Archive for category Motorbikes
Ride for the Hills
On Sunday, I’ll be taking in Ride for the Hills – a charity event organised by the Victorian branch of the Motorcycle Riders Association of Australia.
We’re riding up to Whittlesea to raise funds for those effected by the Bushfires.
Here’s a pretty amazing video of a ride through those hills a few weeks after the fires:
Moto GP
Well, off to Philip Island for the weekend tomorrow to see the Aussie World Moto GP Champion Casey Stoner essentially do a victory lap in front of a home crowd.
It’s been a really exciting year for Moto GP, a fantastic field of riders, plenty of new blood riding very competitively (including Casey obviously) and 800cc engines which means that all the manufactures were starting from scratch more or less.
It’s meant Ducatti hit the nail on the head first time round which is impressive as they are one of the smaller teams, and Honda, who have dominated for quite a few years now (at least the last 6) have really struggled.
So it will be an exciting year next year as well as the teams settle into the 800cc engines and start some major developments. Not to mention a few exceptional 250cc riders coming up to the Moto GP class.
I’ve been to three of the last four Moto GPs and they are a lot of fun. Camping “track side” and being woken every morning by the sound of the 125cc’s warming which is the last thing you want to hear when you’ve been up all night drunkenly singing a long to an Oz Rock cover band with a few thousand other very “heavy dudes”.
Yep, really excited about it all this year.
8 things
So my household managed to exceed our 20 Gig a month download limit somehow. I realise I’m partly responsible but 20 Gig is quite ridiculous. This makes use of my computer frustrating. In addition I’m having ongoing difficulties trying to get a linux operating system happening on my computer – I’m close and will persist for a little longer.
A friend of mine is going away for 3 weeks and lending my his Motorbike. So excited – I haven’t been on a bike for many months.
The Electric Six’s Senor Smoke is the sound track to my life at the moment replacing Cold Cut’s Sound Mirrors. Both Albums didn’t strike me as particularly exciting when I first listened to them but I’m obsessed with both of them now.
I keep dreaming that I’m overseas and face increasingly difficult obstacles to getting to my plane home. When I was overseas I had to make it to London by a certain date in order to catch my plane to Bangkok and them home, it wasn’t particularly difficult but I did have to get from Morocco to Madrid so that I could catch a plane to London. In my dream I basically keep reliving this though my dreams only there is always something getting in the way. Someone can’t give me a lift, I get lost or something else. The dream is always completely different with different people in it but the theme doesn’t change. I’ve dreamt the same thing at least the last three nights. On two of those nights I woke up wondering which country I was in and it took me a few seconds to figure out I was in Australia. Can you imagine my disappointment.
My best friend is engaged. I’m going to be the best man. That makes me really happy for quite a few reasons.
I’m on the dole, the rock ‘n roll, working for Bracksy etc. For the first time in my life I’m receiving some sort of government benefit. You’ve got to fill out a job diary and apply for 10 jobs a fortnight but you only have to submit your diary once every 12 weeks. I hope I’m employed by then so I can’t help but feel that I’ll never fill it out. I’ll let you know when I’m employed again.
Last night I went to an A-League game – my first one. It was great and the mighty Melbourne Victory defeated Perth 1 – 0. There was 25000 people there. It felt like this whole new world that I was previously unaware of.
Is anyone else quite overwhelmed with joy at this news?
Best Moto GP season…. ever
I realise that Moto GP (the Motorcycle Grand Prix) doesn’t have much of an audience in Australia but I just thought you’d like to know that last night was the last round of the Moto GP and Nicky Hayden pinched the world championship off Rossi by a whisker and my god it was exciting.
The championship hasn’t come down to the last race in years. Last year Rossi won by over 100 points (you get 25 points for a win). This year though, Hayden had been top of the table until the penultimate race where his team mate crashed into him and Rossi just snuck past him in the points table. You’ve never seen someone so upset in your life, than
Then, 4 laps into the last race, Rossi goes in too hard on cold tyre and crashes out.
Ok, so I’ve made it sound really boring here but my god it was exciting.
Hells Angels sue Disney
Via CCH:
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation has filed a suit in the US Federal District Court in California this week, alleging that Walt Disney illegally used its trademark name and skull logo in producing the upcoming comedy, Wild Hogs.
The Hells Angels are objecting to characters in the movie wearing trademark logos and being identified as part of the biker group.
According to the suit, the movie has repeatedly been promoted as being about a “group of middle-aged wannabe bikers look(ing) for adventure out on the open road, where they soon encounter a chapter of the Hells Angels”.
A Disney spokesman dismissed the claim as being “without merit”.
Fast!
I think this blog is still supposed to be about motorbikes a little bit, and this particular bad boy does deserve a mention.
Seemingly trumping the Y2K‘s Rolls Royce Allison 250 series gas turbine engine which churns out a mighty decent 320 HP @52,000 rpm, capable of clocking over 230 Mph, is the Acabion.
The Acabion is meant to be able to do 0 to 450 kph (around 280 Mph) in around 19 seconds.
I think it would be reasonable to suggest that I’d like a ride.