Attempted Ride

With a slight respite in the weather and a mere day or so at home, I attempted a ride along some of our silky ribbons of tar earlier in the week. This ride resulted in  a rescue mission by the Minister for War after my front appendage developed a bulge about 30km from home.

That tyre is only 23mm (slightly less than 1") wide and shouldn't have that kink in it. Interestingly, once at home in the garage it proceeded to EXPLODE with all the force of a 30-30 gunshot, almost causing the Minister to wet herself. Glad I wasn't riding it at the time and she was standing in a waterproof part of the house!

On another note, my lovely new R1 hasn't been out of the shed except for a brief run to the bike shop to peruse summer jackets and boots.

I am pleased to say that a pair of Sidi Vertigo boots are in the safe hands of the USPS and hopefully winging their way Down Under as I type this.
On a slightly negative note, I have ordered an AlpineStars T-GP Plus Air Jacket from two large North American motorcycle shops, only to have them both reply after several days that they do not, in fact, have them in stock and promptly returned my money. Nor can they get them any time soon. Bugger!

I have just placed an order with www.ridersdiscount.com , who assure me that they do in fact, have the jacket in stock and will whisk it all the way to Down Under for just 25 bucks! I will wait with fingers crossed that there is no "we apologise" email!

As far as I am concerned, this jacket is required equipment here in Queensland as at this time of year as it is bloody humid. I must be getting old, as the thought of sweating my arse off while riding the R1 is not at all appealing. Add to this that my leather jacket is still at the cleaners and it is a no brainer. No protection = no riding.

The other thing keeping me of the motorcycle is my helmet. It smells like an old ladies house with its combination of air freshener and mouldy, musky damp and I cannot see how to fix it, short of hitting it with the pressure cleaner. This may be terminal for the helmet and I am a bit averse to shelling out the $650 it will cost here in Oz for an Arai Vector 2 helmet. Although, the Vector 2 has a completely removable liner, which, if my current helmet had the same, would solve the problem that I currently have (and will no doubt have in the future here in Queensland), so maybe it will be in the my best interests to just "bite the bullet" and shell out for a new lid.

Either way, I am looking forward to my parcels turning up in the post......

My God! Look at My Gear!!

So, the new blue bike sitting patiently in my shed waiting for the rain to stop wasn't totally an impulse buy. No, over the last six months I have slowly had the motorcycling fires rekindled within. Between my brother getting back out on the road more and blogging about it, to some guys at work leaving the odd AMCN lying around the flight deck and my mountain biking acquaintance, NitroNick, with his toy shed, I have thought quite a bit about the many years that I  spent hurtling around this fine brown land on the back of a motorcycle. Some bloody good times, some pretty ordinary times too, but all great memories to me.

As I mentioned in a previous post, you can rationalise things away. Pretty much anything can be examined until it fits neatly into the pigeon hole you need it to. Of this I am certain.

Here is my thinking from early 2002.

Fat, dumb and happy. From here it was a short few months to denial, then resistance and finally on to acceptance.

Technically, I have only had a two year hiatus from motorcycles in total. My last bike being my hairy chested Husky TE510 (too much bike for me!!). The R1 went to a New Aussie from the Mother Country in mid 2005, so it had been about six years since my road kit had a work out.

Exhuming it from the cupboard to test ride the new bike proved a bit of a shock. My much used, much loved leather jackets were covered in mould!

Last summer here in Brisbane we had many metres of rainfall and ultra high humidity. Leather jackets and humidity are arch enemies as can be seen by this photo of my old Brando style jacket. Not sure what to do with this little number as it has given twenty two years service, but seems a shame to just give up on it. The jacket from my two piece suit is at the dry cleaners for a resurrection, but after purchasing that suit in 1993, I will have to pay pretty close attention to the stitching. The leather looks fine, but it might come apart like the proverbial "cheap suit" if I have the misfortune to rag doll myself along the tarmac!

My AlpineStar boots had been trying to shed their soles for years, so it was pretty much a no brainer here. Straight into the bin with those. I note that my brother had two pairs of AlpineStars over the years and both of his pairs lost their soles too. And it isn't like we were big walkers back in the day! Another pair will not be on the shopping list as a result. Time to try another brand.

My expensive, much love, little used helmet was a bit of a disappointment as well. The liner was dotted with mould, while the neck seal at the back was leaving little balls of black sticky stuff all over my head and neck. Bugger!!

Now, this puppy (an Arai Quantum e), while being a 1998 model worn by some Japanese GP rider whose name now eludes me, has had less than 15 000 kilometres of use and being in bloody good nick apart from the black balling issue, I will definitely be trying to breath life into it lest this return to motorcycling turn into a financial black hole!

Hang on. Isn't this one of the reasons I got out of it..............????

On another note, this is an anniversary of sorts for A.V.F.A. This being the 100th post!! Like most things in (my) life, I wasn't sure where this blog would go and personally I am finding it very interesting , every now and then, to go back and see where I have come from and see what I have done. I am under no illusion as to the insignificance of all these ramblings, but despite this insignificance, these postings are the content of my life and hold true to my very first post.

Thank you for looking in and I hope you get a laugh or at least a smirk from time to time. I know I am having fun. Thanks for tagging along........