Wednesday, August 20, 2014

The need for speed

With our never ending police presence on our highways these days it makes sense to take to the track if you feel the need for speed without losing your license, and as a consequence your lively hood. This is one of the reasons in the last 10 years or so my riding has become fairly sedate. I've had about enough I can stand and it's time for some action.



So it's time that I got some of these......



And head to one of these.......



For some of this.......



And this........




Without worrying about seeing these....



And losing this.....


The date has been settled and the track has been booked. Time for some speed.....




Saturday, August 9, 2014

Bucket List

There have been times I've been reading other motorcyclists blogs and come across some photos that I've looked at and my jaw has dropped and I thought to myself "WOW" I would love to ride my bike there. I'm sure many of you have done the same thing. I've often said figuratively that i'd better put that on the bucket list and not really thought about it to much since. So I decided that I would put together a riding bucket list, some of these I will achieve others will go un-challenged.

In no particular order here is my bucket list which I will add to at some point but this is a good start.

1.    Ride Tasmania 

2.    Ride the Tail of the dragon - USA














3.    Ride Alaska - Yukon - USA/Canada

4.    Ride New Zealand North Island

5.    Ride New Zealand South Island

6.    Ride Eastern Creek Raceway

7.    Ride Waterfall Way - NSW

8.    Ride on race slicks

9.    Ride a Ducati Panigale

10.  Ride Trollstigen - Norway










11.   Attend a European round of Motogp or Luguna Seca

12.   Ride the Nordscliefe

13.   Attend the Isle of Mann

14.   Ride a BMW S1000RR

15.   Ride Pikes Peak - USA

16.   Ride Philip Island Race Track

17.   Ride the Transfagarasan - Romania












18.   Ride the Great Ocean Road - Victoria Australia

19.   Ride all the inland Great Ocean Road routes

20.   Ride the Summerland way & Mt Lindsay Hwy - NSW & Queensland

21.   Ride Gwyder and Bruxner highways - NSW

22.   Ride on an Autobahn at over 300kmh - Germany

23.   Ride the Black Forest - Germany

24.   Ride through Europe(France, Spain, Austria, Swiss Alps)

25.   Meet Mick Doohan and have a beer with him.

26.   As above but Casey Stoner.

27.   Meet Troy Bayliss

28.   Ride all of the great bike roads of Southern Queensland/Northern NSW

29.   Ride to Mt Rushmore, Grand Canyon, Zion National park










30.   Ride the Full Omeo Hwy

31.   Ride Tasmania again.

32.   Ride the Mount Imlay Road.

33.   Ride around Laguna Seca.

34.   Attend the Methven & Greymouth Street races - New Zealand

35.   Do an Iron Butt Ride 1600kms in 24 Hrs on a sportsbike - Ouch

36    Do Daytona bike week - USA

37.   Attend the Suzuka 8 Hrs Race - Japan

38.   Ride a MotoGP bike(Honda or Yamaha)

39.   Ride Pacific Coast Hwy from the bottom of California up to the top of Washington - USA









40.  Camp at  Phillip Island Motogp.







Sunday, August 3, 2014

New Pads

It was perfect weather for riding today, but instead I did some maintenance to my bike, like that was as much fun as riding. Still in doing the service on my bike gives me a certain level of satisfaction that I know that the bike will be in good order for riding. I cast a careful eye over everything today. I'd been down to MCAS on Saturday and bought a few goodies for the bike ready for Sunday's servicing. With a little know how you can save yourself hundreds by doing things yourself.



I'd replaced the front brake pads with a set of DP brake pads.The old pads had less than the recommended 2mm of pad thickness. It looked closer to about 1mm. I also flushed the front and back lines with fresh Motul brake fluid. It had been over 2 years since I'd done this. The fluid that came out was definitely darker in colour than the new stuff. It only took 15 minutes to bleed all 3 lines.

I'd also done an oil and filter change and exceeded my expectations by not getting a single drop of oil on the garage floor, I've never been able to change it without getting some oil on the floor, that's the first time in 9 years of  living here and servicing my bike that's happened. I was pretty chuffed with myself.

I'd also cleaned out the radiator, which looks pretty badly damaged from stones. I think I'm going to have to get a new/second hand one. After that I'd degreased around the front sprocket area, chain rear sprocket and wheel. Then it was a quick wash then a polish. I'd removed about 1/2 kg of rocks and grease from the belly pan when I had it off.
Here she is in full service mode


I'd also bought a set of 90° valve stems for the wheels of my bike. I've become that pissed of with the shit compressor fittings that you get at service stations when you go to fill your tyre with air, most of them you can't get the F'ing fitting inside the wheels with the discs and spokes in the way. Frustrating to say the least. These should sort that out, but will have to get them fitted later when I'm getting my tyre changed.



Of course all of this work was overseen by my supervisor who decided she would check out my workmanship. I think I got the wink of approval.