P
Punisher
Guest
heh, postie bikes, made to do anything and anywhere, very light and cheap 
good read guys. cant wait to read the rest
good read guys. cant wait to read the rest
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Charge Of The Midgets_Cape York Posties Pt.1
- Thread starter glitch
- Start date
What a good read well done mate
But I cant help thinking this like bringing a butter knife to a gun fight :wow:
especially when you have a perfectly good shottie in the shed
Since we're back, I've thought about that a few times....and here's my choice of ideal bikes just for the Cooloola and Fraser days:
Getting onto and out of the beach and for the inland tracks/ bypass tracks: Some 250MXer, the sand is way too deep/loose for heavier bikes, where extra power just makes them dig in quicker and harder.
Along the beaches: just about anything will do, but not too heavy in weight.
Let's say a DR650 or something.
For the mudflats: an old Suziki RV90, the one with the balloon tyres
Now for the nasty stuff: The Wathumba Creek and mudhole.....well, I'm stumped if I could think of a bike that could beat a postie. It's gotta be light, it should have an auto-clutch (as one tends to scamble around, hanging onto the bars, lifting the front-end off the ground/ out of the ruts etc) while making the bike move under it's own power.
For the Orchid Beach/ high-tide section...a 10ft dinghy with a 25hp outboard perhaps...
No way to get a Strom through the same stuff....not with only 2 ppl, anyway.
The Wathumba mudhole would need a 4WD on the other side...and how's that gonna get across first? there isn't even a tree to use a winch on...
And according to the locals (i.e. ferry-man and barge-captain), they're recovering big trailies on a regular base, most of them bent or drowned...or both.
Wot about ,say, 175-250 Agr bike with appropiate mods ie gearing, snorkle, tyres etc
Might work?
Perhaps....if removing as much un-needed stuff as possible...most comes down to weight...or rather lack thereof.
There are many situations, where power just doesn't count, but the bike has to be manhandled through/around obstacles.
Sun’s out and things are looking up
. Ideal travel weather…clear skies, light breeze and not too warm yet.
Still….can’t shake that queasy feeling that I was too late with all those oilchanges and that the bike copped a fatal hit.
It’s out west for the start…the traffic thins out a lot after Maryborough towards Biggenden….
A break at the Coalstoun Lakes Store on the Isis Hwy finds the cute-looking place closed, but the tables and chairs are out and in the shade….great spot for a stop and the apples go down real well.
So far, so good…the motor sounds good however often I dip my head for a suspicious “ear-to-the-metal”…
Only a cop car follows us for a few k’s towards Gayndah…but doesn’t stop us. Looking across when he goes past, I know EXACTLY what he thinks, it’s all over his face…
Through Gayndah on the route north and on a loooong hill 20k’s after town I REALLY hear what I’d been “waiting” for all morning:
A rough, clunky noise rising and dropping with engine-speeds.
SHIT!!…..Game over!!!
The little mill is finally quitting, having lasted another 220k’s on the fresh oil.
She’s now blowing smoke, too…
This is Thursday and the start of the ANZAC-Day Long Weekend, everything will be closed tomorrow, after that it’s the weekend….and our time is slipping away rapidly.
Resignation sets in, then the old spark comes back: No friggin quitting until EVERYTHING has been tried!!
Gayndah looked substantial enough, let’s go back…nursing the bike as best as I can.
The noises multiply; things are grinding themselves into dust down there.
She’s still going, though….
First to the servo in town, a friendly and helpful operator gives us a quick rundown on the town. 3pm….
Across the bridge is the local car repair shed…big, old Fred takes his stethoscope and pronounces Goodie’s bike worse than mine!! Huhhh??
Until we see how long it takes him to get back to his feet….the Anzac celebrations have well and truly started for him quite a while ago.
Next thing’s the mobile phone….both Glen (loxsmith) and Guy (saab463) had offered help in case things went pear-shaped.
But what could they do with a Long Weekend ahead and being over 300k’s away?
In the back of my mind days-remaining/ return-flights/ transport of the bike at least back to Brisbane and all sorts of other things started to whirl and tumble….
Getting onto Glen at first try: “Don’t worry, will figure something out…call Joe at OneTen, that’s where I buy my spares, and see what gives!!!”
Never having met before, I have no idea how serious that really is, but hope is rising again!!!
From the little contact we’ve had so far I know that he’s a MAKER, let’s hope he can make something out of THIS.
3.30pm
I call Joe at OneTenMotorcycles in Caboolture, their whole business is about CT110s…
“Yep, got a few change-over engines here ready to go, 1 A-grade and 3 B-grades”
We go through the details and I ask his ok for Glen to deal on my behalf.
What comes now is just unbelievable in today’s times:
Glen offers to pick up the engine in Caboolture on Anzac-Day morning (Joe had agreed to that), then come up ALL THE WAY to Gayndah on Saturday morning, leaving home at 5am !!!
If THAT isn’t enough, he also PAYS for the whole lot (engine alone is $1000), as Joe can’t take credit-card over the phone.
I sit down right in front of the local childcare-centre, opposite tipsy-Fred’s steel garage, and put my head in my hands…. totally stumped by those offers of help.
Another call: Mate….I just don’t know what to say…or how to thank you!!!
“Hehh…what goes around, comes around, see ya Sat morning, Guy’s coming along, too.
He doesn’t know how thick that lump in my throat is…
By 5pm and “close-of-business” for the next few days, all’s organized for a mercy-dash to save the mission!!!
Then comes the next hurdle…how to find a place to not just stay for a couple of nights... but also take the bike apart for some serious mechanical work.
First to the Caravan Park in town….it’s absolutely choked with young folks from all around the globe!!!
Mandarin picking season is in full swing and every bathtub is booked out!!
Every other Caravan Park owner/ manager would’ve given me a boot up the clacker after telling my intentions straight out….not so HERE!!
“You want some space…and a table or something?”
They own another house opposite, the backyard is rigged as a make-do overflow-extension of the main premises…and there’s a spacey corner, a semi-abandoned/ unused covered BBQ, another roofed area to work under in the shade, which is even paved….this is PERFECT!!!….and it’s ours!!
Many THANX to the owners of the Riverview Caravan Park in Gayndah!!
Tent up before dark…the Grand Hotel in town puts on some surprisingly good tucker and the beer is nearly frozen….a quick chat to get to know each other with some of the other residents of the “backyard” (all pickers and really nice guys)…. and the intensity and speed with which things have happened over the last 3 days knock us flat by 8.30.
Eyes close with a deep feeling of guilt for having involved so many people, stuffing up a family Long-Weekend for folks we don’t even know and just causing a lot of trouble to many!!
Then again…it’s balanced by the warm feeling that things like this still exist and that there’s a lot of GREAT folks out there!!
It’s so easy to get oblivious to that in the daily grind….
. Ideal travel weather…clear skies, light breeze and not too warm yet.Still….can’t shake that queasy feeling that I was too late with all those oilchanges and that the bike copped a fatal hit.
It’s out west for the start…the traffic thins out a lot after Maryborough towards Biggenden….
A break at the Coalstoun Lakes Store on the Isis Hwy finds the cute-looking place closed, but the tables and chairs are out and in the shade….great spot for a stop and the apples go down real well.
So far, so good…the motor sounds good however often I dip my head for a suspicious “ear-to-the-metal”…
Only a cop car follows us for a few k’s towards Gayndah…but doesn’t stop us. Looking across when he goes past, I know EXACTLY what he thinks, it’s all over his face…
Through Gayndah on the route north and on a loooong hill 20k’s after town I REALLY hear what I’d been “waiting” for all morning:
A rough, clunky noise rising and dropping with engine-speeds.
SHIT!!…..Game over!!!
The little mill is finally quitting, having lasted another 220k’s on the fresh oil.
She’s now blowing smoke, too…
This is Thursday and the start of the ANZAC-Day Long Weekend, everything will be closed tomorrow, after that it’s the weekend….and our time is slipping away rapidly.
Resignation sets in, then the old spark comes back: No friggin quitting until EVERYTHING has been tried!!
Gayndah looked substantial enough, let’s go back…nursing the bike as best as I can.
The noises multiply; things are grinding themselves into dust down there.
She’s still going, though….
First to the servo in town, a friendly and helpful operator gives us a quick rundown on the town. 3pm….
Across the bridge is the local car repair shed…big, old Fred takes his stethoscope and pronounces Goodie’s bike worse than mine!! Huhhh??
Until we see how long it takes him to get back to his feet….the Anzac celebrations have well and truly started for him quite a while ago.
Next thing’s the mobile phone….both Glen (loxsmith) and Guy (saab463) had offered help in case things went pear-shaped.
But what could they do with a Long Weekend ahead and being over 300k’s away?
In the back of my mind days-remaining/ return-flights/ transport of the bike at least back to Brisbane and all sorts of other things started to whirl and tumble….
Getting onto Glen at first try: “Don’t worry, will figure something out…call Joe at OneTen, that’s where I buy my spares, and see what gives!!!”
Never having met before, I have no idea how serious that really is, but hope is rising again!!!
From the little contact we’ve had so far I know that he’s a MAKER, let’s hope he can make something out of THIS.
3.30pm
I call Joe at OneTenMotorcycles in Caboolture, their whole business is about CT110s…
“Yep, got a few change-over engines here ready to go, 1 A-grade and 3 B-grades”
We go through the details and I ask his ok for Glen to deal on my behalf.
What comes now is just unbelievable in today’s times:
Glen offers to pick up the engine in Caboolture on Anzac-Day morning (Joe had agreed to that), then come up ALL THE WAY to Gayndah on Saturday morning, leaving home at 5am !!!
If THAT isn’t enough, he also PAYS for the whole lot (engine alone is $1000), as Joe can’t take credit-card over the phone.
I sit down right in front of the local childcare-centre, opposite tipsy-Fred’s steel garage, and put my head in my hands…. totally stumped by those offers of help.
Another call: Mate….I just don’t know what to say…or how to thank you!!!
“Hehh…what goes around, comes around, see ya Sat morning, Guy’s coming along, too.
He doesn’t know how thick that lump in my throat is…
By 5pm and “close-of-business” for the next few days, all’s organized for a mercy-dash to save the mission!!!
Then comes the next hurdle…how to find a place to not just stay for a couple of nights... but also take the bike apart for some serious mechanical work.
First to the Caravan Park in town….it’s absolutely choked with young folks from all around the globe!!!
Mandarin picking season is in full swing and every bathtub is booked out!!
Every other Caravan Park owner/ manager would’ve given me a boot up the clacker after telling my intentions straight out….not so HERE!!
“You want some space…and a table or something?”
They own another house opposite, the backyard is rigged as a make-do overflow-extension of the main premises…and there’s a spacey corner, a semi-abandoned/ unused covered BBQ, another roofed area to work under in the shade, which is even paved….this is PERFECT!!!….and it’s ours!!
Many THANX to the owners of the Riverview Caravan Park in Gayndah!!
Tent up before dark…the Grand Hotel in town puts on some surprisingly good tucker and the beer is nearly frozen….a quick chat to get to know each other with some of the other residents of the “backyard” (all pickers and really nice guys)…. and the intensity and speed with which things have happened over the last 3 days knock us flat by 8.30.
Eyes close with a deep feeling of guilt for having involved so many people, stuffing up a family Long-Weekend for folks we don’t even know and just causing a lot of trouble to many!!
Then again…it’s balanced by the warm feeling that things like this still exist and that there’s a lot of GREAT folks out there!!
It’s so easy to get oblivious to that in the daily grind….
P
Punisher
Guest
1
well my 9 month old daughter posted that for you guys.
all those trying to work out a better bike, what about a ct200?
well my 9 month old daughter posted that for you guys.
all those trying to work out a better bike, what about a ct200?
Mate, if you can find one....let me know!!
It's a bit harder to get parts for and essentially they're the same bike... skinny hoops, useless drum brakes either end and all that....but at least there'd be a bit more oomph for the hwy-cruising
Hey...and a hug for babs:cdle
goodie
...
W
wobbler
Guest
Awesome trip guys and report