I think the first thing that people wonder is why did he do it, but then people often say I wish I had done something like that.

Over the next few days I was on old familiar ground and enjoyed what I saw but nothing really new. I was glad I chose to go in this direction as the bike had now started to show various signs of things that needed doing, so I had to be very alert and keep checking on the bike for any problems that might occur.

The trip took me through the Northern Territory to Darwin and south down to the Threeways where I would head east to Queensland. I had to go a little bit south to Tennant Creek and pick up a tyre and inner tube. I could not get a tubeless one as the rear tyre was almost worn out. I had covered around 7000 miles at this point.

It was now Thursday 8th April and I finished up at Barry Caves Roadhouse and changed the tyre and tube. By now I had been on the road for 24 days. This road was fairly easy riding and did not cause too many problems for me or the bike.

I eventually got through to the coast at Townsville and, as I like this area, I went north up to Cairns round Mossman and Cape Tribulations. Then there was a warning about some bad weather brewing down south at Rockhampton and I felt it was a good idea to start to move south.

I was not long riding before the rains started and that was a real test of skill - the visibility was quite low and the rain was fairly heavy which made riding a lot slower. I stopped that night at a motel in Bowen the other side of Townsville, hoping the next day it would stop raining. When I set off the next day it was, however, still raining.

The bike was now showing signs of problems and next I got diverted by floods on the main road near Shute Harbour so to get through I had to leave the main road, go on a minor road to Shute Harbour and then back to the main road futher down.

At this point my speedo cable broke so I had to ride on experience and try to keep my speed within the correct limits. I got down as far as Mckay when the clutch cable snapped so, to keep going, I just had to carry on without the clutch - the hard bit was when you need to stop! At this point I did not have a tacho, a speedo or a clutch - it seemed the bike was falling to pieces. I had a spare clutch cable but it was a bit short so I could not use it. I stopped that night at Gladstone.

I got on the road the next day, without a clutch, and had to go into my memory and think how I should get over this problem. I thought, at the beginning, I would have to try to get another cable but it was even more simple than that - all I needed to do was adjust the pushrod to get my extra length on the cable.

I stopped in the next town and borrowed a large screwdriver to open the side cover - the adjustment was very easy and I now had a clutch again. I thought to myself; 'you are very slow you should have thought of that before'.

I continued down the coast with very few more problems and I stopped at a friends place in Lismore for a couple of days and her Father fitted a new bolt to my headlight as the old one got lost again.

I made my way down the coast to Sydney and was at Newcastle, about 145 miles away, when the final problem occurred. The chain and sprocket had worn and the chain was jumping teeth. To get over this problem I took 2 links out and that did the job.

I thought, all in all, it was not bad. I had got most of the things sorted out for a 10,000 mile trip and 6 weeks on the road and really all the things that occurred were down to wear and tear.

The Norton In Australia Archive

NVQAssessor

21.09.06 Front Page

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