Circumnavigation of Oz

Terry ...... have a word to Marty, he has wrapped the SF’s headers!

Gunna need a long rope to hang this one, he is a bloody tall fella.
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Nah, all good, rope put away.
Bike is going to be used instead of posed.
Have an awesome trip Marty.
 
Quite a few places are 260 + and I want to be self sufficient, not waiting on the side of the road for the boys to catch up. With any luck this rain will go and I can complete the mileage testing
 
Make sure you screw the caps up tight with it lying on its side like that. Have you thought about how to release pressure in it when it's been in the sun all day? You don't want it bulging like a bloated carcass.
 
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Dellortoman said:
Make sure you screw the caps up tight with it lying on its side like that. Have you thought about how to release pressure in it when it's been in the sun all day? You don't want it bulging like a bloated carcass.
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Easy Cam.. you just a sharp pointy thing a hammer... :ROFLMAO:
 
Personally I doubt very much you'll need to touch it - if I could circumnavigate on a (worn out) SF in the mid 70s without, one, surely you can now. Maybe one of your cohorts will need it one day! Or the support van! :ROFLMAO:
 
Dellortoman said:
Here's a tip for bike travellers (without support vehicle) who are camping and carrying food in hot climates:

When I went around Australia (40 something years ago) we had problems keeping food cool. We tried to avoid the problem by buying food late in the day, shortly before setting up camp. But you cant eat a whole block of butter or a big lump of cheddar in one meal, so it would go into plastic (Tupperware) containers, and into the panniers. The next day we'd have liquid butter, cheese oozing oil and maybe some slimy ham (with a healthy colony of salmonella) on our bread rolls.

So I invented a refrigeration compartment. It was a plastic lunch box that I bought somewhere. I drilled ventilation holes in both ends, so when attached to the bike, it had an air flow through it. The food was wrapped in a wet cloth (like a tea towel) and stuffed in the box. It cooled the food by the evaporative cooling effect of the air flowing through the box. Whenever we stopped for fuel, we'd wet the cloth again. We never had melted butter, floppy lettuce or oozing cheese again, even in the warmest parts of Australia. Sometimes (if it wasn't chockers with tucker) there was room for a couple of beer cans in the "fridge".

I normally sat it on top of one of the solid panniers (they had flat-top lids) and secured it with ockie straps. It worked better if there was something on top of it to give it a bit of shade.

If I was to do a similar trip now, I'd re-think it and design something better (perhaps bolted to the pannier frame/rack system somehow) but I'd stick with the evaporative cooling idea. It's reliable and works well. It's also dead simple because it uses no power or complicated technology.

Presumably this won't be necessary for Marty et al. There will no doubt be a portable fridge in the support vehicle. :rolleyes:
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Your plastic lunch box was an excellent idea, that and along with the canvas waterbag is Ozzie ingenuity at its best, simple, no moving parts and it works, a done deal in my books. I have tried to explain the canvas waterbag to American drivers, RV er's, off-roaders, and they just don't appreciate the concept. Cheap 12volt coolers killed the waterbag, do they even sell canvas waterbags, never seen one in any of my travels outside of Australia, not even in NZ.
 
martymoose said:
Quite a few places are 260 + and I want to be self sufficient, not waiting on the side of the road for the boys to catch up. With any luck this rain will go and I can complete the mileage testing
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Marty will Ewen and Charlie's camera crew be accompanying you? Just kidding mate I'm friggin jealous, never done the Oz circumnavigation but it is on the list, I better get busy eh 66 and still kicking but who knows how much longer. Never been around the top, done Perth to Paraburdoo/Newman, Perth to Melbourne, Perth to Sydney, Brisbane/Gold Coast to Perth and returns some of em more than once. I hope you have a quality 'Go Pro' so you can share your ride with the Forum. Good luck mate, enjoy your ride (y):)🍺🍻 Obscured in the attached file is 'The Gnomes' SFC. ' Kodak Instamatic 104.'
 

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martymoose said:
Chris Cutlers Suzuki will only do 200, so I reckon I’ll be carrying it for him
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Ha! there you go! The SF will cruise it, but others won't. Did a 5-day your through the Snowy region with a mate on his FZR1000 Yamaha about 20 years ago. On one run we'd been fanging at a decent clip and heading to Corryong he literally ran out as we rolled into the servo - from memory, something like a 20L tank bone dry - I took maybe 12L!! And that's with SFC cam, high comp motor.
 
piranha-bro2 said:
something like a 20L tank bone dry - I took maybe 12L!! And that's with SFC cam, high comp motor.
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Higher tune motors generally run more efficiently than mild tune. I suppose that's because you have to open the throttle more on a softer tuned engine to get the same performance.

This was borne out for me a few years ago when 3 of us went on an interstate roar trip on our Laverda triples. I was on my Jota (4C cams + hi comp pistons, etc.) and the other two were on 3CL and 3C with A11 cams and flat top pistons. Whenever we stopped for fuel, the Jota took less to fill up than the other two. The difference was consistently about 10%.

It was a pretty convincing test because we were all travelling the same roads at the same speed and carrying similar amounts of gear. I was the heaviest (fattest) rider and was carrying a very comprehensive load of tools, so the Jota had no load carrying advantage.
 
From memory my SF2 now gets close to 250km before reserve, and I have done 40km on reserve (sweating it) before making a garage. It has my pensioned 10.5:1 race pistons and std Dells.
I remember our customers with ´81 Jotas all reporting that they got far better fuel economy riding at 120 to 150 than they did if forced to sit on 100, on those motors 130 or so is probably 1/8 throttle.
 
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