Octobeer

Hi achternaam,

Ocsober, bugger that. How can that be when the Moto GP party comes to town. Friends from all over the country gather for a spot of bonding and belly laughs. I just can't come at that! I will take notice though and stay off the slurp a little more this month.

Hooley dooley, riding conditions state to state are so different at the moment it's hard to believe we are in the same country. I guess the glass-half-full attitude would suggest that's why we love Australia. It's a land of contrasts.

Here in South East Mudtoria the countryside is so green it almost hurts the eyes. On our shakedown ride through Gippsland a couple of weekends ago, paddocks were lakes, lakes were inland seas and the ducks were bogged.

Just the other side of the New South Wheals border they haven't seen rain for months and the cockies are getting anxious.

Back at HQ we're getting set to start the run-up to the GP week Pop Up Shop. We were able to secure the same shop as we've had for the last few years and rumour has it that even more traders have abandoned the track Expo in favour of a shop in Cowes. There's a couple of new thingz ready to show off so drop by if you're in Cowes and have a gecko.

Come the revolution computers will be one of the first things up against the wall! The first two weeks of this month has been spent trying to recover from a hard drive meltdown. to rub salt into the wound the backup drive system hadn't been set up by the tech correctly and yep, you guessed it... total chaos. I lost shirt loads of emails but had backed everything else up reasonably well.

From now on I'm gonna trust them as much as I would Donny T with the big red button.

A Peek Out of the Shed

M'lady's T3 is done and apart from a front suspension sort (which will have to wait) I'm happy as...

The paint job has exceeded my expectations and I'm sure you'll agree that the finished item does have a "period" look, something that just might have come from the factory at the time. It's a deep and impressive colour, looking lime in some lights and grass green in others.

"Why wrap the headers?" I hear you ask. Simple, they were pretty shabby, we couldn't stump up the cost of new ones and I had a roll of the tape sitting there looking for a job.

A new set of Ikon shocks on the rear, a Givi Screen, a new stainless indicator bracket knocked up and fitted with new blinkers. Aftermarket crash bars of dubious quality fitted and we ready for the off.

It's funny isn't it, none of the hours spent doing the little jobs like replacing rusty bolts with stainless or dismantling and cleaning hard to get at parts stands out. It's all part of the whole.

What's it like to ride?

It's an old Guzzi. Mix one part tractor, one part sports bike and add a generous splash of American Muscle.

Slow off the mark it gathers speed errr... conservatively. When it makes double figures things start to settle. As the speedo needle heads off to the walk home section it continues to accelerate and pull strongly. Although the Guz is designed to be ridden in a time and place when speed was king it still plugs along at that stultifying 100kph happily.

Yes, it vibrates and clunks but it certainly has soul and verve. I like it and I've always been told, the more one rides a Guzzi the more it gets under my skin. True.

American Cultural Imperialism

I love a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale as much as the next person but... There's a limit!

Not content with pulling any retail festive opportunity that the big retailers can find they found it profitable to bring Halloween to Oz. Chuck Me Farley, as if Dangerous Donald and The Young and the Restless on ad nauseum repeat isn't enough!

Phrases I hear at a coffee shop such as, "Can I get a ..." or I need to "take a piss". Where the *^@ are you going to take it? Listen... one takes the piss, right!

It's time to take matters into our hands and jam a virtual screwdriver into the fuse box of imported junk retail scams. My idea is to upset the pumpkin cart by getting the blue smoke to escape the wiring.

Trick or Treat, Ha..... I'll show 'em.

I reckon if we give out little zip-lock baggies full of icing sugar to those little scabs at the front door they wouldn't be allowed past the mailbox next year!

That shouldn't get us into too much strife, should it?

Duck Me!

By crikey, I had the biggest bird strike of my riding life last week.

The plan was to show Tontine the nice way around the eastern edge of Melbourne and get him to Seymour. Not far from Kinglake a white flash from the left hit my peripheral vision. I instinctively ducked and braced as something slammed into the forehead of my helmet. It was like getting slugged by a cabbage in a pillowcase.

Tyre Gripes

The new range of Continental Road Attack tyres is reputed to be made of a single compound that simulates a dual compound style tread. Soft on the outside transitions to a harder centre strip.

I've long been a fan of a dual compound tyre using them on the Sport when they first came on the market some 20 years ago. Even if they didn't radically improve mileage they kept their shape for the life of the tyre.

But just maybe we've been treated like suckers and not having them offered because we aren't demanding them.

Ventilation duties seem to be concentrated around the adjustable flow chin bar vent. When I opened it at about 90 klicks a rush of air flowed over my bonce. Behind this is a cleanable, replaceable foam "air filter" which is a nice touch. On the crown of the hat a two position (open and closed) venturi vent sucks in fresh air. It looks like it has a sensible sealing base plate so it shouldn't leak in liquid sunshine.

On the topic of visors. There are tabs either side of the Pinlock fitted screen so that it can be operated with either hand. A small visor vent is perched just below it.

I'm expecting to get stock of the E1 and C4 at the end of October. As I lost all the email sent by those of you who wanted to be kept in the loop please flick me a new mail here so I can give you the heads up when I get wind on a proper ETA. Sorry.

That's about all from me, copyalater.

Andy