Hi Mr Aus - 2 years later do you still have the Gen 1? I'm still riding my Gen 1, 2005. Had her for 15 years now. 131,720km. There's a good YT video by an American guy who talks about V Stroms and "Keep it simple stupid". Buggar all the menus, mapping modes, ABS, traction control etc etc - just get on the V and ride.

With three weeks until heading back to Tassie, I felt the urge to check out some of your videos - surprised I hadn't commented on this one before... what a day! Totally get your comment about knowing you'll look back and say what an adventure, but, at the time you just wanted to get out of there. That was some gnarly terrain and you did super-well to push through. So lucky you weren't hurt when foot was trapped under the bike too... that could have been real bad out there! I need to correct you about your sportsbike guys comments at 1:50. My son rode his RC-390 on that stretch, but ended up making a wrong turn, getting lost and coming out somewhere he wasn't supposed to be. Needless to say I was relieved when he finally met up with us again. Unfortunately he was on Vodaphone at the time, and you pretty much only have service at main towns in Tassie. Also meant that when he got to a town and thus service he was message bombed. Hopefully you'll get back there one day and you can go looking for your lost Sena!

It’s sensational! Going in a couple of weeks with a group that does Tassie every year. We are doing the Gordon Dam Road this year after missing it last year. Love it.👍

Did you realise that when you went through Tarnagulla, two minutes later you rode right past one the biggest historic motorcycle clubs in Victoria?

Holy crap that is a lot of water. Glad you come out relatively unscathed - must have been all that bailing and sponging. When the fish were swimming around crocodiles did come to mind - but guessing you are too far south for that. Another example of Mother Nature flexing her muscles and showing how powerful she can be.

This little v has way, way good run. I had one in the late 00’s and loved the power delivery and great geometry of frame. A tad small but still good for a large framed rider.

Now that I've watched the entire video my questions below have been answered. Thanks!

One thing I don't like about my new to me 09 V Strom 650 is the wind buffeting. I got spoiled from riding a BMW rt all of last year, 15,000 miles. Which windscreen should I get to improve the situation?? Cheers from WA state. (not west Australia ;- )

I just bought a 09 Strom. I having to get used to the difference of riding a 97 BMW r850r. Looking forward to going camping, when the weather allows. The BMW is too heavy for this old guy. It was great on the highway, but not so much in the campgrounds and dirt roads. My beemer has 17'' front and 18'' rear. Very different feel with the Strom tire's diameter. So far I like it.

Happy new year my friend 🥳🥳🎄🇧🇻

I've always wanted to do that. Never got around to it... Good on you mate! Stay upright 🙂

Nope not for me. Not even with 8 ply diapers 😂. Glad you did it. What an awesome gift. Happy Healthy New Year my freind.

That was AWESOME! and even better that you got to do it with your daughter too! 🙂

Sweet - nice long free-fall too. My wife bought me a skydive for my 40th and it was a blast - not that she has any intention of doing one herself. You did look a tad queezy when they had pulled the cord and you slow down in a hurry. Also noticed your daughter aced the landing a bit better than the old man... lets blame the instructor 🙂

You're mad ! No way I'd jump out of a perfectly good plane :D Looks like you had a blast. Ps Good thing you didn't throw up. Imagine the poor guy with the chute if that happened :D

A great experience! I did one years ago - the only negative for me was trying and failing to equalise my ears on the way down. Oh and the fact the chute didn't open properly for 5 seconds haha

Bloody awesome mate, what a great thing to share with your daughter 😎✌🏻

Awesome gift!

Jumping out of a perfectly working plane leaves me baffled.....lol. mate that looked awesome and the views.... scared the crap out of me just watching but looked like fun.,,,FLY safe mate.

An experience like no other, the only way to know what is feels like is to do it. Over the beach seems like the place go. Never heard of anyone feeling sick after though, maybe some vertigo or something. Seen a few blackout though haha. Cheers 4 sharing sir.

On ya mate

Went down there with my family last year, views were great, but it must be awesome with the unimpeded, high view of a motorbike.

I had a giggle when you said you had done 5.4km without a break - apologies for that 😆 Also understand not wanting to hurt yourself before an event. I crashed my MTB at Lysterfield park a few days before a two-day Great Ocean Road motorbike ride... I learnt that gravel rash and motorcycle leathers is a painful, gooey combination! Obviously this is an old video, but you mentioned about possibly having to sell the motorbike - was this the V-Strom? Guessing some things were going down at the time as I couldn't imagine Mr AusAdventure giving up his motorbike without a damn good reason. I was contemplating selling the gixxa several years ago as I wasn't using it much - but my wife convinced me to keep it... what a woman!

100km is still a long way on a road bike - but way longer on a mountain bike with knobbies! Respect for making the distance and not knocking down any pedestrians. For some reason many path users lose all sense of spatial awareness, don't feel the need to look before they cross or join the path, and keeping to the left is purely optional. Time to get off my arse and head out for my ride now... very different scenery for me as there isn't too much ocean up the Dandenongs - although I can see the bay from the top.

Glad you survived the '90s. When I saw the title in your list my initial thoughts went to the Arthur's Seat chairlift incident - but the scenery put an end to that. I always enjoy good story so the three videos were interesting viewing - thanks

I've never called anybody "dingle twang" but it is a cool insult. Definitely a case of "let no good deed go unpunished"... but hey - at least you made the news papers. I've only tried a stand-up jet ski once and it was not as easy as it looks - resorted to kneeling 😋

Bit of a morbid conversation piece whilst riding the bike. Glad you came out OK - although when I saw the jet ski in the back I envisioned a bloody big projectile in the back of the head. Guessing the car is now long gone? Pity as the old shaggin' wagon is a classic piece of Aussie history. Was it an HZ? My time I thought I was going to die was when I was hit by a car whilst on my bike as a 13 year old... right in front of my mum and sister - and boy did by (12 year old) sister give the driver a mouthful. So far that is the only time for me 🙂

Tarn A gulla

I remember a U.S. forum guy once berating people for wearing leather gardening gloves on short in-town rides. He mentioned after being T-boned a few times he'd learned the value of protective great - yet there's me shaking my head thinking "this guy let himself get T-boned twice" .... hmmmm??

My biggest fear today is encountering 20yr old me coming the other way

Having been SMIDSY’d back in 2021 on a ninja 400 at Gipps St/Barry Pde in Fortitude Valley: My collision was not my fault, but it would have been avoided if I wasn’t distracted by a car taking off from a set of lights quickly to my left. 1s looking at a silver mercedes to my left that should have been spent looking at the previously stopped car pulling through the stop sign ahead of me, and I would have been saved a world of hurt. Not going fast in the first place saved me from a long slide. Hard braking absolutely saved me from any worse injuries. ABS saved me from winding up under the car. Gear saved me from broken bones and road rash. Prevention is always better than cure however, and all it took was 1s of not paying enough attention to ***all*** of the hazards around me to end up in a bad situation. Learn the lessons forged in blood. Ride safe, stay alert, and keep the shiny side up ❤️

Assuming everyone else on the road is out to kill me is exactly how I've ridden for 40+ years & so far it has served me well. In that time I've had a few close calls, but I've never had a crash as the rider. I know that they're not all out to kill me, but riding with the attitude that they are is a good way to keep yourself in a defensive mode - ie: constantly scanning around, anticipating other road users' actions, riding to the conditions & picking your spots if you get the urge to let loose a bit. A lot of people think driving & riding are passive activities - they aren't. Whenever you're on the road you need to be constantly aware of what's going on around you & putting 100% of your attention into keeping yourself safe. I watch a lot of motorcycle crash videos & the vast majority of them are due to riders either not paying attention, not riding to the conditions, or not riding within their capabilities (or a combination of all 3).

Always interesting going back to basics. What I found interesting is you talked about all the important things like road position, looking ahead, safety margins, anticipating scenarios etc - but you didn't mention looking at your speedo. This is where I get so frustrated with all the police/media emphasis on not exceeding the speed limit. So many people seem to think the most important thing is constantly looking at their speedo (hey if I'm not speeding I'm perfectly safe right?) and all the good stuff you talk about is a distant second - if thought about at all. Unfortunately we now have the situation where many drivers primary focus is their speedo and this detracts from their general awareness.

Great video mate, I've had the same mind set for many years, originally fostered by watching Russ and Learn2Ride giving similar advice. I remember Russ saying it's ALWAYS the rider's fault and getting flak for it - he was right though... Your commentary pieces were exactly what quietly goes through my head when I'm riding. If I'm on a long ride and I realise that commentary has stopped it pulls me up quickly and I'll start it again and find a place to rest fairly soon. It's the same with driving and I'm personally horrified and not happy with the removal of responsibility from the driver - driving assist technology is not helping - or how they keep blaming certain intersections or road conditions for spates of crashes. People have eyes and brains for a reason... That 6th sense is, I think just learned observation skills, last week (in the Van) I had a near head on with a car that mounted the concrete median strip and jumped into the lane in front of me - I had already started to react and swerve before he hit the concrete, I could see his line was not right. Scared the $hi7 out of me but I avoided a pretty serious crash. I can only thank my experience on the bike for having those observation skills.

On ya mate! Some good tips in this video! Keep 'em coming 🙂

Hmmmmm, I feel that was just a little "tacky", commenting on that accident with the loose gravel. Neither of us were there. Yes, there are lots of "what ifs" in every accident. I am sure, that they were all brought up in court, and considering the settlement, they were all examined in great detail. I have had a few "offs" in my 50 odd years on bikes, as I am sure you have as well. In the case of rider who is still recovering, I think that commenting on his ability, or lack of, is not very appropriate.

Pretty good advice!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Been on bikes for over 50 years... One little part that plays a big part in defensive riding, MIRRORS. They're absolutely useless if they're not used. I see the Strom is still sounding good.

Motorcycle training has come a long way since I got my learners back in 1975. We had a booklet to study then a 30 question multiple choice quiz. Then we got the learners permit. When I got my licence 3 months later I had to ride to the next town where the traffic cops were based (they did licence testing back then). I'd forgotten a form so I had to ride home to get it. When I got back the licence was all filled out and I was good to go. I think that he watched me ride off down the road when leaving the cop shop then went back inside. That was the extent of my licence training and testing. And if I could have afforded I'd have been riding a Kawasaki Z1 900 as my road bike and a Yammy XT500 as my trail bike (no dirt bikes back then). No LAMS either. My real training came after that - by having a few on-road and a lot of off-road crashes. Getting hurt was probably a better teacher than getting yelled at (or failing) from an instructor at the time. If you survived, great. If you didn't, then motorcycling wasn't for you, I guess.

One thing you really need to watch out for, bollards, really a pain in the pannier and they pop up like a genie.😂 My instructor told me back in the ancient times when earth was still young, that the only thing you cant encounter around the corner is your self. That sentence has burned itself to my brain and l live by it. I consider myself as a safe rider, but as l have commuted many years in heavy city traffic all year round, things do happens and l think you also need to be prepared for that as well. In rushouer the amount of traffic information are vast and even with good skills cell phone zombies will hit you one way ore the other. Ride safe my friend 🇧🇻☕

I often watch those compilations on KZbin and have since I started riding. I must have seen hundreds of near misses, collisions and single rider crashes and can count on one hand how many were unavoidable. There are some people that appear over and over on the videos and it's always the other person's fault. It doesn't seem to cross their minds that if you are constantly getting into issues then maybe you're the problem 😀 I think as well that people don't realise that motorcycling is a skill that requires practise. I've had people tell me it's too dangerous to practise emergency stops, too dangerous to brake whilst turning and all of the other classics. I would argue it's too dangerous not to practise those thing.

My Bro and I use to sleep up the top regularly......This mountain is sacred to my family...and we are not technically first nation.....We are all Australian and its our mountain.

Bought mine (2011 abs) in 2021. Bought it for reliability and touring comfort. I love it in the city, I love it on the long trips even more! Never get tired (up to 14 hours drive non-stop, no desire to rest!) But found myself struggling with it's weight... Being 5,6 feet tall I end up dropping it VERY often (can't flatfoot on it) and lifting it is always a pain. Especially loaded. I LOVE off-roads, but the above issue is a HUGE problem. How do you cope with the weight and offroading with it?

Hello mate! Can u help me with the center stand? I own a 2008 model, vstorm 650. Till which year the center stand fit my model. Not able to find for 2008 model specifically

Never ridden in rain,always garaged, never dropped.....😀 These are great selling points, how much ya asking for it?🤔

Thanks for the video, handy as I’ve just brought a DRZed

2:57 reminded me of doing my motorbike Ls course. One of the first challenges (wasn't part of the test) was to ride along a plank of wood which off distant memory was about 200mm wide. Of course we all failed miserably the first attempt as we tried to look at the plank. But when they said to pick a point in the distance around eye-height and in line with the plank, and ride towards that without looking down, it suddenly was a pretty easy thing to do. Some of the essential skills learnt on the early motorbike courses serve you well for life - and not just on motorbikes

All so familiar!! Dinner at the Great Central... did you do the fancy restaurant or the bar food - the restaurant was pricey but really nice when I was there. Funny shit always seems to happen at the Standing Stones... I do love a Demon Fault... I love everyone's reaction the first time they get on the Raspberry lookout - it is incredible. I still say the Mann flows uphill 🤣

I'd watched your Tassie series a few times but I'd never actually watched the trailer. Besides seeing some of the glorious scenery and highlights of your adventure, the thing that really strikes me is the soundtrack... I just love the music on this series... it really adds to the general vibe and freedom I associate with Tassie riding. According to your credits Captain Cranky is the man responsible for this sublime soundtrack so a massive shoutout to him. I don't see how anybody could feel cranky listening to that tune 🙂

WHY THE CRAZY MUSIC.. PUT SOMETHING SOFT 2 HEAR.. THIS IS IRRITATING

I do like a stone circle 🙂 That view was amazing. The road afterwards equally so!