Australian_Trailrider_2016_02_03

The National Motorcycle Museum at Nabiac will blow your
mind. It’s way, way bigger than you would ever imagine
and at last count had a whopping 800 bikes on display.

Gorgeously restored 1969 Yamaha DT1

at the Nabiac Motorcycle Museum.

Highway, after which we kept on trekking west all the

way to Emmaville and then on to Inverell and our next

overnight stop at the Sapphire City Motel.

It was a very solid day but you couldn’t wipe the

smiles from our faces, least of all when the bowlo

is right across the road and any meal there can be

capped off with a delicious mini pav and ice cream

— too good.

THAT’S NO BULL

Inverell is in the heart of cattle country and the

heifers were out in force as we made our getaway

at dawn the next morning. We went west and then

looped south around Copeton Dam, then hit the cattle

stations good and proper. But with a stack of recent

rain, the countryside was lush and green and the

grass about a metre deep — just the right height to

camoufl age the cows until they lifted their heads and

stepped out in front of you!

Tracking dead south we romped through the

countryside all the way to Bendemeer and popped

straight across the New England Highway to follow

more dirt roads right the way into Walcha again, for

another stop at the Royal Cafe.

Filling the bikes and fi lling our bellies, we settled

in for another solid afternoon of riding, which this

time took us south-west out of Walcha on pretty

much a bee-line to Nundle. We watered things down

with a quick lemon squash at the pub before pushing

on further south over Crawney Pass and along Isaacs

Creek Road and Pages Creek Road to Ellerston and

south down to Moonan Flat.

Just before Moonan we threw a left and made

the long and winding climb up Moonan Brook Road

and Barrington Tops Forest Road to head across

Barrington Tops, where this time around the weather

was absolutely mint — compared to the last time I

had been up there in the middle of summer and the

Tops were buried in fog and the place felt like it was

close to being covered in snow.

We dropped down the eastern side of the Tops and

eventually rumbled into Gloucester, grabbed some

fuel and a dog’s eye from a servo, and then Russ and

I glued ourselves onto the Prof’s rear wheel as he

set sail cross-country back to his home near

Raymond Terrace.

We hit MotorcycleBiz HQ with about an hour of

light remaining, so with that Russ and I bid a fast

farewell to the Prof and headed for the M1 and the

last fast blast back to the big smoke.

In three full days we had nailed down over

1700km on a route that included not only every type

of ADV riding, but a motorcycle museum visit as

well — and no less than two sly feeds of dirty bird

along the way.

Truth be told, though, we barely scratched the

surface of all the riding that’s on offer in northern

NSW — but that just means there’s plenty more left

for next time. Perfect.

It is simply staggering the number

of bikes (around 800!) the museum

owners have on display