Monday, March 8, 2021

10 Year Anniversary

Holey Moley. I can't believe that this blog is 10 years old. Yep that's right I've been clogging up the interwebs with complete bollox for 10 long years. Maybe I should have done something more worthwhile during that time, like getting a degree or learning some new skills or something important. That would be a smart choice but whoever said I did anything that was logical? Ever? That would explain why I owned 2 R1's.




With all the random shit that I've pulled in the last 10 years I'm not sure why my wife hasn't divorced me yet. Ahhh the mystery's of life.........Oh well, on with the blog then.

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

I thought that I would have a little look back over the crazy shenanigans that I've gotten up to over the last 10 years. First up a few statistics from the bloggers stats page, if it can be believed. I think most of these hits are from web bots and other such devices.

I've posted up over 411 post's and wasted countless hours of about a dozen or so peoples lives who for the better part will never get that time back. Not many compared to other bloggers but I like to think my posts are quality, quantity, picturesque.

It says 46 followers but I couldn't imagine there would be more than probably 10 people that would regularly check in as most of those followers have given up blogging, but those 10 simply awesome people have commented over 3500 times.




With 340 people checking in and 816,000 bots crawling my little blog, that's a pretty good number for someone that flunked English in high school. Matter of fact computers only just started in school the year I left, now I'm showing my age.

So the all time views charts shows some interesting data. From the start it was pretty slow going for about 5 years before I started to gain any sort of traction. I find it funny that in the year that I posted hardly anything(2020) that I had my all time most views. What the?




How can that possibly be? Not much new content, views through the roof. It's either because everyone was home during COVID and they were surfing for motorcycle blogs instead of working or those same people used a lot more search bots, just so they could drop those nasty marijuana comments in my inbox daily.

So I thought I'd have a little look back over some of my fondest memories during that 10 years of motorcycling bliss. It would be fair to say I had no idea what I was doing back on my first post. Luckily I've learned so much since then and now I almost know what I'm doing.

Back in 2012 my second daughter was born, so I got into the full swing of responsible parenting 2 daughters and riding bikes.

We lost rising MOTOGP star Marco Simoncelli back in 2011. A sad day for all of motorcycling. RIP Marco.



I explored some new roads back in 2013.

Crookwell - Bathurst Road

2014 saw one of my long time motorcycling bucket list items ticked off. My brother and I along with 2 mates explored New Zealand's South Island on hired bikes. Still the best ever tour to date. I'd so love to do this again.


Lewis Pass

Arthurs Pass

Crown Range Road

Glenorchy Road

I even got to meet the worlds fastest Indian

Mt Cook


At the end of 2014 I got to top off the year with riding one of my all time favourite race tracks. Phillip Island. Besides the abysmal weather we got, I still had a great time and brought it all home in one piece.

Me at Lukey Heights Phillip Island


Riding in Australia seemed a little bit boring after our epic New Zealand trip. However a new bike was on the horizon in 2015 an Yamaha released its all new R1. 

200Hp fire breathing dragon

In 2016 I got to unleash the 200Hp monster at Sydney Motorsport Park. A fun day was had by all.

Me on Turn 2 SMSP


I also made this neat video of our day at the track. That bike was an absolute weapon at the track. Loved every minute of it.



In 2017 we turned our gaze across the Ditch again but this time to New Zealand's North Island for another 10 day tour on some hire bikes taking in some of their twisty tarmac. We also managed to catch up with 2 of NZ's best Motorcycle bloggers. It wasn't all smooth sailing however with Geoff throwing his bike down the road on the very first day.

Gentle Annie


Mt Doom

Moki Tunnel on the Forgotten World Highway


Mt Taranaki


Here's a short little video of our 2017 NZ tour.





2018 had another fun packed ride in store for us with a combined World Superbike round at Phillip Island followed by a week long tour around Tasmania. 

Freycinet Peninsula




Hobart







Gordon Dam






Also in 2018 I got back into some of my early bike riding roots and attended the Wombat rally. Severe brain damage was a result due to the alcohol consumption or was my beanie just way too tight.



At the start of 2019 I flew up to Brisbane and rode around South Eastern Queensland with my big Brother on his spare bike. It was a good 4 day get away.

Pomona



Glass House Mountains




Mt Lindsay









At the end of 2019 pretty much most of the Eastern Sea board of Australia was covered in severe bushfires. I saw the ash falling from the sky on a daily basis.






2020 started out the same way as 2019 ended, with more bushfire devastation. If we knew what was headed our way in March no one would have been complaining.




Sadly COVID-19 hit the planet and knocked everyone for a six.  The world hasn't been the same since. Pretty much everything stopped. This blog pretty well stopped.

At some point last year I thought I was going to wrap this little blog up. I wasn't riding anymore and didn't really have anything left to say. My least amount of posts ever, only 11. I also sold my beloved 2015 R1. It still hasn't been replaced yet.


Sydney was a ghost town in 2020



So 2021 has rolled around and the blog is still lumbering along on tired legs, lurching forward like a zombie. Perhaps this year maybe I can rekindle some of the love and get out and enjoy riding and what our beautiful country has to offer.


Jenolan Caves Road


Thanks to everyone out there that has read my blog over the last few years. I hope you found something in here that made you smile or laugh and maybe nod your head along in agreement. Hope to meet you one day on the road. Stay safe and enjoy your ride. Thanks for stopping by.












11 comments:

  1. It is interesting to look back on what we have done, see what we didn't know and have since learnt and to just talk about bikes n shit.
    Keep it up.

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  2. Really glad that you've kept motoblogging Steve or I wouldn't have met you and your mates and that was a genuine highlight. Pity it wasn't for longer although it was still great to ride together. Some fabulous photos in this post. For some reason, I really love the R1 parked among the bushfire-damaged trees. Here's to the future mate!

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    1. Thanks Geoff. One of the many pleasures of having the blog, meeting new and interesting people such as yourself and Andrew. It was a pleasure mate.

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  3. Congrats Steve! Commenting just so you know that I'm not a bot...





    You really need to come and check out some of the South Island gravel at some stage...

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    1. Maybe I could do that on my R1 Adventure R. Yeah would love to do that, when you coming over to Phillip Island for the GP? You should be used to the crap weather so that's not an excuse.

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  4. Great effort mate. A decade of memories, great writing and now even greater photos.
    And something else we have in common...failed English.
    And just for the record, if computers coming into school the year you left ages you, what does me not having calculators do? Yep. Engineering with a slide rule 🙄

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    1. So perhaps there's still some hope for me yet.
      Slide rule, I remember those from school too. That's what they said they used before we had calculators, lucky we didn't have to use them.

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    2. They were Pre-calculator Hos. Can’t remember how to use one.
      But without it I may have failed engineering and maths. Made a neat spot to hide formulae in exams

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  5. Congrats on hitting a decade Steve.

    You might be surprised to find out how widely your blog is read - many people don't comment but well established blogs do have some reach and there is a slow recognition about how much online content is actually marketing of some sort and what is honest.

    Whilst out of vogue I see blogs making a modest comeback. Many people don't want to read but quite a good few still do. Those who do tend to be far more interesting than those who don't. They are the people I want to communicate to, not the couch potatoes watching YouTube.

    Here's to another 10 years!

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    1. Thanks mate. I know what you mean. The top 20 or so supposed motorcycle blogs on feedspot are not blogs, but just online magazines full of adds and marketing guff. I don't follow any of them. I do however read about 50 blogs or so from real riders. They are informative and sometimes fascinating so I guess I'm with you in your sentiments.

      Geez mate another 10 years....(cringing with fear in his eyes)

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