So the rest of our 2022 rides back home in Oz were fairly ‘tame’. We rode up to Urunga via Sydney for the V Wall Muster in September… Once again we failed to read the directions correctly and showed up late for the formalities. Happily most people were able to stick around for afternoon drinks and dinner and we caught up with a few familiar IBA faces.

Probably signalling my lack of ride fitness, I was very tired by the time we hit Urunga, needing an afternoon nap and a quiet walk in the bay to reset. By Sunday it was a slog getting back to Canberra in a single day. The traffic getting past Newcastle was hectic and spending the whole day riding the freeways of the east coast is not really my ideal way to spend a Sunday. Happily the spectacular rainbow over Lake George at the end of the ride helped lift my spirits.

The standard BMW seat on the new R1200RT didn’t help with comfort or fatigue and I was very happy to see it depart for Mick’s workshop at MJM in Goulburn for a makeover.

Our final ride for 2022 (29 December) was a bit of a fizzer. We were aiming to ride out to Mildura for lunch and back that night to complete my first SS1600 in 3 years. Unfortunately around an hour into the ride, Kiwi strained his neck and back looking back over his shoulder after overtaking a truck. So we headed back to Canberra, making a call we didn’t want to be stuck somewhere on the Hay Plains with an injured rider. I have my licence but I can’t get my feet on the ground on the RT and have no experience with a pillion. That day didn’t seem like the day to test that.

No photos of that ride, as it started and finished in the dark. We also ended up with a punctured radiator when we stopped back in Canberra – so clearly we’d had a day of ‘good decision making’. I think overall we’re getting better at making better decisions on these rides, which I’m hoping will set us up well (or at least better) for the IBR.

So that was 2022. For me and my ride fitness, not necessarily a good indicator of likely future success in the IBR. So more work to do. So that’s what’s next.