Holiday ride days 3 & 4 - fixing my bike and returning to the bush
8th & 9th September 2026
With the check engine warning light on the dash of the bike, day 3 I decided to head to the nearest Royal Enfield dealer which was in Atherton. The hope was that they would be able to check the engine code errors for me. If they could not then I would return to Cairns and wait until my local dealer could look at the bike.
I rocked up at the dealership with no appointment and asked if there was any chance they could look at my bike today? I told them I could wait at a friends nearby farm and come back if needed. They looked at my bike in a matter of minutes. The report was 3 error codes and all able to be cleared. A big thank you to FnqHub for helping me out. Really outstanding service.
The remains of my friends original milking shed, March 2022.
Normally I would have been able to continue on my journey but I noticed as the mechanic rode my bike away to check it that the right hand side rear drive light was not working. I still had brake and turn lights (they are built into one) but thought it best to see if I could fix it before continuing.
I headed to my friends farm just outside Atherton to work on the bike there. His farm was originally dairy but later he changed it to beef cattle. The shed above is what remains of his very humble first milking shed.
The problem with the rear light was one that I have had previously. The mount for the light is a little loose and that causes strain on the rear drive light wire resulting in it breaking. I could not fix it at my mates farm without buying a heap of gear I already had at home …….so I decided to head back to Cairns to fix it there.
As well as fixing the wire connection I added a thin piece of plastic to the mount to make the fit tighter to reduce movement. The repair is still working so far.
The little gorge my campsite looks down on.
It was late afternoon of day 4 before I was once back on the bike on my holiday. I would have to abandon my trip to Hughenden and do something else. I headed out to one of my favourite camping spots in an old logging forest near Ravenshoe to camp the night.
First thing to do once I arrived was to lay some soft grass on the area where I would pitch my tent. This makes the ground softer and also gets me off the ground a little to keep me warm. The Ravenshoe area gets cold overnight.
With camp set up I sat a looked down on the Gorge for a while. Then I settled in to read a book until it got dark. One upside of having to go home to fix the bike was that I could bring frozen meat out for tonights meal. With the sun set I started the fire and cooked chops and potato over it.
This holiday ride was definitely not going to plan and by the time I was ready for sleep I had decided what I was going to do with the rest of my short holiday :)