Wollongong lived up to its reputation of the windy city with a wild night for the coastal capital last night. At Bellambi, just north of the city, a gust of 109km/h was recorded and it belted in all night until around 0700 this morning.
I know, because, after waking up twice because of it earlier in the night, I woke again at 0330 and couldn’t get back to sleep at all. I stayed up watching boring TV till 0600 when exhaustion set in and I slept. I finally woke at 0830 but I’m paying for the lack of sleep now.
Riding in the wind brings a whole new set of challenges as well, especially if they are cross-winds. And faired bikes seem to cop it worse than naked’s, obviously because they present a bigger target to the wind. Anecdotal reports of riders being shifted across whole lanes on the F6 last night and ending up in the breakdown lane next to the median strip. Not fun.
Tomorrow is the 4 Hour Endurance race at Wakefield Park. I’ve been looking at the weather all day today and, the closer it gets to the time, the more I think that I’ll take the car rather than ride.
Wakefield in the Winter is not a great place to be. I remember when CRRC ran a Club Day there on the June Long Weekend in 1997 and I recall announcing over the PA at 1430 in the afternoon that the pipes had unfrozen enough for patrons to be able to use the toilets. And poor Steve Harley brought his RC30 down for the meeting, took it off the trailer, started it up to take it to scrutineering and the water pump drive promptly sheared off. The water in the radiator and the engine was frozen solid from the wind-chill of the bike being on the trailer in the sub-zero conditions.
So he loaded it back up on the trailer and went home. Some days it just doesn’t pay.
