The Ride that Wasn't - 2

Day 2: Ebor to Brisbane

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13 February 2021

Master Map

I wondered about heading home quickly. Realizing I wouldn’t have a chance of a decent ride for a while, I decided to extract as much riding pleasure as I could from the trip home. The road to Grafton I’d ridden the day before never palls and no alternative route remains as entertaining for as long, so I did it again.

My CB and letterboxes

Along the Armidale – Grafton Road

It was uncrossable in January 2020

February 2021: a bit more grass but the bridge is still broken

Then it was along the peaceful Summerland Way (or, as a fellow rider calls it, the 'Slumberland Way') to Casino where I turned off and took a quiet, pretty back road or two to Cawongla which set me up for a ride along the very best bit of the Murwillumbah – Kyogle Road: the magnificent corners between Cawongla and Kyogle.

Approaching Cawongla

It was a glorious day and after refuelling at Kyogle, I paused for a moment.

'Holy bush babies, Batman'

Happily, the Lions Road was open for the ride over the border to Queensland. Many sections on the NSW side have been repaved which was a treat.

Along the Lions Road

After that I took a detour to explore a road GrahamT and I had ridden a little of on a recent ride when I was looking after his mental health. It was a pretty detour on the way to Beaudesert from where I trod a familiar path home.

Another ride mucked up by COVID. It hardened my resolve to confine my riding activities to my home state until Australia’s vaccination program is sorted. But, hey, even if it was only for a couple of days, it was good to get away.

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Epilogue

Before I left on this aborted ride, a friend from Tasmania came to stay for the night while he inspected a sailing boat he and his wife were thinking about buying. It was good to see him and I like looking at boats so it was a happy visit. As usual, it stimulated an always-present, low-level desire in me to buy another sailing boat, but logic won and I soon had that insane craving well under control: after all, when the madness of my wife’s current work was over, we planned to buy a 4-wheel drive vehicle and head for the tip of Cape York — the northern most point of Australia.

My friends decided the boat was not quite what they wanted as it might prove a bit of a handful for the pair of them to sail without help. That was that.

Just before I left they rang again. That wasn’t that: they’d changed their minds and were both coming to look at the boat. I was going to be away riding, so I wished them luck. But then COVID drove me home so I was able to go with them both to look at the boat again. At one point during the day we were talking to a bloke on a jetty about boats and the desirability of doing things while you can. He looked at us. “I keep telling people,’ he said, “you have to sail before sunset.”

After our friends had gone home I was telling my wife about this bloke. She looked at me and said something like, “When we’re older and not able to move so easily we’ll still be able to drive. We may not be able to sail. How about it?”

So we bought a sailing boat.

The Ride that Wasn't - 1

Prologue

For some time, Aussieflyer and I have planned to get together and ride for a few days. This has been complicated by living 1,600 kms apart and the fact that he’s a working stiff with responsibilities. But earlier this year, a window opened, and a plan was made. The plan involved a few days with Aussieflyer, a possible ride or two with Pterodactyl (who was busy with other things and couldn’t join me for more than a day at a time) and a meet up with NoRoomtoMove who planned to join me on the return to Brisbane so he could see the motorcycle exhibition at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art.

The plan was not without its risks. COVID, of course, was the obvious one; but also my wife being amazingly busy and under a deal of pressure. She, however, encouraged me to go. She’s kind like that, but I think I noted a fleeting hint of a twinge of guilt as I settled my plans.

True to form, I set about making preparations for the trip as the last minute approached.

The main issue for resolution was the need for a new front tyre. Although not quite done, the Pirelli Angel GT on the front was not going to survive the 3,000 – 4,000 kms of the ride I hoped to make. Before setting out on last year’s ride to Carnarvon Gorge, I’d replaced the rear with an easily obtainable Pirelli Sport Demon. Ben, the helpful bloke at my local repair shop, told me the system said he could get one from the distributor, although getting it in time and fitting it would be a close-run thing.

The whole business was a catastrophe. The tyre didn’t arrive at the distributors. Another dealer promised it could get one but couldn’t. On the day I had planned to leave, I set out to phone every dealer I could find to see whether I could get any front tyre at all.

Eventually I spoke to a helpful woman at a dealer with a string of dealerships for pretty much every significant brand of motorcycle. You name it, they deal it. She assured me she’d searched their national database and they hadn’t a single Pirelli Sport Demon in stock across their multitude of stores. But they did have a Metzler 110/80 right there in the shop that they’d be happy to put aside and fit for me if I’d care to head down there.

Arriving clutching the front wheel so it could be installed, I was led proudly to the tyre and with a sinking heart saw it was indeed a 110/80 but 19” in diameter.

A young sales assistant in the shop tapped on his computer for a moment and said, “Just hang about, mate. I might be able to fix you up with something.” He strode out the door, crossed the road to their Triumph dealership and returned moments later clutching … drum roll … you guessed it … more drum rolling … a Pirelli Sport Demon 110/80/18. Bugger me.

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Day 1: Brisbane - Armidale - Ebor

12 February 2021

Master Map

I set out early the next morning needing to put in two serious days to be able to meet Aussieflyer at our agreed rendezvous. Perhaps not enormous days for iron-butt types, but quite enough for Air Hawk types like me.

Partly to get some kilometres under my belt, but also because I was curious, I decided to take the main highway towards Sydney. A new stretch between Ballina and Grafton had recently been opened and I wanted to see what it was like. It was great. If you like highways. I don’t much on the bike, but it will make travel between Brisbane and Sydney much easier and is good to have for late-in-the-day or soaking wet runs home from points south.

There aren’t many rural road tunnels in Australia. This one, not far over the NSW/Queensland border, is mostly for the benefit of wildlife

I’m not sure about this one, but I like the angled entry.

This picture highlights the inadequacy of ‘lanyard cam’ for the motorcycling photographer. It is taken climbing a new bridge and at the very left hand edge shows the top of the lifting span of the bridge it replaced. So much for precision framing.

What can I say?

From Grafton, it was back to enjoyable roads as I made my way along the Grafton-Armidale road. I’ve described it often. I love it, and it was great to see it starting to recover from the ravages of the bushfires that tore through it in late 2019-early 2020. Indeed, one could have been forgiven for thinking parts of it were different places.

February 2021

January 2020

A milestone

COVID was the great killjoy of 2020-21. Australia was very strict about closing state borders and imposing lockdowns in order to try (reasonably successfully so far) to dampen the spread. Melbourne, which had suffered Australia’s longest and most debilitating lockdown in 2020 was again seeing a rising number of cases, but Aussieflyer and I figured that rural Victoria would remain safe from any lockdown. As I planned to stay well away from Melbourne, I was not too concerned.

Silly me.

As I rode the last, fast and enjoyable 70 kilometres from Ebor to Armidale, Aussieflyer rang to tell me the entire state of Victoria had been put into lockdown until the following Wednesday (17 February). I decided to ride on to Armidale, refuel, drink coffee and eat something while I pondered what to do.

It would be perfectly feasible to continue to ride south, delay my rendezvous with Aussieflyer and then, maybe, enjoy a bit of a ride. I had to be back in Brisbane by the 26th, but that was easily achievable.

But … there was no guarantee Victoria would be released from the lockdown. There was the possibility that my home state of Queensland would close its border and I’d have to quarantine when I got back. There was the matter of the pressure my wife was under that I could help relieve a little — although not from quarantine. I also faced the fact that, while I could have a perfectly interesting and enjoyable solo ride, a significant reason for this trip had been to catch up with CB1100-riding mates.

I finished my coffee, rang the Ebor Falls Motel, organised a room and retraced my tracks for 70 kilometres. When I told my wife I’d be home the next day, I heard the sigh of relief. For the record, when I got home, I was back at my computer helping her before I had time to change out of my riding gear.