Jeremy: First night, sorted.

All my fears about Norman the Honda Shadow 750 not being able to.take the strain appear to have been unfounded. It's a really torquey bike, and only in 5th gear up a really steep hill at less the 90kph did it struggle, and even then help was only a down-shift away. The suspension seemed to cope fine as well, with us only hitting the bottom twice and only on very bumpy stretches of road. All of that with Bridget riding pillion, me driving, a completely stuffed gear sack and roll bag on the luggage rack and two completely loaded panniers with sleeping bags strapped to them and everything else (hopefully) that we need for camping for at least 3 weeks. I even fit my pocket trumpet in there! Just having a nice cup of tea in the wye river caravan park now. So, geelong to wye river no problem. It's early days yet, and we haven't been that far really, but so far so good anyway!

Pre-Trip Packing List/Suspension Trouble

Went for a ride out to James's (my groomsman) place last night in Leopold (about 20k's) then had to ride back in the dark and drizzle at about 12am. My first night ride on the bike was all good, a little bit squirrelly around corners because of the greasy road but otherwise OK.

So, what to pack for a 2-up camping honeymoon for 3-4 weeks? The night before our australian wedding celebration and we're still trying to find time to do any real planning for the trip. I've been looking around a few touring sites to make sure i don't forget to take anything obvious, but otherwise i think there may be a few late (Very very late) additions to the pack the morning of the trip.

Nothing a quick trip to rays tent city won't fix!

So far our list goes something like this:

Stuff to take Definite list:

2X Very Compact Sleeping bags

2X Sleeping Mats

1X Compact Single Pole Twin Tent (with small annex for gear at night)

1X Trangia Meth Stove (including bowls, Cutlery)

2X Head Torches (spare Batteries)

1X Fuel Bottle for Stove

1X Ground Sheet/Tarp

2X Heavy Duty 1ltr waterbottles

2X Lots of our Clothes (that's another list altogether)

Waterproofs

Insect Repellent

Sunscreen

Toilet Paper

First Aid Kit (including pain killers and hay-fever tablets)

Thermos

Swiss Army Knife

Lighter

Maps

Mobile Phones (and chargers)

Spare Bike Key

Earplugs

Waterproof covers for bags

Wallets/Purse

Camera (and charger)

ipod

Stuff to take subject to room:

1X Picnic Rug

Containers for food

I'm still working on it, but that's a start anyway. I guess I'm mindful that we'll be mostly riding fairly well used roads and we will be staying at caravan parks and the like so we'll have electricity and running water at most places we stay. We'll also be going through a few larger towns throughout the journey so if we need more stuff for camping etc. we'll be able to get it without too much bother.

We were having terrible trouble with the bike bottoming out on the road the other day with Bridget on the back, and i was starting to wonder if the old Shadow 750 can take the 2 of us and all our stuff.

I read a few forums on the subject, and read into the suspension set-up a little more. I worked out that i can change the suspension pre-load adjustment quite simply (with just with my hands in fact) and that if i set it higher the extra stiffness will accommodate Bridget and our gear without bottoming out. When i went to change it I found that it was set to 1, which is the softest setting. No wonder we bottomed out there on the way to tim's the other day! I've set it to 4 (out of 5) and it seems to be much stiffer, although i've still got to take bridget on it to try it out. I might have to jack it up to 5 once we get it loaded up. It was quite simple really, i just twisted it till the 1 on the bottom of the shock lined up with the swingarm, and then counted the clicks around till i heard 4. Then repeated with the other side. Anyway, i'll tell you how it goes.

Right, still got stuff to organise for the wedding tomorrow, gotta go. We'll post up some pre-trip photos on sunday.