Bushpig suggested a ride on Saturday and the winter weather finally decided to play ball and put on a brilliant sunny 20°C(68°F) day. I was busting to get out for a ride, buying a new bike in the middle of winter is probably not the best idea if you want to ride it. The last couple of weekends have been bitterly cold with snow in the Blue Mountains closing the Great Western Highway and the Bells Line and not really inspiring me to get out for a ride.
Stewie and Bushpig met at my place and we headed for Mcgraths Hill maccas to meet up with Doctor Kwok. A quick coffee and breaky for some and we were under way heading up to the Putty Rd. I tweaked the suspension to soften it up a bit a couple of weeks ago, so I would get to see if they have made any difference in making for a smoother ride. I'd also changed the ride mode on the dash from A(race mode) to B mode. It was instantly a more tractable bike to ride. Throttle response in A mode is pretty brutal and it really seemed to be heavy on fuel consumption. Bushpig threatened me if I run out again I'd be walking so I made sure I filled up when needed.
Coming up the twisties at Colo river I'd rounded a bend and encountered a car doing about 60kmh, a little hard braking later and I decided to pull over to let them go. Also my first opportunity for a photo stop. It didn't take long and a large group of bikes roared past with Stewie and Dr Kwok stuck firmly in the middle. We caught up quickly and getting stuck in the group saw us doing 80kmh in places. Annoying to say the least
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Dr Kwok |
A quick fuel stop for me and Bushpig at Colo Heights and we were under way again. I would get to check the fuel trip meters along here as we rode up to Broke, in the Hunter Valley for lunch. It wasn't long before we were stopped again and saying our goodbye's to Dr Kwok. He had an appointment and had to turn around and go back.
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The strumpet |
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Live long and Prosper |
This will be the first time through the ten mile section on the new bike. There was quite a bit of water on the road today even though it was a warm day some sections along the river do not get any sun on them and the road stays wet and has moss growing on it. We were all taking it pretty easily because of the damp sections. So it came as a surprise to me when I touched my knee down on the road on one of the bends without really trying. It just goes to show how good the new R1 is and how sticky the bridgestone tyres really are. I don't think these tyre will see much more than 2000 km's to be honest, you can see the rubber peeling off them.
We turned off the main road and headed across to Broke for lunch and check on how much fuel I had used. It's quite beautiful country across this section where the road sweeps through the vineyards.
There were a lot of bikes out today, like these bunch of guys' on their L's and P's out racing each other on their little 300's. It was funny coming up behind them and watching them come out of the bends and laying on the tank and opening up the throttle. It seemed like they just made more noise but weren't actually accelerating. I bet they can't wait till they can get something with a bit bigger capacity. Keep it up boy's you looked like you were having lots of fun.
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Hunter Valley Vineyards |
There was a queue for petrol so we decided to order lunch. 3 works burgers were hungrily dispatched in no time. The burgers were pretty good here. After filling up I had used 8.3 litres for 125km's. I decided to put some in anyway, by my calculation if it used the same on the way back I would use 16.6 litres for 250km's with only 400ml of fuel left. That's not a lot in case of anything going wrong. We were very lucky on the way back across the milbrodale road with the local constabulary looking for more fresh victims, luckily we dodge that bullet.
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Praying at the altar to the road god's |
We were soon back in Colo heights and I fueled up to check and I had used the same 8.35 litres for 125kms. I could have made it back but there would have only been fumes left and it's better to be safe than run out again. A pretty good winter day's run out. The suspension was a lot more compliant than before but the rear still needs the spring preload softening up a little. I can't complain really, if you want a race bike on the road you can't expect it to be really comfortable, after all it is a track based machine. And that 200hp engine is very addictive.
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A lovely monster |
Sunday morning rolled around was much like Saturday, beautiful weather again. I'd given the bike its first wash after yesterdays outing. I thought I'd get out to fill up and just put a few more km on before I book in the first service. I picked up Brad on the way and we did some local back streets around eastern creek. We found two buildings like this one. The warehouse had collapsed in a freak hail storm a couple of months back, apparently there was about 10cm of hail. Obviously the warehouse roof couldn't take all that extra weight and it just caved in. Time to book in the 1000km service now that I've got 980kms on the dial.