Blog: October 31. The KLR’s gone

It’s Sunday arvo, and as much as I love Summer, I’ve had enough sun to last me a while yesterday and today. I’ve been frantically trying to make sure I’m up-to-date with mowing, car washing and other household chores before I launch into a full-on November.

First up this week was the KLR heading off to Melbourne.

Actually, it’s not Melbourne. It’s a small place near Wangaratta.

Whatever. The pick up was scheduled for Thursday, but I got a call Monday morning saying the driver was a few days early and could I please take the bike up to Grafton straight away. Which I did. Fortunately, in anticipation of a busy week, I’d washed it the day before.

We agreed to meet in the parking lot of the Grafton McDonalds, and while I waited I was amazed at how much attention the bike received. I had the impression it wasn’t because it was a particular brand or model, but because it was an adventure bike. Quite a few people commented or stopped to chat, and when we were trying to struggle the big, heavy motherlover up on to the ute, three blokes raced over from the park to help. They seemed very enthusiastic, and it was a nice gesture. It saved me from a certain hernia.

dscn1825A lot of people probably don’t realise the Tourtech importer has several very successful businesses, and his flagship is composites – plastics and high-tech carbon-fibres and so forth – and one of his primary concerns is making kayaks and canoes. Like everything Robin and his companies do, the canoes and kayaks aren’t a half-hearted effort. The company has been supplying Australia’s Olympic team, for instance. Anyhoo, we had to shift a few kayaks to make room for the bike, and the whole thing took a while. So that was Monday shot.

The rest of the week raced by in pretty much a blur, as weeks usually do when work’s busy.

This afternoon is the final MotoGP for the year, then we’ll be into November, and I have a fair bit going on. Work will be in a panic because of Christmas shutdown – same as every year – but there’s some commitments in there as well, including the BMW GS Safari – just the Safari this time, not the Safari Enduro. That was a couple of months ago. I’ve been invited on this one for just a couple of days to ride the new F800GSA, a bike I like a lot. The only problem is, for the first time ever, BMW isn’t 100 per cent organised. First they wanted to fly me to the start on the Gold Coast. That looked like a flight to Sydney and back to the Gold Coast. I volunteered to drive, and they were thrilled. But then they thought I might’ve been starting from Brisbane. They’re not sure.

Anyone else but BMW and I’d be worried. With BMW I can relax. Planning and logistics are areas in which BMW excels. They’ll sort it out and it’ll be seamless and stress-free, and the Safari is truly a blue-ribbon ride. It’s a perfect mix of relaxing sight-seeing, great riding, superb accommodation and catering, and a heap of fun. It’s just a little less demanding than the Safari Enduro, and I’d have to say it’s one of my favourite rides. I’m pretty happy to have a day or two on this one, that’s for sure.

I’ve done hardly any riding this week, except for an hour or so on the trials bikes – Montesa and pushie – yesterday. It was great fun, but my foot (the one I jammed into the stump last week), which I thought had healed, has swollen up a bit and is aching like a bastard, so I’ll have to rest a couple more days I reckon.

That’s for this week. Go Rossi!

TF

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