THE OLD BLOKE'S BLOG
Welcome to The Old Bloke’s Blog! Well, it's more than just a blog actually; it's a blog combined with general bits of interest, and smaller items etc.
It's a traditional type blog of things that I've been doing that will, hopefully, be of some interest to the reader too. But, as I said, it's more than that; it's also where I put items of interest that I've come across that aren't big enough for a separate article.
It's set out month by month, going down the page - so for the latest entries, scroll down to the bottom.
For previous installments in this Blog thing, just scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the button there.
I hope you find it interesting!
JULY 1, 2012. This was from the Moto3 last night. If you watched it you will have seen this incident, but I paused it and took a photo. Incredible!
Just in case you didn't see it, number 52, British rider Danny Kent, has just been slammed by his team-mate number 11, Sandro Cortese, (for the second time during the race!). The bike is obviously gone! It's going down. But he managed to just stand it up, wobble a bit and keep going! A couple of laps later he was leading, and ended up finishing 3rd. Amazing!
Casey Stoner obviously thought Cortese should be penalised heavily for his dangerous and aggressive riding. He said, "Cortese needs to have more than a slap on the wrist for his riding in this race, he's going to cause a huge crash if he's doesn't stop it." I'd agree!
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JUJY 2, 2012. Coming to a Triumph dealer near you. Well, not for a while, but eventually! Triumph enters the big-scale tourer market with its new Trophy model.
Here’s what Triumph have to say about their new model. “At the heart of the Trophy is the same powerful, three-cylinder engine developed for the award-winning Tiger Explorer. The shaft driven, 1215cc triple delivers an impressive 132bhp at 8,900 revs and 89ft.lbs of torque at 6,450rpm, providing smooth, effortless power whenever it’s needed. The engine features a balancer shaft to smooth out crankshaft vibrations.
“An extensive testing and development program has honed the chassis to provide true touring comfort while still connecting the rider with the road.
“Ride-by-wire technology provides both traction control and cruise control functionality, as well as optimizing engine efficiency and fuel economy. Great effort has been made to optimize weather and wind protection with aerodynamically enhanced fairings. The electrically-adjustable screen can raise nearly 6.5” and comes with a memory function that automatically adjusts to your last pre-set position when you restart the bike. Rider and pillion passenger comfort is further enhanced with a range of seat options including heated front and rear seats.” Sounds like a good bike! I get the feeling that this is going to be a much-anticipated bike, similar to the long awaited lead up to the Thunderbird.

JULY 3, 2012.  If you read my entry for June 30, you will have read how my dodgy old back threw a wobbly and caused a ride to be cancelled. It was disappointing, as it was to have been a ride with a riding friend, Russ, who, for one reason and another, I hadn’t been for a ride with for a long time. By yesterday it had improved a bit, so I figured a short ride would be possible. I had a late start for work, so we arranged a short ride to a nice lunch spot about 50km away. I took some pain-killers to settle the pain down (which is worse in the morning), took some more with me in case I needed them, and off we went. We came back a different way that added another 5 km or so to the trip. So, not a long trip, but I made it; and without the need for any more medication. (Having the AirHawk on helped cushion the spine too). It was good to get out on the bike and really great to catch up with Russ again. We both pledged to make sure it wasn’t as long before the next one! It was good to see his “new” bike too – a very low mileage Triumph Sprint ST. (See below for more on that).

JULY 8, 2012. A very enjoyable ride today! One of those rides when you come back feeling really good about the day. Although my back is still giving me grief, having successfully completed the short run I described above, I decided to do a ride I had previously intended doing with a regular riding mate, Rod, who, for various reasons, I also hadn’t ridden with for a couple of months. My back trouble has only slightly improved from June, but with medication to settle the pain before I left, and the AirHawk to cushion the spine, I reckoned I’d make it okay. In contrast to the ride on July 3, which felt a bit like I’d just “gone down the road and back” this was a more normal distance ride, so it didn’t feel as if I was compromising on the ride as much. Well, okay, it wasn’t as far as we often ride, and the ride was along easy roads, but it did feel, as I said, more like a “normal” ride.
Exactly as happened on July 3, I could feel some pain down the leg for the first 10 minutes, but then it settled down and I felt pretty good for the whole ride.
The old-style rider-friendly ergonomics of the XJR’s riding position was a big factor here; as was its general comfort level and ride quality. There would be an enormous number of bikes I couldn’t have possibly done this ride on! (Although an FJR, like Rod’s, would’ve done the job even better). The AirHawk seat was a huge help! I normally wouldn’t have bothered putting it on for this ride (I usually only use it for longer rides or rides over bumpy roads), but the “cushion of air” provided a cushy-soft seat, and absorbed any jolts up the spine from bumps.
A fair bit of the ride was on major roads that involved just cruising along, which also helped, but there were some secondary roads with corners and some short straights to enjoy. So it was a good day!

JULY 9, 2012. There are bargains out there if you look hard enough! One benefit of the downturn in sales that the bike industry (along with just about everything else!) has experienced over the last couple of years or so, is that some shops have last year’s (or in some cases even older) bikes still sitting on their floors. Dealers get stuck with bikes (and this applies to cars too) from the previous year that haven’t sold and so have to reduce the price to get them out the door. Rod mentioned seeing past-year new bikes advertised at huge discounts. One was a 2011 Yamaha FJR that went for around $8000 under new on-road cost! He’d also seen an ad from a shop that had a 2010 XJR still in stock and being offered at a huge discount. And I’d seen a 2010 Yamaha TDM in one dealer’s add. But it’s not just Yamaha (Rod mentioned those because we both own Yamahas), I’ve seen last-year’s stock sitting in the showrooms of most of the main brands. Yes, you do lose out on resale value (because you’re buying a bike that is already one year – or two years even! – old), but when you save so much money, why not? And what you’ll lose in resale will be much less than you’ll save in purchase price; so you’ll still be ahead anyway.
Sometimes these are advertised very prominently, sometimes they’re not. It’s a difficult situation for dealers because if they advertise the old models, people might buy them instead of the new ones. They want to sell their new-stock bikes, but they also need to move the old stock. But they don’t want someone buying an old-stock bike instead of a current one – because they make less money, and also if they don’t sell their new bikes those bikes eventually become last year’s models too, and they’re stuck with the same problem again. So, sometimes they will advertise them, sometimes not. Just today I got an emailed newsletter from a dealer advertising big savings on old stock bikes; in this case in the region of $1,000 -  $2,000 on bikes costing around $14,000 or so.
I decided to have a quick look on Bikesales.com.au to see what I could find. And I found plenty; which was strange, because some were very popular models. From Honda I found several 2010 model VFR1200s, a couple of VFR800s (one a 2010, one a 2009), and a few 2011 CBR250s. From Suzuki there was a 2011 Gladius, a 2011 TU250X, and a 2010 Bandit. Triumph dealers had a few 2011 model Rockets to choose from, a couple of Thunderbirds, and a 2008 (yes, 2008!) Bonneville. From Kawasaki I saw a couple of 2011 W800s. I stopped looking about then, although had a quick look at some Europeans before leaving the site; as non-current-year bikes from European manufacturers aren’t so uncommon. A 2008 Benelli TNT was another standout, but the daddy of them all was a 2006 (yep, 6 years old and still in the showroom!) MV Agusta F4. I didn’t get prices for these; many were “P.O.A.” but you can bet there were big savings to be made over current-year model stock!
So if you’re in the market for a new bike, do some checking around – it could save you a lot of money!
Bargains are still out there in 2nd-hand land too. I mentioned Russ (see entry under July 3) having bought a new bike. His previous bike, a Suzuki Gladius, he found great for a blast through the twisties, but the hard seat and hard-riding suspension became a pain (literally!) on longer rides. So he’d been looking at potential 2nd-hand bikes for a while.
He'd looked at a few bikes, but most were too expensive and  / or had too many kilometres up. But then he found a beauty! A 2001 Triumph Sprint ST with just over $23,000km. A real bargain, and a great find!
There are a couple of issues you need to be careful of though. When buying new, make sure that what you’re buying is exactly the same as the current model – there can be changes between one year’s model and the next, so you might be buying a bike that is not just a year old but one that has also been superceded. That’s still okay, provided you’re happy with that model and the discount is enough to still make it a good deal.
With 2nd-hand there can be potential problems, because bikes don’t like sitting around not being used. Components that are normally used to be being active can start to rust-up when sitting idle for too long. So check carefully!
Russ’s Triumph is a goodie! It looks good (just a few little marks here and there) and goes really well. With bikes like this the year model dictates a low price; usually above average for the year model, but way under what you’d pay for anything else in that condition and with so few kms traveled. And even with me, when I bought my current bike it was just over a year old and not even run-in, and I saved about $4,000 on new price. So, yes, there are definitely bargains out there!

JULY 11, 2012.
I love the country! So scenes like this really appeal to me, and make me want to be there!
My grandparents lived in a country region of NSW and I spent a bit of time there in my (much!) younger years. I think that was what gave me my love of the country. If I’d had my way, and if I’d been able to, I would’ve moved from the city and lived in the country.
This photo was taken in the New England area of NSW, and I’d just love to be riding through there. Love it!
JULY 21, 2012. A few weeks ago I read a story in the local paper about a volunteer at a local facility for sufferers of dementia who rode his bike there one day and it attracted a lot of interest. He brought the bike into the complex and chatted to residents about it. That got me thinking. If there were residents there who were interested in bikes, perhaps they'd enjoy a display of bikes? I phoned the facility and asked, and they thought that would be great. So I contacted friends, who contacted friends, and we ended up with 21 bikes. (We could've had more, but had to restrict numbers so that it wasn't too much all at once for the residents).
It was a good day! The residents enjoyed it, and we chatted to a few people there. The staff very kindly provided a sausage-sizzle for us, and all the riders enjoyed being there and being able to brighten the day a bit for these people. Below are a few photos.
JULY 27, 2012. You’ll know Motul as a highly reputable brand of oil (I use it), but it also produces other products for bikes. And now it has expanded, launching 24 new motorcycle care products onto the market. If they come from Motul you’d expect them to be good, so these are worth checking out. Click here to see what they’ve got.

AUGUST 4, 2012. Today I dropped into the the biggest Yamaha dealer in Australia. (That's biggest in terms of sales and service, not necessarily physical size). Where do you think that would be? Well, I'll tell you, it's in Campbelltown; a suburb to the south-west of Sydney. The shop is called On Two Wheels Motorcycles (click here to go to their web-site). Gaining the number-one spot is a great achievement - especially considering the competition. I was told that in Perth there is only one dealer for the whole city; so naturally they do a pretty good trade. They've been number-one for a long time. In the Sydney area there are apparently nine dealers. So for a shop on the outer regions of Sydney to come in at number-one is a great achievement indeed!
The shop is two level, with the top level (which is where the main entrance and carpark is) being all Yamaha. And they have almost every model Yamaha made on the floor. You can see just part of this in the photo below. That's the road-bike side. To the left of this is the dirt-bike section. And they don't just have two-wheeled machines either, they have 4-wheelers, like the quads and Rhino. And they have at least some of them at bargain prices. (Look at the entry about bargain-priced bikes under the July 9 entry above). There were two FJR1300s on the floor, and both were priced at $19,990 ride-away. That's $6,000 under normal retail!
These photos were taken as he traveled west to join the ride. The photo on the left was taken between Tamworth and Nyngan. As I mentioned above, I love this kind of wide open country! And the canola fields in the background add a bright colour to the landscape. The photo on the right was taken between Nyngan and Broken Hill. Looks pretty remote there, doesn’t it. And where are the corners?

SEPTEMBER 8, 2012. Bikes at church! The church that I attend held a men’s dinner with the title “Hogs, Harleys and Hirst”. The dinner was roast-pork (that was the “hogs” bit!), there were bikes (but not just Harleys) parked out on the forecourt of the church, and prominent motorcycling identity Greg Hirst was the guest speaker. (Greg, of course, rides a Harley).
It was a good night. The dinner was good, there was a good number of men there to enjoy it all, and Greg was a very entertaining speaker.
The bikes – and indeed Greg – attracted a lot of attention from the men there; most of whom had no involvement with bikes. (some did – or had done once – but most not). Greg had a couple of books on sale, about his motorcycling life, and I bought one.
SEPTEMBER 9, 2012. Today was the annual Memorial Ride by the Ulysses Club, honouring those members who had “ridden on” as they put it (passed away). The ride ended up at the Cordeaux Dam, not far from Picton, south-west of Sydney. This year was a very special year, of course, with founding member Stephen Dearnley passing away at the age of 89. A special plaque was set in place on a rock near one of the main buildings. Another plaque had been set in place honouring the member who first started these runs over 10 years ago.
Downstairs they have Kawasaki and Hyosung. There's the usual range of clothing and accessories too. So, well done, to On Two Wheels! It's a good shop!

AUGUST 22, 2012. More wide open country! Noel is currently taking part in a charity ride, called The Black Dog Ride, raising funds, and awareness, for depression and similar related mental conditions. It’s a great cause! The ride ends up in the “Red Centre”, Alice Springs.
There were about 300 bikes there, and I think most of the committee members were in attendance. It’s a very picturesque spot for it too. The photo below shows the Dam in the distance. Oh, and the other photo? How to make a Suzuki GSX1400 look small – park it next to a behemoth like this!
SEPTEMBER 29, 2012. Dorothy Mackeller, in her famous “I Love A Sunburnt Country,” wrote about the extremes of our weather conditions; and we’ve had an example of that in my neck-of-the-woods over the past couple of days. Yesterday the temperature got to just over 32 degrees. (It was a workday so I wasn’t riding – nor would I want to be!). Today the maximum was down to 19, and over the mountains where a mate and I rode, it was down to about 11, with strong wind that put the “feels-like” figure down into single digits. One day almost too hot to ride, the next I'm rugged up in winter gear. Such extremes!
SEPTEMBER 30, 2012. Seeing this many Vincents in one place is pretty rare! This was at the Motorlife Museum’s Motoring Expo.
It was mainly a display for cars, but there were bikes there too – including this group of Vincents. One (on the extreme right) even won the “People’s Choice” award for the day! I’m a car-nut too, so I enjoyed looking at the cars as well as the bikes.
Well known motoring identity and author Pedr Davis was special guest.
OCTOBER 14, 2012. Old age must be catching up with me. I had a charity ride booked in for today. A ride with some people who were to meet and ride to an event supporting people with disabilities. It promised to be a good event and a chance to catch up with some people I haven’t seen for a while also. Last night I logged on to Facebook and saw some photos a friend had posted of some bikes at a lunch-stop. A couple of comments were exchanged and it became apparent that the ride had been on yesterday – Saturday, not Sunday as I had in my diary! My friends even waited a while for me, as I had said I was coming. Oh well, it was a nice day so I went for a ride anyway, but on my own and missing the charity event.

OCTOBER 15, 2012. Ever wonder if those test-bikes you read about being thrashed by the bike-journos ever get dropped? Well, the answer is yes, they do. Some in fairly spectacular fashion. So what do the factories do? Well, mostly they fix them I suppose, but in the case of a Triumph Scrambler that came to a rather nasty stop, the boys at Triumph decided to make the best of a bad situation, and turn it into a café-racer. They have their own kind-of café-racer in the Thruxton, so what they did was add a few bits off that, but also some after-market stuff as well – including non-Triumph suspension. And now it’s doing the rounds of shows and some bike journos again. Apparently there’s around $6,500 worth of mods on the bike. Check out Motorcycle Trader’s web-site, as there should be a video of the bike appearing there soon.

OCTOBER 20, 2012. One thing I like about riding in winter is less bugs. Today was a warm day – first time since winter that I wore my summer jacket. And I got more bugs than, well, since the last time I wore my summer jacket probably!

OCTOBER 20, 2012. Noel put me onto this. It’s a promotional video for the 2013 Yamaha FJR1300. (Noel is a huge fan of the FJR!). Why put that here? Well, it’s a news-type thing, and from what is in the video – and from having ridden the original model and the current model – this looks like a great motorcycle! Check it out here.

OCTOBER 26, 2012. From the 1st of next month there are a couple of changes to road rules in NSW that you should be aware of. One doesn’t (or shouldn’t!) affect us, but the other certainly does. The first one concerns the use of mobile phones. (Okay, have a look at the top of the Feedback page and you might think the first one can apply to motorcyclists!). Basically the rule is that you shall not touch your phone at all under any circumstances while driving (or, presumably, riding!). But the one that most applies to motorcyclists concerns roundabouts. I’m not a fan of roundabouts. When they were first introduced, many years ago, I reckoned they must’ve been sponsored by the smash-repair industry! I reckoned they’d cause more accidents than they would eliminate. I also thought that if we were going to have them, then there should be a minimum size – small roundabouts are silly! Although, having said that, one very big one in Sydney was the scene of so many accidents it became one of the city’s worst “black-spots”. There were roads going everywhere and the traffic-flow would do an intersection in India proud! It’s now a “normal” intersection controlled by traffic-lights. Anyway, to get to the point, from 1st November we now have to indicate when we enter and leave a roundabout. Yes, “when we enter a roundabout”! On large roundabouts that is silly; like, which way can you go? Right? Straight ahead? But on small roundabouts you almost can go straight ahead; and on these ones an indicator when you enter is essential really, to let other vehicles know that you are turning and not going "straight". Anyway, having turned onto the roundabout you have to indicate when you leave the roundabout. Now, that is already law, but it’s being made a bit more prominent and will, apparently, be policed more rigorously than it has been in the past.
I’m going to go back to my opinion about size – there has to be a minimum size for this to work. On a small roundabout it can be downright dangerous! Have a look at the one in the photo here and think how the rule would work on this. There is, obviously, a section of road going to the left and the right at the bottom of the photo (the other side of the road you can see at the far side of the roundabout). At the bottom of the photo (heading towards the camera) is an entrance / exit to a shopping centre.
This is one where you can virtually straight-line it if you are continuing on the same road, so an indicator if you are turning is essential here. But what about exiting? The problem with indicating to exit small roundabouts like this is how soon you put the blinker on. Put it on too early and people might think you are exiting on the road before the one you intend; and that can be a real danger! Put it on too late and you’ll be exiting almost before it starts to blink. Put it on at the right spot and I reckon you’d get about 2 winks if you’re lucky, before you exit; which is pretty useless. I  reckon it all goes to prove my point that roundabouts are silly, and that no one rule is suitable for both small and large ones. 

NOVEMBER 4, 2012. Going down even more gently! In Going Down Gently, I described an incident where I dropped my bike; a stationary fall where my bike – and me – ended up horizontal on the ground. Due in part to a dangerously designed speed-hump, and partly to unwise positioning of the bike by the rider. That was three years ago. Yesterday my pride-and-joy ended up lying on its side again. But even more gently this time. Last time I was just 15km from home, this time it was in my driveway! It was one of those “How did that happen?” moments. I mean, I have ridden down my driveway before – like, only a few thousand times!
As you can see in the photo, my driveway is a bit of a dodgy affair, with two concrete wheel-tracks and grass between them. I mostly ride down one of the concrete tracks, usually the right one.
Yesterday I turned into the driveway, coming from the direction of the camera. Part of what happened was that I turned a bit shallow, I wasn’t straight with the driveway when I rode onto it. The front wheel rode up onto the right-hand path but the rear wheel missed and went onto the grass.
I’m not totally sure what happened next. I think I buttoned off, and maybe stalled. Anyway, the bike stopped and tipped to the left. One factor at play here was that I was still turning when it stopped. A lesson – don’t stop while the bike is turning; the different momentums at work can easily result in the bike wanting to fall sideways.
Anyway I put the foot down and caught it with the bike leaning over at about 45-degrees. I could hold it, stopping it from falling, but I couldn’t lift it vertical again. After a few seconds of this I realised there was no choice but to lay it down. But I was able to lower it very gently to the ground.
At this point my wife saw my predicament and came out to help. We grabbed an end each and tried lifting it, but couldn’t. It’s a heavy bike! With a full tank of fuel, (which it had, as I’d just filled up) and accessories (top-box mainly) there’s a good 250kg there. I must admit though, that I wasn’t lifting as hard as I could. My back had been giving trouble, and earlier in the day I’d upset it by pulling on my wet-weather pants. It was the first time I’d used the wet-weather gear since buying new boots; new boots which had a more prominent heel than the old ones. When I tried pulling the pants on I found that the pants were an almost impossible fit over the new boots. I did get them on, but it was a struggle. So if pulling on a pair of pants upset my back, hauling up one half of a 250kg bike wasn’t going to do it much good!
I looked plaintively at a passing motorist who had turned out of a side-street, but although he looked at us, he ignored us and kept on passing. Then I remembered the procedure of turning your back to the bike, grabbing hold and basically walking backwards, using your legs rather than your back. With my wife still struggling (facing the bike) at the front and me doing the backwards thing, we finally got it up. 
Good news was there wasn’t a mark on the bike, not even so much as a grass-stain. All I had to do was tighten the left mirror. “Why is it so heavy?” Asked my wife, puffing. I replied with some highly intelligent reply like, “Because it is.” “Why don’t you get a lighter bike?” She countered. Well, if I could find a bike that was as practical, as comfortable and pleasant to ride, and had the same sort of power, maybe I would; but in the meantime, I like the one I’ve got! But the weight can be a problem if you get it off-balance.

NOVEMBER 4, 2012. As indicated above, I rode in the rain yesterday. It was one of those days when the weather-forecast got it wrong. “Possible showers clearing during the morning” it said. When a mate and I left home late morning there were a couple of threatening-looking clouds about, but we’d had rain earlier, which had cleared, so we figured it would only get better from then on. An hour into the ride and there were thick black clouds everywhere, and it started raining. (That’s when I stopped to put the wet-weather gear on as described above). Of course the bike got a decent coating of grimey road-spray. So today I gave it a wash. I thought it was about time I gave it a polish as well, so I dragged out the bottles, tins and rags. Now, I don’t have to tell you how much is involved in cleaning a bike! Doing a proper job can involve scrubbing nooks and crannies with a tooth-brush. I didn’t go that far, but polishing it required 5 products! I used plastic polish on the plastic parts (even on a naked there is a significant amount of plastic), Vuplex on the screen, ordinary car-polish on the metal parts, stainless-steel polish for the muffler, and Armor-All for the top-box. With the car it’s just a bucket of car-wash mix for everything! (And Armour-All for the inside).

NOVEMBER 7, 2012. I mentioned my little gentle-lay-down above, well, it seems it’s been a bad time for bikes lately. A friend of mine had a similar incident – dropping his bike at home. He’d just washed it and was putting it in his shed. The front wheel came against a concrete block or something, the back wheel spun on the wet grass and the bike went down, breaking a foot-peg. He was due to leave on a bike trip within a few days too. He got the foot-peg replaced in time though.
Another friend was travelling with a group along the famous Thunderbolts Way in northern NSW when one of the group lost control on a bend. The bike went down heavily and is probably a write-off. And, being an older bike, it wasn't insured. The rider relatively sustained minor injuries.
One of my music pupil’s father is a keen dirt-bike rider. Last weekend he went to a dirt-bike complex; one of those big places where there is accommodation and you stay and ride all on-site. He’d been eagerly looking forward to the weekend away, and was telling me about it when he dropped his son off for his lesson. Sadly, the weekend didn’t go well. He had a big crash going over a jump and landed very heavily, bursting a kidney. Apparently he has no other injuries (his wife told me there weren’t even any bruises!). But he is in hospital, having now lost the kidney and in a lot of pain. He says his riding days are over, and the bike will be sold. 

NOVEMBER 24, 2012. Mid-size bikes continue to be the most popular bikes out there, ticking up more sales than the bigger boys. I’ve described in my article about Mid Size Bikes that the mid-sizers are eminently practical machines, and it seems this is being appreciated by the market in general. Some are not just practical they are immensely capable too!
In the over-all road-bike sales you’ve got to get down to number 6 in the Top-10 before you get a big bike – that being the Harley FLSTF. Then it’s a couple more Harleys and it’s back to the mid or small-size bikes again.
It’s the same in the individual categories. Mid-sizers take out the top 3 spots in sportstouring and Adventure-Touring, and the first 4 in the Naked category. With cruisers it’s a mid-sizer on top (Yamaha’s XVS650), but then it’s Harleys all the way, except for the Diavel which sneaks in at number 9. Sportsbikes and Tourers remain the domain of the big boys though.
NOVEMBER 25, 2012. Another year, another change of paint! Details have been released on the 2013 Yamaha XJR1300. It comes in two colour options; both are black, but this one has a silver tank with a big number 1 on it. They did this in honour of Rossi winning the world championship, so I suppose this is Lorenzo's tribute model. I think that the current one with graphics / stripes is a better looking bike than all-black.
Good to see that they are still producing it anyway.
DECEMBER 1, 2012. Showers and a predicted top temperature of 33 degrees – a good day for a ride – not! But a ride was on. It was a visit to a local nursing-home to put on a display for them. This was inspired by the visit I organised to a similar place earlier this year. (See item under July 21st). This particular nursing-home had heard of the earlier visit and someone there asked if they could have bikes visit them. A riding acquaintance, Wayne, who had been on the previous charity rides I had organised, is the son of one of the residents, and happened to be there when the question was asked. So he put his hand up to organise a similar visit to this place.
When the day arrived the skies looked threatening, but I wanted to support the ride – not only because Wayne had supported the rides I’d organised, but also because this is a great thing to do. It brings a unique enjoyment into the lives of these people, who don’t really get a lot of variety and entertainment in their lives. While the morning did bring showers, almost right on cue the weather cleared to mostly sunny skies. It was hot, but we didn’t have far to ride.
There were about 20 bikes at the display (maybe one or two less), including a police-bike. The residents had a great time looking at the bikes and having their photos taken with them. A Can-Am Spyder was very popular, with many residents (mainly elderly women) sitting on it for a memorable happy-snap by the staff. And of course the riders enjoyed a good chat with each other as well.
After the display a few of us rode to a restaurant for coffee / nibblies. As I left to come home I checked the weather – current temperature was 35 with a “feels like” index of 37. Riding home felt a bit like sitting in front of a huge hairdryer, but it was okay for the relatively short distance I had to go.
Congratulations Wayne on a great day you organised for these people!

DECEMBER 1, 2012. As I mentioned above, there was a police bike at the display, and I had a good chat with the police-officer, Kevin, a sergeant aged about 50, with many years experience at the bars of police motorcycles.
We discussed the bike, a Yamaha FJR1300. He said that they were very pleased with the Yamahas, although they were currently evaluating the Kawasaki 1400GTR.
He said that when they evaluate a bike they not only look at the obvious things, like how well it performs and handles, but also at things such as how easy they are to service, or access parts that might need repairing etc. As he said, “You don't want to spend 4 hours repairing a 20c part.”
He said his favourite police bike was the previous K-series BMW they’d had. The engine being mounted down low, and on its side, meant a very low centre-of-gravity, which was good for doing slow riding. That made it a good bike for riding in heavy traffic and doing escort work etc, as well as making it very easy to ride in tight situations.
By comparison, he said that the FJR feels a little more “top-heavy”, and not quite as good for those slow speeds.
I quizzed him on the subject of their protective clothing – or lack thereof. He said, “You’ve got to be very observant – as do all motorcyclists. Look all around you, have eyes in the back of your head, again, just like any motorcyclist should.” In other words, don’t crash and you won’t need the protective gear. (Good in theory, but …). He was dressed in the usual short-sleeved shirt. And the pants? He said, “If you hit the road I reckon these lycra pants would just melt into your skin.”
I suggested that the very nature of the job – having at times to engage in fast riding in a pursuit etc – would naturally place them at greater risk; thereby justifying even more a higher level of protective gear. He said that the police were now issuing riding pants that had kevlar lining. And proper riding jackets were available to those officers who wanted them. The jackets were three-in-one style, with zip-out liners making them suitable for summer or winter. But there was a catch. He said that if they took the jackets they had to agree to wear them all the time. He didn’t like that idea. “I wouldn’t want to be riding around town in a jacket in these temperatures!” He said. So he said he didn’t want one.
A very nice guy, and an interesting discussion. 

DECEMBER 2, 2012. Christmas is coming and … the bikes are on the road, for annual Toy-Runs. Rather than my local one, I prefer one that starts in a town about 75km away.
It runs for about 15 kms to a small town, where the finishing point is the town’s local Bowling Club. There’s a sausage-sizzle (or you can eat in the Club, as I do). Today, thankfully, was much cooler. From yesterday’s maximum temperature of 37, today topped out at 23. Crazy weather!
The threat of rain was ever-present, but it stayed away. The most I got was a few spots on the visor on the way home. My daughter and her family, with my wife, drove to the finishing point and we had an enjoyable family-lunch in the club.
DECEMBER 5, 2012. Ooops! A French journalist was taking a 2013 model Yamaha FJR1300 for a test-ride and rode to a harbour for a photo shoot. Should be a nice setting, the bike against a backdrop of water and boats. But it didn’t quite go as planned! To see what happened click here.

DECEMBER 12, 2012. The term “Thong Nong” would be highly appropriate! Today in a small local shopping centre I saw a guy on a Kawasaki GPX250. The right-side of the fairing was broken, with jagged edges hanging loose. The guy was wearing a singlet, shorts and thongs. And a helmet. Nothing else. As he rode out of the driveway he had the right-blinker going, and turned left! Oh, boy! I’ll assume the blinker was probably left on from when he turned into the shopping centre, but as I said, the term “Thong Nong” would certainly seem to apply here!

DECEMBER 16, 2012. With family commitments and questionable weather, it'd been a couple of weeks since I had the bike out, so I was itching to go for a ride. It was hot – with temperatures hovering around the 30 mark and high humidity – but radar indicated cooler temps over the mountains not too far from where I live. Maybe just a short run up there and back? For the first few kms it seemed okay; a bit of cloud cover, and the wind blowing through my air-flow jacket. Warm, but okay. Then the sun came out, and the wind felt like a giant hair-dryer on the High setting! Nah, too hot, I'm turning around. Back home again after a distance of about 22km! Maybe next weekend? Or perhaps during the week if I get a chance?

DECEMBER 20, 2012. I had new tyres fitted today. Apart from draining my bank account of copious amounts of cash, it was a pleasant experience. The bike shop where I bought them is just over 20km from home. They were the cheapest I could find and came highly recommended by a friend who bought tyres there a few months ago. The shop is a husband and wife operation. They are well known in the area for engine mods, dyno-tuning etc. The wife, who handles the reception / office duties, is very efficient, knowledgeable and friendly. It was quite a warm day, so I appreciated the air-conditioned office at the front where there is a lounge and some books to read etc. She even made me a cuppa while I waited. Very pleasant!
I bought Michelin PR3s. The PR2s I had previously were good, but these are supposed to be better. The only complaint I had with the PR2s (and it didn't really affect me too much) was that the front tyre was wearing in a scalloped pattern. I know of a couple of other people who had experienced a similar wear pattern too.
I’d heard that “mould-release” isn’t as much an issue as it used to be; and looking at the tyres they didn't seem as badly affected as previous ones I've had. I remember tyres having what appeared to be a sticky substance coating the tyre. These didn't have that; they just looked “new”. In the past I've even used fine wet-and-dry sandpaper to rub the tyres and get a bit of that slippery stuff off. So today I decided to wear them in by going for a decent ride. My concern is that riding slowly and straight doesn't achieve a great deal, it just wears the centre. You could do 100km on the highway and then the first time you tip it into a corner you're on the slippery new stuff. (That's why I've previously used wet-and-dry to rub the sides of the tyre). I went on a round-trip home that involved about 50km of mostly highway, then about 25km that had lots of corners. Whenever I could – even along the highway – I weaved the bike gently from side to side. Around slow corners I tried to lay the bike over more (by sitting more upright).
The tyres felt good, and gave a comfortable ride. Seemed to handle well too. By the time I was riding the twisty part I was feeling quite confident with them and had to restrain myself a bit; I wasn’t riding fast, as such, but I was starting to enjoy the corners and had to remind myself I was riding slowly!
By the time I got home the tyres had covered 77km. Looking at them now the “newness” has worn off for a reasonable distance across the surface of the tyre. Looks good. I'll still take it easy, but they look pretty well “worn-in” now. 

DECEMBER 22, 2012. I went for a short ride this afternoon up a winding mountain road and back. The new tyres felt great! The old rear had squared-off enough to affect the handling, but I didn’t think it was too bad. But with the new ones fitted there was a big difference! The bike handled smoothly, accurately, and felt about 20kg lighter in the corners! Very confidence-inspiring! The PR2s were good tyres, but I don’t think they ever felt quite this good.

DECEMBER 29, 2012. I read today that “The Bear” (Peter Thoeming), and Stuart Woodbury have “left” Australian Road Rider magazine and will be setting up a new magazine called “Australian Motorcyclist Magazine”. That seems odd, not the least because, from my understanding, Peter Thoeming and Stuart Woodbury are Australian Road Rider! Indeed for many years The Bear basically did the whole magazine himself. So, how can you “leave” something that is really you? Obviously there must’ve been some wheeling and dealing going on or something. Mick Matheson – former editor of Australian Motorcycle News, among others – has been appointed as the new editor of ARR. The report said that The Bear’s new magazine will have road tests, touring stories, technical articles and new products. Kind of like Road Rider! Very odd.