Cape York by motor bike

What's your fuel range ?

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Friends of mine - girls , have done it twice now but using the organized tours.

We tossed up a lot about either crossing Simpson or Cape York from melbourne and ended by doing Simpson on bikes this (last) year.


We will probably do the cape trip as our friends did, because we have driven many of the few roads in cape york and tours have access to non-public areas.

In doing the simpson we had a few support issues but carried everything we ended up needing.

It looks harder and significantly more expensive to support a cape bike trip from melbourne as opposed to plane and bike option.
The downside of the tour approach for our friends was a tendency to have to keep up with the pack even when tired and a couple of accidents and broken bones were the result on one trip.
I will ensure I go with enough friends to ensure we control the pace of the ride.

The tours often seem to use DRZ400's which I have and is about as fat as I think one should go - on our simpson bike trip we lent a lot of support to other groups on overweight 650's who had significant trouble.

G'day mark,

A work mate did this trip with a group of friends last winter - had a ball.

They all got to Cairns and took off from there on the bikes. The had one support vehicle - a L'Cruiser ute I think - that was pretty well loaded with gear, fuel and food.

If you need more details let me know and I'll speak to my mate.


Tim - Stratford.

Hi Mark,

A mate of my Brother-in-law did it last year solo. If you give me your email or send me one I will forward the email of his trip plus photos for you to look at. This will also have his email address and I'm sure he would be happy to correspond about his trip and any tips he could provide.

Cheers
Evan

Hi Mark , we have done it twice from SA , in 82 ( 4 Bikes) and 89 ( 10 bikes), both times unsupported, we carried everything on the bikes,
First time I was on a XR500 with a 15 ltr tank and carried 5 ltrs on the back , and in 89 I rode my XR600 with a Acerbus 20ltr tank and had no problems with fuel , our longest span was on the Birdville track .
We took 2.5 weeks from here, went straight up thru the middle to the tip and then came down the coast to Mackay and the cut back home thru Bourke and Broken Hill.
We did 9.000 ks and we ran knobbies which lasted the whole trip
I drowned my XR as the first one to cross the Wenlock ( rode where I crossed the trip before but it was washed out ) but now you have a causeway so no probs ,
Wish I was going with you , have a great trip.
Cheers Des.

a mate and myself did it in 1983 Iwas on XT550 he was on XR500 had a F100 as back up . i rode 2 up with my girlfriend up as far as Weipa but her legs cramped up from the swing arm movement so she jumped in the truck .it was an excellent trip
mechpete.
PS, 50 cents / lt then

Hi Mark, I'm one of the girls Robin Miller spoke of. We left Weipa in Aug 2004, rode through some private property, but really most of it was along the old telegraph track. Fuel is available at the Jardine crossing and at Bramwell and Moreton Stations, so fuel isn't really much of a problem as long as you can top up once a day. As I have been told, the trip from Cairns to Moreton Station is really very basic - a bit of bulldust but basically a main dirt road. Once on the Old Telegraph track though it is a different story. Sand, sand and more sand - some softer than beach sand by far. Keeping your speed up is the only way, but you have to be so careful for oncoming traffic. Best to have the 4wd way up in front to warn others.Punsand Bay was our base once we made the tip and that was great. All creek crossings were ok, but that was August, and I heard some had to pole their bikes across in the June/July, so a lot depends on the rainfall for that year. The pole/branch crossings aren't too bad, the only other trouble I recall is the 'ironstones', they are killers. Some like ballbearings, some the size of basketballs and all of them like hitting something harder than concrete - especially with sand pressure tyres. They are definitely a 'what the -----' when hit. Enjoy it, wish I could do it again. Have to set a new record as I was the oldest woman to have ridden the track back in 2004. All the best, Jan

Mark,
Your mate didn't happen to hail from Ulladulla did he and own one of the very first Yamaha Tenere's in Australia?

We met two blokes in Weipa around that time who'd ridden that far on a pair of Tenere's, they'd had a ball.

Up to that point in the trip they reckoned Weipa was the hardest as the roads were made from bauxite ball bearings! Roll on the throttle too quickly and it was all fish tail.

At the time the mates and I talked about going back with our bikes and using my then vehcle, a Landcruiser tabletop as support.

For various reasons, most related to marriage we never did.

I worked with a guy several years back who did it with one of the bike tour companies, apparently they had a ball.

They apparently did it early in the new season and the company hadn't received all of their new bikes at that stage. Some of them did the trip on some really well worn last season bikes.

I'd still love to do what the mates and I planned, one day!

Geoff

Last august saw a young Japanesse uni student do the OTL on a pushbike , at same time another one doing the track on a honda 110 posti bike , he had fallen off so many times that when he got to bamaga it was straight to the hospital ,got himself patched and turned straight back to Cairns without seeing the "tip" , push bike rider took the boat back as had had enough.