Ride Report - January 3rd 2007

I've just typed up a ride report for the local branch newsletter, and
figured I'd share it here.

On Tuesday, I thought to myself "You've got the week off; may as well
get into one of these mid-week rides that you've heard so much about".
So I gave Alan a ring, just to check if the usual crew hadn't made other
plans, and was told that although he couldn't go, the ride was still on.
You beaudy!

Wednesday morning dawned all grey and wet. Being of the mind that, if I
was going to let the prospect of a bit of wet stuff stop me from riding
then I'd probably never ride, I had a cuppa and donned the riding gear.
A quick look at the BOMs radar showed that any weather was coming in
from the north east and, despite the precipitation over Shennan St,
nothing local was showing up.

I rashly dismissed thoughts of any wet-weather riding gear, wished Carol
a good day at work, and set off for Maccas. The drizzle was a little
annoying, but nothing serious. Pulled up in the Maccas carpark, and
found it very empty of motorcycles. A quick glance at the watch saw
8:45, so figured I'd do the right thing and wait. After all, surely this
group of mid-week diehards wasn't going to let a bit of rain interfere
with their planned activities.

At 9:05 I figured that, if there was any riding to be done, now was the
time to do it. Seeing as I was the designated ride leader (and corner
marker, and tail-end Charlie) I figured I would follow the route that
I'd surreptitiously planned earlier. Carol and I had gone for a New
Year's Day spin through Kulpi and Haden, and there were a couple of
alternate roads I wanted to check out. I figured I could tweak the
suspension settings a bit while I was at it. Trip-meter had 180 km from
NYD so, figuring I had a good 200 km left in the FJR, I decided not to
refuel. After all, being a bit of a wet day, I probably wasn't going too
far. Went out through West, Mort and Griffith Sts, and then onto Old
Goombungee Rd. The rain hadn't abated, but the fog was getting thicker.

In the fog, I flew past the road I was planning on taking. Oh well -
live for the moment. Let's see where this one goes instead. Lo and
behold, Meringindan soon loomed up ahead. The fog was gone, but the rain
continued. Not for long though. As I headed for Goombungee, blue sky
peeked through the clouds. This wasn't the first time I'd departed
Toowoomba in gloom, only to find a beautiful sunny world away from the
mountain. The back roads to Goombungee really are glorious. Nice
sweepers; great scenery - and they get better between Goombungee and
Oakey. I quickly cut across the highway from Oakey, and set the compass
for Aubigny.

THAT is a very nice stretch of road. I try and ride that road every time
I venture out that neck of the woods. Off the nice open sweepers and
onto the long boring stretch to Cecil City. Ah well: there's always the
dotted white lines to play with. Just before Cecil, I turned left, set
the rebound damping down by another 5 clicks, and set off to Millmerran.
Not a drop of rain - no other vehicles - and devoid of wildlife.
Gorgeous! Halfway to Millmerran, I opted for the Brookstead turn-off
instead. A few late crops are in, and some of the early stuff is in
head. The cropping scenario was better than I was expecting, considering
the drought. Some more good riding through to Brookstead.

Getting closer to Pittsworth, I see the fuel gauge click down to the 2nd
last LCD bar. I reckon I've got about 100 km left, and the road sign
says 64 km to Toowoomba. Fuel to spare! Time for a diversion through
Pittsworth and out towards Felton East. Just as I reach FE, the
trip-meter comes up to 380 km, and the fuel gauge slides down to the
last bar. Damn! I thought one bar was equal to 50 kms, not 30. Did I
ever tell you how much loathing I have for an inaccurate fuel gauge?
Just up the road, the sign says "Toowoomba 40". I notice the clouds
starting to come in. This could get interesting.

It did. Passing Cambooya, with 406.5 km on the trip-meter, the final bar
starts flashing: into reserve. Technically, I should still have 5 litres
of fuel left. Technically, I should have an accurate fuel gauge.
Technically, I should know better.

It starts spitting. I lacked the bravado to sail past the Emu Vale
roadhouse. By the time I pulled up, it was raining. 20.7 litres of PULP
later, I realized that I still would've had 4.3 litres in reserve. Seems
the gauge DOES read accurate - some of the time. From Emu Vale to
Toowoomba, I did a pretty good imitation of a cornering MotoGP rider. It
poured down and the wind, blowing from the East, had me leaning over to
the right, all the way in.

At noon, just as I was pulling into the driveway, the first drops of
water start trickling down the back of my neck. Just under three hours;
nearly 240 km; any day is a good day for a ride.
---
Cheers

PeterC [aka MildThing]


'01 Yamaha FJR1300

www.dmcsc.org.au
http://eladesom.com.au/ulysses/
# 37181

 

Good report Peter. (And your mates are pussies!)
--
Clem

 

One of my favourite experiences on the GPX was when riding from
Canberra to Puckapunyal, and deciding at Albury to forget about
filling up because I figured I could probably make it to Wangaratta
without any trouble at all, based on fuel usage to that point (I hit
reserve somewhere between Gundagai and Albury, iirc). I filled up at
Wangaratta with 17.84L going in the tank (18L tank), and 445km on the
clock since last refill.

I have no idea where this ranks in the greater scheme of things, but
it was an amusing challenge to brighten up an otherwise dead boring
run down one of the most dead boring roads in the country!

I don't think I've even ridden a bike that had a fuel gauge, let alone
owned one. Are they any good?

Damien
GPX250 -> CBR600 -> F650/R1200GS (when the $$$ are there!)

 

I regularly got 20 kpl from my R1100S BMW, giving a range of 450 kilometres
from the 23.5 litre tank.

The R100GSPD with a 33 litre tank will get about 500 kilometres on a good
day.

My K1100LT has run empty after 210 kilometres with a strong headwind sitting
on 140kph (22 litres).

The K100RT sidecar gets about 10kpl.


Boxer

 

Your *sidecar* gets 10k/L? Impressive!

Damien
GPX250 -> CBR600 -> F650/R1200GS (when the $$$ are there!)

 

Yep GPX's are damn good on fuel

so at VTR250's unlike their larger siblings
150K 5.5L with a 13 litre tank s quite a bit of range

Its got 260 on there now on the current tan which included about 40k WOT
on private roads of course

try running out in the middle of no where next for a real challenge

 

Ok, for my weekend away on teh GS500F I was very conscientious about
recording kms and fuel.... and I discovered the following:

Regular highway riding (cruising around 110-130kmh) = about 25km/llitre
Trying it out on nice flat straight roads (cruising around 140kmh on non-hwy
Hay Plain-type straight flat open roads, with the occasional experimental
blat)= about 20km/litre

I had a lovely time on my ride to Deni and back I think maybe I've
finally bonded with the bike!

betty, missing the GPX less,
but only marginally

 

I had a similar experience when doing a tour through NSW on an old
Suzuki GS450. I can't remember the specifics of the kms done, but I do
know that I nursed the thing for a long long time - especially after
finding that a dot on the map (which was supposed to be a town) was
actually just a dot on a map. Funnily enough, there was a servo there,
but it looked like it had been abandoned about 10 years before.

The K100 had a low fuel warning light, and the FJR now has a gauge and
low fuel warning indicator. Are they any good? I find them useful, but I
still tend to rely a lot on my trip-meter. I tend to reset tripmeter1 at
every fuel stop, and tripmeter2 at the beginning of every day on a long
run.

I'll regularly turn over 400 km when riding solo, but get the low fuel
warning coming up at around the 240 mark when pillioning while towing.
---
Cheers

PeterC [aka MildThing]


'01 Yamaha FJR1300

www.dmcsc.org.au
http://eladesom.com.au/ulysses/
# 37181

 

I've now got about 5 years worth of records of mileage and fuel
consumption, between the K100 and the FJR. I've started to explore the
stats abit, with regards to octane levels etc, and am finding that some
of my personally held beliefs are not being supported by the stats.

Once I've done a decent job of it all, I'll try and put it up on the web
for anyone interested.
---
Cheers

PeterC [aka MildThing]


'01 Yamaha FJR1300

www.dmcsc.org.au
http://eladesom.com.au/ulysses/
# 37181

 

I've coasted into a servo at Ceduna, engine having stopped 300 metres before
the servo. And yes, the 18.75 litre tank took exactly 18.75 litres.

Yeah OK. I did still have the 10 litre can in the trailer. I've twice had to
use the can within sight of a servo.

Theo

 

Bigger Hoon!

As one would



Beer woman - and hurry up!

johno

 

I stopped at a petrol station in outer eastern Melbourne at 4am and
pumped 19.2 litres of fuel into the 19 litre ZX12R tank.

Nev..
'04 CBR1100XX

 

You should really stop when it's full Nev.

Boxer