Country Ride to Kalgan... at last - R 1250 GSA

[spacey1]

Finally... we're allowed to reach out to our country members.

Out with the phones, a physical map, and Google Maps, we began plotting an interesting route to Kalgan. After much adjusting... our maps as we were discussing over the phone matched up in distance (ie 609 km). Quite a task I have to say...



Talking about photography, in recent times, I stopped carrying a real camera as the Google Pixel 2 XL camera is that good... However on the odd occasion, I regret not having a long lens. To that end, I moulded a foam container for my camera with long lens into the waterproof box on the rack. And updated settings on the camera to accommodate better long distance scenery shots, mainly HDR and multiple exposures. This slows down the shooting, but makes you think about your shots more. Here are a couple of examples from the Sony Nex 6 with the 55/210 Telephoto lens.

Carpet: Distance shot


Carpet: Zoomed in - cat hair is clear and obvious


Flowers: Distance shot


Flowers: Zoomed in


A bit of an aside, but that and giving the new bike a run-down with a full touring load was the real purpose of the ride.
Happy to take any tips on improving my photography...

[spacey1]

Sunday morning

On the road at 06.30 hrs and with 12 degC on the gauge, I was enthused by the brisk air and the view of a full rainbow in the mirrors. I headed out to fuel up at the Lakes Roadhouse on the corner of Great Eastern and Great Southern Highways. Planned for fuel at Dumbleyung as advice was that it was the most likely to be open and serving fuel on Sunday.

Light drizzle only. Very little traffic and the outlook magnificent. What a joy to be heading out into our glorious Great Southern Region again. The plan was to take an interesting ride away from main roads and inject much spectacle and curves into the journey. That takes 'local knowledge'... Thanks Jeff.

I wanted to avoid dirt roads as the bike is new and is shod with road tyres. This was basically a ride to get to know the new bike kitted up with a full touring load.

[spacey1]

The route...

Mundaring

The Lakes Roadhouse for fuel

Great Southern Highway

Talbot West Road

Beverley

Great Southern Highway outside of Brookton

Brookton-Corrigin Road

Bulyee Road

T-Junction at Tammin Grains Australia

Left onto Bullaring Road (not right and left on Milton Road)

At this point I made my first navigation error, by turning left at the Tammin Grains Terminal, not the T-junction. This put me onto a wet dirt road. I checked the GPS and decided not to do Milton Road, but chose to go the MacDonald Road which looked good and only another 10 km up the road. Except when I got there, it too was dirt and wet... So I returned to Milton Road and gave it a go on road tyres. Did I mention that it was wet clay
Yep, my eyes were big on several occasions... When I got to the farm, Jeff said, "I didn't tell you to take that road! It's diabolical in the wet!" I could only concur...

Intersecting with MacDonald Road and turning left got me to the Yealering-Pingelly Road and back on track.

Correct turn would have been: Right on Lomos Road

Left on Yealering-Pingelly Road

Drop into Yealering to view Lake Yealering (lots of water at the time of this ride). But not anywhere near like February 2017.

If you take photos, please share to show the differences in the lake water levels.

Reference (February 2017): http://forum.bmwmccwa.asn.au/viewtopic. ... ing#p15229

Right on Wickepin-Corrigin Road

Coming out of Yealering there was a huge flock of white cockatoos on the ground. Then for about 100 metres ahead all the big gum trees were white with thousands of white cockatoos. The birds all took to flight as I rode past. I slowed rapidly as I was suddenly surrounded by thousands of white birds... an amazing experience... and didn't hit any?

Right on Williams-Kondinin Road

Left on Wickepin-Harrismith Road

Right on Tincurrin Road North

Stay on Tincurrin Road (dog-leg at Old Tincurrin Road

Straight ahead on Dumbleyung-Lake Grace Road

Rest and fuel stop in Dumbleyung (most likely to be open on Sunday) 91 only / Good meat pie, coffee not so...

Cross the train line out Bahrs Road and onto Peterson Road

Right on to Datatine Road (not left, thanks JeffD)

Straight through Nyabing-Pingrup Road

Right on Chester Pass Road

Stop at Mt Trio for photo shots and break









The Stirling Ranges are far from recovered from the hot fires in summer this year (2020). Barren bar millions of black-boys that have sprouted on the black scorched earth. With the recents rains, green has started to appear.

The country side was green, or greening, for all the ride. Beautiful time of the year to be out on a bike.

Bakers Junction Roadhouse for any supplies

Stop at Kalgan at 14.00 hrs

[Cookie]

Great photos and ride report Neville, I would not have been far behind you on West Talbot Road... I stopped at the flying field around 8.20am

[spacey1]

Thanks Cookie

Did you get the rainbow in your mirrors?

[spacey1]

It was great to catch up with friends who have been locked away on the farm for a couple of Covid-19 months.
And good to escape the city at last.

After winding down and tucking into a super meal, we did what we always do on the farm...

Walked up the paddock and stoked up a bonfire for the evening...

[spacey1]

Monday morning

We picked up a few sticks and stoked the bonfire in the paddock. Jokingly I said that as a kid in QLD, I used to get paid $1.50 an hour to pick up sticks when the local cane farmers were clearing land. Good pocket money then. Sandra offered $1 an hour... Oh well that's how it goes...





The locals took me for a tour out to Two Peoples Bay and Little Beach. There was a fee of $15 for a car or $8 for a motorbike. Luckily while we were trying to work out how the parking meter worked, the ranger dropped by and told us not to worry. I said that we were just passing through. He was fine with that. Still, the actual fee is a bit steep for a passing tourist who merely wants to drop in for a look.

Little Beach, spectacular ... Two Peoples Bay, not so much, probably due to mountains of seaweed on the shore .

Two Peoples Bay


Little Beach




Little Beach, Car Park




We swapped bikes for the run back to the farm. Comments ensued like, "There must've been a good reason why you splashed the cash for a new one." Or "I love the pillion accommodation, so roomy and comfy". Or "I never liked the R1200 LC but this one..."

[Bozo]

Nev
Brilliant photography and an excellent adventure. $1 an hour is better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick. I enjoyed my recent visit to Two People's Bay. I had not been there for over 20 years. In the 80's I would drive out there for work around once a month as the Water Corporation had a water treatment plant nearby.



Bozo

[JeffD]

Glad you enjoyed the ride Nev, great to see you down south again and even better to be let loose on the shiny new 1250! One small detail for anyone retracing your trip - I reckon it's more likely Right into Datatine Rd?

[spacey1]

Thanks Jeff, corrected...

[spacey1]

Left Kalgan at 14.00 hrs.

No matter the light, the TFT panel is always completely visible... and displays all the relevant information on one screen, instead of having to swap screens to see odometer/time information.


The information available via the TFT is pretty special. It provides access to a 'Settings' menu for features that traditionally the GS-911 was required to edit... OR a trip to the dealer (Eg. psi/kpa/kph/mph/mpg/lper100/degC/degG/etc).

On the homeward journey, I planned to ascertain how the bike performed fuel consumption-wise with a full touring load and adhering to legal limits. After fueling-up at Bakers Junction Roadhouse and heading up Menang Road, I got to those fantastic overtaking lanes on Albany Highway between Albany and Mt Barker. The ones with the broken white lines that allow overtaking when safe to do so from the single lane side (heading north in my case).

I now have advice that overtaking is technically illegal... and that if you can see on-coming traffic on said overtaking lanes (even from 2 kilometres away), it is also technically illegal... That'd be an off-line conversation for more detail. I also took advice that any overshoot of speed transitioning from 60 to 80 is also not tolerated, no matter that one immediately reverted to 80... Further advice that there was significant over-sight of traffic on the Albany Highway for the return journey did not fall on deaf ears.

Consequently, I had a serious fear of overtaking slow traffic, even edging 1 or 2 kph over the limit. It made for a very trying journey. For a motorcycle, having to stay within cohorts of slow moving traffic really made for an unpleasant and exceedingly risky journey home. My nerves were a bit frazzled after having several big 4wds race up my tail and sit there, even though there was no chance of overtaking the long lines of vehicles. Said long lines of traffic are created by motorists being fearful of venturing even 1 or 2 kph over the limit. Normally I would never allow this type of scenario to persist. I use the agility of my motorcycle to safely extract myself from these pickles. Thankfully the remainder of the journey was totally uneventful at 'exactly' the limits...

I was deadly serious about maintaining limits in towns (which I do normally anyway, but this was reinforced by said experience).

Home in the dark at 19.00 hrs...

[spacey1]

Nev
Brilliant photography and an excellent adventure. $1 an hour is better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick. I enjoyed my recent visit to Two People's Bay. I had not been there for over 20 years. In the 80's I would drive out there for work around once a month as the Water Corporation had a water treatment plant nearby.
Bozo

Thanks Boz, Looks to me that the seaweed mounds are a semi-permanent fixture in Two Peoples Bay. I seem to remember 25 years ago that a friend attempted to take us across that section of seaweed in his Landcruiser. It took some time before we were back on terra firma again Not recommended to put wheels onto that stuff. Little Beach looks equally as pristine

[pspencer]

Spacey thanks for the ride and bike report.
Couldn’t help but notice on the fantastic instrument screen photo that the digital tachometer has the red line at two different values? Made me dash into the garage to confirm that my RT analogue tachometer has the redline fixed at 9000rpm.
I cannot imagine that the 1250 shift cam engine would not be able to rev as high.
I can only assume that the night time photo was taken during the run in period and the daylight photo taken after the first service where extra ponies are let loose. Still not 9000rpm.
Perhaps after the next service it will be raised to 9000rpm???
Only academic as I cannot see the need to rev a boxer that high.

[nickcoleman]

Peter, you probably already know that computers rule our lives. This is an example. Cold engine, computer says ,"No".

[pspencer]

Thanks Nick. I thought there would be a good BMW clever design reason and your explanation makes sense. Don’t rev the crap out of a cold engine, totally agree.