General Bike Ravings

The GS Experience started last year in Australia as a way to give customers a better understanding of what GS bikes could do both on and off road. It's run by BMW Motorad Australia and held in three States over the course of the year. You can book up to two time slots on any two bikes from the GS range. Light refreshments are also provided, along with a t-shirt, all for $49AUD. It provided just the excuse I needed to head back to Melbourne.

The Melbourne event is run from the Toolangi ...

Three years between rides is a bit of a stretch, and I might be a bit biased, but God damn it, I enjoyed the shit out of the North Island 1600!!

The last few blogs have outlined the prep' and the weekend before the big event had me in a bit of a panic to fix the stebel horn because I new BrianH was going to be scrutineering the bikes and if he can pick up, that the rear tyre on a Beemer has been fitted back to front, he was sure as hell going to pick up that my horn was neither squeeking ...

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Last week was my last big prep ride for the North Island 1600, but I've had another busy week including a couple more rides.

On Thurday I had a seminar to go to in Palmy, so naturally, I had to go on the bike even though the weather was looking to be marginal....in fact, I needed to go on the bike because the weather was marginal. I hadn't looked at the bike since dragging myself off it on Sunday and although I knew the front tyre was getting down, I was surprised to see how quick ...

I had the bike serviced last week and also now have a pair of Z8's waiting to fit. The Z8 on the front had about 9,000km on it with perhaps 2-3.000km left and the PR4 on the rear only has 3,000km on it. However Having decided to replace both prior to the North Island 1600, I needed to rack-up some km to chew out the front and wear as much as possible on the rear.

Having done 3 conditioning rides of 375, 740 & 490 km, I wanted to do at least one more of about 1,000km,....plus whatever ...

I wasn't planning on a ride today but I ran into Woody yesterday, when I was putting some air in the tyres at BP J'ville and next thing you know, we had a plan. There was a Uly ride today but because it was programmed for the Akatarawa Rd (which I think is a waste of time ride) and because I'm in more need of more kms, we decided to scoot up SH1, nip over the Fordell-Hunterville road and Vinegar Hill, have a spot of lunch in Ashhurst and make our way home.

Since we were embarking ...

The first two rounds of the Hamilton MCC Arai Winter Series had been great. I'd gotten my first pole position and had some really good results, but I'd also had a DNF in the rain when I withdrew and the points were getting really close. Nathan Jane and I were going to be battling it out for second place in the championship, with first all but wrapped up by Greg Smith if he turned up.

For the last round I'd run out of tyres and ...

In a past life (my 2nd of the current one – or chapter 2 perhaps), I was an Aircraft Electrician in the RNZAF, and eventually they told me I was an Avionic Technician. Big deal, I worked on batteries, power generation, distribution and regulation, all sorts of motors used for all sorts of purposes and lighting systems. I changed bulbs on teeny weeny lights that lit up gauges and instrument panels, on small lights that lit up other bits and bobs in cockpits, on still and flashy flashing Nav Lights, ...

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