Home safe. Cup of tea time and the v8s on the telly.

Photos will appear later.

Trip not all without incident.
Lost my phone at Walcha. Oh well

Waz is spending the night in Tamworth.
We had to leave him. Put his back out while getting fuel just after we left Guyra.
Had breakfast in Uralla and that is where we left Waz.
Felt bad abandoning him, but he had some green and yellow pills that apparently knock him out so he was off to find a motel room and sleep it off.

If someone reading this has his number, just send him a text. He will probably be asleep till after dinner time.

Despite rain had a fantastic time.

rosscorossco

I thoroughly enjoyed myself, as did Kerry. Many thanks to smithy for organising a good run and for smoothing the way for us at the places we stopped over so they knew to expect us etc. Thanks also to those who helped clean up and cook and all the rest last evening and this morning before you slipped away into the sunshine. Charlie, Ulli, Bob etc. Good to see Bob again and also Waz. Shame he's done himself an injury. Some photos:











More piccies later. Feeling a little tired today. ( Das letzte Bier war bestimmt schlecht!)

See how we go here.
1,540km

Well, it all started ok. Left the office at 11am on Friday for teh 500km ride up to Guyra.
Had the rain gear on as it looked dodgy from the start.
Made it as far as Stroud before the heavens opened. So less than half way.
Any later pics I put up show better conditions that I experienced on Thunderbolts Way. Hard to imagine how you could get a worse road surface from something designed to make a road better than rutted gravel and mud, but these guys somehow have achieved it. Some of the worse sections actually go through the towns. Not sure how the locals put up with it. Maybe Rick G should move down there and sort it out. run for Mayor?

So made it to Guyra after about 6 hours, so not too bad considering.

Pulled into the main drag ready to grab some beers and make the short (500m) ride to Sean's when who should appear from the pub, but Ulli. Parked the bike got a key and met the guys in the bar. Pub dinner so no more travelling tonight.

Think Robin just found a phone



Think this about sums up the quality of the establishment



Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny



Early morning muster at Sean's. Charlie, Phil and Robin
Rick G, Ullrich, Phil (orange tank) Robin and mine wins by a nose.



Tackler's F650, Rick and Rick, Ullrich and Ullrich and Phil and Phil



Sean told me he doesn't smile. Guess I caught him in a lighter moment with this shot. He looks almost jovial. Smithy smiles. He just isn't in this photo.

The crowd is assembling.



Told you it was bright and sunny. Guess we had the Irish Ekcentrics praying to the weather gods for us.
Pro tip. When using a new camera, first find out where the lens is so you can try to keep your fat fingers away from it.



See officer. I wasn't speeding! What? Oh, using a camera while travelling at 100kph is against the law.



We were so lucky with the weather. Not a drop of rain. Guess it is hard to rain when the clouds are at ground level.





Seems none of us could read. Onwards.



The procession. And a finger.



This is where we went. All of em. Though it is not 7km from Coffs to Grafton.



Almost an hour of non stop riding. Smoke if ya got em



Dorrigo. R-L Smithy, me, Robin, Phil, local, Smithys mates GS (sorry, name forgotten) Charlie, Ulli, Rick G, RT, Tackler, Sean/Kerry.





Why do you ask Two Dogs ?



The view from the lookout and one I prepared earlier. Coffs Harbour.



Some of us have friends



Others.....



Then mum said play nice so we let him in to the sand pit.



Then..



And after we let him play with us he decided he had a better play date. Oh, the sun did come out.
Kay, Charlie, Kay, Smithy, Klompy, Sherry, Rick (hiding) Robin, Dave, Waz, Bob.



Always time for a selfie.



And the camera went back in the bag and stayed there till today.
Not a lot else happened after Coffs. Except for the rain and the Tornado and hail. TORNADO

Excellent evening spent at Sean's taking advantage of his hospitality and bbq. And sunshine.

And so we come to Sunday.
Think Mr Klompy was woken by a small featherd creature with wind and he left just after that.
I had the unique experience of waving to him from the shower. Certainly something that will be with me forever.

The poster was dropped off at Sean's. At 4am Mr Klompy thought to waterproof it up and strap it to the back of his bike and ride with it for over 13 hours and I could not think to take it from the pub 200m down the road.
Said farewell to Charlie, Dave and Rick and met Ulli, Bob and Waz at the servo down the road. It was at this point Waz decided to put his back out. He soldiered on to Uralla and as said above, made his way to Tamworth to get a room and sleep off the green and yellow pills.

Three of us headed off to Walch where I waved farewell and travelled down a much drier yet no smoother Thunderbolts Way. Twenty minutes later realised my phone was gone. Oh well. Still have the camera.
Here is a lookout. There is a view. There was a sign. Wonder what it said?

Jumped on the bike just as a 4wd went past and slotted in behind him. Guy from the lookout got in behind me. Chrysler van thingy, Wife and kids.
And he tail gated me.
So at this point I will remind you I had torrential rain on Friday through here. The road was covered in loose gravel with some parts completely covered in racks and dirt from the hills above.
He continued to tail gate me.
At one point I was going to move over to the wrong side of the road and wave him through he was that much of a dickhead.
I was not going to go any faster and actually could not due to the 4wd I was most happy to sit behind.
If you know the road this bit might will give you an idea of how much a dickhead this guy was. If you don't know the road (as I didn't) have a look at THIS on google.
Trucks have a mandatory 40kph limit.
Coming down the hill I smell brakes burning. Car in front. Not bad, just from maintaing a decent speed and using the engine as well to slow down.
I look in the mirror.
Still being tail gated. He has smoke pouring off both front wheels. I was pretty quickly weighing up my options and there really weren't any. Road is slick and wet and covered in loose dirt etc. I cannot slow or he will catch me. I can't speed up due to other car and dirt etc and can't cross the road as they a blind hairpins.
Must say I have not been that concerned on a bike before about anything.
Thankfully dickhead's brakes held out to the bottom and I did not come off on the gravel and have him run over me and he then very quickly passed me on a blind corner and tail gated the 4wd till he passed him on a blind corner.
Did I mention the wife and kids in the car?

Enjoyed the rest of the ride home in bright sunshine singing happily to myself and then humming a bit as I forgot the words to the song, which was a bit strange as I was making it up as I rode along.. and rocked in the door about 2.30.
6.5 hours for 500km with stops.



Now it is time for bed.
A huge thank you to smithy for organising the ride. Fantastic route.
Thanks to Sean and Kerry for the bbq.
Thanks to everyone who came along and Mr Klompy for an extra effort.
Thank you linesmen. Thank you ball boys.
Get well Waz

rossko

Rossko you have missed your calling you could be writing for the "kings Cross Whisper"...my story starts a little differently....had to stay at work Friday to deal with those pesky indonesians...but that is another story..So anyhow as I told Smithy I would do...I put my hand outside my door at 0400 on saturday and I brought it back in dry...so off I went to Coffs Harbour...on a foggy but dry morning....to borrow a term from Tackler I had a
 " dry route" anyhow met Waz at the foreshore at Coffs a perfect photo op for one as they all went to a carpark...


so of course my bike refused to start but fortunately a K magician who cannot be named cause he is so shy...said twiddle the fuses...and off we went to our next photo op at a lookout...




I don't think he is chucking up....yet.

and just before he had a flat tyre Rick pulls up

and of course some movement...which i cannot put on here..yet...shall do when i work it out..
So from now on it got very wet and windy.....a Tornado almost got us it appears...imagine that " the worlds best collection of BMW K's end up in Kansas with Toto...and co in tow" 

anyhow we had a lovely BBQ with the clearest sky's I have ever seen...but I was so soggy..
and i was not the only one.

so it took a little while to wring out the wet gear....did I mention I got changed in front of Ray White at Glen Innes..the real estate lady was very amused..


And of course our gracious hosts...thank you so much for the lovely food and the hospitality....not sure what was being said here ....captions please....I had a couple of bourbons and took random shots.....
So next morning I put on my wet....gear and rode off with Rapunzel ( Rossko ) hanging out of the upstairs window...in the shower. The run down hill was interesting with the slimy roads and fog...foprtunately i did not have any Kamikazi's on my tail...plenty of coppers out there though I waved to most of them on the way home...not a problem until I hit the city and every arse in a german car wanted to kill me...happy to be standing at home..I may be able to sit tomorrow...1500 odd KM's for a weekend is not the furthest I have travelled but certainly this century...:O)

A really enjoyable weekend catching up with everyone. Apart from the rain of course. 

Bad news when I arrived home as some c@@@ had kicked the back door in. Lost my laptop, so in the hunt for a new one.  

Cheers, Dave.

By my count, a bit difficult to tell with the odd other BMW in the pics, and were all the K s together?

and do you count the Tripod? 13 was it? ( Of course you count the chair after the excellent rebuild)

Close to a record at least for the aussie crew? Imagine Rossko at work tomorrow, "How was your weekend Ross?"

" yeah It was  OK, I went for a bike ride, got wet and the road was rough"

" Bad luck mate, I watched the V8 supercars both days and Johnno did all the trips to the fridge!"

Well done ALL esp Smithy and Sean.

Green with envy.

Ghost

 PS    Rossko, give up your day job.

great trip ,
and a well planned route by our smithy ..... thanks mate !
the scenery was fabulous
the route was extraordinary
the camaraderie was magnificent
the bikes amazing

at the before run party - um- meal, come session at the local ,
was good to catch up with our southern friends from near and far who had made the journey to Guyra


more to meet on the way round the loop tomorrow ...but a decidedly well lubricated bunch of hangers on at the end ,,,,grin
we had collectively won 3 meat trays in the raffle event ...held at the pub a little before ...so it was a relief that none of us would go hungry tomorrow, if we could get the bbq happening.


others have posted some great pics of the leave event ....me saying to smithy we should buzz the main street ...just to let the locals know that there is more than one or 2 "k"bikes in town ,,,and they do have friends ... (seemed appropriate on a Saturday morning to me)

it was great to see the long stream of riders heading out across the open valleys ...although covered in a semi fog atmosphere,  there were signs of hope with clearing clouds along the path .
it would have been great to get a pic of that stream of riders ...all grouped together with about  50- 75 meters of gap between us each at our cruising speed ,  and maintained for a good while . the view from near the back was amazing ,,,with riders climbing the next rise and the valley full of bmws ...all the way (well that's what I saw )
bliss

at each stop the smiles were great 
and the ride through the twisty sections down Dorrigo hill into Bellengen then later up the hill towards Glenn Innes had smiles on folks faces

the climb to the little known viewing platform above Coffs harbour (after picking up Klomy and Was) was amazing ...winding up a narrow track of tar through the banana plantations up to the summit and the brilliant overview (something I have never seen before )

and then through proper bushland on the leave into the hinterland and onto Nana glen will be remembered by many of us .

for the second time in my short life ....yes  maybe predictably... the rain stayed away ...until we climbed that awesome hill climb, up the Gibraltar range ,,,blooming hell will I ever get a run up that hill in the dry ?   giggles ...
once up the top ,(we could see this time instead of a total white out ) the roads opened up to a marvellous well surfaced road with nice high speed corners ( alby and I travelled that bit of 70 odd  ks at near second gear crawling pace through almost snow back to glenn innes )  raining all the time ...but pleasant all the same .

(sorry no images ....bl%%DY internet playing up and locking me out of servimg )

although wet through ...all of us 
we got a bbq going a little later
enough food to feed a small army (which we were of course )  smithy displaying his chef skills ...mmmmmm ...great stuff

although we had lost phil (rockman) back to Inverell during the lightning storm and hail event at glenn innes )   there was a great group of folks all chatting away at a hundred miles and hour till almost the wee hours .

I got the new to shawn, lcd widescreen tv, tuner amplifier and speakers setup, all wired up and tuned in ...in preparation for the dr who event the next day ...before bed ...then fell into a deep sleep

the "banner " was delivered by rossco, earlyish and now has made it to "k"weensland for the locals to get to see and sign ...before onward events we have planned for it

an uneventful return trip with me "rick" and "tackler" heading north ....other to say that a planned return through "Queen Mary Falls " route, was now closed and an exciting down hill dirt road  for 30 odd kilometres through "white swamp  had old "gerty" spinning back wheels and sliding through some corners with that huge rear road tyre on the back ... 

a great weekend ..about 1500 kilometres all up I guess.
good to see the guys again

thanks Seanii, Kerry  , Smithy and all for the company and camaraderie

a top event

Great ride Smithy, and good to put some faces to the crew on here. After leaving Grafton I looked at the weather coming in and decided to bolt for home. Got as far as Glen Innes dry, but it bucketed down for the next 40km towards Inverell. No hail though, so I'm not complaining. Saw in the news about tornados and hail Guyra way and wondered how you all got on. Phil

TacKler wrote:Bad news when I arrived home as some c@@@ had kicked the back door in. Lost my laptop, so in the hunt for a new one.

That's no good Dave. When you know what you want give me a yell and I'll see what my wholesalers want for one, but to be honest, it will most likely be within $20 of Computer Alliance at Mt Gravatt. You need to buy a pallet load to get em cheap

Here's more photos.

Tackler and I left the Yatala BP about 9am and headed south via Rathdowney, Kyogle and Casino. I was on the '96 R1100RT and Dave had brake trouble on his K75's so was on the F650. We thought we had lots of time so had quite a few stops along the way. First stop was at a bright dry and sunny Rathdowney.



Dave picked up fuel in Kyogle, I was running injector cleaner so didn't top up. Lunch in Casino was great. It was then we realised we had lost an hour simply by crossing the border into daylight savings. The road from Casino to Tenterfield has it all, rain foresty roads opening out into fast sweepers toward Drake then up and over the mountain toward Tenterfield with almost no traffic.



It hammered down from Drake all the way up the mountain to Tentefield, about 60Km and Dave got soaked. Here I found some issues with the RT starting to show up. Won't turn in unless I'm on the throttle and the TPS is out of wack so at low revs the thumping big twin is either on or off and no back brakes. A bit scary on mountain roads, never mind the rain and I'm starting to think I should be home installing that box of parts that arrived yesterday. But the rain stopped in Tenterfield so we both fuel up and press on to Guyra.

After a solid night at the pub keeping up with the professional drinkers it's all hands on deck at sean's for an 8am start. Getting this mob underway is like hearding cats.



The ground level clouds parted near ebor and I got a vista shot.


Coffee and a pie at Dorrigo.


Panarama from the Coffs lookout. Is that the earth curving or am I still hungover


An electrical storm hit as I go to Glenn Innes, got a bright flash and an instant boom with a torrent of rain so I ran and hide in Mcdonalds having coffee and cheescake with one eye on the weather radar on the phone. After it eased I moved off back to Guyra. Back at Guyra we hear a tornado has ploughed through the place and today there is a picture of it on the news and yes it was a real tornado.

Great Ride, thanks guys, I'm off to lookup new tyres for the bike and waterproofing for gloves and boots

Super pics by Kay....those twisties look fun

RobinW wrote:I'm off to lookup new tyres for the bike and waterproofing for gloves and boots

Bwahahah that'll be a first but do keep us up to speed on the search for the holy grail.

yeah they were good 88
i was sitting about 20 meters behind them on the decent of the hill ....and they werent hanging around
 for 2 up ...yeah was a good effort

Arrived safely at Maitland, after a reasonably big night at Mudgee (my first ever "liquid dinner"!)

Thanx for a great weekend, lads. It had it all. The Yellow Peril didn't miss a beat.

Ulli.

Seems I'm always destined to be last, so last home is no biggie. Got to Goulburn and surprise surprise, it bucketed down for the last 100 klm of the trip. By this time, rain doesn't scare me though so just shut my eyes
and sped up, seems to work.
Anyway, 2,300 klm on the clock at the end, need to stand up for a couple of days now, but have a pub dinner pre booked for me here. When will this end??

A very big thanks to everyone, specially Seany and Kerry(kerrie?) for their hospitality. Great to catch up with everyone. I wonder how many combined k's were done trouble free, be interesting.

I'm home and feeling goog after a nanna nap in Tamworth. Thanks Schoooorn, Kerry and Smithy. Good to see every one. Looking forward to next one.

Just found a puddle of oil under the final drive and oil residue on the right side of the tyre.
 Might have been lucky to get back.

Just a few more pics taken by Kay. 


Orara Valley east state forest
 

 Gibraltar range in distance.


Mann River Jackadgery


Going up the Gibraltar range


A bit of bragging at the top of the range, suresuresure next time.
 

Thanks all for taking the time to share stories and pics, now we all can feel the ride through you guys.

Did anyone else notice how quiet the forum was over the weekend?

I think the rowdy ones were off playing K.

I just dropped the final drive oil to replace the leaking seal and found water in the oil. RT mentioned he also had water in the final drive after the wet ride. I did have 8 hours of heavy rain on the way but no creek crossings. It could be a good idea to check your final drive for moisture.

Hey Waz , just check  the hole in the breather is  pointing to the rear not the front, I've recently changed my FD oil and no water.

Thanks, will do

Also check that the o-ring at the bottom of the breather cap is present.

Thanks, I didn't think of thet either.

hmm good point inge

haven't seen many on the breather at all ....almost all the ones I have seen do not have that o ring

The very early models had only the breather cap w/o the small hole.
The mod on these ones was to drill a 3mm hole, and mount the o-ring.

seen them with hole ...no o ring

on my list to do ...I better pass the info on to the aussie locals eh ?

thanks inge ...yet again

I keep learning stuff ....wow  and nearly 60 ....

Check O ring and seat of speedo sensor---Happy New Year to all