Stimulus package on Elizabeth St Melbourne

I went to Melbourne this morning to collect my Dainese Galvestone textile pants that I'd had on order from Peter Stevens motorcycles in Elizabeth Street. Thanks for the stimulus package $'s Kevin Rudd! For those not familiar with Melbourne, Elizabeth St in downtown Melbourne has a strip with 105 year history of motorcycle shops.

It was great dealing with a salesman named Bill, who was knowledgeable about their products and had an approach that appealed to a mature rider like myself. I find some of the younger guys seem to think that their customers have to be "kewl" to be worthy of their attention. I've noticed at the big dealerships these young guys are often on traineeships and don't last long anyway.

First textile pants I've ever purchased - should be good now that winter is upon us here in the southern hemisphere.
Gortex whats more!
Maybe I'll get the matching jacket if I get a decent tax return, check out the Gator.

I wandered down to Peter Stevens new store in A'Beckett St. This houses the Hardley Ableson, Triumph & MV Agusta dealerships as well as a "clearance centre". This place is big & kinda like K Mart.

I'd quite like to take this for a run.

Lotsa Triumphs - this is but a few of them.

Weekday ride

We were on strike today so no work for us. It was the perfect opportunity to ride the Otways & Great Ocean Road with very little traffic & reasonable weather before winter sets in.

Marty's ZX9R in front of the Gellibrand store. This was our hot drink stop.

VFR800 & ZX9R
It was so quiet - virtually no traffic at all. Here's the view looking northwards.

Two short rides

On Saturday afternoon Mrs Tarsnakes and I took a quick run down the Great Ocean Road from Geelong to Lorne (Vic). It was her first pillion ride in 19 years and she did great - just like old times!

Sunday morning I headed for the Otways, but some drizzle & black clouds over the ranges had me thinking about whether I really wanted a drenching or not. I saw a heap of motorcycles at Dean's Marsh, (including a Spyder that I had seen in Geelong on Saturday). I didn't stop at Dean's Marsh as I really wanted to head a bit further on. I resolved the weather issue over a delicious breakfast at the Otway Estate vineyard just past Colac. I ended up heading for home and had dry roads all the way. So, a weekend of two short, but enjoyable rides.

Every time that I ride past this "renovators delight" I think that I should stop and take a picture - so today I did. Now that the fire season is over, farmers have been burning off, so unfortunately there was quite a bit of smoke about.


Vines amongst the eucalyptus


Main building - much nicer inside than the exterior would suggest.


The weather wasn't the greatest, but there wasn't much traffic and the roads were dry so it was OK for riding.