There’s an Ironbutt Ride Series called the Piston Diversity Insanity involving riding a single, twin, triple, four and six cylinder SS1600K within 12 months. More on that elsewhere but today’s ride was the last in the series on a triple cylinder Yamaha Tracer 9 GT. Thanks again to Brisan Motorycycles, Newcastle for providing me with access to this fantastic bike to get it done.
The route chosen is familiar, I rode it last week on the six cylinder BMW K1600GT and it’s one of my fave day loops.
Up at 3am, a start docket at 4.03am at Wallsend and away I went. It was slightly warmer than last week as I headed south, first fuel stop was the Shell at Sutton Forest – being unfamiliar with the bike and it’s fuel/reserve range I didn’t want to take any risks.
I ducked into the Dog on the Tuckerbox, morning photos are always better there, arvos are into the sun. Next stop the BP at Gumly Gumly then straight on to the Mobil at Gillenbah and another quick photo at the old rail bridge.
I found the same spot I took a photo of the crops last week, this one was not yet harvested but the harvest was in full swing in the area, the smell and organic dust were unmistakeable. It was pretty windy out there too blowing mostly from my right. The Tracer was more susceptible to the wind than the big BMW last week.
I wasn’t hungry at the 800k-ish mark at Jerilderie but it was warming up so I put on the summer gloves on and continued along the Newell to Finley then the Riverina Highway to Albury – all familiar stuff.
I topped up at Albury, stopped in at the Ettamogah Pub – mandatory – and the submarine at Holbrook. I look forward to these quick photo stops, they all you just to focus on the next thing without thinking about having 600kms to ride after having knocked over 1000 already. Mind food if you like.
I needed fuel at Yass but didn’t call in to the Big Merino today, I didn’t need fuel in Goulburn and on the final leg I was pushing to reach my last stop at Pheasant’s nest before it got dark and I needed to change my gloves and glasses.
I made it to Pheasant’s Nest, had my first meal for the day and a dirty chai on soy (yum). I changed into the night gear, cleaned the visor and off I went into the dark. The traffic on the approach to the M7 was hectic, roadworks on the M7 had traffic constantly changing between 40 and 80kph and the signage was sub par, most of the time it appeared no-one had a clue how fast they should go.
After the NCX there were roadworks in a number of locations on the M1, it was chaos and I felt unusually exposed and uncomfortable with what was going on around me at those locations. I made it through fine though and happily turned off at the Newcastle Interchange to meander to my finishing location at Lambton at 10.14pm. Cherry Ripe time, of course.
The Tracer was great fun to ride. It’s hard to put into words, it was like riding a swarm of bees but in a fun way. The triple was revvy, it had a resonant growl to it when you accelerated and riding it made you feel like it just wanted you to twist the throttle and make it buzz. It handled great and was light to manoeuvre. I think the one I had had a low seat but even without that it was probably a bit cramped in the legs for my average 195cm frame. It was definitely capable of a long day but for me it wasn’t something I could just sit back, relax and tick over the k’s, if you know what I mean. The cruise, lights etc worked really well. The 12 volt adapter is an abomination, nothing stays in it, which was my only real gripe with the bike. Fuel economy was about 5l / 100km which was pretty good. At one point I rode on reserver for a while and it took 15 litres to fill the 18 litre tank so I’m guessing, like my Yamahas, it could have 90-100kms of reserve riding so maybe 380kms.
The only other strange thing about it was the ODO and trip computer reported 1734kms for a ride I know is about 1650kms, that’s a long way out. It was also Yamaha’s 10% high on the speedo which is annoying and why oh why is the first bar on the fuel gauge half a tank. On the positive, I loved the split screen allowing me to set up the right side screen with the exact info I need to see.