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!!