When it comes to motorcycles, sometimes I make rational decisions This has been been happening more and more as I get older, which I see as a bit of a concern.

Old people generally do boring stuff like ride OTT large luxurious motorcycles that cost as much as a decent car. They spend all their time keeping it immaculate for some reason, which means never riding it to it’s potential or doing anything remotely risky.

Not doing risky stuff = not living

After my contankerous KTM RC390 got too moody for it’s own good, I traded it for a Kawasaki Ninja 500. The Kawasaki does everything better than the KTM ever did except for one thing..

It was missing the ‘hoon’ factor. It sounded like a quiet postie bike, which has also meant other motorists tend to stray into my lane because they haven’t noticed I was there..

What to do?

Get rid of that massive heavy muffler and put a decent aftermarket muffler on.

YEEESSSS, now it sounds like a semi decent motorcycle should, and cars stay out of my lane.

I also feel ten years younger…

With the current ‘fuel crisis’ going on, it’s prompted me to sort out what to wear on the bike to stay warm as we head into winter, rather than use the car all the time.

In my twenties, I would just do it and worry about consequences later -like hands so numb with cold I couldn’t open the petrol cap until my hands warmed up, or riding to work in the rain, wringing the water out of my socks and putting them back on..

Yeah, that was 30 + years ago..

As the weather has slowly got colder through autumn, I’ve experimented with different clothes to see what works and inadvertantly what doesn’t.

The difficulty with autumn is that the day typically starts off cold, but by mid day it’s quite warm, and you can easily end up too hot, especially if your stuck in traffic.

Summer is easy -Helmet, t shirt, jacket , gloves,  jeans , boots

Winter requires some extra’s  -a balaclava to keep my neck and face warm,  a woolen singlet , long sleeved shirt, then rainproof leggings over the jeans to keep the cold out.

That just leaves just my hands at the mercy of the cold. An old trick is to just stick your hands on the engine as you are riding along (one at a time please), but with bikes with a full fairing, the radiator ducts do just fine.

This is working fine as I write this in late autumn, but it’s likely to get colder yet, so well just have to see how it all works out.

Ever since the Pukekohe  racetrack closed several years ago, I’ve moved onto watching the racing at Hampton Downs every year instead.

It’s not quite the same though, they seem to run it differently every year and they haven’t quite worked out what works and what doesn’t.

Continue reading “A day at the Hampton Downs racetrack” →