Motorcycle Adventure Storyteller Podcast | Camping is Overrated | Desert X transcontinental

My name's Dave Darcy and you're listening to the podcast Motorcycle Adventure Storyteller and this is episode five. Now for those new to Motorcycle Adventure Dirt Bike TV on a Sunday night we have the typical action video action with bike builds, bike reviews and long form motorcycle adventure. But in midweek we chill back kick our feet up and it's time to have a listen to some stories. And there's two stories tonight, one on camping life and another story focusing on Peter Mansbridge, the first guy to ride a Ducati Desert X from east to west and then back again across Australia. An incredible feat and it's a great story. And the beauty of these two stories is they're actually linked to my future exploration. In the next couple of weeks I head off with Nick Selleck, the Ducati brand ambassador in Australia and we take two Desert Xs out into the outback somewhere, not quite sure yet and we go on a camping trip and hopefully a cracking adventure. Anyway let's get to it and you know if you're new to Motorcycle Adventure Dirt Bike TV this is one thing of what we do and then we've got the busier and more action-packed Sunday nights. So if you're interested please subscribe. The first story is called Camping Life. Mention the C word to Clubby and he gets that chooks bum kind of look. It's the same look you get when your dog gobbles up cat shit with an intensity usually reserved for smackos. And they've gobbled it up so quickly there's nothing you can do and you know they're going to try to lick your face to share the moment. Well that's camping for Clubby. Blava is a word frequently used by his editorial lordship and when it comes to camping he's pretty accurate. It's unnecessary, elaborate and complex procedure. I've just come back from a four-day adventure and you know what I agree. This camping caper is way overrated. Why in the hell would you stuff about carrying all that gear hundreds of kilometers only to lay on the ground unshowered with a gut full of rehydrated food. So let's get this straight. We take a delicious lamb roast with mint sauce, mashed potatoes and peas. We separate the components and then freeze dry them. Months later, possibly years later, we pour some boiling water into a foil bag. We wait 12 minutes and dig into this slosh, slopping about in the bottom and kid ourselves it tastes like the real thing. If it tasted like the real thing, then why are these freeze-dried meals left in our cupboards for years? And then there's the tent. Fiddling to put it up and struggling to get it back in the bag in the morning. There's less than a millimeter of nylon between you and mother nature. Which is fine when everything is going well and terrifying when it's not. On day two of the ride, we scored a riverside campsite in the late afternoon. Across the river, I saw a huge black bull looking our way and I was relieved there was 70 meters of water between us. Well, that was until he confidently strode into the water heading straight towards our campsite. Our collective blood pressure rose as he neared the campsite before quickly changing direction, distracted by Bessie the bovine and her lady friends. But that night, laying in the tent, knowing the bull was now on our side of the river and probably finished meeting his girlfriends, my thoughts drifted to him returning home across the river full of piss and bad manners. I had visions of getting mauled by a bull in the tent, like those poor American souls that all too frequently get eaten by bears in their tents. And then there's the management of our bodily functions, which brings me back to my first school camp. We trundled out of the bus into the wilderness and were greeted by our fastidious math teacher. In those days, I wasn't quite sure what was wrong with him. They didn't have a term for it. He was just different. Real different. Fast forward to our gender fluid times and I'm certain he identified as a green. He was green as. Our math teacher insisted that no person would crap less than 300 metres from the campsite and the business would be done in a hole no shallower than 30 centimetres. Which was a challenge for me and as Clubby will attest, from the day I was born, I take a crap at 6am. Not 5.59, not 6.01, 6am every day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Can you imagine as an obedient 12 year old running through the dense forest at 5.57am for 300 metres and furiously digging a hole as the freight train was rolling around the corner, only to hit bedrock at 5 centimetres. Enough said. Fast forward to a couple of days ago, looking out my tent to greet the new day. A light mist hanging beside a stunning river campsite. The serenity was broken as I panned around to see Nugget, buttocks gleaming in the sun, about 30 metres away, hanging onto a horizontal branch of a small tree with one arm, pooping like a chimpanzee at the zoo. By the size of him, I might have to upgrade that image to maybe a gorilla, I think would be more appropriate. They say adversity etches lifelong memories into our brains, and if we're lucky, over time, nostalgia will ultimately repaint those memories in a more positive light. Frankly, I can't see that happening with the Nugget image. That's with me for life. I'll never look at camping the same way again. So that's my camping experience. And if you click to the top of the screen, top right, that will take you through to this actual motorcycle adventure we did, and it was a cracker, and very popular with the MADtv audience. It's my very great pleasure to interview Peter Mansbridge, a very down-to-earth bloke who, you know, just has this air about him. No nonsense, no stuff about, and the ultimate MacGyver. He can MacGyver a solution for anything, as you'll see. Now, again, if you click in the top right-hand corner of this screen, you'll be able to watch the video of me interviewing Peter. But this is an editorial, and it's nice to sit back and just listen. This story is called Continental Crosser. When you've always wanted to ride across Australia, why not put a little extra pressure on yourself by doing it solo, doing it aboard a brand new bike that had literally only just arrived in the country a matter of days earlier. Meet Peter Mansbridge and his Ducati Desert X. Riding east to west across Australia is no mean feat. Doing it by yourself on a brand spanking new and untested bike that's just landed in Australia, that you've owned for just two weeks, and right there, you've upped the ante by a minimum of 250%. Now, throw in our crazy La Nina weather, where the legacy of frequent flooding rains threatens to make the outback impossible. Mix all those factors together, and your head really does start to spin. Who in their right mind would take on such a challenge is an entirely fair question to ask. Enter Peter Mansbridge, an understated, laid back and practical sort of problem solver of the bloke, who possesses a determination and mechanical ability that if he put his mind to it, he could convert a toaster into a nuclear powered submarine. Peter is a recently retired fireman who occasionally sweep rides for successful motorcycle adventure touring company, Machine, which is run by Nick and Trudy Selick. Pete returned to bikes in 2016 after a long sabbatical. A former road bike rider, this time around, he turned to adventure riding and kicked off with a BMW 650 GS before climbing aboard a 2017 Honda Africa Twin DCT model. His passion for adventure fast heated up, and with a quick succession of purchases that included a 2022 model Africa Twin Adventure Sport, an AJP PR7 and a KTM 690 Enduro. When Peter learned the Ducati Desert X's arrival into Australia was imminent, the new Italian stallion was front and centre on his radar. From the information he'd seen on the internet, he calculated the Desert X looked like a decent bit of kit. He promptly threw down the deposit on the white night, but almost instantly the penny dropped that he'd just committed to a bike sight unseen that neither he nor anyone else knew much about, let alone had laid a spanner on it. Imagine ringing up to order a bike and the dealer didn't know it was available. That's how new the Desert X was to Australia. Peter had to hand the phone over to Ducati product genius Nick Selleck to confirm the order. It doesn't get any newer than that. As crazy as it seems, Pete had instantly made up his mind to take his new mount across Australia from east to west. Just to compound the pressure, he gave himself two weeks to prepare the bike before he headed off on the ride of a lifetime solo. But the moment he first threw his leg over the Italian beast, the obvious weight difference between his Africa twin at 285kg and the far more svelte Desert X at 223kg confirmed he had made the right decision. And then he discovered the handling of the wide adventure weapon. When you're taking a trip across Australia from the most easterly point to the furthest west, bike preparation is absolutely key. Most riders would spend a couple of months preparing for such a trip, but not Peter. His prep time was measured in days, 14 days to be exact, and every day counted. On the first day, the standard tyres were replaced with more dirt oriented Motoz Tractionator Desert HT tyres. Meanwhile, Pete was mapping out a route and thinking about fuel range and hunting around for a fuel bladder. But he also had to run the in, so he headed off from his hometown north of Newcastle for a blast down the freeway to Sydney. He returned later that day, but had spent the whole time thinking about the MacGyver work he was going to have to do. For starters, rear luggage racks were not yet available, and get this, he wanted to redesign the cockpit to include a nav tower. So he set aside Saturday to knock off those mods. What the? Most blokes would be thinking about those mods for months, while as for a nav tower idea, that would sit on the too hard basket and never be touched. But not Pete. He whipped up a set of soft luggage racks by monstering an existing set of Barrett products soft pannier racks and fabricating his own mounting brackets to suit. Then he turned his attention to building his nav tower, taking inspiration from his wife's plastic cutting board in the kitchen at home. This was the greatest example of MacGyvering I'd ever seen. I don't know how they cut sandwiches in the mainsbridge household anymore, but what a trick bit of kit he came up with by sandwiching, pardon the pun, the plastic breadboard between two pieces of 5mm high density foam. Pete used the existing mounting bolts that held the TFT screen to fit his much larger mounting board. He moved the TFT screen to the right, fitted his inReach GPS to the left, and his mobile phone with mapping software in landscape orientation across the top. Such a professional looking job, but did it hold up to the extreme vibration and relentless abuse of a 12,000km return continental crossing? Absolutely. The following day Pete was down at UniFilter near Gosford getting his hands on the first oiled foam air filter to be produced for the Ducati. Then he visited the aforementioned Nick Sellick to learn how to remove the fuel tank and replace the paper air filter with his new foam acquisition. Also firming up in his mind was the view that he was giving this bike a thorough test and that if Ducati's published service interval was 15,000km then nothing was going to be touched on the bike until his return trip across Australia was complete, and that included the air filter. Frankly, I think he forgot about the extreme conditions clause, but Pete had made up his mind this was the way it was going to roll. The next day Pete was heading to Byron Bay and the welcoming arms of Desmo Ducati dealer Arthur Davis for the bike's first service. Arthur threw his weight behind the project and fitted crash bars and an off-road engine guard. Crash bars are a must for this bike as the lower portion of the fuel tank is vulnerable to damage, with even a stationary fall over. The off-road bash plate is a significantly stronger one than the standard item and is solidly mounted to the frame. Knowing he was heading into the desert, a bigger foot was welded to the side stand. This is a small but very thoughtful modification for parking in sand that keeps the bike upright. Other mods included the obligatory Aussie alloy barkbusters with storm handguards and versatile double-take mirrors. Surprisingly, Pete didn't touch the bike's suspension. In fact, he didn't even adjust it from the standard settings that came at delivery. It goes without saying that if you're making a solo trip into some of the most isolated country in the world, you need a comprehensive toolkit. But if you own a Desert X, you'll have to solve the challenge of being able to remove the bike's rear axle nut that has a torque setting of 186Nm. So you'll either need the strength of a gorilla or a MacGyver man's bridge solution. As you'd expect, Pete methodically worked his way through the rear wheel removal challenge and put together a workaround that includes a rare 36mm 12-point socket, a couple of aluminium extenders and a wrench. When pieced together, the custom tool set gave him the purchase needed to crack that axle nut. Pete left Byron Bay confident his new bike and setup would take him all the way. But as any Australian adventure rider knows from the past couple of years, there's a very good chance Mother Nature has a horrible sense of humour and she's all too willing to trip you over with the extremes of weather. In Pete's case, he was wrestling in the outback mud and dodging road closures within a couple of days of leaving Byron. The horrible mud that gets everywhere and sticks to everything like baby poo to a blanket, and then sets like concrete, blocked Pete's radiator causing the bike to overheat and ultimately created an electrical fault that required detouring to Adelaide to get it fixed. Now just to put that into perspective, that detour was more than 1000km. At the end of the day, if Pete had known a little bit more about the bike, he could have replaced the fuse and saved that lengthy detour. Pete eventually made it all the way to Steep Point, the most western point of Australia, before promptly turning around and heading all the way back home, clocking up more than 12,000km in the process. When we met for his photo shoot and interview, Pete proudly opened the yellow toolbox he has attached to the back of his bike and pulled out a bag containing one extremely dirty Unifilter air filter element. It had clearly done its job, but when the dirt and mud gets to a quarter of an inch thick, the filter really does need to be cleaned. That said, the engine side of the air filter was spotless. Pete also showed me a photograph of the Ducati's timing belt after 12,000km of hell, which despite being filthy was in good condition. The bearings to the pulleys are all sealed and they had kept out the mud and dirt. Mind you, no matter how enthusiastic he was about that result, it just didn't look right to me that the belt determining valve timing was ostensibly out on the veranda next to the footpegs and not snugly stowed away safely behind solid engine casings bathed in oil so pure you could cook your chips in it. Ah, but that's Italians for you, always doing things different. It was clear Pete loved the bike and what they had both achieved, and with a romance as intense as this one, it is inevitable that these two have a heap more adventure left in them yet. Pete's bike build had been a masterful blend of no-nonsense, common-sense knowledge built up over many years of riding. For the most part he kept it simple, focusing on protection, carrying capacity and self-reliance. But he knew navigation was crucial and a backup device and satellite communication for a solo ride of this nature was essential. To whip up a solution out of your better half's cutting board is just so impressive, and his efforts are worthy of him forever now being known as Pete MacGyver Mansbridge. Well I hope you like those two stories and it's certainly got me ready to rock and roll and get out in the outback myself. So Sunday night, we'll look out and see what we've got coming up. I got some good news today, the Norden Expedition has been confirmed as a test bike for us in the next couple of weeks, and I'm hearing rumours that we're going to get a DE800 Suzuki Adventure bike to test, and that'll be interesting as well. So lots happening and look forward to seeing you next time.