Lake Burrendong

Amazing place. I used to live in Lake Macquarie, biggest salt water lake in Australia, so I was a bit derogatory bout lake Burrendong. Tis not a lake, tis a dam, man made lake. Whenever I've visited lakes made from dams I've not liked them, they seem dead to me when you can see the tops of dead flooded trees in the middle of the lake. It just creates a sense of maudlin to me, what could this valley have been if we hadn't destroyed it with our own needs. You never seem to see all the life that is normally associated with a lake or river at dams. I have been proved wrong today, Lake Burrendong is lovely. The water was a gorgeous blue today, there were birds twittering everywhere and I didnt see any dead trees sticking out of the water tho I'm sure they are there somewhere. Lake Burrendong is alive.

Map to Lake Burrendong

We went for a ride to Lake Burrendong today, in case you hadn't guessed. Few things were a challenge for me. First is the highway. I still don't ride on the highway much unless I absolutely have to, I don't like the trucks and traffic, and I cant do 110km/h yet, still a bit too fast for me. Well we really had no choice today so it was the highway most of the way. I was following Terry and I think he was going a bit slower cause he didn't want to push me. So doing 90km/h to Guerie, where Terry spotted the Guerie Fair, and stopped. I had a smoke and said I was doing great and he could go a bit faster. We set off for Wellington and we got up to 100k's. Terry headed off to look at a job he'd done in town and I kept going to KFC. I pulled in and the typical Wellington resident was standing in the car park having a smoke. I love that, the looks the bike gets are fun, then when I get off and they see how small and female I am ya can almost see the amazement on their faces as they try to work out just how big that bike is. The first thing he said to me was ... "wot's that bouta 1100 or 1300?" Nope I told him it was a 400 and he looked again and walked round my baby, "wow ya wouldn't know it would ya?" he was appreciative. So I got his life story in a nutshell while we had a smoke and I waited for Terry to get there. When Terry pulled in the bloke said ... "now that's a big bike isn't it?" I think he would have been heartbroken if I'd told him it was only a 750  :)

Oh some things are getting better, I'm not noticing the wind as much at high speeds, I'm actually enjoying it more now. Tho I did get passed by two trucks going the other way, one of them was an oversized with some big machine on the trailer, caused a big wind and hit me like a brick wall, actually knocked my head back. The bumps also arent as bad for me, I must be getting used to them cause they still send me in the air at times but that doesnt put me off like it did a few weeks ago.

Terry led the way again after a quick lunch taking the back roads through town, and they are the worst roads in Australia, I dare anyone to find any worse. Stopped at a round about for a guy on a huge Harley who actually slowed down on the round about so he could give us a wave :) We got a few waves today, lotsa bikes out and about with such lovely weather. Not far out of Wellington is the turn off for Burrendong, and it's the most interesting road I've been on yet. Started out as a nice enough road a few bends, wide enough and not a lot of potholes. We cruised up to the wall thinking we'd be able to ride across and check it all out, but there was a gate across it so we stopped and had a look at the lake. Beautiful !!

The road to the Lake

The New Shadow at the wall

The White Shadow at the wall

The wall on the lake side

And on the other side of the wall is .. a valley

Checking out the View

We then went round to a camping area, costs money just to take your car or bike on the roads in there like they don't believe you when you say you just want to go look at the view and maybe grab a drink from their kiosk. So we walked to the kiosk and checked out the view. It's a huge lake so for some reason someone thought it was a good idea to build the tiniest swimming pool in the world with a huge water slide going into it next to that view. Huh?? Would be a nice place to spend a weekend tho and we saw cabins that I imagine are for rent.

After taking all the gloriousness in it was time to head home. I was feeling better about all the bends by now, the worst were the ones closer to the wall, and that road was shocking too, narrow, gavel all over it and lots of tighter bends that either were downhill or started just as you had topped a rise. Scary for a novice like me, even hubby was a bit worried bout it all. Coming home was better and I felt pretty damn good bout some of my corners, tho I still take em slow, there were a couple of times that I just got my line so nice and was able to open up a bit coming out of the corner, god I love that feeling!!

We stopped at Wellington Maccas for a snack, I'm not sure why, I was just following Terry... tho he knew I'd be busting for a wee by then. I worry bout dehydrating on longer rides so I drink heaps, I get thirsty, but then I need to stop at every opportunity for the ladies, nuthin worse than potholed roads with a full bladder. Then we got petrol, where I dropped my baby. Not gonna say much 'cept that I'll have to get a new blinker and mirror on the left side I doubt they'll be fixable, but it's only cosmetic stuff. It annoyed me that I did that, and I guess I was embarrassed as well. So I took off from there and just rode, thinking about it and getting a headache. I had to stop at Guerie just to settle down and the rest of the trip home was good. Doing 100k's all the way and it felt nice. I led that part and I kinda like leading, I get to set the pace so if a bit of road is scary for me I can slow down but when I'm loving it all I can speed up a bit. Lost my L plate somewhere between Guerie and Wellington on the trip out too, that L plate hung on for a few months .... impressive. It meant that I didn't have an excuse for doing 100k's in a 110k zone and that's when I worry bout what stupid things impatient drivers will do, but while we were overtaken a couple of times most people weren't too stupid, only one chick who was tailgating Terry and cut me off when she overtook ... 300m from the overtaking lane sheesh.

Well that's it ... 'cept .. I love my bike .. and my husband :D

When ya Dont Know .. Get Someone Else To Do It For You

Ahh the ongoing saga that is getting saddle bags on my bike. I just know that hubby is gonna just go out an' buy bags and stick them on, job done. For me it has just been one thing after another. Don't get me wrong, I'm not whining ... I'm just aware that it really shouldn't be this hard, is it because I don't really know what I'm doing? Probably and I've always said you learn by your mistakes. I listen to what other people say, and of course you have to sort out the guff from all that, then decide what I think is the best way to go about something.

So the latest thing with the bags, which still aren't on my bike yet, is that I took them to the nice Honda guys and said .. put these here bags on my baby please, they said sure thing. Then I got a phone call at work, 'can ya come down I want you to look at this before I do anything'. OK I went down and had a look. Yep he had a point, it wasn't gonna work the way I thought it would. First of all moving the blinkers to the little bracket would mean putting more holes in the bracket, which he was worried about cause there is more vibration down there and the bracket would be weakened cause of the extra holes. ./nod ... then there was the bags themselves, if we put them on where I planned they wouldn't be bolted to the good solid steel part of the bike with both bolts, he was pretty concerned that the little flimsy bit at the back bolt would eventually crack or snap. ./nod .. OK that all sounds pretty reasonable and I agreed with him bout it, so he thought up another way to do it, he would use the first two bolts on the fender rail that are attached to the nice solid bits of the bike and just use spacers to move them out from the shocks and seat.

Yay my problems were solved, he'd already had to go buy more bolts cause the ones I'd gotten weren't long enough, so now he was just gonna get longer ones again and some spacers. The bolts and spacers would have to be black, cant get em off the shelf in stainless ... I knew that and was aware that it was something I'd have to fix up later when I could find someone to do it for me. Just have to get some bolts and spacers machined by someone who did that stuff ... I have half an idea where I can get that stuff done.

Got up this morning all excited cause I thought I'd have my bike with saddlebags today sometime. So I rang them at lunch time and asked if I could pick up the bike today after work. I got handed over to the boss ... oh no that doesn't sound good :(  He said that his nice mechanic had put the bags on then taken em off again .. his exact words ..'it looks too agricultural'. Hahahah I cracked up at that, but I knew I wouldn't like the look of those bolts so it wasn't fazing me really. He didn't like it and I get the feeling, after chatting to him when I picked up my bike, that he didn't want to let it go outta his shed like that. So the thing is now I have no saddlebags on the bike today, but I have a bike to ride this weekend. And the nice mechanic has put in an order for exactly what he needs to put them on the bike and look good!! They'll be ready next week. So I guess after all this patience and trying to work it out for myself I should have just taken it to him to start with. He seemed to be enjoying the challenge actually, said he'd had to nut it out but now that he knows what he has to do will all be a piece of cake. YAY.

Oh yeah and you know how I always say I love my bike ..... yep tis still true only more. I got on the baby to bring her home today and just wanted to keep going, I'm dying for a ride!!!

And just cause I have it .. here's a pic of Hubby's bike at night ... black on black ...

The Lime Grove

Well we went for our first long ride yesterday, I have to say ‘long’ cause hubby saw me say just ‘our first ride’ in the forum post and started looking wounded, yeah we’ve ridden together before, he got his bike out Monday night and came to ride with me home from work. I had to get petrol and smokes so I shouted him a tank of petrol too ... ahh true love is buying your baby petrol ...

So we went to the Lime Grove for lunch, I’ve been wanting to do that ride for a while. Here’s the map....

Yep I’m sure you noticed we took the long way home. I’ll explain that later. We headed off to Narromine along the Burroway Road, it’s a nice back road cause I still hate riding on the highways, too much traffic. So just after we hit the Burroway Road I notice something coming up behind me. After a minute or two it dawned on me that it was a huge trike, I dunno Harley probably, with a bloke riding and a chick pillion right up the back, she looked like she was having a bit of a rest on her sofa, comfy!! They overtook and gave us a wave. So we kept going along this lovely country road til Terry stopped, thinking we would take some pics. Thing is where he stopped happened to be right next to a paddock where there was some serious crop dusting happening. No we didn’t get dusted but it was amazing watching that guy doing his thing, looked like he was almost touching the tops of the crops ... incredible. But I was stopped on the bitumen so I had to move on before I got collected by some idiot flying along that road. So I went ahead and took some pics of Terry riding towards me (I really like the idea of that kinda pic). I got one that I love and a lot that look good but just not quite up to my exacting standards.:D

The pic I love.

I just like the perspective of this one.

Anyways I’m sure I’ll get better at these as time goes on.

He made me stop again later and tried to take some of me riding towards him. Thing is two bloody cars decided that was the time they would come roaring up behind me. There hadn’t been a car to be seen before that.

 

He did manage to get this one that I quite like, tho I’ve photo shopped the hell outta it.

Waiting for the bloke with the camera to get orf the road.

 Then there was this one.....

So after these brief interludes we went on our merry way. We turned onto the Narromine-Eumongerie Rail Road, I was a bit worried bout what the state of this road would be but it was actually not bad at all, almost a minor highway. There were bits that sucked cause they in their infinite wisdom cut big chunks outta the road every now and then and put new bits in, this is their way of fixing them, they create bumps in the road that are another one of those things that send me flying off my seat. The other thing that I noticed when we got onto this more open road was the wind. It hadn’t seemed that bad when we were on the country road, I guess the trees shielded us, but now we were amongst the fields and paddocks, there was a good cross wind. It was gusty so I didn’t notice it at first, then the first gust hit me, it was stronger than I’ve felt before and took me by surprise. I looked at the trees around me and they weren’t moving, it was kinda bizarre cause I couldn’t work out what it was, there didn’t even seem to be a breeze but then I saw little tufts of grass blowing along the road in fits and spurts and realised I was being hit by gusts of wind. Think I would prefer a nice steady wind even if it is strong, ya got no warning when a gust is going to get you and just have to correct as you go. There were a couple of times it caused me to veer across my lane, kinda scary. 

There were some nice gentle curves on this road, and on the way home there was one that just went on forever, I was practising doing it right on this one and feeling pretty proud of myself when one of those gusts of wind hit me .. bugger swerving in the middle of a corner isn’t nice, I slowed and corrected, I wasn’t in danger but it ruined that lovely feeling I had.

Well we got to the crossroad where we had to turn off to go to either Narromine or along the Trangie Road to get to The Lime Grove, as I was slowing down I got a cramp in my leg and there was room before the corner to pull over to stand and ease it. As I stood there I noticed the sign that said ‘Warren’, hubby had turned right onto this road, I didn’t worry tho cause I knew that he knew where he was going, so I turned right and caught up to him where he’d stopped to wait for me. We headed on our merry way, me following faithfully behind my wonderful husband .. my wonderful lost husband .. as I realised when he turned into the gravel feeder road and did a turn to go the other way. I swear he did it just so I would have to ride and turn on gravel ... I don’t like gravel, it moves. 

OK so we headed in the right direction and found The Lime Grove, another gravel road, tho not really gravel just kinda packed dirt, this one was not too bad, I still get nervous doing tight right turns so parking was interesting on dirt. Did it tho see....

 

 

As we were coming along the driveway a little puppy dog noticed us and came running out to greet us. Terry made a friend ....

Shield your eyes puppy, all that chrome will blind ya!!

 

There are chooks there somewhere.

We went in and had lunch, Suzie who owns The Lime Grove is an interesting person, she’s bucked the odds I think to make her passion a reality. Food is good there, but I don’t go much on the tin shed she uses as a cafe, the views are nice, and there’s a chook shed. I didn’t get a great pic of it cause the man came in a truck with food and they all buggered off behind it .... It’s a chook palace, but they need it cause they’re huge chooks, they were as big as the geese!!

So we stayed a while, had a couple of good coffees then headed home ... where Terry missed a turn and took me around that bloody gravel feeder road again. When we were finally headed in the right direction again I was just enjoying the ride, nice gentle curves, fighting the gusts of wind, just learning really. We got new things that we were both trying out too, they’re called, oh lots of names but Cramp Buster is the one I remember. They slide onto your throttle and provide a little resting place for the heel of your hand for when you’re just cruising at a steady speed. I liked mine and had no trouble with it, hubby took a bit to get used to it, but I think he still likes the concept.

So after missing another turn we stopped and consulted, I said lets just go on to Gilgandra which I had seen signs for along this road, and come home along the highway. I’ll take any opportunity to ride more. We finally came out on the Newell Highway and turned towards home, didn’t make it to Gil, it only added an extra 10km’s onto the trip. Along the highway we came up behind a tractor towing a hay baler ... crawling .. unregistered .. with hay bale attached. Terry was right up behind him waiting for an opportunity to overtake and I was glad it wasn’t me, there was hay flying everywhere. I got to overtake for the first time on the baby and t’was easy, mind you the tractor was crawling :D I had a semi, not sure if it was a b-double or not, on my arse and thought he would try to over take us, but he just sat back behind us and took it easy, we weren’t far from Dubbo and so he probably wasn’t stressed, we were doing the speed limit though so no real reason for him to overtake, they normally do anyway.

 

We were just on the outskirts of town when Terry pulled over and said “Let’s try another shot of you”. So we did .. still not great there was a fence next to the road and more traffic around us, but we did get this one shot that’s not too bad before we finally went home.

Was a great day and I can't wait til we do it again. And I love my bike, and Terry’s too.

About Those Saddlebags

I got home this afternoon determined to get the bolts that I need to put on my saddlebags. To get the right size and thread I needed two of the ones that are so righteously holding my fender on at the moment. So I went straight to the bike, looked at it, told it firmly that I was going to have those bolts if it liked it or not, then took a spanner to it. And the first bolt I tried didnt budge. The second bolt I tried came straight off. Hmm ... tried another then the next one came off too ... right that's all I needed to get the new bolts!!

When I went to the nice man at the bolt shop ... wow that shop has bolts everywhere no kidding ... He went yep I got the one ya need but is it for your bike? .. He knows my bike and he just knew that I would want nice shiny bolts for it .. he only had black. OK wot else could I do? I bought the black bolts and he gave me the name and address for another nice man who could chrome them for me if I wanted.... sheesh of course I want. Well I decided they would do so I could at least get the bags on, then I will see what else I can do about the bolts later.

I got home and took the bike to bits. Even got the fender off with a little muscle power. Then I had to contort my fingers to get the wires undone to get the fender right off the bike. Sat it all on a nice soft blanket in the back yard and set about getting the blinkers of the fender rails. Ummm yep those stupid little bolts weren't moving either, so I was just sitting there looking at my handiwork and waiting for Terry to come get these bolts undone for me when I noticed the new mount for the blinkers. More to the point I noticed the holes in that mount, or the single hole. I was trying to take off a bolt from the existing blinker where there were two holes for each blinker, one for the bolt, one for the wiring. Damn. I need another hole for each blinker in the new mount.

So I put the wiring back together, put the fender back on, with a lot of help from Hubby, putting a fender on is harder than taking it off ... :( Connect the battery back up and test the blinkers to make sure I'd put the wiring back properly, yay that worked. Put the seat back on ..

Tomorrow I'm gonna book the baby in to have the saddlebags put on by someone who has half an idea. I have a feeling they are gonna tell me they need extra holes in the new mount and if they do I'll tell them to do what ever they need to do to just get the damn bags on my bike !!

I have a feeling that I'm gonna also have to get something to cover the holes where the blinkers come out of the fender rails. I'm thinking it could just be some kinda plug thingy, or a false bolt ... ./shrug. I'll let the guys at the bike shop work it out for me, I'm a bit over it now.

So tomorrow I'm gonna drag my husband out for a ride!!

A Bit Of Bling or It's Not As Easy As They Make It Look

Well I got my saddlebags 'n related stuff from Bibblebars on Friday. T'was a big box, and so exciting!!

Had to do other stuff on Friday arvo and all day Saturday so today was the day for playing with the bikes. They were locked up at a friends house in her garage Friday and Saturday, so the first job of the day was to go get them. We picked them up and took them back to our place, then we had to get back and pick up the car. So I jumped on the back of Terry's bike and off we went, umm have you noticed how small that pillion seat is on his bike? Lucky thing we are already married or Dad would be demanding he make an honest woman outta me after seeing how close we were sitting on that bike. So my arse isn't that big (thank heavens) and it was hanging off the back even with my front plastered all over Terry's back. But it was still fun, much more power, and it just feels different, I'd love to have a ride and get that feeling for real, I get the feeling it's smoother to ride.

So we did that then I got home and made up a shopping list for moving the blinkers down onto the rego plate holder I got from Bibblebars. Then I went shopping wheeeeeee!! Came home with all the stuff and moved the bike into the back yard to give me room to put parts as I pulled the baby apart.

The baby before I started, with the puppy guarding my work area.

I have to pull the rear fender off, remove the blinkers from the fender, rewire it, then attach them to the rego holder on the back of the bike. Easy right? .. nope. First thing is remove the seat ... damn those bolts are tight!! ... got Hubby and a mallet and managed to loosen the bolts and take the seat off. Now we're getting somewhere. OK it's not that hot today, but I'm bald and in direct sunlight, with no shade anywhere in the yard to escape from, after getting the seat off I had to go inside and cool down and rehydrate. So I did something useful while I was resting, pulled all the protective paper off the pretty new rego holder. Fair dinkum that stuff sticks well, so after half an hour I figured I would put that on first, as I would just have to put it on with the fender off anyway before I could relocate the blinkers. Right get the rego plate and label off the bike ... not that hard ... get Terry to undo the lock nut holding the little plastic rego label onto the number plate. While he was doing that I looked at the rego label and realised that it was a sticker, and it was stuck nicely onto the plastic holder ... hmm how hard is it gonna be to get that off in one piece. Easier said than done. Umm yeah pull the plastic thing apart and the rego label has been wet, and it's kinda now dried paper stuck onto a bit of plastic. Yep I got it off with only a small amount of swearing and a razor blade. There's a couple of tears and some bits that are still stuck on the plastic, but it's readable and I think it'll pass.

Well it looks good, now the L Plate stands out even more

Ok so now I just had to bolt it back onto the bike, easy... Ummm the bolts aren't long enough now. So a quick run down to Bunnings and grab some longer bolts ... OK got the rego holder on the bike .. phew it's only taken me three hours to do all this. So now I just have to get the rear fender off, and sit down and do some wiring ... hmmm where's that mallet ... "Hey babe can ya come get these bolts loosened so I can get the fender off"... "Sure," he says "where's the mallet?" Right so the fender bolts just aren't moving. How did I solve this? I connected the battery back up, put the seat back on and snapped a pick of my nice new rego label/plate holder. So next weekend I'm either gonna give it another go or book her into the bike shop and get some brawny bloke to do it all for me. My L Plate stands out so much now, gonna have to get rid of that.

Oh yeah and I don't think I've metioned this lately .. I LOVE MY BIKE :D

The New Shadow

Yep there's a new bundle of joy!!! His name is ... 'hey babe what's the new shadow's name?!' .... and the response was ... 'hmmm not sure, I don't know him yet'. And so the new shadow will be called, the new shadow for now. Yep Terry got his bike, and he's boootiful. Wanna see him?

He emerged one sunny afternoon from a grassy plain and found a home in our driveway.

I'm sure they will soon be best friends

So I made him go for a ride with me nearly as soon as I got home after work today. And it was fun. I like him in front more than me leading, we tried both ways. Went to his son's place and showed off :D

I rode at night for the first time tonight too, I hate my headlight. It's not strong enough, and it points straight down at the ground. I screwed up a round about too, just when I was thinking I had those things down, I came to one of those teensy little ones tonight, and as I was just going to turn around it I thought I was in third gear and decided that second would be better, as I knocked it into first I realised I was putting it into first. Not good, but I didn't come undone completely, was just messy :( Anyways, it's all part of that learning curve, and riding with Terry was damn exciting. I cant wait til we are touring together !!!

Oh and I love the new shadow's instrument thingy at night!!!

Got My Hair Done

Yep, got my hair done. How is that bike related I hear you ask. Well it's a special hairdo, it's to support the wonderful work done by the Leukaemia Foundation. And it was easy to do ... just a willing person armed with a set of clippers did the job.

Yep I shaved my hair off for the Leukaemia Foundation's World Greatest Shave. Someone at work came into the lunchroom one day a couple of weeks ago and suggested we all dye our hair as a part of the fund raiser, I musta had a funny look on my face cause she said ... 'you don't look so keen Brenda'. Actually I was thinking to myself why the hell not just shave? And I said it. 'I'll shave' I said. The next thing I knew one of the other girls said ... 'well I will too then'. From that moment on it was a done deal.

I've done it before, so it didnt worry me, the great thing is that the other girl who said she'd do it got the courage because I said I would. It felt good to give her that boost, she'd wanted to do this for years apparently. And we have raised a stack of money with our many sponsors ... well done to all of you !!!

So what the hell does this have to do with the bike eh? Absolutely nuthin' ... I just wanted to share and remember something exciting

So to make it more bike like .. here's a pic of two bald babes and the baby bike

Anyways, I guess I'll add a bit of bike stuff ... like how's my riding going? Actually it's great, I told ya I did some pracitce with u-turns and e-stops and u-turns suck, yeah. But the e-stops were a breeze, and if I do say so myself the stopping is just getting pretty good all round now. Braking is no longer the issue it used to be, I use both brakes comfortably now, and putting one foot down isn't a problem anymore cept when I'm stopped for a while, like at lights, then I put both feet down just cause I get tired and a little unsteady. It's amazing what a bit of daily practice will do. Now to work on those u-turns.

U-Turns Will Be The Death of Me

Well I didnt go for a ride to Yeoval today. :( Instead hubby offered to take me out and stand by while I practiced my e-stops and u-turns. Yay .. I need that practice and I took along my camera to get some video of it to anylise when I got home.

So I did bout 20 u-turns, I go way too wide, but I feel like I got the hang of some of it by the time I got too hot and tired to go on. I know what I'm doing wrong too, I kinda knew while I was doing them but when I looked at the video it confirmed it for me, I seem to get nervous half way thru the turn and straighten, due to the poor video quality I cant tell if I'm straightening because I'm glancing at the gutter when I get half way thru, but I think that may be the case. That's good, I can practice that.

My big problem is that the RTA has guidelines for the test to get my licence, and the distance you have to do the u-turn in is 6.1m wide. WOT?!?!?! There's no way in hell I could that, I measured and even if I practiced for a year I just don't think I'd get it. I'm feeling pretty bummed out about that.

I feel that I'm doing most things right, looking where I need to go ('cept at the peak of the turn when I think I glance at the gutter), using my clutch and brake correctly, all that stuff feels right. I just need to practice it all. And practice I will !!!

Presents for The Shadow

I ordered saddlebags today. Got them online, which I'm a bit dubious about, but the site is a place in Queensland and they seem pretty good. I had contact with Joe, I think he's the founder, and he was pretty honest and prompt in answering my questions. I'd definitely recommend him at this stage.

 http://bibblebar.com.au/home/about-us

I'll tell ya more bout the products as soon as I get them and install them.

I got the plain ones that I've always wanted, I think I've whined before bout all the tassells, studs and fringes ya seem to get with these bags, the plain ones from BibbleBar look stylish. So they come with a permanent bracket but ya can get a lockable/removable one too. The way it works is pretty good, no bits left on your bike when you remove them, and the bags have D rings so you can clip on the included shoulder strap and carry ya bags inside with ease.

I always had an idea I would have to move my indicators to fit saddlebags, and Joe has told me that's the case with these bags for sure, so I had to order a plate to move my blinkers to. You remember that nice number plate holder I liked, yep I got one of those that will take my blinkers as well.

So I'm keen to try to move the blinkers myself and fit the saddlebags. I'm dying to do some tinkering with the baby, but I may just chicken out and get the local Honda guys to do it for me. We'll see when I get the stuff, if it looks hard I'll chicken out for sure :)

So how's the riding going? Well I'm feeling pretty good bout my braking, and cornering feels pretty good most of the time too. I'm becoming more aware of the traffic around me, as a direct consequence of not spending so much of my concentration on those things I'm sure, which has to be a good thing. I really don't wanna be a statistic cause I didn't notice a car that didn't notice me. Still haven't been for a good ride cause of all the foul weather, don't wanna be too far away from home when the heavens open up. So I'm making sure I take a different route to work, and I'm doing little rides around town when I can on the weekends. But the good news is this weekend BOM reckons it's gonna be nice weather, will have to see if I can talk hubby into a trip to Yeoval!!