[Eric]

Here is the plan:4 locomotive engineers on a weekend trip. 2 on old bike's, 2 on modern bike's.
The plan is to ride on back roads. That is outback dirt roads. I thought about taking the wing but now I have decieded that the best bike to take is the 1980 RS 250 Honda. My regular work mate has just done up a 1977 TT 500 Yamaha and this is his first run. Gas for him will be a issue, because his tank is 7ltrs. I have not seen the other 2 bikes so I will have to wait until the ride to tell you about their rides.
The weekend is the 5th&6th of November and we will ride to Peterbough and stay overnight and return the next day. The only hold up for me is the health of my daughter. If she is on her feet again I will be on my way and bring you back a ride report. Eric

 

[budoka]

Have a safe ride Eric. Hope your daughter is well.

 

[Two Wheel Wing]

Eric,

Glad to hear your daughter is on her feet again. Have a safe trip. Looking forward as usual to some great pics. Ride safe and enjoy..

 

[Chopin]

Prayers and well wishes sent from Virginia to her. If you benefit from them it is just an added bonus.

 

[willmax]

Look forward to your ride report and pictures, as always. Hope your daughter is back on her feet and feeling better.

 

[Eric]

If all goes well she will get home today. And if no more complication I will be ok to go to Peterbough. Eric

 

[RAM 54]

Hope all goes well Eric, will be in my prayers.

 

[Eric]

Today is the day

It early in the morning over here and I am getting ready to go to Peterbough. I would like to have started a bit earlier but it is a group ride. The temp today is going to be 100f but if my Texan mates can ride in 110f I can ride in a cool change of 100f. I am going to carry drinks and we will stop a lot to keep hydrated. The other guys are return to riding group,so I hope they love it. Catch you in a couple of days. With photos.
Eric

 

[fossil92]

Safe traveling mate. Always appreciate the ride reports.

 

[Chopin]

And we're off ! Sweet.

 

[Eric]

Just a great ride

Well Let get right in there and give you the low down, the nity grity.
One of the riders lives not far from my place and he rang on Friday night and said he would met me at my plce at 8:30am. I don't know about you, but before a trip somewhere that is quite exciting, I don't sleep very well. That is what my sleep was like. I had a 7am rise and went over the bike. Everything was right there. So I feed the inner man and packed the bike. At 8:30 Leroy arrives and we head out together to met the rest of the gang. To get this started, here is a photo of each bike.
1. My 1980 rs250 Honda
2.Leroys Yamaha [I think it's a 2008TD 660cc]
3.Warren's TT500 1979
4.Barry's [I think thats a 2010 Kawasazaki 650KL]

 

[Eric]

Looking at the bikes the other guys have and looking at my bike you may well have thought I have bitten of more that I can chew. At the start I thought that may be the case, but I started off a little bit cheeky. Before we had started I said to them, " that I didn't want to be waitting around for them". Having the smallest bike and a road bike I really thought I may very well struggle to keep up. But my scramble years was going to help. As it worked out I had no problems at keeping up or setting the pace.
We left Adelaide at 9am and headed north to get onto the new expressway to Gawler where we turned off and headed towards Kapunda. At about 6 miles before Kapunda we turned off and road towards Fords. This part of the ride was dirt road but it would be a road I would take the wing down and know I could get through. There was a river crossing there with water in it but it wasn't very deep. Unfortunately the guys were not stoping for photos here. Then we started getting into some rough stuff.

 

[Eric]

We arrived at Maribel.It was here that I found that my spirted riding had ripped my bag on the back of my bike. Marabel is where one of our rodeo's is held. When I say there is not much at Maribel. It is just a one horse town. But we did stop here and I took a photo of the arena from the road. I was the first to be ready and the guys said, "Eric you go ahead and we will catch you before Burra". I said, "please yourself but you will not catch me". So after a statement like that I was not going to let them catch me if I could help it. They didn't catch me. This is the only photo I took of Maribel.

 

[Chopin]

Kudos on you Eric, taking a street bike on an MX tour. I'm tracking you on Earth Link in case we need to send an excavation team to dig out your bike.

 

[Eric]

First port of call at Burra was the Gas Station. I had covered 105 miles and put in 7.5ltrs [2 US Gallons] for $10.40. It was now 100f and we needed to top up the inner man. This is our stop at Burra.

 

[Eric]

Chopin114: I was not to worried about the rs250 doing the rough stuff but I thought my mates may leave me behind a bit with their dirt bikes. As it worked out I keep up and sometimes set the pace. Those early years on the scramble tracks helped here.
The next section was on the black stuff all the way to Oodlawirra. Oodlawirra was a railway town on the narrow gauge to Broken Hill. At Oodlawirra we went left to thr old Ghost Town of Dawson. This road, no hang on a minute I will call this a track was a lit of fun. Put on a little velcro on the seat and hang on. Take a look at this.

 

[Eric]

Some more photos on the way to Dawson. We did have a couple of roos hopping along next to us but do you think they would stay still for a photo. Not on your life.

 

[Eric]

From Dawson to Peterbough it was a good quality dirt road and when I arrived at the Peterbough I had covered 85 mile. I filled the Gas and put in 5ltrs [about 1.5 US Gallons] for $7. We found accomadation at the Peterbough Hotel. Because of the heat It was time to sit down and have a couple of drinks and enjoy the reminiscing of the days ride. A photo of the Motel and I will get back to the ride report tomorrow. Eric

 

[fossil92]

Great stuff as always Eric. Thanks for sharing with us.

 

[Eric]

Thank fossil92. Lets say that we all had a great recovery. Well I did but 2 of my mates gave us a late start. While they layed in bed in the recovery position I went for a walk and took some photos.
1.The news printers building
2.The original Town Hall
3.New Town Hall Built about 1925
4.Front street just after 7am