I have just been to a great gathering of motorcyclists. The group is called
Ulysses, and has about 20,000 members nationally. They just had their AGM
at the Gold Coast, in Queensland. Many campers, and stalls, etc. The club
is for older motorcyclists, and the motto is "Grow old disgracefully"!
http://www.ulysses.org.au for those interested!
Anyhow, I was wandering around in my smart grey GTS T shirt, and someone
said to me "I've got one too!". It was a person from Tasmania who had
ridden 1,400 miles to get to the meeting. We put our bikes together (and
maybe we'll get a mini GTS:}) proudly. After all here was 20% of
Australia's total GTS population! Drew great attention, as most
motorcyclists have never seen one.
I test rode a Honda CBR 600, and a VTR 1000 twin. Wow, don't these modern
bikes go! The sound on the 600 between 8,000 - 14,000rpm was spine
tingling, and the bigger Honda just wanted to lift its front wheel up.
Yamaha had their new 1300 there, in a bright blue, and the President of the
Club rode it at the head of the parade - good publicity. Very comfortable,
and selling here for $23,000 AUD...which is the same as the original GTS was
asking back in 1993. It looked good, but I still prefer the GTS lines which
are as modern as today. They also showed the naked 1000 there..that's a
lovely looking bike, too!
There was a brand new bike there, a Hunwick Harrop Phantom 1500. Something
new which you might find of interest on www.hunwickharrop.com .
Great to ride the bike again for a distance. The front spring started its
squeaking which was fixed with WD40, but before I knew what it was, it was
making quite worrisome noises, and I thought the clutch was going to
disintegrate! Everything went as it should apart from that..but I'd
forgotten how noisy the wind is in the ears, even with ear plugs. Any
cures??
Regards,
Rob Chapman
