Planning my first interstate ride early in Jan during the Christmas break when I have the time off. Gong solo, just me and the road king.  going from SA, through VIC, NSW then onto QLD (Gold Coast) to catch up with some family up there.

Spreading the trip across 3 days each way.

Have chosen to not commit/book any hotels (with the exception of Tallangatta on the 8th to catch up with the snowy's crew for the night) - am just going with the flow and packing a tent in case for whatever reason the motels are booked out.

The route I'm taking has a lot of fuel stops in between - but I'm thinking of getting a small fuel bottle to stow away just in case, anyone think that's pointless?

I've had the bike serviced and new tyres thrown on - so the bike is all ready to go.

Me being a pretty shit navigator around new towns/cities - I got myself a ram mount to hold the iphone. One thing I need to sort out is power to the phone - for a quick and simple solution, I'm thinking of getting one of these: http://www.harley-davidson.com/store/sae-2-pin-to-usb-adapter - and just running a usb cable from that up to the bars.

Thinking to minimize risk of hitting wild-life, being on the road by 7am and at the last stop for the day before 5pm.

Planning the route has been good fun - now I just need to wait. Any tips from you experienced travellers appreciated.

Hi Roady.

Your trip sounds magic.
Get one of these USB power supplies. I've got one on my bike. They are great. They are discrete, mount on the handle bars, are hard wired and have a waterproof rubber cap..

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Waterproof-Motorcycle-Mobile-Phone-Dual-USB-Power-Supply-Port-Socket-Charger-HOT-/282116588811?hash=item41af75850b:g:xTQAAOSwT6pVyF7s

Your Ram X mount will do nicely. Get a GPS App and you can have a nav / comms / music option from the Iphone. I know you'll propbably want the solace of the open road but being able to receive calls and listen to music is not a bad idea 

If the Iphone is powered you can make use of siri through your blutooth helmet headset to dial numbers and read messages. Else, just need to press the home button on the phone to make commands.

10 hour travelling days is a lot, even with stops. Aim to be off the road earlier if possible. That way you leave some time for sightseeing.

Cheers

Late edit: Would it be too cheeky to put it out there to ask members if there is anywhere you could bunk overnight while on your way.

Sounds like a great adventure Roady. Be a little weary of the iphone as a GPS. Phones work well around the cities but I found a dedicated GPS worked better out in the country. Phone GPS's will generally only work well if they have network coverage. I did a fairly big road trip a year ago in the car and found the phone GPS's didn't work well at all in the sticks whereas the car GPS worked fine.

I wholeheartedly agree KC.

I would have a dedicated GPS if that's an option for Roady. Also, siri and hands free instructions for the Iphone down work unless you have network / Internet.

The airhawk  has saved my arse more than a few times on the long hauls

Cheers for the tips fellas.

china, i'm only after seasoned, hardcore long distance riders - sorry. Although, I knew you rated using the phone with offline maps pretty highly - which is why i'm gonna try it and not spend the cash on a dedicated gps unit. I also just downloaded the fuel map app - that is pretty neat. good for scoping out service stations along the way for sure.

i'll suss out those cable solutions.

Chinas iPhone worked perfectly on our little trip, I had my Garmin just in case(at a cost of 1k with Harley bracket) we
got lost, you wont need fuel unless you listen to a drunk local in the pub, early start is good, means early into the Pub
each arvo. Watch the little towns on the weekends, you wont get fuel after lunch on a Saturday until Monday morning,
ensure you refuel in the major towns.

Even if your bike is new and just been serviced, check your oil level along the way and be prepared to top up if necessary. Bigger town servos carry suitable oil. I found Mobil vtwin synthetic oil in Kingston sa which isn't even a big town. Otherwise similar diesel oil of similar weights will work for top ups. Lots of highway speed and high temp days can result in some oil use in some bikes

Sounds like a great trip, Branko. Look forward to catching up in Tallangatta. Ride safe ,mate.

thanks for the heads up on the fuel at small towns Mickle.

fatbat, didn't think of that one for the oil - i'll get a small bottle, that'd be easy enough to throw in the pannier.

fun times ahead Winger!

Good on you Roady. Sounds like a great trip. Bit bloody envious. Fuel should be ok. Mickle and China tend to use more than most.

Sounds a great get away, a road map has never let anyone down. Enjoy the journey.

Whilst talking about maps, something I used to do was the night before in the Motel was go over the map and write
down the name of the towns I would be travelling through the next day, 2 or 3 times throughout the day I would
pull the bit of paper out of my jacket and ensure I was still on track, I tend to get off the main Hwys when possible and
have taken the wrong turn in the middle of QLD with fuck all fuel.

China, i used the tomtom app on the iphone on the weekend. Works a treat. I put my phone on airplane mode while riding to see how well it would work using the phone's GPS. no dramas there. I especially like the sidebar that shows upcoming fuel stops.

Roady, what I do is use Google maps to plan the general route, so you have an idea of distances between towns and know what is around there if you want to deviate. I then print applicable sections of the route for easy reference during down times, or as Mickle indicated to ensure your on the right track.

I find that it's a good mix of old and new technology.

Mate all of the above is good info, don't forget spare water just in case nothing worse than being on the side of the road without water

Mate all of the above is good info, don't forget spare water just in case nothing worse than being on the side of the road without water

I'm back home now, (got back on Monday as planned). The trip went well and I had a great time.

I managed to get to QLD in two days (day two did 1,190k/m - some of the blokes here can attest to that who were following me on facebook and seen the check-ins and photo's of trip counter). Didn't feel too bad/not too many aches during the ride, but definitely felt it after. I took some detours to see some sights (the dish at Parkes was cool).

Spent the next 3 days visiting my sister and her fam over in upper coomera - and rode over to Gasoline alley to pick up some tee's and their poker chip (anyone else collect those?).

Day 6. I left upper coomera and headed on through to Tamworth. Although there were a lot of great roads travelled, my favourite would have to be going through the Guy Fawkes national park. This was quite stunning. Hilly, twisty, forests on either side and barely any traffic. Quite amazing.

I hadn't actually planned to stop at Tamworth, was hoping to push forward another 200 clicks so that I could cut through the blue mountains in NSW on the next day - but I hadn't left early enough in the morning. A trip for another time.

Day 7 pushed on through to Tallengatta to meet the guys that were on the snowies run (Mark, Krackers and FatBat, was good to meet you guys. Tim, Action, Mickle, China, Wingers, Eric and Ted, always great to catch up). Tallangatta was a pretty nice spot.

Day 8, back home to Adelaide. Rained for about half of the trip back through VIC, but wasn't cold - so was a nice change after the heat/humidity.

Bike ran perfectly. Thankfully, didn't need to use the spare bottle of oil I had brought with me. Didn't see any roos, but did go past a few groups of emu's on the hay plains.

The tomtom app was flawless. Didn't need it much on the way up - but used it quite a bit on my way down.

Apart from the tomtom app, the fuel map app was so handy in planning which towns to stop at for fuel. Highly recommend - cheers China for the tip on that one.

Another good tip from Mickle was to write down the towns you intend to pass through. I had a little notepad in my pocket that I could pull out and check. Simple but effective.

Thing's i'd add to the bike; highway pegs.

In total, 4,573k/m travelled.

 

the roady in the guy fawkes river national park, nsw

Hi Roady
Glad you made it home safe and sound. Thanks for the write up and sounds like a good trip!
Was good to meet you at Tallangatta and great effort to make it all the way from Tamworth for that. We also saw a bit of rain the same day as you but thankfully it wasnt much.
I'm home now too but the other lucky blokes will be hammering around Jindabyne.
Catch up another time
Bat