Courting Phillip Island

I am rapt not to be in the vast group of riders who have visted the Island - but only seen others ride around.  I have ridden the Island!  And a fulfilling and interesting day it was.

I wasn't sure, at first, how I would go.  Having a dedicated racebike, I have enough tracktime, but not for years on the SV.  I didn't know how fast I would be able to ride it.  But I should have had faith!  The SV handles every extreme, from inaccessible 4wd tracks (I never did write about that adventure, did I...?), to the fastest circuit on the GP calendar.  GREAT bike, for those who didn't pick up on it.

Whilst I had a pottery first session - slow even by 1st session standards - I did get into it in the second.  I had been thinking about asking to be moved down into the slower group, but with growing ease with the race-track context, I was becoming as comfortable at full speed as I am with the SV on the road.  And I wasn't being left behind either, despite having (probably) the slowest bike in the group!

The only real bugbear I had was braking into T4 (Honda): it is not that the SV couldn't, or wouldn't, but again and again I realised too late that to actually stop the thing (from faster than I realised - 180+ on a fast run) really required a fistful.  Spoiled by the stopping power of the GSXR, actually manhandling the lever was hard to get used to - the result being that in the first two sessions I ran straight on four times.  It is a great spot to have the back entrance to the pits!

The third session though is when the fun really started.  The level of comfort I was riding with made me really conscious of how utterly uncomfortable I am on the GSXR.  It might be faster, but it doesn't do it with the same familiarity.  On the SV, I knew how it would wiggle, I knew how to hold it, push it, let it go, to lean forwards or backwards, how to get off and get on it, how the front skips on bumps and the rear wobbles under power.  It was like being at home!

I was actually entering corners quite quickly, feeling the front threatening to go, skipping, rather than bumping, over surface irregularities; the rear was sliding on the downshifts into two; finally, I could feel myself pushing lean angles I'm not used to (on the SV), getting frighteningly sideways, but feeling 100% there.  Most of the time.  Not all.

Most of the time, but not all - is not always good enough.  My old friend caught up with me, and my rising confidence this time convinced me not to just run straight on.  Halfway through T4, way off line, I found myself still with my hand resting on the brake, needing to get the bike properly tipped in to get it through to the exit.  I wasn't going too fast, and had plenty of lean to spare, so I let my fingers off the brake and

The front end didn't like it at all.  There is one rule with the SV, above all others: play nice, and BE SMOOTH.  The pogo-stick excuses for forks do not take kindly to inconsiderateness, and they responded by prompty disappearing from under me.

There are few things more annoying than stuffing up and dropping a bike, but really once the adrenaline wore off I had to admit I was quite lucky.  If I had made a mistake through T1 instead, and one of those bumps had pushed the front too far... well it would have been a lot more damaging at 200 than at 50 or so.

Even then, the damage was remarkably minimal.  Considering myself now a veteran of the crash, one look at the damage drew only one question: where can I find a brake lever?  Surprisingly, not a single SV/GSXR of an appropriate year at the track, but I did manage to track down a racer/mechanic at Rhyll who had a lever lying around which 'might' fit - fit it did, and with only one session lost I was back out there to confirm the SV really can do anything.

Sadly, the crash made me paranoid about running into corners on the brakes.  I don't trail heavily (usually), but braking and turning have always overlapped for me (for a couple of years at least), so avoiding doing that really screwed around with my entries.  Sure, I was still going fast - fast enough to remain in that group - but not as fast as I would have been.  The afternoon was spent working on my consistency, working out the track, and trying to push the SV in ways I was comfortable with.  More of a pleasant post script to an exciting morning than a continuation of the day's work.

And the morning really Was exciting, not just because it was fun, but because I really was doing good work.  The SV at times was being pushed way beyond its standard zone of operation, and I moreover was pushing it into territories that I don't normally push it.  Even the GSXR I have never felt comfortable enough to push like that - never have I thrown it into corners, feeling the edge through the front rather than from what I know it will do, pushing it on the entry rather than just trying to get it quickly through to the exit.

I guess the crash brought about a sobering awareness of why I Don't ride like that - while I think I would have been safe if I was at 100%, I wasn't, and on the road you can never bank on 100% - riding like that is never safe in the public domain.

I'm not in a position at the moment to be thinking about another trackday, and at any rate I need to do a lot more riding on the road to ensure I will be able to take full advantage of another opportunity, but it was a seductive taste of actually progressing on the bike, and I don't know what exactly will come of the aftertaste.

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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
jsbaxter.com.au (coming soon!)

Climbing the Back of the Beast: Mt Buffalo

Short day ride, 4/1/09

A little bit of time to myself and I decided to take up one of my listed 'short day' rides: up Mount Buffalo (and a loop over to the Kiewa Valley). A few kms down the highway the sign to Buffalo pops up, and a minute off the main drag it becomes clear where the road is headed: a great granite rockface appears from between the trees.

My first glimpses of the mount to be scaled, Buffalo. From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

The cliffs become more and more imposing as you draw towards the park entry. I was so absorbed in the spectacle, and the tittilating implications those rocks had for the slowly tightening road, I failed to stop for a good photo of the cliffs from their base. I encourage you to make the trip so you can do so yourself! It becomes hard to believe that the road will actually scale the back of this beast, but scale it does.

The road snakes lazily through the tall eucalypts of the foothills of the granite outcrop before skirting across its face, ducking in and out of its crevices and providing distracting views of the valley just left. Soon though the view disappears behind a forest of trees, and with the cliffs skirted it is time for the road to climb the back of the Buffalo - the real fun begins. The view is not missed: between the cyclists and the road there isn't much attention left for it. The road is tricky and engaging, with variation between tiny hairpins and violent esses, and on good days a fair amount of traffic as well, both two and four wheels. The surface is good, and guaranteed to leave you grinning when the road widens and speeds up as it flattens out on the Buffalo plateau. The good stuff climaxes opening out onto a flower-matted plain at the turnoff to the historic chalet.

The turnoff leads back to the top of the granite walls that were our first aquaintance, and a good spot to stop and let the adrenaline cool off. The view extending out over the Ovens Valley is amazing, and standing on cliff edges you can only wonder - and be thankful - how they managed to snake a road up here. I've included a whole bunch of photos; in a spot like this they all turn out good!

From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

The plateau is quite flat, and the road which weaves across it is too straight to give in to your lecherous urges and retain any semblance of sensibility. A good time therefore to relax and enjoy the scenery. The only bike I saw on the mountain was an enduro parked on this lake. The cool, calm waters would make a great place to camp of a summer, especially if it's as warm as it has been.

From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

The plateau is peppered with granite outcrops which command you to stop and gawk for a minute. The Horn itself is further along, but coming across this outcrop is inspiring enough! Call me strange, but I've always enjoyed relaxing after-the-fact as much as anything else, and cruising the top of Buffalo is a great way to do so.

From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

Past the snowfields - one bald hill with a few lifts - the road turns to dirt. Quite good travelling too, tight and twisty and a whole lot of fun if you want to put your red goggles back on. It does push the limits of a roadbike though: this road brought the first ever time I've found myself wishing for a gear 0, and some of the tight stuff is bumpy enough to cause genuine concern. You might also have to dodge a bit of oncoming traffic - which you won't necessarily see until it's right upon you - but you can't let that spoil the fun.

All too soon the road turns into a parking lot overlooking the mountains to the west: Mt Buller is out there somewhere, and a whole lot of peaks with random names and no residents. It's also high enough that the vegetation is twisted snowy gum with red and white bursts of wildflowers and grasses edging the road and pathway.

From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

Having come this far I figured I'd test the hiking potential of my boots by climbing to the top of Horn (the high point of Mt Buffalo), so I've snapped a few photos for you of the view along the way. It's quite breathtaking being up here, half because of the ranges spread out in every direction, half because of the eery atmosphere that the trees bring, and a third half because of the smooth granite mounds which characterise the area. BREATHTAKING INDEED. I also managed to snap you a couple of shots of the rocky plateau, including a great one of the dirty, twisting fun that makes the final section of road.

From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

Looking back down the road from above. It's even tighter than it looks! From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

The most memorable part of the trip was yet to come however. Back at the top of the climb up the mountain a track diverges (to the right if coming up the hill). It is marked as 'rough 2wd track', but don't let that put you off - the surface is much better than most of the areas gravel roads. So off I pottered to see where it would go. There is something special about riding off along a track like this, something special about riding off the road, having grass and flowers tapping at your boots. I was almost self-conscious of botherring the butteflies, birds and bees by riding through their homes. It's tracks like this that make motorcycling more than just enjoyable, but special. Memories like this will outlive the tarred climb. Memories like this are worth writing home about!

From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

If you're a dirt-road nancy you are missing out on these wilderness adventures: go out and get yourself used to it, because you don't want to have to turn back at the best part of the trip.

The road didn't actually go anywhere, other than 'away', not that it mattered. It was a little sad to get back to the tar, though the sadness was soon dismissed as the road plunged back down the mountain. Knowing what to expect I was in no mood to waste time, and waste I did not! By the base of the mountain I was too engaged in catching my breath to remember I was suppose to stop for a few photos of the cliff faces, though I did have to push on anyway.

The rest of the day was spent looping across the range between the Kiewa and Ovens valleys. There is some straight stuff through the valleys, but with all those hills around a healthy lust for the twisty stuff does not go too long unanswered. It is so easy to fall in love with this area.

'Riding off into the distance.' From Mt Buffalo (good shots)

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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
jsbaxter.com.au (coming soon!)

Lucky Me!

I realised something out on the road today. I was thinking about how lucky I am to be able to ride the roads that I do. And I realised - I have been thinking this a lot lately! So often, I sit back, I look at the view - perhaps to recover in between focussing intently on the next bend - at the road ahead, the hills to either side, the eucalypts lining the road (I love eucalypts by the way!, in all their splenderous, disorganised variety, they make a lot of the atmosphere of many locations)... and am not just enchanted, but struck, amazed, at how wonderful it is to be able to do what I am doing. Really! It happens all the time. And it really is nice.

The realisation led to a thought, in its turn, about this blog. I know what I can write about! I can write about more than just what I do, what the roads are like, what the view was like... what I can write, is a blog which shares these experiences. A blog which attempts to explain why it is that I am so lucky, to express what it is about riding that is so... worth writing about.

So that is my angle. I certainly hope I make you jealous. : ) But if I inspire you to find - to make - for yourself the same opportunities that I have, then you can hardly complain. Or if I merely inspire you to feel something of what I feel then that will just the same, be a job well done.

At the end of the day, if I can understand how I could be so lucky, or if I can understand what it is that inspires me so, then, well then I'll be the better for it as well.

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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
jsbaxter.com.au (coming soon!)

Ascent and Descent and Ascent and Decent to Heaven: Scaling the Victorian Alps (Falls Creek and Mount Hotham)

Half day ride through Falls Creek and back over Hotham, with sidetracks. 1/1/09

First things first: you're missing out.
Second things second: I'm not!

After a relatively relaxed getup on New Year's Day I decided to spend my day off on what I had been pining for: riding. I had ridden some of these roads on the way to Phillip Island (Hamish crashed here on one of the best of them), and driven in a few days earlier, but such experience only served to whet the appetite. With the morning gone I decided on a shortish loop which hopefully would include enough good riding to keep me going until I could organise a proper day's roadwork.

Headed towards Mt Beauty, at the base of the climb to Falls Creek, I encountered the Tawonga Gap for the first time in fine weather - ah, what fond memories! While relatively short this is one of the area's most beautiful roads (if you can avoid the occasional bumps or gravel and surprise bends) and an excellent warmup. A quick stop at the top provides views of the Mt Beauty at the top of the Kiewa Valley, and of course the mountains beyond that which are my real intent.

Lookout: Jill warmed up... I'm not the only one looking forward to the day's ride. From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09

Mt Bogong to the left is Vic's highest peak - no road access, but I do plan on walking it - Falls Creek is up the mountains to the right, and in the middle Mt Beauty; not actually a mountain... From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09

At the base of the run down - steeper and nearly as fun - I happened upon a sign too good to refuse: "Car and Motorbike Racing, turn left". A look at the mountain, a look at the clock, and hell, I'm on holiday: racing it is!

I managed to find the covert entrance to the track a few kms down the road - a track which could not have been put in a better place. The Kiewa (/Tawonga?) Valley offers views across the riverplane from the road, towards the range on the other side, largely untouched by pine plantations (unlike the Ovens Valley where Bright is).

If you haven't yet, and you get an opportunity, I highly recommend stopping at a local dirt track event. The racing isn't as tightly packed (or fast, our loud, or...) as at a roadrace event, but its relaxed charms make up for that. The number of hilariously random stacks is high.

The Hairpin: wet and slippery, tight and boggy - predictably made for great viewing whether or not the competitors made it round unscathed. From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09

Not as high though as the family involvement, which lends a great atmosphere. There can't have been more than 30-40 competitors for the whole day, but there were hundreds camped on the hill, including families on and off track. Right in the middle of this photo is the smallest racer I've ever seen, a girl well under double-digits in years, who actually fit ergonomically onto a pocket bike:

Looking out over the Mt Beauty Car Club track in the Kiewa Valley. They're so small you might not see them, but yes there are kids in this shot! From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09

Watching the smallest ones get swamped by a pack of bigger kids on bikes big enough for me to ride, one leg out, without flinching - I think I was more scared than they were. It's a great thing to see. A few shots to send back to you, though, and I was soon on my way. Daylight only lasts so long and I had riding of my own to attend to.

The road up to Falls Creek looks scrumptious on the map, but I don't know that I expected this! Leaving Mt Beauty the anticipation built with every obligatory "obey weather condition signs" - with nothing but sunshine in the sky they had all been switched to a simple 'slow down', which I read as implying they expected us to go fast. A km of warmup esses gave way to the serious mountain work as the road snaked up to the alps. Bend after bend after bend gave way to more corners, hairpins, esses, and everything but straight road. The road between Mt Beauty and Falls Ck stretches for 37km, and not one of those includes a straight any more than a hundred metres long. Pleasure - technical, twisting, picturesque pleasure.

A warning to the potential traveller that the mountain does have its tricks! The blind, tightening hairpins are not oddities, they are the norm. Whilst the traffic has been quite light, even in the peak summer period, the mountain is very popular with cyclists. There are also a few bumps, not large enough to be a serious threat, but invisible enough to be a sharp surprise. The road is, in short, technical and challenging: if you haven't got your head screwed on you could see yourself doing a Hamish, but if you do it will be a ride you won't forget.

The final challenge is of course keeping your mind on the road as you climb through the variations in alpine environment. The forests of dead trees (2003/6 bushfires I presume) have a mystic quality which ensures you can't forget where you are. If you find yourself distracted you're much better stopping for a photo than dodging cyclists with only one eye on the road.

From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09

From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09

Falls Ck is a cute little village tucked into the mountainside: unlike Hotham it sits just at the top of the treeline, rather than at the peak. Continuing up to the plateau the road turns to gravel, and all of a sudden flattens out on a beautiful, giant lake (Rocky Valley Reservoir). I pushed on here, but if you continue reading you'll find some photos of the plateau from the next time I visited in a later post.

The gravel at first seems quite tame (wide, flat, well-graded road), but the abundance of large-stone loose crap on the top makes the treck down to the bottom of the mountain on the other side remarkably tedious on two wheels, and means it is difficult to appreciate the scenery.

It is a relief to reach tar at the bottom, and I was greeted by a Mitta-Mitta river tributary quite similar to the Tambo between Omeo and the coast.

From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09

The beauty of the countryside was matched only by the quality of the road: I had no idea how good this section was going to be! For 35km to Omeo the road twists and turns beside the river, only opening out into faster sweepers as it enters the plains near Omeo. Nearly 150km into the day I had ridden barely a handful of km in a straight line. I had climbed into heaven and descended down the other side only to find myself on roads no less spectacular. This really is a wonderful place to ride.

I finally hit some relatively open road - the climb to the peak of Hotham from the Omeo side is all sweepers rather than twisties, though with open alpine views my only complaint was with the remarkable drop in temperature. Whilst not as enchanting as the area was last time we were here - riding through the snow - the climb is still worth doing.

From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09

Mt Hotham is quite high, much of the road is skirted by these spooky, stunted-looking dead forests. From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09

It doesn't show up well in the photo, but there's something stunning about the big rock that makes the peak of Hotham. From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09

Having made reasonable time I was able to take a few shots of the wonderful area across the top of Hotham, which offers great views of the bald mountain tops and snaking road, with dashes of summer flowers and shorter greenery.

From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09

Mt Hotham from the North: looking back towards Hotham provides some great shots if you're prepared to stop. And yes, I have gotten around to removing all the Christmas garb. From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09

flowers: A pathway I think may be beyond me... From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09

Roadway to Heaven: if there is anywhere you would rather be you need counselling. (There's something fun about being able to ride straight off the road to the edge of a cliff!) From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09

The run down the mountain from here was once again the source of the same twisted pleasure the region is famous for. So much so that I never took my eyes off the road (except to confirm that the SV pulls 200rpm beyond redline), so no photos for you.

You will just have to ride it yourself!

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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
jsbaxter.com.au (coming soon!)

Domestic Bliss

Yet to leave Sydney, but the masses are breying (right?), so I'll write about the 'domestic scene'.

Like everyone, it seems, I don't ride enough, so I've made sure to hit up some of the local tarmac over the last couple of days before I leave. I can't even remember the last time I did any real riding: RNP a few months ago would have been the closest, but I was scrubbing in new tyres.

The Mindset: Got it or you don't. (Or in between.)

Yesterday I wasn't riding so well. I don't know what it was - I blamed rust - I just didn't feel comfortable, and I sure as hell didn't go quickly. I was boring myself! It was a lovely route we took: some excellent, tight and twisty stuff, if a little suburban (I might get around to posting maps of some of the roads up here on the Beaches - I will do it sooner if somebody asks about it). But it didn't click. It may have felt slow, but it didn't feel like I could go faster... - I lacked confidence in my ability to go faster that next step down the road, I think. In short, I was riding like a nanna.

I left a friend's place at 2am the next morning and - voila! Everything was great! There wasn't a great deal of nice road between there and home, but I milked it and finally enjoyed myself. The difference, I think, was that at two, whilst not overly tired, I was relaxed enough that I could want to go forward, without really worrying about how average I may have been riding now.

I don't really know how to articulate this, but the one stand-out aspect of riding well is that the focus of attention is the need to go forward. Sometimes it comes with a lust to get to the other side (not the same thing as trying to go fast, which is focussed on the present-state rather than the future), sometimes just with a relaxed confidence and clear, midnight mind.
I refuse to call this 'the zone', but you may: I don't think it is a helpful vocabulary.

And today? Well, I don't know. Any 'lust' was tempered by a conservative approach to the conditions, the 60kph speed limit and thinking about my riding partners. I certainly had no midnight mind. But it wasn't trashy, just in between...

There are no solid conclusions in this world of motorcycling.


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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
jsbaxter.com.au (coming soon!)

Christmas 2008: Sydney Toy Run

Great day!

Another good year of the toyrun. The ride went better than last year - now we knew where we were going - and was smoother all round. The raffle was a bit bluh (I won champagne glasses... which seemed to be about the best prize on offer), but the turnout was good, and by my rekoning the donations were too.

Sadly I will need to work harder to win the best-dressed bike award next year, but I'm still pleased with the result. If I had started a week earlier when I had meant to I might have been able to neaten it up and elaborate a bit, but as it was I finished at 7am that morning and didn't have a great deal more opportunity to go overboard!

From Toy Run 08

If it wasn't obvious, it's Rudolph, antlers, red (/pink) nose and all, and Yes, I did have a Santa suit to go with that hat. : )
If somebody sends me a photo they took of me (I think the bike works much better with the red) I'll post it here too.

Toyruns

Toyruns are a great affair, for those of you who don't already know. You rock up at a random shed in some backstreet, and if you're early like we were park the bikes and wonder "15-20 bikes, is that all?" But then, Sunday morning, what should we have expected!? You wander over for a coffee - cheap and cheerful -decide against buying the badge, but invest in as many raffle tickets as your wallet allows (it goes straight to the Salvos after all, and - usually... - the prizes are worth it!). You politely refuse a 'Viagra Lollypop' from a man known only as Animal, but are spurred on by his Christmassy enthusiasm.
All the club VIP's bikes are round the back, and while you don't have much fancy for Harleys (right...?), a big shiny two wheeled thing covered in tinsel and toys is well worth a squiz over a coffee or bacon and egg roll.

Some of it not so tinselly, but still so shiny it hurts!:

From Toy Run 08

The best thing about toyruns are the wonderful people you meet, and for this reason I suggest turning up alone or (because it's so much easier to find the place as a group!), just wandering around independently. Random people make conversation (this year I got the 'Where's the belly Santa Clause!?' introduction a million times), and there are always friendly bikers to let you know the details of the day.

By the time you wander back out onto the street because you forgot your camera, the crowd has grown to 50, and finally there's a bit of hot sportbikeage to keep your more base desires kindled. The morning's getting more exciting at this point, with groups of bikes of all sorts flowing in:

From Toy Run 08

Soon, while you've returned out back to the clubhouse, the call to leave is announced. You head back out onto the street - the attendance has swelled remarkably and the exciting bit is about to begin! Hundreds of bikes start up and fill the cul de sac, some of them taking the opportunity to leave extended reminders of their presence down the road (all the more impressive on a Harley!).
I've witnessed plenty of burnouts, but this was actually the first time I've seen it with a cruiser, and I can tell you it is as impressive as it seems improbable.

Then the riding!
There's something about riding in a massive group of riders that is special. Riding down the M4, four bikes wide, no end to the line of bikes in either direction: it's impressive. Something everyone should do at least once. Actually kept quite busy staying together navigating traffic and ignoring red lights... until the cars get in and you're forced to stay put: I am proud to say, however, I personally 'broke the seal' twice, and Yes it is something worth repeating!
While it can get a bit chaotic, new riders - or those just plain nervous - are well looked after, and a remarkably unintimidating experience. JUST DO IT.

Then you rock up at some park, somewhere (if you're lucky), and donate your stuff. It's great to be able to give to people that need it, and also great to get all the stuff you're carrying off your hands. The day lingers on after that - the raffle is started quite quickly, amid well-intentioned jeers of rigging and favouritism, the best-dressed competition announced eventually (Animal, again), and with a bit of luck you leave an hour or two later with a few neat prizes and only mild heatstoke (this year was actually quite mild, so no heatstroke necessary).

It's quite hard to get a good shot of the extent of the attendance, all the bikes being strewn throughout the park and parking lot, but these give some estimation of the atmosphere:

From Toy Run 08

From Toy Run 08

From Toy Run 08

At the End - It's Christmas

If you're still reading, you must be pretty keen!

At the end of the day the Toyrun is about giving shit away. Giving things to people who need them - to people you don't know, will never meet. It's a charity thing, in other words. But it's not just a charity thing (I'm not really a charity person myself...), it's a revision of Christmas. My sentiment really isn't unique on this point: donations are increasingly being viewed as viable 'gifts' to people you need to donate to - this is just my experience of that.
Christmas is about giving, right? That's the rhetoric, but it seems more like a retail slogan than anything else. And it is! Giving is a waste of time if you're giving things people don't want, to people that don't need it. I assume, irrespective of your mortgage stress or your position within the current 'financial crisis', that you are pretty well off: and really, we all are, aren't we - we all have everything we need and plenty we don't.
The Toyrun then really kills three birds with one stone: you give something meaningful, rather than obligatory; you don't need to think up things to give people who already have everything!; and you aren't put out of pocket because you've already saved money for everybody else's presents anyway (right?).

So there you go. My present to you this Christmas, is a present that might actually mean something: it's a present to somebody else.

Merry Christmas!

Deflowering: aka welcome to a Motorcyclist's Perspective

This is just a first post to introduce the blog, to christen it, so to speak:

2009: Motorcyclist's Perspective

Upcoming will be a post about this Sunday: the Sydney Toy Run.
If the post is anything like the run itself it will be worth getting out of bed for!

(If you can't be bothered checking back - and I know I wouldn't - subscribe to the RSS!)