Postie Bike Challenge 3,500km over 9days on 110cc

Hi, and welcome to my story. A few months ago, I (Geoff Vautier) was fortunate to participate in the “Postie Bike Challenge” in Australia. In case you haven’t heard about it, here’s the goss.

It is a privately organised adventure run by a Dan and Kylie who are based in Brisbane. They map out a route that always starts in Brisbane and ends up at an iconic Australian location – this year it was Alice Springs, some 3,500 km distant. Previous years have included Darwin, Melbourne, Cairns, and Adelaide. Numbers usually max out at 50 people – this year there were 44.

During the year, Dan buys used ‘Postie’ bikes from Aussie Post – so called because the Honda CT110 is widely used to deliver mail. These second-hand bikes arrive with around 25,000 – 30,000km on the clock. As a participant in the ‘Challenge’, your trip fee covers:

• ‘Purchasing’ the bike
• All bike servicing and petrol – the trip is accompanied by two qualified mechanics and a mobile garage
• All accommodation and food – provided by community groups along the way who use it as a fundraiser

At the end of the trip, you donate your bike to the local Rotary, who tidy them up and sell as a fundraiser. I understand they make about $1,000 per bike, so it is a good earner for them.

The word ‘Challenge’ is part of the trip’s name for this reason -  imagine somebody like me (pushing 110kg) riding across some of Australia’s harshest backcountry roads (including at last 30% dirt/ sand) for up to 8 hours per day, for 9 days solid, all on just 110cc of brute strength (Honda CT110), and making sure you cross the finish line in one piece.

It is an absolute credit that these Honda CT110’s,  like the energiser bunny, just keep on going and going and going and going ...  Apart from a couple of major oopsies, where the steering fork stoppers (the bits that stop the handle bars turning too far) were broken on two bikes, all the other bikes arrived in Alice Springs in one piece.

These Postie trips have now been running for 10 years: we figured that collectively participants have ridden more than 1.5m km without major incident.

I had the pleasure of accompanying my father and 42 others. Dad is 77 and it was somewhat of a memory trip for him. He bought his first Honda90 farm bike way back in 1965, and at any one time had 3 or 4 on the go (subsequently they became CT110’s) until he retired in the mid 90’s. He coped extremely well on this trip.

With their step-through structure they weren’t necessarily sexy for us youngsters as we grew up on the farm (the neighbours had proper dirt bikes with clutches and gears!!!), but they were versatile and it was easy to carry 3 bales of hay, a dog, a couple of kids, the odd sheep, or combination thereof!  

Our journey took us from Brisbane across South East Queensland via many backroads and tracks. We dipped down to Birdsville (famous horse race in the dessert) then up and over the Gibson Dessert into the Northern Territory and back down to Alice Springs.  With all the recent rains the scenery was particularly interesting, with lots of wildlife and plant life along the way.  We even saw a very venomous (top 5  in world) snake and met a few party animals on the way (see photo). The highlight was staying on a cattle station that was 1.5m acres – 200km to the back fence!

People often ask about our backsides – in fact, the CT110 is very comfortable and was not a problem at all. A number of the riders on the trip had 1000cc+ road bikes parked in their garages at home. I think many were surprised just how well the Honda CT110 handled the rugged conditions – and it taught them a new respect for riding skills: you can’t just power your way out of trouble on these machines.

All in all, a wonderful experience. Try it someday. Check out details at www.postiebikechallenge.org.

Meanwhile, it still hard to resist the temptation to check whether you really are in top gear doing just 75km/h neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (clunk – “bugger”)   neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee  (clunk – “bugger”) neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.