Shakedown day. The anticipation kept me awake for hours last night which was annoying because a) I knew I’d be awake at 6am to watch GP quali. b) I had a lot of K’s to do and I wanted to be fresh.
I needed a good result from my fixings and changings over the last few months. Particularly the geometry adjustments this week. So, nice weather, no mechanical gremlins and certainly not bloody highway patrol. Not too much to ask for really
Oxley highway specifically the 160km between Walcha-Wauchope is one of the top 3 roads in Australia to ride. 300 corners through a 80km stretch through the mountains and it’s been closed since March from the heavy rains we had causing landslides and boulders to render it impassable. Council recently reopened it a month(ish) ago so I’ve been waiting for chance to check it out again.
There’s a lot of boring, straight, bumpy, pothole, shit roads for me to deal with before I get to where I need. Around 200km if I had to say. Yep, unluggy. Squared-off tires anyone?
Scene set; perfect day. Mid 20s (73-80°f) slight breeze, not too much traffic.
Bike felt good from the start, ride and comfort were improved compared to before so I was confident but cautious. Can’t celebrate too early.
Skip to the first turn. Wow, that was stable. 2nd, same but faster, 3rd okay let’s add lean, 4th corner, I don’t remember having this much confidence in my grip. 5th elbow down. Just kidding! The corners start off (depending on your direction) longer and more open on top of the mountain. 3rd and 4th gear mostly for about 25km with gaps between so you can rest and have a bit longer to setup your position. After that it tightens up, most of the next 45km are tight, blind 2nd gear nimble little turns. One leading into the other. Awesome, exhausting.
Im startled when my knee hits the ground. It throws me off a good line and I’m annoyed. But it’s gone and the next corner is already in front of me, so focus Andy.
I could easily write a whole essay about all my thoughts but as riders we all share that knowledge already.
What I can say about my adjustments however. I’ve never had a bike behave so well for me, there’s still room for improvement obviously but if todays feeling was 95% then all my previous riding on the Ducati has felt like 60%.
Destination: Wauchope. Fuel, quick snack, walk around stretch legs. 1/2 way through the day. It’s hot, I should have taken my jumper off.
Let’s turn around and do that again.
I’d checked out the route on the way over. Got a feel for the new setup, now we can have some proper fun. Nothing can go wrong as long as I don’t drop it. ‘What was that?’
‘What?’
‘That, you felt it didn’t you?’
‘No, it’s fine. It’s got to be’
‘There it is again’
‘Fuck’
It’s most definitely something. Why is the bike surging like this? Mid corner, full lean, another surge sending me right across the white line a foot into the oncoming lane fortunately I could see far enough to know it was clear.
Crook fuel, my poor baby has food poisoning I think. Thoughts of tow trucks, or sleeping on the side of the road haunt me for the next 10 mins as another 1/2 dozen sporadic surges mock me. If you stop it, you won’t restart it. But at the same time it doesn’t feel like bad fuel.
I pull over and try to diagnose an invisible, internal catastrophic engine failure with my eyes. But all I see is the quick shifter going mental. Even with the thread lock the strain gauge had loosened an 1/8 of a turn. Just enough where the engine power was being cut since the computer was telling it to shift down. Finger tight best I can do, 10 mins later another surge. Finger tight best I can do, 20 mins later…. Etc.
My earlier mishap sending me into the other lane + the concern I had over a disintegrated con-rod pretty much shattered any confidence of spirited riding til I got back to the next servo and borrowed a blokes spanner to tighten the shifter up a bit better. That’ll do, I just want to get home.
So, a little anticlimactic. But we’re all in one piece and the high of the journey east cannot be brought down by the western retreat.
It’s the longest day riding I’ve ever had too. 500km previously, today we were just shy of 750km (460 miles).
A bath for the 1299 to get all the dirt and bugs off and put her to bed. I honestly love that bike.
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9.7/10 for today. Good night.