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The 2010 Ulysses Club AGM ran from 8th to 14th March and was held in Albany, Western Australia – each year it is held in a different Australian town or city. As I’ve only been a member for a little over a year, and this AGM was being held in our ‘own backyard’ as such, it was a perfect opportunity to checkout what a Ulysses AGM was all about. It was my first AGM, as well as my brother’s, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ulysses AGM Site - Centennial Oval Albany

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Dropped the Bike into RR Motorcycles on Wednesday last week, and picked it up Thursday with all the new bits fitted – thankyou RAC Insurance.

Apart from the new fairing, headlight, cowling brace, tank, indicator & mirror fitted under insurance; I’ve also fitted anodised (blue) clutch & brake levers, matching rear pegs (front ones are on back order), and headlight protector. Yesterday my Iridium tinted double-bubble windscreen arrived and doesn’t it look good

title says it all; both fairing halves, cowling brace, headlight, indicator & tank have arrived. The bike will go into the shop for a couple of days next week, and come out nice n shiny with new bits fitted

I’ve been a bit busy with things the past few weeks, so thought it was time for some updates.

So just before Christmas, the insurance finally decided to approve the repairs to my bike based on the 3rd quote; originally they wanted to ‘write the bike off’ – I had no intention of that happening, by the time it was finally approved I’d already put in another 2000 + kms. Final result is I’ll be getting new left and right fairing halves, new cowling brace, new headlight, new tank and a new left indicator -  this won’t happen till early in the New Year, but at least it’s sorted.

I’d already replaced the front brake lever and rear brake pedal to get the bike going, plus a mountain of gaffer tape to hold headlight and fairing together, so it’ll be good to have the rest fixed properly. And to help protect against any future ‘offs’, I ‘ve fitted a R& G frame slider (only took a week from the UK). On top of that I’ve also got new anodised levers and pegs (front & rear) on their way – now all I have to do is clean the bike a bit more regularly (… maybe).

Once all is fixed, I’ll be raising my insurance cover so we won’t get into the debate of writing the bike off unless it’s genuinely totalled and un-ridable.

As a prelude to the 2010 Ulysses AGM being held in Albany (WA), the local Ulysses branch was asked to lead the 2009 Albany Christmas Pageant. To help bolster numbers, members from other WA branches made the trip to Albany for the 5th Dec.

Our group left the usual Armadale departure point at 8am on Saturday, making out way down Albany Hwy as far as North Bannister, before taking the Wandering Rd turn-off. From there we made our way to Narrogin, and then via Gt Southern Hwy through to Katannining and Cranbrook. Rejoining Albany Hwy, we made our way to Mt Barker, then Albany itself. After locating ‘Frenchman’s Bay Rifle Club’, where camping had been arranged for those not staying in hotels/motels, I made my way back to my brother’s place in Mt Barker to off-load some of my gear, and for a brief rest before the Pageant. (continue reading…)

Insurance companies and bike shops are both a hassle when getting quotes to fix the bike.

First the bike shop quotes on items not absolutely necessary to repairs -  i.e. the mirror doesn’t need replacing because of a few small scratches on the back, nor does the lower centre fairing section need replacing (I couldn’t see any damage to it), and surely the fuel tank can have a small dent repaired instead of replacing the whole tank @ a cost of $950.00 – but quoting for these items took the repair quote above write-off value despite me advising them of the insured value and that I didn’t want the bike writing off – weren’t they listening? (continue reading…)

I ’spose it was bound to happen sooner or later, momentary lapse in concentration/error in judgement and down I went.

Wednesday was a nice mild looking day, sunny skies with a little cloud cover and temps in mid 20’s, so decided to go for a mid week ride Dwellingup way, but I didn’t even get out of metro area. I was at a giveway sign cnr Lake and Armadale waiting to turn left; there was absolutely no approaching traffic to the right, and the car in front moved off to the left, so I moved forward at 3-4 km/h checking traffic to right (still none), but car in front decided to stop again … quick grab of brakes, but too little too late … bang ! (continue reading…)

After a fortnight of suffering hayfever and having constantly flowing sinuses, things finally dried up enough to venture out on the bike again.

Saturday was a *”fine’ day for a ride, so I just jumped on the bike and headed off with no particular destination in mind. First of the ‘regulation ride’ through the Weir Rd, which is always a good way to clear the head and get the blood pumping. When I got to Mundaring, I decided to continue on along Stoneville Rd through to Toodyay with the intention of heading back through the Sawn Valley and on home. However at Toodyay Rd I turned right instead, and headed to Toodyay, cause the weather was so nice and the road just beckoned.

I grabbed some munchies and a drink at Toodyay, (continue reading…)

Been a bit slack with this site lately; I’ve been busy with bike, and fixing the PC … mainboard fried last weekend (more on that here), as well as other stuff.

On Monday (19th Oct), I took both mufflers into Roo Racing in Welshpool, and met Alex the owner and Roo pipe master craftsman. He explained how the carbon fibre is bonded to the pipe mounting plate and that it had come  adrift due to knocks over the years, and that he would need to shorten the CF to get to clean fibre so he could re-bond it; this meant he would also need to shorten the internal pipe to match, and repack with new e-glass. He said the left one wasn’t so bad and could be done later when I had the extra dollars again (I’d told him I also had to get a new tyre that day as well).

So I left the right muffler with him for repair expecting it to the end of the week before I would have the bike back on the road – c’est la vie. (continue reading…)

Been a busy week for riding; as is fairly normal in WA, winter gets drawn out, bypassing spring, and goes straight into summer weather.  Technically it’s mid spring;  a week ago it was still cold, jackets and jeans weather, with occasional showers; then overnight, it’s T-shirts  and shorts, sunshine and heat – mid to high 20’s all week, with Friday hitting 37C.

Last Sunday’s ride was only a short one; seems we had only been on the road half an hour and one of the ladies was heading to a notorious corner (regularly gravel on it) a touch fast on her cruiser; so she hit the brakes to wash some speed, but locked the rear end, slid a while, then got high-sided into a gully.  Christine was relatively unhurt, mainly winded and some shock set in when she tried to stand, but otherwise ok. Bike wasn’t too bad, a few bent bits and a dented tank; but apparently the insurance company is writing it off – what is wrong with these companies ? The bike was ridden back to a friends place, and is easily fixable – but they are writing it off ??

Anyhow, a passing nurse took her to hospital for a check-up, and a couple  of people went with them. After the bike was stored and the riders returned, the rest of us continued the ride as far as morning tea stop at Gidgegannup. But as it was almost mid-day by the time we were ready to leave, everyone just decided to head home instead of continuing further afield for lunch – so we only clocked about 120 kms for the day, but at least there were no serious injuries.

Wednesday came and I decided to catch up with a friend I hadn’t seen for almost a year. I headed up to Nev’s place in Bullsbrook and got there late morning. After a while yabbering about this n that, we decided to take advantage of the weather and hit the road. Nev fired up his ZL1000 Kawasaki and we headed to Toodyay via Chittering and Julimar roads. We stopped briefly for lunch, refuelled and headed to Northam via the Northam-Toodyay Rd, and then onto the scenic Katrine Rd which circles around and comes in the back of Northam. (continue reading…)