Andymann

Not sure if I told the story here a few threads back - apologies if I have, but Darryn and Brad rode the DJ Classic Rally this year. Darryn won the youngest rider trophy - a trophy I won a few years in a row so I know it well. Long story short, the trophies lid doesn't fit properly and everyone who wins it usually drops the lid when they recieve it (myself included) so when he was handed it I thought to myself there goes the poor lid again. It did fall but without even looking Darryn caught it about 30cm from the floor, and carried on with his interview as if nothing had happened. He had seen it fall out the corner of his eye and caught it without even pausing. Realised then how quick your reflexes and hand-eye co-ordination need to be to ride MotoGP.

LOL - this thread makes me remember a joke told by the Instructor at McCarthy when we were doing forklift training - "What do Forklifts and Women have in common? If you don't have one, you have to unload by hand..."

I guess we will never know for sure, but Alex Marquez is a Moto2 World Champion and was pretty much as fast as Brad, and Brad is finishing top 5 and Alex is struggling so it can't be an easy bike to ride.

i wouldn't mind an XR750 to be honest...

My wife has just been on a ITU Zoom chat and they were talking Covid (naturally) - one of the side effects post-Covid is elevated iron - so if you have Covid you need to stop taking iron. So sorry for all you Harley Owners - you're screwed now

Well that comment hasn't aged well......

So it seems I'm waaaaaay off the mark. Had a bit of a chat with my old boss who was the General Manager of Motorcycles back in our day and he reckons there will be no surprises coming with the price. His argument is that they have been way too quiet on pricing - the strategy usually is, that if there is a special launch price they announce it fairy early to stop any fence sitters from making purchases and rather waiting a few months. He reckons the fact that there is no mention at all of any launch price means we're in for around the R210k mark. I just don't think it's a R210k bike to be honest.

I didn't think he would win. My bet was on maybe a few top fives and possibly a lucky podium but I never for once thought he was fast enough to win.

Honda certainly seeing now the disadvantage of building a bike only one person can ride - maybe all those times that Cal was sent off into the gravel weren't always his fault?

Myself - I reckon they put him on an entry level salary but probably gave a massive win bonus structure not expecting him to do much this season.... I bet they are glad they signed him for next year too - they must have got him for a song

I just can't bond with my Arahi 4's - they are super comfortable for about 5 or so km but then the pressure on the inside of my arch starts and by the time I have hit 10km I have blood blisters. I initially thought that it was just a new shoe and my feet would toughen up but 350km's later and I still get blisters - and it's not a rubbing blister where the skin comes off but a pressure one so it must be the arch support I guess. I ran for 5 years with various models of Puma Faas, but it looks like Puma SA is moving more towards Sneakers and Leisure shoes as opposed to Athletic shoes so I thought I would try the Arahis. Not sure what to try next I'm afraid.

My Dad always drummed into my head - "Never enough time to do it once, always enough time to do it twice" MM is going to take twice as long to heal now than if he had just been a bit more patient. One wonders who his Manager is that he wasn't able to speak some sense into his head.

The really funny thing that day at Que Sera was that I was on one of these.... https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/23804/lot/190/ And my Dad was on one of these.... https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24494/lot/210/ but we were two old guys who rocked up on old bikes and please don't park next to my BMW or my Ducati.......

I read once someone said Cats have never forgotten that they were once worshipped

It's weird the South African image thing isn't it - everything revolves around what car you drive. We recently did a substantial upgrade on the front of our house and we got quite a few landscapers in our Estate to quote. Not one of them even bothered to submit a price. We eventually got someone who was prepared to take on the project and since it's been completed two of the Landscapers in the Estate who we approached have come back to us asking if we need any additional work done. My wife and I are convinced they looked at the Jazz and the Polo in the driveway, compared it too the BM's and Mercs of our neighbours, and thought we wouldn't be able to afford the project. I also get that feeling when I head off on a Sunday (or used to!) to Que Sera for a breakfast. Almost as if all the modern Superbikes and Big Trailies are parked in the main parking lot and if you dare to encroach on them with your average Joe there's a more than a few sideways glances.

Being a horder, I kept all my data from my time at Yamaha.... back then we used to religiously track the AMID stats - I pulled them up from Jul2010 - at that time, Yamaha had 40.5% of the MX market, followed by Honda with 31.8%, Kawasaki at 10.9% and KTM with 10.5%. Our MX strategy was simple - keep the bikes cheap, the spares cheaper and offer really good Race Team backup. That all changed when Bidvest took over. The last set of Data I have, Yamaha had YTD sold 1940 units, KTM 691 and Suzuki 1062. I use Suzuki because I chatted to the Motorcycle Manager of Suzuki a few weeks back just to catch up and he said Suzuki now outsells Yamaha by almost double. What Bidvest got wrong was trying to market Yamaha as a Luxury brand - it was never going to work.

I remember trying to help someone who had left to NZ and was trying to get their BWhiz registered. I even got the required compliance letter from Japan. But because the BWhiz never officially went to NZ, in the words of our famous Vegan and Everesting King, registration was "not going to f-ing happen" (even with the right gearing)

I saw the other day while I was riding on Zwift someone posted a random "yaya dingdong" message. I did have a little chuckle....

I've always been a bit odd when it comes to that - when I had my first new bike (an MBX50) they were dog slow compared to the RZ's and AR's and I knew with a bit of work I could get it quicker. But I didn't want to damage the original parts. So I bought all used bits, wrapped up the new parts in plastic and modified the used bits. Same with the sidecovers - people used to steal them back in the day, so I bought some used ones and put my originals away in the box and rode it with the shitty old ones one. I know, I know. Same now for the LC - the plastics are the original ones that came with the bike - it would bug the hell out of me if I knew I damaged the originals - even if I could get replacements. This is why I am so keen to get a 175 - I actually want to just get something which I can enjoy without worrying if I scratch it when I ride it.

Sign of the times we are in though hey - lots of thumbs up for the ad for the LC, but zero interest to purchase. I reckon in Jan or Feb this year I would have been beating buyers off with a stick. Part of me feels a bit guilty chasing bikes when others are barely able to survive - but as Warren Buffet famously said (and my Boss repeats) - "Be fearful when others are greedy, be greedy when others are fearful"

Ya its crazy - both the 125A/C and 175A/C are also now flagged on Natis as "Not for road use" so even if you pay the R60k-odd for a new 175, you cant use it on the road. That's why existing registered 175's are in such demand. Maybe with the ZAR where it is compared to the GBP I should load the 200, the 175 and the 125LC into a Container and send them to the UK......

It's such a lekker bike - I did a rally on it and had a real blast (I had the Basson Pipe on it so it sounded like I was on a YZ - I was being a bit of a chop and blasting past everyone like a kid!) but for everyday use I stress each time I leave it alone because it's so light you could easily just load it in a bakkie and that would be the last of it. Or I fall off the damn thing and damage all the plastics which you cannot replace anymore.

Well I'm beginning to think the DT gods are against me - the first 175 I was chasing I was about to collect it and the guy changed his mind (for the second time) and now I've just got a call now from the guy selling the second one telling me the bike failed the Roadworthy because someone in the past mis-read 3TS for 3T5 and now the papers have been flagged on the system. So it need datadot and police clearance..... he is a dealer so he reckons it won't be an issue to sort out, but I am sceptical. Oh well.....

That would be mine :-( I'm collecting a 175 this weekend and I had to decided between the 125LC and the 200R....

Shimwells used to do a single exhaust conversion on those bikes using the header from the old Raptor 660 quad (which has a very very similar engine to the XT660), a GYTR pipe from the Raptor, and a set of YZ450F forks and front wheel and brake. That conversion dropped almost the equivalent weight of a small passenger on its own! And really transformed the XT into a big MX bike. We went on the XT weekend with Gray Dick who was on one and I remember him blasting past me on a corner all sideways having a great time. I also think they built an XT700 with Raptor 700 bits too but that was one of the owners bikes and not an official conversion they offered.