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Re: Ride Report: Bethanga, Melbourne, Barry Way and Talbingo

Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 5:07 am
by ontic
Peter,
Ross said he has a whole bucket of bar options. I didn't pay too much attention to the details, rather just that there will be a fair few to look at and compare. RS, RT... and many slight variations. I am interested in looking at a set of GS or even ST bars, but alas he sold his set of GS bars a week or so ago.

here are my current bars, not sure whether they are stock or not.
The bike is still dirty from the trip.
The shed, even for my high standards, is in an extreme state of disrepair. (tomorrow I will have a stab at a good shed clean and organise)
I have found that rolling the bars as forward as I can has given me the least pain so far. Before doing this my hands were going numb within a couple of hours of riding. They don't do that anymore, but my hands and wrists are still agony after a full days ride.

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Aside from different bars I have considered finding or making up some extended bar risers. My feeling is that they need to be higher and possibly wider with the grips more flat to each other relatively. I don't know though, this is just intuitive guesswork.

Re: Ride Report: Bethanga, Melbourne, Barry Way and Talbingo

Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 5:56 am
by Sibbo
Is the problem the angle that your wrists make ,left and right , splaying outwards ? or the height of the bars relative to ,say the top of the tank ? What will you be looking for ?

I'm not totally happy with Tilly's bars ,assuming they are stock ST (which I have no way of knowing ) ,I would prefer something more like my Royal Enfield , something straighter across .In my case it's the out angle .

I aspire to a shed as organised as yours ! :D

Re: Ride Report: Bethanga, Melbourne, Barry Way and Talbingo

Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 7:02 am
by grant81rs
What a great read fellas and also mouth watering... Well done

Re: Ride Report: Bethanga, Melbourne, Barry Way and Talbingo

Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 10:18 am
by SteveD
ontic wrote: Aside from different bars I have considered finding or making up some extended bar risers. My feeling is that they need to be higher and possibly wider with the grips more flat to each other relatively
Something like this?
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Handle-bar-riser ... 2c5778afac

Re: Ride Report: Bethanga, Melbourne, Barry Way and Talbingo

Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 8:02 pm
by Airbear
Ah now, where were we? Yes, the food was wonderful. There will be more about food - the bean (chick pea) stew particularly, but for now I think some adventuring might be in order.

We were both interested in doing some fishing. Neither of us had a fishing licence for the state we were in and there was some uncertainty about whether the trout season had started. With the weather easing and a bit more sunshine we decided to try getting out so we could do some exploring back down the Barry Way, where the road follows the Snowy River and we would be very close to Victoria – close enough to plead ignorance about licences and seasons and so on.

It was on Monday (Day Six at the hut) that we headed out on an exploratory mission, hitting the freshly wetted dirt road for 60kms or so, checking out the camping spots and stretches of fishable river. With the Ladies now unladen we were able to have a bit of fun on the dirt, slippin’ and slidin’ around the corners, dodging the ‘roos and wallabies.

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There are some bloody good campsites along there; Jacob’s River and Pinch River campsites were particularly good (great places for a rally, by the way). The river was raging – it had flooded out in a few spots – so the fishing would be crap, but that didn’t diminish our enthusiasm.

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We decided on the Pinch River campsite (at the far end of the river in the above photo) to return to for a couple of days and headed back to the hut. Here are the Ladies having a quick chat on the bitumen. The farmland up here all looks just like this – tough alpine grasses and twisty eucalypts.

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We made up a shopping list. We had been so good with the booze that we deserved to get a whole lot more. There was the leftover chick pea stew to deal with, chocolate rations to top up, and … I forget what else we bought. (Hans?)

So on Tuesday, freshly provisioned and all packed up, we headed for the Pinch. It was a beautiful warm day, but ready to be cold when the sun hid behind clouds. We pitched tents by the river ….

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… and collected some firewood ….

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The fishing was crap, but we had been so good and the beer and scotch went down very nicely. There was something really nice to eat (????) and the roaring river provided excellent sleeping music.

Next day (Wednesday) after some more crap fishing, we packed up the fishing gear and headed further south into Victoria and the McKillops Bridge road. This road makes the Barry Way look like a smooth new freeway – great fun, but pretty scary in spots. Building this road must have required some pretty brave people. It’s difficult to get the depth and size into a little photo, but trust me, these valleys are deep and steep.

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The road is almost all single lane, with the occasional slightly wider bit to allow vehicles to pass. We encountered only one car on the 30kms to McKillops Bridge. (Sorry, I didn’t get a pic of the bridge, Jeff.)

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We fished at the campsite there (no luck), had a coffee and headed back. We were both low on fuel so headed for the Seldom Seen Service Station which appeared to be deserted (yikes). It took a few minutes for Seldom Seen Dave, Lamboghini the sheep and the chickens to make their way out to the pumps. We were very glad to see them. We even signed the guest book. (pics shown earlier in the thread).

With the Ladies happily refuelled we headed back to the Pinch campsite. Hans had a close call with a very big buck ‘roo. It dropped onto the track from above, about a metre in front of him, kind of grinned and sproinged off the track. He was as tall as Hans on the bike. It happened so quickly and calmly that despite the nice adrenalin rush it didn’t slow us down at all.

We rode back up the Barry Way in darkness again, seeing more ‘roos, wallabies and Samba deer (they are big buggers). Back at the campsite we gathered some more firewood. I think Hans might be slightly ahead in the ‘fit the maximum firewood on an old boxer’ competition.

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To be continued ….

Re: Ride Report: Bethanga, Melbourne, Barry Way and Talbingo

Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 8:14 pm
by grant81rs
Ya both have me hang'in on every word......... :shock:

Re: Ride Report: Bethanga, Melbourne, Barry Way and Talbingo

Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 8:18 pm
by Scot
Great stuff, Charlie! Hey, Hans . . . you could've strapped a couple er three more logs to the bars! ;)

Re: Ride Report: Bethanga, Melbourne, Barry Way and Talbingo

Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 8:32 pm
by Airbear
Scot wrote:Great stuff, Charlie! Hey, Hans . . . you could've strapped a couple er three more logs to the bars! ;)
I agree, mate. But he did have a huge bundle of kindling tied to his back and another decent log in his teeth.
Yes, I'm bullshitting. Grin.

Re: Ride Report: Bethanga, Melbourne, Barry Way and Talbingo

Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 12:30 am
by SteveD
How'd you cut the wood? I'm picturing a pulley system around the rear wheel attached to an ol' chainsaw. Run the bike to 6Krpm in first, whilst on the centre stand....bingo, neatly cut firewood. Don't disappoint me now!

This is one of the great airhead pix.
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Re: Ride Report: Bethanga, Melbourne, Barry Way and Talbingo

Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 1:27 am
by Ross
SteveD wrote:How'd you cut the wood? I'm picturing a pulley system around the rear wheel attached to an ol' chainsaw. Run the bike to 6Krpm in first, whilst on the centre stand....bingo, neatly cut firewood. Don't disappoint me now!
And like all good BMW toolkist that would have been stashed under the seat as well. :lol: