I hadn't been for a ride with Mooch since he got back from the UK, and thanks to the weather changing from, "Death to Old People and Lambs" to "It might be a bit windy" we uncancelled our cancelled planned ride for Saturday.
We had an "interesting" ride over the hill,neither of us really getting our heads around "riding in the wild" so to speak. I've been commuting ceaselessly since December last year and it really does your head in when you want to go "sport" riding. The dreadful weather really has kept me confined to scribing a groove between work and home.
At least I had someone witness my hamfisted rear end slides on the way up the hill. The worst bit though, was a long downhill left hander. The wind was mildly gusty, but not really a concern until I opened the taps a little early, had the rear step out a little - not dirt track styles but enough to require some thought, when I got slammed by a huge gust. And the front let go. Now I'm not Mick Doohan, and I have no pretensions about my abilities. I'm just thankful it didn't go wrong, but it is kind of hard to keep on the gas in a left hand bend with both ends struggling for traction (third "end" too) with a blind right coming up just....about....now.
So I rode the rest of the way down the hill in that characteristic panicked pogo style that seems to go with the after effects of a Force 13 Adrenalin flood.
We made it to Martinborough. There we bumped into half of the KB Welly crew. Skelstar (of course), Uncle B (Has anyone noticed just how much he looks like Tommy Chong with short hair? See below), Velox, LBTW, Darkman, Vasaline (sic) Warrior, Bugsplat tuned up too (doesn't he always though? And in the oddest places sometimes). There's some missing from the list - I think a couple of people went home after my bad taste joke about taking the car to work on Fridays so I can drive home drunk - I never feel that happy riding drunk. It's a vertigo thing.
Anyhoo, a chance comment to LBTW got me my first excellent suprise of the day - a ride on the new Gixxer 750. It's quite gratifying to be given that level of trust, just like that. I had a blast too. The engine in that thing is a gem. I think I know what Suzuki got from the Kawasaki partnership - Induction noise and midrange, two traditional Kawasaki features. Phwoooar, what a noise. Oops stop that. You'll run into LBTW riding your own bike. Idiot.
The water tower road was magic. The loonies hooned off first and I followed Skel, his bodacious looking Hornet is just what the Hornet should have been in the first place, I reckon. Just as I was marvelling at Skel's tidy turn of speed he slowed and waved me past. That was a shame. We never seem to get out on rides much and it was a real thrill to see the old hunched and tension wracked Skelstar of the past firmly consigned to history. Nice lines and good body language.
Now I had to try and chase the lead group down. Never easy with that crowd of squids. I managed to get VW in sight in time to see some monster twitches from his GSXR. LBTW's 750 never flinched. Kinda makes you wonder just where the limit actually is these days. In a hedge or fence most likely.
We swapped bikes back at the intersection that leads to Masterton. I couldn't believe how high my bars were, and how low the pegs were. Blimey, I've turned into Mangell! I now ride an outrageous armchair! The blast back to Masterton was a hoot, as always. LBTW had the excuse book out today, his glasses got sucked off his nose so he couldn't see. Yeah that's why the old bloke on the Orange Armchair smoked ya. Yup ,that's it.
After another Cafe stop in Masterton, we split up as we left. The Mentor's mentor, Uncle B, had run his rear down to the carcass. His tyre was pretty damn dodgy as well. See photo below - would you like some tyre with that canvas Sir?
Then Mooch let me ride the 748.
It was more of a rack than I expected. It was also better than I expected. In the course of a couple of hours I'd now been lucky enough to try the epitomy of both Japanese and Italian 750cc design. The Suzuki is the the latest and greatest, encapsulating all the chassis technology updates gleaned from a whole bunch of racing disciplines, where the 748 manages to work well despite being so damn beautiful (Has anyone killed James Blunt yet? No really, I'd like to know. If he's still with us, I think I'd like to join the queue.) and based on a design that first saw the light of day 12 years ago.
Mooch's 748 is not like other 748s. His previous bike was a KR-1(250cc parallel twin two stroke race rep) and he's dropped cams in this thing that make the engine behave like a KR-1's. Lumpy bottom end, nothing, nothing, aaaaargh, f__k 10.5k rpm redline you dork, aaargh make it stop. All to a glorious V-Twin soundtrack sponsored by Arrow exhausts - the loudener experts of the after market exhaust industry. Just as we got to the hillclimb road (again, but via a different loop) what should I see but a Bayliss replica 998 and a black 636. - Fatjim and MD! I quickly pulled up to say hi - and watched Mooch ride past on my bike, with my cellphone in my tank bag on my bike.
Oh.
Dear.
LBTW and I blatted down the road, couldn't find him, and none of the cyclists we asked had seen an Orange Armchair pretending to be a motorbike. Bugger. So we did what all good blokes do when lost. We went to the pub. Bumped into a character on a Yamaha SRX600, painted in TRX Red with white frame and wheels. Had beer. Managed to get hold of Mooch on my cellphone by calling him from LBTW's cellphone. We met up in Featherston and cruised back over a slightly damper, slightly windier Rimutaka HIll Road than the one we'd come over.
Bloody good day though. Thanks VERY much for trusting me with your pride and joy (s), LBTW and Mooch. Made an already excellent day very special.
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Originally Posted by mikey
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