Bike madness

My brilliant Schwantz painting - its away getting framed as I type.

The motorcyclist in me has been dormant for a few years, but now the passion has been fully awakened - and what a country for it! The roads are appalling, and I think back to the perfect motorcycling roads of NZ with longing - however the social scene here beats NZ hands down.

It doesnt matter where you go (I now use the bike in preference to the car, rain hail or shine) somebody will always stop for a natter. Last night I went to Sainsbury's to but some rice and asparagus.....it took me an hour to get from the parking place to the actual shop as I got chatting to a VFR 750 owner....

Anyway, one of the great things about living here is collecting things I always wanted. I have commisioned a Troy Bayliss painting for the lounge of his final WSBK race, and from the same artist picked up a painting of Kevin Schwantz on the Lucky Strike Suzuki - it is incredible and I find myself staring at it endlessley and marveling at the mans work.

The old doohan replica - a signed version was going for $10,000 the other day!

Today on Ebay I managed to source a rare Mick Doohan helmet which is the previous version to my current helmet. I always wanted this model but never managed to get one as they had stopped making them by the time I was in the market for a lid. This will now be a permanent ornament in the lounge, alongside my current one.

I also have the last Doohan replica on the way as my everyday helmet after deciding not to buy the Schwantz one....

Happy days!

My new Baby

In Lieu of words I thought some pictures would be an easy way to add a post! Feast your eyes on this little puppy that is now proudly in my ownership....

The cockpit where the little screen that says "0" is often far into triple figures....about 2 seconds after leaving the traffic lights. Rev counter winds around so quickly thats its all you can do to slot in the next gear before it reaches the red bit. The red button fires a 22mm cannon for removing senile tin top drivers from your path.

This is where the most magnificent howling emits from, its well worth holding a low gear while traveling through tunnels or roads lined with houses just to listen to the sweet music bellowing out.

Looking innocent outside my garage.

The girls returning from a quick blast up the street, note smiles on faces!

Hello sexy eyes! What a brilliant looking bike, closely modelled on the Honda Motogp racer and easily as pretty as my previous favourite bike the RVF 750.

Just off to the shops to get some teabags....

Im off to London - sod seeing the queen, its to get my bike

My neighbours Triumph Trophy - old, and heavy, but well built, and most improtantly it only has 2 wheels.

Saturday dawned bright and clear, and the sound of birds singing in the trees was only interupted by the throaty growl of my neighbours Triumph trophy bursting into life. My heart gave a little flutter as this signalled the impending start of our journey to London to pick up my bike from Bishops Waltham. My neighbour had kindly offered to give me a lift on his bike, which a happily accepted as it would give me a few hours to re-aclimatise to life on 2 wheels before taking charge of a bike for myself.

While the bike warmed up out on the road I gathered together the last of my gear and started dressing. On went a pair of thick socks ex-BAS antarctic issue, trousers, long sleeved t-shirt, Long sleeved rugby shirt, and finally a Jumper. Next to be donned were my bike trousers, brought back in 1999 and last used in anger during 2005....and it showed, as wild horses could not drag the zip or velcro belt together. After much grunting and groaning I gave up and let my expanded girth hang out of the trousers, after all the jacket would cover this embarrasment up!

The jacket - which I use daily - had to have its aromoured shoulders, sleeves, and back protecter inserted, and the winter lining retrieved from the cupboard, before it was again ready for use on a bike. Next came footwear, I first tried my Alpinestar race boots but gave up as they have always tended to be uncomfortable - I cant bear to have squished up toes. My normal footwear would suffice, and had the added bonus of being far superior when not on the bike.

I wandered down to the front door and had a quick chat with my neighbour before re-entering the house for the final bits of protective clothing. First to go on was the Arai Quantum-E, which is quite simpy the best helmet I have ever worn. It looks fantastic in its Doohan "Reggae" colours (I keep it highly polished and it still looks brand new after 10 years) and fits my head so snuggly that you would think I was born wearing it. Once the strap was pulled tightly to my chin, I turned my attention to gloves - I have a fantastic pair of Nankai race gloves. They are my preferred hand protection and offer superb feel through the bars. All the knuckles are well protected with Kevlar, as is the back of the hand, and the palm features multiple layers of Kangaroo hide - a heavy wear area when you go down the road as your hands naturally go out to soften the impact.

Feeling like a real motorcyclist again I wandered out the door and got on the back of the waiting Triumph full of excitement. Withing seconds we were off, negotiating our way through the maze of parked cars, before the Triumph began to build up speed accompanied by a magnificent wail from the twin exhausts......I could barely contain the grin, and settled in for the long ride north.

Father at sea

I came across this the other day after Dad pointed it out to me - an article written by him about one of his ships when an impressionable young lad like myself.

http://www.merseamuseum.org.uk/mmsuevic.php?&uss=0

I thought it might provide an interesting bit of reading for you all.

Be sure to visit the Mersea museum if in the area, I am going to add it to my list of places to visit over the coming months.

Helmet hiccup

My new helmet

Life is full of ups and downs, yesterday I eagerly paid for a new helmet to replace my much loved Micheal Doohan replica Arai - which is being retired too pride of place on the bookshelf - thats the type of ornament that I like!

I spent all day today eagerly awaiting the delivery of my new Kevin Schwantz replica Arai, only to be phoned by the shop and told it wont be ready until....

JULY!

To say I was devestated would be a mild understatement! but apparently they havent actually started producing them yet so the picture above will have to suffice.

So now my faithful old helmet will be called in to do another 6 months service before retiring once again to pride of place in the lounge (If I had my way the CBR 600 would also live in the lounge...).

My Doohan replica/ornament - looks fantastic with soft lighting...

P.S for those non bikers amongst you, Schwantz was the 1993 GP world champion, and a delight to watch on a racing motorcycle. Doohan was the 1994 - 1998 World champion and my all time favourite GP rider.

A new bike for me!

2004 CBR 600 RR - and she is all mine (note wet ground from excess dribble production)!

Well I may not have offered much in the way of blog posts for the last few months, but oddly its not for a lack of interesting things to write about - life has been an endless blur of events, some good some bad but all interesting.

The most notable of which is this....

After 3 years of driving tin tops I am finally about to re-enter the world of motorcycling! After sadly selling my much loved Suzuki Bandit (which a bunch of young idiots promptly destroyed) in order to make way for a newer family car, I have been forced to watch bikes longingly from inside my windproof, excitement free 4 wheeled box for longer than I care to think about.

However the last few weeks have been spent searching for a new 2 wheeled steed after it was decided that I needed one for work and (of course) pleasure.

I chose a CBR 600RR as the bike of preference, even if logic dictated something more sedate, the inner youth screamed "sports bike!" and thankfully he won. A beautiful blue one in immaculate condition appeared for sale in London 2 days ago so we shot up there and made the owner an offer which he promptly accepted - and my heart rate shot up 1000% in all the excitement.


I pick her up on Saturday and can barely contain myself, pacing back and forth like a caged tiger while looking longingly at the calender.


Anyway got to go as choosing a new helmet, and investigating some new leathers to replace my well used (and crash damaged) current items....so exciting!

Google maps

I just found the most amazing website ever http://maps.google.com/maps which is even better than google earth because this little baby lets you actually walk around your chosen area in a virtual 3d world.

I had a fantastic afternoon wandering up and down streets trying to find my brothers house in Auckland, then strolled up mums road and saw her house for the first time – and phoned her up to berate her about the pile of rubbish outside the gate.

Its absolutely brilliant and allows you to view the world from the safety of the sofa and a cup of tea – what more could mankind ask for!

DIY

Well it’s been a substantial amount of time since I last felt any inclination to write on the blog, happily however I have found that it is a perfect excuse to get away from a job I wish I hadn’t started!

That, and it’s something semi-constructive to do while drinking this cup of tea...

In my intense boredom (long story which I might delve into later) it seemed a good idea to address a few issues in the bathroom of this house. This notion was helped by the giant stack of new power tools lurking with intent in the corner of the lounge and projecting “use me” thoughts deep into my subconscious.

I selected the appropriate shiny tools for the job and ascended the stairs to do DIY battle in the bathroom. It seemed a simple enough - eliminate that pesky mould that can’t be scrubbed away – and my chosen remedy was to re-grout the tiles. I set too with a thin chisel carefully removing the contaminated grout, when it all started to go a little wrong. The bathroom had a habit of leaking into the kitchen when showering, and now I found out why as the lower tiles broke free with little provocation. Where they had originally been secured to plasterboard, now they gave up the unequal struggle of clinging to a squishy paste with traces of cardboard in it, and in extreme cases the tiles where held in place purely because it never occurred to them to fall off the nonexistent wall.

At the moment I have half a cup of tea, a section of wall to rebuild,re-tile, then finally get on with the grouting that was the original intention of this simple little remedy to a seemingly innocuous problem.

Next time the power tools speak to me I am going to turn the TV up a little louder and ignore them.