Tenere Tragics 2013...

[GrahamD]

Day 4..

Easy day today..

Blakall to Longreach..200 odd Km..

Stopped at the Tree of knowledge at Barcaldine for a leg stretch with other Tragics...Read about it here..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_Knowledge_%28Australia%29

Inside...

Then off to Longreach

Longreach snow drifts

We arrived at Longreach before lunch signed in and then I went off to re align the front clutch leaver etc..

Popped down to the hospital for a bit of a check up. No serious stuff. Just don't fall on it again or cough or sneeze for the next six weeks..

Got back to find the Tragic Tenere's had arrived and showing off the black gloop covered bikes..

Greg and his Gnarly beast after a clean...

A comparison shot..Garage queen Vs Adventure bike..

Found a famous S10..

This is the same bike in a previous life..
Yamaha XT1200Z Super Tenere (Altrider)

Went off to the welcome dinner and crashed. We found out that the course for the next two days was set up for old farts with Super Tenere's. Anyone else could probably find some more interesting stuff on the way..Now I was a bit bemused by that as it seemed the old fart I was riding with a lot was pretty handy on the Super Tenere but it is a corporate event and they do have to be a bit careful.

 

[GrahamD]

Day 5..The first day of the actual Tenere Tragics event...533Km around Longreach..

A lot of it was on Black soil..Weird stuff.

Now that looks pretty easy right..Well it is once you get used to the way it acts..You would think you were running a flat.. The bike just seems to float around on the stuff with a lot more movement than you would expect..I stopped a few times just to try and figure out what was going on and picked the stuff up it's sort of like really fine potting mix or something. Very compressible.

Somewhere along the ride...

Anyway, it turns out there are some hills out here...
Lunch at the top of mount Slowcombe..

On the way back....

Even the pretty boys got dirty..

Somewhere along the ride there were some pretty deep trenches dug in that mud which so when dry makes for some interesting moments if you happen to follow the wrong one. The trenches are not quite wide enough to fit a big Tenere which means that at some point the engine or guard scrapes the top. Every time it happened I started thinking about this...

Beached Whale

But nothing happened like that luckily..

Decided it was time to check the skid plate as it had kissed the ground a few times and shaved the sides of a few trenches by this stage..

A few things embedded in there..

So that was the first day. It was fun, it was easy enough most of the time and it was time for some relaxing..

 

[GrahamD]

Day 6...Tourist Day...QANTAS museum...3Km by foot..

Next time you think working on the Super T is a hassle just look at what the old airplane mechanics had to put up with...

Some more random shots...

Luxury flying. Passengers inside and the pilot was still in an open cockpit..

Next time you are up at Longreach pay them a visit..
http://www.qfom.com.au/

After that it was over to the Tenere Tragics Long Haul Farewell Dinner and presentation Night..

First the group photo's..
All the Tragics behind the 1983 Teneres that rode in (mostly) from around the country..(It was a 30th Anniversary Tragics ride by the way)

Then Longreach put on a great sunset for us..

Inside the dinner...

Some Tragics..

Awards with slide show in the background...

And then it was back to bed for the big ride home...

So the summary of the ride so far..

Out of 53 Tragics..

Accidents 5.
1 x Broken ankle. Front Row.
2 x Cracked / Broken Ribs.
2 x Small bruises.

Dead bikes from breakdowns...
2 that I know of..
1 x 30 year old Tenere. Electrical problems.
1 x 660 Tenere Don't know it just DNF.

Flats..
Lost count..

Dinged rims 4 or 5.
1 x S10 with two. That was a pro rider crossing cattle grids at 150Km/h. The others 660's probably chasing..

Stuck in the mud
6.

New tires.
Lost count.

Busted from crashes. 1 XT660

 

[GrahamD]

Day 7....

Heading back a different way...

Another bunch of things to be careful about...

Bumped into some Tragics at Augathella...

Tragic Lunch..

Fancy Accommodation at Mitchell...

Now Mitchel was strange. It was packed. I heard that the three other Tragics had booked into a pub up the road after seeing a few no vacancy signs. Turns out the Pub had just been bought and it was cheap for a reason. Pump failures. The beer was a bit flat randomly...

I found out there was a courtesy bus into town from the caravan park where I was staying..

So I took a trip into the local bowling club where I found out there was a bit of bush poetry going on later at the Park..
That was an unexpected...

Back at the Caravan Park...(The sounds a bit crappy but if you turn it up it is understandable)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgI5D0C20zQ

That was a good way to end the evening...

 

[GrahamD]

Day 8 ...

Another slab day (630Km)

I heard a Rooster in the distance..Where I live that means sunrise..out here they are early starters..

Anyway I diddled around for a while until the sun actually came up, packed and off I went..

On the way to St George..180Km on the ODO 225 to Go. Found the Tragics again dodging road kill..

Refuel at St George..2 Litres still in the tank..

Crossed the border at Mungindi..Back in my home state ;D

Passed through another dying town Garah..

Maybe they could do a little better with the Advertising..

At this point the road was getting weird. It was going up and down AND side to side..I'd have to dig down and find some of those long lost skills

Another town. Beutiful town mostly and the local mechanic seems like he doesn't operate on huge profits..

Rang a friend who was kind enough to offer a place to crash for the night...

Beautiful place...

Settled down for the night, had an actual hot shower, a good feed and crashed.. I was struggling to stay awake...

 

[GrahamD]

Woke up to a beautiful morning...

Had a guided tour around Brians beautiful place.. I'm not jealous of course.. ;D

And hit the road...

Not long before the Traffic Agro increased, The pristine GS's appeared wearing the pristine adventure suits and the Blue mountains appeared in the distance...

By afternoon I was home..Shagged and still a bit sore..

The bike and myself scored a hit each, but the whole trip was basically trouble free. Pretty much the same as most of the Tenere's out there..

The bike worked well in a huge range of conditions. Me not so much and I will be working on that in the future...

A big thanks to all involved and lot's of respect goes out to some very talented people...

 

[snakebitten]

Fantastic. Great pics. Great story.

Bunch of stubborn Aussies refusing to acknowledge that the Super Tenere is a pretender. Crazy. ???

 

[cmastrom]

Really enjoyed this. Thanks for the Yellow pictured bike that is exactly what I had in my minds eye for my own Tenere.

 

[Ozmac]

Thanks for the good effort with the commentary and pics. Great read. Inspiring to get out on the bike more than I do.

 

[Camel]

Thanks. Loved the write up and pics. ::012::

 

[True Grip]

Loved the report Graham. Amazing countryside to ride in. The only good thing about bruised ribs is you don't have to worry about defalting a lung versus the broken ribs.The bad thing is they hurt just as much as if they were broken and take just as long to get better. Hope you are feeling better now. Loved the tourist guide to outback roads. Looks like you have some hardcore riding mates.

 

[Flydream]

::008:: ::012:: ::012:: thanks
::003::

 

[JaimeV]

Seems you have really good time!!

But I'm cross with you... poor skid plate... all this time I had taking care of it and you scratches it

Good report Graham!! Thanks ::012::

 

[GrahamD]

Loved the report Graham. Amazing countryside to ride in. The only good thing about bruised ribs is you don't have to worry about defalting a lung versus the broken ribs.

Yes, I have had a few friends with that problem..which is why I was in a bit of "risk management mode".; As well as that there was only so much shaking they would take in a day..

 

[GrahamD]

But I'm cross with you... poor skid plate... all this time I had taking care of it and you scratches it

Sorry about that Jaime..

But it did well... ::012::

 

[GrahamD]

Classic ;D ::008::

Is there a bigger pic available?

 

[Old Jock]

::012:: ::012:: Thank you, Graham, for the fine pictures and narrative. I appreciate getting a chance to see Australian sights.

 

[Cloud09]

Classic ;D ::008::

Is there a bigger pic available?

Hmmm yes! Almost kept it upright, the funniest thing though mate is that my brother picked up the little black cover plug which covers the nut on the side mirror and put it in his pocket (so we thought) till we got to a cement causeway to gather our thoughts and scrap some mud off and found that he could not find it! When we zoomed right in on this pic we could see the little black plug lying in the mud out front of my right boot!

 

[Ollie]

Nice write up and pics Graham! Glad I stumbled across your RR!

 

[thagua]

Wish I could do the same trip. Graham, how do you manage to have such a wonderful outcome on your fuel comsumption. What changes have you done to your engine setup. Mine is only 15.5 km per liter.
Cheers,
Roberto