Sunday, 14 April 2013

Conversations with a Motorcycle, by Jack Riepe.

With a few flights across the Atlantic in my diary, I had resisted reading this book until getting on the first of the planes. I am so glad I did, for I was able to savour the delights of its pages in a few long reading sessions.Jack warns us in the preface that all of the names of the people in this...

Thursday, 11 April 2013

Look who I met today on his way to Alaska

I put two and two together and made four. Things don’t often work out as easy as this.I knew that Dom Chang was riding his Ural rig from Denver to Alaska and I just happened to be in Seattle. I had been reading on his blog, Redleg’s Rides, about his trip planning and his first days on the road. Wondering...

Tuesday, 9 April 2013

Competition - Cool Places to Park a Motorcycle

Okay, want another easy-to-enter and just-for-fun competition?This one involves finding a photo of your motorcycle parked in an interesting place. Post the picture somewhere (Facebook, Twitter, Blog, photo-sharing site etc) and put a link to it in the comments section below. Tell us where it is and...

Sunday, 7 April 2013

The Best Melbourne Tours

Most tourists visiting Melbourne never get out of the centre of town. The CBD is a huge rectangle - 1/2 a mile wide and 1 mile long. It was laid out by Governor Latrobe in the 1840's, and the magnificent old buildings which populate the city were built on the proceeds of the Gold Rush which started after gold was discovered in Ballarat around 1850. Before that, Melbourne was a small settlement...

Friday, 5 April 2013

Harley-Davidson 1918 Model J Sidecar

Harley-Davidson first added sidecars to its model line in 1914, and later offered specially tuned engines for sidecar use. Before then, standard bikes such as this Model J just had a sidecar bolted onto them. Harley’s big F-head V-twin was ideal for pulling a sidecar and the company began offering sidecars as an option in 1914. From then until 1925 Harley’s sidecars were built by the Rogers...

Wednesday, 3 April 2013

The smallest things can give a lot of pleasure.

Is it just me that takes great delight in achieving something so small, it could be seen as seemingly inconsequential?Doing something well that is big or grand gives any of us a lot of pleasure, however infrequently that happens. It is a rare feeling when we pull something off that is very big, so...