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Hatching a Plan

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By Wom Battle

No riding the Harley-Davidson® today, it was time to work out exactly how I was going to approach the ride home.  After a post on the FarRiders forum I received some feedback and some ideas.  I also became aware of a fellow rider in Darwin Hospital after a recent encounter with a scrub bull south of Darwin.

Prior to leaving home I was keen on trying to blast down the centre to attempt a Bun Burner Gold 2500K (Darwin to Pimba SA in less than 24 hours) or a Centreline 24 (Darwin to Port Augusta in less than 24 hours). Although the latter I didn't think was achievable on the Road King with a jerry can. A couple of other things were playing on my mind.

First consideration the cold. Do do either of the rides above would involve lots of night time riding and once south of Tennant Creek it was just going to get colder and colder. I'd calculated that I would need to leave Darwin at 4am to get a clear run at fuel to Marla - Coober Pedy and I'd have enough on board to get to Port Augusta.  The risk at Pimba was that it would be shut and proving the end time of the BBG2500K might be very difficult.

The second consideration was that much of the ride between Port Augusta and Tennant Creek was done in the dark. I was wondering if there was anything to see (and assumed there was).

So cold, dark, fuel, scenery and risk saw me decide to try for something less frantic but perhaps no less difficult given the information in the Ironbutt Archive of Wisdom on fatigue and day 3 in a long distance ride. I decided to try for an SS3000m, which is essentially 4,830km or more in 72 hours.  To do this I needed to find a longer way home which I thought shouldn't be a problem because heading into Victoria would allow me to extend the trip.

So I spent some time on the iPad and with the help of my wife checking on the distances from home the route was bedded in

Day 1: Darwin to Alice Springs, 1498k's
Day 2: Alice Springs to Broken Hill 1639 k's and the possiblity of a BB2500K/36 if I hit Pimba on time.
Day 3: Broken Hill - Mildura VIC - Hay - Narrandera - Finley - Albury and home up the Hume, 1790ks for the day.

Total 4927ks on Google paper, on my odometer this would tip over the 5000k mark.

Given the distances I wasn't too concerned about time, so leaving at about 5am each day and riding until it was done should be a good enough plan. So I went shopping for bottled water, sultanas, nuts and porridge. My LD Riding staples, because I can't carry a pie heater.

So after a nice and early dinner at the Medina, I hit the sack early and set the alarm for 3.30am. Tomorrow the fun will start again.

 

1 comment

Hiya, I'm really glad I've found this itofrmanion. Nowadays bloggers publish just about gossip and internet stuff and this is actually annoying. A good site with exciting content, that is what I need. Thank you for making this web-site, and I will be visiting again. Do you do newsletters? I Can not find it. I have bookmarked your web page: and will check back often. Thanks for the good info!

Posted by Simmon, 26/07/2012 10:09:46 pm

Disclaimer: This non commercial website and its content is not affiliated with or associated in any way with the Harley-Davidson Motor Company, Harley-Davidson Australia, the Harley-Davidson Owners Group® or any Harley-Davidson® Dealers in Australia.  The use of the terms Harley-Davidson, and Road King® are unavoidable because that's what I own and ride.  This website,  called "My Harley Davidson" , and any opinions or comments expressed herein are purely about my Harley-Davidson Road King ownership experience, a truly great experience at that. I have no intention whatsoever to infringe on any trademarks or copyright ownership of the Harley-Davidson Motor Company or anyone else.


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