New to me mk1 Camel in OZ.

[Steve Brown]

What a place! Some interesting old Japanese bikes there too-I'll take all the Yamaha twins if he has a clearout! And I wonder how the 500 ended up with a drum front brake? Another story of some mishap and a bush fix I suppose!
Is he selling anything?

[rossguzzi]

He tends not to sell anything. He said he didnt like the mag wheels on the 500 so he chucked a Suzuki drum on it.

One of the wild things he did many years ago.
Take one Honda Goldwing, put sidecar on it. Replace engine with VW motor. Then gearbox with some sort of auto shift. Then eventually it ends up with a Leyland v8 auto shift driving both back wheels with tractor type tyres. Amazing in the dirt !

More on Tom (Toad)
https://www.bikeshedtimes.com/the-man-t ... ne-wanted/

[rossguzzi]

Getting there

[rossguzzi]

Tank now fitted properly. Inline fuel filters, key bracket (as key would have been inaccessible) coils moved inboard a little, lots of little things to get it right. Closed cell rubber up the rear of the tank, but later on I will get the mk2 seat adapted and recovered to fit up to the tank properly.
I think it will hold 15 lts each side. If so thats about 600 km range. There were some outback rides planned later this year, but Covid has buggered that.
Here she is.

[rossguzzi]

Bit of a test ride to see if nothing hits/rubs etc.
All good.

[stradella]

It looks very nice!

[rossguzzi]

A pic from a recent ride. Between these towns, there isn`t much !

[Steve Brown]

With the big tank I reckon you could get to Geraldton but not sure about 700 odd K's leg!

[rossguzzi]

I really want to get a pic of my bike parked in the back of this shot. At Perth`s main station.

[morini_tom]

PLEEEEEAAAAASSSSE do that, would absolutely make the club calendar I think

[rossguzzi]

Somehow I don't think management will allow me to do it.

[rossguzzi]

Update,

I`m doing a few things to get it ready for a little ride 'up north'.
Going to trailer it to Exmouth. That is around 1250 kms north of the capital Perth, of Western Australia, where I live. There is an unofficial rally to a place called Mt Augustus about 400 kms inland from there. It`s the place of he largest rock in the world. You may have heard of Ayers rock or Ularu, but that is not as big.
Exmouth is near Coral bay. A coral reef runs so close to the coast, you can walk in the water and see it. Spectacular. After a few days there (I will drive and trailer the bike) my wife and boy (nearly 7) will fly up. THen I will leave them there and ride aprox 400lm inland to Mt Augustus. Have a few drinks with some other crazy desert lovers and ride back. August 8&9. Camping the night with a few sherries, or ales will be very therapeutic.
Then it will be a return back to city ho hum.
Will post some pics then.
In the meantime Im checking swingarm bushes, wheel bearings, muffler joint repaired, filter skins oiled and wrapped around air filters, choke cables fitted with lever up near handlebars, large fuel tank sealed where it has small pin hole leaks, oil change, new plugs etc.

Here is a short video of some guys I did a ride with a few years ago. It goes through Mt Augustus region. https://youtu.be/cP8alx_MKx8
Another one of a ride I was on my KTM 990. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL44EAyz8Qc

Cheers.

[rossguzzi]

Heading off tomorrow morning. Did a little shake down ride on Sunday. All seems good. Wish me luck.
Here is a link to the route.https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/Exmo ... 24.325!3e0 Click onto satellite image for a view of the red earth
And a pic loaded, ready to go.

[Steve Brown]

Now that looks a proper trail ride! We have nowt to compare here, sadly. Have a great trip and make sure we get the full story!

[rossguzzi]

Update,

So I trailered the bike up to Exmouth in the North West of Australia for my adventure. That is about 1250 kms from home, here in Perth. We are lucky that when Covid broke out the government closed roads and tracks coming into WA. So we now have no cases of the virus in WA so we are free to travel anywhere in this huge state.
The wife and boy flew up and I spent 2 days with them snorkelling on the coral reef etc then I loaded the bike for the ride. Plan was I was going to ride to Mt Augustas. Get on the vinegar with a bunch of desert diehards and return back to Exmouth.
It would have been smooth sailing except there was bad weather coming in. Now in the outback, if there is enough rain the councils can and do shut tracks. If you get caught riding/driving on a shut road/track (they sometimes call tracks up there, roads) you can get a $1000 fine for each wheel. Imagine a road train getting caught ??? It is because the damage to the track it can cause.

So, I headed off from Exmouth Saturday morning for 180 kms on the road to my fuel dump. I dropped off a 20 lt can before so I could load 10 now and 10 on the way back. I was expecting to do about 500 each way with no fuel stops, or actually no shops/nothing in between.
Now the only thing in the back of my mind was the weather. After about 150 kms I stopped and realised I might not make the planned destination. The track was a bit rougher than I thought it was going to be. So that both slowed me and was quite tiring. I decided to make camp and first thing in the morning get back to the highway as soon as I could. I spent a beautiful night in the middle of nowhere. Stars like you wouldn't believe washed down with some red wine and I was asleep at 9.
Morning broke and I just got off the track before rain started. The ride back to Exmouth was straight into a 45kph wind. I cranked up the throttle and sat on about 90 95 and got back before the worst of the rain hit.

I would have loved to have caught up with the 40 or so riders that came from as far as Esperance on the south coast. Before Covid hit, some people were to have come from the other side of OZ. But I have travelled enough in the outback to know how things can go wrong very quickly. My gut feeling was to cut my losses and get back out to the hwy asap. Later it dawned on me that the biggest issue could have been just getting the bike started if I was caught on the track in the rain. I mostly need to get the bike on the center stand to get a good swing on the kick starter. After rain, the rock hard ground goes to goop. So starting it while on the bike with muddy boots, was not something I wanted to have to do. Remember sometimes no cars come by.

Anyway, apart from that the bike went surprisingly good. I averaged 20 kpl. Sitting on 90 95 was comfy. Any more and it got a bit viby, which was not noticeable on the dirt. The bigger corrugations slowed the bike from a comfortable 80kph to sometimes 50. My old KTM 990 Adventure with tuned suspension would have breezed over these types of tracks. But those bikes are big handfulls at slow speeds etc. The Camel, even loaded up was much lighter.

I have a better idea of what the bike is capable of now. I may have another get together of the old buggers soon down at Lake Dumbleyung. I did this ride last yoear on the Camel. This time I may incorporate some dirt on the way.

After getting home I recieved a package from Mdina. It was the swingarm spindle and bushes I ordered. Even after asking them to check them before posting, they are not a match. I havnt worked out which part is incorrect yet, but the spindle is 15mm diam and the id of the bush is 18mm. The other thing I have done apart from cleaning the bike was to check my airfilters. I got some airfilter skins from another bike, cut and stiched up 6 pairs. I keep oiled ones in a glad bag ready to swap with dirty ones. Works a treat. Now I just need to lift the tank off, undo the tops of the airbox, lift out filter, peel off skin, fit clean skin, reassemble. 10 minute job. Happy !

So here are some pics. Some better ones are in another camera that I will get to access soon and add more.

Hope you enjoyed.

I did.