Business as usual

Today I reached the scoots first real milestone, I fixed the headlight so that the small globe was at 6 o'clock and noticed that the low beam element of the main globe had blown, no biggie the spare globes are on their way, high beam still works.. So I rolled the bike out onto the driveway and the spots of rain started, I had checked the weather and it was to be coudy with possible showers, so I went against my fair weather riding rule and went out anyway, the spots persisted for a while, on and off, and finally cleared, the wind was cool and I was a happy man. I putted about town for about 25kms until I clicked over the 1000km mark and went to fill up, added my 3% and with a full tank away I went.

 I rode down to Paynesville where I met an english guy a few weeks ago that owns a cafe there, he had invited me to come along for a coffee sometime, I thought that time should be now. He waved as I pulled in and parked up in front of his cafe, sharing some quality two stroke fumes with some of his patrons, He was all smiles and happy to have a real scoot out the front, He showed me his collection of old Vespa and Lambretta posters  inside and I had a nice coffee, He tells me he has to convince his wife he needs to trade the old modded up auto scoot for a classic, he also tells me the guy that runs the ferry across to Raymond Island has got his hands on a P150 and a plan was hatched to try and get a bit of a group of scoots together for a ride, I told him I had a riding buddy that I saw occasionally for a nice lunch run somewhere so we were already amassing troops.

The greasy roads gave me a new experience, sliding and locking up and that uneasy feeling you get when your bike moves in directions you don't want it to while going through a roundabout.

While it was still spitting rain, I approached a roundabout, I was on the crossroads to a major, for a quiet country town, street that always has people cruising along at a fair rate of knots. As I approached I was confronted by the speed vs distance vs the can I make it scenario, the answer was the car was going faster than I thought and braking ensued, not the emergency type, but because of the rain it almost became that. I can't fault the rear brake, it does the job and well, in this case I locked up for around almost two metres and came to a stop with my front tyre over the line and a WTF are you doing look from the lady driver of the car. Phew.

The other was on a dual lane roundabout I was alone in both lanes for at least 500 mtrs behind me so I took some liberty in the roundabout and took an imaginary lane right in the middle of the lanes, which included the painted line, front tyre hits and slides, rear tyre hits and slides, I hit the throttle and once I get out of the roundabout, re-think how I will ride in the wet next time before I end up in a tangled bleeding mess. Note to self. Not Valentino Rossi.

I did approx. 140kms today and took a few photos, because everyone likes photos, So the Pic run down.

First Pic. Bairnsdale City sign that everyone sees when they head into town on the Princes Hwy from Melbourne.

Second Pic. Same deal but me being more "artistic".

Third Pic. Little known fact, Just about every Aussie has had a four 'n twenty meat pie, but didn't know that they are baked in Bairnsdale, interesting I know, another equally useless fact is another good old favorite icon was and is made where I grew up in Lithgow, N.S.W. .......The Tic Tac.....awesome.

Pic Four, This is a classic example of the roads around Bairnsdale where I have been able to run Gloria in ever so gently.

Pic Five, another local shot in Lindenow, The Mitchell river runs through Bairnsdale and is sourced from the melting snow in the Victorian Alps, if there is a lot of rain the river floods and dumps a crap load of topsoil on the river flats, the local farmers grow fruit and vegetables in what is one of the main vegetable growing regions of the State. Means we get some great fresh produce all year round. Gotta love living in the sticks.

Pic Six. The celebratory ale for no real reason, but the 1000kms and official run in period over is a good enough reason , 1100kms , I may as well have two, or three.

Box of goodies will be arriving next week and I can't wait to get the new tyres and rims on and the old ones off to have a look, I have already been a little surprised by the wear on the "new" tyres, they are new but the quality is questionable.

Watch this space.