Crossing the Ditch

It's been a long time in the planning, about 18 years if I remember rightly since my brother and I had been talking of riding around New Zealand. To be honest I didn't think it was ever going to happen since we'd now both moved apart and have families of our own with our own busy lives, but one day early last year I received an email which started the ball rolling. It seemed like a long way off way back on that April day to even dream of this but finally after months of planning its finally only a couple of short weeks off now. To say I'm looking forward to this would be the understatement of the year.

I've spent quite a bit of time looking at maps, studying the motorcycle atlas, remembering places I've already been to, searching google up and down for all sorts of things and spending hours looking at various accommodation options. I've finalised the route plan which looks something like the map below and all is now in readiness for the coming race, er tour.

I must also mention here a big 

to my fantastic, beautiful, wonderful gorgeous wife for allowing me to do this.

Anti Bikie Laws - So this is Queensland

For those non Australian readers your probably unaware that in Queensland Australia the newly elected Government has with the medias blessing introduced laws which the media bleet out to anyone who will listen as "ANTI BIKIE LAWS". Apparently the new anti bikie laws will reduce crime by 40% if you listen to the media, by making anyone that is in the 1% patch club a criminal. I'm no rocket scientist but I'm fairly sure not every person in a motorcycle social club is a criminal. But new laws in QLD say that they are and that 3 or more people in that said club can't congregate together otherwise they are breaking the law - possibly with a mandatory 3 year gaol(jail) term. What a F*cking load of shit.

These laws are really disguised as anti association laws banned people from meeting together. If the government suddenly decided that members of the catholic church, muslims or the local shooting club were dangerous then you could be stopped from congregating together or be gaoled. The police now have rights to detain and search you for no apparent reason other than they think you may be a member of a bikie gang. There needs to be no proof other than what they think. Very dangerous territory. This shit happened back in WW2 with the Nazi's and we all know how that ended.

These laws are across the board and affect everyone riding a motorcycle in Queensland. Recreational bikers have been targeted, Ulysses members, Vietnam Veterans and every day riders like you and me. Apparently cops can't tell the difference between a sports biker or a 1% Harley rider.

I saw this on the Internet and its F*cking hilarious.






Don't think the police will harass bike riders with these new laws think again. Watch this video and tell me this guy isn't being harassed. Does it require 5-6 cops to talk to one biker who is co-operating with them even though he clearly doesn't  like them. Can't say I blame him really.

 To top it off the officer asks him why he's wearing a vest on a hot 30°C day. You f'ing stupid bitch. I ride on 35°C+ days in a full leather outfit. Its something called safety you f'ing half wit.

First ride of 2014 and a whitewash

Today we took a short ride to Wisemans Ferry for lunch at the pub. It was a quick 150km jaunt and a quick catch up after Christmas. There were quite a few bikes out today as it was quite warm. After lunch we headed around river road towards Lower Portland and caught up with the Portland Ferry for the trip across.

Wisemans Ferry Pub

I love the sand stone rock formations along this section of road. They are scattered all the way along if your going slow enough to look at them all. It was getting pretty hot along this section so I ended up riding with my jacket unzipped to cool down somewhat.

Sandstone Cliffs

Sporting Geoff

River Road Lower Portland

Portland Ferry

 By the time we stopped for the Sackville Ferry and waited for it to cross the river our black seats had become bum burning hot. I never noticed that before as I usually ride in my full leather suit. I think it was about 30°C today and I just wore my jacket and boots.

It wasn't long before we arrived back at the toonie for a quick beer and watch the end of the Ashes. I must say England crumbled under the pressure of our bowling attack and we smashed them into the dust the last 5 wickets went within an hour. The Poms got a severe 5-0 shellacking that they rightly deserved. It was magic watching them fall apart.

Pushing the Limits

My lovely wife gave me a copy of Casey Stoner's Autobiography titled 'Pushing the Limits' for Christmas.Being an unabashed Stoner fan myself I couldn't wait to start reading the book. Whether you love him or hate him there is something in here for any MotoGP fan with some real insights into the world of MotoGP. This is my review on the book with excerpts from the book in blue text.

I started to read the book after boxing day and found it so enthralling I couldn't put the book down. I just wanted to find out more and more on this kids amazing rise to the top of the motorcycling world. This autobiography is truly one of those rags to riches story's that you sometimes hear about.

It starts out with Casey's early days of dirt track racing in Australia with him winning just about everything there was to win, some of the local parent accused the Stoners of cheating because Casey kept winning all the time. He was just that much better than everyone else, why can't some people just accept it.

At age 14 Casey applied to the Australian Junior road racing association(AJRRA) to which he was screwed over big time and was denied a license. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it made them pack up and head to the UK to start his road racing career.

"We'd left Australia with a fair amount of money but it didn't go far. The exchange rate at the time wasn't good, about $3 to the £1. By the time we bought the van, the caravan and the bike, there wasn't much left so we had to live as frugally as possible to stretch the money out. We'd bought one way tickets to get to the UK and the plan was if things didn't work out we could sell the bike to get back home"

"Dad was earning £40 a day but could only work 3 or 4 days a week because I had to go racing, so a lot of weeks he could earn £120 at the most. It cost us £150 in fuel just to drive down to Brands and back, so we were already dipping into what was left of our savings. With baked beans at 9p a tin and bread 15p for a loaf we were eating enough beans on toast to last a lifetime."

Luckily Casey got noticed fairly quickly and got into the Spanish championship. He was running in both the British and Spanish rounds at the same time which sometimes clashes with each other.

Casey talking about one of his 125 races in the Albacete Spain - "I was going well, running in the top five when the organisers stopped the race for a crash. Pretty much everybody else went in and put new tyres on, but of course we didn't have any spares because we couldn't afford them. So I had to go back out on the same rubber, or what was left of it. The whites of the cord was actually showing through and I ended up dropping a couple of places and finishing fifth in a race won by Toni Elias. Afterwards one of the other riders must have been complaining about his tyres because his team manager dragged him into our pit box to show him what I was riding on. He shouted at the rider in Spanish, something like, 'Now don't bust my balls!' "

I loved the style of the writing of the book as it reminds me more or less of reading someones blog rather than a professionally written book. I found that appealing because its from the heart and Casey pretty much tells it how he saw it. Some people don't seem to like it and label him a whinger or what ever. Get over it, he's just a good honest down to earth bloke who tells it how it is and I love that. Casey is a true champ both on and off the track and it shows in everything he does.

Casey goes on to show us the other side of the racing that we don't get to see in all it's raw unabashed glory. From tyre manufacturers, to competitors to the politics behind the MotoGP juggernaut. For any fans of MotoGP this is a fantastic read and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in either Casey's story or MotoGP. It's a fairly short book at 280 pages but I couldn't put it down once I'd started reading.

2013 A Year in Review

It's that time of year again to see what the hell happened during the last 12 months. Each year seems to be flying by now, I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and is gearing up for a bumper new year. It feels like it wasn't that long ago I penned my 2012 year in review.

Well what happened this year? That's a great question lets take a quick look.


The year started out very slow, January was so hot we hit 46.5°C(117°F) days and Feb I was working and didn't get a chance for a ride. I didn't get out for a ride until mid way through march where we hit up the Taralga Hotel for a great pub lunch with Geoff.

R1 off road action with a Wee friend

The next ride in April I managed to get out on was inspired by Gary over at Flies in your Teeth for his blog challenge of cool places to take a photo of your bike. I managed to get 3 great places. I also got down to the Royal National Park for a ride with lunch at the Scarborough Hotel with the family.

2 icons in the one pic

We got in an overnight ride in May to a little place in the lower snowy mountains called Wee Jasper. It was great riding with some beautiful country side but the female publican was eccentric as.

The weather was pretty crap in winter and didn't get a chance to ride plus my mum was sick in hospital and I missed a few weekends chances to get in some rides so the next major ride out was in August and Geoffrey had just got himself a new Triumph Tiger 1050 Sport. I didn't know he was going to do that. Of course it then duly got a right thrashing up the putty road and back just to see how it went.

I got out for a quick ride in September just before we headed to Fiji for our family holiday. It was just a quick half day ride up through Wisemans Ferry and back down the Old Pacific Hwy. I'd managed to beat most of the traffic by heading out early.

In late November I was busting to get out, as the annual snow ride trip had to be missed as I couldn't get time off work. This pissed me off no end and had to do some serious touring on my own as everyone else was busy or had already been out riding, that didn't worry me as I had a blast out on the Crookwell Road.

I managed to get myself a new lid for Christmas as the old shoei had just about worn out. I then got out for one last ride before Christmas with Geoff up the Putty and back.

That was pretty much it for the year, I didn't really get much riding in at all really especially seeing I had to cancel the annual snowies trip. Its 3 months later and I'm still shitted about that.

I've been trying to skrimp and save for a newer bike all this time but still nothing yet. The snot nosed, sandwich grabbing, curtain climbers have been eating me out of house and home, stealing from my new motorcycle fund, costing me a small fortune in diapers, clothes and shoes and they haven't even reached school yet. You did warn me Troubadour........

I started 2013 with 57,053 km's on the clock and finished with only 60,551 km's. Yep that's pretty lame even by my standards. Only 3500 km's. Still I enjoyed every minute of it and can't wait for the next ride. Bring on 2014 and the South Island of New Zealand, I have a feeling 2014 will be a good year........

See you all on the road and have a safe 2014

Last Ride Before Christmas

On Sunday Bushpig and I got one final ride in before Christmas. A quick blast up my favourite road, the Putty Road was just what the doctor ordered. I played follow the leader with Geoff blasting his way along at a good clip. I noticed that my new helmet was really, really quiet compared to the last one and the flip down sunnies were working great. I could put it up and down at will when needed if it was dark or in shadows. I also noticed that air flow through it was very good and with the visor just cracked slightly a got a nice breeze across my face. Nice in the heat.

The zipper on my leathers had been slowly coming down as we rode until it got to the bottom and my jacket filled with air, making my already bulbous body look like it had blown out to low flying weather balloon proportions. I decided to pull over to zip it back up and get a quick break, with all the extra wind pressure in my jacket my hands were getting sore just holding on. That's when I noticed something quite unusual in the burnt out bush land.

A closer inspect revealed a frame with an engine in that was still intact. It appeared to be a Yamaha but what sort was it. It still had the Vin number plate on it. Turns out it was a Yamaha FZ8. I guess the people who dumped it here couldn't read the sign.

Geoff asked if I'd like to ride the Tiger. Sure you bet, I won't thrash it at all. Just a gentle ride like going to Sunday church. Hehehe. I was really surprised with just about everything about the bike to be honest. A complete comfort machine, but it also was effortless to turn it into the bends, it was very quick steering and yes we did some tight twisties to test it on. It was very punchy getting on the throttle more so than my R1, but likely due to being fuel injected. One thing I noticed was the rear suspension was too soft on the rebound as with my huge girth aboard it was pogoing at the back in some of the bends. A couple of clicks here and there will sort that out. Geoff had already backed it off, but probably to far.

I goes well, handles particularly well and is comfortable all in the one package. Thanks for the ride mate, and I didn't bin it on you, consider that your christmas present from me! I also noticed that my new quiet helmet was making a whistling noise when I was on the Tiger. Probably due to the different screen positions/angles and how I was sitting on the bike compared with mine, which went away again once I got back on my R1.

We stopped in at the old half way house on the way up and had some early lunch in the way of a bacon & egg roll and drinks. Chatting with the owner he was saying that the old burnt down half way house might be rebuilt next year.

We continued on for a quick blat up the 10 mile and stopped in for a refuel in Bulga and nice refreshment at the Fighting cock tavern. It was then back down the 10 mile towards home. Did I mention how fast Geoff was on his new Tiger. He wasn't holding back and I could see him laying black lines all over the road.

Geoff laying darkies to the right

Geoff laying darkies to the left

All in a great days riding just before the Christmas break. Thanks for the great day out Mate. We had a absolute ball.

New Lid

I spent my Sunday morning looking around for a new lid. I had been looking on the interwebs most of the week and it had come time to start trying some on. I purchased my last lid at the Helmet Warehouse at Yagoona, but I thought I try out MCAS at Auburn and see if they'd price match.

I tried on a shoei XR-1100 in large and that was perfect for my head it felt like my current XR-11. That one ticked the boxes. Do they have the colour i want?

I then tried out the Bell RS-1 Emblem. Bell went pretty well in the Sharp helmet safety test but it still has to feel right. I tried it on and it was neither here nor there. It felt very close around the chin area. The lining didn't feel like the quality of the Arai/Shoei. Crossed that off the list.

I also wanted to try on some shark helmets. They didn't have many but I tried on the Shark Vision R. It had a internal shade visor which was a great idea. Sadly the large didn't fit my head shape as I could pull it down at the front way to far for my liking and the medium I couldn't get it on my head. Also the internal lining didn't feel as comfortable as the Arai/shoei again. Crossed that one of the list.

I guess I've been spoilt for comfort on the internal linings of the helmets I have owned as I pretty much have bought top of the line lids in the past. It seems the $500 and below helmets just aren't as comfortable.

I spoke to the lady at MCAS and asked if they had the Shoei XR-1100 in the Merciless colour in Large. The response was a bit underwhelming. "Nope that's all we have on the shelf, there on special. Have you tried the AGV carbon it's a great helmet. Very light and its only $1395"
Well fuck me I thought, that put the clamps on right there. There's no way I was even looking to spend that much on a new lid and they didn't really seem interested in selling me what I wanted, not what they wanted to sell me.  Off to the helmet warehouse where I'd previously purchased my last lid from.

I tried on the Shoei GT Air in an XL and it fit just like my Shoei XR11. It also had the internal drop down shade and one of those fang dangled pin lock visor things to stop your visor fogging up. That might come in handy when I'm in New Zealand next year. That coupled with the fact I could use the clear visor and not have to carry around a dark tinted one as well because it had the drop down shades. I hate carrying a spare visor and rarely do it.

The girls at the Helmet Warehouse couldn't have been more helpful. So here is my new shiny, or not so shiny new lid.

Crookwell to Bathurst Road

Here's a little sample of the roads that I went on last weekend when I was touring on my R1.