Unaugural 8.0 - Roll Call

I will bet you've found the keys to the liquour-cabinet.

 

I recall riding across to Adelaide in 1986. Via the main highway
rather than the GOR. It had pissed down with rain at the same time as
they had decided to rip up parts of the highway to rebuild it. About
10km of it past Horsham. We had the VF1000R so loaded up with gear and
Kerry on the back that the front wheel would pop into the air at the
slightest invite.

It had pissed down with rain and this stretch of road was turned into
a mud sludge. Cars were sliding around and creating wheel ruts into
what was basically 3-4 inches deep of mud. I'm still amazed I got
through it, especially two up and loaded. But I was basically kicking
the ground constantly. Even if it was soft and squishy, it had enough
force to stop us going over.

Can't say it was a fun bit of my honeymoon holiday ride to the F1GP.

Kev

 

I stand by the comments...

I think thats a little pot/black isnt Clem?

mh

 

Marty H wrote:

Hi Marty.

It means a lot to me.

It also makes sense to me that one can go and be taught skills in
exchange for money. HART do dirt bike courses which are reasonable,
without getting into the "racer" school territory.

Yup! ...and, with the appropriate weight shifting, how physically
demanding it can be.

I remember that after doing the HART dirt bike course, I could hardly
bloody walk for a week. I found muscles that hurt that I didn't even
know I had. :-|

It always helps if you actually know what you are doing.

I agree.

The reason I am keeping on about it is that, wee sound bytes of advice,
like "if in doubt, gass it up" on a newsgroup, really isn't all that
helpful for someone without going deeper into the bike and rider's
capabilities and circumstances.

I shouted myself the HART course as a "celebration" when I packing in
working for a living, and I was amazed at what can be done with a dirt
bike. I found that I could get through bits that I couldn't walk through!

I must admit that I am not sure whether there really is an easy
application of the dirt bike techniques to bigger heavier road bikes, or
if it is just the fact that one has more confidence, but, at least I
don't panic when the bitumen suddenly stops.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

In aus.motorcycles on Sat, 15 May 2010 23:43:42 GMT

Ah the infamous Bicentennial Road Works.

I first encountered them on a trip from Adelaide to Melbourne[1] on a
Friday night on the GPz250. There were no warning signs, the only
warning I got on a wet night was a single small yellow flashing light
before I ploughed into 10km or so of slime.

I kept it upright and discovered that I could keep some speed up and
as long as I relaxed the rear end slithering about didn't matter too
much.


Somewhere in a box is a pic of the bike taken at the end of the return
journey. Even after an hour of rain coming along the highway into the
Adelaide hills the bike is uniform mud brown in colour with mud caked
on all exposed surfaces.

Some years later I got a lot more experience in mud when I lived
in Lismore. The driveway to the place I lived in was long, steep,
made of red mud and flanked by a row of massive pine trees. Meaning
in summer it was rock hard and deeply rutted and covered in pinecones
and in winter it was sludgy and slippery and rutted and covered in
pinecones.

Slime at slow speed I can handle. Still hate gravel though.

Zebee


[1] in those days, being young and stupid, I used to load the bike in
the morning, ride it to work, then head off from work in Elizabeth to
Melbourne on a Friday night, kipping by the side of the road somewhere
between Bordertown and Ballarat, getting into Melb at o'dark 30 and
kipping again on a mate's front verandah till he woke up and let me
in... How I managed to avoid splatting myself on a truck I do not
know.

 

I stand by the comments...

I think thats a little pot/black isnt Clem?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This kettle is so black even the white bits are black Marty; I was just
poking fun at the unusually "creative" spelling/grammar, not commenting on
the content.
[hic]

 

oh..is that all.. you know I cant spell or grammeraterise to save
myself

mh

 

Well if you didn't listen how did you know to reply then Mister Smarty?!!?

[smug pointy finger coupled with gloating "uh-huh" noise]

 

Peter 'escorted' me along the full stretch of unsealed road from
Funkytown (I could see him laughing his head off a lot of the time
too.)
The front of my (naked) bike was plastered with dried on crap. The
front forks had already been repaired earlier in the year to deburr a
stone chip that was damaging a seal. It was fully loaded.
When it comes to riding a road bike on gravel with virtually no
experience or prior instruction, I found that the moment I got to the
corrugations I had to slow right down to walking pace. Not because of
the risk of dropping the bike, but because I didn't want to screw the
front suspension. Face it, I was putting the bike into conditions is
wasn't designed to endure.
I think I could have ridden at about double the speed I did -- it if
I had enough experience with that road.

Hope there will be an Unaugural IX - even though most of my evening
was spent struggling to complete short sentences.

 

yeah - Wot he said!!

I have an FZ-1 that goes all right in the dirt - well not dirt as such
but fine on a gravel road and it won't kill you going up a fire trail

 

Nah - they are more likely to kill themselves by trying to slow down

 

Gerry I never read what you write, I have you killfiled, I only ever get to
see your ravings within other peoples posts.

Boxer

 

How very unethical for this group

 

Possibly a bit like Dungog ... every year then.

Hmmm, will have to keep that in mind for next year.

There was a Ducati there that was far cleaner than my bike. Dunno how
they did it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spacelama/4410463414/in/set-72157623563495076/

 

Having said that, I had a ball coming back through a few hundred km of
dirt around Kingstown station, Lake Keepit etc, from the Ruptured
Budgie this weekend. Probably shouldn't have been doing 120km/h given
my level of experience. Yeah, probably definitely. But it was fun.
Excellent countryside around there. The bike it filthy, but I haven't
had time to clean it before the sun goes down.

She just didn't lean far back enough.

 

Oh, it was well and truly on the back wheel. But maximum acceleration
comes just before the front wheel lifts so I would just open the
throttle and pull away before he got past. And as I know him really
well, I could always tell when he was about to try it on. Having more
horsepower than his Thunderace didn't hurt either

Kev

 

"Surprising seeing a sports bike successfully making it down the hundreds
of km of slippery clay" ?!


BTH