What a great weekend! Seriously, that's how you spend a weekend properly! I went around to "Sunshine Boy" Mark's place on the Friday evening to leave the love of my life in his care (the bike, not Mel, she came home with me) to trailer it down for me he following morning. That all went smoothly and now I really want a bike trailer. After seeing Brendon's fully enclosed Super Trailer with carpet, lighting and other goodies I knew I just had to have one. My bike deserves no less than the best, damn it!
I knew everything went too bloody well, I woke to a really crap Saturday. Rain? Since when was that in the script? Bugger, bugger, bugger! Well a little water isn't going to stop me! Mel and I made amazingly good time getting ready given it was 6am on a Saturday, though I did manage to forget a couple of things, namely my water proof jacket and ear plugs, ahh well it's part of the challenge.
Phillip Island isn't exactly around the corner from my place, two hours later we rolled into the track warm and sufficiently primed with some ACDC setting the mood. The Sunshine Boy had already had Betty II scrutineered so all I needed to do was saunter around to the pit garage, drink some tea and get leathered up. My morning could not have been easier.
There were three riders in Team Lounge, myself, Sunshine Boy Mark and Brendan. Between us we had a VFR800, VTR1000 and a Buell XB1200 (I think, Buells all look the same to me). The morning banter was light and easy, I could tell this was going to be a good day with the type of people that even bad weather couldn't dampen.
First out was Brendan on the Buell, with light rain falling. Next out was Mark to strangely clear weather and a drying track. I followed in the next session and a return of the rain. Don't ask me how or why but this pattern seemed to follow for the rest of the day - Brendan, rain and high winds, Mark, patches of blue sky and a semi dry to dry track, Me, some ridiculous squalls and huge gusts.....Something is going on here! By now you might have worked out why young Mr Mark was becoming familiar with his new name, the lucky bastard!
Out of eight sessions only about 1 1/2 was in dryish conditions. The two pillion sessions with Mel on the back were the worst. She clearly wasn't praying hard enough as it seemed the weather took a particular dislike to her and dumped even worse amounts of rain on our heads. For her part Mel thought it was "romantic" to ride so slowly around the track so she could enjoy the view of the Bass Strait going troppo. I was just trying to keep the bike upright and pointed in the right direction. Oh well, as long as she had fun.
That pretty much sums up the day. It was wet, windy and occasionally frustrating. It was also accident free and a total ball. I just love track days, even the wet ones. At least I know my wet weather skills are up to scratch. The drive home was warm and relaxing, unlike those other times I rode the bike back. If I can't trailer the bike I'm not going, it's just too much hassle.
And then there was one, one more day of bike porn! Sunday, just to shit me, arrived sunny and warm. I could have sworn but I was in too good a mood. We took our sweet time getting ready but eventually made it down to Jeff's Shed (aka the Exhibition Centre). There were the usual manufacturer displays and some nice apparel and accessories stands though there weren't any new release bikes. The one stand out was the Honda VTR1000 concept bike. It's really something else but it's unlikely to go into production as it is as it looks too impractical. Still there was enough innovative ideas on show to suggest some interesting developments in the future.
Mel spent some time getting the feel for various bikes. In the end she felt the Suzuki SV650 has the best ergonomic for her. Now all we need to do is arrange a test ride once she has a full license. I sat on everything I could, Goldwings, Triumph Rocket IIIs, Ducatis 999s. You name it, my bum got to sample the seat. In my mind I was making "vroom vroom" noises and cruising imaginary back roads on bikes I can only dream of owning. Lucky for me then that I own a dream of a bike in the first place then.
On our way out to meet some friends I stopped by the Buell/Harley test ride stand and took a Buell XB1200S (I think is the model designation) for a quick spin. This is a a bike that feel so small yet packs a big torque punch right off idle. I was worried about it tucking under, the front feels that small. It never did though, it steers quickly but without hassle and pulls hard when asked to. It runs out of puff fairly quickly so you need to play with the box to keep it in the happy range. You do that and it's all smiles and happiness. By the end of the test run I must have been getting the hang of it as I pulled a reasonable mono from the lights without even thinking about it. I wont be trading the VFR but it was fun enough to ride that I'd do it again. It's made it onto my list of "bikes to have when money is no exception".
My overall impression of the expo was that it was slickly run but smaller and lacking in "feel" of the previous ones. I managed to get around this one in about 3 hours. Last year took around 6 hours to give you an idea of the difference.
I've got a number of photos of both days to post. It might take a few days but I'll get something going soon.
Catch you later...
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