Big Lap – Not long now

Well, 11 days to go – gulp! I hope I’m ready.

The trailer is built and tested. I do need to make sure I pack it properly to make sure there’s not too much weight on the tow bar, but handling is a breeze… a little heavy at take off, braking seemed OK (although I haven’t tried an emergency stop), and at crusing I barely know it’s there. Fuel consumption is impacted by about 3km/litre – not bad methinks.

I went for an over-nighter down to Nanga Brook Campsite (located here) to test everything out. A lovely facility run by DPAW nestled in the Dwellingup State Forest.

I took a wrong turn and found myself heading down a gravel road. Not the best choice on my part… it had a very loose surface of ball-bearings on top. My bike has barely seen a gravel road in its 96,000 km life, and to take that towing a trailer was, let’s say, “exciting”. The front end was all over the place… it scared the crap out of me. I did need a new front tyre – so maybe that was the problem (although I doubt it). I eventually found a place I could turn around and headed back to the sealed black stuff.

While I probably should have chosen to go north, it was a good test for the cooler climate of Tasmania – it was fricken freezeing! Well, not quite – but it did get down to about 4C overnight.

I went to bed with the brook bubbling in the background (only 30m away), and woken up at dawn (my time anyway) by the local kookaburras – ah the serenity.

Key learnings:

  • Keeping canned food in the trailer as an emergency is a good idea (having left the night’s dinner in the fridge)
  • Keep away from gravel if I can – I have a GPS – use the damn thing properly!
  • Take a beanie – the follicly-challenged noggin needs some protection in the cooler climes.
  • Take a tarp to put under the tent – I can’t believe I left it at home!
  • Take the bike cover – the battery struggled in the morning

In the end, all good…. can’t wait!

 

 

Rear PR3 off the bike

Epic fail trying to fit the PR4… I couldn’t even get the old PR3 off the rim. Time to pay someone to do it instead.

Here are the tyres (old and new) … the PR3 has 38,294km on it and should have been replaced a long time ago.

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Note to self – weather radar…

Note to self – the weather radar only provides a point-in-time representation of the rain as it was at that time. It should be used as a guide as to where the rain has BEEN. Use of the radar as a device to predict where the rain will be comes with risk.

This is especially true when assessing whether or not you should wear your rain gear on a motorcycle, more so when you don’t have a change of underwear at work.

Michelin PR3s on the Honda ST1300A (16/11/14)

Last measurement – wear bars have just started showing in some places both front and rear. Interestingly, the right side of both seem to wear the fastest. People say it’s the camber in the road, but I’m surprised it would make that much of a difference.

Regardless, I’m REALLY happy with the distance I achieved on these PR3s…. they reckon PR4s (front to be fitted next weekend) will get another 20%!

Front – 120/70ZR18 @ 37,000 km

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Rear – 170/60ZR17 @ 34,900 km

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