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Off the road again.

August 9, 2008 By

With apologies to Willie Nelson….

My first day for over 7 months without a bike. And it’s looking like it could be quite a few weeks till I am back in the saddle, depending on the availability of parts. It amazes me that a bike that is now effectively 14 years old (the Testarossa ran from 1994 to the end of 1997 unchanged) can have retained so much of its value.

I have been assured that mine won’t be a write-off, but, all the same, I had a look on bikesales this morning just to check on prices and availability and I was stunned to see that relatively high-mileage examples (80k and more) are still being offered for sale (and, presumably, bought) for figures up near the 7 grand still.

New, they were close to 15 grand, a very high price in their day, but there are still plenty of them around and parts are getting harder to get, especially body parts (no, I don’t mean kidneys). I’ve looked on fleabay and there are plenty of mechanical parts but no panels at all.

Could be a long wait.

The local newspaper sent its photographers out on Thursday to capture some images of the hail storm. At the 1:49 mark there are some pictures of Mount Ousley very close to where I crashed. Very scary. You do start to get a bit worried when you see fully-laden semis and coal trucks with their brakes locked on, skidding down the mountain on the ice.

Filed Under: August 2008, That Sucks

Lake Conjola bends..aarrrrrggghh!!!!!

July 27, 2008 By

Paul and I went fishing down the coast yesterday. We left real early so that we could get as much time on the wharf as possible and the traffic was minimal; like, I mean, non-existant. We passed a truck just before the Foxground bends and from there it was clear, all the way through Nowra and it was a dream.

As we continued on south we were pinching ourselves that the roads were so clear. Then the subject turned to the Conjola bends, and we both remarked that we could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times that we had had a clear run through them. It doesn’t seem to matter how well you plan it, and how clear the road has been, you nearly always encounter a truck or a car with a caravan on the Conjola bends.

Well, talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy. We hadn’t got two corners into the Conjola bends than we came upon a Campbell’s petrol tanker crawling down the hill in the mandatory first gear!! Aaarrrgggghhh!!!!!!

We were laughing so hard that it was hard for Paul to control the car!

We speculated that, somewhere in a secret location, there is a constant watch being kept on the Conjola area and that, whenever we approach it, a message goes out to a group of trucks and cars with caravans that are standing by on a side-road ready to intervene and they are sent out to wreck our run through the bends.

I wonder how many others have experienced the same frustration?

Filed Under: July 2008, That Sucks

“The Long Way Round.”

July 25, 2008 By

Sheesh, talk about the “Long Way Round.”

Had to teach at Dapto High today, but the bridge over the railway line on Cleveland Road, just outside the school gate, is closed for a major upgrade. Sooo, it was along Marshall Street, right onto Avondale Road, west until nearly Huntley Colliery, then north along Cleveland road and into the school gate from the west, a total loop of 16kms!

I feel like Ewan and Charlie!  :roll:

The school is the big blue dot in the top right hand corner, just on the western side of the railway line.  :shock:

Filed Under: July 2008, That Sucks