The motorbike and general ratbag machines chat

[Ecobogan]

Blade and Tassie - was interested in a mildly sad kinda way to read on the 'Interesting fuel filter' thread that you boys might be hanging up the leathers, or heading that way
Hope that more interesting and important things are at play....from what I know of you blokes that's probably the case.
My own biking carry on has taken a move back into the dirt in the form of a 2010 YZ450. Sold the supercharged SV1000 the other day for 9/10's of f#ck all, which is more than I thought I'd get.
Used MXers are radically cheap at the moment and mines a nasty, lightweight, angry plastic and aluminium high speed ditch witch of a thing.
I've ridden loads in the dirt...but not recently and predictably enough, my now mid 40'sness and modern snappy grunt = many hairy moments. Awesome fun and I down tools at midday and head out round my property for a mental tune up YZ style.
Still building the '37 Pontiac rat rod, the 300hp electric single seat buggy is coming along very slowly but getting there.
Wanted to touch base with you lads on the bikes without sidelining another thread! And anyone else who's got bike, car and whatever else fast machine chit chat.
Cheers

[TassieTiger]

Hey E, I’ve still got my ‘16 Ktm 1290GT which sees a little action on the road when I have time, my K3 gsxr1000 has taken a back seat since I drove 2.5 hours to a track day and the fuel line connector failed 3 laps in to session 1 spraying the rear tire in fuel and I had to drive back home, not happy...not sure how many track days I’ve got left in me. The bike is a lil treacherous and my reactions are a little subdued now...I’d like to get a couple more in...
But re dirt squirt - I sold my te450 husky because it was trying to kill me and bought a ktm 250...which was a bit poo slow. So sold that and bought a txc310 fuel injected and that’s a nice middle ground. But a day on that bike is still a bloody workout...you go from doing nothing to 2000 squats in a couple hours and for the next week you feel like the mafia caught you stealing their heroin and bashed your thighs with bats...

[Blr243]

I have a motorbike and sometimes I’m a ratbag so I’ll chip in Other than a little bit of kid biking in the bush I started on a 4 stroke 185 in early twenties strictly pig hunting , in the bush I must have come off that thing 200 times when I started. Then I got a dr 650 for road use it’s been stolen three times and I still have it. Don’t ride it anymore. As far as the road bike goes yees I have hung up the leathers .... now it’s strictly bush and it’s a Honda quad with racks for carrying, rifle rests and brackets, lockable dog cage on the back , fitted with custom red lights for game and other custom white lights when I don’t care about anything seeing me .... I’m taking it to the paddock s tonight. With food, water dog rifles gear, mattress and blankets I’m going to do another all nighter mission

[Ecobogan]

Hey E, I’ve still got my ‘16 Ktm 1290GT which sees a little action on the road when I have time, my K3 gsxr1000 has taken a back seat since I drove 2.5 hours to a track day and the fuel line connector failed 3 laps in to session 1 spraying the rear tire in fuel and I had to drive back home, not happy...not sure how many track days I’ve got left in me. The bike is a lil treacherous and my reactions are a little subdued now...I’d like to get a couple more in...
But re dirt squirt - I sold my te450 husky because it was trying to kill me and bought a ktm 250...which was a bit poo slow. So sold that and bought a txc310 fuel injected and that’s a nice middle ground. But a day on that bike is still a bloody workout...you go from doing nothing to 2000 squats in a couple hours and for the next week you feel like the mafia caught you stealing their heroin and bashed your thighs with bats...

Ok good, you've still got 3 bikes in semi regular use. I can calm down. Been born with some kind of 'someone I know of is getting rid of fun/essential toys' gland and it makes me almost urgently see what's going on with that.
I've talked many people out it!! Hahaha.

Without getting too philosophical, real world distractions or getting some kind of controlled(ish) fright is a pretty overlooked aspect to good mental health as it gives perspective. Not for all humans but definitely for many, and many of those many who are 'rush' types don't...to their own detriment I reckon.

Bikes to me have always been an easy access to a rush not a lifestyle. Hunting is similar, not in an adrenaline sense but you're totally engaged. Riding high powered bikes... also totally engaged, never did me any harm anyway.
Value for money?? $6k odd will get something that'd out 1/4 mile nearly any car and there should be much more Isle of Man kinda races. We're getting too soft us humans.

Know what you mean mate on the dirt bike body pounding. I get off after a 15 minute slog like I've been bashed .. exactly what you said!
Motocross is the 2nd fittest sport next to soccer and don't ya feel it!

[bladeracer]

https://www.bikepics.com/members/ausgixxerpilot

Yes, I had thirty-years of fun on two wheels, but no longer.
Thirty crashes on road and track never deterred me, but number thirty-one in 2014, a very slow crash, really smashed my right shoulder up, making it no longer possible to ride.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv5shmaWrGs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWP1fbAn5dQ

This was an earlier one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll-Wn-8zkh4

I broke the ball off the top of the humerous, then smashed it to pieces. They put a steel "nail" down into the humerous, screwed together the bigger pieces, then packed the debris around it. They gave it a five-percent chance of healing, as the blood flow in the humurous was totally disrupted, thus would require a steel shoulder joint later. Remarkably, it started to show some healing, though very slow, and nine-months on was considered strong enough for the nail to come out. They had to detach the top of the bicep both times to access it. Movement of the shoulder is very limited, I can't reach above shoulder level, although reaching down behind my back is unaffected. I can physically ride, but I can't lift my right hand up onto the grip, I either have to use my left hand to raise it, or sort of throw my hand up and let it drop onto the grip. The problem is the chronic pain, it's tolerable most of the time, without drugs, but even riding for a few minutes leaves me in excruciating pain for a week or two after, and it just is not worth it to me these days. Riding and racing was a huge part of my life though, and I still miss it terribly, which is likely why I have dived so deeply into shooting again

A mate of mine is racing at Collie this weekend in the National Historic Championship, running three bikes (GSXR750J, CB350 Twin, VFR400 - he wasn't able to get his GSX1100E ready in time) and the sidecar (GSX1100E), and having a ball.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/262764377208933/?ref=group_header
https://www.facebook.com/gwn7news/videos/387293541953293/UzpfSTEwMDAwMDk2Mzg3MTU3MjpWSzoxMjk5NzMwMDEwMTc5MDI2/?multi_permalinks=1300761180075909&notif_id=1569670866081556&notif_t=group_activity

Riding on road or track can be confronting, as you do lose friends to it, and you see a lot of other people killed, injured and crippled - my mate's girlfriend was killed when a ute made a right turn in front of her one evening. Another rider was killed last week in a Motocross event in Perth. Our very talented state champion had a seemingly minor low-side over Skyline at Wanneroo, but tore the nerves to his right arm, permanently losing all function in the arm. If you can't accept the losses of motorcycle riding, the emotional trauma can be devastating. But the good far outweighs the bad for most of us. The self-confidence you require, perfectly balanced against rigid self-discipline, and the constant sense of your own mortality, do a lot to make a strong but well-rounded person - provided you can survive long enough to learn the skills that can't be taught, only experienced.

In 1990, I ran a nine-inch circular saw through my right wrist. The surgeons told me that the pain would increase until within two years I would be begging them to fuse the wrist joint. They were indeed right about the pain, but as soon as I was able to ride again I went racing, figuring I'd only get a short time at it. Back then, I had to use painkillers every day to work anyway, so I didn't mind doing the same to be able to race, and I was young enough to shrug it off. I was on pain killers for about seven years, until enough bone and nerves in the wrist had calcified and died to make the pain tolerable without drugs. But I could no longer ride off-road. The constant pulling and pushing in the wrist from the bump-steer of dirt just ground the damaged faces of bones and nerves against each other, making it unbearable, even beyond what the painkillers could deal with.

I don't recall ever being around bikes as a kid, and had no interest in cars or bikes at all. At the time I was walking many thousands of acres of properties every day, from before dawn to after dark, hunting pests virtually full-time. My mum bought a bike off a family friend, thinking it'd be useful for me to get around. It was a 1974 Suzuki GT550 two-stroke triple touring bike on road tyres, and I fell off it every time I tried to turn a corner in the wet clay and grass! But I did enjoy getting around the properties on it, and when I went back to Perth, the first thing I did was bought a bike. I also discovered motorcycle racing on TV, and watched all the road racing I could find, I never developed any interest in dirt, and only did it for what I could learn to help me on the road. I would go out every evening after work for three months, tearing around the back roads, learning everything I could, including how to crash. I looked for the slipperiest, most demanding surfaces I could find, sand, gravel, honky nuts, and especially, rain - I loved riding hard, and racing, in the rain! Once I was confident in my ability I got an instructor to escort me to the test and got my licence. Two years later I finally had to bite the bullet and get a car licence as well, for work - a beautiful 1977 XC panel van, 302 four-speed. After it got stolen I got a 1974 XB Fairmont GS 302 auto four-door. When I came back from a short stint in the Northwest, I bought an '81 HiLux diesel ute, dropped a 253 into it, and took it back up north with me - with my GSXR750 in the back.

I was seriously hooked on bikes. The year before I started racing I was averaging a crash on the road every six weeks, trying to find and test my limits. I only ever had two crashes involving other people on the road, one a pedestrian who ran across the road in front of me in 1986, shattering my right radius and ulna and breaking my wrist. The other involved bouncing off a car that pulled out in front of me, giving me a nice insurance payout. I lost my licence twice by that time as well, but once I got on the track I pretty much stopped crashing, or messing about on the road, mostly anyway. I lost my licence once more in 2000 for a wheelie, nine-months of no riding, but I made up for it by doing several years worth of wheelies during the three months leading up to the disqualification. The fine that went with the disqualification basically came down to about a dollar a wheelie, which I thought was a bargain. I also still did track days and even some drag racing during that period, so it went by fairly easily.

I still catch all the road racing I can online, MotoGP, WSBK, ASBK, BSB, IoM, and various national Superbike championships around the world, in foreign languages. The Asia Road-Racing Championship has been big in recent years, and I'm particularly enamoured with a Thai girl who is amazing. Unfortunately, Muklada crashed out of the final turn last weekend after leading most of the race.
https://www.facebook.com/AsiaRoadRacing/videos/706277129848782/?t=24
Skip to 1:00:58 for the AP250 Race Two, Muklada on Pole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2t9ICcAvxo

[bladeracer]

...and there should be much more Isle of Man kinda races. We're getting too soft us humans.

I was lucky enough to do some road circuit racing in the nineties before they stopped it in WA. It was tons of fun, but there were also an awful lot of riders hurt that would've walked away on a proper circuit. Curbs, buildings, poles, packs of bricks, and haybales are not friendly to high-speed blood and bone.

[TassieTiger]

Given your significant injuries BR, do you regret it?
I’ll have to re read your post on a pc rather than phone but I’m curious...I’ve lost friends and have had so many close calls...the no of ppl that are on iPhones and cross into my lane...scares the s**t out of me!
I have a large family now and huge responsibilities well beyond myself and the last time I laid down a bike, I was thinking about those that would be affected if this looooooong slide turned into something - it didn’t, but it put the wind up me big time.
(I seriously just started looking at cbr1000 engines dune buggy, thinking it at least has a role cage lol)....

[bladeracer]

Given your significant injuries BR, do you regret it?
I’ll have to re read your post on a pc rather than phone but I’m curious...I’ve lost friends and have had so many close calls...the no of ppl that are on iPhones and cross into my lane...scares the s**t out of me!
I have a large family now and huge responsibilities well beyond myself and the last time I laid down a bike, I was thinking about those that would be affected if this looooooong slide turned into something - it didn’t, but it put the wind up me big time.
(I seriously just started looking at cbr1000 engines dune buggy, thinking it at least has a role cage lol)....

Not for one second do I regret any of it. I've had a lot of injuries, but they are part of the experience, and the experience is worth the ride.
My fastest was down the hill at Wanneroo, something around 200kph, that was a very, very long way to slide downhill. It tore the arse out of my leathers and the back out of my jacket (before we wore back protectors). It got so hot I had to lift myself up onto my shoulders and heels, and melted the sole of one of my boots into a lump behind the heel.

I stopped riding with people I didn't know well many years ago, I got sick of hanging around other people's accident scenes, and worse, seeing their "friends" disappear in fear of getting tickets when the cops show up to deal with their friend on the road.
The vast majority of people I've ridden on the road with are throttle twisters, with very little real ability to brake and corner, and zero ability to read the road and be aware of what is happening around them. Twisting the throttle is fun, but it will not save your life when s**t happens, braking and steering will do that. I ride corners hard, very hard, and I brake hard, but it's rare I ever actually speed on the road. I get my enjoyment and excitement in the corners, and pushing hard in the rain, and wheelies of course, but I don't need to break speed limits. Every corner I approach, I'm looking for the best place to ditch if something happens. Every intersection I approach at a speed I can stop from if something appears from either side.

I have also had good insurance policies since I was eighteen, life insurance, so my loved ones can better deal with my ending, income protection, so my income was never affected by my crashes, and sickness and accident, so my income was never affected by severe illness or injury. Note that income protection insurance payments are taxable income, as it replaces your income. Sickness and accident insurances are not taxable income as they pay you for medical expenses and pain and suffering. So it can be worth having both policies. It really does amaze me how many people don't insure their most important asset, themselves. Fire, Theft & Third-Party Property can be worth having on a vehicle as it's very cheap and will replace a vehicle totally gone due to circumstances outside your control, and to protect against insurance claims for any damage you might do - including damage to roads and road furniture. Third Party Injury is included in our rego to protect anybody we might injure, and is why you never drive a vehicle unregistered, unlicenced, or under the influence.

I never bothered with vehicle insurance as it's a waste of money. If I can't afford to walk away from my destroyed bike then I should've bought a cheaper bike, and if it's repairable, I can repair it with the money I didn't waste on insurance premiums. I met a bloke in a computer shop once. He'd bought a new GSXR1000 on finance and destroyed it within weeks, unlicenced or drunk (I can't recall), so no insurance. He was going to be paying for that bike for another ten years, a bike he no longer had. He was just incredibly lucky he never injured or damaged anybody else or their property, or had a pillion. I would never recommend anybody buy any vehicle on finance unless it's a tax write-off for work.

[TassieTiger]

The last time I applied for income protection, they asked me for hobbies - I ignorantly put, fishing, hunting, motorcycle racing, etc etc...they declined my application based on the motorcycle racing aspect. I’ve not got income protection via superannuation.

The thing with real / proper - heavy injuries - they don’t ever go away. I’ve been on pain killers of some sort or another for 20 odd years on/off due to a very bad knee injury in 96 and a couple years ago a wrist injury that flares up at times and I can’t hold on too s**t - let alone to a bike.
Your injuries sound worse tbh - and you must really feel those humidity / pressure changes...
Omg Ec, your making me desperately want to get back on...like now lol.
Not enough time to play with the toys lol.
I’m kinda glad (not really...this is my self convincing rant lol...I would have bloody loved that bike!!!! Argh. Please do NOT put a no on your post above or just say like $20k - I’ll feel better lol) I didn’t buy your supercharged sv...No offence to you, but the first thing I do after a bike purchase is strip it down and put it back together slowly - time I don’t currently have...new washers, fluid and bleed of the brake system, suspension over haul, oils, filters, rubber, etc...
I have had 2 insane experiences from top end bike shops - becaUse of time I didn’t have to do / check stuff...one In Toowoomba qld - tiger blade went in for braided brake lines and came out with no copper washers on calipers...went straight through an intersection... second, had bike prepped for winter nationals at willowbank, I made the semis with a rear axle nut undone and chain adjusters in backwards. Never again - I went to tafe...

[bladeracer]

The last time I applied for income protection, they asked me for hobbies - I ignorantly put, fishing, hunting, motorcycle racing, etc etc...they declined my application based on the motorcycle racing aspect. I’ve not got income protection via superannuation.

The thing with real / proper - heavy injuries - they don’t ever go away. I’ve been on pain killers of some sort or another for 20 odd years on/off due to a very bad knee injury in 96 and a couple years ago a wrist injury that flares up at times and I can’t hold on too s**t - let alone to a bike.
Your injuries sound worse tbh - and you must really feel those humidity / pressure changes...
Omg Ec, your making me desperately want to get back on...like now lol.
Not enough time to play with the toys lol.
I’m kinda glad (not really...this is my self convincing rant lol...I would have bloody loved that bike!!!! Argh. Please do NOT put a no on your post above or just say like $20k - I’ll feel better lol) I didn’t buy your supercharged sv...No offence to you, but the first thing I do after a bike purchase is strip it down and put it back together slowly - time I don’t currently have...new washers, fluid and bleed of the brake system, suspension over haul, oils, filters, rubber, etc...
I have had 2 insane experiences from top end bike shops - becaUse of time I didn’t have to do / check stuff...one In Toowoomba qld - tiger blade went in for braided brake lines and came out with no copper washers on calipers...went straight through an intersection... second, had bike prepped for winter nationals at willowbank, I made the semis with a rear axle nut undone and chain adjusters in backwards. Never again - I went to tafe...

I have heard that even current versions of my own policies no longer cover motorcycle racing, and some other things.

Yep on the injuries, I've had chronic pain since 1990, and I avoid drugs unless I absolutely have to take them, like to be able to work. When I wasn't working or racing I didn't need them as I have a fairly high pain threshold, but I have been reduced to tears literally due to pain on occasion. And pain is exhausting, your body burns energy dealing with pain, energy that you should be using to do other things. I have always lived with the view that pain is temporary, grit your teeth long enough and eventually you'll be okay, but thirty-years of it does drag a bit

I have been exceedingly "lucky" to never have any serious leg injuries as that would make it very difficult to work, but I've built roofs with broken wrists and collarbones, and the saw through my wrist never stopped me working (once I was able to use my hand again, some months later), I just had to adapt my methods as my wrist has very limited movement and my thumb doesn't function.

That crash video I posted of me low-siding over Skyline was eventually determined to be the left axle adjuster which had stripped the thread in the swingarm, the left side of the rear wheel was moving back and forth, so being off the throttle the wheel was canted way to the left and simply steered me off the track. When I went down I was doing fine, until I hit the ripple strip they put in to stop the cars using the dirt. It grabbed my leathers and set me spinning, faster than I've ever spun in my life. The centrifugal force made it impossible to keep my arms and legs in so they all got whacked on the ground with each rotation, very painful

[Ecobogan]

I have a motorbike and sometimes I’m a ratbag so I’ll chip in Other than a little bit of kid biking in the bush I started on a 4 stroke 185 in early twenties strictly pig hunting , in the bush I must have come off that thing 200 times when I started. Then I got a dr 650 for road use it’s been stolen three times and I still have it. Don’t ride it anymore. As far as the road bike goes yees I have hung up the leathers .... now it’s strictly bush and it’s a Honda quad with racks for carrying, rifle rests and brackets, lockable dog cage on the back , fitted with custom red lights for game and other custom white lights when I don’t care about anything seeing me .... I’m taking it to the paddock s tonight. With food, water dog rifles gear, mattress and blankets I’m going to do another all nighter mission

G'day Blr243
Thanks for chiming in mate. I read your post as I was working through some bourbons and first up mis read it as you've been hacking out on an XL185 since the early '20's! Hard core old school. Had to do a top end on it yet? Fork seal change in the mid 50's perhaps? Hahaha! My literal mind leads to some silly bent interpretations.
I'm assuming it was an XL185 and they were the abuse level steed of bush bikes. Easy bike to throw around and kinda started off Honda's 4 stroke off road binge....the were the basis motor to the '81 XR200 and the rest of the XR range that followed soon after.
Still got the DR after 3 stolen attempts??? Many marriages could learn a lot from that, sounds like hearty love to me.
Good luck with the hunt tonight mate and what road bikes have you been into?

[Wm.Traynor]

OMG, when I read about the experiences you blokes have had
By comparison, my time has been "relatively" carefree. Come to think of it, I have had many more prangs off horses and only broken my thumb I don't have any regrets either, remembering only the great fangs I have had and like to think that at one stage I had been to Mt. Glorious more than anyone Probably wrong about that but who cares.
Now, like some of you, my riding days are over. My bike blew a clutch 4 years ago and while I intended to repair it, stuff like arthritis intervened and weeding the garden has become painful. The thought of putting the bike back together does not fill me with joy and riding would be more painful than ever now.

Thanks for starting this thread, Ecobogan. Hope I haven't wandered off topic too much. When I started reading I couldn't resist Biking was my life once and I loved it.

[TassieTiger]

I’ll tell everyone who has ridden for many years but taken time away...do it again once to see if “that” feeling returns.
We so, so, so forget. I spent an hour on the bike this morning and immediately wished I’d not taken so long to get back on. I’ll ice my wrist and bathe in the afterglow a while...
Thanks for prompting me E.

[No1Mk3]

My riding days will end when they box me up, unlike you blokes I've never owned a chook chaser, but rode one occasionally on my mates fathers dairy farm when helping out during school holidays ( if you can call careering wildly over a paddock and bumping into fences, cows etc riding!) . That's the limit of my dirt bike experience, I started riding on a 650 Triumph Trophy, then various British until around the late 80's adding a Z1000 MkII to the stable. Offs? More than a few but I've been lucky and only had relatively minor damages but arthritis slows me down a lot now, have trouble with keeping the knees bent for any time so looking to get the Panhead back on the road so I can keep my legs straighter on highway bars. Didn't own a car till my 40's, but I need one now, Cheers.

[xDom]

I got rid of my ‘12 Speed Triple 1050 earlier this year.
I enjoyed riding that hard. Awesome bike.
Had this niggling feeling that I was gonna either loose my license or end up in hospital.
I know people say that you don’t have to exceed the limit but I did, every time I went out, not by a little bit either.
The way I see it is that I had 4 years of exhilaration, I’m still walking with my license intact, I quit while I was ahead.

[Blr243]

Ecobogan .....I can’t remember my first bush bike as a kit it might have been a 175 yam. The xl185 I bought new in 96 it has needed nothing the entire time and my dad has it now on his farm it’s still going great guns. Wen I said road bike I really meant my regularly stolen 650 dr Suzuki road trail. Iv never had a proper fast road bike as such although I was looking at a new 600 or 750 gsxr at one stage. I was too young then ..... choosing not to buy one might have saved my life. All that power would be quite a shock to an agg bike type of bloke

[Ecobogan]

https://www.bikepics.com/members/ausgixxerpilot

Yes, I had thirty-years of fun on two wheels, but no longer.
Thirty crashes on road and track never deterred me, but number thirty-one in 2014, a very slow crash, really smashed my right shoulder up, making it no longer possible to ride.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv5shmaWrGs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWP1fbAn5dQ

This was an earlier one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll-Wn-8zkh4

I broke the ball off the top of the humerous, then smashed it to pieces. They put a steel "nail" down into the humerous, screwed together the bigger pieces, then packed the debris around it. They gave it a five-percent chance of healing, as the blood flow in the humurous was totally disrupted, thus would require a steel shoulder joint later. Remarkably, it started to show some healing, though very slow, and nine-months on was considered strong enough for the nail to come out. They had to detach the top of the bicep both times to access it. Movement of the shoulder is very limited, I can't reach above shoulder level, although reaching down behind my back is unaffected. I can physically ride, but I can't lift my right hand up onto the grip, I either have to use my left hand to raise it, or sort of throw my hand up and let it drop onto the grip. The problem is the chronic pain, it's tolerable most of the time, without drugs, but even riding for a few minutes leaves me in excruciating pain for a week or two after, and it just is not worth it to me these days. Riding and racing was a huge part of my life though, and I still miss it terribly, which is likely why I have dived so deeply into shooting again

A mate of mine is racing at Collie this weekend in the National Historic Championship, running three bikes (GSXR750J, CB350 Twin, VFR400 - he wasn't able to get his GSX1100E ready in time) and the sidecar (GSX1100E), and having a ball.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/262764377208933/?ref=group_header
https://www.facebook.com/gwn7news/videos/387293541953293/UzpfSTEwMDAwMDk2Mzg3MTU3MjpWSzoxMjk5NzMwMDEwMTc5MDI2/?multi_permalinks=1300761180075909&notif_id=1569670866081556&notif_t=group_activity

Riding on road or track can be confronting, as you do lose friends to it, and you see a lot of other people killed, injured and crippled - my mate's girlfriend was killed when a ute made a right turn in front of her one evening. Another rider was killed last week in a Motocross event in Perth. Our very talented state champion had a seemingly minor low-side over Skyline at Wanneroo, but tore the nerves to his right arm, permanently losing all function in the arm. If you can't accept the losses of motorcycle riding, the emotional trauma can be devastating. But the good far outweighs the bad for most of us. The self-confidence you require, perfectly balanced against rigid self-discipline, and the constant sense of your own mortality, do a lot to make a strong but well-rounded person - provided you can survive long enough to learn the skills that can't be taught, only experienced.

In 1990, I ran a nine-inch circular saw through my right wrist. The surgeons told me that the pain would increase until within two years I would be begging them to fuse the wrist joint. They were indeed right about the pain, but as soon as I was able to ride again I went racing, figuring I'd only get a short time at it. Back then, I had to use painkillers every day to work anyway, so I didn't mind doing the same to be able to race, and I was young enough to shrug it off. I was on pain killers for about seven years, until enough bone and nerves in the wrist had calcified and died to make the pain tolerable without drugs. But I could no longer ride off-road. The constant pulling and pushing in the wrist from the bump-steer of dirt just ground the damaged faces of bones and nerves against each other, making it unbearable, even beyond what the painkillers could deal with.

I don't recall ever being around bikes as a kid, and had no interest in cars or bikes at all. At the time I was walking many thousands of acres of properties every day, from before dawn to after dark, hunting pests virtually full-time. My mum bought a bike off a family friend, thinking it'd be useful for me to get around. It was a 1974 Suzuki GT550 two-stroke triple touring bike on road tyres, and I fell off it every time I tried to turn a corner in the wet clay and grass! But I did enjoy getting around the properties on it, and when I went back to Perth, the first thing I did was bought a bike. I also discovered motorcycle racing on TV, and watched all the road racing I could find, I never developed any interest in dirt, and only did it for what I could learn to help me on the road. I would go out every evening after work for three months, tearing around the back roads, learning everything I could, including how to crash. I looked for the slipperiest, most demanding surfaces I could find, sand, gravel, honky nuts, and especially, rain - I loved riding hard, and racing, in the rain! Once I was confident in my ability I got an instructor to escort me to the test and got my licence. Two years later I finally had to bite the bullet and get a car licence as well, for work - a beautiful 1977 XC panel van, 302 four-speed. After it got stolen I got a 1974 XB Fairmont GS 302 auto four-door. When I came back from a short stint in the Northwest, I bought an '81 HiLux diesel ute, dropped a 253 into it, and took it back up north with me - with my GSXR750 in the back.

I was seriously hooked on bikes. The year before I started racing I was averaging a crash on the road every six weeks, trying to find and test my limits. I only ever had two crashes involving other people on the road, one a pedestrian who ran across the road in front of me in 1986, shattering my right radius and ulna and breaking my wrist. The other involved bouncing off a car that pulled out in front of me, giving me a nice insurance payout. I lost my licence twice by that time as well, but once I got on the track I pretty much stopped crashing, or messing about on the road, mostly anyway. I lost my licence once more in 2000 for a wheelie, nine-months of no riding, but I made up for it by doing several years worth of wheelies during the three months leading up to the disqualification. The fine that went with the disqualification basically came down to about a dollar a wheelie, which I thought was a bargain. I also still did track days and even some drag racing during that period, so it went by fairly easily.

I still catch all the road racing I can online, MotoGP, WSBK, ASBK, BSB, IoM, and various national Superbike championships around the world, in foreign languages. The Asia Road-Racing Championship has been big in recent years, and I'm particularly enamoured with a Thai girl who is amazing. Unfortunately, Muklada crashed out of the final turn last weekend after leading most of the race.
https://www.facebook.com/AsiaRoadRacing/videos/706277129848782/?t=24
Skip to 1:00:58 for the AP250 Race Two, Muklada on Pole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2t9ICcAvxo

Joisus daym Blade have you got some stories!
Do you keep a journal of sorts? You've probably led one of the most unboring lives I've heard of and you write well mate, put a book together I reckon.
Also your body damage list makes Barry Sheen look like about as daring as a librarian!

Cheers for the sharing the pics too. Good design, automotive and otherwise, holds up over time through changing trends and the Porsche 911 isn't a bad example in cars.
But Suzuki nailed it in my view with the J, K & L model GSXR750, in particular the L. That red n white model of yours there was a proper head turner and THE bike to have in 1990. Torquier than the K, slick and stable handling, fast and reliable and fantastic looking. There isn't much more a machine has to do and they sold like hot cakes.

From memory in another thread I think we worked out that we all stepped into the big bore world via the J/K/L 750 and my first big bike was the K model.
Bought it crashed in 1993 with 22k on the clock for $3500, complete with bent forks, smashed tank and damaged fairings. Bike was otherwise very tight and I was fully smitten.
The only bad road bike crash I've had was off my '90 model Pepsi RGV 250 where I lost the front end round a bumpy roundabout in Toowoomba and slid 30 odd metres into the gutter wearing board shorts and a singlet. I was 19 y/o and had my leather jacket in my backpack....d!ckhead. I was taken to the hospital sporting several tasty half pancake sized gravel rashes and all I could think about was that the RGV was trashed....but fixable.

The crash adrenaline wore off in the surgery and was not surprisingly traded for some memorable stinging and throbbing pain. Which was nout a pinch on what came directly afterwards in the form of a plastic chair, a cold shower and a very evil nail brush. The doctor 'had' to scrub the edges to about a inch in of my wounds to remove the embedded dirt and crap....I would've rather hy taken a hearty stroll through Auschwitz.
The cops turned up mid scrub with me near cross eyed and twitching and wrote out a fine for riding un shaperoned on my L plates.
Two days later a friend of a friend, who dealt in crashed road bikes, rang to say he'd found me a stacked but tidy GSXR750. I drove to Caloundra that day, turned up to check it out on crutches and needless to say bought it on the spot.
I bought some proper leathers off him and bled anyone I could dry on road bike handling knowledge and was totally hooked.
I'd ridden the RGV a fair bit through Mt Glorious, Toowoomba and the sunshine coast, rode every day prior to the crash and have no excuses for not wearing the right gear.....young d!ckhead.
I got an L model USD front end for the GSXR, a fixable tank, cheap fibreglass fairings, all bits needed to get it ridable. Moved away for work from the sh!thole that was Toowoomba to Tennant creek NT where there were no speed limits.
Put the GSXR together up there in the same year that the NT held the cannon ball run, saw the F40 Ferrari (along with 9 gazillion other mega fast cars) in Tennant two days before it killed 4 people...which of course shut down the race for good.
Everyday for nearly 2 years I had the Suzuki out and the closest call I had on it was with 3 roos coming back from Alice at dusk, it was 1994.
In seemingly sensible efforts to eat up the 500k ride back home I was sitting on about 170 kph when they all thought they'd see what I'd learned about countersteering.
Well, in many German swearwords and f#ck me, I was just at a point where reacting in the correct way was instinctive and gave the right bar a slight but quick push sending the bike hard right. The roos were crossing at speed with the first some several metres in front of the 2nd and 3rd who were side by side. The swerve JUST managed to get me behind the first one and shaving the snouts of the second two, man was it close and I'm certain that had I have reacted any other way there'd still be bits of my carcass up the Stuart highway.

You've got about 1600 of those stories Blade, keep them coming.
Mate, it means a lot to hear I've fired you up a little in getting the bike out of the shed too Tassie...was sure my intention!!
Great stuff fellas

[Ecobogan]

Ecobogan .....I can’t remember my first bush bike as a kit it might have been a 175 yam. The xl185 I bought new in 96 it has needed nothing the entire time and my dad has it now on his farm it’s still going great guns. Wen I said road bike I really meant my regularly stolen 650 dr Suzuki road trail. Iv never had a proper fast road bike as such although I was looking at a new 600 or 750 gsxr at one stage. I was too young then ..... choosing not to buy one might have saved my life. All that power would be quite a shock to an agg bike type of bloke

No worries gotcha, yeah the fast roadies sure have addictive horsepower that can get a person unstuck!
I can imagine the XL wouldn't need much work they're bullet proof to sat the least.
The 3rd wild turkey last night no doubt made me a bit unclear but was taking the piss out of myself because I first read your post as saying you'd been riding the bike since the '20's as in the 1920's and if the old girl was due for a top end yet and fork seals yet! I knew that wasn't what you meant and was just having a laugh at my own half cut idiocy. Prob didn't need to explain all that!
How'd the overnight hunt go anyway?

[duncan61]

Lost a friend at Wanneroo race track.He was into A7 BSA and he had 3 of them in good working order.He imported a Rocket 3 triple from Ireland that was a full blown track machine.Coming down the hill you mention Blade he went straight on.at about 150-160 mph.The rider behind was at the funeral and he stated that his brake light did not come on and he had possibly passed out.It was a hot summer day.Its known as Barbagello raceway now

[Ecobogan]

I’ll tell everyone who has ridden for many years but taken time away...do it again once to see if “that” feeling returns.
We so, so, so forget. I spent an hour on the bike this morning and immediately wished I’d not taken so long to get back on. I’ll ice my wrist and bathe in the afterglow a while...
Thanks for prompting me E.

Yeah I'll spare us both the pain of how much I didn't get for the SV but realistically it was proving very hard to sell.
So I put an offer in on the YZ, he took it and in organising a time to pick it up we got chatting on the phone about bikes. He happened to race an S1000, I mentioned the SV and he wanted to see some photos. He called back straight up and me buying his YZ turned into him trading it on the SV plus cash. The YZ was babied and came with a good whack of after market bits, one of which was a Rekluse clutch kit....ever tried one?
I fitted one to a 4 speed RMZ 450 a while back also rigged up the left hand rear brake.
That set up isn't for everyone, all situations or all bikes but it sure made the RMZ way more useful as an enduro mount.
Snotty hill climbs, locking the rear turning rh corners and wheelstand control was way different deal and I'll def do it to the YZ.
A 310 would be a faster bike for me but my insecure, perforated macho ego makes me get 450's
I blew the controller a while ago on the elec downhill bike I built (did I tell you about that frigging thing?) So will probably get it sorted next. In tight single and loose rocky tracks it's actually well quicker than my 450.
Weighing 33kg and with quality DH suspension being generally more sophisticated than a dirt bikes, it can be ridden pretty fast....but being so short it's VERY crashable and is hurts people bad. The motor is smaller than a can of baked beans and puts out peak 14kw running through a KX80 gearbox. Good fun be she's got some unrefined chude

[Ecobogan]

https://youtu.be/Jh7ys7vUv4o

Here's one of the shakedown runs

[bladeracer]

Lost a friend at Wanneroo race track.He was into A7 BSA and he had 3 of them in good working order.He imported a Rocket 3 triple from Ireland that was a full blown track machine.Coming down the hill you mention Blade he went straight on.at about 150-160 mph.The rider behind was at the funeral and he stated that his brake light did not come on and he had possibly passed out.It was a hot summer day.Its known as Barbagello raceway now

Yes, my understanding is that he most likely had a heart attack coming over the hill, which could have been related to the heat, although I haven't heard of heat being a factor in this incident before.

Sadly, like most circuits, we do lose too many nice guys, that's part of the game unfortunately. After my first comment, I was thinking of those I've known that are gone now, but the list is far too long to dwell on. I could equally make a longer list of people I've know that are gone without being bike related. Death is the final reward for every living thing, I don't blame the bikes, unlike the AMA that tried to ban motorcycles completely back in '87.

[Ecobogan]

Lost a friend at Wanneroo race track.He was into A7 BSA and he had 3 of them in good working order.He imported a Rocket 3 triple from Ireland that was a full blown track machine.Coming down the hill you mention Blade he went straight on.at about 150-160 mph.The rider behind was at the funeral and he stated that his brake light did not come on and he had possibly passed out.It was a hot summer day.Its known as Barbagello raceway now

I'm very sorry to hear that mate and it's certainly a part of riding fast bikes that shouldn't be down played. Most everyone I know who's into bikes has lost friends to accidents.
Even though his accident occurred on a track they're still an infinitely safer place for people to get high speed out of their system, for want of a better term.
If the collective state governments were truly concerned and pro active about bike accidents they should partly subsidise track days, make it $80 instead of $300 for a track session, and get some potential danger off the streets and properly trained in the relative safety of a track. It at least open n the discussion, god knows I've written letters about it.

[Ecobogan]

OMG, when I read about the experiences you blokes have had
By comparison, my time has been "relatively" carefree. Come to think of it, I have had many more prangs off horses and only broken my thumb I don't have any regrets either, remembering only the great fangs I have had and like to think that at one stage I had been to Mt. Glorious more than anyone Probably wrong about that but who cares.
Now, like some of you, my riding days are over. My bike blew a clutch 4 years ago and while I intended to repair it, stuff like arthritis intervened and weeding the garden has become painful. The thought of putting the bike back together does not fill me with joy and riding would be more painful than ever now.

Thanks for starting this thread, Ecobogan. Hope I haven't wandered off topic too much. When I started reading I couldn't resist Biking was my life once and I loved it.

No worries and far from off topic mate! Quite bang on topic and good to hear about your biking days.
Mt Glorious was indeed that, a while ago now for me but sure remember it fondly

[bladeracer]

Joisus daym Blade have you got some stories!
Do you keep a journal of sorts? You've probably led one of the most unboring lives I've heard of and you write well mate, put a book together I reckon.
Also your body damage list makes Barry Sheen look like about as daring as a librarian!

Cheers for the sharing the pics too. Good design, automotive and otherwise, holds up over time through changing trends and the Porsche 911 isn't a bad example in cars.
But Suzuki nailed it in my view with the J, K & L model GSXR750, in particular the L. That red n white model of yours there was a proper head turner and THE bike to have in 1990. Torquier than the K, slick and stable handling, fast and reliable and fantastic looking. There isn't much more a machine has to do and they sold like hot cakes.

From memory in another thread I think we worked out that we all stepped into the big bore world via the J/K/L 750 and my first big bike was the K model.
Bought it crashed in 1993 with 22k on the clock for $3500, complete with bent forks, smashed tank and damaged fairings. Bike was otherwise very tight and I was fully smitten.
The only bad road bike crash I've had was off my '90 model Pepsi RGV 250 where I lost the front end round a bumpy roundabout in Toowoomba and slid 30 odd metres into the gutter wearing board shorts and a singlet. I was 19 y/o and had my leather jacket in my backpack....d!ckhead. I was taken to the hospital sporting several tasty half pancake sized gravel rashes and all I could think about was that the RGV was trashed....but fixable.

The crash adrenaline wore off in the surgery and was not surprisingly traded for some memorable stinging and throbbing pain. Which was nout a pinch on what came directly afterwards in the form of a plastic chair, a cold shower and a very evil nail brush. The doctor 'had' to scrub the edges to about a inch in of my wounds to remove the embedded dirt and crap....I would've rather hy taken a hearty stroll through Auschwitz.
The cops turned up mid scrub with me near cross eyed and twitching and wrote out a fine for riding un shaperoned on my L plates.
Two days later a friend of a friend, who dealt in crashed road bikes, rang to say he'd found me a stacked but tidy GSXR750. I drove to Caloundra that day, turned up to check it out on crutches and needless to say bought it on the spot.
I bought some proper leathers off him and bled anyone I could dry on road bike handling knowledge and was totally hooked.
I'd ridden the RGV a fair bit through Mt Glorious, Toowoomba and the sunshine coast, rode every day prior to the crash and have no excuses for not wearing the right gear.....young d!ckhead.
I got an L model USD front end for the GSXR, a fixable tank, cheap fibreglass fairings, all bits needed to get it ridable. Moved away for work from the sh!thole that was Toowoomba to Tennant creek NT where there were no speed limits.
Put the GSXR together up there in the same year that the NT held the cannon ball run, saw the F40 Ferrari (along with 9 gazillion other mega fast cars) in Tennant two days before it killed 4 people...which of course shut down the race for good.
Everyday for nearly 2 years I had the Suzuki out and the closest call I had on it was with 3 roos coming back from Alice at dusk, it was 1994.
In seemingly sensible efforts to eat up the 500k ride back home I was sitting on about 170 kph when they all thought they'd see what I'd learned about countersteering.
Well, in many German swearwords and f#ck me, I was just at a point where reacting in the correct way was instinctive and gave the right bar a slight but quick push sending the bike hard right. The roos were crossing at speed with the first some several metres in front of the 2nd and 3rd who were side by side. The swerve JUST managed to get me behind the first one and shaving the snouts of the second two, man was it close and I'm certain that had I have reacted any other way there'd still be bits of my carcass up the Stuart highway.

You've got about 1600 of those stories Blade, keep them coming.
Mate, it means a lot to hear I've fired you up a little in getting the bike out of the shed too Tassie...was sure my intention!!
Great stuff fellas

I bought my GSXR750L the day my daughter was born, December 8th, 1989, $9200 on the road, the 40th one built, and very ĺikely the first one on the road in Australia, before any race teams had them. They didn't really need them though, the '89 GSXR750RRK single-seater was the K model with pre-production L model engine and some other bits, the J/K model was getting killed on the track and they desperately needed to homologate something better. There was a bit of a shortage very early on as some dealers were getting the L models and stripping them, as the trick bits (engine, carbs, wheels, oil cooler, forks) were in big demand - Suzuki put a stop to that pretty quickly though.

I was already wanting to race so I test rode many dozens of 250's, virtually every one I could find in Perth, dealers and private. The most fun was the GPZ250R, forerunner to the amazingly successful GPX250R. I especially loved the tiny RG250's, but early on realised I was too big a bloke to be able to race them. I fitted the KR250 much more comfortably and was leaning that way when I got the CB1100F, and discovered my size didn't matter when there was more than 100hp on tap, so Superbikes it was to be.

For my first big bike I drooled desperateĺy over the '85 GSXR750F but it was $5500 and beyond my reach, so I picked up an '81 CB1100F Bol'Dor for $3300 (my dealer's personal bike). I test-rode dozens of big bikes before settling on that one though. First bike I rode over 200kph was an '84 GSX750EFE, and I remember watching the fuel gauge winding down while at full noise

I picked up a very low mileage '88 GSXR750J for $5000 in late '88, but bounced it off a car before it saw the track, so I put the insurance payout (her insurance, I wasn't insured) and sale of the bike (which the buyer streetfightered) straight into pre-ordering the new L model. I did eventually get myself an '85 GSXR750F in '04, picking it up from Melbourne while I was over there doing track days on my '98 GSXR750W at Phillip Island and Mallala.

[Stix]

G'day EB...

I must have ESP...just last week i was wondering where you got to & if you'd be back...

I cant contribute to motorbike stories as ive never owned one...although i could tell a tale of being the passenger on the back of a mates Triumph a few years ago & hitting some unexpected undulations in the bitumen at nearly 180km/hr & fair dinkum thinking i was going to die... .

I could also bore you with the tale of some stupid young invincible primary boys who made their own BMX track, & because one of the stupid boys decided to go the wrong way around the track, two of them made the same evasive move, landing them both face first into not only each other at top speed, but also the trunk of a big gum tree, bruised battered scratched & with limbs intertwined inside each others bike frames...(it really was amazing the state of the tangle--there is no way we could have purposely placed ourselves in that position... ).....but i shant insult your big bike thread with such insubordinate weakling schoolboy talk...

https://youtu.be/Jh7ys7vUv4o

Here's one of the shakedown runs

Anyway...watching this had me swaying back & forth on the seat & tensing up my legs for turns & braking...i seriously thought you were going to drive me into a tree again with another rider coming the other way... ...

Sorry for a stupid question..but...what is this--a motorised thingy...???
Cost...? Availability...?...looks cool...!!...i want one...!!

[Ecobogan]

The SV1000 cleaned up n ready to be bought

IMG_20190504_165413.jpg (2.75 MiB) Viewed 4137 times

P1110183.JPG (166.05 KiB) Viewed 4137 times

Early days and before the battery pack was sorted...which it never was

P1110189.JPG (156.95 KiB) Viewed 4137 times

G'day EB...

I must have ESP...just last week i was wondering where you got to & if you'd be back...

I cant contribute to motorbike stories as ive never owned one...although i could tell a tale of being the passenger on the back of a mates Triumph a few years ago & hitting some unexpected undulations in the bitumen at nearly 180km/hr & fair dinkum thinking i was going to die... .

I could also bore you with the tale of some stupid young invincible primary boys who made their own BMX track, & because one of the stupid boys decided to go the wrong way around the track, two of them made the same evasive move, landing them both face first into not only each other at top speed, but also the trunk of a big gum tree, bruised battered scratched & with limbs intertwined inside each others bike frames...(it really was amazing the state of the tangle--there is no way we could have purposely placed ourselves in that position... ).....but i shant insult your big bike thread with such insubordinate weakling schoolboy talk...

https://youtu.be/Jh7ys7vUv4o

Here's one of the shakedown runs

Anyway...watching this had me swaying back & forth on the seat & tensing up my legs for turns & braking...i seriously thought you were going to drive me into a tree again with another rider coming the other way... ...

Sorry for a stupid question..but...what is this--a motorised thingy...???
Cost...? Availability...?...looks cool...!!...i want one...!!

Hey Stix!!
Yeah good to be back for sure and mate you make me laugh. Nowhere near bored by the BMX recounts....those unco, pre macho,like-off-the-cartoons gutsa's the old BMX's used to dish out was the prequel to all these stories here.
I can sure picture it. Usually the first time your balls got smashed by a bit of steel, first time airborne on 2 wheels, first high speed stack, wheelies and bad cracks at impressing chicks. The trusty nasty BMX was usually behind it.
My cousin Dominic had freestyle pegs on his axles front and back. He swore black n blue they were on tight and sturdy as and if I didn't sit on the bars and go ripping down our street with him riding then I was a pedigree punce.
So off we went and this bad idea got properly worse. At 'too fast to pedal speeds' he had the bright idea of getting some air over a driveway gutter jump. We nosedived wildly, hit the ground front wheel first, the front axle pegs that I was standing on both disappeared and I face and bodily planted the gravel footpath to be then run hard up the clacker by the bike!
Big stack and I was skun at a royal level. Dominic's mum, my Aunt, acted responsibly and abused both of us to the core then tipped iodine all over my carnage whilst holding me down. The '80's were good for things like that.

That electric downhill bike was an idea I had a few years ago. To make a fastish off roader that could be ridden places where an MX bike would have you shot.
There are variations of that concept on the market but they're not cheap ($5k+) as elec power is still kind of exotic, I'll dig up some links. That one cost me $3500 in parts and is far from properly sorted but well worth the effort.

There might be some ESP getting around mate coz late last week myself I had a recall chuckle about your 'anyone seen this handyman thread?' comment on Tassie's shipping container, very funny stuff.
What have you been up to of late? All well in SA land?

[Bill]

yeah another 2 wheel tragic, thou these days Ive been trying to channel my inner GP rider...

350 barrels, RGV bits, yammy bits, a smokey mongrel that pull 3rd gear up with a good tug LOL

[MontyShooter]

I love getting out after the sambar on the big GSA.

508A064B-E777-49D8-ADFE-60726F6E136A.jpeg (294 KiB) Viewed 4120 times

[bladeracer]

OMG, when I read about the experiences you blokes have had
By comparison, my time has been "relatively" carefree. Come to think of it, I have had many more prangs off horses and only broken my thumb I don't have any regrets either, remembering only the great fangs I have had and like to think that at one stage I had been to Mt. Glorious more than anyone Probably wrong about that but who cares.
Now, like some of you, my riding days are over. My bike blew a clutch 4 years ago and while I intended to repair it, stuff like arthritis intervened and weeding the garden has become painful. The thought of putting the bike back together does not fill me with joy and riding would be more painful than ever now.

Thanks for starting this thread, Ecobogan. Hope I haven't wandered off topic too much. When I started reading I couldn't resist Biking was my life once and I loved it.

I would like to ride horses, and tried it once in my forties, scared me senseless, without even moving
I found it to be diametrically opposite motorcycle riding. On a bike, every millimeter of movement, every degree of motion, is immediate, and governed strictly by my own inputs. Animals decide where you are going and how you are going to get there

Combined with my vertigo, I was just terrified of being up on the enormous beast. The eleven-year-old girl who generously allowed me to ride her horse was not very impressed with my efforts!