Some advise needed on trip and tyres in AUSTRALIA

[Bikesonworldtour]

High , we will ship very soon to Australia and need some advise on the roads that we can ride plus the necessary tyres and fuel range.
We will start in Perth and ride up the Westcoast to Broome. Then ride the Gibb River Road to Darwin. We will continue south to the Bungle Bungle national park.
I am not sure about the trip to Cape York and the northern traverse over the Carpentaria Highway. From York we would go to the red center. Then ride Oodnadatta track and the through the outback to Adelaide and Melbourne. Then end up in Sydney to ship to NZ.
We are experienced in dirt road riding. However the bikes (BMW R 1100 GS and F650) are heavy and loaded with luggage.
What tyres are best. A road tyre like the Michelin Anakee or the Continetal TKC 80 which are mounted right now?
What terrain can we expect - we both do not like sand with the heavy bikes?
What is the max fuel range that is needed? Our tanks get us 400 km per filling.
We are currently in SE Asia.
Thanks in advance Kai

[Richard Jakobek]

Hi,
I did the Oodnadatta Track a few years ago and I can say that TKC80s would be fine. I did the trip with two others. One was on a GS1100 and the other was on a 650 Funduro ( I have a GS100 ). No bike had any problem with the road surface.
Furthest distance between petrol stations was about 220k from Maree to William Creek.
I can't see that you should have any problems.

[Frank Warner]

400kms.. Gidd River Rd .. Derby to Mt Barnett Road house might be your longest leg. should be possible, Don't have the maps here. If you have time then look at my pages .. parts 3 and 4 on the gibb river Rd.. no sand .. but possible bull dust .. very fine sand .. terible on any bike even unloaded.

http://www.geocities.com/fwarner_au/...aug/index.html
Err for the bungles you have to travel south and west from the end of the gibb river .. there is a deep water crossing to get in to th ebungles .. you might be better off with a helicopter flight from turkey creek?

Do see Kakadu! Pitty to miss it. I think you should read some of the rest of that trip .. has an alternative to doing the tar through to queensland ..

On tyres .. you'll be lucky if they last the whole trip. Things are hot near the equator and the tar up there eats tyres. For most of it a near street type tread on the rear will last a lot longer .. tourances are best. On theOz adventure riders list these have come up
Mitas and Heideneu make a tyre that fits 1150s and 950s Mitas are harder and
should last longer...

[johnandannette]

Just a quick one on the tyres.
We used Mitas in the North of Oz september 2003, on our R80GS models. The fronts were OK, but the rears fell to pieces due to the heat (42 degrees C in shade in Kunnanarra) on the tarmac. Whole blocks of tread seperated from the tyre carcas and flew off into the bush.Luckily we were carrying one spare tyre- a rear. Only place I saw TKC80 tyres on sale ( to suit R80GS models) was at Munich Motorcycles in Perth. There is a good tyre shop in the Honda dealer in Katherine. We found the sand to be not too bad on the tracks if you dont go so fast you have time to react to the bulldust. But going less than about 70 kph you will feel every corrugation--and theres millions of those.
Good Luck.

[bmwjack]

I have had great success with the Mitas E-07 tyres on the front/rear of my F650GS. The rear tyre has a 70lb higher load rating than the OEM Bridgestone Trail Wing tyre.
Th tread pattern is not as aggressive as TKC-80 but is more aggressive than Tourance,MT90, Trail Wing etc.

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Jack
Rockhampton, Australia

[Nigel Marx]

Good luck on your travels in Aussie. Make sure you drop by here when you are in NZ. I live near Christchurch.
Kind regards
Nigel

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--"How can I be lost if I don't care where I am?"--

[Mark Smith]

stick with the Tourance - TK's will be destroyed on the Tar sections. No BMW Dealer in Darwin now, dealership is a motor vehicle one and about as usefull on bikes as a pocket in a singlet - BMW dealer in Alice Springs is good - Usless in Cairns same set up as Darwin - they refer work to a Kawasaki dealer ! - Good range of tyres available in Mt Isa

[tomforde]

Hi guys, as the other replies mentioned, Oz is hard on tyres,I travelled from Brisbane to Newcastle via Moree,on Bridgestone Trailmasters,with 6000k, 2 punctures in 50k, I changed to ANAKEE'S in Newcastle, John Brison is the BMW dealer and they know their stuff. I am on a F650 Dakar,travelling through Asia.
Rode from Newcastle to Darwin, a total of over 4000k, I am now in Thailand and both tyres will see me at least to Chang Mai, a total of around 10,000k.
The Darwin BMW Dealership is as useful as tits on a bull.
You can catch up with my ramblings at www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/forde/
see ya