Day 4….Rest Day…NOT!!
Well, what can I say? This morning at 0900 it was back down to Lawrence Drive at Nerang and a visit to Paul Feeney’s MV Agusta dealership. Last night we had dropped in to say hello and had teed up a little surprise for you workers back home in Wollongong.
Paul and I go back a long way, back to when he was a sidecar passenger for Ray Spence in Canberra in the late 1970’s and, unlike some people who forget their mates when they get rich and famous, Paul hasn’t.
So this morning when we arrived at the shop there was a nice new MV F4/1000 waiting on the forecourt for me to have a “test ride” on!!! I kid you not. Paul was very gracious and wanted us to have a good time so he offered Damien an MV Agusta Brutale 750 to ride along with me so that he could enjoy the ride and take some photographs. He would have offered Damien the 1000cc bike, but Russell Ingall has it at the moment.
When he asked where we were going, I said I didn’t know. He asked Damien if he knew the roads around here, which, of course, he does, and Damien said that we were going to go on our own bikes today and do a loop up Springbrook Mountain to the lookout and back.
“OK, ” said the man, “Off you go, and enjoy.” So, 65 kms of mountain twisties later (to say nothing of a hot choccy at the Canyon Lookout, overlooking the whole of the Gold Coast) we returned the bikes to Nerang and got off, giggling like a couple of school kids who’ve just put tacks on the teacher’s chair.
In fact, we’re STILL giggling. That was the most awesome experience. We swapped bikes so that Damien could experience the F4 and I rode the Brutale for a while too.
My brain and all my senses HURT!!! The noise, the exhilaration, the acceleration, the ALIVE-ness of it all. Words just can’t convey it all.
Everything else is downhill after that.
We did take photos so that you don’t think we’re joshing you. Damien will post them soon.
