Diesel and Dust Tour 2009

by Tate Ryan

The long awaited 2009 Diesel and Dust Sydney – Gold Coast Motorcycle tour had been in planning for about a year and now it was time to hit the road. Neil with the Triumph Bonneville, Shannon on the Trident and Tate with his Suzuki had found the time and now were ready to go. Shannon had arrived from the Gold Coast a few days early to prepare for the trip.

After taking Shannon to the motorcycle store and getting him all kitted out with the latest clothing, he at least looked like a biker. Now he just had to work on fine-tuning his riding skills to suit the problematic Triumph 1978 Trident and 1980 Bonneville.

30/09/09
The planned date of departure was Wednesday the 30th September. Shannon and Dad were supposed to take off in the day, while I would depart later in the evening after a work function and meet them at Tanya and Frank’s on the Central Coast.

Around midday I got the bad news that the Bonneville had some clutch problems, which had forced them to return home and work on the bike. I, however, was committed since I had my bike and gear all in the city ready to leave after work. So off I went and spent the night by myself at Tanya’s.

01/10/09
By morning there was no good news as the bike was still being worked on. It wasn’t until about midday that they left home and arrived at Tanya’s at 3pm. Although exhausted from the trip, I didn’t let them rest, we had to make ups some of the lost time. So at around 5pm finally all three of us took off together with the goal of getting to Foster/Tuncurry, which was a solid three-hour ride.

Although arriving late the upside was we spent up big and got a nice cabin for the night. Waking up to great weather in the morning was great even though we only briefly got to enjoy some of the nice beaches and atmosphere in Foster.

It was going to be a big day as our end destination was Dorrigo. A solid 300km ride. The ride was good, for me at least as my Suzuki always is a very comfy ride. At times I did feel sad for Dad and Shannon on the triumphs getting beaten up by the wind and pushing the bikes to the limit speed wise.

The first stop was Taree where we had to get some repairs done. The Bonneville was pretty dangerous with a loose chain but the guys at the Honda store did a great job in fixing it up. In the mean time we had a massive breakfast which kept us full for the whole day.

An unfortunate moment on the road for me got me in trouble with a psycho police woman who was out for my blood, booking me and giving me a sizeable fine to ruin my day. I did my best to keep positive for the rest of the day.

A couple of hours later, we were all a little tired from the ride and had a little family argument before continuing the ride to Bellingen/ Dorrigo.

The Bellingen/ Dorrigo ride is one of the more beautiful rides I have been on. Great twisty roads in a hilly area with superb scenery and we were doing at Dusk, the sun going down and the great weather and the charming little towns we rode through made a magic moment.

We were very pleased at out motel accommodation for the night, which was attached to the main historic pub in town. The pub was a friendly environment with great food and a cool place to relax finishing off the day playing some pool. For the record, I beat Shannon and Dad beat me.

We also managed to drop into ‘The worlds smallest motorcycle museum’/ Café before it closed. The Argentinean owner is one potty mouth, but he had a great looking café with a massive Ned Kelly bike and some great decorations. We promised to drop in the morning for breakfast.

02/10/09
In the morning we were visited by a local triumph owner, who had seen us ride into town the day before. He came looking for us in the morning and found us. (It really isn’t a big town). After taking a closer look at out the triumphs he wanted us to come and have a look at his. So all four of us jumped into his three seater Ute and drove the short distance to his house. His pride and joy Triumphs sitting in his garage. It was good meeting such a passionate Triumph fan and such a nice guy.

Back at the motel we finalized the packing at the same time all our neighbors did and it looked like a motorcycle convention as we all took off from the motel.

We pulled into the café for breakfast before heading west to Hwy 91. I was happy that we were going to be off the Freeway but I had no idea how good this road was going to be. Most good windy roads are short, say 30mins. But this one was a solid two hours of great riding; fast narrow twisty roads, with only a few cars to get in the way. Such a great ride I had to do it again on the ride home.

We made it to Grafton. I would have liked to stay of the coast freeway but we were feeling the pressure a little to get to Gold Coast before dark, so we jumped back on the freeway and headed to Ballina before taking the coast road to Lennox Head where we stopped for lunch and also at the Macadamia castle. (Only in the Gold Coast, you still get these theme-based places).

At the castle, dad’s bike had more fans gathering around and asking if he wanted to sell it. The final stretch to Shannon’s home at Reedy Creek wasn’t too bad. After stopping to see Allan’s family and baby Bronte for a while, we finally made it home and were greeted by the family and all the kids, as well as Hanna who had come up to spend the weekend there. It felt great to arrive, 1000 Km riding over two day really left me with a sore butt.

05/10/09
After a day rest at Shannon’s with some great food, Dad and I were ready to head home on Monday morning. The plan was to take two days, 500Km per day stopping over in Armidale.
I remember hoping on the bike and my backside being sore, still suffering from the first trip.

We headed towards Lismore so we could stop at Johnny’s farm. It was great to see him and his son. They were looking forward to getting some rain while we were not looking forward to the expected rain. Had a great lunch before saying our goodbyes and heading to Casino, stayed off the New England hwy by heading to Grafton and then back onto the Great Hwy 91 with all its twists and turns.

However, this time the experience was a little different. The rain hit us before we got on it. Dad was smart and put on the rain pants before we got soaked and hailed on. The hail was strong and I’m sure put a few dents in my helmet.

We almost turned back because dad’s bike’s breaks were really bad and I was worried with the rain and the windy road that it was too dangerous. But he wanted to push on and give it a go, which was great for me.

It was a long way to Armidale and as expected there were no petrol stations. About 100Km out of Armidale my almost empty tank warning came on. Then about 50Km from Armidale the warning really started flashing hard. It was already dark and I thought I was doomed to pushing the bike for 50Km. However I rode really slow and somehow made it. I love my bike!!

We pulled into the first camping site and got a cabin before heading out to another pub for a great meal. The one thing I will remember about Armidale, is that it is so cold. One freezing town.

06/10/09

After filling up with Petrol in the morning we head out on the road. Our first stop was Tamworth. We pulled into a famous Motorcycle museum, full of classic bikes, dominated by Ducaties and then a variety of older brands that died a long time ago.

Dad’s bike could have fitted in nicely in the museum.

We were pretty bored of the Hwy by Tamworth so decided to head inland to Nundle. A beautiful ride with very few cars, great weather and scenery. Another one of those great riding moments. Unfortunately at Nundle, the only way out of the place is on off road tracks so we had to take a paved road that lead to the Hwy again.

The Hwy of course leads through Scone, Muswellbrook and Singleton. Then cutting across to Cessnock and the Hunter valley back onto the Pacific hwy to Gosford.

It was dusk as we were on the Pacific Hwy almost heading into Sydney, the weather was still cold like it had been all day but the falling sun looked beautiful and I had one of those I love motorcycle riding moments and then suddenly as we got to the crest of a hill we could see huge hail clouds just storming down on us. It was depressing to see. They came up so quickly we had no time to stop and get dad to put on the rain pants. Within 5 minutes it was like a flood. Rain bucketing down and massive balls of ice smashing us.

I could hardly see where I was riding, it felt like someone had pushed me into a pool with all my motorcycle gear on. We pulled over to the side of the road with a lot of other cars as it was getting a little dangerous. In amongst this I had dad yelling at me for not pulling over at service station like he told me to do about 30 minutes before. If I was soaked my dad was really soaked as his clothes were a lot less waterproof than mine.

It was quite a miserable ride from then on, until we got the chance to pull into a service station in Hornsby and shake ourselves off and try to get a little warmer. 1 hour later it was a relief to arrive home in Engadine, have a warm shower and some good food. Did around 550Km for the day. 2500Km for the trip.

The final moments of the trip reminds me of the joys and pains of motorcycling. To reach the high moments of freedom, adventure and overall cool experience you have to also be willing to accept the pain and discomfort of that comes with it.

But no doubt it is an awesome feeling and I will sadly miss my Suzuki VStrom DL 650, which I will clean up and put it up for sale. It was a bike meant for Hanna and I to Tour on and we have got a lot out of it over the year. But with baby coming along it won’t be able to truly fulfill the purpose of its creation. Time to pass it onto to someone who can enjoy it as much as I did.