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Where did you go today on your Roadster?

296K views 3K replies 221 participants last post by  The Dogfather 
#1 ·
Still waitin for delivery of my bike plus a recent op on my shoulder and hand is gonna keep me out of saddle for a while but will enjoy readin your adventures plus pics.
 
#178 ·
Ooh, painful. Best for the recovery. And how is the bike?


And - not wishing to be seen as a total knowitall assh*le, while signs would have helped avoid the crash, so would the old, old adage "never ride faster than you can see". Could've been a herd of cattle across the road, a jacknifed truck, a slow-moving tractor with very wide load of hay on a trailer, etc. But I'm pleased you are OK...
 
#201 ·
Hi LoS,
Sound advice but in my defence if any of those things you mention occurred I would indeed have avoided them as long as there road remained sealed. It was the totally unexpected lack of traction that did me in. Now if you said oil spill yep I would have been down the road. Then again that sort of thing catch you out even with long vision.
Stricko
 
#181 ·
Get better and look forward to your next run up that way. Sorry you binned it but real glad you got to talk about it!
 
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#182 ·
Hey Stricko,
where are the photos of the bike? Who cares about your hairy chest and the sock over your arm (I hope you know this is said as a funny comment). :) :)
I hope you get out of this OK and don't worry about why it happened or what could have happened. It's only important what comes next.
I speak from experience ;)
Get well soon.
 
#189 ·
Hi marcimark I've not got any pics of the bike but it's in better shape than me. A few minor scrapes & the little black screen above the headlight being trashed is about it. It was ridden back to Sydney with no issues at all.
There's always something to be learned from an off like this. I've certainly taken on board a number of things for the future.
 
#185 ·
Sorry about the crash, Sricko :frown2: I hope your recovery is quick and complete!
 
#192 ·
Sanctuary Cove and back...

Took a short and brief 110km ride early this morning to Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast, getting out and back before the heat beat me. If time is short this is one of my favourite spots for a decent coffee overlooking the Marina and the million-dollar boats moored there – most, however, hardly ever used, it seems.

If the boats are million-dollar toys, the homes there are multi-million, and I always feel a bit ‘special’ just being there. Not that I’d want to live at Sanctuary Cove, tho’ Mrs Suburbia and Honey Suburbia and me often visit for lunch, a stroll around, and so on, and we often take our overseas visitors there just to see the place, for it is very well done.

It also seems to be a pretty cliquey and snobby place, judging by the loud look-at-me chatter of the beautiful people as they dine al fresco and compete to show off – “my dear, we had to sell the Mercedes as the ash-tray was full”. More seriously, it’s one of the few places in egalitarian Oz where Rollers, Bentleys, and Ferraris can be seen in large numbers.

It can be a dodgy place to visit on two wheels as the (mainly) wealthy older residents get around on their electric golf-buggies – it’s a gated community so they are allowed – and of course the normal rules of the road don’t seem to apply! But it was quite rewarding in an amusing way today when one of the locals alighted from his golf-buggy en-route to meeting his missus in the café, looked closely at my bike, and murmured to me as he passed “I’ll swap you”.

On the ride down I tried out the new Magnum horn, being rewarded by a satisfyingly deep and mellow two-tone blast, so much better than the canary-chirp of the OE Audible Warning Device.

The new LEDs reflected on the chrome of cars in front when we were stopped at lights: it’s amazing how the LEDs have a bright clear white light as compared to the rather dull yellowish light of the other headlights.

But I think I’ll install a switch in the system; I have a tiny one with a green pinhead-sized LED in it that will let me see that the lights are on, and it won’t take long to fit it. Rain is forecast for much of the coming week so this will give me something to do.

And riding along I couldn’t help thinking, and not for the first time, that the civilised and undemanding manners of a Roadster makes it easy to ride pretty well – or so it seems.

Playing with the Shift Assist again, I still found it hard to persuade 5th gear to hop into bed with 6th, and at times it was actually quite painful trying to engage 6th. I gave the bike plenty of revs when so doing, as recommended here, but it is still a very hit-and-miss affair.

Other upward gear shifts are easily accomplished, and all downshifts – on closed throttle – are near-perfect, but 5 into 6 won’t go! I’ll keep working on it – it’s a not a major concern as I doubt I’ll use the facility much given the brilliantly-smooth manual gearshift. A longer ride tomorrow if the rain holds off...

 
#193 ·
heard it through the grapevine

a pre arranged ride the night before between two people ended up a sizeable group ride!

5 hours felt a lot longer, our narrow roads were busy today.

Lines of faster cars being held up by a slower car in front who was not prepared to move over to let cars past, being amongst frustrated drivers is not a great place to be for a motorcyclist.
I try to pass and get away from these situations, whilst quietly wishing highway patrol focused more on ticketing slower drivers than the faster ones for a change....I digress :closedeyes:

One bike had a pillion, his 13 year old terrier, she sits in the back of his bag all tucked up, age and the fact she has been hunting all to often with him over the years with gun shots going off, she is deaf.
She gets the attention where ever he pulls up.

Land vehicle Vehicle Motor vehicle Motorcycle Motorcycling
 
#195 · (Edited)
I took a day trip up to the Davey Crockett National Forest, found a nifty little side road and a historical marker,

Ended up taking the long way, hitting a lot of smaller Texas towns like Trinity, Richards, Apple-something- old small towns where my bike was getting strange looks and questions like "Is that thing there a rocket sled?"

300 miles and Five hours later all I can say is.. That seat turns into a wooden painful park bench after 190 miles.

And on a Minor note I was surprised to not see any other bikes in the forest up there, not a **** one, No one on the roads either, I mean I get it's at a strange halfway point between Houston and Dallas but still, I didn't see one other bike on the road ANYWHERE until I was headed back- Low 50's high 60's- figured there would be a lot of us out today.. Ah well.
 

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#196 · (Edited)
Met up with a friend early for a ride up to Little Switzerland and back from Charlotte, NC, about 270mi RT. Love this time of year when there's less traffic and a clearer line of sight with the trees still barren.
 

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#197 ·
Great pix. I take it that aircraft is a static display...
 
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#198 ·
Took Mrs Vonbryan to Jurien Bay today for lunch and to try out my new panniers and screen. Nice spot 200kms from home, so 400kms round trip via Indian Ocean Drive, the scenery is good although the road is pretty straight, great to have cruise control. Great ride
 

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#202 ·
No matter cautious, carless, competent or beginner rider ...... **** happens. We all just hope and pray it never happens to us.
 
#204 ·
The upshot of all that was I'm VERY freaking lucky. 5 busted ribs, 2 fractures in my shoulder blade & a snapped collarbone.
So slow recovery & no bike for 3 or 4 months
Lucky compared to what. Luck favors the prepared, so I assume you were ATTGATT and that is what kept you from a more serious injury. Luck could have played some role, but your preparedness mitigated worse injury...a cautionary tale for all.

Good luck with the healing. Is everything in the proper place, so no surgery needed? Did you snap off the head of the humerus? That is a very painful injury, as you've likely discovered. If you did not break it...good cuz that really would limit motion. But it looks like there's a bruise on your biceps and that makes me think the humerus is involved?

So, a sling for 3 weeks? something like that? I had a similar injury years ago (fracture and dislocation of my left humerus from a bicycle fall on railroad tracks) and that was by far the most painful thing I've ever experienced, acutely. So, my sympathies go out to you. That pain is awful.

When you're done with the healing, then you'll face the rehab and that will go on for months. It is W O R K, but you must stick to it. You will lose muscle mass, maybe never to return, but you will, with hard work, get close to, if not full function and movement back. Likely close to 100%. It will take a while, if less than a year, then you're lucky. At least that's my prognosis from a hemisphere away. There are sunny roads ahead, Stricko!

Hope I am wrong on the above (and I am talking outside my area of expertise), but shoulders are big injuries.

John
 
#206 ·
Let's cheer you guys up again :)
I just returned from 4 days riding in Tasmania.
We covered approx. 1,700km and took a little break on one day, as we went quad bike riding :)

The spped was a little higher than you would expect in other areas of Australia and we only had very little traffic.
Great weather, great scenery and great roads.
I wouldn't want to ride at dusk or night time, as we saw a lot of road kill, mainly small roos and possums.

I'll be back again next year, but will be spending more time and will stop more often to enjoy this beautiful island.

It took some time today to get rid of all the bugs and the road grime, but a worth while trade off.
Now to the tyre dealer on Friday, as the Interact Z8 need to get replaced after over 11,000km (the front is actually still okay, but both will be replaced)
 

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#207 ·
The Brisbane/ Toowoomba/ Warwick triangle...

Inormally avoid being on the road with the bike on weekdays, preferring theslightly less busy weekend traffic. Buttoday I decided to have a long-ish ride, not having been out at all for almostthree weeks, thanks to the months-long oppressive heat and humidity that I findmakes recreational motorcycling such a chore.

Buttoday a brisk south-easterly wind blowing on-shore had cleared away thehumidity, so off I went at the later-than-usual time of just after 9am.

Temperatureleaving home was a very refreshing 22°C (72°F), and I was initially a bit coolin my full mesh summer jacket – more mesh than jacket – though it came into itsown later.

Abrisk outer-suburban dash to get away from the suburbs, then a lengthy stretchon the Ipswich Mwy was followed by about 20km of the Brisbane Valley Hwy, anot-very-good stretch of country road.

Aftersome 90km from home I stopped at one of my favourite country bakeries at thelittle village of Fernvale for a nice coffee and bun. While sitting outside watching the passingparade a couple of large transportable homes went by on the backs of a pair ofsemi-trailers. I couldn’t helprecalling that some years ago a motorcycle traffic policeman was decapitated bysomething similar when on outrider duty escorting such behemoths up the Bruce Hwy– not a pretty thought.

Refreshed,I tracked back a little and re-joined the Warrego Hwy through the LockyerValley, riding westwards towards Toowoomba. The road surface was good, traffic light, though the ride rather boringuntil I came to the outskirts of Toowoomba and the very steep ride up the Rangetowards the city.

‘TheRange’ is the Great Dividing Range (GDR) which comprises some3500km (2175mi) of tall peaks running the length of Australia’s eastern seaboardand into western Victoria, separating the coastal strip from the interior. It’s much like America’s Appalachians, Iimagine.

Thisday the range was a nightmare – traffic in both ascending lanes was backedright up, and proceeding at a snail’s pace, said snail clearly being crippled.

Ijoined the queue, in what became an advanced lesson in first-gear steeply-uphillslow-riding with a side-dish of clutch-slipping 201. Speed – if it could be called that – was below10kph at times, engine temp rose to over 100°C, and I had to completely stop anumber of times to allow the cars in front to move on so as to give me a bit ofspace to ensure I could move off without stalling… once I did in fact hear thatdreaded ‘death rattle’ of an about-to-stall boxer engine, but just managed to savethings.

Ithas been very many years since I was so tense and uptight on a motorcycle, and I wasmighty relieved when we finally crawled to the top of the Range, where I sawthe cause of the problem – a h-u-g-epiece of Caterpillar-like earthmoving equipment on an aircraft-carrier lengthtrailer that must have crawled up the Range in first gear! Unpleasant.

Frombusy lunch-time Toowoomba I turned south onto the New England Hwy and headedfor Warwick. Both Toowoomba (130km fromBrisbane) and Warwick (160km) are very old inland towns, Toowoomba being Queensland’slargest such.

Theyare interesting places, full of old buildings and with that unique Queenslandcountry ‘feel’. Toowoomba is also aUniversity city, and has many fine long-established schools and colleges. Many take boarders from the rest of Queensland,where conventional educational facilities and opportunities for families livingon the vast and remote outback properties are almost non-existent. Indeed, many children of school age have totake their lessons via radio from the ‘School of the Air. She’s a big country!

FromWarwick I headed north-east back towards Brisbane along the Cunningham Hwy, a nicesmooth road with good corners and sweepers. Nearing the Cunningham Gap, heading down theRange this time, the temperate rainforest brought the temperature down veryquickly indeed, to low 20s from low 30s, but once over the Range and with the ScenicRim around Brisbane spread out in front it soon warmed-up again, eventually brieflyreaching 33°C (92°F).

Itwas a good ride of 426km for the day, taking the bike overall to 1026km from newand ready for its first 1000km service shortly.

Ichecked average speed and fuel consumption during this first 1035km, beingpleased with the fuel average of 3.8L/ 100km at an average 74kph speed. I was out for a little over six hours today,with two brief fuel stops and a leisurely coffee break, so it was quite a goodouting. Recent add-ons – front LEDs;Stebel Magnum horn; blind-spot mirrors; all seemed to work as intended.

Asusual when I ride, what remains of the old brain was at work. Ireflected that I do not yet seem to have bonded fully with the LC, for unknownreasons. It’s not as if it’s markedlydifferent to the pre-LC Roadsters I’ve had before, having covered many, many kilometreson those bikes and being deeply familiar with their many characteristics. After all, dynamicallythe only major differences between the LC and the others is the LC’s slightlymore peppy engine – which I’ve yet to try out in anger – and the markedlybetter gearbox.

Isuspect that my few short outings on the LC in the almost six weeks I’ve ownedit – and those outings being pretty brief because of the weather – means that Ihaven’t yet got to the ‘intuitive’ stage of handling and feeling the bike.

Ialso crystallised my earlier thoughts that maybe the suspension on the LC is atouch firmer than I can recall on my later cam-heads. I may be kidding myself in this belief, butthe LC doesn’t quite seem to 'float' over minor road imperfections in the way Irecalled. Now that moving parts arebedded-in from new I plan to tweak the suspension by degrees – recording anychanges made – to see if I can get it to be a bit more compliant, or asPanzermann might say – “fluid”. If not,I can certainly live with it.

I’mtaking a few days off at the end of March to do a ~1000km circuit (with a full R&Rday off the road) and I hope that these two longer days on the bike will cementthe relationship.

ThingsI do increasingly like on the LC are the large, clear digital speed and gear read-outs,the cruise-control – scarcely needed on today’s short outing – and theexcellent gear-shift. I played withthis a bit more and seem to have found the trick (easier than before) with 5thto 6th gear upshifts with the Pro Assist clutchless feature. As I’ve noted before, downshifts are a breeze.

Oneminor thing I dislike is the almost microscopic lateral movement of theindicator switch – through even the thinnest summer gloves it’s hard to feel ifit has moved, or not.

Theseat still seems comfy enough to handle upcoming 500km and 600km days on thebike, if not quite as plush as the ‘komfortsitzen’I’ve had – and raved about – on earlier Roadsters. Butthe thing I noticed about the seat today and on earlier outings was that Ididn’t notice it at all – a Good Thing!

Thefollowing few pix are pretty much self-explanatory. Happy days!:grin2:
 

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#208 ·
Sorry for all the joined-up words on my 7.27pm post below - not my doing, and infuriatingly the edit process only allows a small - too small - length of time to go back over. Ggrrrrrrr! :frown2:
 
#209 · (Edited)
earlier mangled post reconstructed...

Here – hopefully – is a plain English versionof yesterday’s post. I don’t know whythe words posted yesterday have crowded-up together – maybe they were lonely. I’m usually pretty meticulous when I put pento paper as I hate sea-ing spel-ing mis-steaks. My invariable process with longer posts likethis is to type it in WORD, correct and edit it, save it, copy it, then pasteinto the Forum page. But this manglingof my words has happened before, though I’ve usually caught it with a short ‘edit’after the first posting. But the timelimit yesterday beat me to it!

I’ve also shown a small map of the day’souting as I feel a map often adds a lot to a ride report, not that this one ismuch to write home about!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FUGG - it's happened again, and now with the italicised preface to todays' post (I've lefty it as-is).. First re-post came up OK, then I added the map, then posted, and again the distorted version appears. I shall have to take this up with Clem/ Erin! Not happy, chaps!!
 

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#210 ·
let's see how this turns out...

I normally avoid being on the road with the bike on weekdays, preferring the slightly less busy weekend traffic. But today I decided to have a long-ish ride, not having been out at all for almost three weeks, thanks to the months-long oppressive heat and humidity that I find makes recreational motorcycling such a chore.

But today a brisk south-easterly wind blowing on-shore had cleared away the humidity, so off I went at the later-than-usual time of just after 9am.

Temperature leaving home was a very refreshing 22°C (72°F), and I was initially a bit cool in my full mesh summer jacket – more mesh than jacket – though it came into its own later.

A brisk outer-suburban dash to get away from the suburbs, then a lengthy stretch on the Ipswich Mwy was followed by about 20km of the Brisbane Valley Hwy, a not-very-good stretch of country road.

After some 90km from home I stopped at one of my favourite country bakeries at the little village of Fernvale for a nice coffee and bun. While sitting outside watching the passing parade a couple of large transportable homes went by on the backs of a pair of semi-trailers. I couldn’t help recalling that some years ago a motorcycle traffic policeman was decapitated by something similar when on outrider duty escorting such behemoths up the Bruce Hwy – not a pretty thought.

Feeling sombre, but refreshed, I tracked back a little and re-joined the Warrego Hwy through the Lockyer Valley, riding westwards towards Toowoomba. The road surface was good, traffic light, though the ride rather boring until I came to the outskirts of Toowoomba and the very steep ride up the Range towards the city.

‘The Range’ is the Great Dividing Range (GDR) which comprises some 3500km (2175mi) of tall peaks running the length of Australia’s eastern seaboard and into western Victoria, separating the coastal strip from the interior. It’s much like America’s Appalachians, I imagine.

This day the range was a nightmare – traffic in both ascending lanes was backed right up, and proceeding at a snail’s pace, said snail clearly being crippled.

I joined the queue, in what became an advanced lesson in first-gear steeply-uphill slow-riding with a side-dish of clutch-slipping 201. Speed – if it could be called that – was below 10kph at times, engine temp rose to over 100°C, and I had to completely stop a number of times to allow the cars in front to move on so as to give me a bit of space to ensure I could move off without stalling… once I did in fact hear that dreaded ‘death rattle’ of an about-to-stall engine, but just managed to save things.

It has been many years since I was so tense and uptight on a motorcycle, and I was mighty relieved when we finally crawled to the top of the Range, where I saw the cause of the problem – a h-u-g-e piece of Caterpillar-like earthmoving equipment on an aircraft-carrier length trailer, that must have crawled up the Range in first gear! Unpleasant.

From busy lunch-time Toowoomba I turned south onto the New England Hwy and headed for Warwick. Both Toowoomba (130km from Brisbane) and Warwick (160km) are very old inland towns, Toowoomba being Queensland’s largest such.

They are interesting places, full of old buildings and with that unique Queensland country ‘feel’. Toowoomba is also a University city, and has many fine long-established schools and colleges. Many take boarders from the rest of Queensland, where conventional educational facilities and opportunities for families living on the vast and remote outback properties are almost non-existent. Indeed, many children of school age have to take their lessons via radio from the ‘School of the Air. She’s a big country!

From Warwick I headed north-east back towards Brisbane along the Cunningham Hwy, a nice smooth road with good corners and sweepers. Nearing the Cunningham Gap, heading down the Range this time, the temperate rainforest brought the temperature down very quickly indeed, to low 20s from low 30s, but over the Range and with the Scenic Rim around Brisbane spread out in front it soon warmed-up again, eventually briefly reaching 33°C (92°F).

It was a good ride of 426km for the day, taking the bike overall to 1026km from new and ready for its first 1000km service shortly.

I checked average speed and fuel consumption during this first 1035km, being pleased with the fuel average of 3.8L/ 100km at an average 74kph speed. I was out for a little over six hours today, with two brief fuel stops and a leisurely coffee break, so it was quite a good outing. Recent add-ons – front LEDs; Stebel Magnum horn; blind-spot mirrors; all seemed to work as intended.

As usual when I ride, what remains of the old brain was at work.

I reflected that I do not yet seem to have bonded fully with the LC, for unknown reasons. It’s not as if it’s markedly different to the pre-LC Roadsters I’ve had before, having covered many, many kilometres on those bikes. After all, dynamically the only major differences between the LC and the others is the LC’s slightly more peppy engine – which I’ve yet to try out in anger – and the markedly better gearbox.

I suspect that my few short outings on the LC in the almost six weeks I’ve owned it – and those outings being pretty brief because of the weather – means that I haven’t yet got to the ‘intuitive’ stage of handling and feeling the bike.

I also crystallised my earlier thoughts that maybe the suspension on the LC is a touch firmer than I can recall on my later cam-heads. I may be kidding myself in this belief, but the LC doesn’t quite seem to float over minor road imperfections in the way I recalled. Now that moving parts are bedded-in from new I plan to tweak the suspension by degrees – recording any changes made – to see if I can get it to be a bit more compliant, or as Panzermann might say – “fluid”. If not, I can certainly live with it.

I’m taking a few days off at the end of March to do an ~1000km circuit (with a full R&R day off the road) and I hope that these two longer days on the bike will cement the relationship.

Things I do increasingly like are the large, clear digital speed and gear read-outs, the cruise-control – scarcely needed on today’s short outing – and the excellent gear-shift. I played with this a bit more and seem to have found the trick (easier than before) with 5th to 6th gear upshifts with the Pro Assist clutchless feature. As I’ve noted before, downshifts are a breeze.

One minor thing I dislike is the almost microscopic lateral movement of the indicator switch – through even the thinnest summer gloves it’s hard to feel if it has moved, or not.

The seat still seems comfy enough to handle upcoming 500km and 600km days on the bike, if not quite as plush as the ‘komfortsitzen’ I’ve had – and raved about – on earlier Roadsters.

But the thing I noticed about the seat today and on earlier outings was that I didn’t notice it at all – a Good Thing!
 
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