To begin with I have to reply to all the people who are thinking, “Geeze, that bike is so dirty.” Yes, it is. I have not yet gotten around to washing and cleaning it after the Snowy ride. Things have been a bit busy and looking like getting busier.
My surgery, which should have been happening on Monday, has been shifted forwards by two weeks and will now (hopefully) happen on the 29th of this month. I’m not going to go into the reasons why this is so, just have to hang in there for a bit longer.
Not only have I not cleaned the bike since the Snowy ride, I haven’t even ridden it. So, this morning I decided that I’d get out for a small ride and do some testing.
To start with, I wanted to test my new helmet which my family clubbed together and bought me for my birthday. It’s an HJC i90 and it is resplendent in white with red and blue accent stripes. It didn’t occur to me when I saw it in the shop, I just thought that a white helmet would go with the bike. It was my wife who remarked that it looked a lot like my old Freddie Spencer replica helmet from 40 odd years ago and, in fact, it does. I have had a long association with modular helmets over the years, beginning with 2 HJC Symax models in succession, followed by Nitro, then a French-made Vemar and then a Nolan N102, which was the best of them all. I sold all my gear after the accident in 2010 and, when I bought some new stuff, modular helmets had become so expensive that I bought a “normal” one instead.
Later I went modular again, buying a Bell Revolver which I thought would be great because of the brand. It wasn’t. It was heavy and noisy and it was replaced fairly quickly. My brother had bought a Shark Vision R and raved about it and I figured that it would suit me due to the similarity of our heads. It did, and I loved it, it was the quietest helmet I have ever had (though it was a bit heavy). But Shark, for reasons that I can not understand, upgraded the model and dropped the Vision R visor. You couldn’t buy one anywhere.
A mate in Darwin still had one in stock so I bought it, knowing that, when it wore out, I would be finished with the model. That happened and I replaced it with another Shark model which has been my go-to lid for the last few years.
Then, a few weeks ago, I was riding with a mate and I saw that he had upgraded his helmet to an HJC modular. it looked great, he said it was light and quiet and, when I looked up the price, I saw that it was more than bearable, so, my family pitched in the money and they bought me one for my birthday.
I was a little concerned because the shop didn’t have a Large in that colour and, when they checked the catalogue, the salesman found that it isn’t available in the colour any more. Bummer. The shop DID have a Medium which I did try on but it did seem a little snug. I did remember that my Nolan N102 was a Medium and fitted fine so I took the punt and bought the HJC in Medium. (the salesman said I could bring it back if it was too small).
So this morning I did a 60km lap up the mountain and back and, I am delighted to say, that the helmet fits just fine and is a keeper. It also came with a Pinlock which I am guessing I will need to use as Winter approaches. I love the convenience of a modular helmet. I can put it on and take it off without having to remove my glasses and going in to the servo to pay for fuel is a breeze. And I DO love that it is in Freddie Spencer colours and it matches the bike so well.
Mount Kembla Road is a bit messy at the moment after the huge rain event last week. There are lots of places where the rain has washed gravel off the sides and onto the road in the corners and there is a boring Stop/Go sign thing happening outside the MX track. Mount Keira Road, which carries more traffic, is better but is also less than perfect.
I hope to do a longer ride in the HJC soon and I am looking forward to when the Sena 10R arrives and I can fit it and use it for intercom and for listening to music.
I did a quick Relive video, too.
