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A Two Wheel Walk-A-BoutBy Graham Strang
When the closest HOG (Harley Owners Group) or Ulysses clubs (A club for older motorcyclists) are over five or six hours away, you know it’s going to take a while.
We put together the ride details as they went, and the trip went something like this…. Day 1 600km Winton to Townsville
On the first night we had dinner with the Townville Ulysses at the Vale Hotel. Day 2 400km Townsville to Cairns Woke up at around 6am was raining, We had reports that there was some flooding towards Cairns so we decided to drive, which mind you was the weak as way out….don’t need to remind us, we know. We then decide to borrow a mates car to take up to Cairns, but that turned out to be expensive as Graham dropped his FZ1 putting it in the shed. We drove to Cairns in beautiful riding conditions cursed ourselves the whole way, dinner with Ulysses, which involved us ending up at the casino and Lachie being very ill the next day. Day 3 400km Cairns to Townsville Woke to the chorusing sounds of my brother getting to know the porcelain bus very intimately, even the lawn of the hotel as we were driving out!! Had morning tea at Wayne Leanords motorcycles, great bunch of blokes, nice bike shop to. Drove back to Townsville in even better riding conditions than the day before, so much for flooding, all we got told is that you just missed the rain…..
Day 4 400km Townsville to Mackay Off to Mackay, the ride to MacKay was great and it was nice to do some time on the bike instead of just sitting there staring at the road. At Proserpine we encountered a group of street bike blokes off for a ride, telling us about their “ Big Ride” for the day about 200km total, had afternoon drinks with the Mackay Hog’s, Day 5 330km Mackay to Rockhampton Rockhampton here we come, it was a shorter ride but we left later in the morning. Don’t recommend the heat, knocks you around a lot, visited a couple of bike shops. Day 6 270km Rockhampton to Emerald Nice short ride to Emerald met of with Gary from Central Highlands Hog’s, spent some time at the bike shop and then had lunch with Gary, back to motel for a swim and a camp, then to dinner at the Emerald Tavern with Central Highlands Hog’s Day 7 400km Emerald to Longreach Turned our wheels for home, breakfast at Jericho, as we rode towards the west the roads straightened out…back to reality….lunch with our sister at Longreach and camped the night. Day 8 177km Longreach to Winton Home looks damn good, already planning our next ride…. All in all Both Bikes Went Really Well! If you like your full on touring with a some handling bring on the FJR1300, but if you still like your sports performance still with decent comfort The FZ1 is a very nice ride, although Graham recommends a Aftermarket screen as the standard is a little small, and you get a fair bit of wind buffet.
Did we mention the cold beer? Oh and there are now three road bikes in Winton, with local bike shop owner Butch Lenton buying a brand new MT01. If you’re thinking of a trip call them first – they can give you some great advice. North Gregory Hotel | |||||||||||||
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There’s nothing any of us like to do more than go for a decent ride with a couple of mates, see the countryside, enjoy meeting other riders, battling rain and bugs and occasionally overdoing it (not that there’s anything wrong with that) in the process.
I personally ride a 2005 Yamaha FZ1 set up with Ventura & RJ Saddle Bags, and my brother, Lachie, rides a 2005 FJR1300 with standard Panniers. Together, we operate the very motorcycle friendly North Gregory Hotel in Winton, Queensland, Australia, which is due west of Rockhampton. We took a trip recently to meet fellow riders, make a couple of meetings and drum up some business for their hotel – which, by the way, has very cold beer.
Heading from Winton to Townsville, we stopped for breakfast at Stamford 110km East of Winton, best scrambled eggs we have ever had, all to easy riding, we hit rain at Torrens Creek in which Graham realized he had forgotten his wet weather gear, so after 200km of rain we were clean and wet.
We rode like old men stopping every 100km or so, took around eight hrs to do the 600km to Townsville. Upon arriving in Townsville we visited all the bike shops dropping flyers and telling them about our region and pub.
Lachie looked at some hard panniers and bought them….but they came attached to a bike a brand new FJR1300.
We then went to the Townsville Southern Cross AGM & Dinner, Great bunch of people, great kids atmosphere, my highlight was standing around the FJR while about 10 of the older blokes talked new bikes when Lachie turned on his electric windscreen, the chorus of ooooooooh from every one was a great laugh.
By the way, apart from cold beer, the North Gregory Hotel also features secure lock up parking for bikes, picnic lunch’s available, good motel and backpacker rooms and all at reasonable prices.