The slow ride home - Canada to Australia on a pair of CT110 Honda Postie Bikes

George above turned me on to you trip so here I am. Sure would love to spend some time in your neighborhood, looks like some fine riding. Will be following you and Mable on your journey, keep the rubberside down and good luck.

Subscribed, let the fun begin.....

Hey tncpowell, you might want to post about your travels over on the
Honda Trail 90/110 forum. It's a fairly busy forum devoted to only
your type of bike. I just KNOW that they would be cheering for you!
And, since you will be traveling south along the west coast of the USA,
you will surely find some friendly folks to meet up with along the
way. The greatest concentration of members on that forum are
from the west coast.
http://hondatrailcts.yuku.com/directory#.Vs5KTcjf320

Thanks all! Always nice to know people are reading this!

So I had a great day touring around Canberra. Took myself out to breakfast first. Surprisngly good brekky at the National Museum! I had the baked eggs with chorizo and tomatos. NOM NOM!! And got to check out some cool displays.





From there it was off to Parliament House. I have been there previously but thought it would be nice to check it out again. I really enjoyed walking around and seeing the places where our useless politicians get paid to act like school children. Lots of marble columns and great halls and such.






After all this parliamenteering I had a hankering for chocolate. So I found a San Churros and had a chocolate thickshake. Then went to do some geocaches with my mate and headed out for burgers and beer to top off the day!

What a hot couple of days! I managed to make it from Canberra back up into the Snowys before the heat drove me to ground. I spent 2 nights holed up camping and just chilling out.

From there is was another slow trip over the mountains towards Khancoban. I was feeling quite low emotionally as I have had to say goodbye to a dear friend of mine. I have been a sufferer of depression over the last 18 months and the trigger is always loneliness. Leaving my frind behind and the seemingly huge gap before Chantelle joined me made things a bit not so nice..Not to worry. I have a Mabel and she is as good as any psych!



I managed to get to Albury-Wodonga in what felt like record time. I had a nice tail wind and we just sat on a near steady 65kms the whole way.

My fancy new fangdangled battery setup had already crapped itself, due in part to me wiring it up totally wrong and melting mires, whoops. So while I was in Wodonga I called into A Grade Batteries and Oils and they set me up with a new one for $66. I was damn stoked! Go see them if your in that area at all! Also grabbed Mabel some new oil so I could give her a service. She deserves it!



On the way out of Wodonga I stopped in and grabbed a Maccas burger. Something sugary and fatty to help ease the mental tension. Thanks Maccas! The below picture is not a maccas burger by the way. Though that is how they should make them!



Headed about 40kms up the road to a nice campsite right on the edge of the Murray River. I still had 3 alcoholic Ginger Beers left from a few days before so I setup the tent and my chair and sat down to enjoy them. I generally don’t drink when I feel a bit emotional and after just one I tipped the others out on the ground.





Then it was time to fire up the laptop and watch a bit of The IT Crowd before bed. Hopefully tomorrow sees me have a better day.

I woke up early and packed up camp while it was still darkish today. Mabel is suffering in her engine department a little so I am keen to try to ride her in the cool.



I was on the road by 730 and heading towards Adelaide. Riding this early also means quiet roads. I only saw one moron who somehow lost control of his car on a straight bit of road right in front of me. He clipped the gravel shoulder then over corrected and fishtailed off of the highway and into a ditch. I pulled up to see if he was ok and apart from being a bit shaken up he seemed ok. If I had of left camp just 1 minute earlier, I would have been right where he fishtailed across the road. Lucky me!


I noticed that Mabel has shed a bolt over the last day. My fault for not checking her over often enough! A quick stop at Bunnings for some bolts should soon have her sorted.



As the sun rose the heat began rising too. It wasn't long before I could feel the heat rising off of Mabel. I was determined to make up some ground today so made several rest stops for her to cool down along the way.



I passed through several small towns, only stopping to grab fuel and keep on moving. I had a good stop in a town called Lake Boga where I ate some chocolate and gave Mabel a breather. She is a trooper that little red girl!

We pushed on across landscape that looked a lot like the Nullabor plains. It was hot as hell!



Finally I decided it was time to camp. I have noticed Mabel is leaving a little drop of oil when I park her now and know that I was pushing her a bit to hard today.



Camp is in a town called Underbool. There are $3 hotshowers and a covered table here!




Should make Adelaide tomorrow.

I will check it out!

I was determined to get to Adelaide today. But first I had a sleep in, then a slow brekky and a late shower!



It was a weird campsite last night. Kids running around at midnight Spooky wind and weird voices. So I didn't get much in the way of sleep. Turns out I am not the only one who has had a weird night there!



Once I finally got going, it was basically just flat bitumen for 200kms. Halfway around a corner Mabel cut out. I switched her fuel taps over and after about 10 kicks she fired back up again. Now down to my reserve tank of 5 litres I started to look for a fuel stop.



Next town along provided me with exactly that. Upon opening Mabel's main tank up I noticed she still had about 3 litres of fuel left in her. Weird. Starting to think she has a fuel issue now. Not to worry. Adelaide is just over the horizon and I will fully strip her carb down and clean it out over the next week.



I continued cruising along the Mallee Highway. There was quite a headwind today so Mabel was hovering around the 60 km/hr mark. We had a few stops to allow her to cool down and I managed to snap a few photos. One spot had some cool abandoned old cars.






Mabel had her nose to the grindstone today. Literally!



My lunch time stop was interrupted by a lovely young girl leaping out of a car as it pulled up, and violently being sick in the bush right next to me. My cup of soup didn't look so good after that and I tipped it out.



I continued on and soon reached Tailem Bend. Thus completing my loop of the past few weeks. I rode Mabel onto the ferry and we watched an old paddle steam boat go by.





Then it was follow the GPS all the way into Adelaide. Oh wait, it wasnt quite that easy. The GPS took me through some weird and wonderful roads and places and left me stranded in a farmers paddock with flat batteries.




Finally made it to a caravan park where I am booked in for the next two days. Tomorrow I shall get stuck into fixing Mabel and prepping Rosie.

Hope theres not too many pics! Let me know if you want less.

Haunted campsite, what a way to start the day! Keep those pics coming my friend. You truly have an eye for taking fabulous photos and they truly support your telling of the journey. I really hope that we do cross paths when you make the journey to the States. Thanks again for taking the time to take us along on your journey.

Meet Rosie! The second bike you will start hearing and seeing alot of. My wifes bike!

So not much is happening at the moment. I am working on Rosie and Mabel. They are both getting engine work done and a few other mods here and there.



Rosie pretty well needs to be kitted out with everything. She came with a long range tank and a pannier rack. So she now needs some hard cases like Mabel, heated grips, an auxiliary battery system, spare tubes, new chain, new muffler, crash bars and a few other bibs and bobs. I have replaced her cracked head light shroud and bent front carry rack so far.





I have pulled Mabel’s engine out, which was sounding very unwell, and she now sits , heartless, waiting for her upgrades. I have pulled her carby down and cleaned and rebuilt it just in case. I want these bikes to be totally ready to tackle the Americas!



While I’m waiting for parts, I have been off and around Adelaide trying to be touristy. Today I went and donated blood for the first time ever, visited an old church and rode around until I was sunburnt. Depending on what happens tomorrow I may go and explore some of Adelaide’s hidden secrets!







I fly out from Adelaide to Perth this coming weekend so there may be a bit of a break in posts. But I promise the next few years worth of travel will make up for it! Maybe Chantelle and I will make a few videos to fill in the gaps.

Stay tuned!

What magic pill will you feed Mabel to make her well again?
I earned my Leap Year Day Geocaching souvenir last night in the dark. I spotted the "Closed Dusk to Dawn" sign on my way out. Sorry!
Looking forward to reading your account.

Mabel and Rosie are both getting magic Lifan pills!

Just a little experiment with some footage. I am trying to work out how to use my video editing program!

After two weeks away, hanging out with family and friends in Western Australia, the time has come to dust off the posties and get crackin’.




Up early this morning to start fitting Rosie’s new bits and pieces. Chantelle was super excited to get Rosie prepped and you couldn’t smack the smile off of her face.




Not much of an eventful day. After packing the bikes we travelled about 20kms and camped for the night. Tomorrow, we will head towards Renmark, SA.




Tomorrow, the REAL trip REALLY begins… we are both very excited tonight and cant wait to get on the road and out of the city.

Hooray!

Enjoying your RR, which for me, re-ignites the whole Go Big or Go Small debate. Does anyone really need an overly expensive and heavy two wheel land whale OR will something smaller get the job done (get-r-dun)? Obviously, you have chosen to go smaller and enjoy the ride —Good on you! You are a beacon to us all.

For those of us, myself included, who are unfamilar with the Lifan Fix -- Can you elaborate on the benefits and how this is done?

Sure thing! What would you like to know?

We have used Lifan 125's. They bolt up with the help of a mounting kit, which I think you guys can get from DrATV's website. The wiring was easy, the wires from the lifan match the colours for the Hinda wiring. We fitted an oil cooler to each one to help keep the engine temps down on the long highway hauls. We also kept the stock exhaust to keep them looking like CT's!

Well it took some doing, but we finally got out of the city!



First though, we had to stop and pick up some parcels from the post office and then Chantelle needed to buy some wet weather gear. By the time we had done these few things it was after lunch and we were still surrounded by traffic stuck in the city.

Eventually we managed to tear ourselves away and as we climbed the hills that surround Adelaide our grins grew bigger and bigger. We were finally on our way!



Today we were pointed in the direction of a town called Renmark. For no reason other than it was on the way to where we wanted to go.

We trundled down back roads enjoying the peace as the rushes of the city fell further and further behind us. We rolled down hills and zoomed up the next ones. It was brilliant.



We ended up finding a camp on the edge of the beautiful Murray River near a town called Swan Reach.



Mabel got herself a little maintenance here and we got ourselves a little rum and a cigar to celebrate.