Tassie Touring Suggestions

It's been a very long time since I toured Tassie but the memories are all good ones. The trip over there was just as much fun as the island was. I went to a big rally there and met lots of people so I suggest you check out what rallies are on. Be aware that the Hog Club have their rally on 6-8 November, so it will be busy down there at that time.

I had 6 weeks touring around, so I guess if you only have a couple of weeks you will have to be a little selective. There are some absolutely excellent little pubs, like The Pub In The Paddock and The Worst Little Pub On the East Coast.

My advise would be to get a copy of the Australian Motorcycle Atlas which has pretty much all the best rides. I stayed in backpacker lodges, peoples places, beside rivers and bays, in farmers paddocks, and at pubs. I'd suggest you take a small tent as well as your sway because I remember getting caught out for a couple of days in the rain (with a cask of port).

As for the Nullabour, yep I've done that too. There was a heat wave the day I left and I stopped at the first pub I came to and met up with a couple of guys on bikes and another couple trailering their bike whom I ended up travelling with all the way across. We had other bikes join up with us and every fuel stop turned into a bar stop and after overtaking road trains we would stop on the side of the road with a six pack and watch them all pass up by again.

I had an excellent time at Koolgardi where we happened upon a desert bike race and a rock drillers competition and managed to get ourselves free tickets to the rock drillers caberet that night. We got so drunk and were the only ones dressed in jeans (the ladies had lurex dresses on) but we had them all up dancing with us before long. We totally appreciated the smorgasbord after eating baked beans etc at campside stops for days in a row.

If you are going to camp on the side of the road along the way take a ground sheet as there are lots of prickly grass seeds that will haunt you for years to come otherwise.

We also made it to Norseman in time to meet up with a big group of fishermen staying there the night, who partied on after the bar was closed as the publicans guests and included us in their free drinks.

Needless to say, I recall all the good bits of that trip, but I do remember how long and ... long it was. Make sure you have a small esky with you; a lambs wool cover for your seat and a few spare parts. I ended up with a paper clip holding my chain together because the link kept coming off and even when I put a new link in with a surclip, it came out too. I actually rode around Perth for a while before I remembered to go get it fixed.

Well that's all I can think of at the moment, if I have any more wonderful recolections about the ride I'll let you know.

Cheers Donna

Club Rides

At the recent Poker Run on the Gold Coast a friend of mine was stopped by police and booked for speeding and unsafe overtaking. The police had their siren on for almost 2km and a few bikes stopped but then took off again; other than my friend who stayed to face the music. He was shown a video and told that he was lucky he stopped as all the others would be receiving summons's in the mail to appear in court on a very serious charge of failing to stop, together with the speeding and overtaking offenses. (Time will tell if this eventuates).

We used to get lectured by the police about how unsafe it was to speed and overtake dangerously, but now when you ride with a patch club it seems the lecture is not about your safety; you are drilled as to why you choose to ride with a patch club and told you will take the consequences. It appears that the police are no longer booking motorcyclists because they speed or disobey the laws, but merely using any excuse to deter motorcyclists from riding with outlaw clubs. It is well known that police are currently targeting outlaw motorcycle clubs due to a lot of very public feuding between clubs and suspicion of serious criminal activities.

Is it worth the risk now to go on a club ride? Well you'll have to make that decision for yourself, but I know I won't be riding down the tail end to be picked off by the police.
Stay Safe, Cheers DONNA

Should I confess??? I've been test driving cars!!!

Hi everyone, Yep it's true! I've been checking out cars not bikes lately and I have to admit it has been fun. Mind you these were not just ordinary old cars, I went for the fast hot variety and I think I now have to admit to being a bit of a rev head.

So what did I drive? I started off in this lovely red Honda Accord Euro Luxury Navigation model with a sports pack, where I discovered the paddle shift gear change on the automatics, that was a bit of fun. Next I moved onto the Nissan Maxima - more gadgets and a six cylinder, so more power.....hmmm.

Speaking of Gadgets what about the VW Passatt CC, that dammed thing can do a reverse park by itself, you've just got to give that a try. Ok so gadgets are fun, but power would be nice....The BMW 135i Coupé 3 litre 6 cylinder twin turbo put a smile on my face for about a week. Wow that car was awesome! Zero to 100 kms per hour in 5.3 seconds. I was in my eliment.

I also tried the 330i Steptronic which they let me have much more freedom to drive and found myself testing it's overtaking power and turning circle capability - in laymans terms that would be going fast and doing donuts. No I haven't bought anything yet, I'm having way too much fun trying them out. So if you have any suggestions on other cars they will let me test drive, please let me know!

I have managed to get out on my bikes just a bit in between these test drives too. I went to the Wintersun Festival on the Gold Coast last weekend which is all about pre 1974 cars only, but I'm pretty sure they didn't mind seeing me getting around the streets of Coolangatta on my bike. There were lots of bands playing and partying, cool old cars, a few hot bodies to perv at and basically a great time for everyone. I can't say I have come back with a camera full of pictures of old cars but I did get a couple of some great people I met at the coffee shop on my last day there. They were on bikes of course :)

Tomorrow I'm off for a ride around the Boonah Beaudesert area. The weather is perfect as long as you get home before dusk when it starts getting a little cold. For those of you basking in the summer sun over there in the States, it's cold here right now at -4 degrees celcius which is approx. 25 degrees Fahrenheit and for me that is time to be sitting in front of a fireplace with a nice red. Enjoy! Cheers Donna

Sorry I took this with my mobile - not the best pic.

From a ride 2 weekends ago where we ended up at the GlamorganVale Hotel again.

Packed up and heading off down the coast.

Hello World!!

Yep, I am still alive - just a little hard to post much when you haven't been able to ride. Only 55 days till I get my license back - woohoo!!

Gotta admit that it is hard visiting all the forums and reading about rides that all have been doing, but my time will come. Have been spending a little bit of time in the garage working on the 2 x GS's - trying to pick the best parts off both to combine into one. Is starting to take a little bit of shape so hopefully it will be on the road come the end of July.

Hopefully Donna will have some more stories from the road soon, so stay tuned.