So, Mick… you want to ride my sports tourer to Brisbane?
It was a Friday afternoon in Brisbane and the working week was winding down when the phone rang. On the other end was Ferg from Gasoline Alley Bendigo.
“Hey Mick, do you want to come to Bendigo next week and ride back to Brisbane to take my sports tourer drag racing?”
I only had a few minutes to give an answer. Realistically, there was only ever going to be one.
Skip forward to Wednesday and we’re touching down in Tullamarine to start the run to Bendigo to meet the crew and get acquainted with the bikes. Walking into the Bendigo dealership and learning about what we’d be riding home, I quickly realised the “sports tourer” Ferg had mentioned wasn’t exactly what I had pictured.
At the back of the shed was the flame Breakout, running a pretty wild 143ci M8 engine that had been featured in a previous issue.
That afternoon rolled into evening the way most good bike trips begin, a few cold ones and plenty of laughs. The conversation turned to the lineup of bikes for the trip back to Brisbane, and the final lineup was this:
A Twin Cam Breakout with 68,000km on the clock and some pretty high ape hangers; a 122RX Low Rider Dyna with 17-inch wheels that was built for track days; a 2024 Road Glide; the flame 143ci Breakout; and a 2026 Street Glide that would be our luggage hauler.
Thursday morning we rolled out of the Bendigo store with a plan to get into Orange by the afternoon, a casual 750km day on the bikes.
There were plenty of smiles as we left the store, and it felt great finally clearing Bendigo’s seemingly endless 40km/h zones as we headed north.
Our first stop was Echuca and, after taking a little walk around the area and learning some local history about the Murray, it was time to gear back up and put a few kilometres under the belt.
Somewhere between Echuca and Deniliquin, I figured out that the Breakout was more muscle bike than sports tourer, but you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face every time I wound the throttle on to pass a truck. The 143 pulled like a freight train. At every fuel stop and there were many for the Breakouts and the Dyna, there was plenty of laughter about the different things each of us had spotted or smelt across the barren countryside on a toasty 38-degree day.
Late in the afternoon we rolled through Forbes, and the global calling sign for “should we stop for a drink?” was presented. Unfortunately, the pub looked closed, so we pushed on. It was a pretty rapid run into Orange along “The Escort Way,” a road that should be on every motorcyclist’s list. It provides riders with long, flowing corners and excellent visibility for the run into Orange.
As usual, on the first night of any trip, the yarns didn’t stop among the group as we all got to know each other better. As you would expect, it was all about the motorcycles and how they enhance every facet of life.
Friday was set to be a few fewer kilometres, with just over 600 planned to our destination of Glen Innes. The early morning run out of Orange was sensational, a crisp morning with more flowing corners to settle into the day of travel. A few hours in, we conveniently missed the turnoff to Premer and ended up at Tambar Springs, home of the Royal Hotel and a perfect midway stopping point during the warmest part of the journey. By this point, all of us had done a bit over 1,000 km and had enough seat time to give good feedback about the bikes. Quite surprisingly, it was all pretty positive, apart from the sheer size of the apes and forward controls on the Twin Cam.
Once refreshed, it was time to set off for Glen Innes via Tamworth. In the distance, you could see those gloomy summer clouds that looked like they held an ocean full of water. We passed through Uralla, and the dash of the Road Glide read 38°C, it was semi-dark at 3 pm. All of a sudden, the sky opened up with some of the heaviest rain any of us had ever ridden in. The temperature dropped from 38 to 18 in a matter of minutes, making the run from Armidale to Glen Innes one that none of us will ever forget.
The motel rooms looked like laundromats when we checked in, gear soaked to the threads and every item hung over chairs, with the fans at full speed trying to get everything dry for the run into Brisbane the next day.
While that was happening, it was time to sample some tasty local steaks and talk about the highlights of the day. As you can imagine, it was each other’s perspective on the storm we had gone through.
Getting up on Saturday, it was with excitement that we would be lining up at Willowbank Raceway that night and get to race these bikes at the Gasoline Alley Race Ya Mates event. But it was also the sad realisation that this trip was coming to an end.It’s amazing how, in just a couple of days on the bike, you quickly get into the mode of wanting to keep traveling and never stop the camaraderie that riding a motorcycle brings with great people.
The run from Glen Innes to Brisbane is brilliant, with the first stretch being a scenic ride up the New England to grab some more fuel.
Once fuelled up in Tenterfield, the road to Legume is a fast, flowing stretch that you never want to end. All of us found a nice rhythm along this section and regrouped for the run into Woodenbong. If you haven’t been on this road for a while, this section has received plenty of work over the last few years and is now in pretty good condition compared to the wheel-braking mess it used to be.
After nearly 2,000 km as a group, we arrived at Gasoline Alley Harley-Davidson in Springwood just in time for the shop ride out to Race Ya Mates.
Once checked into Willowbank and after the riders’ briefing was done, it was time to test the 143ci Breakout and it didn’t disappoint: 10.9 seconds at 124 mph. Pretty handy after touring for a few days and still averaging just under 6 L/100 km. Maybe this thing is a sports tourer after all…
Riding back home later that night, I began to think of all the roads and conversations we’d had over the past few days, and one thing really hit home: we need to do this more often. I then questioned—Is there a perfect motorcycle? Is there a perfect road? Is there a perfect time to do it?—and I realised none of it really matters as long as you are out there with good people, enjoying motorcycles.
