On the road!

After a frantic last week of packing and planning, it was a relief to finally hit the road on 27 December! The day started with a knock on the door from the cleaners and a mild hangover from a night out with Michael, Ryan and Christian after the cricket in Melbourne. The first day was a modest 200km to Wilson's Prom, which is completely the wrong direction for Darwin, but makes for a very scenic ride.

The bike is running really well. Pete spent most of Christmas Eve on final preparation - the crash bars from Hepco and Becker took a while to bend into shape, and he put a new tyre on the back. Even with the extra weight, the bike is easy to ride, but I am a little worried about the strain on the subframe. The only thing that's playing up is the GPS power supply - the cable's a bit loose.

The weather is perfect for riding - sunny and mid 30s - but it's a bit warm when I'm off the bike in all the gear! Next stop is bastion point.

Sent from my BlackBerry® from Optus

Puddles

Just 6 days to go, and the excitement is definitely starting to build! I think I'm through the paranoia stage that the Adventure Motorcycling Handbook refers to - I've been rushing around like an idiot for the past 3 weeks planning for the trip, and also an international move. So much for a month of rest and relaxation in the botanical gardens!

Since booking removalists and packing boxes does not make for rivetting reading, I've been holding off updating the blog. However, Saturday was a bit of a landmark because I finally put all the luggage on the bike and rode to Healesville to make sure there were no unforeseen complications (such as the subframe collapsing under the weight). Someone asked me the other day if I would be able to ride with all that extra weight on the bike. When I told her that I managed OK with her on the back, I got a very dirty look... (Kathryn - I was only suggesting that I travel light...)

Highlight of the last few weeks was certainly my second trip out to the Mystic Mountains with Stookie. Victoria got a month's worth of rain last weekend, so the trails were extremely wet which just added to the fun. The Transalp took everything in its stride, including steep muddy slopes and puddles that came above the wheels - and all that on an old set of road tyres. Unfortunately the waterproof boots are not quite so waterproof in anything that's deeper than the boot. So I'm now feeling much more confident and I have a better understanding of exactly what the bike can do (and I certainly won't tackle anything as hard-core when the bike's fully loaded!). Massive thanks to Stookie, who's a great guy and a great coach - he's thinking of setting up an off-road school next year. He takes awesome photographs too - you can find out more about the fantastic rides he does at http://web.me.com/stookieandlil. And I'm sure that Pete's relieved that the bike came back in one piece - I don't think he wanted to spend Christmas Day rebuilding a wrecked Transalp.

So what's left to do? The engine bars and centre stand that were ordered from Hepco & Becker on 11 November are still somewhere between Queensland and Melbourne. The bike still needs a final going over at Everything Two Wheels - locks on the panniers, a new set of tyres and an oil change. And the movers are coming on Wednesday and so I've still got a huge amount of packing. Then it's the Boxing Day Test, and 27 December will be the first day on the road!

Getting dirty

I finished work on 30 November, so I've just completed my first week as a full-time adventure motorcyclist (or 'unemployed'). It feels good, but there's a lot of stuff still to do - prepping the bike, packing the flat up, and generally sorting out my life, not to mention saying good bye to the many people that have made the last 3 years in Melbourne so memorable.


Bike progress remains slow, although I did get the toolkit out and fit a set of barkbusters the other day - hardly rocket science, although it did require me to dismantle the throttle assembly (well - possibly not, but I did it anyway). A minor landmark since I don't usually touch the bits that make the bike go (i) faster, or (ii) slower. If there are any shortcomings in my mechanical talents, I'd prefer not to discover them at 60+ mph... but I guess there will be far greater challenges (and repairs) coming up.

On Sunday I finally got the Transalp dirty in the Mystic Mountains with Jason 'Stookie' Doonan, erstwhile music producer and now off-road guru. He's promised to turn me into a dirt bike legend - and he now has 3 short weeks to do it in, but he's a great guide and coach so I have every confidence he will succeed! We spent about 4 hours tearing through the forests around Narbethong which was a lot of fun. I've not done any dirtbiking since Morocco in 2001, so it was a bit unnerving at first to feel the front wheel sliding around again. However, it all came back pretty quickly, and it was not long before my confidence was probably running slightly above my ability... thankfully no spills though, and I'm pleased to report that the Transalp is as capable on the dirt as it is on the road - at least for what I need.

I also had (another) big shopping spree at the weekend to buy thermals, a first aid kit, a dual-fuel stove and a thermarest from Paddy Pallin. It's very annoying that stuff is so expensive - the same thermarest that costs US$70 in the States costs around twice as much here. But with 3 weeks to go I don't have time to mess around with mail order for the sake of a few dollars.