Adventures on my 2021 MULTISTRADA V4S Radar & Travel Pack

FAARRKIT'sHOT.......(says the crow).......

But a ride is a ride, and autumn is surely coming?

Isn't it.......??

Anyway, we gather at Chapel Hill for an 8.40 start. I haven't ridden the Mt Crosby route for maybe 10+ years so I was glad to be the tail gunner today.

18 souls onboard the Ducati express this morning and I'm the only Multi.....but there's 2 perfect V4 SF's in the group, along with a GT, and a Bevel, and even a BMW......you can't account for taste .

So we head off and are almost instantly separated by traffic. , where'd they go? These guys in front of me are just a millisecond too slow to catch the lights and stay in touch with the main group.....oh well, someone will mark a turn, and thankfully they do. So no losses...... yet.

Great backroads over parts unknown to me. But....a horse float lumbers in front of our tail group and we have no choice but to lose sight of the main group. 3 riders get by over double lines, but I'm 2 up with pillion Barb, so I must wait for clear vision, which comes after an apex. I give the V4 a prod and up comes the front wheel as I crank it around the horse trailer .

Good fun......and the rider aids keep it all in shape.

No lost souls yet......

So we head to Fernvale via Pine MTN Rd. Still an 18 bike convoy, but I swerve to avoid something on the tarmac, which I later realised was a sunglass case that fell from one of the monsters in front. He turned back to rescue it while his wife stopped her bike to wait for him. I continued on and told the corner marker at Fernvale there were 2 to come.

Over to Lowood and I was marking the turn for the 3 strays and the club president rounds me up and misses the turn taken by everyone else......off I go in hot pursuit, flashing headlights, beeping the horn, eventually getting them to stop and turn back.

Now we're 'd....I have no idea where the group has gone for this leg.....so we cruise on, hoping a corner marker has waited in the excruciating heat for our band of miscreants. Wow, the 1100 rider was still there on the turn I was guessing the lead group took, phew..... Off we went, arriving in Marburg.....no corner marker, so we go straight ahead and end up in Rosewood - so Gatton is the destination, but unknown to me, my tail group has stopped to fix a tail tidy on the V4SP and I find myself alone, but I know where I am, and where I'm going (now) so I'm head down and going for it.

Pillion Barb and I arrive only 36mins late, but we are not the last to arrive. It seems quite a few have taken some unusual routes to get to Gatton .

Brunch was at 'Tins & Trays' restaurant, and that was very very nice, even on a 35C sunny day......

Homeward bound was a highway run for me as pillion Barbarella wanted to get home asap. So did I (to beat the worst of the heat).

A great day out, pity about the heatwave conditions, but if you don't ride, you miss out......

Here's some pics of bikes and the venue.....

I need a cold drink........where's autumn......🥵

Aaaaah, much cooler this morning, midweek pensioners on Multistrada's ride to a cool mountain top cafe....... Autumn is coming.

About time too, 24C at 7.30, a brisk 22C up in the higher bits, but a nasty 29C back in midday traffic in errr, civilization.....I hesitate to use that term after observing the childish/stupid driving habits behind/beside me as I find myself engulfed by traffic.........

Oh well, it was a nice cruise up for and a lively debate. Heavy cloud looked like we were going to get wet but we stayed dry.

3 Multi's (V4, 950, 1200) one Harley Diavel, one Vstrom and an ST3. All with grey hairs onboard.

Dangit, I had to hightail it fer home as the mowing contractor was keen to crew cut our grass after lunch. I missed going for a run up to Binna Burra Lodge with the "boys" because I thought there was no other family member home to bring the mad parrots inside (they hate the mower guy). Naturally I got home to find their owner was home too.....

On the uphill ride we were stuck behind a double trailer tanker hauling something stinky which occasionally splashed out of a vent pipe...... I stayed well back, no one tried to pass me...... We zinged round that toxic/sewage waste tanker asap though. Clean air 😷....

I have signed on for a club run 'below the border' this weekend. 25 bikes headed for an overnight stay, maybe including a dirt road segment for some adventure scenery. Not sure I want to eat dust for 75kms, but the scenery is supposed to be spectacular ....and it's a road not travelled for me.

Have a great weekend all.......I will for you if you can't

Just back from 900kms of "fun" on a cross border run to Grafton NSW......at which we viewed the change of a state government, the bike racing at Sydney M Sports and some very horny drunk local beauties.......

So the 'Below the Border' run is an annual Ducati club event, strangely timed for late March while the weather is very unstable. So we were hot and sweaty, then sprinkled by rain showers or damp roads, then hot and sweaty, repeat many times.....

We started at McDonalds Beaudesert where I am unable to master their latest ordering procedure, and the car park has no shade. Next stop is Casino for fuel for the SF's and the lone 750GT bevel. At least there was shade and a cool drink at the servo.

On to Tenterfield for lunch at the trendy Commercial Hotel. That was nice, but our mob of 25 souls seem to yell loudly at each other and the noise is deafening. Maybe they are all hearing impaired .

Anyway, we head out for Dundee and the infamous Bald Knolb (I kid you not) road which bypasses Glen Innes.....yeah well that was the plan......

By the time I have suited up most have departed. So I'm with the tail ender's including the club president and ride co-ordinator. Good company so " what could go wrong?".............hey, it's a Ducati club run......

Just 20mtrs down an alleyway the 750GT has failed to proceed after putting up a great fight against newer machines all morning. He has a dead flat rear tyre! It's a tubed tyre so none of us has any hope of helping...... I suggest getting some air from a nearby servo to see if it was a valve issue and we limp up to the mobil.......dammit, the air is U/S....so the Prez opens the mini pump kit which plugs into the battery charger lead, and it whirr's for a few seconds and stops says the crow! We cannot see a puncture so we limp to another servo, nozzle won't fit onto valve stem, we limp to another servo, Success, air flows in. We pour water over the tyre but there's no telltale bubbles. So the hapless GT bevel rider has to call roadside assist or family for a rescue and the last two helpers (that's me and a monster rider) depart 30mins behind the main group.

We had a good run all the way to Grafton without rain, over bumps and lumps, damp roads, via a lookout (Raspberry Ridge), down the Gwydir Range and onto the old bridge from Sth Grafton across the big river whereupon it started raining on us. Ah well, we got in dry enough.....time for a shower and BEERS.

Dinner was at a posh Indian restaurant in a refurbished historical bank building - very nice!

A quiet beer before bed allowed us to observe the mating rituals of the Saturday night locals at the Crown Hotel......so that's what I've been doing wrong all these years

Worst night's sleep for decades..... mosquitoes, heat, humidity, No Aircon in the pub rooms ( only in the motel rooms), 4am cleaners hosing down last night's mess, aaaah, time for breakfast around the corner and the run back home.

Good little 900km jaunt, only one loss due a flat tyre mystery ( he texted the prez to explain the tyre held pressure after we had left him, and his wife had driven out to Stanthorpe to trailer him home for nothing) - that's the problem with tubed vintage bikes. It's too hard to repair and go vs tubeless tyres.

I had to switch my phone off to stop the tight load in my tank bag from continually activating the screen so didn't take many pics, but these will do......

Meet at Macca's on Saturday, breakfast in Grafton on Sunday........and the GT in happier times....

PS..

I didn't do the Old Grafton Rd option, and from what the Desert X & KTM 1290SA guys said....I'm glad I didn't.....they turned up muddy and knackered well into my beer &BS session......

It's Saturday aaaaand.....it's coooool 👌

About bloodytimetoo I say......

Oh, yeah, there's a club ride up to Toowoomba for a bike show at the YamaZuki shop.....gotta go, long haul to get to BP Haigsleigh by 7.30........

Nice run along the arterial, very light traffic so easy to stay clear of tossers.

Mind numbing run up the highway to too-bloody-woomba (the bike devouring black hole of SE Qld).

Somehow I become lead rider in Margret st, oh , it's been a while but I think I know how to get there...

Well, we got to the show but.....we had a slight detour when I mistook the entry to Bunnings Hardware for the street we needed.....ahem, score zero for navigation.....but I was only one driveway short as Bridge street was the next set of lights.

Anyway, the old bikes from the hysterical club were on display, and out Ducati club was on display, and there was a very GREEN Lamborghini parked in front of the bike shop....ON DISPLAY......so I needed a to start the morning, and had a wander around for an hour.

time to head back to Gatton for lunch at Tins & Trays, via Flagstone Crk.....if we don't get lost trying to find Picnic Point .

Nice day out, lovely and cool, not the greatest show display but it got us out for a ride so .

Sadly the car traffic on the highway legs was nothing to be proud of.......no incidents but, well you know, that's what we are sharing the roads with so watch out .

PS We had a Bayliss21 along with two V4's (my MS & a SF) as well as 2 Bevels and some MS's and Munsters. Just short of 30 riders.

dangit, lost the 1st pic and had to tack it on last.

Cheers SRA,

I should admit to channeling a 4' dynamo of a Sheila who rode her KTM 390 thousands of kms around Australia, writing about her solo adventures.

I think I was the only KTM forum member literate enough to respond and encourage her story telling - she was really good! I was hooked. A true adventurer......not like me, a big sook that only rides with groups for company 🤭 ....... . Well, I did do some solo long range stuff in my late 20's.......when I thought I was indestructible .

I enjoy gathering my thoughts at the end of the day (after a hot shower) and weaving a story around whatever photo's I thought to take. It adds to my day and keeps me interested in riding.

If there's a chuckle in it and I've put a smile on someone's dial, that's a bonus......

PS My looong awaited QD module has been "exported" but I guess that just means it's waiting for a plane......but hopefully it will arrive next week.

I hope it makes a difference, for what it cost and how long it took to manufacture .

Car goes back in on monday for remedial repairs to the substandard repairs, so I hope that goes well too......

Well, k me drunk.....my QD tuner turns up 4 months after ordering and naturally I couldn't get it to read my ecu . Tried 3 times, making certain I was following the U tube tutorial but the scent of failure was the same each time 🤪......oh well, emailed QD for advice after they recover from drinking too much wine with the pope 😇.

So no test ride this long weekend..... the weather was perfect .......dammit.

Today I pulled the wheels off ready for new hoops on Tuesday.......can't take a trick this year.....rang the Duke shoppe to book in for tyres sometime in the next 2weeks and they said sure, drop in on Tuesday, you're booked in....... there goes $600 bucks, but I need new tyres for a 2 night trip to Inverell for the restorers rally followed by a Ducati club event the following weekend at the end of the month....could've scraped those two rides in with the tread left but I will have a passenger on the club run and I don't want to be 'that guy' that gets a puncture because he was too tight to put new deep treads on .

My tyres are 18,000kms and 1 year old, with 2mm above the wear indicators - so ok for day rides locally - but they've done their job - I'll grease the bearings when I put the wheels back in........and enjoy the riding.

Sure wish that QD tuner had worked - hope it's something simple to rectify........

Pic is today....my phone prompted me with a 1 year ago anniversary pic of the same thing - tyres & fork seals that time.....bike up on blocks, wheels out....groundhog day...

Well that was a big job, but glad it's done..

Greased wheel bearings! What were you thinking I mean't .

I've gone to the dark side and fitted Michelin's ready for several longer ride weekends. My Scorpions were still good & grippy but had 18k kms and we're nearing the center wear indicators - ok for a couple of months of close in day rides but not for the longer ranging 2-3 day trips coming up.

So an R6 on the rear, and an R5 on the front (nil stock of R6 Fr).

Took the time to pop the bearing seals & covers off to inspect and grease all the bearings - they all had factory grease, but the sprocket carrier bearings had visibly less than the wheel bearings......all topped up now .

Wheels back on, now to recheck the Speedo error and do a tyre calibration procedure.

No luck with the QD tuning module....4 attempts, 4 fails, Italy wanted me to make a video.....bugger that, I'll ask the local QD agent for help and pay to have him do it......that's far simpler than trying to communicate with the other side of the planet.

My Ducati service tech suggested it could be a windows 10 issue preventing the software from doing it's thing, but it all works as per the tutorial until it tries to read the original ecu.......

A mystery in need of an expert....

Ok kids, listen up, the old man has been up to no good........

Sort of......

Club run today with 24 machines of all sorts and sizes. Lunch run to the Exchange Hotel in Kyogle via Chillingham, Uki....so lots of corners to scrub in my new Michelin R6 tyres.

It's warmed up too much though, 21c heading for 29c max......jeans and vented jackets back in fashion after week or two of proper chilly riding weather .

Oh, the tyres...... YES, they are great! I know they are new, and all new tyres feel wonderful, but these have settled into shape and have a lovely profile and feel superbike grippy. Made me feel like a star .

My day was good, but spoiled somewhat by the car repair saga - which seems to have no end in sight - and I've not slept well either, so I have to be extra thoughtful and not lose my perspective.

But a beer and some pub grub was a great diversion from my troubles .

Sun was at a painful angle so I didn't take many pics but here's 3 for fun......

Start line mayhem, nice 916?, regroup line up on Hinze's Raceway at Advancetown......

Great......car is back in my garage, 99% fuxed .

Only one unfinished issue, quickly dealt with (by me) looks fine, drives like new, so I'm FREE again........

What to do with my newfound freedom ......

Oh, that's right, this weekend is/was the Doocatti Club's Bevel & BS signature event so I'm off.....no really, I was off to Tenterfield via lunch at Desmo HQ in beautiful Byron Bay, then accom for the night in 4* luxury at Tenterfield with a fancy dinner amongst the sparkling 40yo Bevel's that were thrashed mercilessly by their loving owners via the fabulous Bruxner hwy.

What a hoot.....the Bruxner is in great condition and the new route via Bangalow was also FAB .

Michelin R6 tyres are a revelation.....they are fantastic......not just because they are new, but they really suit the V4MS and give the bike sports tyre performance. I love em

I woke before the alarm on Saturday morning having not slept like a log as I usually do...

Picked up pillion Barbarella as planned and took off with side cases & top box stuffed full to max.

The start was a little late and bugger me, bikes went in all directions instead of following the planned route to Canungra, Chillingham, Murwillumbah, Burringbar.......but we all made it for lunch , - don't get in the way of a hungry Ducati rider.......

Oh man, the local young stuff are soooo beautiful ......I thought I had passed out and gone to ....errr, back to reality, I'm one of the last to leave.....how the k did 30 odd Bevel heads sneak away without making any noise?

I knew the way so led the stragglers to Bangalow but I was feeling tired now from the poor nights sleep and just wanted have a snooze...... The pack dropped off my tail at Drake (wee break) so I was free to tackle the mountain range without any pressure from behind - hang on Barb, I am feeling - into the zone I go.........what a ride , no mistakes, clean, smooth, k I'm good, a legend in my own mind - Barb said so, so it must be true!

Anyway, I made a fair fist of the endless corners until an oncoming Subaroo Forrester drifted over double whites on an apex before correcting, shattering my invincible godlike aura...... Oh well, I'd had enough fun so I was happy to putter on to Tenterfield at cruise speeds.......No need to tempt the fickle finger of fate......

We had a great party surrounded by the Impressive array of machinery and an interesting talk with Ian Gowanlock.....master Ducati engineer and world renowned performance engine builder.

Sunday saw another cloudy but fine day so we headed up the hwy to Sutton's Farm for Apple Strudel and , then back south to Stanthorpe to get onto the Mt Lindsay hwy to Legume. All bitumen now (though the Stanthorpe- Tenterfield section still has 5kms of roadwork dirt as of 1 week ago ....I have reliable sources).

That was a magic run, but after Legume we turned for Wodenbong (I'm 'n serious....that's a real name!). Now that was, until today, one of the states WORST roads. It's being transformed as I tap, into a biking wonderworld of amazing corners and beautiful scenery.....we paid our respect, had fun, made sure we didn't crash, but WHATAHOOT that was. Only a short section of tennis court roadworks and the rest was MGP track......we even passed a convoy of camper vans towing group A race cars up to Willowbank Raceway......they weren't giving up easily so I went supersonic to get around - I reckon they knew we would, and just wanted to see us at full noise ......Oh, Pillion Barb enjoyed that outburst too...........my V4MS is a weapon and the suspension is fantabulous on Sport-Auto Levelling with close to max load luggage and with those utterly fantastic R6 tyres.......2 up!

Great weekender, only 2 Bevels had a ride in the club's 'Trailer of Shame' - one was restarted and able to continue, the other had to be left at Desmo HQ Byron Bay so Arthur Davis could sort it out during the week.

No casualties, no permanent losses, over 100 DOCQ members misbehaving and riding their beloved vintage machines......Lifesgreatmate .

A few schnapps for teasers.....oh, and no furry critters were harmed in the making of this story - well, not by us anyway.......

.....new oil & filter - engine was rattly and it was at half service interval so out with the black watery stuff and in with the very clear looking new stuff....... The shop can do the next one in 7.6k kms .

So tyres checked after the 700km flogging they got with two up + luggage and they are well sealed with almost no air lost - ready for Thursday's "Pensioners on Multistrada's" ride .

Engine doesn't rattle any longer.......

Things are looking up at last.....we've found a new shoppe with aircon, heaps of parking and nice food......just as well because this morning's news was all about a big factory fire in the complex where we used to go for (Extractions). That fire was in the Pool Shop factory and it put two fire fighters into hospital and no doubt closed the other businesses as there were fire trucks everywhere from 2.30am through to late morning today!

About time my new years luck came good.......

Checked the Tucson's wheel base at long last, fearing nothing repaired could ever be as good as new, but the tape doesn't lie.....both sides measure equal wheelbase and that is reflected in how it feels on the road.....so it was a long saga getting repairs done, then corrected, but now it's like new again......and checks out straight and true .

A keeper......until an EV version tempts me off the fossil fuels .

I see there are multiple Ducati World 'We Ride As One' events on this Saturday......not too sure about these large shop rides with strangers.....but it conflicts with my regular old boys club anyway, but if we cancel..............I could always slobber over that Pikes Peak.......even though I already have a perfect bike .

Here's to more good news and no more bad luck .

Stillrollinalong said:

What oil are you using Dave, you shouldn't end up with rattles with modern oils.

Glad to hear the Tuscon is right now.

Click to expand...

Cheers SRA,

All engines go rattly with degraded oils. Once changed the noises miraculously disappear - tells me something about service schedules... and marketing...

Motorex Top Speed 15w50 is a mid strength full synthetic modern oil formulation for road riding conditions.

7,300 hot Qld summer, traction controlled, slipper clutched, high rpm (not all the time), traffic congested & speed camera controlled kms.

Oil has done it's job and needs a holiday......

I wish manufacturers included an oil pressure gauge/readout so we could monitor when an oil is losing it's mojo, but they don't, so it's easier for me to ditch it halfway and stay with the manufacturer's 15k scheduled servicing. They are less confused when I book in.

The car is sorted 🥳 and I'm happy now - but why do we have to fight for a good job or meekly accept y workmanship? Should have been done right the first time through the repair shop .

All's well that ends well I suppose.