Vintage Adventure Touring

[Colin Jay]

After not being able to find anything really wrong yeasterday, todays ride was going to be a try and make it break again day.

I left Longreach in company with 3 other riders on ZL's and even though they are 30 years old I knew it wasn't going to be a slow ride.


The roads and tracks we rode today were much like yesterday, straight, fast and dusty.



There were a few interesting feature in the otherwise barren landscape to check out, like these termite mounds.



A quick rest stop about 150km into the days ride and the Bushpig is still motoring along strongly, sitting on 100 to 110kph with no signs of stress.



261km into the 450km route for the day was our fuel and lunch stop at Stonehenge



8km out of Stonehenge, the engine coughed, and that was it. No spark again. I quickly had the seat and tank off and a few checks with the multimeter proved conclusivly what was suspected yesterday. The ignition source coil was faulty. I was quite suprised that it got me this far today. So, it was time for another ride in a support vehicle back to Longreach.



The final part of a Tragics Run is always the official group photo session and presentation dinner. This years dinner was held at the QANTAS Founders Museum. Firstly, a picture of the "Truely Tragic", the 8 of us that rode 1983 ZL's.



Then the 2013 Tragics full group.



Finally 3 Yamaha legends.

So, it is not time to get back home. I have organised a lift for the bike and myself down to Orange in NSW with the group that rode up from there. One of these fine gentlemen has a '83 model at home and has offered to lend me the parts from his bike to get me back on the road again. We should be in Orange by Sunday afternoon, and I will be back on the road again on Tuesday.

CJ

[Davey Crocket]

Thats cool Col, Gally rang me when he was on the way out there but never mentioned he was riding XT's....just said he was going for a "trailride" with a magazine...I'm very jealous....but I have just bought an 89 Suzuki 600 Dakar so I will have to learn to ride it.

[Colin Jay]

I woldn't call what Gally was doing "trail Riding"! When you have the likes of him and Rod Faggoter riding together it is an awful lot faster than trail riding pace.

Both of them rode as our sweep riders. On Wednsday Steve rode a new XTZ1200 and talking with him at at one of the stops, he mentioned how loose it felt in some of the dirt corners at 130kph and that it handled crossing/jumping grids well at 150kph. On Thusday they stopped in at rod parents property to ride some of his Dakar practice loops for a photo shoot for Yamaha on XTZ660 Teneres, before pressing on to the fuel stop at Stonehenge. Some of us were still there having lunch when they rolled in, so they definitly weren't Trail riding.

CJ   

[Tex]

Thanks for sharing this great story and pics Col.

Tex

[Colin Jay]

Since my last post it has been Road Trip time in the support / back up vehicle for the boys from Orange. As with all road trips, all that can be said about the 2 ½ days from Longreach to Orange is “what happens on the road, stays on the road”, but I can say that it was great fun.


A quick refreshment break to celebrate our escape from QLD.



Once we arrived in Orange I wasted no time in taking “Big Rig” up on his offer and we soon had the electrics from his ’83 Tenere transplanted in to the Bushpig. From there it was a quick trip around to the other side of town to my older brother’s place for the night.

This morning was cold and damp in Orange when I left at 7:15am. My intent was to just riding to Hillston, but not finding much in the way of bakeries serving lattes and baguettes on the way, I found myself in Hillston by lunch time, having covered the 400km in just on 5 hours. After a quick meat pie and coffee, I decided to go for broke and get the 450km to Broken Hill out of the way as well.

The 300 odd km of dirt roads between Hillston and Menindee were not in the best of shape, but after all the practice I have had riding at Longreach, it was a breeze running through the sand at 100kph.


On the road between Ivanhoe and Menindee

I rolled into the Hill at 5:30pm after another small miscalculation on fuel range. Yes, I ran out of fuel again. I didn't bother refueling at Menindee, thinking I should be able to make it the 330km from Ivanhoe to Broken Hill on the one tank full. I missed out by 3km, luckily I still had the spare 4 litres in the Rotopak, so it wasn't as bad as the last time. My fuel consumption for this leg was 9.3L/100km (10.7km/L). This is by far the worst for the trip; my average has been about 6.5L/100km, (15km/L). There was a bit of a head wind and I was running hard through loose sand for a lot of the distance, plus the air cleaner is quite dirty. However, I will have to look into the carbies when I get home to sort out why my economy has been so bad this trip.

Aside from the appalling fuel consumption, the Bushpig is motoring along fine with the sparks that I borrowed from Big Rig in Orange.

I am going to have a rest day tomorrow (Tuesday) and catch up with family and friends here in the Hill and then ride the last 400km to home on Wednesday.

CJ
aka Tragic #6

[vandy010]

What a terrific stoy Col
Thanks for sharing, found the feul consuption figures and average speeds etc handy.
I plan on being out that way around july~ish on my 93 XT600.
What tyres did you use? And pressures? Any other tips on bike set up etc?
Vandy

[Colin Jay]

I am currently running a 120/90 x 18 Dunlop D606 on the rear and a MotoOz Tractionator Desert HT on the front. I am running Dunlop heavy duty tubed with slightly higher tire pressure than I would normally with 26psi in the rear and 24psi in the front as a bit of protection against impact puncture. The high tire pressures make the handling a bit skatey in the loose sand and gravel, but I am happy with the trade off.

The poor fuel consumption is a bit of a mystery. On previous rides I have got 17 to 18 km/L which is significantly better than what I have averaged on this trip. As mentioned my average speed has been a bit higher etc but I feel there is still another underlying cuase of the poor economy.

Bike preperation for this trip was pretty much the normal stuff. I fully service the entire bike, including stripping, cleaning and regreasing the rear suspension linkages and steering head bearings, fitted new wheel bearings, new disc pads, new DID O'ring rear chain.

As the air filter elements in the early Tenere's are so small, I carried 4 pre oiled spares sealed in zip lock bags, and have swapped them at regular intervals. this beets having to find somewhere to wash them on the ride. I will be change to my last spare this morning as I could feel the bike becoming more sluggish during the run from Ivanhoe to Menindee yesterday which is a sure sigh of the element starting to clog with dust.

CJ

[EML]

Try looking at the emulsion tube....I have heard it's quite common on my XTZ to use heaps of fuel when they are worn. I think that's  what they said anyway??

[Colin Jay]

Well, all good things must come to an end.

On Tuesday, I put about 50km under my wheels riding around the Hill catching up with friends etc. I spent a bit of time out at Silverton and caught up with 'mad' Adrian and had a look through his Mad Max 2 museum.




I Rode the final 400km from Broken Hill down to Clare yesterday morning and was home by lunch time. I stopped off at the Midnight Oil house near Burra for a quick photo opportunity on the way.




Overall, The Bushpig and I covered 3865km powered by her own spark and about 1800km in the recovery vehicles with no spark. Even with the time spend as a passenger in the ute, it was a great trip, which I would willingly do all over again (once my aching body recovers).

While in the Hill, I also managed to pick up a servicable 2nd hand stator / pickup coil set at a really good 'mates rates' price, so I will now have a spare set and as such never ever have any problem again. (it is the source coil in my stator that is faulty and resulted in the loss of sparks when the engine gets hot).

On the coming weekend, I will start work on the Bushpig to get her ready for the 2014 Tenere Tragics run.


CJ

[Hoony]

Loved the story and all the pics.

Thanks for sharing.