I'm back, did you miss me? Actually I'm a bit sad after Don told me that David (Rafster) has passed, what a kick in the nuts, he was a nice guy, and we chatted a lot about various things over the years, and like all of you guys, I'll really miss him.
I'm going well, have been back at work for a couple of weeks now, and can't say I've missed it, even though I was getting bored sitting in my chair and only sneaking outside to work on a car or bike when the wife went out. I've been doing the swap meet circuit with Spotty and sold some more stuff, and also unloaded the bulk of my Kawasaki H1 500 stuff, but have kept the 1969 Mach III, and have used some of the money I got from the sale of the other stuff to buy a lot of the missing parts, which, like sandcast parts, are almost unobtainium. I have a front wheel and a set of footpegs with OEM NOS rubbers winging their way to me for a ridiculously expensive price, but anything I can do to turn it back into a motorcycle from just a collection of parts is a good thing.
Of course, my desire to "thin the herd" as I move towards retirement isn't really working out, the Kawasaki deal hinged on me accepting an ex-Victoria Police BMW K1100LT as a part trade, but I have to admit that I've a soft spot (in my head) for unloved BMW's, so I'll get it going and hopefully take it for a ride soon.
Sunday Kawasaki and others 13 April 2025 1 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I also saw a cheap Canadian Import Yamaha VMax 1200 going too cheap on Facebook Marketplace, so Spotty and I are collecting it tomorrow and taking it to his garage to fettle, on the promise that I'll remove the Harley Dyna project bike that I bought a couple of months ago and take it somewhere else. I suppose that's fair enough, I have almost as many of my bikes in his garage as he has his bikes, so it's getting a bit crowded.
Terry’s new VMax 18 April 2025 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Anyway, that's what I've been up to. Ride-wise, well I sneaked out on the Ducati 916 a couple of weeks ago, with the intent of going for my first ride, and had a magnificent ride for around 35 miles until it conked out. Poop. It was a nice day, but from the time the bike conked out (I think it's the fuel pressure regulator, but I'll confirm that tomorrow) it took 5 hours before I got home, with nothing to drink, and after smoking many cigarettes, I was feeling a bit dry. Oh well, it still looks nice.
Ducati Wednesday 26 March 2025 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Ducati Wednesday 26 March 2025 2 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Fast forward to last Sunday, and I swapped batteries between the K0 and the green KZ750, and took it for a good ride. did 92 miles and apart from feeling a bit sore, had a great ride. That's ride #7.
Sunday Kawasaki and others 13 April 2025 2 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Sunday Kawasaki and others 13 April 2025 4 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Today, being "Good Friday" (why do they call it that? I would have thought nailing poor old Jesus to a cross would be considered anything but good?) it's a public holiday, so first I tried to rouse the Duke into starting, but it just occasionally farted through those beautiful Titanium pipes, but did nothing else. I have plenty of spark and fuel, but no "Bang", so I'm leaning toward the fuel pressure regulator being buggered. Tomorrow I'l clamp a vice grip on the fuel return line up past the regulator, and if it starts, well, it'll be getting a new regulator. OK, it was getting close to lunchtime, and the sun was beating down (been really warm this year, it's never close to 90 deg F this late in the fall, but I'm not complaing, my arthritis hasn't reared it's ugly head so far, so that's good) so I drove over to the storage unit, and dragged the Kawasaki out for another ride.
Of course, being a long weekend and still school holidays, all outbound roads were just crawling along, I saw one family with a boat trailer that had blown a tire as I rode out, and it (and the family) were still stuck on the side of the road when I rode back, nearly 3 hours later. The tire was destroyed and looked really old, so I'm guessing the husband was probably copping an earful from his wife and kids for not buying new tires before their adventure today.
Anyhoo, I took an entirely different route to avoid the slow moving traffic, and rode out to Yea (pronounced "Yay") around 60 miles from the storage place. It's usually a nice quiet little town, but when I got there it was like peak hour traffic in Melbourne with boats, trailers and caravans going in all directions. It was hot, so I parked the bike in the shade, then walked across to a gas station and bought a cold drink and an ice cream, then sat on the front porch of an old house that's been turned into an Optometrist's, and had a rest for half an hour or so.
KZ750 Friday 18 April 2025 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
By this stage, I was a bit sore, so I took the bike to the gas station and filled it with fuel, and noted that it took just under a gallon (imperial gallon - 4.54 litres) to do 60 miles, which I thought was impressive. The ride back was much more fun as the bulk of the traffic was still heading in the opposite direction, so I played boy racer on the old green machine, scraping the centre stand through 10 miles or so of twisties, at double the posted speed (which wasn't much, the old 750's only good for maybe 110 MPH, and I certainly wasn't going that fast) and caught up to a group of BMW riders, who were sitting at an enjoyable pace, so I sat with them until they turned off a few miles up the road.
All in all, ride #8 was 120 miles and very enjoyable, and as there are a few extra days off with Easter and ANZAC Day I hope I get at least one (or better, two) more rides in shortly.
KZ750 Friday 18 April 2025 2 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
