Departed xmas eve, as planned, for the ride down to Ulladulla. The Bathurst-Lithgow stretch was as boring as hell, and nearly put me to sleep - despite having only just started! Once I got into the mountains, it was a bit better though - and if they'd just bypass all those annoying little fucking towns, it would be even better. Stopped at Blaxland for brekky, and discovered on departure that my battery had died, but luckily I was able to clutch start it and continue on my way. The boring stuff finally ended at Penrith when I turned off onto Mulgoa Road, and down through Silverdale/The Oaks/Thirlmere/Buxton to Mittagong. I haven't been that way before, and while it's not exactly the sort of road you'd go out of your way to ride, it sure as hell beats some of the alternative routes to the coast! Still a few nice corners, but mostly high-speed sweepers - hampered by the myriad driveways that mandated a somewhat lower speed than would have been required for maximum enjoyment, but a pleasant ride nonetheless. Stopped at The Oaks for petrol, where I discovered firstly that a clean air filter makes a HUGE difference to fuel economy - and that my battery was flat again. Clutch started it again, courtesy of a nice hill that was the servo driveway, and nervously continued on my way. Best part of all is that going this way you're only on the Hume for about 500m before you turn off for Mittagong. At Mittagong, the boys in blue pulled me over for an RBT, but it was a surprisingly pleasant experience. The coppers were very nice, and had me on my way as quick as possible because they didn't want me to get too hot sitting there (had the dri-riders on). I probably wouldn't be so pleased to see them if they were giving me a ticket, but otherwise they were a lot nicer than you'd expect. From there, it was down through Bowral, and then I took the turn for Kangaloon, which was probably one of the highlights of the trip. Next to no traffic, superb road surface, and corner after corner after corner. The only down side is that in places it is little more than a sealed goat track, and most of the corners are blind, so you have to take it easy in case there is any oncoming traffic. Still a fantastic road even so. That brought me out at Robertson, where I turned back towards Moss Vale for a bit, before taking the road to Fitzroy Falls. Managed to get past what traffic there was before the fun stuff started, and greatly enjoyed the descent into Kangaroo Valley - much better in the dry! Going back up the other side was even more fun again! Stopped at Nowra, where after a short break I discovered that my battery was flat AGAIN!!! The bloody thing wouldn't let me clutch start it this time, so I wheeled the bike up next to the Maccas building and plugged in my charger (good thing I packed everything!), and waited half an hour for it to charge. That did the trick and I was able to make it to Ulladulla without any problems. I did have one incident with some dickhead getting too close behind me, but after I made a point of looking back at him, before dropping down a couple of gears, he quickly dropped back. Other than that, the remainder of the journey was about as uneventful as you would expect. For the return trip, I went mostly the same way, with one slight variation. Given my loathing of lots of slow cages and little opportunity to pass them, I decided to go through to Richmond from Penrith, and take Bells Line of Road instead of the main highway. It doesn't add much at all to the length of the trip (maybe a few kays at most), and is a much better route as it turns out. Stuff all traffic on the Penrith-Richmond stretch, and nothing to hold you up through the mountains either. Less towns, higher speed limits, and more corners makes for a far more enjoyable trip as well. The weather wasn't the best this afternoon though, and there was a lot of fog through the mountains from Bilpin to about 20km past Mount Tomah, and didn't clear up until the other side of Lithgow. Wasn't really much of an issue, just something I could have done without! I don't know what the deal is with that battery, but it didn't give me any trouble at all after Nowra. I checked it over the last few days, and it was sitting on around 13V, and then after a short ride yesterday was up to around 13.4V where it has stayed. I was all ready to put a brand new one in, and didn't only because the only place in Ulladulla that had any didn't have the right size. I'll have to keep a close eye on it, but it seems to be okay - for now at least! Overall, quite an enjoyable trip both ways. The biggest lesson I learned was that the seat on a CBR600 is fucking hard after 5 hours of riding, even if you do stop! I'll definitely have to do something about some extra padding for it next time I do a similar trip. It's fine for shorter trips (3 - 4 hours), but not so good for anything longer. The new tyres (Metzeler Z4's) were absolutely fantastic, and I would recommend them very highly now that I've seen what they can do. They stick very well through all corners, and are very confidence-inspiring, although I wasn't really pushing it that hard anyway. There was only one time where I had to brake hard to avoid an idiot in a cage, and the tyres held the road like it was nothing out of the ordinary - the old ones might not actually have let go in the same situation, but there would certainly have been a bit of sliding! This trip pretty much covered the full range of riding conditions, and the Z4's did a great job in all of them. Well worth the money. For those of you who actually read anything, that's all I have to say! Hope it was at least mildly interesting for you. :-) Damien GPX250 (stolen) -> CBR600
