Around Australia with 8yo son

John_Johnny

Long Timer

Border Village SA/WA

In 1996 my oldest son, Trevor, was 8 years old and we rode around Australia on my BMW R1100RT.

In the '70s I saw a movie called Stork, where Bruce Spence said "One day I'm gunna do Australia on a bike!". This phase stuck with me and I set myself the task of doing just that.
My 1st attempt on a BMW R100RS failed as the bike (and us!) got too hot. After buying the newer model, we set off again in June which is Winter in Australia. You can see in the above photo that the bike was 'fully loaded' with sleeping bags, tent, air mattress. battery powered air pump, clothes and even pegs for the washing! :D
We had no particular schedule or timetable, just the desire to get around as soon as possible to minimize the number of school days lost and to go clockwise.
I will post some more pics and try to add some stories as I go....if my memory serves me correctly.
1996 is a long time ago, but this was the adventure of a lifetime and I'm sure most of the memories will come flooding back as I go over these photos.
 
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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
I think I'd call that more than lucky....I wouldn't' have slept for years nor be able to sit still for the rest of my life.
What a hell of an adventure!!
8 years old....and doing a lap of Oz, OMG!

I bet there's a whole bucket of yarns attached to this.
Looking forward to this...and we all know "good things take time".
 

John_Johnny

Long Timer


The new R1100RT came with a radio/cassette player which was a bit of a novelty. I say novelty because you couldn't actually hear it while you were riding. I thought of wiring up some headphone speakers into the helmets but for the trip around Australia I really needed to be able to talk with my son so I bought a commercial unit made especially for motorcycles. What a piece of rubbish! The vox system caused the music to cut out every time there was a gust of wind, or cough, and it was flimsy and unreliable. It broke the day after I bought it.
Now I have played with Meccano and electronics since I was a little boy, so I figured I could build something better suited to our needs. First, I bought some top of the range Sennheiser headphones and put them in the helmets. Remember my phone was the size of a brick and there was no such thing as bluetooth at the time. The answer was to simplify things using a switch. If the switch was up, you heard the stereo, flick it down and you could talk to each other. The curly cables were 8 core computer keyboard cables with RJ45 connectors crimped on each end. Inside the little black box with the switch on my helmet was an amplifier that I built from a Silicon Chip magazine circuit. If Trevor wanted to talk to me he just flicked the switch down. There is a volume control on the front of the box. The RJ45 connectors are very reliable and my home made system still works perfectly after all this time!
So on a cold June morning we headed off and got as far as Keith near the SA border. Day 2 we arrived at the Big 4 caravan park on the beach near Adelaide airport and set up the tent. There was a kiosk that sold a large range of drinks so I bought 2 cans of non alcoholic beer (one for me and one for Trevor) and sat on the grass looking at the stars, watching the occasional jet fly over and enjoying a very special time with my son. I never did tell him it was non alcoholic beer.....
Next morning we headed off to Port Augusta.

Edit. Just remembered, I cut my long hair off in Keith and mailed it home to my wife! Lol! What a mess I made with cheap scissors and Trevor helping. Luckily the hairdressers was still open and they just laughed and said the only way to fix it was to buzz me with a number 1.
 

John_Johnny

Long Timer


Kimba. Halfway across Australia.

The trip from Adelaide to Port Augusta was a short day so we setup our tent at the Big 4 at the T intersection where you head North for Alice or West for Perth, and rode into town for a counter lunch at the local RSL. The afternoon was spent sitting at the park picnic table beside our tent chatting to some Swiss backpackers. They flew into Sydney and bought a $900 panel van which they hoped to drive to Darwin where they would sell it before flying back to Switzerland. They told us how good Swiss chocolate was, so I walked over to the Shell roadhouse and bought a block of Cadbury's Fruit & Nut and a Toblerone. They agreed the Cadbury's was better, so one up for Oz!
Day 4 was Pt Augusta to Ceduna. As we rode through Kimba I noticed a big sign proclaiming that Kimba was halfway across Australia. No way, I thought!! I turned around for a photo opportunity but the bike tipped over! Bugger! We were a bit top heavy and I was doing a very slow U Turn. I think my foot slipped on the gravel. Just a little scratch on the RH rocker cover.
You can see in recent photos that the bike now has plastic rocker cover guards. Ceduna caravan park was really rough with gravel and rocks. I didn't fancy setting up the tent in that inhospitable place so I checked into a cheap cabin. I really just needed to get a good sleep as tomorrow is the Nullabor Plain. 1,200km from Ceduna to Norseman and I reckon we can do it in one non stop trip if we hit the road at sparrow's fart. Stay tuned, I will let you know.
 
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Williamson

Part of the furniture
.... we rode around Australia in 45 days, 15,076km and with my 8yo son on the back ....

Come on Johnny, two days to report on two or three days of an epic ride, at this rate we'll be waiting until 2016 for you to get home.


What a great experience! Something is love to do with my son when he's a bit older.

By the time my sons get interested in bikes, I'll be too old to take either of them on a ride such as this.
 

John_Johnny

Long Timer
Come on Johnny, two days to report on two or three days of an epic ride, at this rate we'll be waiting until 2016 for you to get home.

Patience Willo. Trevor kept a diary but I can't find it so my memory will have to suffice. Gettin' old mate, so I scan a photo, look at it, go to bed and mull over it, then in the morning after I've hunted the kids off to school, the wife off to work, and cleaned up the mess, I put pen to paper and write.... or in these modern times, put finger to glass and tap! :D
 
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