Mt Nebo, Glorious, Mee.
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Ow yeah. Did a nice long ride today. Have the day off and decided to go for it. Started this morning around 10:30am, got back around 2pm.Almost 250km. From Mt nebo to Mt Glorious, then north to Somerset dam, Kilcoy, Woodford, and back down over Mt Mee and Dayboro, Clear Mountain road and Bunya road. Fantastic views great corners, beautiful long stretches. Not a cop in sight. Well, just one opposite direction on Mt Nebo. And I wasn't speeding...
The road on Mt Nebo and Glorious is windy with very sharp corners at times (it's a good idea to do these a few times at slower speeds so you get to know it), and max speed is mostly 80km an hour. That allows for great cornering. I'm gonna need new boots in a bit, they keep scraping the tarmac...
Once past Mt Glorious I turned north onto Somerset Bryden rd, then towards Kilcoy riding past Somerset Lake. The road towards Somerset Lake is fairly decent, with long slow corners, but fairly narrow. The road along side Somerset Lake is very windy and a bit bumpy. But still very good to ride. Again, great views.
Past Kilcoy, I took Neurum road, hoping to take a shortcut towards Mt Mee. That would have meant doing dirtroad, but I didn't get there quite. I turned off on Stanton rd from Neurum rd, and started going towards Vidoni rd. At some point I ended up having no option but to go onto the dirtroad if I wanted to continue, but trying to orientate myself I decided to back up a few metres towards a sign with streetnames. As I was turning on the narrow road, I ended up riding onto the side road a bit, slightly elevated. Shit happened. I lost my balance, the bike lost its speed, and when it wasn't moving anymore I couldn't hold and it fell. Ah great! No major damage luckily, but the handlebars are bend (again) and my right mirror is shot. Crap mirror anyway so didn't care too much about that. Didn't seem to have gotten damaged anywhere else, so I got back up, adjusted myself to riding with a slightly bent handlebar and went back to Neurum road.
From there to Woodford, then Mt Mee, and on to Dayboro. Been there quite a few times before, but the road doesn't tire. Long stretches, sharp corners, great views...
Then on to Clear Mountainview rd and Bunya rd, again much loved roads to ride. Once back, quickly dropped by the bikeshop to order new handlebars and mirrors.
Fixing, riding and moving
Thursday, 2 October 2008
Turns out it wasn't the clutch cable... Rather the mechanisme to which the cable attaches to in the engine. Still an easy replacement, but also meant that I had to order the part first. Which wasn't such an issue, but since the earliest I could order it was Thursday mornings, and that weekend was the big move after which the whole Cardno office would be empty and the grounds had to be clear the week after, that put some pressure on me needing to get that bloody thing fixed.
Luckily my supplier was able to get the part in early Friday, and I was able to fix the bike that Friday afternoon and bring it back home. Lot of hassles with the move already starting and everything, but we had a few spare moments where I was able to sneak out.
Now for a new front tyre (really need one, it starting to look like a slick), and fix the bearings of the driveshaft. Anyone need a brandnew clutch cable?
Broken Cable
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
My clutchcable just broke! I was waiting for a red light, and about to tap into first, and as I was squeezing the clutch the bloody cable snapped! I ended up having to cut the engine, put it in first and as the light turned green, hit the starter. Not easy!
Shifting while riding (up or down) is easy, it's just getting away. Ah damn. Now I gotta find me another clutch cable. Annoying. It's sitting in the carpark under the Cardno office at the moment, and guess it'll stay there for now....
Crash Two.
Thursday, 7 February 2008
Tuesday (day before yesterday) wasn't a lucky day for me. Scratched the paint on the tank. NOT happy. The handlebars is annoying, and have already been replaced. So what happened?
I was coming back from work, and lately I've been riding back home from work taking Coronation Drive and then the Inner City Bypass. Going back that is the quickest way. Tuesday arvo was a bit rainy, though not heavy. More a drizzle. I had my rainsuit on nevertheless, as the clouds looked promising. Generally, when its rainy, I take it a bit easier on the bike, after all, there's only two wheels to support me. So there I was, driving amidst all the other homegoers, up the ICB about to pass under Musgrave rd. A fellar in a SUV (could have been a lady too) indicated wanting to merge into the right lane (where I was) and I let him/her get in. I wasn't in any rush. Reason he/she wanted to get into the right lane was a tractor with one of those shovels on the back, driving in the left lane at slow speed. Just as the tractor was about to go under the bridge the car in front of the SUV started braking, probably because of that tractor also just under the bridge and the driver got freaked out. I don't know, just guessing here.
So the SUV braked, and I had to brake too. We weren't going all fast, probably only 30-40k's or something, but as soon as I touched the brakes, my frontwheel slipped away. There must have been oil or something else slippery on the road, normally it wouldn't have done that. Cars behind me stopped quick enough, and I managed to get the back back up fairly quickly. The handlebars were bent though, making it rideable, but not pretty. One mirror was completely smashed, and the left side of the tank has heavy scratch marks on it. The flyscreen is damaged on one side, there's a few scratches on the left rear of the plastic covers and the left indicator got knocked off, hanging only by its wires. In addition, the left cockpit clock, the speedometer, had a nasty beating, and the daycounter resetknob has broken off.
Me, I've got a sore inner left knee, and a sore right thumb. I fell on my left, as did the bike. No idea what happened to my thumb. A few muscles are a bit sore, but nothing serious. The bike started again, although it wasn't quite happy, but it got me home.
So, yesterday I stayed home. In the end, it was a lot better than I expected. I even managed to get hold of new handlebars ($35), and as of today I'm riding again. I patched up the scratches on the tank, to cover the bare metal. Luckily it didn't scratch any of the flames, so with any luck, fixing should be easy.