THE OLD BLOKE'S BLOG
Welcome to The Old Bloke’s Blog! But it's more than just a blog; it's a blog combined with general news, things of interest, etc. So, a traditional type blog of things that I've been doing that will, hopefully, be of some interest to the reader, but it's also where I put items of interest that aren't big enough for a separate article. So don't think that it's all about me! Some of it is, but it's also a newsy kind of thing. 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, just scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the button there.I hope you find it interesting!These days, a lot of this content gets posted on my Facebook page; which is updated and added to far more frequently than this web-site. So if you are on Facebook, check it out. (Just do a search for "The Old Bloke", you should find it easily).AUGUST 8, 2019. I’ve been riding for over 40 years. I’ve never had what you would call an accident. (And I’m hoping that is still the case when you read this!). I fell off a few times riding trail-bikes along muddy tracks (that’s a given), and I once toppled over at standstill on the road when the road was further away than I thought. (Oh, and there was that one time I dropped a test-bike in the parking area when the bike ran out of steering lock), but never an “accident.” On the website here there are several articles about safety – tips and mnemonics to help you (and me) stay safe on the roads. But I don’t claim to be an expert; and I am always open to learning more ways to stay alive. Or re-learning things I might have forgotten, or slipped into ignoring. And we are all open to forgetting things, or letting things slip. So when I saw a book called “Stayin Alive” advertised for $20 (plus postage), I thought it was a worthwhile investment. So I ordered it, and got my copy today.
Obviously I’ve only looked through it briefly, but already I can recommend it. The author is Leon Cupit, and he calls upon his many years of experience, plus other experienced riders, including some instructors, to give his advice. His writing style is very readable; and there are small summaries and picture messages that make it even easier to read and remember. Of course there are the basics – which we all know (but it can’t hurt to be reminded of) – plus those little sayings like, “Safe riding is no accident”; “Never twist the throttle in anger”; “Dress for the slide not the ride”; “Never have more drinks than you have wheels” (I hope truck drivers don’t see that one!); and so on. And lots of articles explaining principles and practices to keep you alive. I reckon anything that helps keep us alive out there is well worth the money. Contact Leon at leoncupit@gmail.comOCTOBER 8, 2019.
“I don't think I'll ride much further.” It looked very ominous, so I stopped at this point, and decided to turn around and head home. I mean, if you get caught in the rain, you get caught in the rain. But there's no point in intentionally riding into it.So it was only a short ride, but still good to get out for a while. And I avoided the holiday traffic.OCTOBER 26, 2019. Today the local Harley dealer had a ride-day on. I'm usually one of the always-there people on ride-days, but I didn't bother today. I looked at what was on offer to ride, and it turned out there wasn't anything I wanted to ride. I don't take the big Harleys on test-rides. There's only so much weight an old bloke like me can handle! Now it's true that all Harleys feel much lighter than they actually are. I reckon, even at rest, they feel about 50kg lighter than the brochure says. Low centre-of-gravity! But there is a limit to what I am confident of keeping upright. It's not so much the riding – the weight is not so much a problem on the move – but manouvering around the forecourt and out of the driveway. And dropping one of those biggies would be very expensive!
Actually there was one that I have been wanting to ride. The very first Harley I rode, about 15 years ago, was a 883 Sportster. They were fairly plain-Jane things then, but in recent years they've done some interesting styling themes with them. On offer today was the Iron 883. I don't like matt-black, that's just my preference, but I was keen to ride it and see how the styling integrates into the whole thing - and just to have a ride on an 883 again. That's a photo of it. But then I looked up the specs on it. This bike is fitted with what Harley call their “slammed suspension.” Look closer at the specs and the rear suspension has just 41mm of travel. That is about an inch and a half! So run over anything bigger than a matchstick and your spine would be “slammed” by the bike's almost solid rear-end. No thanks!NOVEMBER 10, 2019. The Australia Motorcycle Festival was held in my home city (just up the road from where I live) of Wollongong over this weekend. Today I went in for a look.
This event replaced the Motorcycle Show that used to be in Sydney. Now it is being held in Wollongong for the first time. It was a good show! Here are some photos to give you a taste of what was on display.
There were some criticisms. One was that there seemed to be a bias towards dirt-bikes compared to road-bikes. Still plenty of road-bikes present, but a disproportionate number of off-road. Not many food stalls was another criticism. But it went off well, and was well attended.NOVEMBER 10, 2019. But the big news for me, from the bike show, was that I WON A MOTORBIKE!!!! I still can't really believe it!!
The Steven Walter Foundation, who run the Snowy Ride that raises money for childrens cancer, was running a raffle, as they do each year at the Snowy Ride. Honda have been supporting this for a long time, donating a bike to be raffled over the course of the event. This is a charity I have supported in the past, and as I walked past the stand where they were selling tickets, I thought, it’s been a while since I donated or sent any money their way, so I bought a ticket. AND I WON!! 
Each entrant gets a ticket, and tickets in the raffle are sold at the Snowy Ride itself and at other events too. I've entered the Snowy Ride before (you get a ticket with your entry) and I've bought a ticket at various events, always hoping to win, but of course never did. Today I honestly didn't even consider winning – what are the chances, right? I just thought I should buy a ticket to make a donation again.I'd just left when they called me to say I'd won. They said I didn’t have to come back – but of course I did! There were lots of congratulations, smiling faces and photos etc. I still can't believe it! The bike I won is a Honda Africa Twin, worth $23,500 as it is here, being the top-of-the-range automatic and with accessories and on-road costs. Daryl Beattie rides one on the outback tours he leads.NOVEMBER 12, 2019. Thank you to all those who saw the post on Facebook and commented congratulating me on winning the bike. Some very kind words, which I really appreciate – thank you!
NOVEMBER 13, 2019. So, a new bike? I’ve been mulling this over during the past couple of days. It is a great opportunity to down-size from the XJR, but the XJR has been such a fabulous bike in terms of reliability, and suitability to my riding, that it would be a shame, in a way, to get rid of it. But the weight really is an issue now. So a decision was made to down-size. But what would I get? Well, you can read all about the process of deciding in the story here.
NOVEMBER 16, 2019. Today the decision was made - I bought a new bike! I went to look at one of the 07 Tracers I saw online – and had subsequently phoned up about. The dealer was On Two Wheels in south-western Sydney. (I've mentioned it here, but it's all in the story of me buying a new bike I mentioned above).
NOVEMBER 20, 2019.
After 11 years of wonderfully faithful service, my Yamaha XJR1300 has been sold. I'm going to miss it! I love the look of the bike, the comfort, the quality of manufacture, and the incredible reliability and longevity. And I love the power – especially the low-down V8-like grunt from that big old engine. But in recent times, over the past year or so especially, I've been feeling the weight more, as I've mentioned above. As also described in the entries above, winning the bike in the Snowy Ride raffle gave me the money to buy a new, much lighter, bike. In the meantime I'm glad that my two-wheeled friend has gone to a good home, and someone who will like it just as much as I did.NOVEMBER 20, 2019.
Very sad to see this! An Instagram friend in England, Kevin, had his bike knocked over by “an elderly driver in an automatic car”. The car knocked the bike over and came to rest against the pole of the sign behind it.The bike suffered quite a lot of damage. It is a Yamaha XJ900 Diversion, so looked like it would be written-off. I really feel sorry for him. He is a very regular rider.However, in later news, he was able to get some parts and fix the damage himself, and got it back on the road.NOVEMBER 22, 2019. Today I picked up my new bike from On Two Wheels, at Gregory Hills, a suburb south-west of Sydney. Yes, it's all in the separate story of me buying a new bike, but as this is a Blog, then a brief mention should go here too. The trip home was almost 80km. High temperatures had been predicted, but at least the smoke from bushfires that have been ravaging eastern NSW was forecast to clear by the afternoon. As it turned out, the high temperature didn't really happen and had been replaced by cooler temps, and heavy clouds. Very heavy clouds! I checked the weather on my phone just before I left and the first thing I saw was a warning of lightening being close by! And the radar showed rain approaching.
With no wet-weather gear (it was all at home in the top-box!), I figured I was going to get very wet. But all I got was sprinkley rain from time to time. I stayed dry, but the bike and my riding gear were covered in grubby brown water spots. And the bike? Well, as you'll read (or have read) in the story, all was not good. As I said there, the thing I thought might be a bit disappointing was quite good: but the thing I expected to be quite good wasn't. Comfort – in seat and even the ride – was the problem.NOVEMBER 23, 2019.
Today was spent running around and washing the bike (and my riding gear), and general fiddling – such as putting the top-box on. I also went to the RMS and collected my personalised number-plates, which I had put in storage. That was a bit rude – they charge you an annual fee of $59 to hold rego plates, but they don’t refund any part of that if you pick them up early. I had them there for just a few days!Anyway, it's looking pretty good! NOVEMBER 23, 2019. I’ve had a few messages from the friend who bought my XJR. He loves it! He lives about 80km away, and he sent me a message when he got home from buying it saying that the bike “rides like a Rolls Royce, just glides through the corners, and hills don’t exist any more!” I should say that his normal ride is either a Vespa or a Honda CB400; although he’s had plenty of experience on bigger bikes. He’s had his wife on the back (that would be the first time it has ever had a pillion!), and said the bike didn’t even notice the extra weight. I get these messages and think, “What have I done?! I should’ve kept it!” I have to remind myself that yes, the weight was a problem, remember! As I said to him though, it is great to hear he is so happy with it: especially when selling something to a friend it’s good to know they are happy with it!
DECEMBER 1, 2019. The South Coast Toy Run was on today. I go to this one each year, although I don’t do the actual run any more. The problem is heat! It's almost always hot (well, it is December!), and being surrounded by a couple of hundred hot motorbikes only adds to the heat. Not good for an air-cooled engine (which the XJR was); and not much good for the rider either! So after sweating it out again in 2016 I decided to ride to the end-point and donate my toys and join in with the riders there. However the last two years I’ve gone in the car: in 2017 because of my back trouble, and last year because temperature was predicted to be over 30 with winds gusting to 60kph. This year it was a nice day – warm, but not too hot. Windy though. So I rode; as planned, to the end-point at Berry Bowling Club.
I made a slight detour on the way down. The excellent photographer, John Keogh, was taking photos on a road just off the main highway, so I rode past and had some photos taken of me riding the new bike. I stopped and had a chat to him for a while, as well as taking a couple of photos of him taking photos.
So how did the bike go? I'm missing the XJR! Comfort is the main problem, which, as I explained above, I expected it not to be. I know that part of the problem will be that the bike is brand-new (0 km on it when I picked it up), so the suspension will still be stiff. Today I had the Airhawk on, which certainly helped, but somehow it doesn’t seem to sit right, and so I'm still not comfortable on it! It was disappointing, because it was upsetting my back. On the XJR I could get on it with my back a bit niggly sore, and once I'd settled into the ride it would be okay (for an hour or so anyway), and not make my back worse. But this bike was making my back sore when it wasn't sore to start with. I certainly missed the power of the XJR too. It was very windy today – both going down and coming back. The wind didn't actually blow it around much (I expected it might), but it did slow it down. That was made worse, of course, by the running-in procedure. There is more power at higher revs, but that area (above 5,000rpm) is to be avoided at this stage. With revs it is the opposite of the XJR: on it I hardly ever went above 4,000rpm, but this likes to be around 4,000rpm or above. That isn't at all onerous though. It doesn't seem like it is screaming at all – twin-cylinder engines are like that, they rev faster without sounding like they're revving as hard as they are. I don't like engines that have to be revved to get any power, but this doesn't feel like that, because it doesn’t seem to be revving as hard as it is, and because it is quite tractable from lower revs too. But being kind to it while running-in, while still keeping up enough revs to keep it in its power zone, meant trying to keep it as much as possible in that narrow band of around 4,000 to 5,000rpm. But that’s just running-in: once it is run-in I’ll be able to use more throttle and more revs. But today I was missing the comfort and the power of the XJR! DECEMBER 23, 2019. Well, it’s been 3 weeks since I last wrote about the new bike. Hot weather and smoke from the devastating bushfires has kept the bike in the shed mostly, although I have done a couple of short rides, including today. Today began by curing another little niggle I’ve had – having too much free-play in the throttle. That was easy to fix, although took a bit of time to get it just right.
I’ve been playing around with the seat. I’m still using the standard seat. (The “Comfort” one is higher than the standard one; too high to put anything on top of it). I’m not comfortable with the Airhawk. I’ve tried the sheepskin pad and thin layer of foam I used to use on the XJR prior to the flare-up of my back trouble a couple of years ago; and I’ve tried various thicknesses of foam under that, and also a gel pad I have. Nothing is comfortable! I feel like I want to move further back on the seat, but the step up to the pillion area prevents that. And anything I put on the seat (like the Airhawk, and foam under the sheepskin pad etc) shortens that distance even more. I’ve spoken to MJM, the motorcycle seat specialist at Goulburn, and the plan was to take the seat to him and have a custom job done on that. But I have just discovered that there is a particular model of Airhawk that specifically suits my bike. It is smaller than the one I have now, which could explain why my Airhawk just doesn’t seem to sit right. So I have ordered one of those. It is much cheaper than getting the custom seat made, and might even work better. Part of the problem is that I have become so used to using the Airhawk that without it I feel the ride is uncomfortable. Even on the XJR! One day I thought, “I don’t need it on all the time now, because my back is better than it was when I started using it all the time”, so I took it off and went back to the sheepskin pad with a thin layer of foam under it. And I didn’t like it – I was feeling bumps that I hadn’t felt for a long time, and changed back to the Airhawk. My bum is now too used to sitting on air! The ride still feels harsh, but seems slightly better (or am I just getting used to it?). There have been times when I have missed the performance of the XJR more, but it’s actually pretty good – and will be more so when I can give it some more throttle and more revs. It’s not ideal, of course, but something I can live with, even though I'll miss that 1300cc of grunt. I’ve just got to get the comfort of the thing sorted out! DECEMBER 31, 2019. My new Airhawk cushion arrived late yesterday. I put it on the bike and fiddled with how much air to put in. It's much smaller than the other one I have, and at first it felt like sitting on a bubble of air. Obviously too much air; so let some out and try again. It does take time to get it right – a process of contnuing to put more, or less, air in and keep adjusting it till you get it right. I would have liked to have done that today, but it wasn't to be. With the temperature soaring above 30 degrees, and thick smoke blanketing the area, it wasn't a day to be out riding and playing with inflation of the Airhawk! So this whole saga will end the year like one of those TV soapies; on a cliff-hanger of “Will it solve the comfort problem or won't it? Tune in next year to find out!” Yes, it's been a saga, hasn't it! And just like those interminable soapies, you probably gave up following it long before this. But for anyone still reading, today I got as far as sitting on it in the garage and fiddling with inflation (blow more air in, let some out, blow more in, let a bit out...). I won't know until I ride it, of course, but it has potential. I tried putting the sheepskin pad over the Airhawk, and that has potential too.
Maybe I should've kept the Africa Twin I won? No, it was too big and heavy; plus with our meagre finances we could make better use of some of the monetry value. Maybe I should've kept the XJR? Maybe .... the jury is still out on that one! Although the weight was becoming more of an issue, so down-sizing made sense. I will take this opportunity, on this last day of 2019, to thank you all for your continued interest in my ramblings, and associated articles, news and tests etc. And I wish you all the very best for the coming New Year! 
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