Navroze Contractor goes on an Australian Ride

My Australia trip ended with the most spectacular motorcycle ride. I had a 2009 model Honda 600 Hornet, hardly done 2000km. My friend Andrew Pinto was pillion. Andrew is assistant Harbor Master at the Melbourne harbor. His job is to guide and park VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carriers) and other mega cargo ships that come to load and unload their contents. Each ship is bigger than the other, some even as long as two hundred meters. The operation sounds simple but a vessel takes about 4 to 5 hours to park. The most amazing detail is that a ship this large is parked within a meter of its given area! We can't even do that with our cars, here in India. Another talent Andrew demonstrated was knowing all the roads like the back of his hand. This made navigation for me a breeze.

We took off from Melbourne and headed southwest along the coast. First stop was at Andrew's work place where he had just landed a humongous vessel. I got as close to it as possible to have my picture taken with the ship. Then we hit the Great Ocean Road.  Everyone who goes to Australia once has to go on the Great Ocean Road. It weaves through kilometers and kilometers of ocean hugging scenery that is a once in a lifetime experience. The roads in Australia, I have to say, are the best roads in the world after Japan, maybe. There is never a moment when you have to ever concentrate on the surface. This taken for granted, you concentrate on your corner lines and the mind is free to take in the heavenly landscape zipping past you.

 
We rode all the way up to the Twelve Apostles, sand and rock formations that stand out of the Pacific Ocean. Till then, for several hundred kilometers we had been hugging the coast with hardly a straight ever. We turned back from there and returned via inland. The landscape changed to forests, prairie and pasture lands till we hit the outskirts of Melbourne way after sundown. When we reached destination the odo meter showed 597 km. Ten hours of total time, including several photo ops, breakfast and lunch stops.

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The Honda 600 Hornet is the most neutral motorcycle I have ever ridden. It has no quirks. It is refined to the point of boredom. The engine is super smooth, willing to rev as hard as you want, never faltering even once. The suspension was set up for two up riding. It didn't work hard anywhere because the roads were silky all through. The handling is completely neutral; from the beginning you can start riding the bike hard. Not wanting to get into the bad books of cops, I maintained the riding within speed limits, but often the right hand got the better of my sense and two up the bike cruised effortlessly at 140-150kmph, with much more throttle left. I came out of the whole experience that probably a 600 is the most ideal motorcycle to have. (I own a 650 BMW, it's the smallest capacity bike I have owned and am really happy with it). On any road condition anywhere, anything bigger than a 600 seems a bit too big. I guess if you are travelling on long straight stretches then bigger capacity would be preferable, or if you are a hard-core sports bike rider. How fast is fast enough is very subjective and personal. Four stars for the Hornet for doing everything right, one star less for doing nothing wrong. Figure that one out yourselves.