All right, heading towards the city, heading to Balgowlah,
which is just north of The Spit and manly meeting up with matt because he's looking
at a bike to buy an adventure bike, a gs800 no, I don't want to go that way I want to go
the way that I said I was going to go no thank you I know it's faster, but I don't want it.
This bike looks like a nice bike it's there's not a lot of bmws in the 5 000 range which is what
matt's budget is which is about similar budget that I got for the tenerife so there are bikes
out there they're just few and far between in that price range so you've got to compromise a little
and on this particular bike the compromise is on the kilometers it has over a hundred thousand k's
on it which is fairly significant however i'm a strong believer that any bike will last forever
given the right maintenance and if anything needs to be fixed you just replace it so let's have a
look at it let's see if it needs anything see if there's anything drastic main things we're going
to be looking for particularly on an adventure bike is cracked frames that's an obviously
deal breaker uh anything that's significant that would basically consider a write-off
from that perspective and also anything that's going to require significant budget to
to repair like an engine for example so are you kidding me it's starting to rain it's not meant
to rain today zero chance of rain obviously every ride i've been out on in the last couple of years
seems to say that it's not going to rain and then it rains at least
it's predictable as it's predictable and it's unpredictability all right let's get to the city.
Come on, the rain, just give me a day, just give me one bloody day, please.
Here's one of the things that shit me about using google maps
is I specifically chose a certain way that I wanted to go, and three times
now is trying to tell me to go a different way and saying there's a faster route it's like no
I chose a specific route at the start of this journey why do you keep trying to
tell me something different like I get that it's faster that's not what I chose I chose
something Google Maps sometimes is really good other times it's a pain in the ass field maps is
brilliant if you don't know where you're going but if you want to use it to follow a specific route
It's too intelligent.
What's about to change? Do this quick excellent.
How's that for timing so if you get to the front and you can just accelerate away from the field,
then it's much simpler for everyone, so it may seem a little reckless trying to sort of
punch out before anyone moves, but that's the reason why
The Comenarra Parkway
It's a fantastic little road that connects Pennant Hills Road to Lane Cove Road.
It does get fairly busy, particularly in peak hours, so
there's lots of driveways and hidden roads, so again, not one to belt along
but a nice one to just well it's better than the Pennant Hill Road, right?
They ruined
the best part.
The Audi just beeped me because I merged in from filtering.
Just don't know; they just don't know.
They don't expect you to be there they don't know where you've come from and suddenly you're in
front of them and they've gone hang on it's just pushed in so yes I have just pushed in
because i'm on a motorcycle and you're not you chose to drive a car I chose to ride a motorcycle
that means I can filter that means yes I can push in it's like it's like a membership you
can opt into that membership if you want it but you don't want it so don't get shitty when other
people do opt into that membership and take the benefits that come with that membership
it's like joining a gym and then they've got tiered levels and a premium level and then
getting the shits with the people of the premium level that they got greater benefits than you it's
like well you can have those benefits if you want them you've just chosen not to have them so you
can't get annoyed at other people because of your choices it's not how the world works my friend I
can legally filter and therefore if the lights change I need to get back and merge back into
the lane so nothing I was doing was wrong but if I go and knock on his window and start screaming
at him but hey I was right you were wrong then I just look like the crazy motorcyclist
that's telling off someone no one would actually see my point of view they would just see
the raging motorcyclist and that doesn't do any of us any favors unfortunately it does what
does need to happen is again just more and more education you see lots of road safety ads around
motorcycling but you never see any that mention lane filtering I mean that doesn't mean that that
guy even if he knew what I was doing was legally correct he still might get the [ __ ] anyway
I always look to see what the passenger is doing he was raising his I don't know if the
camera picked it up but he was sort of putting his arms up in the air going like what the who mood
I don't know if the camera actually picked that up but you could see the passenger that
must be his wife was just looking straight ahead and looking down i'm just going like
don't look donald that one oh you're such a [ __ ] stop it if center for road safety is not gonna
create some awareness ads around this then maybe we need to instead
Hi.
It
comes with a free pizza as well.
And a job. That's right; it doesn't just cost you money. It earns you money.
Isn't that what they say about motorcycling? No, I don't think it is. Yeah, it's meant to
be bulletproof things, so that's like a 50 50 tire yep, and this is more of an
80 off-road 20 on the road tight yeah, so it's not a brilliant I must admit
I push pretty hard on the road I've not had any issues with it.
Looks pretty good when you break on your dirt bike. Does it feel like it's going vivid? Did
you get on the um tyres? Oh yeah, the knobby tyres, yeah particularly when you're going slow,
will feel really odd, and particularly yeah, that back one not so much because it's got a strip that
goes all the way around, but the Knobbies, yeah, it's like through your brake lever
oh only the last little bit, yeah okay I'm feeling a bit of a shut
off if you're feeling it specifically through the brakes it's usually abs.
It looks to be riding straight. Nothing's vibrating; nothing's loose sounds fantastic
sounds very smooth. He's done the valve clearances on it, which are shims in these.
I just turned mine on. What do we have to do? They should still be paired just to see if it connects.
just right at this um this road and then left
hanging off the back of the bike no it looks really good it's um it's all you know there's
nothing's rattling it's all straight it's tracking straight yeah everything looks good
goes straight here and then left at the next one
Nice bike Matt.
No, I'm never going to live this day. I'm buying it on valentine's day.
At least it wasn't valentine's
for the day. Better get out and do some chores. You just bought a whole bloody kitchen.
I think the kitchen's more expensive than the motorbike.
what can't you see it or oh right right, I didn't even notice that
yeah yeah
Yeah, it's crazy. It's just a different feel.
yep
yes yes
yeah, the tank in the rear is interesting
yeah makes sense, but it depends on how much luggage you're carrying,
but I like his idea of just throwing a, you know, bag on the back and strapping it down
and then a tank bag on the front, and that that keeps everything central
yeah, so by the way, this is my technique, right so what I do is I go left peg, jump over,
and sort of getting on this side of it, but then I drop down, so I've got my foot on the ground grab
the break then pick it up so that it's horizontal and then um just grab it and grab a gear
And then and then put it in gear with the standstill down, so it stalls.
That's the best way, all right
everything's weird
Oh my god yeah, this does feel I feel weird. It feels good, though. I like the left mirror.
that does suck not having a left mirror
Uh, what I do love is it's got an uh gear indicator. Yeah, the Tenere doesn't have one,
and it's, and so often you think I'm second or I'm on first. Yeah, this is very comfortable.
yeah, eight and a half thousand you sort of can't
imagine them you can't imagine them revving out to eight grand
yeah, front wheels are tracking nice, so
yeah, there's no even though he pointed out a little buckle, that's not anything
Yeah, that's good. Like in the dirt, that'll be plenty
because the indicators feel different to a Yamaha. The Yamaha is like this massive clunk,
and these buttons are very bent. Other yeah, this is actually um shorter than the tannery,
oh yeah, shorter no yeah, but yeah, brakes feel good rear brake feels yeah quite solid.
that was a great buy, yet
oh, it's so weird just going from one bite to the other, and this just shows how different they are
that's what she said
Yeah, when I was a kid, whenever we went driving somewhere, I used to look out
the window and just imagine being on a motorcycle and just whatever came along.
Yeah, as we were driving, you just imagine oh jump over that and then
go under that bit and then you know go around there and then go up here and
I always visualise and imagine just you see a motorcycle right going parallel to the road.
And then and then it just when you get one you have got to try and not
do it. I wonder if that's just distance.
I forgot how many psychos are on the road
I'm driving this morning. Oh my god, your filter, and they just lose their minds. Yeah,
we're doing 15ks over the speed limit, and they're all going. Are you guys going too slow it's like,
well, I'd probably get over to the left if I could if you can keep filling the gap;
yeah, I mean, that's we're doing 75 in a 60 zone in their
built-in away. It's funny how you get those little gaggles of cars
that all are getting the shits with one another because they want to be in the front.
That little gaggle will catch up to another, you know, a group of cars, and it's like, you know,
they're just arguing over nothing. These are the times where I just want to filter to kind of see.
Yeah, exactly I'd normally even sort of be
going a little bit quick just to catch up to make sure I've got plenty of time to filter, yeah.