G'day All,

I have the oppourtunity to participate in a ride from Sydney to Uluru. It's a ride raising awareness for prostate cancer in which riders from all over Australia will ride and meet in a common location with this year it being Uluru.

Information about the ride can be found at this http://www.the-long-ride-tm--2013.com/.

Now how good are throttle locks and do you think they would be essential for this ride or just a nice to have? Other mods I will be doing are a rear rack off the back of my sissy bar for the backpack and a swingarm bag for some tools and gear.

This is going to be a cracker of a ride, the longest I have done so far is Geelong to Sydney in a day when I first bought the bike, that near killed my back being a short ass with the standard bars. I have since changed to 8 and half inch pullback risers and its a whole lot more comfy. I rode up to Murrurundi from Sydney for Thunderwest this year with the new setup and it was good.

So any recommendations on ways to make myself comfy for the trip?

Also any tips for the bike itself?

Or if you just wanna have a disscussion about the ride itself, as you can imagine im pretty pumped about this.

Cheers

A gel seat pad might be a wise investment too.

Ahh yes thats a good point. Would the standard seat with a gel pad be better than a sundowner touring seat. The missus wants the sundowner for her ass haha but I would rather put the money elsewhere.

How many km's per day ?

shortest day is 350km, longest is 900km. So a fair stretch.

A couple years ago I done Out to Dubbo, Up through Bourke to Mt Isa, then back across to Rockhampton and home via the Coast road. I have a Sundowner on my FXST, I also have an AirHawk, which I did not need ( felt ok without it) I also have a detachable 16inch smoke colour Screen. The Screen will be your Best Friend as takes a lot of pressure off your shoulders & Neck.( You wont feel as buggerred). Also I had my Ipod and earplugs. Either use 2 x Ipods for You and Wife or One with a Splitter to run Two ear plugs set-up. I also have Panniers ( mine are lockable on bike) You can buy decent rigid expandable & removable saddle bags.
I have also gone out to Broken Hill & return with same set up. Also had same set up on my previous Sporty Custom.
So Sundowner, Screen, Music. a must, in my Opinion.,   Oh Yeh, I use a Full Face helmet all the time.

Pauly, I always ride with a full face which Is good for the longer rides I do. I'm taking the swag behind me on the pillion seat for camping along the way so that means no room for the missus....dam, as for Harley assist can you get that if your bike is second hand? there is a support truck following our group of riders for communal camping gear and hopefully we can get one with a hiab for recovery of bikes onto the tray. If we don't get the truck I dare say it will be a ute with a bike trailer.

FXST11, I ride with my headphones at the moment and that works out ok, its just the amount of power I use, I was thinking of getting one of those helmet Bluetooth setups when I saw the prices I reckon my headphones are good enough. I was told by another bloke the screen is worth its weight in gold, just curious what did your screen cost? Because it is just me on the ride I am trying to restrict myself to the backpack on the rear rack off my sissy bar, swing arm bag and swag on the pillion seat as a backrest. I'm sold on the sundowner.

Ryno, Genuine HD Screen NEW approx. $500. check diff forums etc for second hand. I preferred the look, shape/size etc Genuine over Aftermarket. I have a Battery Minder / Trickle Charger $50., which is hard wired to battery, and to this I made up an adaptor with an extra inline fuse, and ran a lead up to a tank bag ( mate has His to bracket on handlebars) with a Tripple Cigarette plug. This way I charged my phone & Ipod and camera if needed. Pic above was at Bourke Visitor centre, But on the Broken Hill ride I also had Swag on pillion seat, ( used as back rest) and Bag was put onto Rack.

If you dont have a Battery Minder, Then SuperCheap auto's sell the 2 pin plug with cover ( in pack of 2 ) under $10..  then  add inline fuse and connect to battery, I have mine tucked out on Left side below Coil, ( near primary case) This way you can plug into it any time you want with Cigarette plug.  I also used this set up on my Sporty,.

I also have Harley Assist,  But  NRMA also cover Bikes. Plus i have seen other Company add in Mags, ( maybe Google, Motorbike breakdown service etc)

 

 

 

I also have a trickle charger, looks like I will be getting an adapter made up to hold a cigarette lighter. Cheers for that I hadnt thought about power at all.