Honda CrossTourer

Day run to Wombeyan Caves enjoying the dirt sections.

NOTE - did not notice the dirt on my camera lens so the photos are a bit crappy.

Meet Stephen at Pheasants Nest petrol station.

Head south on the freeway and exit at Mittagong to cross over freeway and pick up Wombeyan Caves Road via Bullio this is a windy dirt road down to the caves, sections of this road are quite narrow and many blind corners.

After a very exciting and demanding ride we make it into the caves camp ground.

Both bikes are now properly covered in dust which is very pleasing to see.

Stephens Ducati

AND of course my CrossTourer

After a rest and re-hydration we head out the other way up to Abercrombie Road to Oberon for a great pub lunch.

Then a via Tarana and Lake Lyell to Lithgow and back home over the mountains via Bells Line Road.

A great day out although a little warm it was an average of 35 degrees Celsius for most of the day.

A perfect ride day - 18 degrees mid morning with top expected 22 degrees, meet Stephen at Hawkins Lookout - Old Northern Road.

The plan today is to go to Wisemans Ferry across the river, turn left along Settlers Rd to St Albans, lunch at the pub, then up Wollombi Rd (dirt) to George Downs Drive, across the top past the dam then right into Bloodtree Rd to connect to Wisemans Ferry Rd to get back to the Wisemans.

Back over the river then right into River road which is a narrow and twisty road that follows the Hawkesbury River and is very pretty with many tight bends this takes us up to Sackville Ferry Rd - take the Ferry across the the river again then left into Tizzana Rd to swing past the Tizzana Winery via Wilberforce into Windsor, total trip for today 254km with about 120km+ gravel road.

Hawkins lookout

Lunch at the St Albans pub - top spot, a very old and friendly pub with great food well worth the stop.

Well earned rest top end of Wollombi Road after 35km of climbing gravel road

Stephen very pleased with himself

A excellent day out and about in the great roads a few hours out from Sydney.

I LOVE THESE TYRES AND THIS BIKE !!!

Finally after busy couple of weeks with work and crap weather, final had a perfect ride day today, got the bike ready, setup my new Go Pro and head off to do a 120km round trip 90km on windy dirt track up the back of Colo.

The tyres performed brilliantly even in the deep channels of gravel in the middle and the edge of the track as there was a 40km section that is a car and a bit wide and came across 3 4WD’s that pushed me over to the edge into the thick loose stuff.

The weight of the bike helped a lot in the thick loose stuff it just pushed through and felt stable, did a small creek crossing and it tracked true.

I kept the TC on for this first run to get a feel for what it would do and I must say it takes the wheel spinning fun out BUT it did keep me ploughing through and climbing even with the front wheel lifting on some of the wash outs.

VERDICT - bloody brilliant bike and it is now exactly what I wanted a great big dirt bike with the TKC 80’s on.

Extremely responsive in the dirt and still behaves on the tar, had her up to 150km on the tar very smooth and corners well so perfect.

Now - the negative is that I am an idiot when it comes to my new Go Pro and all I had at the end of the 120km ride was 2 bloody pictures 1 of me starting the trip and one of me ending the trip — grrr —-  I thought I had it set to VIDEO - but instead it was on PHOTO !!!! - solution - put my fucking glasses on next time

So sorry no video - but if the weather is good next weekend I will do another track this one will be a back road and fire trail and this time I will use my glasses and make sure the video camera is running.

the CT and the Dirt a perfect match - Jacob

Nice cool start for the day 14 degrees C - but the sun is out and it will not rain today, the plan is to ride to Oberon via Jenolan Caves - we are timing the run down in to the Caves to be during the one way inbound time slot so we will not get any on coming traffic as it is very tight, narrow and windy.

Ready to go:

Meeting the others at McDonalds - McGraths Hill the group is 5 bikes today 2 x Honda’s and 3 x Ducati’s

Up over the mountains to Lithgow for a quick fuel and comfort stop its now 12 degrees C so the next section through to Jenolan Caves I will try out my new heated grips.

Well the run down into the Caves was brilliant, as I wanted to settle into the new bike and just focus on the bends, the timing, the line and the weight (she is heavy) I took the lead - I must say as I got further into the decent I became more and more confident and near the bottom in the tight bends I was starting to really get into the swing of it - did the entire decent in 2nd gear.

The climb out the other side up to Edith road is a steep climb with many switch back bends that I have never done before so was very cautious and I did feel the weight on these bends and to be honest I was very nervous - but - I got through them all and we had a great run into Oberon.

Stopped for lunch at the pub and enjoyed a great feed and chat with everyone.

Heading back we took the the route via Tarana to get back to Lithgow past Lake Lyell.

This for me was the highlight of the day as not having checked a proper map we discovered that a sizable distance was dirt gravel road, this was my FIRST run with the CrossTourer on dirt and I started out slow and cautious but soon settled and found that she was handling the surface very well, as my confidence grew I became more relaxed and picked up the pace, I was extremely pleased with how the bike went and I am looking forward to do more dirt gravel roads as this is why I got the CrossTourer.

Just to prove it see the dust on the wheel.

We stopped after the dirt for a while to talk as everyone had enjoyed that section of road, after that we had a smooth run back to Sydney via Bells Line Road.

It was a great day out, a positive confirmation that the bike can do what I want it to do and I am getting more confident with it every day.