Drew Jackson, Rick Carbis and Andy Carmichael rode all the way from Townsville (QLD) to attend the 2023 Rally in Bethanga!

Here’s Drew’s account of the long ride down and back.

Then There Were Two.
Alternatively:  Three SR500s to Bethanga 2023.

The idea of riding our SRs all the way from Townsville to Bethanga on the Hume Weir was first floated by Rick after riding to the annual SR500 Club Rally from Warwick in 2022. “Why don’t we ride all the way next year?”, asked Rick. My silence should have been sufficient response. Then Andy, who had an SR with a very worn engine, said he’d like to do it if he didn’t have to camp. The stories we told about getting soaked in 2022 and then riding home via Tumbarumba and Batlow in the cold discouraged the camping option. I had intended to do my usual thing and carry [trailer] the SR to Warwick and ride from there.

Bike preparations were still under way at Andy’s place two days before departure. My bike received a new set of sprockets and chain, tyres, valve check and oil and filter change. I added Slime to my tyres to prevent sudden deflation and to seal any small punctures. I added some zip ties, chain lube, a litre of 20W-50, and a roll of Gorilla tape. The others packed enough tools to do an engine rebuild on the side of the road.

We departed on Sunday morning from the BP service station at Cluden after a coffee. Our first stop for fuel was at Charters Towers. My bike had used 6.6 L to cover 140 km. The next fuel available was at Belyando Crossing, the only fuel available between Charters Towers and Clermont – a distance of about 370 km. The fuel here is expensive. Clermont was next where we refuelled and had lunch at the Commercial Hotel. Rick’s SR refused to start after lunch and needed a new plug to get it going. Our destination for the day was Emerald and the trip meter ticked over 639 km – 10% of the journey done.

Day two, we were headed for Eidsvold. We stopped for breakfast after an early start at Duaringa, another place with expensive fuel. Rick need some Loctite to secure his throttle lock. After arriving in Eidsvold we had a go at fixing my indicators. There was a blown fuse and they worked with the engine off. Later, we actually fixed them by wiring in a new indicator can. The Star Hotel has increased its prices for the rooms and is no longer on my recommended list.

Day three, we headed towards Warwick, Durong and Dalby. We had a good breakfast in Mundubbera at the bakery. The roads in the Burnett are varied with some narrow bitumen and some that could throw you out of your seat. The roadhouse at Darr’s Creek has good food and coffee; their bacon and egg burgers are among the best I’ve had. We stopped at a friend’s place to admire his collection of classic cars and bikes. We were running ahead of time so I took the scenic route through Toowoomba, called ‘the bypass’. It was then on to Nobby, Steele Rudd country and the home of Sister Kenny who revolutionised the treatment of polio victims. From here we went to the Irish Pub in Clifton for a Guinness before I took them through the backroads to Allora and Warwick. We stayed with my sister in Warwick who has been very generous in hosting small groups of my riding friends over the years. We did a few running repairs to the bikes after visiting the local Repco store. My indicators were fixed (thanks, Andy) and the oil leaking from Andy’s tacho drive was ‘sort of’ sorted. My bike needed some oil – about 150 mL. Total distance so far: 1,639 km.

The next morning, we were off to Gloucester and the very good Roundabout Hotel. They provide a lock-up garage for the bikes and rooms at reasonable rates. We headed down the New England Hwy and had breakfast in Stanthorpe, before tackling Bolivia Hill, before heading to Glen Innes. Here we had a disaster of Biblical proportions – Rick dropped a full bottle of Chivas Regal on the driveway of the servo. It smelt great, intoxicating even, but undrinkable. From this point on I was given the task of transporting the vital supplies as I had plenty of space in my panniers as they weren’t bulging with tools and spares. The ride from Uralla to Walcha is fine, but the ride from Walcha to Gloucester is finer. The long hills required a run up and a downshift on my bike as I had raised the gearing to 17/42. There were lots of big adventure bikes headed for Walcha as there was a big rally on there in the coming days. There were plenty of BMW GSs, as well and a couple of Husqvarna 701s. The last few kilometres into Gloucester were good fun. We had now completed 2,120 km – so one third of the ride completed.

The ride from Gloucester, the next morning, to Singleton was over a road that was just a series of patched patches, but the corners were fun. We got separated in Singleton by the heavy traffic before being reunited at the Ampol on top of the hill. We headed to Denman where we had some more coffee. We took the shortcut out to the Bylong Valley Way. This is a great road with a couple of good twisty sections to enjoy. Our lunch stop was at the Rylstone Hotel, a place with good rooms and lock-up accommodation for bikes, but we were off to Bathurst where Andy insisted on doing a lap of The Mountain.

We indulged him by doing two. It was then to our motel for the night and the Irish pub for dinner and another Guinness. Luckily there was a Dan Murphy’s opposite the motel and a replacement bottle of Chivas was liberated from the shelves. It rained that night and the forecast for the next day was bleak.

An early start had us on the road through Perthville to Trunkey Creek. It was cold so we donned our wet weather gear to keep out the chill. The road from Trunkey Creek to Crookwell is another good ride on a bike – not a lot of traffic and plenty of corners. We had an encounter with wildlife when a kangaroo decided to hop down the road directly in front of me. It stayed on the centre line for some time. Doing a steady 40 kph, this ‘roo was not giving up his spot on the highway. From Crookwell, we went to Gunning, before joining the Hume Hwy to Gundagai. We sat behind a B Double that was doing a great job of punching a hole in the wind which allowed the bikes to cruise along easily. We left the highway at Gundagai and refuelled before looking for lunch. Andy and Rick joined a long line of coffee drinkers at the café. I decided to head off to Granya and Bethanga via Tumut, Batlow and Jingellic. The ride along the Murray Valley Hwy is always enjoyable with the Murray River on the right and good farmland surrounding it. I ran onto reserve just out of Bethanga. Andy and Rick continued on the Hume to Wodonga before turning up at the Rally site.

We eventually went to our accommodation at the Hume Resort to freshen up before riding back for dinner. The food at the Rally was very good as usual, and the desserts were brilliant. It was good to catch up with so many of the regulars. The ride back to the resort was pretty slow.

We woke early the next morning and arrived well before breakfast. We had a coffee and chatted with other early risers. Breakfast was excellent and we waited for the group to assemble for the ride to Tallangatta. This year there seemed to be a larger number of SR500s on the ride. After a coffee and curry pie, we headed back to the Rally for the Show ‘n’ Shine and the cricket. We arranged a taxi to get us to and from the Saturday night dinner. Again, excellent catering was on offer.

Andy was awarded the Long Distance Award this year. We were only half-way through the ride at just over 3,000 km. The taxi picked us up early so we didn’t get a chance to kill more redundant brain cells.

The return journey was via a different route. Our first stop was at Temora to look at the Aviation Museum. We used our seniors cards to get a discount on admission. Unfortunately, a large part of the collection was in Newcastle. We now had to choose which path to take. I thought heading to Gulgong would be the go, but in the end we headed for Dubbo, Parkes and Coonabaraban. We made good progress until the rain caught up with us just on dusk. We found a motel with a room for three and parked our bikes undercover. There was a Chinese restaurant across the road so that’s where we went. A good bottle of red and a banquet went down very well. The best Chinese food I’ve had in years.

Our goal the next day was Warwick again, but the rain was all around us. We dodged the rain to Gilgandra and only got light rain as we went through Manilla, Bingara and Warialda. I told the other two that the pub at Yetman was a good place for lunch. Wrong! It was closed! So we headed for Texas on the border. Texas used to have the cheapest fuel in Queensland – it wasn’t this time, but it was a lot cheaper than in NSW. We had lunch after refilling the bikes at a takeaway place in the main street. The food and coffee was excellent and the prices very reasonable. Rick went to the op shop to see if he could get a set of rain pants. The lady who ran the shop told him that her husband had a rain suit that he wanted to get rid of, so we waited for it to arrive. Free! It was a good fit. Friendly people, those Texans. We took the road through Green Up. Emus and kangaroos added to the flowing flood-ways. The Sena [intercom] came in handy to warn the others of hazards ahead. I used this road many times when I lived in the area. Then the heavens opened and visibility was terrible. Rick’s SR started to backfire and eventually stopped. WD40 got it running again. We pulled into the Karara Hotel and applied more WD40. We arrived in Warwick tired and wet. We spread out our gear to dry. We had a great meal and hit the hay early.

We were within striking distance of home now and we just wanted to get there as quickly as possible. We went to Dalby, back through Darr Creek for breakfast, and then to Munduberra. Here we refuelled before heading to Eidsvold. We intended to get to Rockhampton, the half-way point. From Eidsvold we took the Abercorn Road past the Bunyip Hole. This is where Rick went off the road and ended up in Rockhampton by helicopter and his bike back in Eidsvold on the back of a tow truck. His new rain suit was cut off in the hospital, as was his new SR Club t-shirt and his TRMCC jumper. He has six cracked vertebrae in his upper back and will require weeks of rest.

Meanwhile, Andy and I stayed in Monto for the night. If you’re going to fall off your bike, then Monto is the place to do it. The locals who came to our assistance were fantastic. The emergency workers were very professional and did a great job.

After all the drama we still had to go to Rocky and we dropped into the ED to see Rick in his birthday suit – all his clothes were in Eidsvold. Luckily, his wife had flown up from Brisbane and she’d been shopping for the essentials. After telling Rick that his bike was in good hands, it was time to push on.

Andy’s bike was starting to go downhill. The engine was struggling. It was amazing that it had made it this far. We headed north to Mackay. I have family in Mackay, so I spent the night with my grandkids and Andy pushed on to Townsville. He made it at about 8:30pm, his bike smoking and leaking oil from many places. I took my time and arrived home in Townsville just after midday. Total distance: 6,272 km.

My bike is still running well; the only casualties being the horn, the neutral light and a hairline crack in the muffler. I have fixed the horn. The bike was filthy, so I spent an hour cleaning it up. It still isn’t pretty, but it is half decent.

Would I ride to Bethanga again from Townsville on a Yamaha SR500? No, I would not! I’ve done it now. Next year, I might ride my R90S all the way.

Drew Jackson and Rick Carbis rode all the way from Warwick (QLD) to attend the 2022 Rally in Bethanga.

Here’s Drew’s account of the long ride down and back.

The Year of the Floods 2022

La Niña tried its hardest to stop us getting to Bethanga for the rally this year. With the pandemic intervening in previous years, and advancing age, it was worth the risk to head south and hope for the best. There had been heavy rain and storms in Central Queensland leading up to our departure, so we changed plans and rather than ride all the way from Townsville, we decided to take the bikes in the ute as far as Warwick and then ride the 1,510 km to Bethanga. Rick’s SR500E was a recent rebuild and it had only been on the road for a few weeks, and it was using a lot more fuel than normal, so it wasn’t fully sorted. With just days to go before departure, Rick was still building racks so he could mount his BMW’s Krauser panniers to the bike. While re-jetting his carburettor to fix the economy problem, he created a starting problem. He sorted that out after some advice from a friend. My bike had done the trip twice before, so I used the same old throw-overs and gear. The bikes were loaded into the ute with some modifications so that they’d fit with the tailgate partly closed, and a replica number plate attached. It was fully loaded.

The first overnight stop was in Eidsvold. We stayed at the Star Hotel that is currently undergoing extensive renovations. Our club [Townsville Restored Motorcycle Club] uses the Star regularly. The owner is friendly, and the prices are fair. We arrived in Warwick the following afternoon, unloaded the bikes, and set them up. Rick’s SR was very heavily loaded, and the side stand was struggling to cope. Eventually he shifted the tools to the opposite pannier to prevent it toppling over.

We did a side trip to Brisbane in the ute on Tuesday before arriving back in Warwick on Wednesday and getting on the way, south, at midday. We headed off on the New England Highway and stopped in Stanthorpe to check our fuel economy. Rick’s economy problem seemed to be solved. The hot start button was doing its job, almost. It wasn’t shutting off so the idle was staying high. We turned off the New England at Uralla and headed for Walcha down Thunderbolt’s Way. A very enjoyable ride. We stayed in the Commercial Hotel in Walcha where we were able to keep the bikes in a locked shed for the night.

The following morning, we repaired Rick’s cruise control and headed further south, towards Bathurst. This took us to Gloucester, Dungog and Singleton and then onto Denman, where we stopped for lunch and asked about a shortcut to the Bylong Valley Road and whether the road was open. We were told by a council worker that it was open to light vehicles. This is where we further practised the art of pothole dodging. This used to be a great ride, but the state of the road has deteriorated to the stage where it is only a good ride now. The tight, windy bits are still good. 30 kph posted corners are fun on an SR500. We stopped briefly in Sofala before arriving in Bathurst, and naturally we did a couple of laps of the track before finding our accommodation for the night in an Irish Pub that is under new management. We locked our bikes in the beer garden overnight. The Guinness was great and so was the food.

Friday morning, we headed off on the last leg. We turned off the main western highway and headed towards Crookwell via Trunkey Creek. The first time I rode this way there was still a section of dirt. Now it’s all bitumen with lots of corners and very little traffic. The posted advisory signs range from 15 kph to 55 kph. This road is a great way to travel south. We refuelled in Crookwell and headed for Gunning. We needed to get to Bethanga before dark, so we did the unthinkable and took the Hume Highway to Albury. We stopped in Gundagai for lunch. The Hume was boring, but it saved a bit of time. I told Rick that we’d do the more interesting route on the way home – Jingellic, Tumbarumba, Batlow and Tumut.

We arrived at the sports grounds to be met by Marcos who had kindly packed a couple of chairs for us. My odometer showed 1,510 km.

The rally was great, and it was good to catch up with people after all the lockdowns and restrictions. We’ve all aged that bit more.

On Saturday we rode to Dartmouth dam, and that was spectacular. We had lunch at Eskdale before returning to the rally through some light rain. Saturday night was good, with plenty of red grape juice and Rick taking home the Long Distance Award. I’m glad the trophy was easy to pack, as I don’t think his bike had room for much else.
The rain on Saturday night had managed to soak everything in my tent – sleeping bag, clothes, everything. I woke once the grape juice wore off and shivered and shook until morning.

Getting ready to leave meant putting on the least wet clothing we had and putting on our wet weather gear over the top to stop the wind chill. After breakfast we headed off home. It was raining and it was cold, especially around Batlow. Rick had gone numb. Once we came down off the high country to Gundagai, things improved. We headed to Jugiong for coffee, and then Harden and Bathurst and Rylstone. We stayed at the Globe Hotel in Rylstone. Highly recommended. The following morning it was off to Mudgee, Gunnedah, and eventually to Tamworth. Once we were back on the New England, it was an easy ride back to Warwick. I caught up with family over a Chinese takeaway meal after reloading the bikes into the ute for the trip back to Townsville.

The drive back north was uneventful. We stopped overnight in Dingo at the Motel before heading home via Emerald, Belyando Crossing and Charters Towers. The Holden returned 8.8 L/100 km for the 3000+ km trip, which is pretty good considering the load it was carrying.

Next year, Rick is determined to ride all the way – a 6,300 km round trip, depending on how many windy roads he takes.

Drew Jackson and John Davies rode all the way from Warwick (QLD) to attend the 2017 Rally in Bethanga.

Here’s Drew’s account of the long ride down and back!

The ride to the Rally began in Warwick on Wednesday [Nov 22] and it was raining. We usually ride down to the Bruxner Hwy via Killarney, Legume and the Tooloom Scrub to Urbenville and eventually to the Bruxner; however, with the rain, we decided to go directly down to Tenterfield on the New England Hwy.

Our bikes are good back-road tourers, but constant highway speeds seem a little cruel. The KL250 Kwaka is happy at 95 kph, and so is the SR, especially as the round trip will be about 3000 km.

The Bruxner Hwy from Tenterfield to Drake is a great ride with a good variety of corners, but take care, as there are a couple of corners posted at 30 kph that tighten up pretty quickly and have caught out a few riders. Just before Tabulam, we turned south and headed for Grafton. Because of the small tanks on our bikes, it was necessary to fill up whenever we needed to cover more than 150 km. Both bikes were getting over 25 km/L, but running out of fuel is not much fun, so we were being careful.

After a quick lunch in Grafton we headed towards Ebor and Armidale. This is one of my favourite roads, with plenty of corners and only light traffic – it was a pity it was still raining lightly. The new Metzeler on the back of the SR was performing well on the damp roads. From Armidale, we headed to Uralla, and then Walcha, where we spent a very comfortable night at the Apsley Arms Hotel.

An early start the next morning saw us in Gloucester for a coffee after an interesting ride over some pretty rough sections of road. From Gloucester, we headed to Dungog, and then Singleton and Denman. The next section was the Bylong Valley Way to Rylstone; this is great ride with great sandstone formations and plenty of tight corners in a couple of places. I hope the protesters manage to keep the coal miners out of the area. From Rylstone, we headed to Kandos, Ilford, Sofala, and Bathurst – there are plenty of good corners on this section. Our destination for the day was Blayney where we were booked into the Royal Hotel. It was steak night at the Royal and it was booked out – every table in the pub was taken, but the barmaid found us a spot, and for $12 we had a steak with a great selection of sides. We had done about 650 km and we only had about 500 km to go to get to Bethanga for the Rally.

From Blayney, we headed to Cowra and then Boorowa and Jugiong where we joined the dreaded Hume for a few kilometres on the way to Gundagai. It was good to get off the Hume and head to Tumut, Batlow, and Tumbarumba for lunch. We were getting pretty close to our destination, so after a pie and a coffee, we refuelled and headed off to the border at Jingellic. The ride down to Jingellic from Tumbarumba is another good ride, with plenty of good sweepers, and with the aid of gravity, the bikes performed well.

After crossing the Murray River, we turned along the Murray Valley Hwy and headed towards Granya where we turned off to Bethanga. We arrived mid-afternoon and set up our camp before going to the hotel to meet a few of the regular Rally-goers. All up, we did 1615 km getting to the Rally.

The Rally is fully catered and the food is very good and the prices charged are fair. Hot showers are available and there was a cricket match to watch on the Saturday. Saturday night was the official part of the Rally, with awards given out for the Show ‘n’ Shine – Best Original SR, SRX, and so on. There were some very interesting bikes on display.

The Rally was very good and the SR Club did a great job. The venue is a cracker, with a fair amount of shade and green grass to camp on.

The ride home was a lot faster, as we took a more direct route – back to Tumbarumba, then up to Cowra, Wellington and Gulgong. The next day, we headed north to Coolah, Manilla, Bingara, Warialda, Yetman, Texas, and finally to Warwick via Greenup. It was a long day and we did have a break at Yetman at the Codfish Hotel.

We refuelled in Texas – still the cheapest fuel in Queensland.

Over the six days, we averaged 500 km per day, even given the rest day on Saturday.

Drew Jackson from Townsville (QLD) attended the 2016 Rally in Bethanga in November 2016.

Here’s his account of the long ride down!

GETTING TO THE RALLY

The annual SR500 Club Rally was the destination for a week-long ride. The ride began in Warwick on the Darling Downs after travelling from Townsville in the ute. My riding companion was already with his Kawasaki KL250 Super Sherpa packed and we set off south on Tuesday morning [15/11] with the intention of covering about 400 km per day and arriving at the rally on Friday [18/11]. We had decided to travel the back roads to avoid traffic and find as many windy roads as possible while still heading south. So we headed to Killarney and from there we headed for Urbenville through the Tooloom Scrub. These roads are narrow, but good fun. From Urbenville, it was then off to Tabulam for our first fuel stop.

The service station was out of 95 octane, so I filled the SR with 91 and it ran just fine at the speeds we were doing. The KL used about 10c less on this section and a quick calculation on the phone returned a consumption figure of 66 mpg (imperial). I don’t like L/100km. From Tabulam we headed down the Clarence Way towards Grafton where we stopped for a pie and cold drink and to fill the tanks again. The SR only holds 12 ltrs and the KL250 only 9 ltrs, so keeping them topped up was essential. From here we headed to Armidale on the Waterfall Way, one of the best roads in NSW, especially the first section to Tyringham – really good fun on the SR as you can ring its neck and enjoy the handling. John was having a ball on the KL as well. We refuelled just before Armidale and again our consumption figures were within a few cents of each other. Our next stop was Uralla before heading to Walcha. This is where the first signs of trouble emerged. I was following the KL when I noticed a couple of puffs of white smoke from the exhaust. We pulled over and checked the oil, but all seemed OK and we spent the night in Walcha at the pub. They provided a shed for the bikes.

The next morning, after loading all the gear, we were about to head down Thunderbolt’s Way when the KL refused to play ball. It wouldn’t fire. John is a skilled mechanic, so we set to work to diagnose the problem. We had spark, compression and fuel, but nothing could coax the KL into life. So after an hour it was decided that I should push on and John would catch up at our next overnight stop. I headed off towards Gloucester on my own. There was a lot of roadworks and some of the hills required a bit of a run up and even the occasional downshift to maintain a good speed.

I stopped in Gloucester for coffee and rang John to see if he’d managed to revive the KL, but he was stumped. He eventually rang a mate who came and took him to Newcastle where repairs took a couple of days. As a result, he didn’t get to the Rally, which was a real shame as we were going to catch up with some of the SR Club members who we rode around Tassie with earlier in the year. I eventually rejoined him in Canberra after the Rally for the ride back to Warwick.

From Gloucester, I rode to Dungog, Singleton, and then onto Denman for lunch – a schooner of Toohey’s Old. It was pretty hot and the Bylong Valley Way was waiting. This is a beautiful part of Australia and the protest signs along the way made me wonder for how much longer will it remain beautiful. The coal miners want to stuff it up like they have the Hunter Valley. The road itself is great with a variety of sweepers and tight sections.

By the time I arrived in Rylstone, I’d had enough for the day, so I took a room at the Globe for the night and was seated in the bar in time for the Happy Hour. They also provided a lock-up garage for the SR. I am an early riser, and after a quick breakfast, I was on my way south to Kandos, Ilford, Sofala and Bathurst. I did of course do a couple of laps on Mt. Panorama. It still staggers me how the likes of Crosby and Hansford could do the speeds they did around the mountain.

From Bathurst, it was once again on to the back roads after a short ride on the highway to Woodstock, where I turned south to Wyangala, Boorowa and Harden.

This is a very pleasant ride and again plenty of corners and bugger-all traffic. Because of the early start, I had plenty of time to cruise along at a relaxed pace, and the SR was running really well. The Airhawk on the seat made it even better. Eventually I arrived at Jugiong where I had to take the Hume Highway for a few kilometres to Gundagai. Sitting on 110 kph was OK, but the SR prefers a gentler pace.

From here it was off to Tumut and Jingellic. The road along the Murray was interesting as recent rains had filled the Hume Weir and the water was backed up all the way.

A huge contrast to the drought conditions at home in Townsville. Eventually I made it to Bethanga and proceeded to set up camp for the weekend. I had arrived early, but a few other members had as well. In total, I had ridden 1680 km to the Rally and my fuel consumption varied from 62 mpg to 75 mpg. I did lose one bolt from my side cover, but I had a spare. The oil consumption was nil.

The ride home is another story!