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

What was in the box?

For everyone who was wondering what was in the box, well wonder no more as I reveal here what arrived this week at Chiller HQ. That's if the title picture didn't give it away.


So whats in the box then? Brandy hit the nail on the head and guessed correctly, whilst a couple of others were close. Here is my new set of leathers that I've ordered from Tiger Angel.

It's been 2 years since I penned a post about my motorcycle gear which you can see here. That post showed how my leathers have been deteriorating as they age. They are now around the 19 years old mark. Since that post I've done many rides and they even saw a 10 day tour of New Zealand. But all good things must come to an end and sadly that time has finally come so it's now time that I hang up my leathers and retire them.

For every down side there is also an upside and this week I received my brand spanking new set of leathers by courier. To say I was excited would be an understatement. I've been eagerly waiting for them to come for a couple of weeks now and they are finally here.

I hate shopping at the best of times so going through endless shops to look at leathers that won't fit me cause I'm a fat bastard wasn't my idea of fun. After 2 years of procrastination I finally forked out some of my hard earned and went with a fully customised suit from Tiger Angel.  Tiger Angel have an easy to use website where you can pick the suit you're interested in and then customise the colours you want. You also send them your measurements so the suit should fit to whatever shape body you have.

Here's my old Quin Leathers. They were a great set of leathers that fit me almost perfectly and they were custom made to fit, I even designed the layout and colours of the suit.

But its time to let them go as they are looking pretty tatty now as you can see below.

I used to ride with a couple of guys that had TA suits and they looked pretty good. From just about everyone I have seen speak about Tiger Angel, they have a great reputation for fantastic customer service and after sales support for repairs and alterations. Jules over at Tarsnakes fame wears TA gear and swears by them. That's a pretty good recommendation for me.

I eventually went with a two piece suit like I have currently, I didn't want a 1 piece suit as I don't think they are practical for riding on the road. At least with the 2 piece I can take the top part off when we stop for lunch or break, which is especially good in hot weather.

I chose the serpentine suite and you can see the design below. I was thinking of going with similar colours to my original leathers but after awhile thinking about it I thought I might tone down the bright colours and go with something a bit more neutral. That way it won't matter what colour my next bike is the leathers will go with it.

Hopefully I'll get as much use out of it as I did my old Quin Leathers. They felt a lot different to my old leathers and I didn't think that they fit to start with. But a 30 minute ride around the back streets and then the motorway  put me at easy as they felt good riding but not so good standing around in them

So finally here are the photo's of my brand new Tiger Angel leather 2 piece serpentine outfit.