A Chiller update

It's been awhile since I've posted anything up, there's a couple of reasons for that. I've been so busy of late with both work and with also things going on with my partners family there's not been much time for riding or even blogging so I thought I'd just do a quick up date.

Last outing was to Sydney Motorsport park which was a fantastic day out, I've not been out on the bike since then but I did manage to take the slicks out and put on a brand new set of Michelin Pilot Power 3's. Yes I know I had some problems with them on the last set with the uneven wear on the side of the tread where the 2 compounds met, but after I punished them hard at Phillip Island whilst they had 6300kms under their belt I was pretty impressed on how well they worked. Perhaps the last tyre was a bad one for the wear problem, I don't know but I'll find out when these one's wear out. I had no problem with grip even at the end of the life of the tyre. I took them off with 7070km's on them. Superb wear on a sports tyre with a track day as well.

If I get the same wear out of these then I'll be a happy boy that's for sure. Just need to get out for a ride soon.

New and old

I've also been trying to be a bit more health conscious lately, well as far back as October last year to be honest. With the upcoming Phillip Island ride day I made a effort to eat healthier, drink less alcohol(NOOOOOOOOOO are you fookin daft man?)and do a bit of exercise to which I dusted off the old exercise bike for some pedalling which I've stuck with so far. The main motivator to start with was to get into some sort of shape so I didn't kill myself at the track because I was to fat and lazy to get the bike punted around. Now I can see other benefits so I've tried to stick with it as best I can. I now eat fruit every day and try and have more veggies, but I still love my beer and steak, don't get me wrong I haven't gone all mental(I'll never be a vegan, sorry Brandy). I usually try to do at least 4 days a week on the exercise bike. The net result of this since October last year is that I've lost about 14kg(30 lbs). Woo hoo, I feel much better now than I did six months ago that's for sure. I'm now down to the mid 90's which I haven't been since I left school.

There is a down side to this though, if there is a downside I hear you say, and that is that I've dropped 1-2 sizes in clothes and all of my current clothes no longer fit. I have some shirts that were given to me as Christmas presents a couple of years ago that I've never worn as they were 1 or 2 sizes too small, I now fit into them. Now my problem here is that my new set of Tiger Angel leathers are also, now way over sized and baggy. They no longer fit, they are big around the chest, belly, rear, arms and legs. Hell the whole suit is now too big. They are great leathers but I couldn't have timed that worse I guess. My mate Geoff says just to eat more pizza and drink more booze and problem solved but I don't think I want to do that.

So what to do, what to do........ I have pondered for a while and there's only 2 options that I can see. Either I send my leathers back and get them down sized, I've no idea how much that will cost or do I just go buy myself a new Jacket to fit my new size and then a set of draggin jeans......I'm thinking it would be easier to just get a jacket in case I put the weight back on at a later date I can always use the Tiger Angels again.

What do you guys think?

The pics below show my now baggy leathers, the pic on the right there's at least 2-3 inches extra each side of the zip. My left hand is flat on my stomach.

Here's a pic of me back in February last year in New Zealand below on the left with a photo of me tonight on the right. Yes I've still a bit to go yet, realistically I'd like to lose another 5kg(11 lbs) then I'd be pretty stoked.

Fat bastards anonymous

Medium fat bastards anonymous

Michelin Pilot Power 3 - Update

Just thought I'd give you a quick update on the Michelin Pilot Power 3's that I put on the R1 last tyre change. I now have done about 5000km's on these tyres without any real problems so to speak. The PP3 is Michelin's 2CT dual compound  sports tyre, which is a harder compound in the centre with a soft compound on the side where you need it most - in the middle of a bend you certainly want the soft sticky bits to keep you firmly planted to the road.

As the tyre has aged I've really started to notice the pronounced difference in the 2 compounds where they join, it has clearly become visible. Another slightly more alarming thing that I've noticed is that when I run my fingers across the join in the 2 compounds you can feel a dip in the tread ever so slightly, it's probably about a millimetre in difference. Now I haven't really noticed this whilst cranked over hooking into a bend at speed, but it will be interesting to see how much this wears over the last 1000km's of its life span which is probably about all I will get out of it. I'll post up a bit more on these tyres later when I finish this set off.