My brother has a lot of favourite sayings. Some of them are the same as mine and derive from the collected wisdom of our dad who made a point of having something wise to say about pretty much everything, but some are ones he has collected from other sources. One of his favourite catch-phrases is the title of my (long-overdue) entry today. He is fond 0f noting that, while a very small minority of the population are motivated, innovative and clever people who MAKE things happen, the majority live and operate in “rebound mode” ie, they don’t make anything up for themselves, they simply respond to what they see happening around them. Sadly, he is absolutely correct and the inability to be creative has so permeated our collective psyches that the true innovators, the ones who make things happen, are regarded as the “freaks” of our world rather than being those to whom we should all look up and those who we should admire.
Fortunately, this attitude exists less (though it does exist) in motorcycling, than it does in other areas of endeavour. While most manufacturers stick with the tried and true formula, almost to the point of boredom, the ones who DO seek to break the mold, are still lauded and admired. Mavericks like New Zealand’s motorcycling genius, John Britten, are looked up to as a person who we admire and praise because he chose NOT to follow the crowd.
My early motorcycling experiences were highly coloured by exposure to the overseas motorcycling literature, of which there was vastly more in volume and quality than there is today (thank you, internet). And some of what was happening overseas was hugely innovative. In between the golden age of the 60’s where Honda ruled with amazingly advanced multi-cylinder Grand Prix bikes and the modern golden era of the 500cc two strokes, there was a brief age where the four strokes ruled, the golden age of Endurance Racing. My literature of the day was crammed with detailed analyses of the Godiet- Genoud Kawasakis, biles so innovative and clever that some of the features that they pioneered are still being used in bikes today. The famous Mead and Thomkinson pairing that produced the ugliest bikes to ever front the scrutineers, the infamous “Nessie” in its various iterations, built into their endurance bike all manner of features that were innovative in their day but accepted as normal today. M&T, for example, were one of the first to experiment with hub-centre steering which has filtered down in various forms to innovative front suspension design today.
Here a replica of the G-G Kawasaki shows the innovative “bell-crank” rear suspension, forerunner to the Kawasaki “Unitrak” design, and the clever placement, for example, of the battery. Because electronics were somewhat uncertain, they placed the battery in the top of the rear ducktail, so it could be detached and replaced in a very short space of time. Clever featured like this were sprinkled throughout the bike and it is no surprise that the G-G team dominated their era.
Fast forward from 1975 to 1981 and here is one of the iterations of “Nessie” Again, clever design features abound.
So, what does this have to do with me not doing a blog entry for a week? Simple. For the last week I have been functioning solely in rebound mode. Let me explain. On Wednesday morning my family returned home to Australia after living in the US for nearly 18 months. Since they have little in the way of gear and nowhere to live at the moment, we have spent the last few weeks preparing our house for an invasion of 5 people who will be living here for a while till they get on their feet and organise a place to stay, etc, etc. To say that changing the house from one which accommodates 2 people to one that can (reasonably) accommodate 7 is quite a challenge.
Then on Friday my wife and I and my brother helped my son move from his dingy bed-sit in Glebe to a nice, proper, flat in Marrickville. This also required more than its fair share of planning and jiggery-pokery.
Like a bus stop, where no buses come along and then three arrive all at the same time, these two major disruptions to our usually quiet and relaxed lifestyle have seen us bouncing around from place to place and from plan to plan in order to meet deadlines that were not of our making.
Suffice it to say that it has all been accomplished but, with two of the boys sleeping in my study, even simple things like getting access to my desktop computer, has been a little like what “Spike” Edwards said about riding a Harris Suzuki around Phillip Island, “Like dancing with a fat lady in a phone booth.”
On the racing front, the last round of WSBK is on this weekend at “Mangy Course” as my brother calls it. Johnny Rea has already clinched the WSBK title and Kenan Sofoglue only needs a fair finish to clinch his FOURTH WSS title.
The Rossi fanbois are out in force, salivating about the prospect of their hero winning a tenth championship, but with Lorenzo eating into his slender lead, it’s going to be an enthralling set of “fly away” races that could decide the title. Rossi is in the box seat with a 14 point lead so he SHOULD win, but, racing is racing as we know. Who can forget his unforced error in Spain in 2006 that handed Hayden the title at the death?
I won’t be going to the MotoGp at Phillip Island. Too few races and too much hype for me. I’ll save my money for the Island Classic, thanks.
Well, better go get something done. Have a great weekend and I’ll try to get back to the keyboard a bit more frequently.
