I find it funny Honda decided it would make a good
ad to put a Honda
Dominator NX650 motorcycle in a shower with some girls wearing nothing
but towels. I also don't understand why they are still in there towels
and not wet or covered in suds, but maybe that's just me :)
Here's a video of my old Dominator. I am riding it around my parents 5
acre property at Camp Mountain, near Samford.
As you
may or may
not be aware, I have been sent from my lovely hometown of Brisbane to a
just
as lovely town of Townsville (from end Oct 02 - May 03)
Now my original plan
was to finish my V6 Baja, and then
bring it up here. Then I would be free to explore North Queensland
(very
quickly!). But things didn't quite go to plan, and then I decided it
was best
to leave the Baja in Brisbane where I could finish it properly.
So what was I to do.
Me, my girlfriend and her Mazda 121
ready to explore North Queensland. Hmmm, I don't think "Mazda 121"
and "explore north Queensland" should be used in the same
sentence.
What I need is
something that is as much fun as the Baja
offroad, something I want to get out and about on/in. I know, I'll buy
a
bike! I have always loved bikes and been riding them from the age of
about
12. So that's exactly what I did!
I bought a '95 model
Honda NX650 Dominator. It seems to be
in very good condition, had room for a pillion, a 25L long range
(400-500km!) Acerbis fuel tank, and a Gearsack on the back. Perfect for
touring around this popular tourist region of Queensland. Even riding
to
work is fun.
So far I have taken it
south to Magnetic Island, Ayr, Home
Hill and Alva beach. I wanted to ride on Alva beach but it was high
tide. A
near full long range tank, pillion, heavy bike and soft sand don't
really
mix. Soft sand is Baja territory. Below I will add some pics and
details of
my trips on the bike, for those people addicted to my site that need
something to read
So we
meet again
I was starting to get withdrawals from not going offroad in something.
I
found the sand and high tide got the better of my on the bike, and
scared me
back to the bitumen (I want my Baja, then I'll show the sand whose
boss!)
A VW parked next to me on Magnetic Island at
Horseshoe Bay, so I just
had to take a pic.
Me, Meegan and the Dominator on Magnetic Island with Townsville in the
background.
I went up to check out Harvey's Range on the
weekend (16-2-03). It's
quite pretty up there, and a fun road up the range, but there's nowhere
else
to go up there. Still a nice little ride.
And you thought there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...
8-3-03 Trip from Townsville to
Burdekin Falls Dam
Today we went for a ride to the Burdekin Falls
Dam. I also decided to go the
long way. We went south to Ayr, west to Clare, west some more to
Ravenswood,
then finally south to the Dam. From Clare to Ravenswood is dirt. It
crosses
many small creeks and near the end rises quite high where you get a
nice
view of the surrounding cattle country.
Riding through the cattle country we noticed a white section on the
hill. It
looked like a sand blow on Fraser Island, but we were 150km inland! On
closer
inspection it was a very large formation of quartz. It apparently was
originally
formed 5km below the surface and somehow got pushed through to the top.
The real reason I wanted to come out was to see
the dam overflowing. The
spillway is 504m wide, and it was flooding 1.04m over the
spillway.
Unfortunately the DNR had to closed the road to
the base of the dam
(safety reasons), so this is the closest I could get.
Just to the left of the picture above is I guess what is the Burdekin
Falls. It
was like a mini Niagara Falls. The whole trip was about 500km, so we
were a bit
sore afterwards.
15-3-03
Trip from Townsville to
Wallaman Falls
The falls details.
The falls. Pretty spectacular view.
We were silly enough to walk the 2km to the
bottom of the falls. A hard walk
(mainly on the return journey), but well worth it. If you look at the
full
size pics you will see some game tourists swimming. The rocks were huge
and
made it difficult to actually get to the water.
16-3-03 Trip from DSMRA club ride
Sunday I went on a Dual Sport Motorcycle Rider's Association club ride.
23 bikes at the start, 20 at the end, and one broken collar bone.
There weren't many opportunities to stop and take
pics, because I was
usually flat out trying to keep up with the real dirt bikes. This was a
nice
creek crossing we stopped at. The bike shown is supposed to be a
Dominator.
My big heavy dominator out of place among the real dirt bikes. Still
fun
though. The sandy / rocky sections were giving me real
trouble. It made my
bike plough and wander everywhere, which made it very tiring and scary
to ride.
Dominator from Hell. This used to be a dominator
once, but is now a wild
custom bike that shares more in common with an XR650. It has an XR400
headlight, and partly a XR250 rear shock (custom made parts). The owner
was
kind enough to give me a ride, and it felt like a completely different
bike.
Heaps lighter.
