Motor Cycle Tour Video Part 3

This video covers Day 8 and 9 of the trip which took us from Lakes Entrance west to Noojee just above Melbourne in the mountains where we camped for a very cold night. The next day headed on early to the Great Ocean Road staying in Port Campbell in a motel for the night. 

Below are the blog posts for the corresponding days

Day 8, Day 9

Motorcycle Tour Part 2 Video

This video covers Day 6 and 7 of the trip which took us from Sydney down to Eden where we camped for the night and the next day on to Lakes Entrance in Victoria. The bog posts that cover this video are below.

Motorcycle Touring Day 6 and Motorcycle Touring Day 7

Motorcycle Tour Part 1 Video

I mentioned in the previous post that I had only just started getting the video together for that trip last year. This is mainly because I didn't have any video editing software to do it. After almost a year I bought Cyberlink Powerdirector 11, after using the evaluation edition for a week. So now the boring raw videos that you might watch once or twice, now look hopefully a little more entertaining.

MotorCycle Tour Part one covers the following blog posts

Motor Cycle Tour Day 1 and Motor Cycle Day Tour 2

Finally some video

I have finally put together some videos of the tour which I will add as they are finished. Below is a short snippet of the trip near Tamworth, NSW on a forest trail/road. This was just after some heavy down pours the day before which had made the track quite slippery. The road was near the location from this blog post, Motorcycle Touring Day 3

Airhawk Cushion Review

I bought the Airhawk cushion for a motorcycle tour which I have blogged about previously. The ride was going to be considerably longer than what I had undertaken in the past. The longest previous ride being 200-250 km in one hit with generally no riding the next day. I usually felt sore after that, so I was rather getting worried about the 4000 km ride that was fast approaching. With this in mind I did a bit of digging on the net in the motorbike touring scene and the Airhawk seat appeared. There were only a handful of reviews at the time but it looked it promising. The Airhawk has been used by pilots of long flights which who it was originally designed for.

Anyway, to the seat review. The Airhawk seat arrived. I purchased the standard shape seat, this being the cheapest in case I wasn't happy with the purchase. The ‘Shaped’ version may  have been a better option for my bike. The next step was to install the cushion which involves attaching it to the bike as per the instructions and then filling it with air. Then sit on the cushion and slowly let the air out to basically empty. I followed the instructions for installation to get it right but in the end you will adjust it quite a few times till it actually feels ok to ride with. What I found was that it tended to move around while riding and cause more discomfort. It took a few rides and tests to get it fitted right. This might have been as a result of the standard cushion I bought over the shaped one i could have got. 

Airhawk Cushion Attached to the bike

The first initial tests were short rides of no more than 1 hour and in a city environment. I found the cushion to be comfortable but would move around and then cause some discomfort for the male crown jewels ;). The cushion isn't designed for this sort of riding; that being stop starting, tight cornering, and getting on and off. What I did find from the longer tests on more open roads that it was very effective in keeping you quite comfortable in the saddle. By comfortable I mean it it keeps your bottom cooler by allowing air flow under and also minimises soreness but providing an air gap between you and the seat. As a result this gave me confidence that it would be fine for the upcoming ride.

The serious test for me with the Airhawk cushion was on the 4200km touring holiday, which was basically all on tarmac. The average daily km’s ranging from 350 to 750km on winding back roads to long stretches of freeway. I realised after the first day that the cushion was very effective. There is no negative thought about getting back in the saddle of the bike at all. This continued for the rest of the trip which was great because you could focus on the road and scenery passing by. I found that you still did wriggle around a little from time to time especially when you would get back on after a stop, as the cushion might move or get caught on your clothing. 

To sum up I think they are really effective on all day rides and touring. You may want to take them off when on a dirt roads and around town but that's a personal preference.

Link to the Airhawk Seats below.

http://www.airhawk.com.au/

Motorcycle Touring Day 11 - Wodonga to Sydney

We decided to leave fairly early on Wednesday morning from Wodonga so we could get to Sydney some time in the arvo or evening. We were a little over freeway riding so we took a mostly scenic route over the Snowy Mountains along the Alpine Way to Cooma, then Canberra, Goulbourn and then on to Sydney.

The Kosciuszko National Park landscape is beautiful and sometimes eery in the higher areas where there are areas of dead Eucalupts covering the mountains. I'm not sure what has caused this.The Alpine Way winds its way up through heavily timbered forests past the turbine power stations. Temperatures drop fairly quickly 5 to 10 degrees. Steep cliffs on one side and near vertical hills rising from the road on the other. There was evidence of recent rock falls and small subsidence from recent rains which had closed part of the road.

The road starts to open up as you approach the winter ski fields, sweeping down through grassy valleys and over bridges spanning flowing rocky rivers. There were alot of photo opportunities but not always the space to pull over. I had the GoPro going for most of it on 1080 video so when I have time I will edit it.

We decided to skip lunch at Cooma and head onto Canberra and Goulbourn. We had a late lunch / early dinner at 4.30pm in Goulbourn before heading to Sydney. It was a long 750km ride and we were quite tired and sore when we got home.

This first motorcycle trip was a great learning experience. There is something really special about touring on bikes. You feel closer to everything and feel more connected to the journey, places and landscapes you experience along the way. I think this will be the start of many.

:)

Motorcycle Touring Day 10 - Port Campbell to Wodonga

Port Campbell is a little sea side town on on the Great Ocean Road between the Apostles and The Arch. It lies in a bay that has been cut out over time by the severe waves and winds. The cliffs are made of the same soft limestone rock as the Apostles and The Arch.  

Port Campbell - Wharf

 

Now that we were almost at the end of the Great Ocean Road, we were wondering where to go next and what to see. We didn't really want to go west any further at this stage as it just meant a longer trip home. We mapped out a route to Wodonga via Ballarat, Bendigo and Seymour. It would be a long ride but it would get us half way back to Sydney in one trip. It also bypassed Shepparton which was flooding.

The bikes at the Arch

We took a quick detour to the Arch and then headed north to Cobden and then stopped for lunch in Ballarat. We then headed on to Bendigo via the historic towns of Dalesford and Castlemaine. I haven't been to this area of the country in probably 15 to 20 years and was very suprised at how beautiful it is. These towns were built around gold rushes and show the wealth that this brought at the time through the historic buildings. I will certainly be returning soon to spend a little more time in the area.

We arrived in Wodonga in the evening about 6pm, after a long day on the bikes. We had travelled about 650km a mix of major back roads a freeways. We stayed in another motel because they are just so much more comfortable then camping! 

The Arch - Great Ocean Road

The lime stone

A small lookout near Daylesford

The lime stone