CommittEE rEports

Greg Gaffney Records Officer’s Report

Ihaven’tbeen out on my bike too much lately. Had a small but nice ride to Samford last Saturday for a coffee catch-up. The weather was glorious now that the temperature is cooling down. Looking forward to the lunch ride to the Maryvale Hotel next weekend.

New Members: records@ bmwmcq.org.au

Geoff Osborne, BELLBOWRIE, R65LS

Justin Vacher, SAMFORD, R1250GS

Ray Crampton, GUMDALE, GS1250 Adventure

Cheers

2022 rEgalia

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Ride To Zero

The joy of riding is hard to surpass It’s so much more than going out fast

To feel “as one” with your favourite steed

Knowledge & skill are all you need

Refresher courses to keep you alert

Helping to keep you from being hurt

Protective clothing & helmets - a must

For there’s always a chance you’ll hit the dust

First time riders out testing their skills

Or returned older riders looking for thrills

Statistics are proving more needs to be done

So every biker comes home from a run

Ride to conditions whatever the speed

Look out for each other - the Biker’s Creed

Expect the unexpected & stay aware

The road is there for us all to share

It doesn’t matter your bike’s model or make What’s more important is the care that you take Regular maintenance so nothing is missed

Don’t let minor issues be dismissed

Your ride might be your daily commute

It might be your weekend “go to” pursuit

It might be your Tourer with panniers full They all seem to have that magic pull

Everyone wants to enjoy & have fun

But road safety is priority number one

If that means slow down or stop for a while

It could be you’ll make it home with a smile

Take extra care if you ride in a pack

You really need eyes both front & back

You too can be a Road Safety Hero

Just follow the tips from “Ride to Zero”

Ushuaia Turn

By Duncan Bennett Member #4171

Chile & Argentina – still

We left Chargentina at the end of Day 11 in El Chalten. Things had mainly gone right so far, but the big exception was Cindy’s leaking drive shaft oil seal after her crash in the gravel coming out from Estancia Angostura. These seals often leak, but calling this a leak was a bit like calling Niagara Falls a drip. Hence I didn’t really believe it could be the seal, they don’t normally fail completely, but it was coming from behind the drive sprocket so there weren’t many other options. Day 12 would reveal all.

Glacier about 70km away. Not quite up there with Pucon, but certainly in the tourist ball-park.

Day 12 was a quick blast 2-up down the road with a raging tailwind heading east, a turn south including a stop to take a photo of a giant metal fish – reason for being uncertain, and then another stop for grey fox viewing, and a struggle up the road heading west into a raging headwind. Cindy was on the back due to the Tigresa still resting injured on the back of the support vehicle, with parking in the correct orientation apropos of screaming wind direction the only challenge. Sounding a bit like it should be in Saudi Arabia, El Calafate is a bigger town and way bigger tourist draw than El Chalten mainly because of the huge Perito Moreno

Swinging into the Quixote hotel in El Calafate, the priorities were distilled into an all-you-caneat lunch, get to a laundromat, and await word from Ride Leader JC that he had the oil seal. The first two completed without significant incident, apart from some of the laundry items being clean right up to the serving of lamb off the spit at lunch, we got the call from JC that he had the seal. Slight problem though, although the inner and outer dimensions were correct, the seal was 10mm thick rather than the Triumph preferred 5mm. Damn, might be too thick, but when the

2023 south amEriCa part 2

alternative was waiting until Ushuaia we’d give anything a go. So round to a mechanic’s place out in the El Calafate wind-blasted ‘burbs to give it a go. First, take the sprocket off, the mechanic had the right socket. As soon as the sprocket was pulled off the shaft two very round small pebbles dropped out, and the reason for the oil leak was revealed to the world. When Cindy had crashed onto the left side, the bike was still running and the chain dragged a whole lot of gravel into the sprocket guard, and unfortunately into the tight space between the engine and the sprocket. Two naughty pebbles had been running around on the oil seal, causing it to fail after a few kilometres.

The sweet smell of oily victory hangs in the air 13 is normally considered unlucky; not in the case of our Day 13 with Cindy’s fortunes restored and she also had by far the cleanest motorcycle. Naturally the day was all about the Perito Moreno glacier, so after a walk around town with the usual following of publicly owned dogs, and rugged up against the expected cold, off we went. A pleasant ride across the usual Patagonia barren landscape, we were through the park entrance gate and into the concrete winding road along the edge of Lago Argentino. This glacier grows and has apparently often reached the opposite shore requiring blasting to let the water flow out of the lake.

Oil seal racetrack

Let’s give the new fat seal a go then, and to general surprise after a test run it appeared to do exactly what a seal should do; seal. Even a reasonable gap between the seal and the sprocket so no risk of it being grabbed. Still oil dripping from everywhere though, suspected to be just the oil which was coating most of the bike. After hugging the mechanic (Cindy took on that responsibility) a trip to the washing facility had the Tigresa spotless-ish and definitely not leaking any oil at all. Success. Cindy was back in the game. The vino and the cervasas tasted extra good that night.

Perito Moreno, a rare growing glacier

Back to El Calafate, pick up laundry, and off to town to exchange more USD for pesos and sample beers and wines with the result. Differences with Australia in pubs are notable –all table service and many places have no paper menus, so reliance on the local network and pub Wifi to get the virtual menu is high. Usually the phone is handed over to a member of staff, who can’t get it to work and so give you their personal phone to scroll down the menu and punch out a few Snapchats. Day Cat Horsey, Spanish for 14 was almost a direction repeat of Day 12; east then south then west but now back into Chile and the famous Torres del Paine National Park. The easting was okay from a wind direction perspective, but cold didn’t adequately describe it, bloody freezing and the ice warning went off on the bike. Weren’t too worried about ice on the road, just on the fingers. with guanacos they are on par with kangaroos.

Patagonia landscape from the highest and coldest

Lookout

Whilst on the subject of Patagonian fauna, which we weren’t but are now, we’d been told that we’d see guanacos. Everyone was excited about this and assumed if they just caught a glimpse of one in the far distance, they’d be lucky. The inevitable happens – the first guanaco brings on a wild frenzy of trying to get a photo, only for it to run away and all hopes are dashed. Then 50m up the road there is another, wow we are lucky. Another 100m and a big mob are standing looking bored just off the road. Are we the luckiest people to travel to Patagonia since Charles Darwin or what? Then one runs across in front causing some mild emergency braking. Then every 100m or so groups of four or five are standing around just off the road, then nothing for a kilometre or so and one forgets about them, and suddenly one is standing like a statue well camouflaged and just off the road, praise Zeus I’m glad that didn’t go for it. Then for the rest of Patagonia and about 50 near collisions

The not-even-close-to rare or endangered guanaco

Down to the turn-off and over the border was fairly easy, just a quick stop at an easily accessible wind sign in one of the worst places for it. Apart from our 80kmh winds heading to Perito Moreno we’d had it pretty easy so far, and today was quite balmy. Surely when we got into the park it must improve.

Palm trees have all been blown away

Not really. It was variable dirt roads in the park, but a bit better than earlier experience so no major dramas, and the scenery was frankly epic. Cindy and I were bringing up the rear, and noticed that everyone had stopped in a picturesque spot at a nice time for a rest and photos. Neither of us noticed there were no palm trees, and the wind coming down off the

2023 south amEriCa part 2

appropriately named Towers of Paine was just nasty. On a stopped motorcycle, one normally has a foot down, but even with said foot on the leeward side there is not enough strength to hold the bike up if a big gust hits it. Scott and Gina went down, that was more than enough for us and we took off again, battling a few gnarly bits until pulling thankfully into the Pampa Lodge. A few beers and off we went for a nice dinner in a very rural rustic setting. Our accommodation had some of the most spectacular views we’ve ever had out the bedroom window.

Some of the better scenery we’ve ever ridden into

would see us back about 1pm with everyone doing the nags at 2pm. Trouble started from the get-go, at 9am the roads were closed in the park due to +100kmh winds. We received the message at 9:30am, the roads were open but the guide was no longer available. Never mind, we’ll do it ourselves. Off we went, backtracking at speed and dodging a grader to where Scott and Gina had fallen over, and up toward the Towers of Paine. Parking the bikes carefully to ensure they were head-on to the wind, off we went. A nice waterfall viewing platform gave us a taste of the wind situation; it ranged from dead calm to insane within moments. We decided to push on and perhaps summit something, but after 3km we nearly ran out of track just under the peaks. Back at speed to the bikes and then even more speed to the accommodation, with gusting winds and slow moving buses making it more challenging. We made it back in time for the horse riding, unfortunately. Horse riding always seems like a fun thing to do, but one should note the huge drop-off in pony club enrolments since motorcycles were invented, and recognise this is because horses you’ve only just met are rarely compliant or comfortable. Mounted up, the peculiarities of one’s beast must be learned, usually the hard way. Cindy’s was a magnificent and quiet yet dignified beast. Back in 2002. Now it was an aged slow walking struggler which set the horse convoy pace from the rear. Mine was totally fixated on its own needs and spent the entire 3 hour stroll finding things to eat and drink, but it did win the race back before my legs had totally stopped working due to the highly cramping stirrups.

Room window views not bad

We had a free day the next Day 15, but two activities were on offer – a walking tour up in the park and a 3 hour horse riding tour. As the walking tour involved riding around 30km on the dirt roads to get to where we would meet the guide, only 4 bikes were up for it. A 9am start

Day 16 plan was the Pacific port of Puerto Natales via about 50km of variable dirt road completed without dramas. A refuel and we decided to get a coffee, before becoming totally lost in the ‘burbs and doing some of the more challenging gravel of the trip just getting back onto the highway.