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General Bike Ravings

Biker culture, politics and general issues.

  1. USA D3: Collecting the bikes! (18/07/2011)

    Monday. It’s about time. We’ve only been counting down the days to see the bikes for about 2 months, and we’re all pretty keen.

    I was up at 7am, into the shower then down to breakfast. Another 2 boxes of cereal, milk and yoghurt, and 2 of the others had already been at the cereal. We’ll do our best to deplete their stock, but I think they have far more than we have time. 5 different flavours available, so I had Raisin somethingorother.

    We met down ...
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  2. USA D2: Around LA (17/07/2011)

    Woke up about 8am, but took a while to rise. Into the shower, using it to clean some garments. First shave in probably 4-5 days, and felt much better (still need more sleep though). Time adjustment seems to be going very well.

    Down to Mariposas again, and hating egg didn’t leave me a lot of options. Ignoring Steak, French toast and nothing was left. Hmmm. I don’t like having a heavy breakfast. Luckily I noticed the milk and cold cereal in the bottom corner, so hoping the ...
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  3. USA D1: NZ to USA (16/07/2011)

    The day off on Friday isn’t… and I find myself leaving the office around 5pm on Friday afternoon, hadn’t packed yet, but at least I had sorted all the errands.

    Dinner with family after a little packing, and I continue packing. Finish packing, shower etc, and I’m crawling into bed at 1am. Alarm rings far too soon at 2.30am. Changed into flight clothes, and since I made excellent time to the airport, arrived earlier than I needed. Flight departed just after 6am, but I was checked in ...
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  4. Curse Twisted Throttle! (16/04/2011)

    Having not had my BMW since early March, I'm getting withdrawal symptoms (most, if not all, the parts have arrived, now they just have to repair). To tide myself over this difficult period, I've taken to looking at what additional parts I should fit (coz I don't have nearly enough).

    Sometime this afternoon, I downloaded the 2011 Twisted Throttle catalogue: http://www.twistedthrottle.com/article/static/211/1/5/ My memory is vague, but I appear to have lost several hours in the 236 ...
  5. Returning from the TT2000 (28/02/2011)

    Monday morning, no early morning alarm, we sleep in, but my alarm does go off at 0845, as I need to start making some calls. I’ve given up on cotton wool for the nights, just using my new custom plugs, as I can wear them much longer than the normal ones.

    McIver & Veitch about the tyres I now won’t be needing, as the Southern Cross is no longer an option (for the second time in a row dammit). Interislander to alter my booking and bring it forward to the same as Toto’s, and his accommodation ...
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  6. 2011 TT2000 Day 2 (27/02/2011)

    So, picking up from the Blog of Day 1, it’s 10pm, leaving Queenstown, and now we are properly into the night section. Don’t want to go too quickly, as you simply don’t have as much light, yet don’t go too slowly so as to lose time.

    I did have one handy trick up my sleeve for the night section. During the 10k service the mechanics worked on the bike for two full days. She now sports 8 forward facing lights. Low beam (HID), high beam (+90% bulb), OEM fog lamps (wasn’t able to get the ...
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  7. 2011 TT2000 Day 1 (26/02/2011)

    Again with the early alarm… much too early… no choice, must get up. It’s 4.30am.

    Into my gear, luggage is lugged down the stairs of the backpackers and piled outside. 5.15am we fire up the bikes and pop down the road to the BP that confirmed the previous night they are open 24/7. Other bikers are there eating, we only need gas, and I get a couple of bottles of Powerade (still wondering where Mizone blue went to).

    Another short trip to McIver & Veitch, there are already ...
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  8. Heading down to the TT2000 (24/02/2011)

    Toto’s not broken Honda hasn’t been sorted in the beginning of the week, so while he was offered one of the rental fleet of BMW, he declined, opting for his own GN250. Yeah, you read that right… he WANTED to do it on his GN250.

    Of course, this meant his pace wouldn’t be quite up to mine. Actually, allow me to correct, his pace was slower than almost anyone else, and couldn’t barely ever reach the speed limit of 100kph. Thursday and Friday’s plans were altered slightly. He would head ...
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