JournalPosted by gavin Mon, December 03, 2007 13:03:53I actually bought this bike sight unseen when living in England. Dad
rang up and said there were 4 bikes for sale for the bargain price of
$150. Being an avid lover of motorcycles and bargains, it was the
perfect marriage. It was some 12 months later before I got to try out
the bike when we came back for Christmas from the UK for 6 weeks in
2001.
The postie bike is probably more suited to life on the road rather than
farm paddocks and bush tracks, but that was certainly no deterrent! I
did cut an interesting figure, 100 kgs and 189cm on the small 70cc
honda. A interesting setup on these old bikes is the front suspension.
Unlike modern bikes that have telescopic suspension, the postie has
this ridiculous 'suicide' setup which causes the bike to get a nasty
case of the speed wobbles at any speed over 50km. The top speed of
around 70km/hr feels alot faster on the small bike, I guess on account
of the wobbles and proximity to the ground :-)
It doesn't look exactly like this one, but you'll get the idea: http://www.vf750fd.com/blurbs/brochures/c70/c70.jpg
JournalPosted by gavin Fri, November 30, 2007 08:27:46I'll work my way through the list of vehicles, sharing the history of
them as I know it. First vehicle is the short wheel base 1960s SIIA
Landrover known as Grover.
Grover first came to the farm sometime in the late 80s. It was bought
by my cousins Peter and Barry. In its original form, the landy had a
hard-top roof, the style with the fold down tailgate and lift up rear
window. Grover is an ex-military landrover, distinguishable features
include the angular cut front guards, shovel and axe mounts on the
front fenders and extended shackles. The roof also had supports for the
mounting of a second spare tyre.
My brother and I picked up Grover sometime in the early 90s. At this
time he'd been parked for about a year. We sorted out the issues that had put him on the sidelines: mainly to
do with a faulty fuse box. We also made some external modifications: off
came the hardtop and a roll cage took over. The cage had mounts for a
truck-cab style roof, so that the worst of the weather could be
avoided. We also took the tops off the doors off (they simply unbolt in true
landrover/lego style).
Grover then became our main farm vehicle, going on many a trip and
requiring much maintenance. Grover finally became rolling spare parts
sometime in the late 90s when my brother removed the gearbox for a
restoration landrover he was working on at the time. Incidentally that
landrover (Grappa) is one of the two landrovers I have here in Perth
and the first one I'll be working on.
JournalPosted by gavin Tue, November 27, 2007 08:47:24Thought I might take a few minutes to list the vehicles I currently own. These will be listed on my website when I get around to putting it together, but since I don't actually have a list anywhere, I figured this was as good a place as any :-)
Vehicles:
196? Landrover SIIA LWB
196? Landrover SIIA LWB
196? Landrover SIIA SWB
196? Landrover SIIA LWB
197? Landrover SIII LWB
197? Landrover SIII LWB
1978 Datsun 180B
1979 Holden UC Torana
1981 Ford Falcon XD Panelvan
1982 Mitsubishi GH Sigma
1992 Toyota Hilux Surf
1995 Toyota Camry
2002 VW Golf
Motorbikes:
1966 Honda C70 (postie bike)
1968 Honda C90 (postie bike)
1972 Suzuki TC125 (trail bike)
1977 Suzuki TS 100 (ag bike)
197? Honda XL 350 (road/trail)
198? Suzuki TS 185 (ag bike)
1982 Honda CR 480 (widow maker)
1983 Honda VF 750 (my road bike)
2000 Honda XR 400 (trail bike, licensed)
Tractors: :-)
1966 Howard 12hp Garden Tractor
1965 Howard 10hp Garden Tractor
Who wouldn't want to grow up on a farm? :-) In case you were wondering, yes I am a landrover nut. My first major restoration project will be one of the early model SIIA landrovers.
JournalPosted by gavin Mon, November 26, 2007 16:24:33What a scorcher of a day this saturday just past. Don't know what it reached in Perth, but it was 40 degrees under my brothers verandah at 1pm. I'd hoped to leave Perth for Narrogin around 9am to avoid the worst of the heat, but a 40 minutes queue to vote killed that. In the past I've never had to queue for more than a couple of minutes, standing outside for that amount of time was a bit ridiculous really!
Anyway, the swap has been done. I was a little concerned about my end of the bargain i.e. the condition of my 48 chev ute. I'd already inspected the CR prior to agreeing to the swap, but this chap was basically taking the condition of the Chev on faith. I was rather pleased it was in better condition that he thought :-)
Now I have to hit the web and track down suppliers for the many parts I'm going to need to restore this beast. If anyone knows of good sites/companies for sourcing such bits and pieces, please let me know.
JournalPosted by gavin Wed, November 21, 2007 13:00:08Got to thinking today, what is it that determines one's music taste?
Is it the way our brains are wired up; perhaps the music our parents listened to whilst baking in the womb; underexposure to music; overexposure to music ... Perhaps the key lies in how music tastes change over time, is this an indication that it's environmental? Take Country for example, it doesn't seem that long ago it was an alternative to putting one's finger down the throat. Now a Country song generates an overwhelming urge for me to start slapping the thigh and riding an imaginary horse around the room ... strange!
There are even some songs that I thought were super hot, but now more 'lemon and herb'. Dare I say that even my most favourite band of all time is starting to taste a bit like muesli, although perhaps I have my friends to thank for that one ;-)
Just triggered a thought ... I must get to and sort the house wiring out, build up a multi-media PC so I can listen to tunes anywhere in the house. Maybe put together a windows app to run on my mobile for controlling the PC remotely!
I have organised a car trailer for the weekend. Off to Narrogin to swap the 48 Chev for the 82 CR 480 aka 'Widow Maker'. Now I have lights in the shed, will be great spending the odd evening in there on such projects. First thing will be to strip it down, pull the engine to bits and see how it looks. It's supposedly been rebuilt, but spring washers on the head bolts ... hmmm.
JournalPosted by gavin Tue, November 20, 2007 11:49:55I have band practice tonight ... due to the schedule I've had a longer than normal break from the last time I was on, must be a good 5 weeks ago.
Like a lot of things, I'm stuggling to find enough time to put into my music (piano). I also have good intentions with learning the bass guitar, but any music time I do have goes to the piano. Even then, I'm barely doing enough to prepare for the monthly commitment.
I did have fun playing an old organ on a recent camp away with friends, despite it's age and limited sounds, it was really good fun and helped fill out the sound. I've never really used organ sounds much during a church service, but might have to start introducing an organ sound on the occasional song :-)
JournalPosted by gavin Mon, November 19, 2007 15:22:15Looking forward to swapping my 1948 Chev Ute for a 1982 Honda CR 480. The Chev was to be a cool restoration project, but it would be years before I could get around to it, maybe at least 10, so the plan was to sell it off. Before putting it up for sale, a friend of my brother's expressed interest in swapping it for the vintage 2-stroke thumper. Being rather partial to bikes, especially hondas, I jumped at the chance.
Bikes are easier to restore than cars, simply because there is less of them. Will be doing a full resto on this one. It's a bit of a classic, so don't want to compromise the quality of the resto by cutting corners. The bike is in Narrogin and part of the deal is for me to take the ute there for the swap-over. Am planning on doing that this weekend.
Might email around some mates, see if anyone is interested in the 2 hour return journey ... could do with some company :-)
JournalPosted by gavin Fri, November 16, 2007 13:52:33Looking forward to this weekend. Got a bunch of lads coming around to help finish of the electrics for the shed. Still planning to be moved in by Christmas, but it's getting tight now. Need to finish assembling various storage solutions, mainly shelving. Hoping to do this before moving stuff from the garage.
Have been in the new office for 4 weeks now, including 3 weeks of Fish n' Chip fridays. This is an institution that started way back in 1994 in Leederville thanks to Sweet Lips, Perth's best fish and chip shop at the time, whilst working for Functional Software. After an 8 year break in that tradition, it's great to have it re-instated :-)
