Blog: April 16. Plenty happening

It’s been a great week. I’ve been down to Kosciusko and had a great time with a few great blokes.

But first, news from around the place, and first up is Secret Squirrel reducing his bike stable. Here’s the e-mail with the news…

“Squirrel is sad, there wasn’t enough room in the toy shed and one of the fleet had to go.

“Unfortunately the DR drew the shortest straw, so there is now a happy owner in Taree on one very trick DR650. Squirrel is sad to see it go, but the new owner is a very passionate bike rider, and
a very big tinkerer. He really appreciated the work that had gone into it. He grabbed a bargain and has enough spares to literally build a spare bike.

“So this leaves Squirrel with two bikes left in the shed, and yes plans  are underway to have a little fiddle with both of them. The Wee-Strom is set for some suspension work, dirt-worthy tyres etc. There might even be a visit to Nick at Tecknik coming up.

“And the Kato 500 already has a big tank, just got the suspension back from Dr Downie at North Coast KTM. Just have to make up bit of a screen for it then get in and do a few rides.

“So squirrel is sad, but happy he has something new to fiddle with late at night with in the shed at downtown Bogan Street at Park Beach.”

Having seen Pottsy’s work on several bikes, I bet that V-Strom is going to be something really exceptional. Here’s what it looked like last time I saw it…

Ramdog Dave and Karen Ramsay are still floating around the Himalayas and Nepal, and in a really unexpected blast, I found a USB stick in my letterbox, and on it was Darren AC’s video from the ride we did with Dino Fizzywater to the Troy Bayliss Classic a while ago. I don’t know why Dazza suddenly got the vid sorted, but there it was, and it brought back some awesome memories. I can’t show it to you here because it’s too big, and I suspect the software Daz used is preventing me from editing the clip. Reducing the size and quality so I can embed it here counts as editing, and it seems my regular editing suite is blocked.

In any case, it made me smile. Thanks, Daz.

Marty Hardcore has a ride on this weekend. He invited me, but I’m pretty much chained to my desk for this weekend. That’s partly because I was away from that desk all week, and these good times have to be paid for.

I jumped on the KLR and rode down to Kosciusko to meet some great people for a few days camping. On the way down I picked up a flat rear tyre at Heatherbrae.

I couldn’t get the bead to break, so I had to stay overnight until I could get a bike shop to deal with it the next morning. The guys at Maitland Motorcycles were brilliant and sorted everything out for me quick.

Navigating my way to the bike shop – stopping to pump up the tyre every 10 minutes or so – was tricky. I came up with some inno-navig-ation.

Note the high-tech rubber band to hold the phone in the GPS bracket.

It worked, and I used the same system to navigate my way through the city on the way back. I had to attend an Alpinestars function at Darling Harbour, and without the phone nav I think I’d still be riding around in circles down there.

The stay in the Kosciusko National Park was fabulous. It was five-star camping at it’s best. The three blokes involved – Steve Smith of Adventure Moto, Robin Box of Touratech and Safari Tanks, and Andy Strapz – came well prepared.

Porterhouse steaks and excellent deserts were prepared over the campfire, and it was a really fabulous few days. The ride in and out was the stuff daydreams are made of, including the run over the pass called Siberia.

The bike was excellent, the food and company sensational, and I really had a ball.

But now I have to make up the time.

It was worth it, I say.

TF

 

One Comment

  1. Tom – I had my old computer crash, bought a new one but the video editing software from Microsoft that I usually use isn’t supported bythem any more.
    Then I suffered from motivational issues,(it’s just to nice outside to sit in front of a computer) or ( I’ll have one beer this arvo and then edit my gopro footage). As anybody know who has taken the time to edit their camera footage into something enjoyable to watch – you have to do ALOT of sifting to get to the gold.
    Long story short – had my appendicis out and was house bound for 2 weeks.
    So in the end, for ease I went with the Gopro editing software but it has digital management rights built-in which makes it difficult to reformat and edit and share – hence the USB stick.
    Glad you enjoyed it buddy 👍

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *