Condamine River Cancer Ride Recce€¦ · Condamine River Cancer Ride Recce Written by Todd Smith Monday, 29 March 2010 09:23 - Last Updated Tuesday, 13 April 2010 19:39 A quick splash

Condamine River Cancer Ride Recce

Written by Todd SmithMonday, 29 March 2010 09:23 - Last Updated Tuesday, 13 April 2010 19:39

Since it has been 12 years since I went down the Condamine River road, I thought it best tohave a recce for the Motorcycling Against Cancer Ride on the 25th April before taking a groupthrough there. A short notice post on ADVRider for company solicited the company of'MonkeySpanker' and 'Cruz'. A few To's and Fro's to organise meeting times etc, finished withme catching Cruz at the Mobil near Amberley and us then heading down Ripley Rd toBeaudesert to catch MonkeySpank at Macca's.

To get down there at a reasonable time I had to head out from home at 5:00am, out throughKilcoy, around the Somerset Dam, through Spliyard Ck and the Bottom of Mt Glorious, Fernvaleand Amberly to meet Cruz at 7:00am. The sun managed its first peek through the heavy mistand cloud as I trundled across from Kilcoy the the edge of the dam

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No obligatory shots of the Dam as I was in a hurry, the road was damp and quite busy for thathour of the morning. The run through Splityard from Somerset was uneventful except forcatching Dingo by surprise in a cutting. I saw him, he saw me, he looked for an easy escapebut he was smack bang in the middle of the cutting and I was motoring down on him. I rolled offand hit the picks, he sized up which side of the cutting was lowest and took off at speed, straightup the bank. It was a nice effort at about 60 Degrees. I was awake now and continued on. I sent a text to MonkeySpank and Cruz at Fernvale, just to let them know where I was, Got aresponse from Cruz nearly immediately so I kept on. I arrived at the Mobil before Cruz so I hada chance to have a coffee (mmmmmmmmmmmm) and a rest. It was about 6:30, making goodtime. Cruz rolled in soon after my coffee ran out and introductions were had. No photos. sorry,not thinking clearly at that hour. I followed Cruz down toward Ipswich a ways and then off ontoRipley Rd. I nice shortcut through to Veresdale on the dirt. A little pot-holed but according toCruz, a lot better than last time he went down there. The GS is a little short on suspension traveland overweight so I though it was a little choppy, but I said nothing. We arrived at Maccas in Beaudesert at about 8:20 or something and MonkeySpank waswaiting. More introductions were had and we went inside for Brekky. I managed to get servedand sat down, Cruz was in the queue and about five minutes later he came and sat down, nofood. I inquired about lack of food and he said that they served everyone in the queue aroundhim, including those who were behind him so he said f%^k them and went without. Hit the road out to Boonah before 9:00 am and wombled along at a legal pace down the BoonahBeaudesert Rd. I was lulled into trance by the boxers hum and that of the E09 on the back. Onone of the longish straights I was startled by the sound of a Jap sports bike buzzing the tower. Iwas awake again. He was the first in a group of three out for a blat and the last was a Ducatitravelling at a more sedate pace. I settled into the pace again and watched as the Ducati slowlyshrunk into the distance in front of me. Just as it was nearly out of sight we cam to the 'T'intersection at Coulson and as I began to furn right toward Ipswich I was awoken again by thesound of MonkeySpanks pristineTenere's horn, reminding me that I was actually riding withthem and not the group heading North. After negotiating a slightly illegal course adjustment andsome concrete curbing, I was awake AGAIN and heading in the right direction (that being left inthis case)

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A quick splash and dash found us on the road to Maroon dam the we pulled up at the secondlookout on the way up for the essential bikes in front of a view shot. Pic's taken, off again insearch for some dirt. Luckily the route is still well sign posted as I remember nothing of this areaand with the help of MonkeySpank we were soon in the midst of the 13 or so creek crossing thatmake the Condamine River road what it is, an absolute pleasure.

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The XT was not happy about the water (not a good place to have a bike like that!) She didn'tstop (much)

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Cruz going in.....

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Cruz going out

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aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the serenity! After much coughing, spluttering and in helmet grinning, we roll into Kilearney for a spell and acoffee. What is it with BMW riders and coffee. I think its age, The older you get the more youseem to like/need stimulating beverages of both the hot and cold variety. At this juncture,MonkeySpank decided a quck look at the Ten' may yield significant results in the waterdepartment so it was spanner time. This time it was not me! (well not yet anyway)

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Hmmmm, lets start with the plugs.

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After identifying and attempting repair to an apparently faulty plug lead/gromet, we packed upand headed of the the Barlow's gate Rd only to find that there was an Enduro on and the smalltown and all it's interesting tracks werer commandeered by the 1800 some bikes that hadinvaded the place. We then had the decision of, down the Lindsay to Old Koreelah and up theWhite Swamp OR back up the River Rd and down White Swamp? No prizes for the answer tothat, Let's just say there was no Hwy K,s done south of the Border! So there was smore of this:

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and this

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And we came upon some more ADV inmates, Being HappySnapper and Co. One of whomehad caught a rock in this creek crossing with the gear lever of the 800GS and needed somespannering.

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Whilst we were chatting a guy came back past us that we had seen when he was going towardKilearny, on a 1200GSA with, I kid you not, Open face lid, short sleeve business shirt(unbuttoned) and a pair of footy shorts AND THONGS!!!. Here he is, the infamous Safety Man:

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Anyway, he seemed to be happy plodding along, he had a quite cordial chat and continued on,leaving us all there shaking our heads. Takes all types. It was alI I could do to stop the thoughtsof mangled toes hanging in tatters of the Pivot pegs!! rrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhh. MonketSpank thought he had solved the sparking issue with the XT but it appeared to be backand left him stranded like a 'Shgg' in the middle of this one:

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She's still firing.....just

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But she had just had enough. Not much further down the road than this the poor old Pig lost here footing and fell over,drowning my tank bag, phone and GPS. MonketySpank got a pic off just as I righted her,narrowly avoiding any pictorial eveidence that I went down at all. A sliughtly telling angle I havein the picture but technically not down. My luck was to run out 2 crossings later whern Icommitted one of the cardinal sins of riding, let alone adventure riding. I must not have done theVelcro up on may tank bag when I emptied the water out where I went down in the creek, andas I approached the crest just before the last crossing the contents of my tank bag, namelyGPS, Phone and UHF were spilling into my lap I looked down and tried to herd them onto mylap to prevent the smashing they would have received. As I looked up I was cresting bank andall a I saw was the large white area that was the front of a 4WD that was pulling up out of thecreek and I think stopped. I panicked and grabbed the front brakes and with one hand only shetucked under and down I went!! I don't know it Cruz or MonkeySpank got any shots off as they did not post them *thanks guys)but there was minimal damage, as MonkySpank said to the rattled 4WD driver as he rushedover (And correctly so) "these BM's crash good". I took that the way it suited me but it mighthave been a little tongue in cheek. Damage report: Cracked screen Broken left front indicator Broken left pannier carrier Mud packed clutch lever leaving no freeplay (My spanner time later on) That's about it, Oh yeah, dented pride, but its been dented long and often so no problems there.Thanks to the guys for helping me right her as it was a rocky little crest and my ribs were killingme (and still are) We got to the White Swamp/ River Rd intersection and headed down toward Old Koreelah for awhile until I had to do something with the clutch free-play before it burn out a thrust bearing.Again thanks to the guys for there assistance, free-play restored and time melting away, Idecide to head north again. We stopped under the pines at Boonah and parted company, theothers heading home and I went into town for a coffee and a spell before the grind on thetarmac home. That is where I found that my phone had not survived the drenching, thesignificance of this would dawn on me in about 40 minutes! I walked up the the Post Office andused the public phone to call the family and let them know my phone was dead and I was inBoonah and heading home. As you can see the photos are conspicuous by their absence from here on in, courtesy of myphones demise. Anyway, I had enjoyed a great day, get-off and all.................until about 5 Km'ssouth of Fernvale, my dash became a disco. Tacho needle was getting jiggy with it, back andforth, idiot lights were being,well, idiots and all this companied by the unmistakable feeling offree fall deceleration. Frantic flicking clicking and twisting ensued by yours truly for about 10seconds until it was obvious that the gods of power had forsaken me, and I rolled to anungracious stop on the shoulder. The silence between the sound of passing cars was broken bythe sound of the fuel pump rapping to itself, on, off, on, off. Optimistically I hit the starter and thepig responded with a pathetic cranking sound, a backfire and then finished by spitting thethrottle body out of the manifold!! Shit!! It was about 4:30 (I had no idea as my devices were all flat/dead and the clock on the dash nowread 0:03 courtesy of my gemlins) I was on the side of the road, in the setting sun, no phoneand little hope of fixing her up as I have replaced the 'puter once already and this is exactly thesame symptom! I set about removing the tank, refitting the injector body, removing the computerand disconnecting and re-connecting the abundance of plugs found therein. Put her all backtogether and hit the starter. WooHoo, she runs!!. I quickly put my gear on as it idled away andjumped on, selected first and tentatively moved off down the shoulder, looking in my mirrorlooking for a big enough hole in the traffic to jump into................Bluuur!! Dead again. I parked here up and since I have Gold RACQ, I decided to accept defeat and call in. I stoodthere for 30 minutes gesturing to the throng of vehicles that I needed a phone, using theinternational gesture of a fist with unfolded thumb and little finger held against my head as ifusing a phone!! I though it was self explanatory but it took an !old guy in a rented HiAce van toget it and stop. Anyhow, I called RACQ, They could not contact the contractor, they tried twice, did not want toleave me without a phone or ETA but I had held this guy in the van up long enough so I saud"Mate, no problem, beats walking, just get then here asap and I'll just wait" He finally agreedand I let my friend (Thanks Rod) go about his evening....................................... .............2 Hours later, its well dark now, I have been listening to my UHF for entertainment, the'locals' rabbit on about football, who,s a wanker and "Can I have a radio check?"...Followed by"No F&^k off" I had had enough and tried to start the pig again, which succeeded. If I could justmanage to get into civilisation (Fernval!!) and have a coffee. I mount up and make my way upthe shoulder and thing seem to be going well. I begin to smile to myself, I ma going to makeit...Bluurr. After my initial anger about failing to get to town ebs away I realise my realpredicament. I am broken down, in the dark in the middle of no-where AND the RACQ towsubcontractor is looking for me at a location that I am no longer in!!! Oh and you guessed it. IHAVE NO MOBILE PHONE!!!..........Shit!! So there I am now, trying my "Need a phone" gesture to spite its previously questionableefficiency, this time in the dark on an uphill corner, through a cutting with armco on either side ofthe road! To my astonishment, someone does stop and I thank then gushingly, to the point Ithink she (yes a lone womwn stopped in the dark for a biker!) was questioning the sanity of hergesture. I stop blabbering and call RACQ and the 15yo on the other end responds to myeloquent summary of the situation as.: "Do you mean you wan't to cacell you previous call and make anew one?" No,No No... don't cancel, just ring the driver and tell him I am now 3 Km further up the roadtoward Fernvale" I had a bad feeling about how this was going. I though I was spemding the night on the side ofthe road in my wet weather suite being woken by inquisative rabits and farm dogs. But no, thedriver was conatcted he was 20 min away and he awould look for me at my new (uncertain)location. Long story short, the diver did arrive, my friend was waiting for me at the BP in Kilcoy, weloaded her up onto his hilux which luckily was the same height as the tit tray so no ramprequired and I finally got hom, cold wet and smelly at about 9:30. Oh and to top it all off, my wifehad burnt dinner so there was none waiting, Oh well, I had a shower, a glass of water and hitthe sack. With a smile on my face, what a good day in the end. Better than watching TV ormowing the lawn. {mosmap zoom='1'|kml='http://adventurerider.com.au/images/maps/condamine2.kml'} Adventure on guys.

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Condamine River Cancer Ride Recce€¦ · Condamine River Cancer Ride Recce Written by Todd Smith Monday, 29 March 2010 09:23 - Last Updated Tuesday, 13 April 2010 19:39 A quick splash