Day 1. From Brisbane to Ballina early meeting a mate on his MT01 then to Grafton to Armidale via Ebor and Thunderbolts way Walcha to Gloucester then Bucketts way to Raymond Tce first night Maitland.
The Buell brand tank bag has a small rear clipped on pouch - this detached itself on the Ebor road perhaps on some bumbs and bounced off into the bush with my digital camera inside it - at about 150kph - never to be found again.
The Thunderbolts way was a superb ride and was still one of my favourites at the end of the trip. Bucketts was bumpy and so-so.
Day 2. Wollombi Rd, Cesnock Valley Sydney, The Old Road then M7 and Hume hwy until Moss Vale and then Kangaroo Valley then down the Princess Hwy to Bega and up Browns Mtn to Cooma.
Long day , Kangaroo valley was great - but ride it in the other direction of travel to get the accent, The Old Rd was so much shorter than I imagined it would be having read about it so often, about 1/4 of Mt Glorious here in Brisbane... but nice while it lasted, hit heavy low cloud at the top of Brown Mt but it and the run out from Bega indeed are a top ride. The run down the Princess h-way was actually pretty fast flowing and very enjoyable too .
Day 3. Alpine way and the roads the other side of Mt Kosciuszko to Tumut. Jugiong to Young via Harden Olympic hwy to Cowra and boring Western Hwy to Bathurst. Laps of Bathurst raceway.
The Alpine way and rds around Mt K are fabulous - roads on the north side of Mt would be best ridden in opposite direction, ie from north to south to accend to peak then go down Alpine way and turn around to accend on it as its not as long.
Riding Bathurst was a real buzz - an unexpected extra highlight.
Day 4. Bells line of Roads, Putty Rd, Old road Bulahdelah and on to Wauhope.
Bells line of roads was better than expected, not spoken about as much as a specific bike road it was good riding mid week (but must be slow on weekends) Putty road was a surprise in that so much of it is mostly straight ... some excellent parts either side but like the Old Rd having heard about it so much .... well you get your expectations high.
Day 5. The Oxley hway , then back to Tenterfield were I bid farewall to my ride partner and home to Brisbane via Warwick etc.
The Oxley still shined as a truley great road after all the others but I was bit tired having stayed in the Star Hotel at Wauhope overnight which unfortunately had a noisey function that ran all night. It was so bad that even after alot of drinks I needed to put my ear plugs in to get to sleep.
Missed the rain that was threatening at times all the way until nearly back in Brisbane when I had to get the wetsuit off the pillion seat for a heavy downpour.
Learnt a few things about touring - surprised how well the Buell tours, quite a versatile machine, looking forward to doing some more in the future, but definately the one thing needed is a cruise control or throttle lock device and comfy seat - I changed to a City-X seat now so just the other to sort out.
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