

Get up around 9:30 the next day. Some guys are coming to look at the Spada. First guy to come over, buys her. I had to call the other guy up and apologise. Took a week to sell her, and I only advertised on the two riding forums I'm active on.

Took Lana for a ride on the GS. She loves it. Told me she was getting travel sick on the back though, and she only gets that on planes/big cars.

I'm going to have to get some of the boys over, drop her on the grass and see if Lana and me can pick her up. That's my main concern with her.

She's got her blue slip on wednesday morning, which should go painlessly.

And now for some pics. Yes, there are 3 bikes in my garage at the moment. If I had taken the pics earlier, there would have been 4