Inspiration

It's been a long, long while between posts and there's been a number of reasons for that which I will get to soon and this post is a week late as I've been procrastinating on what to put in here. I've still been lurking on here and reading other bloggers posts and occasionally putting in my 2 cents.

A couple of bloggers have asked how my gear box replacement went on my new R1. Well I had taken it down to Team Moto in Blacktown were I had bought the bike and dropped it off on a friday afternoon about 3 weeks ago. I picked it up on the saturday the following week. They said their head mechanic did the work and it took him 14 hours to complete. I got the bike home and it sat for 2 weeks before I used it again.

I'd also had the bike in over christmas to get the damage fixed from the parking incident last November, which I picked it up again in late January. Then just as I got my bike back my dad was rushed to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital after he suffered a heart attack, he was put in for an immediate triple bypass. Sitting there post op watching my Dad in the ICU one gets to thinking, about how quickly that your world can come crashing down in an instant. One minute everything is travelling along nicely then bang, your faced with the reality that you might never see one of your loved one's ever again. That's pretty hard to deal with in a short space of time. My dad has been my inspiration since I was growing up, when he did lots for us which I'd not even realised until this point. Dad has helped both me and my brother service our bikes, tune Flyboys race bikes and in general just do things that dads do for their kids. I couldn't have asked for a better Dad. Luckily the triple bypass went well and he is now well on the road to recovery.

This was also the reason why my brother appeared on my blog recently, as we don't see much of each other these days as he is in Brisbane and I'm in Sydney. We just happened to stroll into the Dues store to have a look around as its right next to the hospital on Parramatta road.

Dad finally went back home about two weeks ago where mum can look after him. Which after a couple of months of being worn down by just travelling to work then the hospital everyday then home to sleep and repeat, to say I was worn out was an under statement.

Geoff suggested we get out for a ride seeing as my gearbox was now fixed, and to tell the truth I couldn't wait to get on the road it's been so long since the last decent ride. He suggested a quick blat up the Putty Road to blow out the cobwebs so to speak. I though I better take it easy as I hadn't ridden in 2-3 months and also partly to make sure that nothings wrong after having the bike in a million pieces.

It was a cool 23°C day in the morning heading up out of Sydney. World Super bikes were on at Phillip Island today so maybe that was a reason that there was a distance lack of bikes out on one of Sydney's premier bike roads. It didn't perturb us at all as less traffic is better.

I quick stop in at the old half way house for bacon and egg rolls and I was feeling great. I was gelling with the bike, the gearbox seemed a bit notchy in 2nd and 3rd or was that just because I was lazy changing. I'm not sure.

Geoffs tortured tyre

Being back in the saddle and riding through the 10 mile of twisties at the top end and it was just me, the bike and the road. Full concentration on my riding was the stress reliever and the other inspiration I had been missing. The Tyre's copped a good beating along here and knee sliders were scuffed. Didn't I say I was going to take it easy? Oops! Anyway a fantastic day was had blasting through the hills, it only took one ride to get my mojo back. Now when is the next ride?

2015 R1 on the Putty Road

The Hipster Invasion

Motorcycling in recent times has had in influx of hipsters with their chic fashion beards and goatees, stupid little caps for hats and their ultra hip cafe racer old style shitboxes that they pay through the nose for.

Hey wait I think I've just spied one here in Sydney, where you might ask but hipster central Newtown/Camperdown at the Dues store. This joker was spotted drooling over this trumpy........

Backing it in

Every wondered how riders like Rossi, Marquez, Pedrosa and Lorenzo back it into the bends at god like speed while we marvel at their skill and daring? Wonder no more as Wayne Maxwell from Stay Upright motorcycle training shows us how its done.

98 R1 Review

Found a rare 98 R1 review from back in the day, man look at those leathers lol...
The original and still the best.....

R1 Transmission Video

Wow the amount of work that needs to be done for this recall is mind blowing. Take a look at this Yamaha USA tech video. This is 7 minutes of a 2 day repair. Yikes.

For sale: One slightly used R1....offers considered.....

2015 R1 Recall

Yep it looks like all those rumors about a gearbox recall are true. I got my letter yesterday. Looks like it going to be in the shop for open heart surgery....

NTSR 2015 Day 5

We awoke the next morning to a winter chill in the air, it was about 12°C after yesterday's heat it seemed bitterly cold in comparison. We hit the bakery for coffee's and breakfast before mounting our steads and heading out of Boorowa. Riding from Boorowa through the little towns in between reminded me one of the reasons I left Forbes in the first place. Most of the roads out here are to straight and boring to have any fun, although it got more interesting the closer we got to Crookwell and Taralga which is on the verge of the Great Dividing Range.

Steve decided he wanted to try my R1 along here to which I got to test out his Triumph 675. He'd had the suspension set up by none other than Glen Alerton the legendary aussie superbike racer. His bike handled very sweetly and turned sharper than the R1 but was a little under powered for my liking, that's not to say it was slow far from it as it would hum along at a very fast clip, it just didn't have the punch of the litre bike.

Stopping in Taralga to warm up a bit I saw a sight I thought I'd never see. Bushpig had a coffee at the pub and not a beer. We I guess there's a first time for everything. From Taralga we made our way up to Oberon via shooters hill road and stopped in at the Monkey Bean cafe for a spot of lunch.

It was along here that I thought our route leader Slomax must be lost as he started to head back towards Taralga instead of Bathurst which was in the opposite direction. Little did I know he had a little back road in mind for coming into the back of Bathurst through a little town called Rockley. We stopped in for a quick ale(lemon squash for me) at the Pub here, the pub was under new management and it looks like they had spent a bit of money doing the place up. Could be interesting for an overnighter here some time in the future. This trip is starting to sound like one gigantic pub crawl by now.

Patrick & Wayne at the Rockley Hotel

Heading into Bathurst from Rockley was a nice little roller coaster ride through the hills which was thoroughly enjoyable as the roads were deserted. It brought us right into the back of Bathurst next to Mt Panorama one of Australia's world class motor racing circuits. They only race cars here now because it's deemed to dangerous for bike racing these days, Might Mick Doohan won the superbike race here back in the late 80's.

Steve, Wayne & Patrick conquer the Mountain

Jeff & Patrick

Jeff praying at the alter to the gods of speed

After riding through the snowy mountains and Victorian high country it seems like most of us had run out of steam a little and it showed as no one complained at doing half a lap up then back down the same way so we didn't even complete the full lap. We made our way into Bathurst for a fuel stop and it was onto Sofala where surprise, the 4 of us stopped at the pub for a quick beer. Not seeing the others come past we though something must have happened and rode back to the set of twisties up the hill to sofala. But no they were not anywhere to be seen so we had to assume they went into Rylestone ahead of us. Ah well at least we got to ride the Sofala twisties twice.

It was only a short 30 minute trip from Sofala to Rylestone and the other guys were already there when we got into the pub. The last 20 km's into Rylestone saw some of the most chopped up roughest road I had ridden on in the last 2500kms. I was starting to get a sore back after the last 20kms. I was having second thoughts on completing the last days ride around Bylong Valley way and down the Putty to Sydney. It seems I wasn't the only one a Bushpig and Wayne also took the most direct route home on day 6. I didn't bother to take any pictures as it was just the comute home. All up a fantastic tour over 6 days with a great bunch of blokes and over some of this country's most scenic motorcycle roads. I think for next years tour another day in the high country would be a better option and dropping off the Rylestone part as this is close enough to Sydney to do as a day ride. However Jeff's mate Patrick was out from Hong Kong for the trip and he was showing him around. I believe he loved every minute of the trip as did we. I'm already looking forward to next years snow ride.

Day 5 Map Reference

NTSR 2015 Day 4

Today's forecast was for very hot weather and it was already 25°C(77°F) at breakfast time. Lucky for us there was some light cloud cover and we were at fairly high altitude so that kept it cool until around midday.

First up was the ride from Khancoban up through the mountains to the Tooma Dam and Tumut Pond which are part of the Snowy Mountain scheme.First stop was at Tooma Dam where we regrouped and took a round of photos whilst taking in the coolish weather whilst it lasted. The roads through here are narrow and winding with lots of forest that come right up to the edge of the road, just have to be careful of wildlife through here but it is motorcycling heaven.

Bushpig at Tooma Dam

Setting off from Tooma Dam and heading up higher into the mountains towards Tumut Pond there was all sorts of bends on this bit of road from long sweepers to twisty sections up and down through the mountains. I was having a ball through this section as the fuel consumption gauge will attest to as I'd used 8 litres for 67 kms. I did stop several times to take some photos along the way and wait for the others to ride past so I could take an action snap of them.

Bushpig and Slomax

Captain Steve

Bomber Dickens

Coming down from the top of the plateau the road winds its way down the mountain and you can see the vast waters of Tumut Pondage in the distance looming up large in between the hills. I just passed Wayne coming down the twisties and was about to go for it but I thought I'd let Wayne stay with me to help him out in the twisties as he could use me as a braking marker. It must be pretty hard riding these roads with only one eye, so Wayne has my full respect for doing what he does.

Tumut Pond Reservoir

Tumut Dam

Wayne and the BMW K100

Patrick

Leaving from Tumut Pond Reservoir and the road winds its way back up into the hills again with all different types of bends, glorious sweepers, straights up hill and down dale. It didn't take long and we'd gotten into Cabramurra. I thought I get a splash of fuel here but the petrol bowser was out of order. I'd have to get some in Talbingo. So we rode on out and up to Kiandra which is on the snowy mountains highway. Kiandra is just a name on the map as there is nothing at all there, just the turn off sign below.

Snowy Mountains Highway

As we came up to the end of the plateau that is the snowy mountains the road drops down Talbingo mountain in a steep section of 8kms of twisty tarmac. The faster we descended the mountain you could feel the temperature rising and that blasting dry heat. The temperature had risen to 41°C(106°F). We stopped in Tumut for lunch at the Woolpack Hotel. The airconditioning was a godsend just sitting there with an ice cold lemon squash out of the heat.

Then Steve came up with a totally absurd idea of going down to the river for a swim. I didn't think that I'd like to get out of all my gear just to go for a swim, but after getting back out into the heat and down by the river it looked quite inviting actually. So there were about 5-6 of us that stripped down and decided that we go in. It sure was a shock to the system going from 41°C air into water that was probably less than 10°C, the water was coming down from the snowy mountains from melted snow after all. Refreshing.

 I'd decided that I would swim in my shirt so that it would stay wet for a while whilst riding that way I could get some free evaporative cooling going. It only lasted about 20 minutes in the heat but it was good while it lasted.

Slomax enjoying the cold Tumut River

After our swim in the river it was time to make tracks and head for our digs for the night at the Boorowa Hotel. This was only about an hour and a half distance from my old home town, kind of familiar territory for me. The ride in the heat was starting to get tiring and i was feeling like just getting there. No time for stopping, no time for photos, just get there get out of the heat and have an ice cold beer at the bar.

It was so good to get inside the cool pub and get out of our hot bike gear. The food at the Boorowa Hotel was top notch for a little country town pub. I highly recommend staying here if your travelling through and looking for somewhere.

Day 4 map reference