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Well the Connie is in the shop getting a service prior to all the great summer's riding that's just on the horizon and they kindly loaned me this little number to get home on.

It's a second hand bike with about 5,000km on it but has an aftermarket muffler which gives it a nice little growl and some trick carbon (or carbon-look) goodies. I've only pottered around town on it and it is definitely great for this - very small and narrow, great for getting into tight places. It also gets up and goes quite well.

The riding position is a little weird - a slightly racy position for your legs and then low but wide handle bars. These wide handle bars and the total lack of weight (I'd just gotten off the Connie after all) make it a piece of cake to chuck around. The clutch is very light but the gear lever felt like it had quite a longish throw (stuffed up a couple of up-changes by being a bit gentle on it) but otherwise the little motor is quite nice. Didn't think much of the brakes as they needed a bit of squeeze - though once again I'm used to some pretty serious stoppers on the Connie and pretty reasonable brakes on the VTR.

All in all though it's quite a nice little bike and would be a great commuter - especially in larger cities where motorway riding is required. Probably pretty economical too with it being a small injected twin. Nice...better give it back tomorrow...

The Anti-speeding message

This might work...

Unusual Speed Control Idea - video powered by Metacafe

Busy time of the year

Now that summer is on it's way for sure, there's a lot of riding to be had. Here's just a few of the planned rides:

• October 4: the CDMTC's 800km in a day
• October 18-19: The Rusty Nuts Grand Challenge
• November 8: The Capital 1000K cruise
• December 13: The Woodville Lions Coast to Coast
  

And these are just the longer rides! There's toy runs and Friday night rides etc as well to get through - yeehah! The Connie is going to be busy - in for a service this week to make sure she's all set for some exercise. All right, giggidy, giggity!

Daylights Saving

Yep daylights savings is here and with it came a nice sunny day. Lots of things to do around the house yesterday and today but after washing the Connie prior to it's service this week it was time for a little ride in the sunshine.

Not much a ride distance wise but I had a blast on the Honda over the saddle and then headed through to Balance. My first surprise came when I rounded a bend to find a caravan parked in the middle of the road. I managed to avoid it and then got my second surprise - the fuel light on the bike starting to flash.

From here on I took it easy - I'm still unsure of the range of the Honda once the gauge starts flashing. I managed to make it back into Palmy ok and put 16L in the tank before heading back out to Linton to catch up with some friends for a bit before heading home to put the bike to bed.

Summer is on it's way...

No riding this weekend

Yep, that's right no bike riding this weekend. Instead I was off to the Taranaki for my Nephew's 1st birthday and to let the dog frolic amongst the rabbits. Surprise, surprise though, a vintage bike rally was on and the bike's were filing straight past the gate. From a pretty poor vantage point I was able to quickly grab the below pics before heading back inside for the birthday party.