It’s only taken us a week to get this up and running but now you can keep tabs on where we’re at! Click on “Where are the Blokes” in the menu anytime to see where we are within the last 10 minutes. Hopefully this’ll help our mother’s sleep at night!
Month: January 2016
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- A wet start to the ride
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- But it was blue skies over the range, where we stopped for lunch in Mansfield
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- Father and son, packing the tent
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- Tim and Ryan in the Snowy’s
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- Drew, in the Snowy’s
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- Dead Horse Gap, just out of Thredbo
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- An eerie dirt road on the way to the coast
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- Looking like a real adventure bike now
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- Drew, not stopping for anybody
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- Drew & Tim, fixing a busted mirror
Well, it was an eventful start to the trip – I took a phone call from a police officer on the way to bike up my bike from the bar we’d had drinks the night before
“Mr. Ashton?”
“Yes”
“This is constable Stevens, are you the owner of a black BMW motorcycle?”
I don’t think my heart has ever sunk so fast so quickly, but it turned out to be a complaint from the cafe owner that I’d parked the bike where they wanted to setup their tables and chairs, and that was easily fixed!
It was a properly miserable day when we left – there were no long goodbyes of photo shoots as everybody was getting too wet. But the weather changed as we headed over the Yarra Ranges and it was set to stay like that for the rest of our trip to Sydney.
We’ll be in Sydney until Friday, spending some quality time with our wives, and doing a little more tinkering with the bikes before we head up to Brisbane where the bikes will be crated to fly!
It seems pretty surreal – there’s less than a week before we hit the road! And after doing some serious mechanical work to the bikes last weekend we thought we’d better jump on the bikes and test the waters whilst there’s still time to make changes; firstly to see how all the gear we intend to carry packs onto the bikes, and secondly (and probably more importantly) to see how the bikes run after all the work that’s been done to them.
We were both surprised to learn that we each had more room left in our panniers – of course there were a few things that we didn’t pack today, but I’d guestimate that we were each carrying about 85% of our final luggage. It’s lucky that we did get out on the road too, as Drew found a large crack appearing in the outer of one of the screws on my bike’s drive shaft – thankfully there’s still a week to get it fixed!
The Youtube video is from the new headset we bought that has a camera built in, a Sena 10C – not only can you see what we’re looking at, but also hear the meaningless banter that we waffle as we ride. Enjoy!
Drew, the nicest mechanic in Melbourne agreed to replace the clutch in my bike when I learned that my local BMW workshop was taking an extended Christmas break and wouldn’t reopen in time our departure date. Although not the most stimulating viewing, it’s pretty cool to see the bike come apart before being put back together again. Makes me realise that I also need to invest in a second battery for the camera!
We’re really excited to announce that we’ve been sponsored by Remedia Farmaceutica and the Five Plus Art Gallery. We’re eternally grateful to Valentin Tarus and the teams from both organisations for helping to make our dream a reality. We can’t wait for our arrival in Europe when we can drop in and say a heartfelt “G’day” to those involved.
Remedia is an integrated pharmaceutical business in Romania, operating with over 100 pharmacies across the country. Remedia also wholesale pharmaceuticals with marketing and logistic services.
The Five Plus Art Gallery is based in Vienna Austria and specialises in exhibiting art works of various disciplines by Romanian artists. It defines itself as a platform for emerging creators, and as an open space for dialogue with the local and international art community for collaborations with art institutions, galleries and museums.
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