2018 3-day Mens Health Ride

Index

1. How the trip came about.
2. Maps
   1. Day 1
   2. Day 2
   3. Day 3
3. Things you may need, or need to know.
4. Accommodation details
5. Weather forecasts
6. The riders who came along
7. The report on the ride
8. Photo gallery [for full-size photos, click on full size photo gallery]
9. Statistics

How it came about

Peter W, Rob S and Greg V met at the Bathurst RSL on October 13, to plan a bike ride while the weather is not too cold, and not too hot. [Just right, as Goldilocks would say.] After much discussion, the following ride was decided upon:

Maps

• Day 1: Bathurst to Tallangatta via Wyangala, Harden, lunch at Tumut, and the highlight – Granya Gap.
  
• Day 2: The reason for the trip – a loop from Mt Beauty, Tawonga Gap, Bright, the two sides of Mt Hotham, and Omeo Highway. Having not been to Mt Hotham for many years, I’m anticipating a good ride…up the twisties, and down the fast sweepers. Overnight at Corryong.
• Day 3: Corryong to Bathurst via Tumbarumba, Adelong (for something different than the usual Tumut), Wallendbeen, Harden, Boorowa, Crookwell and Trunkey Creek.
  

Things you may need, or need to know

[Read these, with reference to the Terms and Conditions below.]

• The date of the trip is Nov 17 – 19.
• the planned itinerary with a guideline to travel times, and distances to fill-ups, and locations of food and leg-stretch stops.
  • Note that the actual itinerary ran pretty close to the planned itinerary, the only differences being:
    • some refuelled at Tumbarumba instead of Tumut on Day 1
    • there were very few ‘leg stretch’ stops
    • we didn’t detour into Bright, but instead stopped at Harrietville for a toilet break on Day 2
    • we lunched at Angler’s Rest instead of Omeo (which was a much better idea, breaking up the the many many twisties, and it is such a pretty spot to stop)
    • we took Peter G’s suggestion and went to Adelong via Rosewood on Day 3
    • we (apart from Willo) took the Snowy Mountains Highway to the Hume Highway instead of Sylvia’s Gap Rd
    • we lunched and refuelled at Crookwell instead of Boorowa
• Map of Day 1
• Map of Day 2
• Map of Day 3
• Cue sheets for Day 1, Day 2, Day 3. These may be handy for those who traditionally go off the front, or tail at the back. Zero your trip meter at the beginning of each day, and the cue sheets will have when you make your next turn.
• it’s a Mens Health Ride — that is, men only.
• Accommodation:
  • Day 1 – Tallangatta Hotel: Accommodation is very tight. I’ve also used the Victoria Hotel for some of our accommodation at Tallangatta. The costs are the same, but the Tallangatta Hotel offers a continental breakfast. It is the luck of the draw as to who is staying at which hotel. As we’re leaving at 8am each morning, we’ll probably stop for morning tea somewhere. Download the PDF to see who is sharing with whom.
  • Day 2 – Corryong Hotel Motel: Includes a continental breakfast. A twin room will cost each person $47.50, and a triple room $50 per person. Download the same PDF to see who is sharing with whom. BTW, this accommodation is not recommended for future stays. They do not believe in goodwill — see below.
• Weather forecasts:
  • Day 1:
    • Bathurst: 9-22, mostly sunny
    • Harden: 8-27, sunny
    • Tumut: 11-27, mostly sunny
    • Tallangatta: 10-27, sunny
  • Day 2:
    • Tallangatta: 10-28, sunny
    • Bright: 7-28, mostly sunny
    • Mt Hotham: -1 – 13, frost then sunny
    • Omeo: 2-22, mostly sunny
    • Corryong: 3-27, sunny
  • Day 3:
    • Corryong: 4-28, sunny
    • Tumut: 11-28, mostly sunny
    • Harden: 8-26, mostly sunny
    • Bathurst: 6-24, mostly sunny
• Some maps showed that we could get onto the Hume Highway at Tumblong (coming from Adelong), while others showed we couldn’t. I phoned the tourist information centre at Tumut, and they were extremely helpful. They explained that we can only turn towards Melbourne, but 500m along the Hume Highway, we can do a type of U turn and head back towards Gundagai, the way we want to go.
• An earlier version of this webpage indicated that we may travel from Omeo directly to Corryong. The proprietor at the Corryong Hotel/Motel indicated that the road contains a lot of poorly formed dirt. Hence, this option is off the table; we will stick to our original plan (at this stage!?) of taking the Omeo Highway from Omeo via Mitta Mitta to Tallangatta and on to Corryong.
• Peter G has also suggested that on Day 3 we take ‘a little piece of apple pie‘ to Adelong. It looks interesting and worth discussing at Corryong.

Terms and Conditions

There are no terms and conditions. This is a Men’s ride. Just HTFU! WVW rules apply!

WVW: Wanden Valley Wankers; HTFU: Harden the F**k up

The Riders

16 (!) riders have indicated that they are in need of some mens health:

• Peter Gore on his 1290 Super Duke R [Triple room]

  

• Peter Williamson on his BMW K1300S [Twin room]
• Rob Smith on Freda, his Yamaha FJR [Single room]
• Greg Vinall on his Suzuki SV650S [Single room]
• Neil Lumley probably on his Honda Africa Twin [Twin room] — there are rumours that Neil may be on his MT10 — see Nipper’s comments below. Neil means business!
• Richard Bull on his Beautiful Betty, a 2004 BMW R1100S [Twin room]
• Seby Greco on his MV [Triple room]
• Nipper (aka Dave Rockell) on his BMW S1000XR [Twin room]
• Greg Pratt on his BMW R1200GS [Twin room]
• Mark Pozzie on his KTM [Twin room]
• Shamus (aka Keith O’Brien) with his Kwaka [Single room] [Is he bringing his trophy with him?]
• Stafford Orange in his ute (how much gear can you fit in your ute Stafford? 😀)  [Twin room]
• Barry Vincent on his Triumph Sprint GT1050 [Twin room] — there are rumours that Barry may turn up on a BMW S1000XR — see Nipper’s comments below.
• Shane Manners on his Triumph 955 [Triple room]
• B1 – Jody Presbury as it turned out.
• B2 – a figment, and did not exist.

The Report on the Ride

This is a Mens Ride. What happens on the Ride stays on the Ride. There is no way  that I would mention:

• Richard and the Toyota Corolla

  

• Willo and the blue Honda Goldwing

  

• Peter G’s tyres after his style of attacking the corners.

• It is not necessary to change one’s underwear every day.
• Barry cannot hold his liquor (or was it the food?)
• Stafford makes delicious rummy-port
• All issues, and any inappropriate touching, have been resolved at the time, and will not be be brought up 20 years later
• Stafford is welcome any time — his ready supply of icy-cold water was a godsend.
• I’m glad I got an important issue off of my chest, that of being peeved to having to pay tax on my man pads. There’s Syrians lucky to be alive, Somalians lucky to get a scap to eat, Uyghers in detention camps, but this is a very important issue. I’m fully supportive of women fighting to remove the tampon tax. Just a little disappointed that on this odd occasion they only thought of themselves.
• The Corryong Hotel/Motel who, despite 13 of us drinking, eating and staying at the motel, refused to refund us the $50 for Shane not being able to stay that night (due to a sore knee). Do not stay in this place!
• The loose sheep, dead kangaroos, and goanna just short of Frogmore.
• Pozzie’s unfortunate detachment of one of his luggage compartments approaching Tumbarumba on the last day. [And it was such a good day for KTM — their first podium in MotoGP]
• The lowlife that reversed into Richard’s Beemer while we were in the café at Crookwell, and then drove off. How only the front mudguard was the only thing damaged almost defied the laws of physics.
• Neil’s flu didn’t seem to slow him down much. It was good to see him pick up enough to have a scotch and whisky on our last night.
• 80kph speed limits cropping up everywhere there are good twisty roads. Shame!
• The thick and white roadworks that all of our nicely prepared bikes were coated with after Boorowa on Day 1, and just for good measure, before Boorowa on Day 3.
• The speed camera in a 40 zone in roadworks near Dinner Plain — on a Sunday; with no roadworks going on; with the road in tip-top condition. Revenue raising at it’s most blatant!
• Will we get letters in our letter boxes soon? Fingers crossed!
• The bravery of Shamus to fight through his back pain over the Boorowa/Crookwell roads et al.
• The bravery of Willo to have more red wine the night after the night before!
• Unfortunately Nipper became ill and couldn’t make the ride. We had a drink for him on the first night and wish him well.
• Our fearless leader took us 25km out of our way along the Snowy Mountains Highway instead of following Willo to Sylvia’s Gap Rd. Thanks to Shamus who is still talking to me after almost draining his tank dry.
• B2 was a figment, and did not arrive –> making 14 riders all up for the trip.
• The corner near Dinner Plain that just keep going on and on and on and on and …

Statistics

Thanks to Peter G for these stats.

• Total distance travelled: 1625km
• Average speed: 101kph
• Total riding time: 16 hours 15 mins

Daily Statistics (note that these figures are mine, and there will be discrepancies with Peter G’s above)

• Summary
  • We travelled the furthest on Day 1 (553km), and the least on Day 2 (431km)
  • We averaged the fastest on Day 1 (93kph) and the slowest on Day 2 (85kph)
  • We were on the bike the longest on Day 1 (almost 6 hours), and the least on Day 2 (just over 5 hours)
  • The coldest temperature was on Day 3 (12º) and the hottest temperature was on Day 1 (32º)
  • Our longest day was on Day 3 (8 hrs 47 min), while our shortest day was on Day 1 (8 hrs 20 min)
  • My maximum speed was Day 1 (150kph — following Barry?)
  • The highest we got (drugs excepted) was on Day 2 (1712m)
  • The most climbing occurred on Day 1 (7440m)
• Day 1
  • Interactive map
  • Statistics
• Day 2
  • Interactive map
  • Statistics
• Day 3
  • Interactive map
  • Statistics