Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Suzuka 8 hours 2015 2nd hour highlights

Casey Stoners return to racing didn't go quite as expected at the Suzuka 8 hour but whats even worse than his crash was the pasting he's coped in social media and some press around the world stating outstanding quotes like

"Whats the moaner going to blame this on"

"Did your ambition outweighed your talent again Casey?"

To the Stoner knockers you can all go and fuck off. He's a 2 time world Motogp champion. Fucken keyboard warriors and they probably can't ride for shit.
Casey said the throttle stuck open, and you can clearly see he has a problem at 1:02 pulls in the clutch and you can hear the engine bouncing off the rev limiter. Honda later confirmed that the throttle was stuck at 27%.

Get well soon Casey, wishing you all the best here from the Road to Nowhere.


Sunday, July 26, 2015

Got out for a ride and didn't run out of fuel

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





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.

The strumpet

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.
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. 

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.

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.

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Pie Run

My radiator guards had come in so it was an early morning trip to the bike shop to pick them up and the rush home to get them fitted so I can get out on another ride. I thought that I'd have the guards fitted up in about fifteen minutes but it took me a while to work out have to get the new bikes fairings off. That was the easy bit the hard bit was then trying to get my hands in at the top to slip the cable tie in and around again. This took me about 45 minutes just to get the cable ties in. Talk about near impossible. Everything has been compacted in on this new R1.

Finally with the guards fitted up it was time for a ride. I didn't quite know where to go but I picked up Bushpig on the way to where ever. He was a bit under the weather so to speak so we decided on a short ride, that way I wouldn't run out of fuel and we could get some lunch. It was decided we would head up to Pie in the Sky at Cowan on the Old Pacific Hwy and play dodge the highway patrol.



The run up to the Old road was bumper to bumper Saturday morning peak hour traffic. I'm glad we now have legalized lane filtering which made it a lot easier. I must have passed several hundred cars and saved at least 10 minutes of being stuck in traffic. Who's idea was it to come this way?

The twisty bits start just out of  Cowan so time to try out this new bike. It was eating up the corners for breakfast and coming back for seconds. The new R1's corning is so sweet, I found myself hooking in fast then realizing it wasn't fast enough so I could still wind on more. Oops gotta be careful its only a 80 zone and it was so easy to go over that. Not long after we were sitting out the front of Pie in the Sky scoffing down one of their best pie's and a drink. Geoff's mate and all round good bloke Paud turned up on his 1098 and we sat around shooting the breeze whilst soaking up the warm winter rays. A chopper flew low overhead after a few minutes and Paud mentioned there was a rider down on the way up the hill. Two police vehicles and an ambulance screamed back down the hill. Not a good sign, I wish all the best for the rider and hope they are ok. The old road is a very unforgiving road if you get it wrong.

We headed off for a bit of a squirt up the towards Somersby, but only got down the bottom of the hill before proceeding were brought to a halt. The road was blocked due to the previous accident. Looked like a female learner rider. God I hope that she is ok. The police ushered us past on the other side of the road. A few bends later the helipad had the NSW ambulance chopper sitting there by the road. We pulled over to have a look at the bird and one of the crew came over and had a chat with us. We headed off just as the ambulance was pulling up.






We lost Paud somewhere along the way so he must of just headed home and didn't wait around for us. We got to the top of the road and turned around and headed back down, making sure to be careful. The road was fairly empty now, no police, no ambulances and not many riders. We made a detour on the way home down through the Berowra Waters Ferry and then on home. Woo hoo a successful day out where I didn't run out of fuel Hooray!!!! Its a shame to see a rider down so that was a bit of a downer to an otherwise awesome day.




Crossing the ferry we met a gent out on his ducati cafe racer. It was in immaculate condition, I asked if it was brand new and he said it was a 2008 model. It looked as clean as my new R1.

All out thoughts and well wishes go out to the fallen rider. I hope your now on the mend.

Friday, July 3, 2015

I AM LEGEND

For those of you that may follow my blog but don't know my brother or follow his blog I'm putting up a  tribute post to him and the amazing achievement he has just made by doing the Tour Divide 2015. Don't know what the tour divide is? Well it's a mountain bike race from Banff Canada to Antelope Wells, Mexico some 2700 miles(4345km).



That may not sound like much but let me give you a few facts.

  1. It is a race
  2. It is over 4345km
  3. It is through grizzly bear country
  4. It's on a push bike
  5. It is total self supported(no support or race crews)
  6. The first couple of days was in bitterly cold conditions with snow
  7. The sunburn even with cream
  8. Over 61,000 meters of climbing
  9. His bike doesn't have an engine(the crazy mofo)
  10. There were bears - a New Zealand women had to fight one off.
  11. Scorching heat in New Mexico in the high thirties
  12. There were 156 starters but 47 have pulled out at a 30% attrition rate
  13. He finished it in 20 days and 3 hours and 29 minutes

Mate we are so proud of you here and you have achieved one of your long life time dreams, ticked that fucker off your bucket list. What next?


The extent of the tourture
PS Your bike seat is going to seem like a lounge chair compared to my new R1 seat. What were you complaining about seriously?