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This ride was to be our first major ride using the GL 1800 Goldwing and the trailer. We had done a couple of shorter trips of up to 3 days so a lot of the gear had been sorted. Good quality esky to manage the ice packs, the large tent for comfort, 12v power pack to cover the nights when we couldn't get powered sights, chairs and collapsible table so we didn't have to sit on the ground. All this had been sourced to fit the trailer. Didn't need all this when we travelled just on the bike but this was to be more comfortable.
The final test and confirmation of the setup was an AWRA weekend at a camp near Goomburra against the Great Dividing Range near Cunninghams Gap. That story is here.
Home from Goomburra, no camera, Andrew and Deb ( the campground owners) have looked for it but no luck. I pulled the tent out of the trailer but didn’t feel like unrolling it. Couldn’t feel any lumps and hadn’t when I rolled it up. Therese is certain she placed it on the draw bar so back in the trailer goes the tent. I need to identify a new replacement camera and purchase it before we go.
The boys gave me a GPS for Father’s Day, so that had to be set up and the one borrowed from Trevor given back. Setting it up meant hard wiring it into the bike and getting the necessary bits to make it secure. On top of this there were a myriad of other jobs that needed to be done along with work and also the club magazine. After midnight every night and by Friday night, many things were done, many weren’t, including the Wing Notes magazine, but that’s the way it is. I’m taking the laptop so I may find a quiet night when I can work on it then just have to find an internet connection to load it up.
Packing up Friday night was interesting with Therese throwing things in and me throwing them out so we would have some room at least. Finally all packed and loaded, new camera tested and hooked to the laptop. GPS fitted to the bike and there was no power. Hmmm, didn’t test that. Pull out the wiring and rewire correctly and it’s now working. Another midnight shift when I needed an early night.
Links to the daily ride progress updates are in the table below.......
Week 1 |
Week 2 |
The bike is a 2007 Honda GoldWing. This was our first long ride on this bike. The bike performed flawlessly for the two weeks and apart from my failing to set the rear tyre pressure a bit higher, there were no issues with the bike. The pressure issue may result in the need to replace the rear tyre earlier than intended. I still find that I am having some problems with pain between the shoulder blades and will need to do some more work on handlebar placement and seat position and height. Maybe a Air Hawk cushion to lift me to a little higher seating position.
| Distance Travelled | 5095 klms / 3164 mls |
| Fuel used | 351.6 litres / 78 Imp Gals |
| Fuel Consumption | 14.49 klms/litre; 6.9 litres/100 klms; 40.52 mpg |
The trailer is an Aero FX Plus made by Performance Trailers at Coffs Harbour. As with the bike, this was our first long trip and was to be a preliminary to a round Australia ride in about 18 months. If you are interested, full specifications of the trailer can be seen at the manufacturer’s web site but the following is a summary. The trailer is a fibreglass body on a steel chassis with independent suspension riding on spring coil shock absorbers. The trailer has over-ride disc brakes and rides extremely well and most of the time you would never know it’s there. It doesn’t even shake the beer up, and the fact that it is so narrow behind the wing means that you can hardly see it in the mirrors. This is an early example of the trailer and has a couple of waterproofing problems that the manufacturer will assist in rectifying.
| Tare weight | 86 kilos |
| Loaded weight | 180 kilos |
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