Motorbike Camper

Weekends are what you make of them, mine, up until last weekend was usually full of alcohol, late nights and hangovers. With Sundays wasted in bed and Monday mornings spent thinking to myself, where did my weekend go? So last Sunday I decided to make something of my weekends, from now until the end of Summer I was going to spend as much time on two-wheels with mates out doing road trips or camping. To start off I planned the next three weekends going away camping with my partner in crime. First stop, Rawson. I chose Rawson for a couple of reasons, it was less than 200kms from home. There's a bar on site and a half decent road to ride on once you got off the freeway. I checked the weather report on Saturday morning and it was forecast for 1mm of rain but the sky in Melbourne was blue so we decided to grab breakfast and have a late start. By 11.30 we had the bikes packed and we were set to head off.  The first part of the trip was along the Monash for 130kms or so o

Every three months I try to organise an overnighter with mates to a country pub where we can stay the night and put a few $$ into the bar and enjoys ourselves. The Triple 8 Ride was one of my favourites as it had everything a good ride should have Great Weather Twisty Roads Your best mates Cold beer A bed at the end of it The destination was Logan where there's a pub that sits in the middle of nowhere with little mobile reception and I was told a horse which frequents the bar. That was something I wanted to see for myself, so Logan it was, the  pub in the scrub . Logan isn't that far out of Melbourne if you take the freeway, given I was on my CBR954 at the time with a fresh set of rubbers that just wasn't going to happen. The road up through Diamond Creek, Kinglake and up Strathcreek onto Broadford was fantastic, with little traffic to hold us up we had a ball and stopped at the Moto Bean Cafe in Malmsbury with our licence's intact. After a decen

Another weekend another two-wheeled camping adventure, this time out towards Eildon to a place called Snobs Creek. With our bikes all packed and full of fuel we headed up through Kangaroo Ground with our first stop at Healsville for a much-deserved coffee. The weather has been kind to us this time around with blue sky as far as you can see. From Healesville, it's motorcycle heaven up through the hills towards Narbethong. If you haven't done this road before, I'd suggest you get onto it, if not for the roads then for the scenery. It would have to be one of Victoria's top 10 roads to ride. Just watch out for the plod, they tend to frequent there regularly for breathos and licence checks and catch out those who get a little too ham-fisted on the throttle. After Narbethong it's a cruisy but scenic country ride, with the occasional road kill to keep you on your toes along the way to Snobs Creek. We got to our destination by about 4 pm and set

"No wine can be regarded as unimportant, my friend, since the marriage at Cana" - Graham Greene. I had to google  'the marriage at Cana', turns out it was when that bearded bloke turned water into wine - you learn something new every day. I'm not sure what the wine tasted like when Jesus was around, but I  agree with old mate Graham, no wine be it in a glass or a cask (or pouch) should be regarded as unimportant. Tote Wines have given the humble 'goon sack' a refresh and have released a trio of premium Australian wines, Shiraz, Rosé and a  Sauvignon Blanc. All marketed towards those with an active, outdoors lifestyle where the traditional glass bottle just isn't practical. That sounds like me, I thought, not so much the active part but I do like to get outdoors, and motorcycle camping is my thing. I often take a small bottle of whisky with me, especially in winter time, a good gulp or three at bedtime helps distance the cold. The pro

It had been long past due for another boy's weekender away, well over three months. After much planning and to-and-throwing, several dates changes later we finally had a weekend locked in. After a winter hibernation by a couple of the crew, some of the bikes needed new tyres, another a new battery. I was planning to take the green bug but was given the opportunity to test out the updated Aprilia Dorsoduro 900, a bike which over the next thousand km's I developed a love-hate relationship with. We mapped out a trip to do the Great Alpine Road - 308kms of undulating, tight, twisting, double apex-ing turns, winding through valleys, mountains and forests, along rivers and past  vineyards . The blokes who forged the Great Alpine Road must have been motorcyclists. We departed a little after 9am and slabbed it through Melbourne and then along the M1 for a couple of hundred kilometres. This is where the hate part of the relationship with the Dorsoduro began, about 50 km

Sixteen hours isn't a lot of time away from home, so there wasn't much of an excuse not to get out on the bike and pitch a tent somewhere. Especially since daylight savings will be over soon, I figured now's the time to make the most of it.  I didn't need to take a lot, in fact, if I wanted to keep things to a bare minimum all I'd need is a sleeping bag, tent or swag. Most of my camping gear packs down pretty small. I managed to fit a two-man tent, sleeping bag, pillow, air mat, torch, cooking gear and a tarp under the seat of the BV350. There was also my Kriega backpack which had the important stuff like whiskey, water and some other odds n ends. Food for thought Since I was only going overnight, and I'd already had a decent breakfast and lunch, the only meal I had to consider was dinner. There's the option of grabbing a bite along the way to the campsite, finding a pub nearby or taking my own grub. I opted for two-minute noodles s