Motegi MotoGP 2024 - Part 2

Day 4 

Well, the alarm went off very early again this morning. Down to breakfast then into the bus for the ~ hour drive to the track. We may have been a bit dusty this morning……

Being the weekend there were a lot more fans in attendance. 

We decided to check out the merchandise and eatery area first up this morning as there was an atm located in the information centre and we needed some more yen. 

The two foot long sausage in bread looked pretty damn good so I grabbed one and chopped it in half to share.

 

It tasted as good as it looked and some stodgy, hot food was just what the doctor ordered this morning.

We decided to check out the “G” grandstand which was opposite our “Z” stand and was located on the inside of Turn 11, at the end of the back straight. Located here, one is quite close to the bikes, looking down on them as they peel under the bridge.

After Steve had taken another 1000 photos of the bikes in FP 3, we wandered over to the “Z” stand to find our seats. It was overcast, cool and with a few light showers passing through. As a spectator it was just perfect for sitting outside. Probably not so nice for the riders!

We then wandered up to the hairpin at the start of the back straight, Turn 10. The rubbish bin system was interesting to see. Very well signed and constantly replaced once full. I understand that the clear bag (and lack of rubbish bins in general) is because of what happened in the 1990s with the sarin gas attacks in the subway system.

Some spectators were allowed to bring bikes into the track and we saw some interesting pit bikes.

Steve took another 1000 photos here before we wandered back down to our seating to watch Q1 and Q2, then the sprint race.

The Sprint was a bit of a procession with the usual outcome this season - J Martin the winner.

The racing over we wandered back to the bus for the drive back to Utsunomiya. There was no formal dinner organised for tonight so we wandered down to the restaurant strip near our hotel with Gordon (Mr Pole Position Travel) and several of the others, so it was almost just like an official dinner.😆

We found an Italian restaurant in the end (I know, I know - we are in Japan) that everyone was happy with the menu and proceeded to order. The food was actually really good and the company was awesome. Because we were a bigger group we were spread across a couple of tables and when it came to pay the bill this became a real problem. Well, the problem was more of a translation issue as the staff had zero English and our “konnichiwa” and “oragato” weren’t of much value either.🫤

After about twenty minutes of hand gestures, assisted by some Google Translate we had the bill sorted to our satisfaction, with a tip thrown in on top. We retired to another little Irish bar that Gordon knew for a Guinness or two then hit the hay.

Day 5

Being race day we were on the bus even earlier than the usual 0745 as we were expecting much more traffic for the drive out to the track.

 It actually wasn’t too bad and we were there in the usual hour or so. I believe spectator numbers were way down on the peak years mainly due to the Japanese bikes and/or riders not featuring at the pointy end of the field for the last few seasons. Ai Ogura being the one exception to this theory.

We wandered into the merch area again this morning as Steve wanted to grab a couple of things. We got to check out Johan Zarco’s Suzuka 8 Hour race winning Fireblade and the winner’s trophy in the Honda tent. Not sure how we missed seeing them the other day?

We wandered up to Turn 10 again for some more photos and it was much harder to get a good vantage point this morning as the crowd was significantly larger.

 No real problem though as the track is sunken down into the landscape so you are looking down on it from pretty much anywhere around the circuit.

The riders came around on the top deck of an open bus for a parade lap. I had to laugh as it looked like Aleix Epargaro (aka The Captain) was lecturing Maverick Vinales’ on the far side (sorry, not a great photo from my phone. I am sure Steve will have a crystal clear one).

When we took our seats we were pleasantly surprised to see a couple from Young in country NSW who we had met at Sepang last year. 

We saw David Alonso clinch the Moto 3 world championship as he mowed down the field to win the race as well. 

We got to witness all of his post race celebrations as he performed them right in front of us. A very funny sight was David riding his first mini- moto bike around in circles on the track before falling off it for fun.

Just as the Moto 2 riders completed their sighting lap we had a light shower of rain come across the track. Just enough to put our rain jackets on but barely enough to wet the ground.

 This saw race organisers declare it a flag to flag race. With the language barrier with the circuit p.a. system we had no idea what was going on. 😆  

Jake Dixon ran away at the start but as Ogura began to mow him down we realised that Dixon was on wets while Orura was on slicks. It was actually awesome to be in amongst a mostly Japanese crowd and have the soon to be world champion charging through the field. Unfortunately Ogura had to cede to an even faster Gonzalez, but then again Ogura was racing for the world championship. Bloody interesting race actually.

The MotoGp race started dry and managed to stay that way. Acosta looked a good chance for the win but like the Sprint race restersay, he troweled it into the gravel again. This left a fairly predictable Ducati lockout….again.

Post race Steve and I decided not to rush out with the crowd. Our bus wasn’t leaving for over an hour so we grabbed a beer and joined the masses who were entering the track at Turn 11.

It is always very interesting seeing a track from the track. The nuances of rise, fall and camber are usually not able to be seen from the t.v. coverage. It was interesting how steep the fall was into Turn 11 and also how wide the tunnel was out of 11.

We walked around toward the finish line and saw big black marks on the track, not knowing what they were from. As it turns out, it was from Alex Marques’ bike being hooked up on the back of Mir’s bike on the first lap. Scary stuff when seen on the replay later that night!

There were still thousands of fans on the start straight and just as we arrived they were wheeling Pecco’s race winning bike back into the pit garage.

I got a perspective of what it looked like to be Jack Miller starting from P14 today. Pretty sure he didn’t have a beer on the grid though….

As we made our way through the primo-pit-hospitality-area a mate messaged to say that he and his partner had just had a little boy! Steve and I celebrated by tipping a small bottle of Suntory whiskey into an even smaller bottle of Coke. I may have even shed a tear for him. Nice one Dean0!

On the way out we took a look at some of the few bikes that were still in the bike park before making our way to the bus home.

 Think we may have been 3 sheets to the wind by this stage as the trip seemed to go quickly for me  - maybe not so quick for the poor sods sitting opposite. 😁

We then attended a final dinner at a tepanyaki restaurant just around the corner from the hotel. Plenty of exuberance was on show from everyone as we celebrated a great weekend with like minded folks. No photos though…we were busy…..

Day 6

We were all going our own way today, so we slept in a little before heading down for the last breakfast with the Pole Position crew. We had met heaps of new, awesome people in this group but in true “how small is this world” fashion, we had met a guy and his Dad who lived litterally 500 metres from me back in Brisbane. Chris also raced bikes at Morgan Park with The Motorcycle Sportsman Of QLD club! We will definitely be in touch back home!

We had all day to be back at Narita airport so Steve and I took a wander around central Utsonimiya for a few hours, checking out an ancient shrine that the city was grew up around.

 It was very “The Last Samurai” in build with ancient trees  surrounding it. 

Very cool.

The pride in every little thing was duly noted. Check this fire hydrant cover.

When the time was deemed right we caught a cab to the train station for $10 Aussie- it sure beat walking like we did on Day 2! 

We boarded a Shinkansen into Tokyo station and enjoyed the smooth, fast journey again.

We managed to find the Airport Express this time and zoomed out to Narita airport in no time at all. Being there far too early we grabbed a couple of cheap beers and dinner before finally boarding our Jet* flight home to Brisbane. Being a red-eye it was what a red eye is. At least we had a tiny little woman sitting between us and we weren’t cramped. The aisle seat for the win!

In hindsight, we had a great trip and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Japan MotoGP to anyone. We went with Pole Position Travel as it was cost effective and having everything organised made it very easy in a country where communication can be challenging. Having said that, having seen it done now I wouldn’t hesitate to go solo and organise the whole shebang on my own. Though, doing it “solo” one would miss out on the camaraderie of hanging with a bunch of like minded motorcycle nutters. This benefit is not to be underestimated when purely weighing up cost. 

Speaking more on cost, Japan is a cheap place to visit for us Aussies with food and drinks being very cheap. Even at GP inflated pricing the Motegi beers were half the price that is charged at Phillip Island, the water is one fifth the price while food is about on par but there is so much more choice at Motegi. The ability to purchase cheap, fresh food at convenience stores in Utsynomia and take it into the track with us was a breath of fresh air. In Australia everyone entering the track precinct and their backpack contents are treated like Osama Bin Laden’s offspring - not so in Japan - it was extremely refreshing to be treated like an adult!

Thanks to my bro, Steve, for being an awesome travel buddy AND an awesome photographer! He let me borrow a bunch of photos and they are marked with his "Road To Nowhere Images" water mark.

Where are we going next Bro? 😁

Cheers.

Well, I Didn't See That Coming

 

Hey there! 

It has been a little while since I have had anything to say, what with 2020 doing what 2020 has been doing. December - finally, in a year which has been the longest 10 years of our lives!

Anyway, Sunday the 6th of December saw me doing this.......

Not the view I usually have but I was on a special mission. You see, since I sold my F800GSA back in February I have been really missing the adventure bike. They are so easy to ride AND capable of tackling anything.

Since the Beemer went down the driveway for the last time (actually, from well before that) I had been perusing BikeSales, Gumtree and FB Marketplace. I was specifically scouring for Yamaha T700s, Honda Africa Twins and to a lesser degree BMW F850s, hoping to spot a bargain or some deal that was too good to refuse. 

Unfortunately, CoviD job cuts made this an exercise in futility. Research became the order of the day instead. Watching what was listed, for how much, how much interest was shown and how long bikes were on the market for became the name of the game.

Back in February there were plenty of second hand bikes for sale. But as the Government's stimulus measures kicked in the price of bikes, motorcycles, campers, cars.....you name it, went through the roof and obviously became quite scarce(or the other way around, actually because, well, economics).

 One particular bike caught my attention because of how well spec'd it was. It was well priced and at the time I though about making a cheeky offer but I was afraid he might accept and as it wasn't my prefered bike, I decided discretion was the better part of valour. The bike disappeared after about 6 weeks so I thought it was sold.

Fast forward to the end of November and as my research continued what should pop up again? Yup, that same bike.....only $4K cheaper.....

After a day of should I/shouldn't I, checking with that model's gurus AND getting Ministerial approval I called the seller. He confirmed he had pulled the advert when CoviD made everything too hard. After a bunch of questions and him passing the "bullshitter" test I was confident enough to tell him that "I'll take it"!

Now it was a mad scramble to organise everything as I was starting to be rostered some flying again on top of the warehouse job I have been holding down since August, plus the bike was located THREE states away. That is a long way in a country as big as Australia. So, a crazy plan was hatched......

Jump on a jet late Sunday afternoon, leaving a muggy 34C Brisbane day to touch down in chilly (12C) Launceston. I was off to a random pub, the Centennial Inn, which turned out to have a great restaurant attached. After the rush of the flight and taxi ride, as I sat in the bar/restaurant it hit me how much I have missed my work overnights this year. I have taken them for granted for a decade and a half but this beer/wine/dinner was sublime and so relaxing.

The next morning the bike's owner very kindly drove an hour and fifty minutes to pick me up, then another hour and fifty minutes back home. He seemed a decent bloke and talking bikes, Covid lockdowns, pubs and some politics, we got on well.

Arriving in Bernie we went straight to his house where I began to inspect the bike. 

It.Was.Immaculate!!

Looking around his garage it was obvious that he looked after his gear as everything was ultra tidy and his dirt bikes and mountain bikes were immaculate as well.

The bike was a 2018 model with just 9000km under the wheels.

Fitted with -

Full Ohlins suspension

Arrow slip on exhaust

Scott steering damper

Barkbusters

Garmin Zumo GPS wired in

Genuine locking panniers

Barrett soft pannier racks

Givi tall screen

Givi 15lt lock on tank bag

Denali LED driving lights

Plus all of the original parts that had been removed!

A quick test ride was conducted - a mere formality as I was pretty well committed by now and the Dunlop D606 front tyre was obviously all wrong but the bike still shone. Cheque and receipt exchanged I set about loading up all of the original gear, plus the meagre stuff I had brought with me. This took a little while and I had to admit defeat with the original exhaust and screen, which Ben would post to me.

So, all loaded up like a supertanker I wobbled off, looking for a place to topple over as this is one tall bike! 

But if I did I would have the biggest shit-eating grin on my face as this is one fucking awesome looking and equipped bike!! And how good did it sound with that Arrow pipe?!!

What IS it though....? 

Well.......

A 2018 Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports in immaculate condition. 

Did I mention the immaculate condition?? 😛 Yeah, it is in IMMACULATE condition.

Now began the 2200km trip home. 250km of that would be by boat as I needed to cross Bass Straight via the Spirit of Tasmania. The ferry left from Devonport, which wasn't far to ride from Bernie so I enjoyed the cool riding conditions and stopped for lots of photos and to just ogle the beauty of this beast.

The following photo was in front of the local church in Penguin, Tasmania. I was trying to sell the boss on a warehoue parts-picking version of the AT.

 Apart from making the ferry on time I had another dilemma to solve. As regular readers of my irregular posts would know, I am in a challenge to pedal my (or a) bicycle for at least 15 minutes per day, every day of 2020. I haven't missed a day and I certainly didn't want to fall out of the challenge so close to the end. 

So, after trying to find a new, more road oriented front tyre for the AT and failing, I thought I best try to find a bicycle.

Lobbing into Giant Devonport I waited for the owner to be free of customers before starting.

"I have the strangest request you are going to hear all week" I began. Filling him in on the challenge, he listened, then offered me a basic mountain bike!

 I was stoked!!

Dumping my riding gear in their office I pedalled off in a flat looking direction (Tassie is pretty lumpy) in my RST pants and bike boots. Luckily it was cool and I felt like a school kid who was wagging school!

 

Taking the bike back to the shop I thanked them profusely but couldn't persuade them to take any money for the 20 minute "hire" of their bike. How generous is that?! Everyone buy a bike from Giant Devonport!

Back on the Honda, I wandered over to the waterfront to be in pole position for the boat. It doesn't look very big in this photo but she be a sizeable barge. Just like the AT.......

I dutifully lined up two hours before the sailing, like instructed but I was basically the only one there for an hour and a half. Covid had passenger numbers waaay down despite open travel being available for weeks now.

Yep, just me and these two guys from Melbourne. Waiting....

Eventually we were let through the front gate. I was apprehensive about dropping the big girl on a wet, slippery metal ship deck as I had read of it frequently happening. I shouldn't have worried.  The loading was straight forward and I was off to find my cabin in a jiffy.

It was cosy and I had to share with some random stranger - yet another hypocritical action during this CoviD-social-distancing mantra time. There were plenty of empty cabins, the shipping company obviously didn't want to pay to have them cleaned.....

At least my room mate seemed like a nice bloke. I tossed him some ear plugs just in case I snored 😁 then headed upstairs to watch us push off and sail away. It had been a very windy week but the ship's captain said tonight would be nice with only 25-30 knot winds and 1.5-2 metre swells. Yup, a millpond!

Charging for the deep blue. (OzRunways doesn't have a ship icon for some reason 😆)

Food and drink was found on the restaurant deck and I settled in to a few beverages and talked bikes with the blokes from Melbourne until late.

The next morning I was awake at about 0530 and could see out the window we were very near to Princess dock in Melbourne. It seemed to take forever to dock and get the trucks off (freight has priority over the general public apparently) We had to unstrap our own bikes and I was the first one off, being at the head of the line. Again, I was worried about slippery decks and short legs but it was fine. 

I motored out into Melbourne peak hour traffic following my new gps. I had a rough idea of where I needed to go but the gps was taking me in the opposite direction! Maybe some freeway on-ramp that I didn't know of? Nope.

 ( I would discover that night that it was set to "adventurous" routing so god only knows where it was taking me!)

Finally on one of Melbourne's heavily speed camera policed freeways I had one eye on the traffic and the other on my speedo. I needn't have worried. Later in the day as I became more comfortable with this new cockpit I noticed that the speedo over read by 7-8km/h compared to the gps.

It was bloody cold this morning at 13-15C and I stopped near Kilmore to fix my glove/sleeve interface. Man, I wish I had brought my winter gloves! Here I had a light bulb moment. Didn't Ben say the bike had heated grips? After a quick search I found the actuator on the left grip........ahhhhhh.

I wasn't sure of my fuel range yet. Added to the fact it was cold and the fact that the Hume (Doom) highway is adorned by average speed cameras I was dying of wind chilled boredom and pulled off the highway at Euroa for fuel, food and coffee. I was pleasantly surprised at how little fuel the big Honda had used. 450 km out of a tank should be very achievable on solid roads!

 

Even though I had only stopped for 20 minutes it was noticably warmer now and much more pleasant riding as I ticked off the kilometres and the towns. Albury, Culcairn, Henty, Yerong Creek, The Rock, Wagga Wagga then my next fuel stop at Temora. 363km and I felt pretty fresh! After a stop for fuel in the main street, where the young attendant said she thought it was a great looking bike, I stopped for a quick look out the front of the Temora Aviation Museum. It is amazing how many houses are now part of the "air park" where houses have hangers and taxiways up to the back door.

I buzzed along the quiet western roads toward my overnight destination just 150km up the road. This was another draw to purchasing this bike. I would get to break the trip home with an overnight at "home" with my Dad, whom I hadn't seen since July due to bloody Covid border restrictions.

About 30km out of Forbes I ticked off the following milestone. This bike isn't even run in yet!!

I stopped for fuel before heading to Dad's place as I planned to leave early in the morning. Here, another random guy said "that is one good looking bike"! I can't argue with him because it does have a certain presence in the flesh....er....metal. I have never owned a bike that elicited this type of response from Joe Public before.

It was great to see Dad but also a bit of a shock as this year has been tough on him. At 80 he is doing pretty well for a kid who they thought wouldn't make 12. He checked out the AT and I offered him a ride but he said he didn't have a step ladder handy....

I didn't mess around the following morning, getting away early and going hard. Parkes, Peak Hill, Dubbo, Mendooran (with a quick pub photo stop) then Coonabarabran for fuel. 

Ogling the rugged good looks in Coonabarabran.

Then it was a quick squirt up the highway to Narrabri. I planned on taking a new-to-me way home from here so not knowing fuel availability I topped up after just the 100km mark and had a bite to eat. It was starting to get warm now and my RST suit is too hot to be comfortable above about 23C.

Not a bad chicken salad roll.

From Narrabri I wanted to check out the very promisingly named Killarney Gap rd. As I followed it I was climbing toward the volcanic looking Mt Kaputar. I have noticed this imposing (for Oz) peak many times from the main highway and was pleased to be getting a closer, if only quick, look. (This isn't it though, just some random peak in the range)

The best bit about this road was the complete lack of traffic and a more challenging road design. I will definitely be back here again only next time at a touring pace.

Rolling into Bingara it was getting HOT! The main street was very pretty and quite busy. I love traveling through these little towns as they are off the beaten track, located between the two main North/South inland routes in NSW.

Continuing on to Warialda I noted one of the Blue Trees on the western edge of town. Check the link for details on what it is all about.

 

Pressing on I was starting to wonder about my fuel level. I knew there wasn't much out here but didn't know how far to the next town that would definitely have fuel.

Rolling into the tiny hamlet of Yetman I saw the little general store had fuel and food. I thought it was time for a drink anyway and I could peruse the map. Seeing that it was only 40km to Texas I decided on no fuel but a couple of cool drinks and a short break as I had been pretty much just twisting a throttle ALL day.

Icy drinks and some outback Aussie art by John Murray.

Filling up in Texas I decided to push on quickly. The ride east out of town was an eye opener, being quite twisty and hilly. Another definite return ride was needed.

Another quick stop for fuel at Stanthorpe and I was on the home stretch with just under three hours to go. 

Eventually I made it after about twelve hours and 1020km for the day. It had been a loong, busy few days and while tired, I was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable the bike is. It will need some seat reshaping to help lower it so that I can get a more confident purchase on the earth as it is a HEAVY beast when loaded up.

First thing next morning I flicked the dirt bike tyre and fitted a Bridgestone Battlax AX41 to match the one fitted to the rear. The bike immediately felt 1000 times better. Not totally unexpected!

The D606 just wanted to continue tipping in and I had to actively steer out of every corner once I'd tipped in just to stop it from spudding me into the earth on every bend for the last 2000km.

I also organised a roadworthy and transfered the registration from Tasmania to QLD. As anyone who has dealings with any State transport authority knows, this can be a long and arduous process. While it took over half of the day the Transport dept bit was surprisingly easy! 

Whew!

Apart from the seat, I just need to sort the suspension for me now. It is set for a 160kg rider PLUS his gear, so it is a bit fcuked up for a featherweight such as I.😉

I finished the day just sitting there, beer in hand, admiring that ugly mug.

Happy Days!!

Cheers.