Midday, Thursday: A good time to ride the Putty Road. Riding it close to sunrise and sunset I\u2019ve seen wallabies, cattle, lyre birds, a spotted quoll, deer on the road.<\/p>\n
Even the cops know there\u2019s no money in Thursdays.<\/p>\n
Boris needed visiting. It was two and a half hours from my place.<\/p>\n
I arrived early afternoon. We drank German beer and chewed chilli jerky. I told him I had the Putty’s Ten Mile section to myself. I told him how magnificent it was charging out of the corners with the traction control light winking merrily. He told me about riding it on a Yamaha R3 and racing a big Ducati that had lots of acceleration but couldn\u2019t carry the corner speed of the R3.<\/p>\n
We drank more beer. Boris lit the Weber. He put what appeared to be fatted calf in it after the sun went down. He served a Coonawarra cabernet with dinner. As we reached the end of the bottle I remembered that I had a bottle of Metaxa five star in my panniers, and he got out some brandy glasses.<\/p>\n
Midday, Friday: A good time to ride the Bylong Valley Way. I might have even been sober by then.<\/p>\n
Just kidding.<\/p>\n
Ben needed visiting. It was three and a half hours from Boris\u2019s place.<\/p>\n
I nearly hit a wallaby on the Ilford Sofala road while heading west with the sun in my eyes. I arrived late afternoon. We drank Japanese beer. I told him about the wallaby. He said if it made me feel better there were heaps of them on the sheep farm over the road, and we had a standing invitation to shoot them, and we might get a pig or a deer as well.<\/p>\n
We had dinner. We went hunting for a couple of hours. I remembered that I had a bottle of Tennessee whiskey in my pannier. Ben got some shot glasses.<\/p>\n
Midday, Saturday: A good time to ride the Turondale road.<\/p>\n
I was on my way to it when I saw a pair of dead feral pigs at the side of the road. I stopped my bike because I wanted to take a photo of them and send it to Duncan with the message \u201cEven the pigs left me alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
They looked like they\u2019d been gut-shot with a shotgun and dragged close to each other for a photo. Probably drunks hunting from the road. It\u2019s illegal, but it sometimes happens out there.<\/p>\n
I took a photo of them with my phone. I sent it to Duncan with the message \u201cEven the pigs left me alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
I got back on my bike. The road sloped down to the left. I couldn\u2019t get it up off the sidestand. The V-Strom is high, it had a mostly full tank and the panniers are mounted high. I couldn\u2019t reach the ground enough to push it up and I couldn\u2019t use my weight because I only weigh 75 kilos or so and it weighs well over three times that much and carries it high.<\/p>\n
I got off. I put it on full left lock and wheeled it backwards. I could get it up off the stand then. \u201cThis is stupid\u201d, I said to myself. \u201cI often ride deserted roads alone. I have to get fat and grow longer legs, or get a lower, lighter bike.\u201d<\/p>\n
I started browsing BikeSales during the week. I had to go to Brisbane on Wednesday night to exorcise a computer network. I finished the job on Friday morning, and accidentally bought a Yamaha MT-09 Tracer on Friday afternoon while waiting to board my flight.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019ve made worse mistakes. I rode a 2015 Tracer a few years back, and a 2019 a few months back. I like how they conduct themselves.<\/p>\n
It arrived a week after Tuesday and I took a couple of hours off work to get it registered and insured.<\/p>\n
\u201cNice looking bike\u201d, said the boss when I rode it into the car park. \u201cSo now it\u2019s time to tell the missus, is it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course not\u201d, I told him. \u201cI told her the day I bought it. She was fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah?\u201d, he said. \u201cShe\u2019s a keeper, then.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew she was a keeper the first moment I saw her, all those years ago\u201d, I told him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did you know that?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause\u201d, I said, \u201cshe was wearing massive gloves.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, Al\u201d, he said. \u201cThe last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it\u2019s still on the list.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Even the cops know there\u2019s no money in Thursdays<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1484193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[221],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikeme.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikeme.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikeme.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikeme.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikeme.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1484186"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bikeme.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1484247,"href":"https:\/\/bikeme.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484186\/revisions\/1484247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikeme.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1484193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikeme.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1484186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikeme.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1484186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikeme.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1484186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}