First 2-up Ride

By David Cohen. Photos by Janet Cohen.

Insert your Dam puns here.

It was one of those days where we batted a thousand, averaged a hundred and scored every time we touched the ball. Every turn was good, the locations interesting and every road we lucked on to was a peach - even though we weren't following anything more than a hunch. Yep, one of those days.

Springbrook Rd

What a bike the Chieftain is for a day like today. Get it humming along on a country road and just listening to it is worth the price of admission. Let alone the way it pulls out of corners or just chugs along with 1.8litres of 4-valve pushing it effortlessly over hill and dale.

Admiring both pieces of engineering

Today was the first ‘real’ ride we have had 2-up on the project and it really couldn’t have gone much better. Srsly.

Co-pilot finds the bike’s rear accommodation most satisfactory, so I added a few pounds of preload to the air adjustable rear suspension and enquired of her pleasure - or a preferred direction at least.

A visit with the brother on the Gold Coast was her choice. So we set off in his direction in the late morning, under a warm and pleasant South East Queensland mid-winter sun -  to call on the in-laws unannounced. (It was never a really firm plan and who needs commitment?) The onboard thermometer showed around 20c at departure and rose to 26c on the way home. It was slightly cooler in the mountains.

Yep, mountains.

They aren't epic mountains - but it's still a long way down that side and the road is very twisty.

Rob wasn’t home. But in the grand scheme of things it didn’t really matter. Today was all about the ride.

First, the on-ramp.

I’ve used this gimmick before regarding great sounding bikes, but there’s a line in Springsteen’s Cadillac Ranch that goes: “Open up your engines let 'em roar, tearing up the highway like a big old dinosaur.” That verse pops into my head every time I’m about to pin the throttle on a great sounding bike. It did today. The stage one pipes sound absolutely perfect to me. The bike growls and purrs equally pleasingly and yet it's not likely to give my neighbours the shits.

Since I got the big windscreen back on I can comfortably ride at all speeds in my Bell open face - without ear plugs – and it's not exactly a helmet renowned for it’s whisper quietness, but with the way the bike sounds it’s a real bonus to be lug-hole-impediment free.

Plus when I do decide to pimp out on the stereo it’s clearer. I'm still amused by how easy it is to incorporate my play lists and how the system can run my phone from the handlebars.

I like the amount of data that is available from the dash too. Tyre pressures, ambient temperature, distance to service, fuel consumption, range - a remarkable array is displayed in a compact space or is scrollable via the switch that used to be the headlight flasher. The display is white in direct sunlight  and goes red in shadow or bad light. Even if part of it is in sun and part in shade. It's very clever.

The dash display is very clever and a lot of info is available in a small space.

Anyway, the Super Slab to Nerang was actually quite pleasant on this bike. Yeah yeah - I know it's super slab, but it was a perfect day weather-wise, so I hit the cruise control and comfortably rolled it away, in the bubble, right where this bike just purrs. Smooth as a smooth thing.  I splayed my feet out of the highway pegs, sat back and spent time marvelling at the size of the crowds at the big theme parks that line parts of the journey. Dream World, Movie World, Water World and some others, all offer various ways of centrifuging a human and have them pay for it.

Dave World had the best ride.

Then comes the off ramp.

Running it down from speed, engine breaking, rowing it down through the gearbox, it sounds almost as good as when on the on-ramp pinnage of the throttle.

Actually the first off-ramp came much sooner than expected because the fuel gauge said so. At around 270km on this tankful the warning light came on. We ended up taking a big detour in search of fuel and found the end of the road at Jacobs Well, by the great sand island waterways coast - where the only working pump in town was the premium unleaded. Goal!

We rode through pleasant sugar cane country 10kms back to the M1 and another on ramp.

50km later - another off ramp and a few blocks through the burbs led to the discovery that the sibling’s nest was empty.  Nobody home but the cat.

This saw us point the bike west and express a joint  “Oh well, let’s see what’s up there” and gesture towards the Hinterland Hills.

What we found was Springbrook Road. Route 99. Judging by the amount of bikes that passed us as we were taking a few photos this route is no secret. Rather it was a confirmation that we were on a right track.

The road twists up into the foothills and then the fringes of the spur of the Great Dividing Range that joins the Border Ranges. We rode along heavily wooded ridges, occasionally crossing deep gorges on one-lane timber bridges. It's not a long ride, but it's a gem.

Google map.

"I'll go back and do that bit again."

Past the little Nerang Dam we turned on to Pine Creek Road and the steep descent before we joined the main Nerang-Murwillumbah Road near the upper reaches of the Hinze Dam.

We wheeled north and skirted the edges of that substantial body of water till the Dam turn-off. (Immediately followed by a dozen damn DAM puns).

We parked the Bull with the sports bikes outside the information centre and had a quick look around at what is quite an impressive piece of engineering.

The Bull draws a crowd everywhere I have parked it.

Nice collection of Sports bikes at the Cafe. Good roads for them too. The Bull didn't do badly either.

From there we made our way back to the motorway, another on-ramp, then cruise-control and rock and roll pretty much all the way back to base where we compared notes.

We both had a great day. Tick. We both like the bike - a lot. Tick.

I thought it handled very well. Admittedly I really only cruised on it – what sort of idiot would intentionally scratch up his publisher’s project bike? But neither did we completely nanna it. It was just a nice pace. Appropriate for the type of vehicle.

It cornered reliably and deceptively quickly. Several times I looked down at the speedo and went “oooh” and buttoned off.

The lean angle is pretty good and it’s sure footed. The 16” front wheel is more likely to follow a crease or ridge in the tarmac than cruisers with a larger diameter hoop, but only slightly. That’s the only thing I’ve noticed out of the ordinary about the sport-bike-like diameter front wheel. It does have a pretty fat profile tyre, which might contribute to its quite normal, tidy manners.

I’ve been circumspect about 16” front wheels since I test rode an original VFR1000 and the head shaking that sixteen used to do. It's playing to a tough room here I’m tellin’ ya. For the way this thing tips in I’ll buy it.

No wallowing, squirming or anything that got in the way of enjoying the ride was apparent in any of the 2-up handling.

The bike is very easy. It’s got such a strong motor that you ride it mostly on the torque. Revving it out is less rewarding than short-shifting and using the big hammer. It's still a pretty green motor for one so large so I was pretty moderate on the pinnage, but even when fully loosened there no point hitting the rev limiter. 2-3,000 RPM has the sweetness.

The other manners are great. Brakes are good, and I find the abs is quite confidence inspiring on a bike that weighs in at 385kg juiced up.

And the way is sounds is honey.

Co-pilot was very comfortable and suitably entertained.

Great ride, great roads, great day, great bike. Grinning like an idiot now.