Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Day 3

Our third day in the outback was a little more enjoyable because we
could actually see where we were going. The roads were still quite
challenging at high speed as they were unpredictable with soft patches
of bull dust and deep sand ruts coming from out of knowhere. On one
section I was sitting up the back when I decided to go after the front
guys for a bit of fun. I sat on 140kph + for about 40 ks to catch
them. At that speed on those roads the bike is very twitchy and easily
upset. I had the steering damper wound full on so the steering was
basically locked straight. I had the rear air shock set really soft to
take the weight off the front wheel and I sat a long way back on the
bike. On the cattle grids the thing gets airborne for what seems like
ages. It is really good in the air and although it's scary it's huge
fun.

When I finally caught westy we decided to do an acceleration
comparison between the adventure and the HP2. On the 2nd gear roll on
the HP won easily. On the standing start I nearly flipped It twice and
mick's superior clutch work took him to victory. We then did a 6th
gear roll on that showed the Hp marginally stronger. Our analysis is
that there is not a lot of difference in engine power but the power to
weight difference is large.

I am absolutely in love with the HP and can't wait to attack the
Simpson desert next year. I think it will be awesome

We arrived at wentworth around 5 pm and did our usual maintenance
checks including air filter cleans. We went to the services club for
dinner. It was totally oz. Another good evening of bench racing was
had by all.

Tomorrow we head for the grampians on some really shitty roads. Can't
wait.


Regards

Mike

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