- Joined
- Aug 15, 2012
- Bikes
- KTM 613 EXC, BMW R90S & Dakar, MZ250, Norton 16H, Honda - 500 Fs & Xs, DRZs, XLs XRs CRFs CT110s etc
I was invited by a well known visitor to Chiang Mai, a member of the forum, known as daewoo, to do a day ride on the weekend through the Royal National Park, south of Sydney and up Macquarie Pass. A quick run from my couch surfing location in the geographical central area of Sydney to the southern suburbs, known from decades before the Lord of the Rings movies came out, as "The Shire" went well in the Alfa.
daewoo handed me the keys to his Yamaha FZ1 Fazer, which I think could be referred to as a gentleman's sports bike. Pegs slightly rear-set compared to a squid's sports bike. A detuned version of the R1 engine - still pumping out 120 kW though. The Fazer was the predecessor to the MT-10. Having not thrown a leg over since my ride through South Gippsland on Bootlace's spare R1200, I was feeling a tad rusty... and my knees and hips were a bit cramped.
It was a cool morning yesterday, with the day peaking at 18C at sea level. It certainly felt cooler as we went up the escarpment and later in the afternoon, but I was kitted with a jacket I bought some 20 years ago in Canberra - at the time I'd been offered a ride on a Hayabusa, whilst dressed in a business suit. Apparently the jacket had shrunk a bit over the years and I had to struggle to get the zip done up. We met up with Mark at the servo and filled up. daewoo was riding his historic-rego XR250. I commented at the time that I'd blown up one of those, back in 2011 on a Scrapheap Challenge ride... and another mate had blown up his within 5 km of where mine blew. Bad form on my part to mention that. The bikes in question being the short-lived (in more ways than one) model with the RFVC head
This, from wiki:
In 1984, the bike was introduced with Honda's Radial Four Valve Combustion Chamber (RFVC). It has a 110 kg (240 lb) claimed dry weight, and a 36-inch seat height (96–04). Honda said the engine produces 19.6 peak hp and 14-15 lb feet of torque.
Mark was on another Yammie, a WR450. Two dirty riders and me on the sports tourer.
We flicked left off the road to Wollongong and headed down the hill to the Lady Wakehurst Drive. Lovely road, with only a few lycra-clad roadblocks to get around. We pulled in at Bald Hill and took in the view with a squillion other bikes
There were a few paragliders swooping around above the cliffs, but that's not what we were there for. Couldn't spot any whales, but looked more at the bikes than for them anyhow. Then it was a sequence of backroads and up the escarpment at Macquarie Pass. One dickhead in a car spoilt half that run... as MacPass gets a bit too much attention from plod every once in a while for us to do the usual Thailand thing of buzzing past. It was a quick break at the pie shop for coffee, and a breakfast chili beef pie for me, then down the escarpment again (no car wallies this time) to the Jamberoo Pub for lunch
Here's the pie shop stop
I should have taken some happy snaps at the pub... most of the bikes were Harleys etc, but there were some of the classic cars of my youth there - Monaros, XY Falcon GTs, SLR 5000, etc, etc, even a General Lee replica.
It was starting to get towards cool air time, so we belted back up the freeway through the Gong and were headed up Bulli Pass on the main road (we'd come down it on the old road, which is a lot more fun).
There was plenty of traffic belting up the three lanes on our side, when daewoo slowed, headed for the left... and I went "uh oh"..... and just as we reached a breakdown bay... out came the magic smoke. Bikes don't run well after the magic smoke comes out.
A quick phone call to a mate of Mark's who lives nearby.... "you doing anything this arvo, mate?"..... and bingo, 15 minutes later
A quick run up the M1 to Mark's place, swapped the trailer onto Mark's ute... and another ten or fifteen minutes up the road to daewoo's place.
A little bit of tlc will see the Honda back on the go.
Thanks daewoo for a great ride, see you in Chiang Mai in November. Anyone wanting to join daewoo and Mark on their rides, they'll be joining us at Rider's Corner for the Ulysses Club social evenings whilst in town.
daewoo handed me the keys to his Yamaha FZ1 Fazer, which I think could be referred to as a gentleman's sports bike. Pegs slightly rear-set compared to a squid's sports bike. A detuned version of the R1 engine - still pumping out 120 kW though. The Fazer was the predecessor to the MT-10. Having not thrown a leg over since my ride through South Gippsland on Bootlace's spare R1200, I was feeling a tad rusty... and my knees and hips were a bit cramped.
It was a cool morning yesterday, with the day peaking at 18C at sea level. It certainly felt cooler as we went up the escarpment and later in the afternoon, but I was kitted with a jacket I bought some 20 years ago in Canberra - at the time I'd been offered a ride on a Hayabusa, whilst dressed in a business suit. Apparently the jacket had shrunk a bit over the years and I had to struggle to get the zip done up. We met up with Mark at the servo and filled up. daewoo was riding his historic-rego XR250. I commented at the time that I'd blown up one of those, back in 2011 on a Scrapheap Challenge ride... and another mate had blown up his within 5 km of where mine blew. Bad form on my part to mention that. The bikes in question being the short-lived (in more ways than one) model with the RFVC head
This, from wiki:
In 1984, the bike was introduced with Honda's Radial Four Valve Combustion Chamber (RFVC). It has a 110 kg (240 lb) claimed dry weight, and a 36-inch seat height (96–04). Honda said the engine produces 19.6 peak hp and 14-15 lb feet of torque.
Mark was on another Yammie, a WR450. Two dirty riders and me on the sports tourer.
We flicked left off the road to Wollongong and headed down the hill to the Lady Wakehurst Drive. Lovely road, with only a few lycra-clad roadblocks to get around. We pulled in at Bald Hill and took in the view with a squillion other bikes
There were a few paragliders swooping around above the cliffs, but that's not what we were there for. Couldn't spot any whales, but looked more at the bikes than for them anyhow. Then it was a sequence of backroads and up the escarpment at Macquarie Pass. One dickhead in a car spoilt half that run... as MacPass gets a bit too much attention from plod every once in a while for us to do the usual Thailand thing of buzzing past. It was a quick break at the pie shop for coffee, and a breakfast chili beef pie for me, then down the escarpment again (no car wallies this time) to the Jamberoo Pub for lunch
Here's the pie shop stop
I should have taken some happy snaps at the pub... most of the bikes were Harleys etc, but there were some of the classic cars of my youth there - Monaros, XY Falcon GTs, SLR 5000, etc, etc, even a General Lee replica.
It was starting to get towards cool air time, so we belted back up the freeway through the Gong and were headed up Bulli Pass on the main road (we'd come down it on the old road, which is a lot more fun).
There was plenty of traffic belting up the three lanes on our side, when daewoo slowed, headed for the left... and I went "uh oh"..... and just as we reached a breakdown bay... out came the magic smoke. Bikes don't run well after the magic smoke comes out.
A quick phone call to a mate of Mark's who lives nearby.... "you doing anything this arvo, mate?"..... and bingo, 15 minutes later
A quick run up the M1 to Mark's place, swapped the trailer onto Mark's ute... and another ten or fifteen minutes up the road to daewoo's place.
A little bit of tlc will see the Honda back on the go.
Thanks daewoo for a great ride, see you in Chiang Mai in November. Anyone wanting to join daewoo and Mark on their rides, they'll be joining us at Rider's Corner for the Ulysses Club social evenings whilst in town.
