Yes.
@saladin we’re both interested to know about your racing which you’ve mentioned before. Would love to hear more if you’re willing to share at some stage.
Beauty.
Can’t go wrong with the Trumpy’s .
Not a lot to tell, tbh.
A mate and I were running a Yammy TZR250 two stroke for a while, very amateur and just for fun. I’m 6 foot 2 and looked like a praying mantis on the thing, lol.
I had a huge high-side at Siberia at PI on an open track day, wrote off a lovely Triumph 595 ( 955i) smashed myself up and was off the bikes for a while. Restarted but my girlfriend (now wife) got pregnant, the TZR was sold and even the road bikes were mothballed.
I’ve ridden PI, Sandown, Winton and Broadford. I hated Winton, technical and I just couldn’t come to grips with it on the two stroke. Phillip Island is gods own track on any bike. Whether you’re fast or slow, I recommend it. I don’t recommend high siding at Siberia , though. Lol.
I should add, we did a lot of two up riding before the kids arrived. She loved it, still does. Much of it done on a Yamaha TRX850 , which had one of the worst rear seats ever conceived . How she put up with hundreds of kilometers perched back there I have no idea. But they were great times. “The Pillion in a million” , indeed. We’re still probably 6 or 7 years away from independent children, hopefully motorcycle travel is an option again then. We have a little Honda 250 in the garage for wifey, but alas a herniated disc means she can’t/won’t ride atm anyway.
Had two trumpets after the dukes but before the ■■■ multis. Both bought second hand, but great machines. A 750 bonny and a trident. Both nice but I preferred the Bonny.
Very impressive. Sounds like you had a ball even with the Siberia mishap in the mix.
We head out to track days at Morgan Park - lots of fun but Mr L&P also had an off this year, but has recovered & enjoyed another track day last weekend.
Lucky enough to see Ollie Bayliss‘s first ride on the Ducati V4 alongside Mike Jones & Aiden Wagner a few weeks ago - serious quickness!!
A track day at PI is still on the bucket list.
I watched an old lad nearly have a coronary trying to kick start a Trident one day, lol. He’d rebuilt /restored it and as he informed me “it runs beautifully but it’s a bastard to start from cold”.
Love hearing your tales Sal. I wrote off my last bike, a gixxer 1000, at Lukey Heights, at a track day, was painful. Trying to work out what I’ll get next
Motorcycling as a lifestyle gets in your blood, doesn’t it?
I’ve always loved doing long distances, just nick off and see somewhere I’ve never been. I’d throw on the jacket and fire up the bike just for a trip to the milkbar. I’d ride to mates parties and sleep on the front porch if necessary. I didn’t care, I was riding. Lol, I remember going to Phillip Island (to stay with mates, nothing to do with the race track) on a 40 degree day in full leathers. Utter insanity. Every set of lights threatened heat stroke death. When I arrived at Cowes and peeled off the pants I discovered all the tanning dye had run out of the leather and I had black streaks on my legs/torso for a week.
I was too young for the main rally heydeys of the 70’s/80’s but I think it would have been my thing, lol. Especially on far less “clever” bikes. The old IronButt Rallies would have been interesting I reckon.
@loyalandproud Hopefully you tick off a PI track day at some stage.
At Lukey or down into MG?
Lol. He should have tried a Ducati 450 single with a manual choke! Some winter mornings you could start trying to kick the bastard over in your jacket, wind cheater etc, and by the time you got it started you were down to your t-shirt. And you couldn’t let go of the throttle to put some clothes back on because the thing would stall and you’d be back to square one. Character building.
It would have been resurfaced by now, but the right-hander at Hayshed used to have a very nasty contour that could unsettle the bike leading up to Lukey. The line through there was important.
Lol, brilliant.
I should try to find an old article I wrote for old Blitz on a Triumph I had to push around Guildford on a warm day.
You prettty much summed up my 20’s there Sal. As long as I was riding I was happy. Sleeping on the beach at Cowes every time the GP or Superbikes were on was so much fun. Day rides over the black spur, through reefton or through the back country was what I used to live for. Loved a track day Too.
Is the race at 10.10?
On the grid now
Warm up lap underway
good start by miller.
its a completely different sport without marquez.
It’s very even without him.