So you have a little bike and think you can't tour?

(I'm probably setting myself up for fail but here we go).

Most people think having a little learner legal bike means they can't do touring. No, you probably are going to struggle doing a 50 hours coast-to-coast (50cc) in Australia without experience on a little bike and you can definitely tour more easily on a larger bike. It's not impossible, though, and on the weekend, I'll show you how.

I agreed to take the CB250 of [MENTION=36833]Annette[/MENTION] up to Brisbane. Now, in terms of the performance scale, a CBR125R would probably be as fast (though potentially not as comfortable). It's on par with a CBF250. A CBR250R would smoke it for touring, a Ninja 250R even more so... and the inline 4s would romp it in though your arse might hurt a bit (no worse than somelad's R1-arse though).

I'm actually heading up to Brisbane for a conference and fortunately one of the people who works for me has nicely agreed to take my luggage. So I'll be tankbag and backpacking it up there. I know [MENTION=40853]Geoff[/MENTION] and [MENTION=7983]MIZ RX3[/MENTION] will be closely monitoring the progress, too, so I've organised to borrow a SPOT from a friend at work who does stupid long distance stuff all the time. He'll act as my contact point probably, cause the alerts from his SPOT go to his email address .

Since it's a CB250 and it's not mine and I don't feel like pushing it, I'll be doing it in two days, along the following route:
http://goo.gl/maps/QW2H3

Essentially: Canberra-Goulburn-Oberon-Musswelbrook-Tamworth-Armidale-Tenterfield (987 km - so going to be 12+ hours) on day 1, then Tenterfield-Casino-Kyogle-Beaudesert-scoot around the west of Brisbane-Dayboro-Mount Mee-Melany-down to the Sunshine Coast (450 km, with some slow bits at least 7 hours).

Ambitious, yes, hopefully not rubbish. I could just slab it up (and even do that in one day) but where's the fun in that? That route takes in some of the fun roads on the way without doing stuff that would require a bit more pushing it (e.g. nipping down the Oxley -- Wauchope to Walcha -- and back up a bit further north).

In this thread I'll cover the prep stuff I'm taking, some thoughts on doing this sort of stuff, then hopefully some pics and reports from along the way. Day one is going to be a long day, hopefully giving me more time because the Lions Road (Casino-Kyogle-Beaudesert) can be slippery on the wooden bridges and the stuff around the west of Brisbane can be a bit slow too (but some of the best riding roads: the * Coast Hinterlands in Queensland and the Glasshouse Mtns is up there with the best).

Hopefully it gives off the fact that yes, you can tour on a 'slow' bike.

 

Slow is how it'll go. But doable.

I'm well padded .

Yep, I remember you doing that and thought of it when Stace and I drove up for Christmas... less sight-seeing when we drove. Should be fine, but I did want to point to the learners it's possible.

Yep, stayed there for work. Reworking timing I might not make it to Tenterfield on Day 1 as I'm not so keen on Glen Innes-Tenterfield in the dark on someone else's bike... but we'll see .

 

Both would be appreciated (never stayed in Glen Innes) .

 

Daggy is how I roll... and I sleep through my own snoring, the trucks might complain if I sleep near the highway .