Call him King of the Mountain.
What the hell is Snag’s Lap
So glad you asked… Apparently, it’s been a dream of his since he can remember. To do a full lap of this wide brown land on a motorcycle, camping all the way. So, when he turned 60, he reckoned it was then or never. That was his first mistake…
Covid has put the thing on the back-burner twice now and our ‘senior’ journo is looking down the barrel of 62, but let’s not bog down in who shot who. Thank Christ, he’s now on the road and we can get some work done around here.
“Counter clockwise is the go!”. Here at the IM Bunker random shoutings like that have emanated from the old bugger’s office with monotonous regularity over the last few years. “Do you reckon Pirellis are the go?” “What’s the time difference in WA?”. Yep, he has talked about nothing else. It’s driven poor Spannerman to drink.
He has all the gear he reckons he’ll need, sitting aboard just about the perfect missile in his very own 2019 S 1000 XR and he’s been on the road for about three weeks now. He reckons he will run through some of that gear and what it will set you back. Indeed, there will be a whole heap of tips and tricks among the revelry and merriment, you can be sure of that.
22,000km, 12 months, four sets of tyres, and around 500 sausage rolls. What could possibly go wrong?
He’s camping most of the way, free where possible (‘there’s fugall money in bike journalism Tarquin, so get a trade’ he has muttered more than once to prospective scribblers), and preparing meals etc by the side of the road.
Snaggy intends to talk to locals, see everything he can and bring all of that to you via video updates. Bikes, roads, gear, the good, bad and the ugly. Yeah, it could go awry, but that’s the fun of the thing right? It will surely not be boring.
We’ll be updating you lot regularly with the hi-jinx that will inevitably follow, with video updates on the website and via social media. We are going to stitch it all together, providing he makes it out alive, to come up with a movie. That’s got Blockbuster written all over it huh. OK. We know, but we’re doing it anyway alright?
So. Snag’s Lap. Stay tuned! Snaggy wants all the support he can get!
Loved the 60km/h tour of Mt P. I asked the women in the museum at the bottom of Conrod Straight and they swore there were no cameras on the mountain. I took advantage of that information after a ‘sighting’ lap and haven’t heard from the authorities since so they were probably right. The most terrified I’ve probably ever been on a track is at the top of the mountain where you can’t see what’s over the crest of the dipper. If it was a car stopped in the middle of the road with tourists taking photos, it would certainly be a spectacular crash.
I also loved the wait for the ferry. You have to abandon the pressure of city life if you’re in the bush. You get used to it eventually. Wish I was with you.