R75/5 on tour

[DucatiPete]

The Ridge is pretty good fun for the average red blooded he-man, and kinda picturesque in a very manly way...

[DucatiPete]

Apparently opal buyers come to town every now and then, set up “shop” in a local motel and chalk up their availability.


“Lunatic Hill” was named 'coz a few miners decided to dig down to the opal-bearing layer beneath a hill just out of town. Apparently that layer is at a pretty consistent depth across the field, they just had to dig (by hand) through the hill as well. They were obviously mad!

[DucatiPete]

This sculpture, constructed using VW bodies and satellite dishes amongst other bits of junk, was made by a local artist and erected (by Pete and his bro) on the highway just out of town. (Yeah, ya gotta watch for stray emu as well as untold amount of 'roos about to hop out in front of you're innocent passing tourist.)


The main street is lined with shops selling all manner of opal jewellery and other trinkets. And you can pay any amount you wish by the look of it. This store had a couple of stone necklace pendants for sale at $130,000 & $140,000 each.


But it's a typical mining town: everything's for sale... including any number of mining leases, with associated hardware, ie caravans, trucks, generators, mining tackle etc etc...
One of the numerous notice boards around town:


The Ridge is great fun and there's so much going on I'd like to spend a bit more time there... kinda addictive really.

[DucatiPete]

Well, from Lightning Ridge it was time to head east and over to Lismore. It's about 800ks from LR to Lismore, so I planned a camping stopover at or around Bingara which is roughly ½ way.
When I refuelled at Narabri I noticed a staple in my back tyre which I reckon I picked up at LR. It was late in the afternoon and I didn't feel like stopping at Narabri for the night so I just swallowed and kept motoring north. Anyhow, the tyre was still up and I had a puncture repair kit and compressor on board – she'll be right!

Sun setting on the road north of Narabri, heading into the Mount Kaputar NP for the night... hope that tyre stays up...


Camped out on what might have been the Horton river. The road from Narabri to Inverell was a fantastic little side track through very pretty, lush, valleys full of plump black Angus beef cattle. Felt like a bit of a 'ol time swaggy on nights like these.

[DucatiPete]

Rear tyre still had air in the morning so off for a great ride to my mate's place at Lismore... jeez this the north east of NSW sure is purty country... sorry no pics, you'll just have to take my word for it. On the way I noticed the bike handling starting to go off (slight slow weave in the bends) – tyre deflating, I guessed. (Or was it loose front wheel bearings that Mal reckons I've got?)

Well, got to Lismore OK just before dark – phew! Parked up at my mate's for a couple of hours then when went to park bike in garage discovered rear tyre totally FLAT! Phew! (again) Just made it.

No worries, since the tread was down anyhow, I decided to get a new tyre/tube the next day.

In the morning we rang around the local shops. Of course no-one had a tyre for an old dinosaur like that... finally found one that said that had one that'll suit. Went there only to be offered some ancient Avon that was the squarest sectioned tyre I've seen in my life – a sidecar tyre no doubt... There was no way I was putting that on my bike. The mechanic was adamant “that's what those old beemers run...” Yeah, right... The only tyre they had that would remotely suit was a Metzler Marathon 110/90 FRONT tyre (as it was branded). At least it would fit as far as I was concerned, so that'll do... As it turns out a mate runs one on the front of his late model Harley.

They couldn't fit it until later in the afternoon so we decided to do it instead... A couple of hours and two tubes later we had it fitted – we was a bit too aggressive with the tyre irons. But boy hasn't that Marathon got a nice rounded profile, makes 'ol Slashie just wanna drop into the bends. Don't know how long it'll last though...

My Lismore mate, Rocket, had a beautiful R1200S until he troweled it in a pretty horrific accident a couple of years ago... it got written off (as he almost did too). But he still has his old 1100S which is now ready to be put back into action, once he can achieve the knee flexion required to sit on it... it's a nice looking ride. There's no doubt about it BMW has made some pretty good looking bikes...


After a couple of delightful days in the tropical north it was time to motor south and back to reality...


Had a stopover at another mate's place near Port Macquarrie – a little piece of rainforest paradise.


From PM it was another fun ride along some more fantastic country roads and beautiful scenery (Hunter region) and down to Sydney for an o/nighter at an elcheapo motel.


Then a quick 500k rip down the Hume Freeway to Wodonga for the night. Then a final – and very wet – day in the saddle to get me back home.

Over the couple of weeks I covered about 3000ml or 4500kms. Old No. 5 ran like the fine piece of German touring machinery she is...

So all-in-all t'was bloody fantastic and a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED way to expend a bit of long service leave.

[DucatiPete]

Here's a rough map of the journey:

[Mal S7]

Onya Pete, good write-up and pics.

My favorite.



You just can't beat a good long afternoon shadow can ya.

cheers
Mal

[ME 109]

'Bout time we had a decent ride report here Pete. Melville's tours excepted.
Love the timber bridge photo.
This will need a second read.

[Bamboo812]

Yep, nicely done. Thanks for sharing!

[She'llbe]

Great story and lotsa photos as well. Your mate Rocket, does he also ride an old English bike? I reckon he might ride with one of the fellas here in Nimbin.