Such A Nice Day!!

 Yep it was such a nice day today, weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold, I love autumn! But then everything about today just seemed to be nice. I haven't ridden the bike in about a week or so, and never with my sexy new P plate on it. I was dying to get on her, but every morning I've woken up tireder than I went to bed, so I wasnt keen to ride to work and since the car was available I decided not to take the risk. So all week I've been griping about it to Terry, and becoming more insistant than normal that we had to go for a ride this weekend. Having still not done the Yeoval run Terry suggested that for this weekend .. as usual I didn't care where we went so I agreed.

 I slept in this morning, as usual :) So as we sat at the kitchen bench eating our brekky, we were chatting about our big trip and the things we still needed to get ready for it. The subject of the sun came up, we both wear glasses to see so we've both been hit with the sun in the afternoon, we needed a solution to that. I've tried perscription sunglasses, and they suck, I'm not sure if it's my particular prescription reacting with the polorisation on the lenses, or if the glasses actually have the wrong prescription in them (I got them from one of those budget glasses shops and I'm not convinced that was a good idea) but they make me dizzy and give me eyestrain. So I had decided I was going to see what a tinted visor was like. Terry thought he'd like to have a look too so he suggested we head to the local bike shop for a look this morning. We jumped in the car, helmets in hand, to check it out. No parking spots anywhere to be seen, and heaps of bikes. Ah the local was having a bike show this weekend I remembered. Cool lets go check 'em out!!

Terry thinks this old Norton is the same as the one his 80 something y.o. uncle used to race in the good ole days

 There were heaps of bikes of all kinds, but my eye seemed to be drawn to the older ones every time. There were a couple of Nortons which won my heart, and even a pretty red Triumph.

 

Cant remember what this was, but it looked so well loved I fell in love with it too.

 Not good photos I know, I only had my phone with me. So we wandered around a bit more, spotted the bike that Terry wanted to show me ... Honda Valkyrie, he'd never seen one before, neither had I though I thought I'd heard it mentioned somewhere before, might have to google it. And opposite the Valkyrie was the chopper style postie bike !!!

My first thought on seeing this was .. OMG it's got a jet engine!!

Postie bike ....?

 I got myself a tinted visor, Terry was going to have to order one in, but he's debating whether he can just get the clip on sunnies he's used all his life so he didnt order. We had a good time at the bike shop today and Terry didnt even drag me out as soon as we got there like he normally does.

 We went home and Terry fitted his Senna BT thingy onto his helmet, I'd fitted mine ages ago. Then we were going riding, as much as I wanted to go for a ride, as I've already stated I really don't care where I go and it was getting late in the day so I suggested we just go somewhere in town for lunch and a bit of a ride round instead of Yeoval (we will get there one day ...)

 So we headed off, and instead of me stopping just up the road and asking where we were going, I just spoke into the mic of the Senna and told him to lead on. So the Senna ... yep it's great, just what we wanted. Easy to use, but I still havent got the VOX to work on it, I'd tried it in the house one night last week and had to scream into the mic with the cover off it to get it to activate, and today again I went blue in the face to get it to voice activate, so we just hit the little jog dial once to talk and once to put it in standby. One of the best things about this unit is the easy to use controls, all you have is one large 'jog dial', controls the volume by turning it and pushing controls the intercom, the other button is on the side of it and the only use it has for us will be to hold it with the jog dial to turn the unit on/off.

You can see the Senna isnt large on the helmet, Ted likes it too!

 The other use for that button is mainly for other BT appliances like phone, navigation or MP3 player. Personally I dont need it for any of those things, I'm a bit of a hater of mobile phones, and have mine firmly out of reach if I'm out of reach, I hate the way society has become slaves to mobile phones and feel they need to be contactable at all times of the day. Navigation, well I figure getting lost is just one more part of the adventure of being somewhere new! And the little navigation man annoys me, he sends me in circles and if he doesnt like where I'm going he gets too repetative. Well yeah I love music, but I have to agree with Geoff from Confessions of an Ageing Motorcyclist who did a nice review of the Senna Here , I don't feel the need to listen to music while riding, there's plenty of stuff happening in my head and in my surrounds to keep me more than busy.

 The only reason we wanted the Senna, actually felt it was a need was we have noticed when we are riding longer distances that it's handy to be able to communicate a bit, like the time Terry pulled in for petrol and I kept going merrily on my way with no idea where he was, cause I'd forgotten his small tank. Oh yeah and the other use that was utilised today .. Terry can tell me when I've left my blinker on .. he has tried all sorts of hand signals to which I'm ussually sitting behind him trying to work out what the hell he's on about .. I've even wondered if he was being attacked by bees. So the Senna fits the bill perfectly for us and will get use on the trip to Queensland.

That trip is coming up fast and I'm getting more excited every day. I loved my ride today, and getting on the baby bike was very comfortable for me, I had wondered if I would feel different since the last bike I rode was the little CB250 when I did my training day, but no my baby bike is feeling more and more like a glove every time I get on her. I did a few tricky things in car parks today that I wouldn't have even tried a couple of months ago, just parking in tight corners and getting her back out of those corners again, it all went well. Oh yeah and I tried out my new kevlars as well .. well now I'm decked out with all the gear when I ride, I feel as though I could survive an explosion! It feels good, the kevlars were uncomfortable at first, they're stiff, and the knee guards are hard and don't seem to bend where they should, but I'm hoping with wear I'll train them. They are a bit adjustable so I'll try moving them to see if there's a better place for them. And the jeans are lose around my back, not my tummy they just gape at the back .. weird. I'm just hoping I dont look like this when I'm riding ...