How Many Bikes

 So, how many bikes is too many? In the cycling world the formula for the correct number of bikes is N+1 where N is the current number of bikes you own. The +1 bit is pretty self explanatory. I have this equation sorted and am somewhat stable with my bicycles.

 But what about motorcycles? If you run by the above formula you start to run out of shed space very quickly (well, if your shed is only 6x6 metres you do!)

Now, not all of the bikes are mine. Lucy owns two and Will has three so once they eventually leave home I will have more room but for the time being I spied a sliver of empty space between the DX and Will’s CBR500. 

Now for context, after the last track day where I rode Will’s Daytona and was blown away by how much fun it was, I decided I had better obtain a dedicated, more modern track bike and retire the R1 from that role. While driving home from that last track day Will spied a likely candidate on the Moore Track Toys FB page. As I was driving at the time I asked Will to message Ian and get him to hold the bike for me. I am glad I did because I beat several other potential purchasers by a mere twenty minutes.

I was away for a work trip but the following week I drove up to check it out and confirm that yes, indeed, I did want to buy it. After a few days thought, I gave Emily at Hawtt Decals a rough idea of the decal scheme I wanted (all included in the purchase price) then waited a week to see what turned up.

This is what turned up!

More bike than I need? CHECK! 

More bike than I can handle? ROGER!!

Moore Track Toys to the rescue.....

Here is the list of go fast bits installed.

The purchase price included a suspension setup session with Joe from Ride Dynamics. Joe did my Tuono as well as Will's Daytona and is a Gixxer man, so the right bloke to have look at my suspenders. He set me up for sag but as this bike had been someones wet training bike it is pretty softly sprung. This will necessitate a return visit soon to have that rectified and the shock valving upgraded. 

But first, off to the track we go!

As usual, Will and I went up the night before so as to be ready for the early start. Fuel is consistently 20 to 30 cents per litre cheaper in Warwick than in Brisbane......and they have to truck it 120km up here from the port.... #gettingshaftedonfuelpricesbrisbane

Scrutineering passed, setup and ready to go.

We have a pretty basic setup but it works (read just barely fits in the car)

We are trying to remember to limber up before and in between sessions. Climbing all over a hurtling bike takes some effort!

Will gave some tips to young Lachy who rode out from Brisbane on his KTM390 for the day.

Will is loving the track days and is bloody quick for a newby. Far faster than me in the corners and he is just managing to touch 200km/h down the short main straight. Not a bad effort on a 675.

I took it easy for the first few sessions. Not just because I was looking after the bike but because I was trying to re-wire my brain to change gears in the opposite direction to what I have done for the last ~ 35 years! Yep, GP or race shift pattern on this Gixxer and it did take some of my concentration budget not to fcuk it up. That said I did shift up a couple of times when meaning to shift down into a corner. I didn’t shift down (when at redline), meaning to shift up….thankfully. That would be fairly ugly.🫣

To say that the bike felt awesome would be an understatement!

Will followed me around for a few laps but soon got sick of my slow speed and blasted past.

He has much quicker corner speed than I do.  Something to work on as I get used to the bike. 

I gave the bike to Will for a session and was surprised at how different the GSXR felt from the Daytona. The Gixxer is very "sit in" and felt low and soft whereas the Triumph felt tall and "sit on" with quite stiff suspension.(the Gixxer is soft, which we will rectify)

Will looked good on the bike and was giggling like a school girl when he got off. 

Wrestling it back off him I finished the day with a big grin as well. 

Lachy's day didn't end so well, suffering a lowside that ground a hole in his engine case.

 Luckily he was ok and also luckily we had room on the trailer and so carted his bike back to Brisbane for him. A bent gear selector shaft might make for an expensive fix....

Anyway,  it was a great day out.  We had heaps of fun,  learnt a lot and can't wait for our next track day. 

Cheers.

October And November "Stuff"

 I'm playing catch up here on the blog again and I am just trying to remember what went on in the above mentioned months. I do recall though that I spent a lot of money!

Radiator guards and a bash plate turned up for the SWM RS500.

Bash plate installed.

Need to move the horn for the radiator guards. Luckily I had the 300 there for reference.

I had a problem with the rad guard cross brace as I just couldn't get it to fit. perhaps I should take the tank off? Nah, there is something not right as the brace is asymmetrical and it doesn't need to be.

The keen eyed reader might see that the enclosed instructions are for a 2017 model, not the 2023 that I have......hmmm, nothing on the outer packaging says anything about being for a 2017. Contacting Force Accessories via email, they were absolutely no help at all. The guards seemed pretty sturdy so I decided not to worry about the cross brace for the time being. It was too hot working in the sun this morning to mess around any longer!

Job done (for now).

Will and I got out for a ride in the Glasshouse Mountains pine forests the following weekend. We found heaps of flowing, sandy single track and had hours of fun as it wasn't too hot.

I had a dumb fall at the end of the day where Will was leading us down a steep rutted track and I was thinking "NOOO, don't go down there". At the first flatter bit he was stopped and as I stopped to say "lets go back to the car" the front washed out suddenly and I was on the ground before I knew what happened! I was doing all of 10km/h but standing on the pegs so landed heavily on my right shoulder/side. This is the first crash I've had on the dirt in a few years (I haven't even been off my mtb in that long) so it was a bit of a shock how fast it happened. To be honest I was pissed off at myself for such a nothing spill after how we had just spent the last few hours! At least I wasn't injured.

Continuing on the spending them I lashed out for some decent ADV boots in early November. I found some Alpine Stars Tech 7s at a reasonable price so I jumped on them. I still haven't actually worn them yet as I haven't done a decent moto ride but they seem very comfortable wandering around the house. I went with the waterproof Drystar versions even though many internet reviews said they cook your feet in a hot climate. My take on that is that 1. lots of people on the internet are sooks and 2. I would rather dry warm feet in winter and am willing to put up with the heat in summer. I mean, I live in Australia - we are born into dealing with heat but cold? No thanks!

While we are talking Alpine Stars, I have been toying with the idea of purchasing a Tech Air 5 airbag vest. Pushing this thought is the fact that I am getting older, won't bounce as well into the future and I need to buy a new ventilated jacket as Will seems to have taken possession of mine. This will also see me needing to buy some new leathers as the Tech Air 5 needs room to expand if it is deployed and there is certainly zero room in my 30 year old Rivet leathers! 

The main draw back on purchasing has been the price - $1100 Australian. So, after procrastinating for several months I noted a second hand, "as new", one come up for sale on a FB Marketplace advert. I offered about half the new price and the guy reluctantly took it after a few days. I have only worn it a couple of times and it does add to the heat discomfort at this time of year but hopefully a new ventilated jacket will help on that front. Lets hope I don't get to test it's functionality any time soon!

The biggest expense of all though was my new car! After three years without a car and waiting for 13 months for this one to arrive, it was finally time to pick it up!

Normally the car would have been delivered to me with the options I had selected, namely a towbar and bullbar. The pandemic has thrown many things into disarray and the leasing company seems to be one of them. I needed a towbar by the following week as we had to head down to Dad's place and pick up his old car. We had sold the house and it was settling the following week!

I did need to park it up at the pub and just look at it for a while. I didn't realise how much I missed having a Prado (or any car for that matter). I have a bunch of other mods to complete so as to get it to the spec I had on my old Prado. Drinking beer while looking over the car is part of that thought process.

Don't drink and drive kids....!

So, I got the Toyota dealer to throw a towbar on at the 1000km service (which took me 4 days to put that distance on the car) and then Will and I headed for Central West NSW for one final trip to "Mum and Dad's". It was handy having a co-driver for a change!

On the way we pickled up another low kilometre, second hand dirt bike - this time for Lucy. The bloke we bought it from in Bathurst was an absolute champion and the bike is immaculate. So, we now have a smoker in the stable, a Beta 300 Xtrainer

We stopped off at a mate's place near Orange on the way from Bathurst to Forbes as he has his trailer and car there to bring his KTM1090 home to Brisbane. He kindly offered to bring the Beta home for me as it wouldn't fit on the trailer with a car loaded as well. But not before we gave it a rip around his farm and had shot a few cans off some logs. Ahhh, I miss country life!

I think Will would have loved growing up in the bush.

Then it was on to "home" to pick up Dad's old Falcon. He bought this car in 1975 and it was our family car growing up. Dad drove it every day until he retired, when he bought a new Corolla for he and Mum. The Ford was simply driven into the carport in the backyard and that is where she has sat since 2005.

We got her loaded up and said one last goodbye to our childhood home. It was a sad day and I was glad Steve and Will were there for it. 

We headed for Brisbane late in the afternoon. Initially thinking we might stay in Dunedoo we decided to harden up and press on. We had two drivers after all! Filling up in Dubbo we did just that.

With just a short stop at about 2:30am to close our eyes for an hour, we were home at about 0930 the following morning. 

It has been as dry as a chip all year here in Brisbane and the countryside, as well as my lawn, was starting to look very depressing. 

My yard was withering away and what little greenery I had left was being devoured by the local wildlife.

But a succession of thunderstorms in the past few weeks has restored a tinge of green to the place, thankfully. 

Mud even replaced the dust for a few days out on our local mountain bike trails.

Well, that was a bit of a rambling post but I think I am pretty close to being caught up on happenings in the latter stage of 2023. There is certainly not much left of it but lets see what we can pack in, eh?

Cheers.