General Cycling Discussion - Question for the Australians

I know this isn't a bicycling type of question but
here goes anyway.
A coworker of mine is going to be vacationing in Australia.
While the wife and kids go to Alice Springs he would like to
rent a motorcycle (Harley) in Sydney and ride up to Cairns and back. I was wondering if any of you knew links to Harley dealers in the Sydney area.

thanks
Marty

Sorry can't help with the Harley dealers. I hope your friend has allowed several days for the journey. It would be about a two day ride each way, Cairns is a long way from Sydney, at least 1000miles. It would be a fantastic ride to do, he should have a great time.

CHEERS.

Mark

Originally posted by lotek
While the wife and kids go to Alice Springs he would like to
rent a motorcycle (Harley) in Sydney and ride up to Cairns and back.
Does he have any idea of the distance between all these places?

Alice Springs is many hours by plane flight away from Sydney and as Dutchy says, Sydney and Cairns are huge distances apart.

This is a very big country.

Originally posted by Dutchy
would be about a two day ride each way, Cairns is a long way from Sydney, at least 1000miles. [/B]
Try more like 1700mi/2750km. I hope he likes looking at cane fields.

I don't know about HD rentals in Sydney either, but he could try the Yellow Pages (http://www.yellowpages.com.au.). Here's (http://www.yellowpages.com.au/yp/search/business_type_results.jhtml?breadCrumbLevel=0&breadCrumbString=&categoryId=9003335&categoryName=Motor+Cycles--Hire+%26+Tours&parents=&pLN=&commName=motorcycle+rentals&pState=&pArea=&pSA=true&pMetroArea=1&pOtherArea=&pDays=&pHours=&pBrand=&pPayment=&pP=&pIA=&pShowZoned=true&searchType=refine&isSuper=) a few that a cursory search turned up.

Isn't the internet a wonderful thing? I found not only a reasonably accurate distance between Sydney and Cairns but a selection of Bike rental places after only a few minutes with a couple of search engines.

This is a very big country.

That reminds me of a story. A few years ago when there were really bad bushfires in Sydney, one of our relatives from Holland asked whether we were in any danger. She obviously didn't realise that Sydney is about 1400km/875miles from Adelaide. Sydney to Alice is 2790km/1743miles.

I just found a web site http://www.ozholiday.net/distance.asp this gives a good distance calculator.

CHEERS.

Mark

You think that's bad-I live in New York, 300 miles upstate (we have cornfields, cows, lawns, etc), but people are always asking me about the subways!

Thanks for all the relpys.

I knew its a long way, but was surprized it was
quite so far.
I've still got that American (Texan) misconception that
everything is smaller than in the States, and I've
lived/travelled in alot of different countries.

D'Alex, can you perhaps tell me where I might
catch the BMT train? and if I can bring my bike
onboard? :lol:
(fyi I used to live in both NYC and upstate)

Marty

Originally posted by lotek
Thanks for all the relpys.

I knew its a long way, but was surprized it was
quite so far.
I've still got that American (Texan) misconception that
everything is smaller than in the States, and I've
lived/travelled in alot of different countries.


Well, to put it in perspective, here's some results from another quick web search.

Queensland: 667,000 sq mi. 2.5 million people.
Texas: 267,338 sq mi. 20 million people.

For interest
Western Australia (our largest state): 975,920 sq mi. 1.5 million people.
New South Wales (our most populous state): 309,443 sq mi. 5.1 million people.

There's a whole lot o' nothin' out there.

(Australian population figures from 1991)