Motorbike Camper

The Bug - Kawasaki ZX9R Time in lieu and public holidays are great things, especially when a weekend falls in between them. The Australian Alps. I've not heard a bad word about the roads up into the Alps. Up until this point in time, the furthest I'd been is up to Omeo via Bairnsdale. I'd rate it as one of the best rides I've been on based on the road surface, grip, vision and corners. If the rest of the Alpine Road was of the same quality I knew I was going to be in for some fantastic riding. Good old google maps The Route. Starting from Melbourne I'd slab it to Ensay, then head up to Omeo, Mitta Mitta, Towong, through Mt Kosciusko, Jindabyne then to Cooma. From there I'd either go north to Canberra and go coastal to Wollongong or inland and head into Wollongong through Macquarie Pass. Road trip on the cheap. As I was planning on doing this trip on a budget I decided I'd camp along the way at free camp spots I found using the WikiCa...

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...