I had a shed clean up the other day, you know the kind of one where everything on wheels is rolled out, the floor swept and every thing put back in its place but this time rearranged by either Make, Model, Color, Air/Water cooled, Country of origin, CC's, Riding genera - the list is endless to the lottery winners of OCD. After the rearrangement a space appeared where no space had ever appeared before. It must be filled! (OCD kicking in again).
Hi to all, my name is Mark and I like riding stuff with 2 wheels - unless it has more then I like that as well. I currently live in Queensland Australia and have been riding since 1985. My best ride will be my next ride whether that be intestate or just to the shops but preferably to some shops that are interstate.The smo kem up comes from my love of 2 stroke motorbikes and more about that later. In the shed at the moment there are BSA's, Suzuki's, Cagiva, Yamaha, and the odd Kawasaki or 2 as well as 3250cc's of Honda 250's both with and without knobbly tyres, V4's, some V Twins, a Yamaha Majesty 400, a few that I may have forgotten and some that I am yet to bring up.
I have always had bikes but the early ones were most memorable but for mostly the wrong reasons. As a young man I moved from Perth West Australia to Brisbane Queensland in what I loosely describe as the "character building" years of the 80's. I was pursuing an aviation maintenance career with Australia's largest aviation employer and with a young family in tow I was not always able to afford what I wanted, sometimes this was as simple as a new set of tyres (yes TYRES, I am on the southern side of the planet) or chain and sprocket sets but children need to eat EVERY day apparently! Time passed and eventually I bought a V-Strom 650 which I consider to be the best ALL ROUND bike ever produced. My wife came out on it a few times then announced she wanted to get her bike license so we could ride places together just for the fun of it. Does life get any better?? Bloody well right it does!!
The boys got older and more self sufficient, why they could even feed themselves although there was more work to be done on the cleaning up training, I mean how hard could it be to teach 17 - 23 YO to wash dishes???
Wife got her license, I bought her a Triumph Speedmaster as her first bike and off we would ride. She worked in the middle of Brisbane and commuting by train was appx $130 AUD per fortnight or about 6 yen at today's exchange rates. With the Speedmaster too big for city work we bought a Yamaha Majesty 400 with 20K Km on the clock (12K miles) for commuting duties (not the one in the shed - that's my Majesty). Fuel costs are appx $15 per week and she saves over 1hr per day in travel time. This was my first auto/twist and go/no gears thingy form of two wheeled transport and I was hooked (for city traffic anyway).
Being a safety conscious sort of bloke (no second chances in aviation) it was my duty to fully explain 'The rules of motorcycling according to Mark'!
Rule 1 Car drivers are not your friends!
Rule 2 Never buy a bike so heavy you can not crawl out from underneath it when things go wrong!
Rule 3 Never buy a bike so expensive that you cant afford to walk away from it when things go wrong! (mainly for dirt)
Rule 4 In the motorcycling world "WANT" overrides "NEED" every time, and the best of all -.
Rule 5 Motorcycles are like golf clubs, you can play with one but its more fun if you have the whole set!
Rule 6 Any ride is a good ride!
I'll fast forward as I feel there is some boredom setting in.
In 2018 I returned to Perth to catch up with my sister whom I hadn't seen in about 6 years and was doing some work around her rural property. She introduced me to a chap who I'll call Shane (because that's his real name) and of course the conversation was steered towards motorcycles which went something like this:
Shane - Do you ride bikes? If not you must be some sort of sheep fiddler! (cleaned up for the forum)
Me - Yeah i ride, currently building a BSA Bantam (125cc) with a Suzuki RM400 motor in it - I call it Franken-Bantam! No I don't like sheep!
Shane - Suzuki? Love em! Got a pristine RM500 at home and a BSA. Must be goats then?
Me - Uh? Yeah, got a few Honda's and BSA's and some others, looking for my next project. I'm not into animal husbandry Shane!
Shane - You would be if you've seen the locals, how many ya got?
A very worried me looking for an escape route and listening for the sounds of banjos - Sold a few, down to my last 28!
Shane - 28? That all? You need to get a job that pays more! What sort of bike are you looking for.
Me, relieved he was no longer bringing animals into the conversation - Honda CBX1000 6 cylinder, been looking for years, always too late on the phone
Shane - Your sisters neighbor has one. Ask her to introduce you to Kiwi Kev! He drinks scotch! Your welcome!
I met Kev the following day and the conversation was rather short and went thusly:
Me - Hi Kev, heard you like a scotch and ride bikes?
Kev - Not so much lately but I do like a scotch. Is that a Johny Black?
Me - Sure is. You off the bikes then?
Kev - No, started pulling a CBX Honda to bits in the shed, cant get my Yamaha out coz of all the crap around it. Don't want to buy a CBX1000 do you. Ill sell it cheap and throw in that TGB scooter over there. The Honda's not worth much, the scooter was last running about 8 years ago. Maybe a rat or 2 under the seat!
Anyway, the scooter had 4000km (2600mi) on it and runs well. The CBX was relocated to my sisters so Kev wasn't tempted to sell it to someone else. I fly back to Perth 9 Oct 2019 with the plan to ride the TGB R50X back to Brisbane via the MotoGP Phillip Island then home to Bris about 11 days riding and 5600km or 3500mi. The plan also includes a crack at the (unofficial) 24 hour 50cc scooter record while crossing the Nullarbor Plain. On the way I'll visit some shops on this memorable for whatever reason ride.
What could possibly go wrong?
Riding "Downunder" requires one to view the world differently - like upside down!
Rule 2 and 3 in action!
