Just thought I'd let you know about my ride on Saturday. I had an invite to catch up with an old mate and ride his Norvin. We were going to meet in Jurien Bay (west coast of Oz...look it up) about 200km from my place. Jumped on the faithful Norton and headed off. It's winter here at the moment but most of you guys would reckon it was a pretty fair spring in your part of the world! We have a very mild climate here. Having a great time, sun coming out occasionally to warm my back, huge grin with the joy of the ride with the odd light shower of rain to let me know it was winter. Heard a funny noise, stopped and found a broken centrestand spring with my stand now a bit lighter. Anyway, a couple of zip ties fixed the problem.
We were going to meet at his friends house in Jurien and we were going to swap bikes and have a ride. This is the good bit. His friend is Ian Boyd who just happens to own over forty (40!) Vincents, amongst other things. As my friend hadn't arrived yet I got a personal tour of the collection. Quite frankly, I just couldn't take it all in at once. The things that this guy has are just unbelievable. He also had a Norton 650SS that he'd just bought. He had everything from a Black Prince, Black Knight, Black Lightnings, Grey Flash and more Comets, Rapides and Black Shadows than you could poke a stick at. Unbelievable.
Anyway, as I was heading out, my mate arrived so he took my 850 for a run and came back very impressed, saying it was very well set up. Coming from a man who worked for Brook Henry for years (the Ducati V2 guy) and who'd made his own crankshaft and cams for his Norvin this was something of a compliment. It was getting towards dark so I headed off along Indian Ocean Drive. I wanted to get some miles up before it got dark as there are a lot of kangaroos and other creatures along this particular stretch of road. So, of course, forty km out of town, I run out of drive as my primary belt shed everything. Hmm. Thought about it a bit, rang the missus, got her to grab the spare belt and a couple of tools (I already had some tools on board) and drive down to me. A few hours sitting by the side of the road wasn't too bad, planning the fix. When she arrived I got her to line up the car headlights and away I went. About an hour later she was ready to go.
The missus led the way and I had the most magical night ride I think I'd ever had. At 70 to 75 mph with a full moon and the odd shower it was fantastic. Watching the big black clouds coming in was really something.
All in all, quite an experience and I was quite proud of doing the job by the side of the road instead of in a nice cosy workshop.
We were going to meet at his friends house in Jurien and we were going to swap bikes and have a ride. This is the good bit. His friend is Ian Boyd who just happens to own over forty (40!) Vincents, amongst other things. As my friend hadn't arrived yet I got a personal tour of the collection. Quite frankly, I just couldn't take it all in at once. The things that this guy has are just unbelievable. He also had a Norton 650SS that he'd just bought. He had everything from a Black Prince, Black Knight, Black Lightnings, Grey Flash and more Comets, Rapides and Black Shadows than you could poke a stick at. Unbelievable.
Anyway, as I was heading out, my mate arrived so he took my 850 for a run and came back very impressed, saying it was very well set up. Coming from a man who worked for Brook Henry for years (the Ducati V2 guy) and who'd made his own crankshaft and cams for his Norvin this was something of a compliment. It was getting towards dark so I headed off along Indian Ocean Drive. I wanted to get some miles up before it got dark as there are a lot of kangaroos and other creatures along this particular stretch of road. So, of course, forty km out of town, I run out of drive as my primary belt shed everything. Hmm. Thought about it a bit, rang the missus, got her to grab the spare belt and a couple of tools (I already had some tools on board) and drive down to me. A few hours sitting by the side of the road wasn't too bad, planning the fix. When she arrived I got her to line up the car headlights and away I went. About an hour later she was ready to go.
The missus led the way and I had the most magical night ride I think I'd ever had. At 70 to 75 mph with a full moon and the odd shower it was fantastic. Watching the big black clouds coming in was really something.
All in all, quite an experience and I was quite proud of doing the job by the side of the road instead of in a nice cosy workshop.
