Nearly the end of the year and all best for the coming year for you and your family, hopefully your editor Ray will have a summer edition of Smoke Signals out before Christmas and in it beside a few riveting articles from contributors Guy Allen and Phillip White, myself and some others it should be something too finish the year off. You will notice a Gypsy Tour of Tassie in March 2026 coming up that has a couple of things to conform to if you wish to enter.

The most important thing is you get a ferry booking on the new Spirit of Tasmania 4 or 5 which will be in service at that time, all accommodation will be announced after your expression of interest form is filled and a deposit paid, there will be on 16 only openings for this trip so don’t be complacent. There will be a backup vehicle for luggage so you will not have to worry about carrying stuff with you.

Anyway the Midday Express at Thornton is only 4 weeks away so book the Rubicon Motel and I hope to see you all there.

 

How come the end of the year becomes a funnel with the earlier months ticking away doggedly slowly, while in the colder months when you are supposed to do your maintenance summer seems years away till the good riding season. Sure September & October were great with both the Crazy Horse Rally at Corryong and then 3 weeks later the very well attended Pub & Grub Ride, things start to funnel from now on with the quarterly meeting on the 26th of this month then the Christmas party on 1st December, just after you’ve got that under your belt the Midday Express Run to Thornton on 18th January for a overnighter and so it continues with all the personal stuff with family jammed in-between! If time is ever metricated so we have 300 days in a year, 20 hour days, 10 months in a year, 30 days in every month or 5 days in a week it would be worse, but something to think about.

This will be a entirely new 4 day event  25-28 October and if successful may well be repeated, and as an Unofficial Event  (although listed here for convenience) there will be 3 individual night stop overs at  different motels, and you can ride what you like leave or join in at any time unlike official events that are more regulated with criteria of club eligible bikes, set rides, meals, and breakdown backup vehicles. It is up to you to organise meals, insurance, accommodation, or breakdown cover.

Basically start at Ampol Mill Park  9.00am for a  9.15 am departure, then on to  Olinda Creek Hotel  Lilydale by 10.00am to pick up any other participants onto Lakes Entrance RSL, 2nd day Omeo (Lunch), to  Myrtleford, 3rd day then onto Mansfield, 4th day ride home to Melbourne.

Gary Hogg is setting the ride so it will be good, the accommodation is listed below. Ride your new or old bike we are not being anal preferably anything thats reliable, there will be no back-up vehicle and I would suggest you get a RACV Total care cover,  you may wish to join in or leave this event at anytime which is fine.

Suggested Evening Accomodation 

Day 1 RSL  221 Esplanade Lakes Entrance 3909 phone 03 51551555 

Day 2 Railway Motel  101 Standish st Myrtleford 0423220810

Day 3 Mansfield Motel 3 Highett st Mansfield 3722 phone 03 57752377

 

 

This was on Facebook recently and as I have often said manufacturers have gone mad!

That’s a blown up BMW 1300 GS ( latest model in the GS family).

In my 20+ years of riding, I have witnessed adventure-seeking individuals being deceived by marketing tactics and purchasing large, expensive dual sport bikes. They come with accessories and electronics, just like the 1250 GS, 1200 Adventure, Super Tenere, and others. They look fantastic in the showroom or on paved roads.

While there are some owners who are adventurous enough to do some serious off-roading on these fat bikes, it’s unlikely that more than 10% of most owners are doing so. To be honest, the remaining 90% of overweight dual sport bike owners only purchased them after viewing an advertisement featuring a paid professional biker such as Dave Darcy from MadTV riding through sand dunes or the Colorado River.

And again, the manufacturers continue to make dual sport bikes bigger and more expensive. The ADV market has witnessed the rise of big bikes with big engines that are packed with as much nanny technology as a modern car. Air bags will soon be installed on fat dual sport bikes, like the one in the Goldwing.

All these excessive features lead to bloated and overweight bikes. Taking the bikes off road, and I mean really off-road, will be great until you lose control and they fall down or get stuck in mud. Hopefully you don’t break any expensive parts of your bike or worse yet break your leg because you dropped it, a 500-pound machine.

Regrettably, you are not Pol Tarres. You’re not going to be throwing your bike around like it’s a trial bike, and you’re not going to be picking up your ADV all day long on your off-road adventure.

Ever wondered why Itchy Boots chose a light weight Honda CRF 300 to transverse the world ?