tREV’s bike form last year, a ZZR250 converted to dual sport

Below is a video of the 2010 Scrapheap Adventure taken by the boys from the Postie Mafia. They did 2400k’s from Melbourne to Wanaaring.

At 9.38pm the night before departure the motor on the XR460 locked solid and the wiring harness was smouldering.

I was gutted, to say the least. I’d put a lot of effort and time into that little beast and it had come up so well. The motor would have to be pulled down, and I had no idea what
had caused the problem. Apparently the cam-chain tensioners can give problems on that particular engine. I vowed to myself
that I’d get it sorted and take it out to next year’s Scrapheap Rally to Cameron Corner. Hopefully, before then I’ll have time to do
some shakedown rides. But for 2010, it was back on my trusty BMW R80GS and off to Wanaaring.

With less than nine hours to departure i spent two hours giving the BMW a service and loading it up for an early departure. I was riding with David Principessa on his 1981 XT250. He bought it in Melbourne, rode it to Sydney, then overhauled it for the run west. Legend! Our route was decided by the weather in north Queensland at the end of March.
The Paroo River was in flood and there were a lot of road closures, including, when we left, the road from Bourke to Wanaaring. We could get through if we went via White
Cliffs, straight up to the cut line, and then turned right, heading back to Wanaaring and the Outback Hotel.

We left early, but had problems from the outset with the little yammie cutting out at regular, 20km intervals. David was all apologies, but we agreed it’s all part of the adventure and pressed on until, about 70km from Mudgee, it died for the 13th time. I rode ahead to see if I could find a six-volt coil. There were none
to be found, but by chance I picked up a new/old stock XR250 coil from the Honda dealer. David fitted it to the XT and it fired right up.
By the time we left Mudgee it was 2.00pm and we still had to make Cobar to meet a bunch of guys from the south. The little XT was carrying quite a load and the

pace was kept to a steady 88kph. We made it to Dubbo, fuelled up and headed west to Nyngan in darkness. At Nyngan we swilled a quick coffee to give our bums a rest, then
tackled the run to Cobar, keeping an eye out for the ’roos, goats and B-doubles, and leaving a bit of distance between us to allow the trucks to go around.

We hit Cobar a bit after 9.30pm and greeted the rest of the guys, who’d apparently finished a great meal, had a good chat and downed a few brews.
The kitchen was long closed, so we enjoyed a beer then dropped into bed, rather tired, after over 14 hours of riding.

Next day was the short run to White Cliffs. As we now had Posties, 250cc trailies, a KTM625 and a Ducati M900 Monster trail bike, we left at staggered times and caught
up at fuel stops. It was a pretty uneventful ride into Wilcannia for lunch, and then a right turn and on to White Cliffs. The pace was steady and, being a little hot on arrival,
the beers were requested cold, a bit like the publican. He was the most unwelcoming publican I’ve ever met. There were over 20 guys drinking and eating and it was like we
were an inconvenience. We won’t be going back there again.

While talking to the locals and hearing stories that the road north wasn’t the best – with 4WDs getting bogged – we all headed out together. The road was good and rough,
as we expected. I barrelled over one rise to find a huge pothole, two metres long and a metre wide, and the BMW’s front wheel heading straight for it. I hit the throttle and

powered up and out the far side with a decent old tankslapper. Bill on the Ducati Monster was a few kilometres back, and he hit the same pothole hard enough to pop
his right shoulder out of the socket. From there he had a steady and painful ride into Wanaaring. The road conditions were quite good. Rough, but no mud. We were glad.

We arrived at the outback Hotel at Wanaaring to find a few already there. These blokes had come through from Bourke, and they included Ned
Danvers on his $400 FJ1100 – complete with a 16-inch front wheel – and Alf Ryall on his iconic “Voodoo Child” XJ750. We
watched as bikes rolled in from various directions. The Postie Mafia, two Posties from Melbourne with a DR650 support bike, covered 2300km over six days and used a paltry $75 in fuel.
One rider, known as tHE tREV (his name on advrider.com) came down from Townsville. His effort on the build of the ZZR250 trailie was amazing. It started
as a ZZR250 repairable write-off. It was purchased, repaired to make it roadworthy, and registered. Then the fun began, with a KLX250 front end, 30mm shorter link
arms, and lifting the back end, giving 100mm travel but the correct ride height. The tREV embraced the Scrapheap ethic
and improvised everywhere, even using an old chain that was way past the use-by date and needed repair at Wanaaring. One
of the links broke and he nursed it 200km to arrive at around 4.00pm.

only one bike didn’t make it. Ian James, on his XT250 from Gulgong, NSW, had a new tyre fitted on the Thursday before and somehow ended up with the wrong-size
tube. That led to a string of creases and punctures that finally caused the DNF. Moc and Sherree at the Outback Hotel were fantastic! They catered for us all and
even had a little auction and raffle with the locals and donated about $500. That took the total to close to $22,000. The CEO of
the Down Syndrome Association of NSW, Steve Clarke, drove up and personally thanked everyone who attended, and the publicans as well.
During the night the talk quickly turned to next year and what bikes and mods would be trialled.
Next year?
Yep. The Scapheap Rally is on again. This time it’ll be at Cameron Corner and we have quite a few guys already expressing interest to come along.
I might even have the XR460 running by then!

Images from the 2010 Scrapheap Adventure can be seen in the Gallery.