This weekend was the Queens Birthday long weekend made even better by me having a RDO on the Tuesday giving me an extra long weekend. Firstly it was time to head into the city to spend some quality time with the family at Sydney's Vivid festival. Vivid is a festival of light, sound and ideas. After last years excellent effort I think they ran out of most of the good ideas. The general idea is that there are massive lighting displays put onto the sides of some of the buildings in the City and Rocks area with the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House and Museum of Contemporary arts showcased as the centre pieces with various other small displays scattered about.
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| Various lighting displays of multi colouredness, looks like they made this whilst high on ice |
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| Multi coloured buildings |
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| Museum of contemporary arts |
Multiple images of the Opera House with a rolling display of multi coloured shapes and symbols
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| My 2 year old did her best pepper pig snorting sounds upon seeing this |
Tuesday morning rolled around and when everyone was heading back to work Bushpig and I were both on RDO's(Rostered day off for those not in the know) and it was a glorious day and double demeritts had also finished. Time to get on the bikes and hit the road for our first winters day ride. We couldn't have asked for a better start to winter as it reached 22°C(72°F) on today's ride. We hadn't been up the Putty Road for a while so we headed off just after 9am. On the way I said to Bushpig that we should stop in at Team-moto on the way and have a look at the new R1. What a beautiful looking beast it is too. I had a sit on one and it was much the same seating position as my current bike, it didn't feel that bad for a race bike. This thing looks like a rocket just sitting there. They had the R1M as well which had already sold.
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| BEHOLD - " EXCALIBUR" |
Fueling up at Vineyard we continued on up to the half way house for a quick stop and rest break, not before seeing a car swerve into the path of a truck Bushpig was following and nearly hit it in a head on, before at the last minute swerving back onto the correct side of the road. I bet that bastard was on his mobile phone. There were a few bikes out today doing the same as us and just enjoying the quiet weekday roads after the long weekend.
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| Here's me in my new dud's, does my bum look big in this? |
We set off after a little break and I put the gopro on for a bit as we headed up to the Ten mile of twisties. Some of the bends have been resurfaced with fresh smooth hot mix, making this a real joy to ride, however being winter there were a few sections where the sun didn't touch the road surface and moss was growing on the road as you could clearly see the green lines following the centre lines of the road on each lane.
We stopped in at the Cockfighter tavern at Bulga for lunch and a quick bite to eat as both of us were famished. We both ordered the hamburger with chips. They make a nice burger here too, washed down with an icy cold beer. Does it get any better than this? It was 2pm by the time we had finished and thought we'd better get going before it got to late. There are many tree's along the road side casting shadows across the road which makes it difficult to see in places not to mention it's kangaroo country and you don't want to hit one of those on the bike.
It was another good run back down through the Ten mile and beyond. We didn't fuel up in Bulga and my fuel light came on 1 km before the Grey Gums cafe, which is roughly half way between Windsor and Singleton(170kms). I wasn't to concerned as the R1 has excellent fuel economy and we made it to Colo Heights and fueled up after 50kms on the reserve light. I'd put in 16 litres for 285kms with 2 litres still to go. This R1 is a great bike it does everything, it goes hard, it corners, it brakes well, it tours well, it has great fuel economy and after 15 years it still looks good. What a magic day out. I can't wait for the next one.
