My new helmet has arrived!

Five days of waiting was such an agony... but it finally arrives! My new Shark Evoline (Series 2) "Absolute" hybrid helmet direct from KneeDraggers.com in US. Despite the shipping and handling costs and conversion from USD to AUD, it still works out cheaper than buying it here - well, only if I can find it in the shop! Too bad the BMW dealer decided not to import it otherwise they would have made one of their customer happy...

I've been searching for a new "hybrid" helmet for a while already - one that looks good as an open face or as a full face; and found this one. I figured that - since I'll be doing a long travel to The Red Centre, might as well do it in style... heheh... besides, the old helmet is a bit too old already. Safety is the main concern here... really! Now, check this out:

One of the reviews said:

"The Evoline is now one of our favorite helmets, so much so that we gave it a special mention as the "Most Improved Product of 2008" in our 4th Annual webBikeWorld Motorcycle Product of the Year Awards."
-WebBikeWorld.com-

"The Evoline was one of the most anticipated helmets of 2008 (this was review for Series 1; mine is Series 2!) and it's also one of the most unique helmets to arrive on the scene since, well, since the radical ROOF Boxer (review), which is still going strong and to which the Evoline pays homage."
-WebBikeWorld.com-

It can be used as a full face too:

And it comes with an internal tinted visor... cool... :-)

More details and review at:

http://www.webbikeworld.com/r2/motorcycle-helmet/shark-evoline/dot/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6909TmfoSo

Rokok, jangan jeles... :-)

World Cup + Rain = Dull Ride

The weather forecast predicted 60% rain in the afternoon but even the morning has started to show signs of dark clouds and strong wind. It was tough getting out of bed in the early morning in the cold particularly after doing a late night last night (but watching Suarez thrashing the Koreans was worth it!).

Anyway, I must ride; otherwise, what do I write in the blog??? Haha... I can't be serious. I can't ride for the blog. I ride because I want to ride. And the blog is about what I like most - to ride; not to write... (say this in Schwarzenegger's line in Simpsons The Movie - "I was elected to lead; not to read...!")

I've been to the South for the past few rides and before that a couple of times to the North so decided to venture East this time, towards the coast. A view by the coast should be nice regardless of the time of the day or the season in the year - I thought. Rather disappointingly, the road wasn't challenging after all and the scenery was quite dull and gloomy. I took many pictures but the best I could post here was the one below at Wellington Point. I was wandering along the Southern Moreton Bay Tourist Route after that stopping at Raby Bay, Victoria Point and all the way to Redland Bay. It then started to drizzle so I decided that I have ventured enough, turn right towards Mt. Cotton and head home. The best part was probably stopping at the bakery near my house and bought some freshly baked croissant and brought them home for breakfast with my wife... I turned out to be quite a wonderful morning after all...

The rest of the day was still cloudy and windy but still managed to run a few errands including visiting friends for lunch. Bumped into Eadie who was wondering why I did not call him for the ride. I honestly thought he was out golfing - just like Bob who was out golfing with his best buddies... ;-)

On the way back we stopped at the park near our house for the kids to play. Here are my kids and significant other in action. I guess this is as far as they'd ever get on a two-wheeler... sigh...

The cloudy day does end nicely as the sun sets and the sky turns purplish blue and the bright moon rising made it just perfect... What a way to end a weekend...

Oh, oh, gotta go... gotta see Germany beat England! Hah!

Cold is not cool

Another Sunday, and it's time for another ride. Checked the weather forecast. It says, "Sunny. Cool. No rain. Humidity 70%. Temperature 16ºC". I thought it would be a perfect day to ceremoniously use the new jacket for the first time!

Off I head down South (similar route like last week, but started further to the West, via the Ipswich-Boonah Rd, then only turn back East towards Beaudesert and Tamborine). This route had appeared in motowhere.com and true enough, a very picturesque choice!


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One not very good thing though; the weather forecast must have predicted the temperature for late morning. I was out by 6:30 a.m. I first noticed a slight chill when the temperature was 7.5ºC near my house. By the time I got to the middle of the plains, it was as low as 4ºC! I realized; this is not a good day to wear an "Airflow" jacket.

Lesson of the day: Cool look doesn't help in the cold!

Anyway, don't be fooled by the bright and sunny look below - I froze my hand trying to get the camera out.

The two riders in the picture above passed by and waved at me and went rumbling along in their Harleys. I also realized why I have never seen any riders on the same direction as I normally rode but at least 5 of them passed by today as I was taking this picture. We have all been travelling on the same direction - at the same speed (we all follow speed limit in Queensland okay!). That's why we never passed by one another.

The original plan was to climb the Binna Burra peak but I went halfway up the Beechmont Rd and found out that there was some roadwork there so cut my trip short and head back towards the East to Nerang and back up North to Brisbane. Didn't manage to get a picture of myself in my new jacket - now, where's Eadie when you need him??? 

A quick stop later at a Rest Area along Pacific Motorway for a double shot of espresso, nature break and a quick call home to check if everybody is already up. 4 hours and 260 km later, (and also the freezing and thawing of my backside) I was home making lunch for the family. And oh, before that - a quick stop at Woolies to get this for the wife... Oh, I am just so sweet... :-)

Until next ride...

What a lovely weekend

Here's a collection of shots taken over the weekend:

Afiq picking grapefruit from the tree in the backyard. Heheh, quite a change from the mango and guava tree back home...















Saturday afternoon lunch made by yours truly, "ayam bakar ala kampung"!

After the late afternoon lunch, the kids wanted to go for a car ride. There I was, driving, and here they are, at the back:

And what happened to the box that the BMW jacket come in? It is now a shield for the Nerf war...

These pretty much sum up this weekend. There were of course many other things not captured on camera. A posting on this morning's ride will follow shortly.

My Birthday!

Wow!!! Thanks to Facebook, e-mail and sms; I got more than 80 birthday wishes today - more than I ever got when people used to send you birthday cards or call you up... Half of the wishes pointed out that I am reaching 40 this year. Yup, a major milestone in life indeed. The way I see it; yes, I'm 40 - and I am proud of it!

I also realized how many friends I have. I mean, real friends (not the 1,300+ friends I collected from playing games on Facebook during one of my lonely assignments at the corner of the world a few years back) who know of your existence, who actually thought about you and who genuinely want to wish the best for you on your birthday. I think you all do, right? And I am deeply honoured and thankful for that.

So, been there, done that, turned 40 and now life continues. It ain't so bad. In fact it was quite good. The fact that I still am reasonably healthy (yeah, a bit of back pain problem but never stop me from riding my bike), still plenty of hair on my head (yeah, not as much as they used to be, but still some), not so grumpy yet (although, admittedly, having less tolerance towards inefficiencies, rudeness, ignorance and everything else to be annoyed about) and having a positive view towards life. Yup, still a long way to go (hopefully) and many more things to do.

The best part of a birthday; here's the birthday cards (yup, they still come in other forms than sms!) from my lovely wife and kids and the special carrot cake with the super special butter and yogurt topping that my wife made just for me! Hmmm... what more can a man ask for...

.... and oh, by the way, the even better part.... the birthday present!!!!

My dream came through (not to mention the dozens of hints I have been dropping around for the last few months - and thanks for the vote in my previous blog post, guys!).

Here it is just the way I imagine it... Now I just need a matching helmet...!









Thanks to all of you for following the blog and for the support and encouragement for me to make the trip. You're the strength I need...

Ride on...!!!

Monday morning ride to Mt. Tamborine

For those who don’t know; it's a long weekend here this week, celebrating the Queen's Birthday which falls on the second Monday of June in all states, except for Western Australia. It may be worth knowing that yours truly's birthday also falls in the month of June and is only the day after tomorrow! I'm about to turn to the big "Four-O" this year and I have never felt better... really! Anyway, that's the story for another day... this one is just about the ride...

It was 12 deg C this morning (not bad for "winter" in Down Under, eh?). It was initially a tough call to make - no, not because of the cold weather but whether I should stay up and watch the World Cup match between Germany and Australia at 4:00 a.m. this morning or sleep early and go for the ride. I made the call to ride after the disappointing draw between England and US the night before. To my surprise, I woke up this morning and checked last night's score before I went out to the bike - and you know what it was; and I dare not repeat it again. Not here, and definitely not in the office tomorrow!!!

I realized that I have not really ventured to the immediate South of Brisbane so that's why I picked the Logan Motorway then Mt. Lindesay Highway to start with today. Much to my dismay, now I know why they do not appear in motorbike routes' suggestions - there was virtually nothing to see. The Logan Motorway was a tolled motorway (now I have to figure out how to pay my toll! Not only that motorbikes have to pay toll here; there wasn't even a toll booth to pay at! Mmm... maybe somehow Malaysian toll road is better.... NOT!!!). To make it worse, I came across 2 police patrol cars. Lucky I got a warning beam from a fellow motorist (to whoever that was in the white sedan - thank you so much for the warning!).

I have been to Mt. Tamborine (Beaudesert-Nerang Rd) before but had not had a nice story to tell. The $333 speed ticket I got has managed to keep me away from that route for the last 13 months! Anyway, I built enough courage to go there again and the pic below explains why...

Oh, there were also other interesting views. Check out this one below:

Cool, eh?

...or even this little town with an interesting name... hehe... (you'd have to understand Malay for it to be funny...)

So, it is always worth a ride along this route and a stop, even in the cold, to catch one of these unique pics. It was a more peaceful ride this time round from Beaudesert to Nerang (not Kuala Nerang okay!) and back to Brisbane via the Pacific Motorway (M1). 230 km in total and still back home in time to make breakfast for the kids...

Oh, by the way, some might wonder; where is Eadie? He's out walking the field and hitting (or trying to hit) some white balls with his set of clubs with a bunch of other crazy people like him.. :-)


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Even pros need training

My wife made me agree to a deal; if she is to allow me to ride to the Red Centre, I must first take a proper riding training that will improve my riding ability and equip me with all the necesary skills I will need for the long distance travel. I thought, well, fair enough. What harm can it do and you never know - I might learn a thing or two...

So I registered myself for the Morgan & Wacker Rider Skills training. First part was the classroom training last Thursday night. I thought it was quite a good start - of course, if it was up to me, I would be jumping on my bike and head to the track right away! But really, the classroom training turned out to be suprisingly interesting and very informative and a good way to prepare us for the practical training. I was glued in my seat for 3 hours listening to Fred, the Chief Instructor, teaching us about braking (cannot imagine we actually spent the first 1 1/2 hours just talking about nothing but braking - but it turned out to be an eye opener - you'll never catch me tailing a car from behind ever again, I can tell you that!), cornering, riding tips etc. Remember 7 things in your riding:- Speed, Traction, Location, Timing, Lean Angle, Body Position & Control Operation. Frank said, none of the accident is not your fault in any way - the 7-item check lists will tell you what you did wrong and that would most certainly be the reason for the accident.

Anyway, that's done and now the fun part - the practical training at the track... yeah!

It was a 2 km closed training circuit in Mt. Cotton, southwest of Brisbane, on the way to Gold Coast. It wasn't like a race track although it has at least 12 sharp turns and hairpins but it represents more of the conditions and hazards we should expect on real road - including the wallabies, snakes, wombats and all...!

We all arrived by 8:00 am at the gate greeted by the instructors, all 4 of them. The part I envy the most about them is they seem to get to pick whichever bike they want to ride from the shop and ride 'em! And they get free riding gears too!

We were quite a mixed bag - Harleys, BMWs, Japs bikes, and a Ducati (a nice red Monster - my next bike!) and even 2 lady riders.

After a short briefing and bathroom break behind the trees, we had a good hardworking 4 hours of fun learning emergency braking (seeing in front of my eyes the actual braking distance at 120 km/h, again, I swear I will never ever tailgate anyone ever again!), cornering, crash avoidance, weight shifting, counter steering etc. To make a long story short, by the time we end the day, I was actually taking a hairpin at 60 km/h (okay, maybe it was more like 50), with one hand!!! Yup, the last drill was to go around the circuit in reverse direction, no braking permitted, only one gear allowed and only one hand on the handle bar. Crazy? Naahhh... as Fred said, "It's all in the techniques..." [Don't do this at home boys]

4 hours never flew that fast. We even got a cert after the course. In my opinion; the course is worth every penny I paid. A must for every rider no matter which level of skills (you think) you have. Actually, having been riding for a long time, make some bad habits even harder to break. Mine is looking down at braking and cornering. Now everytime I do that I can almost hear Fred shouting in my ears - chin up, look ahead!!! And oh, his other favourite line, "whack the handle bar, whack the handle bar!!!" A round of applause also to the other dedicated instructors, Kevin, Adel and Arash.

And this is Fred. He doesn't look as scary when he smiles... :-)

And to show how thankful I was, here's a free advert for Morgan & Wacker. Click link to their website: Morgan and Wacker Motorcycle Training Centre.

Aching arms and legs and sore bum, so probably no Sunday morning ride tomorrow... but you'll never know...