I bought a bike!

[Old Steve]

I'm flying up to Townsville next Saturday morning to pick up a 2002, white Honda ST1100 and ride it the 400 km home to Mackay, I've come out of the closet, so to speak.

Up until now, I've called my bikes after women in song titles, GLORIA and Angie, but this one might be "Songbird" after the Fleetwood Mac song covered by Eva Cassidy. Any other name suggestions? Thought I'd keep "Roxanne" until I had a red bike.

Will post a photo, just got to transfer it from my work laptop to this one.

[duckonin]

So you left Tauranga 'old steve' ?

[Oakie]

'Moby'

I need say nothing more.

[Old Steve]

Duckonin, yeah - I've been in QLD for eight months now. Got offered a job in my area of speciality (lubricants and filtration) so slid across the ditch.

Oakie, how unkind. OK, it's not a 600 Bandit but it's not such a great white whale. In fact I was surprised how light it felt with the weight so low - Vee-4 and under seat fuel tank help.

[Road kill]

Duckonin, yeah - I've been in QLD for eight months now. Got offered a job in my area of speciality (lubricants and filtration) so slid across the ditch.

Oakie, how unkind. OK, it's not a 600 Bandit but it's not such a great white whale. In fact I was surprised how light it felt with the weight so low - Vee-4 and under seat fuel tank help.

Hell, chuck on ya' floro vest an white lid an nobodies gonn'a pull out in front of that thing.

Not ever,,,cool

[skippa1]

Brian......

[fridayflash]

great ride, lucky bastard..and the near perfect bike for it
ive got a mate in alice with one of them..great mile eater

[98tls]

Duckonin, yeah - I've been in QLD for eight months now. Got offered a job in my area of speciality (lubricants and filtration) so slid across the ditch.

Oakie, how unkind. OK, it's not a 600 Bandit but it's not such a great white whale. In fact I was surprised how light it felt with the weight so low - Vee-4 and under seat fuel tank help.

Fancy seeing you here,bike looks great S,happy travels eh...

[Tigadee]

I'd called it the "Space Shuttle"!

[Old Steve]

Hell, chuck on ya' floro vest an white lid an nobodies gonn'a pull out in front of that thing.

Not ever,,,cool

Yeah, the thought had occurred to me. If I'm on a white bike like the Police rode, in a black bike suit, fluoro hi-viz and white helmet there might not be too many cagers who:

1. Won't see me

2. and will be prepared to pull out in front of me.

Should make passing easy as well, flick on the hazard lights, watch them veer off the road, and just ease the right wrist around a few degrees.

[gammaguy]

I talk to myself all the time when riding,but I have to do it in French because the voices are always listening

[duckonin]

Duckonin, yeah - I've been in QLD for eight months now. Got offered a job in my area of speciality (lubricants and filtration) so slid across the ditch

Good for you. Enjoy.

[Hinny]

Looks tidy.
Got some more pics? Details? Interesting mount for the spotlight.
I was running similar looking Narva spots. 130w bulbs. Could see for miles.
My bike has the 28 amp alternator of the early bikes. When the rectifier blew I decided spots were a little too much extra load so I swapped them for a couple of Narva LED Daytime running lights.

[Mo NZ]

Your really going to enjoy that bike. What a beauty, Townsville to Mackay would be a god shakedown trip. Enjoy.

[Old Steve]

Yeah Hinny, the fact it was a 2002 with the 40 amp alternator - they upgraded to 40 amp in 1996 though all Police bikes had the 40A alternator - was one of the deciding factors on my chosing this bike. The spotlight switch is in the lift top box on the fairing beside the top cover (do you call it the tank on an ST?) where the 12V power feed is.

Mo NZ, I'm really looking forward to Saturday and a nice familiarisation ride home. Will post some pictures of the ride - be prepared for images of MAMOBSC (miles and miles of bloody sugar cane), though the harvesting season has started and there's lots of long empty swathes through the cane where the harvesters have already been.

Will also get a photo of me with the bike and update my avatar :-)