36
FEBRUARY 2022
By Duncan Bennett, Member #4171
N
HO HO HOBART
TMTR is located out past the Hobart airport, convenient for Santa so he doesn’t have to ride all the way from the North Pole, and ideally located for people whose Tassie-based daughter has both a driver’s licence and a car, i.e. in Tasmania. Phil and Christine are both motored cyclists, so understand what is important and pretty much all the crucial add-ons such as GPS and luggage are included. Within a few minutes of the paperwork completion we were on the road, which revealed a minor failing - we hadn’t thought about where we were going to go. OK, to Dodges Ferry for a coffee to figure it out.
othing says Christmas like the R1200GS, the official transport of Santa Claus. Popular myth maintains he has a reindeer powered sleigh, but even someone completely unfamiliar with physics or any of Newton’s laws can see some big red flags with that mode of delivery transport. Try riding a Harley Road Glide Ultra (hired, with excess reduction of course) off a bridge and land neatly on the icy roof of a Honda Jazz parked sideways on a 45° slope and you’ll get a feel for the reindeer powered sleigh concept weaknesses. The chauffeur coffee’d and dismissed, we’d Santa needs his GS and Enduro mode to do that. decided that as we were half way to the Tasman Our normal philosophy is that any time Peninsula we might as well keep going. The run away from home is best spent on a motorcycle through Carlton River was classic Tassie; no - owned, loaned, or hired not that important. A traffic, great roads, and glimpses away from the mere week for Christmas in Tasmania ruled out relentlessly upcoming corners revealed beautiful riding down ourselves, and the chance of finding scenery. Over the canal at Dunalley and onto the friends willing and able to supply 2 of required highway, the traffic heading to Port Arthur bulked items or at least a copy of the key to their garage up but nothing major before the must-see 200m wide bottleneck of Eaglehawk Neck. was not great, so hire was the only reality. Motorcycles for hire in Tassie had me worried; not so long ago there were none or the options were severely limited, and on our first trip in 2015 we’d hired in Melbourne and ridden across Bass Strait. Cindy and google to the rescue - Tasmanian Motorcycle Tours and Rentals (TMTR) popped up, Phil and Christine were contacted, and it was game on. Conveyances? How about a 2018 R1200GS for me and a low suspension 2013 R1200GS for the organiser? Good plan.
Cindy calming Cuddles, the escaped convict sentry on the dog line
Intimidating a Honda CB350 pensioner
Dog exercise rules seem a little ironic at Eaglehawk Neck
