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 ‘n’ pieces, and smaller items of interest 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 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 buttons there. I hope you find it interesting!
JULY 2010. Well, winter is well and truly here! ("Here" being NSW; if you live in Darwin you'd probably have to look "winter" up in a dictionary!). I've still been out riding though. One ride I did was an afternoon group ride. 11 bikes gathered at the start. One left due to having other commitments (just came to say hello and see us off). We headed up into the mountains. It was probably about 10 degrees. We stopped for a coffee and a chat. After that 4 bikes left us. A couple had to be back home early (so they said!), and another said if he went any further his fingers would probably fall off! (He was wearing fingerless gloves - no wonder he was complaining of frozen hands when we got to our stop!). When we left it was already mid-afternoon and we had most of the ride still to go. I was fairly well rugged-up, but was still a bit cold.
When we got back down from the mountains, we were in a town where 4 of the group lived. That left just 2 of us to travel home. It was about 70km to my home (less for the other rider who lived in a town a bit closer than I did); and as we rode along with the sun dipping below the mountains to the west, it was uncomfortably cold all the way home. A good ride though!JULY 2010. The cold winter is also being blamed for a downturn in bike sales. That and the general poor state of the economy. Oh yes, we came through the global financial crisis better than any other country in the western world, but consumer confidence is running pretty low, if you listen to the industry analysts. Many businesses (including mine!) are doing it tougher now than at the height of the GFC.
According to the figures, Honda scored the most sales, with Yamaha coming 2nd, and Suzuki 3rd. Expect to see some discounting!JULY 2010. I'm generally very supportive of the police and am reluctant to accuse them of revenue-raising. But the NSW state government's introduction of mobile speed-cameras is purely that – revenue-raising. And they admit it! Apparently income from speeding fines was down last year, so this year they are introducing mobile speed-cameras which will help to boost income from traffic fines by an estimated $137 million! Of course they say that these mobile speed-cameras will only be placed in known traffic “black-spots”. (Yeah, right! More likely they’ll put them in the spots where they reckon they’ll do the most business!).
Added to this is the rumour that the "tolerance margin" is going to be cut to 4kph. (Presently it's 10% + 3kph). Even the Highway Patrol officers say this is too small. (See, it's not police it's the governments that run them!). JULY 2010. I went for a ride on a mate's Yamaha FJR1300. He and the bike have been out of operation for a few weeks following an operation, so he wanted me to give it a bit of a run. So I took it on a gentle 50km run through the country. It was a pleasant day, but very windy. So I played with the electrically adjustable windscreen a bit. I found a nice spot in about the half-raised position that blocked the wind from my body, but didn't cause any buffeting around my head. Yes, there are times when a full fairing and an electric screen are very good things indeed!
JULY 2010.
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“Your brakes are better than mine,” a riding friend said to me over lunch. We were on a group ride with some RAT / Ratbag people (the Triumph owner’s organisations). He’d been riding behind me for part of the trip. Strange, I thought, I hadn’t used the brakes very hard. Then I realised that it was a very polite way of saying that I was slowing up in corners more than he expected; right-hand corners apparently. And then charging away on the straights. Ah yes, I probably was! Let me explain. Firstly, when he was following me we were coming down a mountain (that aversion to going downhill again!); and a lot of the corners were tight, off-camber, and with a damp surface. I get very tentative in those situations. Also, I was wearing wet-weather pants over my Draggin Jeans. And I also had the AirHawk on; as it was going to be a reasonably long (by my standards) ride to the lunch stop, with some of it being over choppy roads. Now, this isn’t the best set-up for corners! Think of sitting on a balloon in silk boxer-shorts. Well, it’s nothing like that. But very slightly it is. On most of the other sections however, I kept up with the riders in front and wasn’t slowing down riders behind.It was a good day! The lead-rider led the group of about a dozen bikes very well, which makes a big difference to how well a group ride works. The route was a good one (up and down mountains, passing through country and coastal areas), the roads were enjoyable (although damp in places and we finished in light rain), the company was good, and the lunch-stop had a great view over the coast. Another great day out on the bike! (Even if The Old Bloke seemed to be riding a bit “slow-n-go” at times!). AUGUST 2010.
My mate Steve called in for lunch and a chat today. He lives about 250km away, so we don’t get to see each other very much. He and a riding friend were on their way to a rally. It was great to spend some time with him, and see his new bike (he recently bought a new V-Strom 650). It was a beautiful sunny day, and he was heading off for an overnight stop down the NSW coast; a destination we had travelled to on our trip together that inspired my Touring article. I really, really wanted to be going with him! Not to the rally (my tenting days are long gone – these days I only stay in tents that have a reception desk and room-service!), but I would really have liked to have ridden down the coast with him to their overnight stop and ridden back the next day. Ah, the downside of having to work!AUGUST 2010.
I missed a charity ride recently for Mental Illness Awareness. I got up early, got ready for the ride and … the bike wouldn’t start! It was very sluggish turning over and I flattened the battery trying. It had been a particularly cold night – down to just 1 degree overnight – and the car was sluggish to turn over too when I started it to move it out of the way. The bike has been a bit sluggish turning over on cold mornings over the past couple of months, so I suspected the battery was dying, even though the bike is only 3 years old. I phoned around getting quotes for a new battery. First quote – at Battery World – was $399. I would probably have collapsed from shock, but I’d heard rumours of this sort of price. That was for Yuasa, which of course is the brand in bike batteries. Being a bit short of cash (and not wanting to pay that much for a battery anyway!) I phoned dealers and accessory shops. MCA had a Dynomaster – which seems to be a fairly reputable company – for $115. Then I discovered they were quoting me on the wrong battery. The correct one was $279 at a workshop, and $250 at Battery World. MCA had the equivalent in Dynomaster, which, curiously, was actually dearer than the other one, at $120. Then I decided to have the battery checked before I spent the money. A local auto-electrician charged it up and checked it – and said it was fine! Cost $5. Put it back in the bike and it started fine.I measured the voltage at the terminals over the next few days (without riding it) and there was no significant drop. Then I measured it again after a decent ride. Still good (and recovered the small amount it had lost). So there is no drain on the battery, it’s holding it’s charge okay, and the bike is charging okay. So what happened? I don’t know. I think perhaps the battery is getting a bit weak and just needed a workshop-charge to kick it along again.AUGUST 2010.
Getting back to the charity ride I mentioned above, I ended up driving down to the finishing point; which was at the small village of Jamberoo, population about 800. There were around 800 (some said more) bikes on the ride, so the population more than doubled! There were bikes everywhere! They pretty much took over the town. These photos are just some of the bikes there.
AUGUST 2010.
On the subject of batteries, a friend thought he was having battery troubles too, so went pricing a new one for his Yamaha FJR. It was the same model battery I was erroneously given quotes on to begin with. He called a dealer, and buying over the counter would cost $470! Then he got the same $399 quote that I did. Both on exactly the same battery! What a rip-off from the dealer! By browsing on the ‘net he found a discount battery place in Adelaide that sold it for $237. Again, this is for the exact same battery – same brand (Yuasa), same model! What a rip-off!AUGUST 2010.
I went for a ride through Sydney’s National Park today. (You’ve probably read about this in the bike mags, or in my article about the SeaCliff Bridge). They’ve put a 60kph speed-limit through a lot of it now. I’m not a fast rider, but this is ridiculous! It spoils the ride, not only because it is stupidly slow for the road conditions, but you have to constantly look down at the speedo to make sure you aren’t drifting too much over. (Pretty much everyone was going slightly over, by the way). Like so many other good biker’s roads, this has been neutered by the authorities! Yes, there were idiots who treated it as a race-track, but the point is they were – and probably still are – going way over the speed-limit anyway. Lowering the limit isn’t going to do anything if they are already breaking the existing limit! During the ride I saw 4 police cars, so they were out there trying to make the most of the restrictions! One I saw three times! It was parked as I rode by, then later when I stopped for a break before turning onto the highway for the run home it went past me. Then once I was on the highway it was hiding in the bushes with speed-gun aimed. (Was he out to get me?). AUGUST 2010.
On the ride I mentioned above I’d stopped for a coffee at Stanwell Park, which is just before the National Park. I got talking to a young guy. He was riding a Hyosung GT250 and loving being out on the bike! It was his first bike, and he mostly used it for commuting, but on the weekends he enjoyed being out and riding through the National Park too. A nice young guy, and it was great to see him enthusiastic about riding and enjoying it all on a Hyosung 250. You don’t have to have a big bike or a race-rocket to enjoy riding!SEPTEMBER 2010. I went to Big Al's Clubhouse for their annual charity day. You might've seen this mentioned in mags etc. Here's a link to their web-site, which will tell you all about the place and the event. http://www.bigalsclubhouse.com.au
The event was great; although perhaps smaller than I expected. I went in the car, as I took my grandson along for the day. It was a reasonable drive to get there, and I suppose some might say it wasn't worth driving that far to see, but I have a very high “boredom-threshold” when it comes to that sort of thing, so I didn't mind. The “Clubhouse”, as you'll see if you visit the web-site, is a big warehouse that Al (who isn't all that big, actually!) used to store his bikes in, but then he started collecting hats and other memorabilia, and it grew from there. It's set up with lounges and tables and chairs, TVs on the wall etc; just like a “clubhouse”! And all the hats and memorabilia! Bikes parked inside seemed to all have a number for judging. There was a sausage-sizzle going (one and a drink supplied free with entry), and there were not just one, but two Elvis impersonators providing some entertainment! Apparently Al is a big Elvis fan! They expected to raise about $4,000 for the arthritis charity, so that was good. And a "Well done!" to Al and all those who helped on the day.SEPTEMBER 2010. My bike is up for rego at the end of the month. Registration – in particular the cost of CTP insurance – is a big issue in NSW where I live. Prices have sky-rocketed! And having a 1300cc bike doesn’t help! (Although some of the smaller sizes have, proportionately, been hit harder). There was quite a discussion on the site here a while ago on this topic. For me, GIO again came in a lot cheaper than anyone else. And, as a reader suggested, I got an even better price when I phoned them. From cheapest to most expensive there was a difference of well over $200! It was still expensive though!
SEPTEMBER 2010. I joined a group ride to a classic bike display. The display was put on by the Classic & Enthusiast’s Motorcycle Club; a club I used to belong to for a few years. I’d been to these display days before, but never ridden there. Going in the car is easier because you don’t have to lug the riding-gear around while you admire all the wonderful old bikes. This time though, I joined a ride there.
The ride, for me, was a bit of a mix-up – typical of a lot of group rides, right? It got off to a bad start by me running late; so when I arrived at the starting point there was no-one there. Another rider turned up just after me. He knew where they were stopping for a catch-up along the way, so we figured we could catch up with them there. We went by different routes (he left before I had the helmet back on) and arrived more or less together. Once there we found the group okay. After a chat we all mounted up and left. The ride went through part of the Royal National Park, just to the south of Sydney. As I mentioned in August above, this has been spoilt a bit by speed-limits, but I still enjoyed the ride – riding through bush is nice, and the air was beautifully fresh. But the mix-up continued. Part of the problem was that I only knew a few people / bikes in the group. I lost sight of the riders in front when I got stuck behind a slow car. They overtook (across double lines!) and disappeared. For some reason I assumed they were going to ride all the way through, but they took a turn-off about half way along. I didn’t. I think there was a rider marking the turn but I didn’t recognise him so rode straight past. Shortly after, when some riders following me weren’t there any more, I realised that they must’ve turned off; so I stopped and headed back. Then I met another member of the group coming towards me. He obviously assumed we were going all the way too. So from there we rode to the display together. The display was in a big park, and we had trouble finding our way in. I’d always parked outside in the car, but on the bike you could ride in. Eventually we were given directions by a little old lady on a mobility-scooter! (Well, I had previously nodded to her as I saw her crossing the road, so I suppose she thought we were friendly enough to talk to!). It was a great display of some fascinating bikes, and it was great to see them! Here are just a couple of the many photos I took. 
OCTOBER 2010.
A sneak peak at next year's Yamaha XJR1300. Black is the new colour, with the engine getting the black treatment too. (Although this photo came from a Yamaha site in Europe, so maybe some minor details will be different).It's good to see that Yamaha is continuing with this. Considering Suzuki has dropped the GSX1400 (and Honda the CB1300 before it, and Kawasaki it's big-bore naked even earlier) it's good that Yamaha is persevering with the retro-naked. I think it still makes a good all-round retro-style motorcycle.OCTOBER 2010.
"So much serenity!" as Darryl Kerrigan said, in The Castle. This is the scene at Werai Tea-Room in the NSW Southern Highlands. Lush rolling hills, cattle grazing in the distance, and rural peace and quiet. Inside the old farmhouse style cafe you look out over this relaxing scene, drinking any tea of your choice, with, when I was there, John Williamson playing softly in the background. Getting there is a nice ride through the country too. Yeah, I think Darryl would like this place.OCTOBER 2010. Thanks to Rod for sending this in. Kawasaki has just taken the wraps off the 2011 model ZX-10R. The up-dated superbike now pumps out 157kW, in a machine weighing just under 200kg fully fuelled and ready to race. Do you think they’re getting serious about trying to win the World Superbike Championship? The bike comes with a whole lot of race-style technology too. Click here to read more.
And still on the subject of power, German specialist motorbike builder Horex has unveiled its latest creation, said to hit the streets sometime in 2011. It comes with a supercharged 6-cylinder engine producing “up to” 200bhp (150kW). Check it out here.OCTOBER 2010. The “Nanny-State” strikes again! Victoria is considering the introduction of a “Graduated Licensing” for motorcyclists. I’m not sure what they have now, but the scheme they are considering is similar to the system in NSW, being a Learner period of no less than 3 months, followed by three years of “Intermediate” (“Provisional”) license. Testing for both learner and intermediate license will be more comprehensive.
Now, so far, so good. I’m a big advocate of safety, so I support a greater emphasis on rider training for the learner-rider. I know it will be more costly, but what cost do you place on the safety of young riders? However, there are a couple of things that take the “Nanny-State” approach perhaps a bit too far.One is that learners must wear a “high-visibility vest.” They will have to wear protective clothing (yep, I’ll support that one), but the high-visibility vest? I don’t know exactly what they have in mind, but you’d feel a bit of a pratt riding around with one of those flouro road-worker type things on, wouldn’t you?Another “unworkable” requirement for learners is that they must be supervised at all times. No, not from the back seat, because pillions aren’t allowed. So the learner rider has to have another rider follow them around everywhere. Is that going to work? I doubt it! It’s just not practical. Do you get the feeling they’re trying to deter people from taking up riding?Anyway, if you want to read all about the proposals, click here. It’s a big read though – 66 pages in all! But the main points are at the beginning; and there’s some interesting statistics in there too. (Thanks to Rod for bringing this to my attention).
OCTOBER 2010. It’s been a month of missed-opportunities. I don’t go touring much (well, hardly ever), but during the month I missed two over-night trips. The first was one I organised with a couple of riding friends to the Loaded Dog Hotel. And then realised I had a prior commitment on and couldn’t go! My friends still went though, and you can read the story of the trip here.
Then my mate Steve, who lives about 280km away, knowing I’d missed the above-mentioned ride, invited me to come and visit. A date was set, the ride planned, and it rained! Oh well, another time!OCTOBER 2010. On the weekend I didn’t go to see my mate (see preceding item), the Saturday dawned quite sunny, although rain was predicted by mid-day. So I thought I’d still get a short ride in. At one point during the ride I could see some heavy clouds rolling in, so I stopped and put the wet-weather gear on, because I was coming to a mountain pass that provided little opportunity for pulling up if rain did come. No rain came though, until I was less than 10kms from home. Then it started raining! Bucketed down with a fair bit of side wind. As it wasn't actually raining when I put the wet-weather gear on, I wasn't as careful as I might've otherwise been that it was all on properly - I didn't zip the neck right up, for example. I don't know if it was this, or just the angle of the rain, but the front of my riding-jacket got soaked - almost as if I didn't have the rain jacket on! My jeans were wet just at the bottom, my shirt was wet at the ends of the sleeves. The worse thing though, was that I had my phone in its usual place in the front left pocket of my jacket - and it got very wet! (The front right pocket was dry, of course!). This resulted in the phone - which was turned on - not working!
I was able to dry it out, using a hair-dryer (don't get it too hot!), and submerging the phone in rice for a day or so (that works!). The phone was restored to working condition – with one exception; it won’t turn off. Hmm, decisions now being made on what to do next.OCTOBER 2010. You will have heard about the Intermot Motorcycle Show – it’s been in all the magazines. Well, here are a few snippets from that, including photos and a video. There’s a bit of everything – from the most ridiculous looking fold-up “transportation device”, to a V8 Ducati! Click here to go to Gizmag’s coverage of the show.
Oh, actually it’s not a true V8. (And Ducati would probably refer to it as an “L-8”!). Designer Dieter Hartmann-Wirthwein originally took a single-cylinder Honda 125cc engine and put 4 pistons on the single con-rod. Flushed with that success he turned to Ducati. He took the 900cc V-Twin and applied the same principle, mounting 4 pistons on each con-rod, thus creating an 8-cylinder engine. You’ll see a video of the deisgn on the web-site.Perhaps a bit more practical is BMW’s creation of an across-the-frame 6. Forget images of the Honda of the 1970s, this engine is remakably narrow. It achieved the extremely narrow dimension by having a relatively small bore and having each cylinder separated by a mere 5mm. As an old song went, “It’s all so beautiful….” (Thanks to Rod for sending the link it to this).NOVEMBER 2010. Summer is here! Well, it isn’t, but it felt like it. The first hot ride since last summer. A hot weekend, temps up around 30 degrees. So we headed off into the mountains where it would be a bit cooler. At our lunch stop the temperature topped 28 degrees. That was okay while we were traveling along, just got a bit warm through towns. Our return journey, via a different route, was hotter. The temperature got to 33 degrees in one area we rode through.
It did result in excellent fuel-economy. 21.7 km/l is pretty good for an old-school 1300cc 4-cylinder, even with the benefits of efficient fuel-injection. The theory is that petrol expands with heat, so you use less of it; and there’s less room in the tank when you re-fill. The other thing is that, while I wasn’t riding for economy, being an air-cooled motor I always try to minimise revs at slow speed when riding in high temperatures – like running a gear higher through towns etc. Although this isn’t hugely different to my normal practice, as I mostly ride the low-speed torque anyway. And we did have a head-wind for a lot of the ride.For my riding companion, Rod, it showed the extremes of temperatures in this state. The previous weekend he’d been in the Snowy Mountains where the temperature on one section struggled to reach a maximum of 8 degrees. At the time he rode through he said it was one of the coldest rides he’d ever done. What a difference!NOVEMBER 2010.
I’ve just started reading a book that came highly recommended by people on a forum I visit. The book is called “Uneasy Rider” by Mike Carter. It’s about a bloke who works through his mid-life-crisis by deciding to ride 20,000 miles around the world on a BMW – inspired by Ewan and Charley’s “Long Way Round”. The fact that he hadn’t ridden a bike before added to the adventure! The blurb on the cover says, “Armed only with a thirst for adventure, romance and a desire to discover what a man in his early forties with everything he needs but nothing he wants should do with the rest of his life.Over the course of six months, 20,000 miles and 27 countries he found out..” It’s a good read! Easy to read and humorous, and with a promise of interesting detail on where he rides. I got my copy from the library. The local book store said they didn’t have it but could order it in from UK. It is also available on-line from Amazon.NOVEMBER 2010.
It’s always interesting to ride somewhere you haven’t ridden before. Today it was a ride through the Southern Tablelands region of NSW. I’ve driven through there many times over the years, but never ridden there. The main destination, and my lunch-stop, was Goulburn. On arrival I by-passed the town and pulled in at the service-centre on the southern end; where the famous Big Merino is. An interesting point with this is that when the highway by-passed the town they moved it about 2km up the road to its present location. I’ve been told that weight wasn’t the problem (it’s hollow), but size was – it was moved in one piece, as is! Power-lines had to be moved out of the way and so on. There are a lot of choices of where to eat there, and it was quite pleasant sitting watching the traffic go by. Quite a few bikes on the road too.After lunch I walked around the area a bit, wandered through the gift-shop, and took a couple of photos – including the obligatory one of the bike posing beside the sheep. The “Welcome To Goulburn” sign across the road has a small monument-type thing that resembles the War Memorial on top of the hill. There is no plaque or anything on it to say what it is apart from the obvious (if you know about it) resemblance to the war memorial. And a rather ornate-looking garden that looks like it might have some significance, but apparently doesn't.
DECEMBER 2010. You might have seen reports, in the form of leaked photos and various technical info, of the latest creation from Ducati, the Diavel.
Some reports have called it a cruiser, but it doesn’t look like a cruiser. It does have the front raked-out a bit, but really, there's nothing very "cruiser" about it. One report described it as a “stretched Monster”, which seems a bit more accurate. The engine is a re-tuned version of the 1198. 
DECEMBER 2010. I think my bike must have something against charity-rides! There was the one back in August I missed when the battery went flat. (It’s been fine since!). And last weekend it was the Annual Toy Run. The one I intended going to was on Sunday. Saturday afternoon I checked the tyres in readiness for the ride. The back tyre was down by about 10psi. Hmm, strange! It had been a couple of weeks since I’d checked it but that’s a lot to lose! Better check further. I checked the valve for tightness; yes, it was tight. I then checked if it was leaking (the old spit-bubble method); yes, it was fine. Better check the tyre. I rotated it slowly and spotted a tiny hole with something shiny embedded in it. Yep, a slow puncture! So it was no riding that weekend! The word is that the mushroom type repairs that are inserted from inside the tyre are very safe, so I went with that. I didn’t want to have to shell out for a new tyre!
The closest bike shop (that I would trust to do it) to where I live said they don’t repair tyres. Something about it effecting their insurance premiums. I phoned my “trusted bike mechanic”, who is 19kms away. No problem, he could do it, and assured me the repairs were totally safe, never had a problem with them – provided they were done correctly and the puncture was suitable to be repaired. I rode out and got him to do the repair. He showed me the repair before fitting the tyre. It rode smoothly, and a brief run at 120kph brought no imbalance vibes, so all is well!DECEMBER 2010. Just a brief follow-up to the item above on the book “Uneasy Rider”. I’m about half way through and it should be said that there is more about his mid-life meanderings, and not much about his actual motorcycling. A bit disappointing on that level, but it’s still an interesting read.
DECEMBER 2010. A reader, Paul, who lives some distance away, and I had been trying to get together again for lunch and a ride. Two dates had been set, and both were cancelled due to weather. For the first it was raining, and the second had forecast temperatures well above 30 degrees. The third attempt looked better. A friend who lives close by, Rod, and I headed off under overcast skies, but with little threat of rain. Pleasant, if a little cool.
We met Paul at our pre-arranged lunch stop and had a good chat. When we left to go on our planned ride the weather looked a bit nasty. So we donned the wet-weather gear and set off. There was some rain, then it cleared to sunny breaks. The photo above was taken on arrival at a coffee-stop at the end of our ride together. When we emerged from drinking our coffee we found the clouds threatening again. And the wind, which had been strong for most of the day, was now almost gale-force. We parted company at this point, Paul heading for a long ride home, and into the worst of the weather. For Rod and I, our route home included the narrow, winding Macquarie Pass. It was an interesting trip down the mountain! The wind had brought down huge amounts of debris on the road. There were leaves and twigs everywhere, sticks, small branches with leaves still on them, and the odd rock and dirt-drift to add to the mix. And light rain with a damp road, just to make it interesting. It was a real obstacle-course! Got home and it was blue skies and sunshine. Still an enjoyable day on the bike though. (Apart from having to wash it again!).DECEMBER 2010. We’ve been having some weird weather lately! (Tragically weird for many people in Queensland and parts of NSW!). I went for a ride a couple of days ago – felt very weird going for a ride in the end of December and pulling on the winter jacket and rugging up against the cold! Today it was T-shirt and summer jacket without wind-liner. Strange weather!
I enjoyed the ride today especially – better weather and along back roads and a narrow mountain pass that allowed me to “play” a little – giving it a bit of a blast between corners and up hills etc. Hadn’t given it a squirt at high speed for a while, so waited until there was nothing around, on a back road, and gave the throttle a twist. It was a short straight that half way along became a hill. Jumped to 140kph, keep going, up to 160kph and then backed off. I thought it seemed a bit slower getting there than usual though – then I remembered just how steep this hill was! (It’s easy to forget how steep hills are on the XJR!). 
DECEMBER 2010. I got talking to a lady with a BMW F650GS on a group ride. It was a nice bike! She showed me the seat. She said the standard seat was too narrow and "like a plank." So she had a replacement made. The seat was made by MJM Custom Seats in Goulburn, and, as you can see, they did a great job! Transformed the comfort of the bike! Looks great too. And even the cost was much less than other places. To make it even better, she rode the bike to the shop in the morning and picked it up the same afternoon. If you aren’t within riding distance of Goulburn I’m sure they would do delivery. Address is 60 Maud St, Goulburn. Phone: (02) 4821 6166
I saw this spectacular Moto Guzzi on my travels. It was owned by a pharmacist (must be money in that!!), and was parked outside his shop. I went in and got chatting to him about it. The engine, front-end and half the frame come from a late 70s model. The rest of the frame was made from parts of other Guzzis, and specially custom-made bits. The swingarm was a custom-made job designed to accommodate a WhitePower monoshock. (The original suspension was twin units). The battery and other bits that would normally reside where the monoshock is were relocated to under the hump at the rear. The tank and bodywork are all hand-made and polished aluminium. So many special bits it is incredible! A fascinating bike that is a credit to its owner and those who built it!
Click here to go to the next instalment - January to June 2011.
Click here to go to the previous Blog - January to June 2010.
