Run to Mallacoota

My brothers and I have made it a sort of a tradition to do a reunion run over this, for us long weekend (Melbourne Cup day). This weekend the nominated meeting point was Mallacoota, a picturesqe little inlet in Gippsland. I managed to get away from work early and headed off from Upwey about 3.00 pm. The traffic was not too bad once I got past Packenham and sat on the freeway at about 110ks Refueled at Trafalgar and carried on till I stopped at Stratford for a cleansing ale. This is where I turn off the freeway to make the run down to Paynesville via the back roads to meet up with my brother Andy and his lady Vasanti, the weather was actually quite balmy and several more ales were consumed before dinner and a good nights rest.
Saturday Andy and i headed off about 10.30 and took the scenic route via Bruthen and Buchan, Me on the commando and he on his TRX 850 Yamaha. He had not ridden with me on the Commando for a while and told me later that he thought he had better take it easy so i could keep up, well we soon dispelled this preception! We stopped for fuel at bruthen where one of the locals warned us of the torrential down pour predicted for East Gippsland, "sheel be right" I said pointing at the waterproofs strapped to the back of the bike.
We continued on down the road till we stopped at Genoa to check the old bridge that Andy had done some scaffold work to assist with its restoration, thats where I took the following snap of the commando.



The run from Genoa to Mallacoota I found a bit challenging as it had rained very heavily and there were a few gravel wash outs over what was quite a twisty little 23 klm run. We arrived in front of the hotell that older brother Dave had us booked into about 1.00 pm and after checking in and unloading the bikes we had enough time for lunch and a couple of games of pool before Dave finally turned up.
I Noticed straight away the lack of riding gear so he had obviously not ridden his recently aquired Triumph sprint, The term "soft cock" was mentioned, his excuse was that he had seen the same forcast as the local at Bruthen and wimped out!
That said it wasnt long before the afore mentioned torrent came down.
more to follow ----

To be cont.....
Jeesus, you can't stop there FRED. What happened ?..................................
Did you pick the winner of the Cup ?

So naturally there were more beers consumed and more catching up on gossip and bullshit into the night till the whole scene at the bar turned quite feral and we retreated back to the room to finish a slab Dave had donated to the cause.
Sunday we had a bit of a tour round the scenic highlights of Mallacoota, I can see how this place is so popular in summer as the whole place is a bounty of natural beauty. We called in on a little known WW2 communications bunker that has been restored as a historical reminder of the damage the japs were doing to our shipping. The crafty buggers had float planes stowed below decks of their submarines that they could assemble and launch from the deck with the aid of a compressed air catapult, then using the plane to spot for shipping targets for the subs to torpedo! shifty bastards. Any how after this we said our farewells to Dave, and Andy and I geared up for the run back home.
The run home was noticeably cooler and as we stopped at Cann river for fuel I donned the waterproof pants to keep a bit warmer. we made the back to Paynesville without stopping just as the heavens opened up, Andy offered to put me up for the night but I prefered to push on and after a cuppa tea I put on the rest of the waterproofs and headed off into the rain which wasnt too bad till before I hit stratford where it really opened up pissing down lightning the lot! The rain formed rivulets on the road that i managed to avoid till i hit one about two hunderd meters long splashing water every where and extinguishing one of the spark plugs, I managed to pull over with the motor still running and set to wiping the water off the plug leads with my gloves till I got a jolt from the high tension coil, it seemed to run a bit better and i managed to limp into the service station at Stratford where I fueled up again and got a can of WD40 that i sprayed all over the plugs and coils, I held my breath as i kicked her and she ran like a beauty! The rest of the journey was wet but fairly uneventfull and i made it home wet and cold about 6.30. The trip all up 986 klms and aside from the misshap with the rain she ran perfectly.
WD40 to the rescue again.
Freddy.

PS I had 10$ each way on red cadeaux!

I wish i had invented WD40.
A good ride and good times, with a twist.
Bloody Japs......
Bugger, Red Cardeaux beaten by a whisker, ah well got your money back.
Fred I'm just in the process of getting some new mirrors, yours look nice, what are they.
How does the right side one fit.
AC.

Velly Nrice Crouler Schemre. Cant go haveing ' loud ' colour schemes , wot with the Exhaust ' n all . :wink:
If you keep the speed up , in the rain , the temperature keeps the water off . . Bloke hit a flooded bit
on the sothern M'way on his Commando , V light steering aquaplaneing on 6 in. of water . Dont Sneeze . :?

Hi Aussie those mirrors are off a Kawasaki vulcan, by memory they have M12 x 1 metric fine thread I tapped the original holes out to suit,
to the horror of all the originality freaks and they screw right in. Actually they work really well and dont even vibrate, well the convex lens may be the reason any way

Fred,

Nice story, been through those parts on my Trident when I had it, and had the Norton down near that area, about as far down as Bega, and Brown Mountain. That run from Malacoota through mount Genoa and Cann River is choice.

Cheers Richard

Fred, A great yarn of Aussie adventure!

In 2005 I lived in Melb & bought my Mk 3 850 from K&M in Adelaide. I went for a ride/holiday with my plumber mate Wes on his TRX 850. We went all around Mt Hotham and the Snowy Mts, around northern Vic & southern NSW. I wound the Norton up to a ton on the way down but more to the point, I had the best ride I've ever had after dark, coming down Mt Hotham. I crawled all over the back of that TRX and at 50bhp to his 80bhp, well Norton's honour was not besmirched!

Sometime it just all comes together. Wes said he was surprised how well I kept up. When one considers the advances in suspension and roadholding in the last 4 decades, I was surprised how slow he was.

We swapped bikes and I rode the TRX for a while. I thought it was a great bike, a wee bit top heavy, but lovely when you gunned it in second- I wish the MK3 moved like that! Wes reported 'Well they've tamed the vibration'. I hadn't the heart to tell him they didn't make Nortons anymore!

Great write-up Fred. Some terrific riding down that neck of the woods,
apart from the radar just this side of the border as a farewell present!

I think every Norton owner should have a fang on a TRX. Most will feel right at home.
Don't think they were released Stateside though. Wonder why.

The TRX was released in the UK, but didn't sell. You would have thought it'd go down a storm with all that torque and not too much gearchanging by Japanese standards. The only feeback I've ever heard was 80bhp just wasn't enough for 850cc. But I agree, a great bike !! It struck me as the bike BSA would've been making if they still were.... Riding around in 2nd it was just like a hooligan B44 with a modern chassis!