Bringing home the new toy

This journey started a few years ago, my wife , who loves to sleep on the back of any bike through some of the best scenery in Australia, has developed Arthritis in her hips and knees, making getting on and off a bike painful. So I thought that a sidecar may be the answer. Unfortunately here in the west most sidecars appear to be backyard built and pretty rough. I actually aquired a BMW K100 for a carton of beer with the thought of building a chair on that.



I had a fellow offer me a stupid amount of money for it so I sold it straight away, back to the search. I explored the possibility of hacking my lovely 12 GS, but once again was not happy with price or quality. looked at selling the GS and buying a Ural, love the look of them but I love my Beemers more.

Then one of the BMW club members made me an offer for my 12GS , out the shed that went, now with cash in the bank the search was on !!


Early one Saturday morning whilst trawling the old interwebby I came across a bike in Adelaide, a BMW R100 GS PD with a sidecar attached, leading link front end and a cargo pod on the sidecar, a couple of calls meant that 3 Legs was dispatched to check out the bike and I went to meet Eaglebeak to look at his custom built chair.

3Legs said the bike was worth the money so another call to the seller and the deal was done. How to get it home to WA from Adelaide ? 2700kms away , I quickly put a replacement driver into my truck and got a 1 way ticket to Adelaide, loaded up with my riding gear, tents etc.

I suppose at this time I should add that I'd never ridden a sidecar !!

Here comes the trip home



Out the driveway and rode around the block a few times, then headed up to the Adelaide hills for a blast, parked up in this park and went to start getting the bike ready for the trip home, shifted some weight around in the pod till I was happy with the handling.



went to catch up with 3Legs and have a couple of scotches for courage before I set off



Here he is giving his thoughts on it !!

By absolute pure arse I met Bob at the caravan park in Port Wakefield, turns out that we had met several years ago, he was heading home from a month on the road in Tassie





came across this poor fellow, he was having a bad day, pulled over to get a drink, felt the truck move and looked in his offside mirror to see this



ooooops, brand new trailers having a sleep.

Rode from Port Wakefield through to Ceduna, the last 100 kms in a wicked sidewind that was lifting the sidecar wheel off the ground, talk about a learning curve. the view from the pub verandah over dinner was worth it though





Got up Wednesday morning and headed off onto the Nullabor proper



We can run into some scary critters out there, the bastards ambush you.



It's abig country...............





but you never know who you'll run into, Guzzimike was heading east, I was heading west and in the middle of bumfuknowhere we caught up.



Back on the road, when I see this I feel like I'm nearly home, only 1500kms to go



top of Madura Pass looking East







It's a long way to go,





some don't make it.......



if you can see the dates, was New Years eve a couple of years ago and the 3 truckies were caught in a bush fire.



Nearly home, quick stop in Cunderdin and then bolt for home



The bike run like a clock, handled very well and returned a fuel economy average of 6.5 l/100 kms.

2700 kms in 3 1/2 days, just taking it easy and enjoying the time on the road.

Now to get stuck into cleaning it up and bolt the tub onto it when it's ready

congrats on your new "toy"
great pictures
appreciate the ride report... even the somber aspects of it
well done

Nice looking bike Bully, and a good RR.

Nice RR
So how do you rate the side car riding experience?

Hi you've done well there, nice rig. Maqde me a bit nostalgic over the Nullabour as well. My family had a farm at each end of the country from about 1960 till 1973. Talk about a long paddock. 2200miles/ 3500ks. :eek1
Have you got a body lined up?
Cheers Bruce

Nice RR Bully.

What idiot bought the GS ?

Fun report. Thanks!

my favourite kind of trip. the combined excitement of the new bike and the road trip. awesome.

You daffy Aussies - putting the sidecar on the wrong side...

Thanks for sharing the ride home. How did your missus react when you got there?

thought it was a coffin, reckoned that I was trying to prempt something.

heey Davey good to see you lurking over here ( I'll bring it to brekkie tomorrow )

going to get one the same as Eaglebeaks, all ali with a large trunk, bit of a cross between dressy road and outback , should be ready in about 6 weeks, be nice to put another on for the time being, just to get the missus out on a ride, but not that many spares laying around.

Nice one bully, I want one!

you want one ???? you want rooting, shooting and electrocuting if you think Ev will let you have one.

Nice outfit Bully, welldone.

Look forward to seeing it!

Glad you got home ok Bully. Did you get the stop light fixed? Not that there is much need of a brake between Adelaide and Perth There are literally 5 turns in 2500+km's from my place to Perth. Did the missus freak out or is she ok with it. Say g'day to Eaglebeak for me.

3legs

While the boss went east on a whimsicle dream , we had the busiest week trucking !

Actually I think we ran smoother without him ............hmmm , theres a thought .

Great bike and scenery , cant wait for the chair to go on ,

My eskimo will be here soon , I'll get the bike christened , wink .

Now boss , go turn diesel into smoke !!!!

Awesome Bully - nothing beats an early Christmas present hey

Good one bully
Is it a 92.
Hard to tell from the pics, has the front brake had an upgrade?
How does it stop?
Russ

Good on ya Bully.
Great to catch up with you in the middle of the paddock.
Got me thinking now.