Sunday 17 April 2011

ZX14 is due for first service & another Ninja

First off, congratulations to my mate Peter on the purchase of his new ZX14 - in red. I'm looking forward to seeing it. Little did I know that this would be the result when Pete looked over my day old Ninja a fortnight ago!
Pete aboard his new ZX14
In the two weeks I've had the ZX14 I've managed to clock up 1,000 kms and so it's ready for its first service. I want to get it serviced this week so that we have the option of doing some rides over Easter if the weather's OK.

I rode solo through the Otways yesterday in fairly cool conditions. The roads were quite damp - wet in the shady spots, so I took it pretty easy. After around 250 kms through the Otway Ranges I wound up at Steve's and we had a very pleasant 'arvo sitting in his shed talking bikes, blues and more bikes! The sun came out for an uneventful run back home from Colac.

Marty joined me today, on what turned out to be a magnificent Autumn day. We left Geelong around 9.30am, it was 13C and cloudy. It actually got cooler in the foothills of the Otways as we approached our first stop at Gellibrand. We were there no time and the sun came out and pretty soon an hour had slipped by as we sat in the sun and chatted to the store's owner (and KTM rider) Paul. As you can see from the pic below there was not much doing in downtown Gellibrand on a Sunday morning!

We were more focussed on riding than stopping for pics, so here's two more of the motorcycles in 'Gelli'.



We had an excellent run along the GOR to Apollo Bay and likewise back inland via Forrest. I thoroughly enjoyed both rides and I'm very pleased with my choice of new motorcycle based on it's first 1000kms.

Did I mention that there is only one gas station in Apollo Bay? Consequently I paid $1.64 per litre (that's around $6.23 per US gallon) for premium unleaded, making it the most expensive petrol I've ever purchased, even though Apollo Bay is only 190 kms (approx 120 miles) from Melbourne!

This coming week we're attending two highly anticipated concerts on in Melbourne. Wednesday night we're seeing the Blind Boys of Alabama (with Aaron Neville) and Good Friday night it's the Susan Tedeschi & Derek Trucks Band. I can't wait!

4 comments:

  1. Jules,
    Great to see you putting some distance on. No encounters with the law yet? ;-)

    Hope you enjoy the Blind Boys. They got great reviews in Auckland. Sadly, we'd only just got back from o'seas and missed that they were appearing.

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  2. Hi Geoff, all smooth sailing so far! Thanks for the feedback on the BB's.

    There are some 'big names' in Oz at present, mainly due to the Byron Bay blues festival and many do side shows as well. see www.bluesfest.com.au

    Cheers Jules.

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  3. Great to see you are enjoying the bike and are happy with it, by all accounts it seems an easy bike to rack up the KM's on! I am of to Lady Antebellum tonight so very much looking forward to that.

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  4. Roger, I'm loving it! I just to ride and ride some more.

    Enjoy the show (I had to look Lady Antebellum up on Wiki though!).

    Cheers Jules.

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