Hi all.
Well, I finally decided I need some time off and talked Mrs Wasp into leaving the humdrum behind and getting away for a long weekend on the S10 WASPmobile.
There was actually a good reason to pick the past weekend in particular as the brother-in-law and his band "Waiting for Andy" had a big gig down south at Yellingup.
They all decided to make a big weekend of it and rented a bush retreat house that sleeps 16,,, and we got an invite.
The plan was simple and goes something like this:
1/ Pack the bike.
2/ Forget about the phones, e-mail's, and orders to be processed.
3/ Jump on the bike and fuck off!!!!! down to Witchcliffe 350 odd klms south of the Waspnest.
But, the simplest plans often go astray.
1/ Despite all our pre-packing and planning, we didn't get things finalized and hit the road until 1:30pm.
2/ Due to the rarity of the trip we thought we might drop in on a few friends along the way and consequently didn't roll into base camp until after dark. This normally wouldn't be a problem apart from the fact that the bush hide-away was very well hidden-away.
3/ A poorly marked driveway saw us travel 15kms down a kangaroo infested gravel/sand/rocky/rutted/tall timber lined bush track, in the dark, with 40kgs of luggage on board, and a pair of tired sore bums after a 350km ride.
But we turned around and finally saw the lights of an oncoming car just turning into the "unmarked" drive way track.
Upon our arrival and unpacking we were presented with delicious BBQ plate chock full of all the different salads and sausages, steaks, kebabs, etc along with an ice cold Turkey and Cola.
Great way to finish of an eventful ride.
That was Day1.
All packed up and just waiting for Mrs Wasp.
90klms done and we stop for a smoke and drink.
I was immediately impressed with the way the bike glued to the road with all the SW-Motech luggage + (lightweight) pillion on board.
These really are a great dualsport bike in the true sense of the term.
Gone are the days of a touring bike for touring, a dirt bike for easy dirt/trail riding, and a sport bike for aggressive knee scratching - These things are a one dog many tricks machine and I am more and more in awe of it each time I take it out.
Ohh, I got me some new side decals.... I'll talk about them at another time. :-\
200klms done and stopped for another smoke and drink in the shade.
I thought you might like to see the luggage on the bike with the lovely Mrs Wasp on board to show perspective of room... Not that it's a fair indication as she is only very small and dosen't take up much room.
As I said. Night time we arrive at the house to be greeted by a couple of the locals.
Unpacked and parked up for the night at base camp.
This is what we were handed as soon as we unpacked... Beautiful - No roughing it here.
Saturday nights warm up for Sundays gig, we even had live entertainment in the form of a jam session around the dinner table.
This is the Bro-in-law Mick. Lead singer and songwriter for the band Waiting for Andy, or waiting4andy as per the stubby holders in the pic.
Check them out at http://www.mickparker.com.au/audio.html
Here's an audio clip of "Back in the mud", the title track from their Back in the mud CD: http://www.mickparker.com.au/audio/W...20again%20.mp3
We even had a masseuse on had... No happy finishes though
)
Our base camp, in Witchcliffe (South-West of Western Australia), is about 300klms from a very famous landmark called the Valley of the Giants and the Tree Top Walk, so we decided to head in that direction for breakfast and stopped at Pemberton which is around 130klms from base camp.
The road from just before Pemberton all the way down to Walpole (Valley of the Giants) is nice and twisty and allowed the use of the entire width of the new (and very grippy) Heidenau 140/80/17 rear tire... No more chicken strips O0
Both the Heidenau rear and the 100/90/19 Mefo Explorer front were exceptional in the garvel/dirt and on the high speeds of the black stuff.
After a beautiful "big breaky" (sausage + bacon + eggs + mushrooms + toast + tomato) we pointed the WASPmobile towards the Valley of the Giants but not before checking out one of Pembertons most famous landmarks the Gloucester tree.
Over one million people have climbed this monsterous 61metre (200') tall Karri tree which is actually a working bushfire watchtower.
After a few smoke/drink stops (including one after a little off-road diversion along a tourist drive) we rolled up at our tree top walk location at around 1:00pm.
The tree top walk.
This is the cook (Mrs Wasp) on one of the 50 to 70meter spans some 40+ meters above the ancient tingle tree forest below.
Shows another perspective of just how high the "swaying, moving" walkway is... Check the middle top of picture.
Unfortunately this is just before Mrs Wasp was overcome with a touch of travel sickness / heatstroke which meant we had a really uncomfortable ride home, (read heaps of stops, including a few half hour laydowns in the forest on the side of the road), which meant we didnt rock up to base camp until well after dark and unfortunately in no condition to go to the gig.
That aside though, the wife recovered after a shower and a couple of hours sleep and we did have a really nice evening of further round the table jamming and carry on.
The ride home from Witchcliffe to the Waspnest saw us take a different route and included a tire pressure check. This pic shows the view from the front with the luggage on board.
It looks slightly unbalanced as I have opted for 37litre boxes on both sides and plan on modifying the carry frames to raise both boxes and even the width (move the exhaust side in and the right side out) at a later date.
It's all very green and lush down the south west (as opposed to dry and pharken hot in Perth) at the moment, so we took plenty of time out on the return ride home to relax and soak it all up.
This pic is beside the river in Harvey around 170klms from Perth.
So apart from the Sunday arvo sickness it was a really good ride and three days away.
We traveled about 1400klms (875miles) over the course of the weekend which include about 100klms of dirt tracks.
The bike was faultless.. The luggage was excellent and fuel economy was good even considering the weight on the bike and the fact that we were sitting on a constant (GPS confirmed) 120kph...
Passing lines of traffic when unlaiden would normally be a "roll the throttle on in top gear" affair. With the bike loaded up as heavy as it was it's more a case of knock it down a gear and feed it on.
Still pulls up to speed as quick and goes just as fast, just needs the little extra help of one gear down to get the ball rolling.
Thinking about it, the empty luggage boxes + racks + top bags would be about 18 to 20kgs, so it's probably fairer to say that we would have had closer to 55kgs of load + one 45kg wife on the back.
A really great weekend and a much needed get-a-way.
Ohh. And no high speed vibes, I guess mainly due to the SW-Motech dampened Endurance bars... Not that I ever recall getting vibes before installing them.
Ohh-2. I also installed a Kaoko throttle control before I left... What a godsend those things are. I only used it maybe 10 or 12 times for 5 or 10 mins at a time on the whole trip, but when the right arm needed a rest it was there... Very cool. 8)
I hope you enjoyed.
Greg.
Well, I finally decided I need some time off and talked Mrs Wasp into leaving the humdrum behind and getting away for a long weekend on the S10 WASPmobile.
There was actually a good reason to pick the past weekend in particular as the brother-in-law and his band "Waiting for Andy" had a big gig down south at Yellingup.
They all decided to make a big weekend of it and rented a bush retreat house that sleeps 16,,, and we got an invite.
The plan was simple and goes something like this:
1/ Pack the bike.
2/ Forget about the phones, e-mail's, and orders to be processed.
3/ Jump on the bike and fuck off!!!!! down to Witchcliffe 350 odd klms south of the Waspnest.
But, the simplest plans often go astray.
1/ Despite all our pre-packing and planning, we didn't get things finalized and hit the road until 1:30pm.
2/ Due to the rarity of the trip we thought we might drop in on a few friends along the way and consequently didn't roll into base camp until after dark. This normally wouldn't be a problem apart from the fact that the bush hide-away was very well hidden-away.
3/ A poorly marked driveway saw us travel 15kms down a kangaroo infested gravel/sand/rocky/rutted/tall timber lined bush track, in the dark, with 40kgs of luggage on board, and a pair of tired sore bums after a 350km ride.
But we turned around and finally saw the lights of an oncoming car just turning into the "unmarked" drive way track.
Upon our arrival and unpacking we were presented with delicious BBQ plate chock full of all the different salads and sausages, steaks, kebabs, etc along with an ice cold Turkey and Cola.
Great way to finish of an eventful ride.
That was Day1.
All packed up and just waiting for Mrs Wasp.
90klms done and we stop for a smoke and drink.
I was immediately impressed with the way the bike glued to the road with all the SW-Motech luggage + (lightweight) pillion on board.
These really are a great dualsport bike in the true sense of the term.
Gone are the days of a touring bike for touring, a dirt bike for easy dirt/trail riding, and a sport bike for aggressive knee scratching - These things are a one dog many tricks machine and I am more and more in awe of it each time I take it out.
Ohh, I got me some new side decals.... I'll talk about them at another time. :-\
200klms done and stopped for another smoke and drink in the shade.
I thought you might like to see the luggage on the bike with the lovely Mrs Wasp on board to show perspective of room... Not that it's a fair indication as she is only very small and dosen't take up much room.
As I said. Night time we arrive at the house to be greeted by a couple of the locals.
Unpacked and parked up for the night at base camp.
This is what we were handed as soon as we unpacked... Beautiful - No roughing it here.
Saturday nights warm up for Sundays gig, we even had live entertainment in the form of a jam session around the dinner table.
This is the Bro-in-law Mick. Lead singer and songwriter for the band Waiting for Andy, or waiting4andy as per the stubby holders in the pic.
Check them out at http://www.mickparker.com.au/audio.html
Here's an audio clip of "Back in the mud", the title track from their Back in the mud CD: http://www.mickparker.com.au/audio/W...20again%20.mp3
We even had a masseuse on had... No happy finishes though
)
Our base camp, in Witchcliffe (South-West of Western Australia), is about 300klms from a very famous landmark called the Valley of the Giants and the Tree Top Walk, so we decided to head in that direction for breakfast and stopped at Pemberton which is around 130klms from base camp.
The road from just before Pemberton all the way down to Walpole (Valley of the Giants) is nice and twisty and allowed the use of the entire width of the new (and very grippy) Heidenau 140/80/17 rear tire... No more chicken strips O0
Both the Heidenau rear and the 100/90/19 Mefo Explorer front were exceptional in the garvel/dirt and on the high speeds of the black stuff.
After a beautiful "big breaky" (sausage + bacon + eggs + mushrooms + toast + tomato) we pointed the WASPmobile towards the Valley of the Giants but not before checking out one of Pembertons most famous landmarks the Gloucester tree.
Over one million people have climbed this monsterous 61metre (200') tall Karri tree which is actually a working bushfire watchtower.
After a few smoke/drink stops (including one after a little off-road diversion along a tourist drive) we rolled up at our tree top walk location at around 1:00pm.
The tree top walk.
This is the cook (Mrs Wasp) on one of the 50 to 70meter spans some 40+ meters above the ancient tingle tree forest below.
Shows another perspective of just how high the "swaying, moving" walkway is... Check the middle top of picture.
Unfortunately this is just before Mrs Wasp was overcome with a touch of travel sickness / heatstroke which meant we had a really uncomfortable ride home, (read heaps of stops, including a few half hour laydowns in the forest on the side of the road), which meant we didnt rock up to base camp until well after dark and unfortunately in no condition to go to the gig.
That aside though, the wife recovered after a shower and a couple of hours sleep and we did have a really nice evening of further round the table jamming and carry on.
The ride home from Witchcliffe to the Waspnest saw us take a different route and included a tire pressure check. This pic shows the view from the front with the luggage on board.
It looks slightly unbalanced as I have opted for 37litre boxes on both sides and plan on modifying the carry frames to raise both boxes and even the width (move the exhaust side in and the right side out) at a later date.
It's all very green and lush down the south west (as opposed to dry and pharken hot in Perth) at the moment, so we took plenty of time out on the return ride home to relax and soak it all up.
This pic is beside the river in Harvey around 170klms from Perth.
So apart from the Sunday arvo sickness it was a really good ride and three days away.
We traveled about 1400klms (875miles) over the course of the weekend which include about 100klms of dirt tracks.
The bike was faultless.. The luggage was excellent and fuel economy was good even considering the weight on the bike and the fact that we were sitting on a constant (GPS confirmed) 120kph...
Passing lines of traffic when unlaiden would normally be a "roll the throttle on in top gear" affair. With the bike loaded up as heavy as it was it's more a case of knock it down a gear and feed it on.
Still pulls up to speed as quick and goes just as fast, just needs the little extra help of one gear down to get the ball rolling.
Thinking about it, the empty luggage boxes + racks + top bags would be about 18 to 20kgs, so it's probably fairer to say that we would have had closer to 55kgs of load + one 45kg wife on the back.
A really great weekend and a much needed get-a-way.
Ohh. And no high speed vibes, I guess mainly due to the SW-Motech dampened Endurance bars... Not that I ever recall getting vibes before installing them.
Ohh-2. I also installed a Kaoko throttle control before I left... What a godsend those things are. I only used it maybe 10 or 12 times for 5 or 10 mins at a time on the whole trip, but when the right arm needed a rest it was there... Very cool. 8)
I hope you enjoyed.
Greg.
