What did you do with your GRiSO today?

The spring has sprung!
The grass is Riz!

A gorgeous spring day today so I did a loop out to Yass and then back through Mountain Creek, Uriarra, the south of Canberra and home.

The country is looking spectacular due to us having had some of the best rains in years.

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Sadly that blue on the hill is Patterson's Curse. Pretty though it is it's an invasive, feral pest. As sadly is the yellow Cape Weed that blankets the hills and roadsides. It's pretty bad this year. The theory is that a lot of the seed came in on hay shipped from South Australia for stock feed during the drought and fires last year.

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GRiSO ran like a freight train. I still think it's one of the best looking bikes ever......

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Only downside to the ride was coming back from Uriarra to Cotter. This is a very twisty and quite technical piece of road that is very popular with Canberra Squids. I try to avoid it at the weekend most times and this weekend being a public holiday I suspected it would be a conga line of fucktardery.

Sure enough, just as I passed the turning to Uriarra village three squids pulled in who had just come up from Cotter. I knew they'd be doing a return run so, hnowing I had a guy on a Husky 701 behind me who had been riding sensibly I put a couple of hundred meters between me and him and then just cruised it while watching my mirrors carefully.

Sure enough about half way to Cotter a knob on an RSV-4 screams up behind me and then overtakes within millimeters of my handlebar. Well done him, he couldn't see through the corner and used most of our lane and some of the oncoming lane to accomplish this stunt. Anyway I knew his mates would be close behind. There was the next one, I could see him in my mirror at a glance but we were coming to some tight corners so I was wiping off some of my very moderate speed. I got through the corners and he'd vanished! Weird, I thought, perhaps he's stopped to allow me to get out of his way on my lumbering barge?

Well when I got to Cotter and stopped at the traffic lights that control the one lane bridge Husky Bloke pulls up next to me and tells me Squid#2 had almost rammed me up the arse then, realising he'd over-cooked it just stood the bike up and disappeared stage right into a gully! I'd passed RSV-4 Man at the junction of Uriarra and Cotter roads and since there were three of them I reckoned when his pencil necked mates didn't turn up he'd head back. I'm assuming squid #3 saw the whole sorry episode? Don't really care. Riding like that on a public holiday weekend on a road popular with rubberneckers is a recipe for pain and suffering. Natural Selection at work! I'm just grateful he didn't include me in his stupid, unnecessary accident.

That's the sort of luck no one needs; as you said best to keep out of their way & let them crash by themselves!

Heading off to the South Coast this October long weekend to check on the fleet of Guzzis Steve Stone has acquired to replace those lost in the bushfires, Phil sets off on the 1100 GRiSO on Sat morning. Gets caught up in the truly horrendous holiday traffic on Heathcote Rd, & doesn't quite make the lights on The Princes Hwy before "failing to proceed". Parked on the median strip near the lights with the assistance of a friendly copper, and hoping it might just be out of fuel, Phil phones in an order of a jerry can & 5 litres. No such luck. So we push it off the median strip, negotiate the bumper to bumper traffic, up the hill & around the corner - one bum shoulder, and one bum knee. Find some shade on the footpath & finish off the water. Consulting experts, we opened the fuel cap, turned on the ignition, found bubbling fuel. So wings off, tank up, fuel pump off (no 7mm socket in the tool kit - had to make di with the shifter), and found ....
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Yes, the fuel hose is off the pump. Writing on the tank reveals the fuel hose was replaced in 2012, but the passage of time rendered the clamps loose & the hose slippery. Buttoned everything back up again. Ready to go. Not quite. Now a severe case of startus interuptus - possibly the attempts at starting weakened the battery. A trailer was reluctantly called for & the GRiSO ferried back to the Shed. Leaving the battery on the charger overnight restored it's oomph, and it started just fine. 

Although things didn't go as planned, & we didn't actually get down south, there were some benefits. Across the road from the shade we were parked under, there was a service station, a Hungry Jacks, a BWS & a Maccas. Refreshment on tap, as it were. We had a good view of the traffic heading south - at 5-10kph all day until around 3pm. Glad we weren't in it. Even gladder we are not coming back into Sydney this afternoon - expect the traffic to be even worse. The next south coast venture (soon) is likely to be much less fraught. Phil now has a 7mm socket and a spare piece of submersible fuel hose in his emergency tool kit. Suspect the GRiSO's fork oil needs refreshing & the head bearings require attention. And it gives the scabs on my knee more time to heal better. So we think we had a win. And a story to tell.

Good catch Mal, and Mark. I didn't even think of that! Poor Phil, life is not easy, first the Cali, then the GRiSO.

Long weekends are a good time to avoid traffic, I thought you would know that already Mal? Lucky is what I would call it - imagine if it had happened further down the coast/road with no phone reception...

At least he has know spares to work with if it happens again. I guess we all carry some special stuff - mine is a 7mm Allen key - just for the front calipers.

Have one of those, too. And a couple of rod ends, a clutch cable & even sometimes some brake pads. Have been caught out before. Phil reckons every new bike needs to baptise you early on.

Pete Roper wrote:

Only downside to the ride was coming back from Uriarra to Cotter.

Yep.
Don't.
Just don't.

Normally Craig I only do that stretch during the week. I just chanced it reckoning as it was a long weekend with double D's the half-wits would of stayed at home. No such luck.

Once every year I have a weekend day where I can only fit in a short head clearing ride and decide to just loop out through Uriarra Crossing, Uriarra, The Cotter and Stromlo, somehow convincing myself that it won't be as bad as last time.

I'm always wrong.

On the other hand, with daylight savings in place I often take the long way home after weekday work by riding the same route (in reverse to that above).
It's infinitely more enjoyable then, but I still find the surface in the corners very rippled & chopped up, probably from all the car hoons that tear around there at night.

This has been me, for the last few weeks.

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Mrs Beetle said, "go for a ride you grumpy {expletive deleted}!"


Although any ride is a good ride, alas, I was not appeased. GRiSO seemed down on power, and much vibes through bars had hands a-tingle. I got all out of sorts when a small Pterasaur was splattered asunder on my visor on a fast sweeper. I never quite got back in the zone.

I returned home only slightly less grumpy. I made scones, and that helped.


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I will give GRiSO some lovin' in the form of some sort of service/tune. It's been a while.

I understand very well Mark.

The Ex and Budget Week has made me feel very lately.
Needed to clear my head.
Was headed towards Yass but found myself in Bungendore by mid afternoon.
The Royal is still closed (presumably they’re still fumigating for lizard people) so I didn’t hang around.
Went the long way to the kid’s house, had a beer and BBQ’d them some pork loin.
Head cleared for another week.

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The Royal will be closed for a long time Craig. It's a long story but the short version is it's now owned by the same people who own the Lake George and it's going to be gutted and 'Modernised/Refurbished' in a completely unsympathetic way. Even the bar is going. Now I know the bar was hell to work behind but it was really one of the main things that made the pub. It's going to be another sterile, characterless drinking hole.

Funnily just about the only thing in the plans, (Available on-line at the QPRC website as they are in for approval.) that isn't being modified is the fucking Gent's toilets which as I'm sure you know are the source of some pretty *interesting* aromas, especially after a busy night in summer........

RIP Royal

beetle wrote:

This has been me, for the last few weeks.

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Mrs Beetle said, "go for a ride you grumpy {expletive deleted}!"


Although any ride is a good ride, alas, I was not appeased. GRiSO seemed down on power, and much vibes through bars had hands a-tingle. I got all out of sorts when a small Pterasaur was splattered asunder on my visor on a fast sweeper. I never quite got back in the zone.

I returned home only slightly less grumpy. I made scones, and that helped.


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I will give GRiSO some lovin' in the form of some sort of service/tune. It's been a while.

I couldn't "like" that, and yet, despite my view that scones are tasteless and virtually inedible rocks that would break a weevil's teeth, "dislike" seemed a bit strong and even rude.  

So, I'll just share my irrefutable view of scones, as I just did.  

Best,

Bill

Bill Hagan wrote:

I couldn't "like" that, and yet, despite my view that scones are tasteless and virtually inedible rocks that would break a weevil's teeth, "dislike" seemed a bit strong and even rude.  

So, I'll just share my irrefutable view of scones, as I just did.  

Best,

Bill

Bill, you can't get a good scone in the US for love nor money. I've seen them. It's a travesty.

Mine are soft and laden with dates. A bit of jam and chantilly cream and you'd be stuffin' them in like there's no tomorrow.


Nom nom nom.

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I put some seriously large wires into the starter circuit  (44/0.3 mm)
I have not had Startus Interrruptus on this bike - yrt


but as I spent 3 years in the 80s mending LeMans, T3 and v5 with a frighteningly similar wiring loom - i could not stand waiting for the inevitable.

Probably my filter will drop off the fuel pump tomorrow!

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a return ride into Ulladulla for some provisions and back. Lake Conjola itself is looking great, and healthy due to its entrance being open to the ocean for quite a while now. Unfortunately the surrounding bushland is going to take years to recover from the fires last NYE ...... if ever at all

I rode today, like the wind, maybe a bit too much wind. Didn't see the Highway Patrol skulking off to the left, coming home, went past at about 130, lump in throat. No evidence of a chase so slowed down to the posted limit (well, a tad over) and behaved the last 25 km.

Awesome day for a ride, I must say.

Yes Gary, the lake looks good. Mother nature will come back after a bit. It's the old cycle - burn year, flood year, good year, though this year, there was no years in between.

Those scones looked quite scrumptious...what part # are those, and where can I order a 1/2 dozen for immediate delivery!

not me or mine, but I did see two (2) GRiSO's north of Mossman bound towards the Daintree River Village a couple of days ago....

I rocked myself to sleep that night.

So still in Queensland then Pat.

GRiSO ran like a freight train. I still think it's one of the best looking bikes ever......

EXACTLY!! The only reason I bought this bike was because I thought it was the Best Looking Stock Motorcycle I'd ever seen. The bonus was that it performed as good as it looked!

Left work early for my flu jab. The weather has been good for a few days and i,m aware it won,t last so took a spin for a couple of hours to the coast. Sometimes the unplanned runs are just brilliant and today was one such ride. There was a little traffic although a lot less than the summer, and to see the sea all blue and lookin, good....i do like to watch the sea.

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yep. just back from the Cape, now in Cairns getting a service and a wash!
off to NT in a couple of weeks.

Leave it alone Pat - it'll get washed in NT's big wet soon enough!

Woot! Woot! New tyres have arrived! Won't have time to fit them until next week as my bench is full of Yamaha Going with Road Attacks this time around as the Sport Attacks we're doing my head in with the wear rate. I love new tyres.........

Peter Hill in Townsville is running a pair at my suggestion. He reckons they work OK

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There are bugger all curves near Townsville so I have no idea where he went to scrub them in. Atherton maybe?