Another big passion I have is for Bonsai. I am a fairly active member of the Australian Bonsai community and this is a pretty big year for us with the opening of the National Bonsai and Penjing Collection of Australia at it's new long planned site at the new National Arboretum Canberra.
Opening day was Yesterday and I was looking forward to making the run over to Canberra on the bike. The threat of rain kangaroos and no riding jacket yet could not deter me and we set of about 6am. Had to keep it to a low cruise the first 80 kms or so but I was getting better at kicking the roos out of the way. Then I realised the sun was not comming out and the shiver was there to stay for the duration of the ride, although I was very lucky not a drop of rain. When I got to Canberra I was a bit perplexed on how I was to utilize a ticket from the parking machine
I managed to dial a mates number with my shaking fingers and found that free parking is often a bonus for bike riders in this situation.
The opening was a huge success. The new National Arboretum is an architectural and horticultural master piece and in the years to come our children will have a truly amazing place.
CLICKHere is a picture of Dusty during a lap of the 250 hectare site just before the trip home.
Apart from a front indicator that decided for some unknown reason to just start flapping in the wind the bike went trouble free.
the ride home was much more pleasant until I found a wasp that had hit me in the chest had found it's way into my helmet. Arrrgggg my frelling god it was a big freller. The first instance was taken up by disbelief and then trying to work out what it was that was millimeters from my face. Then I managed to pull the bike over to the side of the highway this lack of wind released the wasp from the front of the helmet and it's legs were touching my nose. I dumped the bike and started to finger for the helmet strap but this was taking way to long so i fruitlessly tried to take the helmet off without releasing the strap. It took several different bending over positions before I realised this was just not going to happen and I had to make my self calm down long enough to undo the strap. Some how the shaking of my head kept the insect from getting much more than a few legs onto my nose and I had the helmet off. I then looked around to wonder what the cars traveling by on the high way would have made of this spectacle to find they where all just passing by so I made a bee line for the bike that was pissing fuel out from being laid over with no stand. Once righted I got the flooded bike started brushed myself off double checked the helmet and away we went again Phew.
I was filling up with petrol about every 100 km. Before this trip I thought I was getting about 6 L per 100 km, which I thought was still a little high but after the 300km to Canberra it looked more around the 8 L per 100. On the last run I filled up about 176 km from home I thought surely I could make that with the 16 litre tank. I rolled to a stop just 10km from home. So it seemed I got not much better than 10L per hundred.
So obviously there is still more work to do engine wise. I am thinking since the carbies have been well cleaned and decently tuned then the obvious thing would be a weak spark and maybe the coils leads are due for a change. That's the bad news, the good news is if the bike is wasting fuel then that means I have not managed to unleash the full potential of the bike yet and there is more power to come
I am planning on upgrading the coils or just going straight to electronic ignition so if I work out which I want before i get a test done to see what the spark strength is I will just go ahead and upgrade anyway.
