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Author Topic: New Resident In My Shed  (Read 5463 times)

Offline tunnelrider

  • Lives in Foothills of Mt. Olympus
  • **
  • Posts: 321
Re: New Resident In My Shed
« Reply #15 on: December 10, 2018, 10:10:12 PM »
Hey that's awesome on two accounts Tony - first is your family is obviously motorcycle mad and secondly that you're totally cool with the racing sister situation, respect!
'85 Black R65 / '74 GT185 / '83 Pantah 500 / '90 Super Tenere 750  / '01 DRZ400 dirt only

Offline Tony Smith

  • Mt. Olympus Resident
  • ****
  • Posts: 2320
  • Graduate, Wallace and Gromit School of Engineering
Re: New Resident In My Shed
« Reply #16 on: December 10, 2018, 11:17:54 PM »
Quote
Hey that's awesome on two accounts Tony - first is your family is obviously motorcycle mad and secondly that you're totally cool with the racing sister situation, respect!

My father had a 500cc Guzzi in the 50s and his best mate and later brother in law had a BMW R68. Father sold the Guzzi shortly after I was born, but clearly regretted doing so. In the 80s he very nearly bought a Guzzi Le Mans but two things quelled that. Firstly my mother's protest and secondly he took my then "main"  bike - a Kawasaki GPZ1100 for a ride. He was gone about two hours and came back as white as a sheet, he had clearly got a fright but has refused to say what happened - ever. To my knowledge he has never ridden a motorcycle again.

To roll forward to 2018, my sister as already discussed has a fleet of Ducatis, my younger brother has a KTM 1290 and some 1500cc Kawasaki thing which he tells me is the cat's pajamas.

Actually younger brother is the truly mad one, he is somethere in the middle 30s ranking in the Australian far-riders clique and does crazy things like leave Cairns at 3 am and make Bamaga (tip of Cape York) in time for dinner that day. His idea of an "easy" day on bitumen is around 1500~ 1800km (I do 1,000km in a day and spend the next year congratulating myself). If you frequent the Bike Me pages and read the rot that Boris writes, he mentions younger brother frequently, referrign to him as "the sin bosun" in recognition of his profession as a navy chaplin.

A quick and funny aside. some years ago, again in the 80s, our father was a State MP at the time and joined a committee whose aim was to ban all motorcycles bigger than 750cc from Queensland. They had their reasons, but like most politicians they missed the point - the bikes were not dangerous, but letting 18 years old ride them was - at least now we have a more sensible licencing system.

But I digress, the three of us ganged up on him and siad that we would book a photo op with a journalist known to be antagonistic to his political party unless he resigned from the committee. At the time I had the GPZ1100 and the R100RS, my sister had a CB1100R and younger brother had the ex-sister Ducati 860. it would not have been a good look for him.

As far as my sister racing goes she says she actually envies me, I went racing in my 20s and had a "last hurrah" in my 30s. She one the other hand didn't start racing until she was in her 40s and now in her late 50s she is acutely aware of where the "line" is that sensible older people do not cross. i can attest from personal experience that she is still pretty quick whereas I concentrate these days on trying to be as smooth as silk, funnily enough I am not too much slower than the fast young people - they have enough time to stop and light a smoke before I arrive over the approximately 18km of the Gillies range.

Strangely I find that riding at about 7/10ths of what I think I could still do if I were silly enough is more than satisfying enough for me.

1978 R100RS| 1981 R100RS (JPS) | 1984 R65 | 1992 KLE500 | 2002 R1150GSA |

Offline R65TR6

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 3
  • I Love YaBB 2!
Re: New Resident In My Shed
« Reply #17 on: April 24, 2019, 02:39:01 PM »
Nice Beeser.

My first bike was a 61 Matchless G12 650 back in in old Blighty.

Offline suecanada

  • Mt. Olympus Resident
  • ****
  • Posts: 1453
  • Winter time now so we sleep and dream and plan!!
Re: New Resident In My Shed
« Reply #18 on: November 01, 2019, 02:31:38 PM »
Quote
Quote
Hey that's awesome on two accounts Tony - first is your family is obviously motorcycle mad and secondly that you're totally cool with the racing sister situation, respect!

My father had a 500cc Guzzi in the 50s and his best mate and later brother in law had a BMW R68. Father sold the Guzzi shortly after I was born, but clearly regretted doing so. In the 80s he very nearly bought a Guzzi Le Mans but two things quelled that. Firstly my mother's protest and secondly he took my then "main"  bike - a Kawasaki GPZ1100 for a ride. He was gone about two hours and came back as white as a sheet, he had clearly got a fright but has refused to say what happened - ever. To my knowledge he has never ridden a motorcycle again.

To roll forward to 2018, my sister as already discussed has a fleet of Ducatis, my younger brother has a KTM 1290 and some 1500cc Kawasaki thing which he tells me is the cat's pajamas.

Actually younger brother is the truly mad one, he is somethere in the middle 30s ranking in the Australian far-riders clique and does crazy things like leave Cairns at 3 am and make Bamaga (tip of Cape York) in time for dinner that day. His idea of an "easy" day on bitumen is around 1500~ 1800km (I do 1,000km in a day and spend the next year congratulating myself). If you frequent the Bike Me pages and read the rot that Boris writes, he mentions younger brother frequently, referrign to him as "the sin bosun" in recognition of his profession as a navy chaplin.

A quick and funny aside. some years ago, again in the 80s, our father was a State MP at the time and joined a committee whose aim was to ban all motorcycles bigger than 750cc from Queensland. They had their reasons, but like most politicians they missed the point - the bikes were not dangerous, but letting 18 years old ride them was - at least now we have a more sensible licencing system.

But I digress, the three of us ganged up on him and siad that we would book a photo op with a journalist known to be antagonistic to his political party unless he resigned from the committee. At the time I had the GPZ1100 and the R100RS, my sister had a CB1100R and younger brother had the ex-sister Ducati 860. it would not have been a good look for him.

As far as my sister racing goes she says she actually envies me, I went racing in my 20s and had a "last hurrah" in my 30s. She one the other hand didn't start racing until she was in her 40s and now in her late 50s she is acutely aware of where the "line" is that sensible older people do not cross. i can attest from personal experience that she is still pretty quick whereas I concentrate these days on trying to be as smooth as silk, funnily enough I am not too much slower than the fast young people - they have enough time to stop and light a smoke before I arrive over the approximately 18km of the Gillies range.

Strangely I find that riding at about 7/10ths of what I think I could still do if I were silly enough is more than satisfying enough for me.

 
I did rather enjoy reading your missive Tony! I think I would like your entire family!!
1983 R65LS - LRB still my favourite!? 1988 Honda NX250, "Toodles Too" and a Suzuki DR650, "Calypso." All stored in the "Brrrmmm Closet".