Shorter pieces, filed from the road.
Reflections, gear tests, things I notice when the bike is parked. Five to fifteen minutes each. Each one is the written companion to a video on the channel; the long way of saying what the camera couldn’t.
Sombering
Day thirteen of a thirty-day fast. A hundred and seventy kilometres from Stacey’s Bridge through Omeo to Mount Hotham. A flipped car at the historic-site sign, and a strap wound through the spokes. The thin line between a small mistake and ending the trip.
Not working, and the brain catching up
Day four out of Sydney. Two meanings. I’m not working — and the brain isn’t working the corporate way. A camp note from Stacey’s Bridge on Wheeler Creek.
Coromandel motorcycle ride
Three hundred and fifty kilometres around the peninsula. The 309 Road gravel, the SH25 perimeter, the DOC camps, and the corner where Hunter and I went down.
Kaipara Harbour motorcycle loop
A 220 km loop from Pahi — Brynderwyn, Dargaville, Te Kopuru and the Pouto Peninsula gravel. Sealed twisties, fuel stops, and the lighthouse at the end.
Pahi to Cape Reinga motorcycle route
Two days and 640 km from the Kaipara to the northern tip of Aotearoa. The route, the camps, the fuel stops, and what a small bike makes of the run north.
Kriega R30 backpack — long-term review
Twelve thousand kilometres on the Kriega R30. The Quadloc-Lite harness, the dry-pack lining, the camera and the tools — and what makes the bag disappear on a long day.
Royal Enfield adventure seat — review
The four-hour mark on the way to Hill End. The adjustable height, who it suits, and what A$410 buys past the OEM seat.
Oxford Premium Retro heated grips review
The morning the OEM grips stopped being enough. NSW winter, NZ winter, and the threshold where a heated grip becomes non-optional kit.
Baja Designs Squadron Sport — review
Dawn out of camp. Dusk arrivals where the road has become the same colour as the verge. A long-term review of the Squadron Sport on the Himalayan 450.
The speed-wobble at one hundred
A 100 km/h speed-wobble on a Himalayan 450. A diagnosis I did not expect. The Unit Garage rally brake hose, sourced from the UK, that fixed it.
Bark Busters Storm handguards review
Cold mornings on the Bridle Track. Low branches in the Tarkine. The slow drop on Coromandel. Three jobs, ten months, two hundred and twenty dollars.
Veridian cruise control — review
Pacific Highway days. The moment the right wrist stops being part of the problem. A long-term review of the Veridian throttle-lock on the Himalayan 450.
DNA Stage 2 air filter — Himalayan 450
What changed when I opened the airbox. The exhaust note. The throttle response. The reluctant lump in the middle of the rev range, gone.
Shipping a motorcycle Australia to NZ
How I moved Hunter from Sydney to Auckland on a CPD carnet. Cost line by line, the freight forwarder, the biosecurity, and what the slow leaving cost in dollars.
Garmin InReach Mini 2 — long-term review
Ten months on the small black box that lets a solo rider go where there is no signal. The subscription that’s actually worth it. The SOS I haven’t pressed.
Garmin Zumo XT2 — long-term review
Six months and ten thousand kilometres. The motorcycle GPS that took routing off my phone. Glove operation, sun glare, the AI-planned route that nearly broke me.
Royal Enfield rally crash protection — review
Rally bars, bash plate, radiator guard. Seven hundred dollars of factory protection on the Himalayan 450. The Coromandel gravel track that tested it, and what the bike looked like when I picked it up.
Mitas Enduro Trail XT Dakar — long-term review
Three thousand kilometres on a 60/40 dual-sport tyre. Wet clay near home, the Bass Strait, the gravel between Bathurst and Hill End. What it earns, what it costs.
Ten films for the long evening
Films for adventure motorcyclists, ranked not by quality but by what they teach. The Motorcycle Diaries is on it. So is Lawrence of Arabia. Watch them in roughly this order.
Ten books for the tank bag
Ted Simon to Marcus Aurelius. A reading list for the long evening, in the order I’d press them on someone new to the seat.
Brave New World, and the small protest
Huxley’s 1932 novel, read by headtorch at camp. Soma, the Savage, and why riding alone in the cold is a small protest against the engineering of a soft life.
Why We Sleep, and what it has to do with the bike
Eight hours of sleep is the difference between a clean line through a corner at hour eight and the kind of mistake nobody photographs. Matthew Walker, applied to riding.
Amor fati, at two-fifty
Day eleven of the fast. The AI picked the route. Two hundred and fifty kilometres of freezing rain and hail; five days to the ferry. Loving what is.
On not eating, while riding
Days one to nine of a thirty-day fast. Sydney to Geelong, the ferry across Bass Strait, into Tasmania on water and electrolytes. Why I did it. What I learned about the line.
Wisdom requires scars
Two hours northwest of Sydney, on the Colo River. The neighbours were lion tamers. The campfire conversation, eventually, was about whether knowledge that hasn’t cost you anything is worth much.
Indoor cats, and the savage
Christmas, alone, in a Yarramalong rainforest. ABS off down a 4WD-only driveway; the elephant turns went badly. A long campfire on whether comfort makes us soft.
A safe place to get lost
Ninety minutes north of Sydney, in Darkinjung country. The fire trail wasn’t labelled. I rode three kilometres, listened to the quiet, turned around. Some places forgive that.
What the course teaches and what it doesn’t
Stay Upright’s adventure-bike day, paid for with my own money. Body position. Picking up a dropped bike. The limits of one day in a paddock.
Ten thousand dollars later
Twenty-nine modifications to Hunter, by category, with prices. What each one earned. The rally brake hose I sourced from the UK after a 100 km/h speed wobble.
Three thousand kilometres on a Himalayan 450
Three months in. What works (most of it). What slips (the rear in clay). And the gear-five-to-six transition that still annoys me on tarmac.
The patience of gold
How to pan, slowly. The river at eight degrees. A short history of the Chinese diggers on the Turon, and why the first pan almost never comes up empty if you read the bend right.
Pleasure, and the other thing
Hill End. Twenty-eight pubs once, one now. Three nights camped on the Bridle Track, and a campfire conversation about the difference between pleasure and the quieter, internal version of happy.
Spring equinox as actual new year
The Persians thought so. The Mesopotamians thought so. The Egyptians thought so. A short argument that the proper reset is in September, not the dead of winter.
Sofala, and the river that gives
Camp note from the first published journey. Razorback Ridge, a wobbly crossing of the Turon, and a first pan with specks in it.
On starting
Hunter outside Motociclo, Newtown, the day I picked him up. A near-drop in the car park while deciding whether to hug another rider. The first video, and the lesson in how anything begins.