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#81
All Events Calendar / Re: Proposed Farroad Calendar ...
Last post by ZigZag - Dec 29, 2025, 03:24 AMTaffey and I did the Blinman Farroad ride in June. We woke up to frost on the bikes. I was glad we were staying in a motel room behind the bakery.
I second the merino thermals.
I second the merino thermals.
#82
General Discussion / Re: From the Library
Last post by Biggles - Dec 29, 2025, 02:12 AMWinter was still clinging to the north, and I shivered under my fleece and waterproofs as I rode south from Cam Thuy. Rain made wearing goggles impossible and water lashed my face, stinging my eyes and clogging my lashes. Soon my gloves were soaked through, and my hands froze around the handlebars. Travelling alone makes you acutely aware of the fluctuations of your emotions, intensified by the purity of solitude. This morning - cold, wet and homesick - my mood sank. Chastising myself, I remembered a Tim Cahill quote a friend had told me before I left, "An adventure is never an adventure when it's happening. An adventure is physical and emotional discomfort recollected in tranquility."
A Short Ride In The Jungle Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent p58
A Short Ride In The Jungle Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent p58
#83
All Events Calendar / Re: Proposed Farroad Calendar ...
Last post by Langers - Dec 28, 2025, 11:23 PMThanks Dom. Interestingly July is the driest month for Arkaroola and the average daily low is 3.3C (suggesting often below 0 - which is cold in my book - thank goodness for merino thermals and heated grips 
)
) #84
General Discussion / Re: From the Library
Last post by Biggles - Dec 28, 2025, 04:31 AMA motorbike is the most dangerous mode of transport in the world. Fear of being killed or injured while riding one is entirely rational. In Vietnam, where ninety million people crowd the roads and around forty people die in traffic accidents every day, the risk is far higher than in England. Drink driving is de rigueur and traffic rules are routinely ignored. Yet bizarrely I wasn't afraid of this. Not a single thought regarding death or mutilation on the road crossed my mind. I realised that what I was afraid of was myself; of letting myself down, of my reactions to obstacles and solitude.
A few months earlier I'd read Christopher Hunt's book "Sparring With Charlie" about his one-man Minsk ride through Vietnam in the mid-nineties. Several times in the book, Hunt refers to the aching loneliness of the jungle. Would I feel the same? For almost two months I would be travelling alone. In Laos I might go for several days without seeing anyone. Lots of people had told me I was brave, but would I prove myself worthy of such a compliment? I wasn't feeling brave today. To be afraid of my own mind as opposed to the very real fire and metal of an accident was ridiculous. George and Ilza were right - the greatest danger was indeed myself.
A Short Ride In The Jungle Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent p51-2
A few months earlier I'd read Christopher Hunt's book "Sparring With Charlie" about his one-man Minsk ride through Vietnam in the mid-nineties. Several times in the book, Hunt refers to the aching loneliness of the jungle. Would I feel the same? For almost two months I would be travelling alone. In Laos I might go for several days without seeing anyone. Lots of people had told me I was brave, but would I prove myself worthy of such a compliment? I wasn't feeling brave today. To be afraid of my own mind as opposed to the very real fire and metal of an accident was ridiculous. George and Ilza were right - the greatest danger was indeed myself.
A Short Ride In The Jungle Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent p51-2
#85
General Discussion / Re: Christmas 2025
Last post by ZigZag - Dec 28, 2025, 12:43 AMHappy New Year everyone. Looking forward to more rides in 2026.
#86
All Events Calendar / Re: Proposed Farroad Calendar ...
Last post by ZigZag - Dec 28, 2025, 12:42 AMHi Mark, The roads to Arkaroola are all dirt. It just depends which route you take to minimise the distance you ride on dirt. I think Taffey's thinking is there is dirt on any route to Arkaroola but if you want a challenge you could do 800kms on dirt in 24 hours as a completed Far Road ride.
July is nice and cool up there and could be wet or dry. In the last week or so they have had some torrential rain in the Flinders causing creeks to flood. Who knows what you could get.
Dom
July is nice and cool up there and could be wet or dry. In the last week or so they have had some torrential rain in the Flinders causing creeks to flood. Who knows what you could get.
Dom
#87
General Discussion / Re: From the Library
Last post by Biggles - Dec 27, 2025, 09:59 AMThere were other reasons behind my choice of vehicle. Firstly, I was a novice when it came to mechanics. It wasn't that I couldn't do it, it was just that I'd never applied myself to learning about the inner workings of an engine. In all my previous travels there had always been someone else to do that bit. My role had been filming, passing the odd spanner or sitting on the kerb smoking and offering verbal support. Marley had taught me some basics before I left home, such as how to tighten the brakes and chain, - despite Digby's confidence and my desire to learn - there might be times when I needed help. Cubs are simple machines to fix and, where I was going, most boys over the age of ten knew how to bash one back into shape. The same couldn't be said for a new-fangled BMW tourer.
Secondly, my route would pass through some of the poorest parts of Southeast Asia; mountainous tribal lands where the sight of a foreigner was still an extreme rarity. Some of the people still lived in near Stone Age conditions; in bamboo huts absent of schools, sanitation, electricity or material wealth. Me with my white face and motorbike gear were going enough of a shock. I hoped that riding a cheap, familiar bike might fractionally lessen the cultural chasm between us.
And finally, doing it on a proper dirt bike seemed too easy. There was infinitely more comedy value in attempting trundle up and over the Truong Son range on a twenty-five-year-old pink Honda Cub C90.
A Short Ride In The Jungle Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent p31
Secondly, my route would pass through some of the poorest parts of Southeast Asia; mountainous tribal lands where the sight of a foreigner was still an extreme rarity. Some of the people still lived in near Stone Age conditions; in bamboo huts absent of schools, sanitation, electricity or material wealth. Me with my white face and motorbike gear were going enough of a shock. I hoped that riding a cheap, familiar bike might fractionally lessen the cultural chasm between us.
And finally, doing it on a proper dirt bike seemed too easy. There was infinitely more comedy value in attempting trundle up and over the Truong Son range on a twenty-five-year-old pink Honda Cub C90.
A Short Ride In The Jungle Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent p31
#88
All Events Calendar / Re: Proposed Farroad Calendar ...
Last post by Langers - Dec 27, 2025, 04:49 AMG'day Taffey. WRT the Arkaroola ride you mention a dirt option 800k in 24 hours with an asterix. I'm wondering what the asterix refers to and more generally are there any particular rules ie there must be a minimum of 800k on dirt to qualify. I guess one could achieve both goals of 1000km in 24 hours and 800km dirt in the same time if so inclined. Mind you, 800km on dirt in a wet July - could be interesting.
Cheers ... Mark
Cheers ... Mark
#89
General Discussion / Re: From the Library
Last post by Biggles - Dec 26, 2025, 02:14 AMCast aside those western notions of traffic, where cars queue with bovine patience and bicycles glide down neatly painted lanes. The chaotic, raging torrent that barges its way through Hanoi's narrow streets is a wholly different beast. This is traffic red in tooth and claw; a seething, surging, clamorous cavalcade of man and metal. Lissom girls weave through the melee on Honda mopeds, their faces and arms covered from the sun, high heels teetering on running boards, Taxis career in all directions, horns blasting. Girls riding large old-fashioned bicycles wobble insouciantly between the lanes, pedalling gracefully at the same unhurried speed. With their conical hats and flowing black hair, they seem to float rather than pedal, oblivious to the hooting machines that flow around them. Women in their traditional non la, palm leaf, hats stagger under back-breaking yokes of fruit and vegetables. Mopeds loaded with whole families, pigs, cupboards, washing machines and beds squeeze through non-existent gaps. And through the middle of it all pedestrians dash hopefully. It makes Pall Mall in rush hour look like a Cotswold backwater.
A Short Ride In The Jungle Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent p28-9
A Short Ride In The Jungle Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent p28-9
#90
General Discussion / Re: From the Library
Last post by Biggles - Dec 25, 2025, 01:16 AMIt is possible to feel more alone on a motorcycle than anywhere at rest. When you're sealed in your apartment, or even standing in a secret field halfway up a mountain, there is always the chance that someone could find you; someone could call, could spot you from a plane, could come walking up at any moment. Knowing where I can hide if necessary is always on my mind, and where else but on a bike is there somewhere truly safe to be? On a bike, there are people all around, in a car in the next lane not five feet away, but they can't get you. You may communicate with the friends who ride along by using signals, but you can't talk. You are spared the burden of words. There is so little privacy anywhere these days that this knowledge feels like the last available comfort, in the absence of knowing there is someplace left on earth not infected with Colonial brick houses or cut through by a new Wal-Mart's access road.
Your thoughts are pinned close to your head by the helmet, where they may exit only a fraction of an inch from your scalp but then stay to buzz around, thousands of little trapped sand flies.
The Perfect Vehicle Melissa Pierson p233
Your thoughts are pinned close to your head by the helmet, where they may exit only a fraction of an inch from your scalp but then stay to buzz around, thousands of little trapped sand flies.
The Perfect Vehicle Melissa Pierson p233