cairns greater region riders

That sucks Dylan.
The rest of the circus is rolling on, about to leave William creek for Oodnadattaa

Forgot to hit the post button! Most of the fnq band at Oodnadattaa

Faark. That sucks mate - sorry to hear it. What happened ?

For the curious.

I have never ever seen that happen before or heard of it

dayum and I thought I had it bad this morning....broke my bicycle chain lol....crossing the road....powering down trying to lift the front wheel over the curb, she lets go....with a car approaching closer than I planned for.

Though I think I've been let off lightly, $100 later I've a new cassette, chain and cassette removal tool.

Us mob with @DESERT WIND and Mrs Desertwind in Kulgera.
Intereting day yesterday, i enjoyed it, others not so much.

Likly make it to Alice today, but cant be really sure of that.

So called fandangled one piece cush drive sprocket, not like your normal cush drive setups.

From Checkmate3

Wednesday afternoon and Henry and I are at Mungerannie.
It looks like we are going to be alone here tonight.
We started the day at Betoota and stopped to say g’day to a couple of the tradesmen who are working on the place. This is ‘roach’, he’s doing the plumbing.

They’re hoping to get it up and running in time to capture some of the traffic going to and from the Birdsville Races next month.
Things are getting a bit out of order here as I sent a quick update from B’ville this morning.
There has been some more drama today.
After refuelling Rex, Henry, Phil and I set out for Mungerannie. We knew that Dylan And Dennis were about three hours ahead of us and planning to get to Marree today. We figured we’d get to Mungerannie and decide wether or not push on according to how we felt and how much daylight was left.
50k down the ‘track’ I saw a familiar face waving from the back of a ute

Yep, Dylan and the ‘Barbie Bike’
on the back of the ‘desert recovery’ ute. Seems the special ‘cush sprocket’ lost all it’s teeth.
Not much we could do so I grabbed my new speedo cable (thanks Dylan ) and continued south.
Coupla hours later I arrived at Mungerannie and met up with Henry again. I knew the other two were behind me and should turn up soon. I should mention here that we rarely ride together because of the dust, quite often we are a kilometre apart.
Lots of stuff like this along the way, the fair dinkum ‘gibber’ plains

After we’d had a beer and a shower and still no sign of Rex and Phil we started to get a little concerned.
So we had another beer and came up with a plan:
Wait and have another beer
Eventually a vehicle came along from B’ville with news that they were stopped ‘about an hour and a half’ up the track but were not injured and gave a thumbs up to the driver.
We figured a mechanical problem and they would camp on the side of the road and sort themselves out tomorrow.
But Lo, as I tap away at the screen Rex turns up
with news that the BMW (Phil) had a rear puncture that was unplugable ( tubeless) despite a couple of attempts. Phil had a tube and was putting the wheel back together when Rex left him.
And now, just on dark Phil has arrived.

Tomorrow we’ll head down to Marree and then turn right towards Oodnadatta. It would be good to get to Mt Dare on Friday before all the decent camp sites are gone.

From Checkmate3

Now back in Telstra coverage at ‘Barrow Creek’ ( not Wolf Creek but not dissimilar). I asked the barman what this place was famous for and the answer was ‘the Peter Falconio murder’. It happened just down the road and this was the place that his girlfriend found refuge in.

Lots of strange and exotic machines at the OCR:

Claude’s Matchless (google)

The ‘pudding’ auction:


Left Mt Dare on Sunday morning and immediately ran into a track of deep soft sand. No choice but to drop it ‘down a cog and power on through’ and hang on and pucker up. Lots of casualties, mostly big heavy bikes that layed over in the sand. No stopping to take pictures.
I was at Kulgera Roadhouse by mid morning and gratefully tucking into the standard B&E roll and flat white, fully expecting the others (Phil, Rex,Henry and Paul and Karen (in the ute with the EXC500 strapped to the tray)) to be snapping at my heels.
Nope.
First to turn up were Paul and Karen but with the news that ‘your mate on the BMW’ had a big ‘off’.
Sure did.
Before:

After:
Andy got off lightly when you consider that the white thing in the distance is the fuel tank. Mild concussion and cracked ribs. RFDS to Alice but he wasn’t the only one, there were other casualties.
A couple of hours later Phil and Henry turned up with the news that Rex was stopped about 50k back with a completely shredded rear tyre. I managed to find something that would fit from the ‘those-in-desperate-need-of-rubber’ pile at the workshop and Paul and I headed back down towards Finke to rescue Rex.
Here’s the Husky on a ‘desert jack’
Rex, Henry, Phil, Paul and Karen and I were all happy to take rooms at Kulgera for the night.
So I spent a couple of hours this morning sorting out Andy’s stuff and getting the bike in some sort of condition so that it can be put on a truck to Adelaide.
Then a run to Erldunda for breakfast ( 4.5, fatty bacon, not enough bbq sauce, precooked, small roll and not hot enough)
before chasing Phil and Rex to Alice. Both had left early in order to get to the Desert Edge bike shop ‘before all the good tyres were gone’.
Rex was on a mission and was out of there as soon as he had new rubber, heading across the Plenty Highway and planning on Jervois by dark.
Phil and Henry and Paul and Karen ( they kindly took Andy’s bike gear to a friend’s place in Alice) all elected to stay in town.
So it was ‘see ya’ and I headed north

Hopefully cross the Queensland border tomorrow

I managed to escape the Canberra chill on the 21st & set sail north up the coast staying at friends at Kingscliffe, catching up to another at Emu Park in the first couple of days then went into cruise mode from there. Discovered overtaking cars near Grafton the clutch was starting to slip so spent an hour or 2 organising to have the parts at Townsville when I got there. Heading up the Brisvegas M1 saw a Hayabusa sitting in the far left lane, doing about 90 with the rider in shiny black leathers. If that didn't scream "unmarked cop bike" dunno what would. managed to clear gympie & Emu Park for the night. got the Grahame's at Townsville a couple of days later, parts turned up next day, replaced the plates & then took the bike to Future Sport KTM for replacement boots. A few days there before off to Cairns & catch up with Eamon & some of the FNQ riders. for a "planning bbq". Aboutnow I managed to pick up a lurgy that would hang on for a while so I spent a day or 2 coughing up a lung or two before we ( Eamon, Paul from Mt Isa & myself ) set off up the Bloomfield track to Cooktown. How good is that place for a boy from Canberra in the middle of a FNQ "winter".Looped back around the back of Mt Molloy before finding ourselves heading for Croyden ( after a copule of personnel changes, Paul headed back to Isa to prep his 500 for a simpson crossing & we picked up dylan on the" barbie bike"
Headed south to Richmond, mostly good road with a sphincter puckering stretch of 40km of loose sand, rock in the middle. Good practice for the Mt Dare rd! At Kynuna Dylan decided to head to Isa to Paul's to fix the rack mount on the Beta. Eamon & I went to Winton & awaited Henry, Rex & Phil who arrived in the arvo.
Had a few small tyre etc issues next morning so got away a bit late & we did the loop down through Opalton before getting back on the Jundah rd. Ever been to Opalton? no?? I thought so, know how I know? you're still here. I swear there's bodies down old shafts there, Best avoided!!
Road was pretty good so I tapped it a bit& that's when Eamon discovered his cracked frame. I ended up in Windorah while the others got the KLR fixed in Stonehenge. Headed for birdsville in the morning via a quick look at progress on the Bettoota pub. Could be a good spot for 2020. Out of Birdsville next day after meeting up with Dylan & paying $30 for a tent sized patch of sand with rocks embedded in it ( as opposed to the patch of grass at Windorah for $6) ended up on my own again after Dylan's sprocket failure & into Marree where I waited the next day for Eamon, Phil, Rex & Henry to arrive & up to
oodnadatta for the evening. The 950 was leaving a coolant stain on the radiator from possible stone damage by now so was checking coolant every morning & adding a small amount of water.
The 260 into Mt Dare was certainlly a bit rough/stony/corrogated/sandy/ loose rocky creek beds in places but apparently better via Eringa waterhole than Dalhousie. Set up & sat back to watch the arrivals next 2 days. Catching up with friends, meeting new ones, Saturday night, the pudding auction came & went, & headed with Bmsteve home Sunday. Funnily enough the run to Oodnadatta seemed easier heading south ( Especially for the pilot on a new AT who blew past me at warp factor 11 on the pegs, waving in some of the snooty stuff! You, whoever you are definately have your shit in a pile!!! ) After that it was a drone home on the slab, got back about 2 yesterday arvo. We stayed at Balranald on Monday night & after seeing the amount of roadkill yesterday morning heading toward Hay would NOT be riding at dark out there!!

Thanks to GK at Townsviile for room for a bit of workshop space ( & a couple of bottles of red, bbq etc) to Eamon for much the same!; to Dylan Paul, Rex , Henry & Phil for the riding company & a bit of local knowledge & to Steve for the ride back home. A blast all round & sharing it with mates is what its all about!! I'm now forming the Southern annex of the North Queensland Adventure Riders; going to need to learn to talk slower

got back to my residence about an hour ago, came in from Normanton today, stopped at few places to catch up with people.
ahhh, shower and now some dinner.
all us cairns mob are home, @sitdownman too

To the guy riding the XRV750 Africa Twin double up I saw you in the northern beaches Cairns, it looked great and I wish I were out on a bike also.

I'm not a facebook person and so sometimes miss out on the latest stuff that's going on but a carrier pigeon has just arrived and strapped to it's leg was a message saying that the lads from Townsville are planning another little soiree at the Einasliegh pub on the 8th of December.
Last year's effort was a whole bunch of fun not least because of the heavy rain storm that overtook the late arrivals.
It started out with sunshine and smiles



A lunch stop at the Railway Hotel at Almaden was welcome



But then that nasty little afternoon downpour caught some of us and the fun started. Normally dry creek crossings rose quickly



the surface turned to mud

I enjoyed a closer association with mother earth



and arrived at Einasliegh just before dark to find my 'mates' had taken up all the room in the shed, cracked their first beers and couldn't give a rat's arse about us stragglers

'Starty", the proprietor has unfortunately sold the place but rumour has it that he's still a regular at the bar



those who have camped there in the past will no doubt miss Alan's unorthodox accounting practices.
Lots of lies were told

Daylight saw the usual suspects emerge

So it's on again, apparently.
Blame this man



That's him, the one in the middle, in the blue shirt with the smug look and the Rolf Harris hair do.



8/9 December.
I'll be there.

iddy

Checkmate3 and I are in, who else from Cairns is coming?
@Kezza?
@sitdownman are you going to come by? I have that inner tube for you!
@DESERT WIND look forward to seeing yourself and Mrs DESERT WIND if you come by

hay ewe
got my Carpal tunnel op booked for nov 15, stitches out 29th nov

I should be good to go, tell the publican to order a extra keg for me

Am planning on it - have the Friday and Monday off and hopefully a mate or possibly 2 joining me.
You can hang on to the tube - you might need it again some time .
Look forward to catching up with the FNQ crew again