View all picturesView MapEven though we only ended up with 3 starters, it was a magnificent weekend and will no doubt set the standard for future events. Garry (purple) and Tom (red) set out from Sydney early last Friday and made our way up the inland New England Highway to Glencoe (580 km). It was a beautiful, clear day, mostly warm - although it got a bit chilly coming over Ben Lomond (as you may have guessed the early white settlers of this region were of Scottish origin) where we only missed the snow by two days.
At Glencoe we settled down with a couple of beers to await Ray's (green) arrival from Toowoomba (320km away by highway, about 500 as Ray navigates).
With the three TXs safely secured undercover we retired to the Red Lion Inn for a few more beers and a good feed. The Red Lion is a fine roadhouse, run by Rhys in a highly bike-friendly way. A taciturn bloke until you get him talking Rhys maintains an easy going ambience that seems to attract locals, city slickers and bikers alike.
An ill-considered, late switch to red wine prompted slightly muddy heads as Saturday dawned. Coffee, bacon and eggs safely stowed in the belly, we set off back up Ben Lomond towards Guyra (the world's highest arsehole). Tom managed to run out of gas and discovered he has some kind of problem with the reserve setting - it just made things worse. So with a generous donation from Ray's tank we made it to Guyra, where we turned coastwards.
Beautiful countryside - isolated road (though a bit too straight for our liking) made for a very pleasant ride. We started the d
ay with big plans for a big loop north to Grafton and back south to Dorrigo, but the day seemed to settle into a less strenuous rhythm and we ended up sidling directly into Dorrigo via a few km of nicely winding road. Despite being on a plateau Dorrigo is a railway town - home to Australia's largest collection of old steam locos. Ray being an old railway man was in hog heaven when the museum custodian invited us into areas normally inaccessible to the public (which is most of it).
The bikes attracted quite a few locals in Dorrigo - all admiring, some with outlandish stories of their supposed value, almost all reporting prior ownership of a 650, and several mentioning a local owner of a fine TX. We did not get the chance to chase this down - one for next time.
From Dorrigo we took the Waterfall Way down the mountain to Bellingen. That was the best riding of the day - a long descent with nicely spaced, irregular curves all the way down to the coastal plain. Bellingen is a bit of a hippy/yuppie town although it has some nice art deco and earlier buildings. Strangely satisfied with the pathetically small amount of riding we'd done that day, we checked into
the Diggers Rest motel (behind Diggers Tavern), then headed up the road to the other pub in town, the Federal, to review progress so far. We wisely stuck to beer this time (Coopers Pale Ale) although Ray compensated by eating enough meat to sustain the local cattle industry through the hard times ahead (I can safely confirm that no fruit or vegetables were harmed in the course of the TX Downunder rally). All of this time Garry was telling every TX story he could think of just to make sure Tom and Ray were truly committed TX owners - they survived, just.
Sunday it was time to head for home - so we did the last few kms to the Pacific Highway then went our separate ways (after briefly experimenting with going each others' ways, then reading the sign again). Another beautiful day and a reasonably fast run down the coast for Garry and Tom - although roadwork and traffic slowed us a bit at times and Tom's bike decided it was too hot and would only start after several minutes of pleading and fiddling - but start it always did.
On the last stretch of freeway, we
fell in with a fine orange Goldwing and provided a TX escort to the next servo where its pilot, Geoff, turned out to be a major 650 twin collector - he has an original XS1 in "out of the crate" condition - has never been ridden. He was suitably impressed by the concept of 3 TXs in the same place at the same time although not impressed enough to change his mind about TX750s - 650 owners are like that. A bit more freeway traffic hell (the F3 is Australia's oldest and worst freeway), followed by Sunday afternoon Sydney traffic (actually not too bad) and we arrived home refreshed (i.e. sore and tired) and invigorated (i.e. determined to do it again soon).
Tom, Garry and Ray
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