I know you are Jealous

So I have introduced you to Megamind; I should now let you know about Brett the Bacon Boy, my nephew & NSW police officer. Anyway, when I stole was given the Love Cub I sent Megamind &  The Bacon Boy the following gloating e-mail letting them know of my evil plans (insert evil laugh here…)

Background is that Megamind lives in Canberra & is a public servant; albeit a scientific public servant; Brett the bacon boy is in Goulbourn at the moment; He has been into bikes for years & is a bit of a fan of the humble posty bike despite his penchant for moto-cross

To:                          Megamind

                               Brett the Bacon Boy

Subject:                  I Know you are jealous

Hi there Mike (And a big HI HI to you Brett the Bacon Boy)

Well, I have stolen the Honda Cub… (It shall be known from now on as the Love Cub…)

I know you wanted it, what with its inner city socialist leaning lefty chic cool… but I got it first, & as with all great thefts, finder’s keepers…

You shall just have to feel smug, in only the way a North Facing Canberra town house with a nice patio, chiminea & Double garage can make you feel… along with that rather nice ability to eat sourdough bread (not that I am jealous of that…)

By using the wonders of the interwebz (Something called e-bay to be exact…), I have estimated that, along with my innate non-ability as a mechanic & (about) $2000 I will have something that may nearly just be road worthy in the Socialist workers paradise of New South Wales. I can hear you turning green with Hulk like rage!

Yep, it would be the fantastic project for your garage, & then for to ride to your work in “Corporate Overlord City”, but, no, it is your brother that will, in fact, be sticken’ it to the Man!

Yay for Fatty!

But seriously, it is my “new” project, since the rats have destroyed my beer fridge; I have a hole in my shed that can only be filled by a motorcycle!

I am constantly singing the Old Max Connolly Honda TV ad jingle (you may remember it from when we were growing up) … & don’t forget:  you meet the nicest people on a Honda!

I am heading home on Wednesday (hope I make it in the same day this time!)

Leigh

As it turns out I did make it home on Wednesday & Megamind has since sent me something resembling a congratulatory note on my headway on an ultimately doomed hobby (as is the way that mature aged siblings show there true affection for each other)

So Mote it Be!

Leigh

Scooter-wear

Warning to Vegans: animals WERE hurt & are going to be discussed in this post … even if it was a while ago…

Benny & Danny recon my brother has a striking resemblance to the movie cartoon character Megamind; it’s just that Mike isn’t blue, have an enormous head or have a talking pet fish… they just insist he is Megamind & can’t be persuaded otherwise.

So Megamind became a Vegan a while ago; whilst I remained rather indifferent to this choice, Megamind was forced to divest himself of all animal based products about his house.

Typically the “cruelty railroad” started with Megamind dropping some of his, now unwanted, but rather stylish (still cruelty tainted) gear at Mum & Dads place, where it will fester for a while. Mum was initially rather glad to have the said piece of kit, but, after a while she then decides that it is a piece of "clutter" that she no longer wants & then decides to pass this on to any member of the family that happens to be visiting. Usually my nephew (Brett the Bacon-Boy) & I have been the beneficiaries of this, fortunately for me, my guilty haul so far has included a couple of rather stylish Moroccan leather bags (one for me, one for the Child Bride) & a heap of Bailey’s liqueurs! Ya can keep this stuff comming Megamind!

The latest addition the the Guilt Stash was a couple of combination Possum Fur & Merino wool scarves (bought by Megamind when he was holidaying in the Shaky Isles a couple of years ago). Between the leather bags & scarves & the unexpected nature of these surprises;  I feel like I belong on American pickers at times!

My possum fur scarves; Illegal, possibly, but just fantastic otherwise!

Now, I am not aware of the legality of wearing the fur of a possum in Oz, But, I may just be committing a criminal offense… hmm, I won’t tell anyone about that!

In truth, the Possum is a feral pest in New Zealand, so by making the problem part of the solution, I think it’s a good thing!

Anyway, these scarves are so warm on my belly that I thought that I had spilt a coffee down the front of my vest when I first wore one of them, so I knew they were good!

These have become a rather stylish addition to my scootering wardrobe; they are a rather warmer alternative to the summer bandana & the neck warmer that I would otherwise wear. Both do an excellent job of keeping my neck, chin & chest roasty-toasty warm when I am hooning about in the winter wonderland that is OJ.

The other “nice thing” is, that as I have been sticking to the stripped scarf, it has a rather nice 2-stroke oil smell due to this regular use as a scooter scarf! It is just the thing to get me drifting into a happy place when I am feeling a bit under the pump, for example most days at work…

On the up-side I am really beginning to fit the generic white person stereotype profile - http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/04/30/97-scarves/ . Cool, I could be offended by this article (& web-site) if I wasn’t so busy laughing at how true it is!

The next piece of scooter gear is my Scooter Bag… I own a Tough Man-bag; I bought it because I need it for work (that is travel To & From) as well as scootering around OJ & I just needed a tough man-bag!



As Alex the Lion says "Be Tough & Carry your Stuff"... Man-bag, the height of toughness. Thank you to Andy Strapz for making these!



I know it is tough as I bought it from a motorcycle shop; in central Sydney, which is a tough place as well

It is also tough because it is made from oil skin material so it is waterproof. Tough!

It is tough because it has backpack style clips on it to shut the three outside pockets (which are tough too), & it even has a clip inside to hold my keys (which is a pretty tough feature in a man-bag).

I know it is tough because it will hold a trilby or fedora hat (without irreparably crushing them) & then it will hold my bike helmet when I have arrived at my destination, allowing me to wear my non-crushed trilby or fedora, which is in itself tough!

It is also tough because it is retro to boot; the company that makes them recons they are modelled on a mid-seventies record company sales bag & as such it can hold 12 LP records…retro to the max, which is tough!

It can eve fit a couple of 6-packs of beer, or a couple of kilos of meat from your local butcher - Tough!

My man-bag is tough & cool & I will not have any more discussions about this situation!

So Mote it be

Leigh

Friday & More Vesptude…

Friday & More Vesptude…

Well today I discovered that I could fit 6 litres of milk, some random fruit & veg & a few random cuts of meat into my bag; BUT where did I put the nice soft & fluffy loaf of bread? Why in the glove box of course! The Vespa is such a handy thing around town!

My butcher was also impressed by it as well & was asking about the Surfer as well, (the usual stuff, how much fuel does it use, what model is it, how does it go? etc.)

So with a bit of a ride out of the way & feeling good about my scooter, I thought that I’d give a Vespa status report – a Honest one... That is, the Silver Surfer is old & dodgy at the best of times, & the following list gives a reasonable account of it. And, as scary as the thought of work on the Vespa at the same time as the Love Cub, AND not wanting to take him off the road for any large period of time, I think it may just be getting to that time where I bite the bullet & fix him properly for a while, especially now it is rather cold & wintery…

The number one issue with the Surfer is the Gear shift assembly. It jumps out of gear when I am not in top gear – I suspect it’s the gear box selector, as the issue swapped from 1^st & 4^th gears to 1^st & 3^rd gear after I broke a gear shift cable; anyway, the cable issue suggests that it is a selector issue so I’ll stick with that diagnosis for a while & order this part when I have the money. By the way, my diagnosis is based from the large body of empirical evidence that is the Various Vespa forums on the internet; so my assumption with this may be incorrect (especially given that most expert on some of these websites are 14 years old & are recycling thoughts of other posters...)

The hand grip accelerator is sticky, but I suspect a need to clean some gunk in the handle; I plan to look at this next break & at least have an idea of what is wrong before I order parts

The Speedo  has been stuck on 356km for a while… it stopped working a while ago  - well 6 months after the Surfer landed in Oz & I have not gotten around to repairing it yet. I’ll purchase a new cable with my next parts order as well.

The Rear wheel oil seal is weeping oil over the lovely back wheel- it is not a large leak, but it does allow a small amount of gear oil out over the rear wheel, an occasional wipe will nicely repair this problem

The plastic floor board has broken (largely due to some of my riding practices) & I will replace this with a chrome edged black rubber one; for no other reason that I think it will be a nice contrast (the black will match the seat & the chrome matches the silver & chrome of the Vespa. I think sometimes having a big brash stark contrast has an amazing effect; BUT before I do lay down the cash I’ll play with paint to confirm my idea as I do not want to waste money on something else that is not needed or looks terrible!

I think the flasher relay unit or relay or switch has blown on the blinker assembly as well. I will have to run a check with a test light on that too! The good news is that the flasher & all the electrics are 12 volt (read modern) so; as a result, the bulbs relays & fuses are readily available at an auto-parts store!

So to sum the Silver Surfer up, He is OK for an Old Boy, but he does need a bit of TLC (as we all do!)

So Mote it be

Leigh

FINALLY… a ride… on the Vespa

Thursday was 3 degrees at 0900 when I dropped Dan at school (so the dude on the radio said), it was VERY crisp, but it was lovely. The sun was shining & there was a very mild breeze, so it was probably 5 degrees when I returned to home. After my ritual pre-ride coffee I wheeled the Silver Surfer out of his surf shack (the garage) & suited up

It was still pretty cold & it had been a while since the Silver Surfer had been started, so I should not have been surprised that he took 5 kicks + choke + accelerator to get the Surfer Surfing. Gee a two stroke Vespa sounds cool when it has been a month since you last heard it! And the smell of the exhaust is a nice sweet oily-petrochemically smell too… oh dear; I am personally responsible for global warming, but gee this 150cc motor is cool stuff!

The plan for today’s ride was to the hamlet/rural locality of Nashdale & then on to Mt Canobolas & probably a cup of tea at the Mountain tea house on the way back in. Anyway, I buzzed up the Old Mountain, taking a couple of detours down some “interesting looking” rural lane ways…

Some second string road near Nashdale...

 …I am not too sure what I mean when I say “interesting looking” other than, “hey, there’s a road I can ride down that doesn’t appear to have a semi driving out of it! But anyway, I got side tracked a couple of times, but that’s cool, I want to have a look about this place because that’s what a bloke has to do on a day off!

Nashdale District… in the Cabonne Shire that surround Orange

Hmm, I would need chains if it was snowing today!

     

I did ultimately arrive at the top of Mt Canobolas, which, I may point out, is the highest point until Madagascar. I know this as there is a sign up on top of the mountain that says so! The truth be known, it really just shows how flat Oz is doesn’t it?!

The vespa & a survey station. And yes, I am not supposed to ride a scooter there!

                               

These towers send forth 24 hours a day of Capitalist/Imperialist Propaganda TV to the central west – I love TV & am glad I get a good signal at my house courtesy of these aerials , propaganda or not!

                These towers make Mt Canobolas even taller, but not really!

On the way back down the mountain hill I took a turn off to ride some of the Forestry trails, again, no idea why, I just did! These turned out to be mostly second grade dirt roads, which, one imagines, are  just like the roads in post war Italy that gave rise to these wonderful, cheap vehicles & those in Vietnam that the surfer had until recently been ridden on.

Don’t go too close to the edges

                               

Today I am confident that I am the only ‘68 Vespa riding about Mt Canobolas!

                                

I kept telling myself this as the surfer ate these forestry accesses up… second grade roads are great on a Vespa, why did the world’s greatest motor bikes show rate it so lowly 8^th greatest ? Have a look on YouTube for the world’s greatest motorcycles – the Vespa rates number 8, largely due to its inner-city little wheels… what were they thinking - because at the time I was thinking,; “this bike is fantastic on these roads” & “dammit, I should be doing this more often”

Dirt-bikes are generally 2 strokes aren’t they??? Logically, the Silver Surfer must be a great dirt-bike then!

It was about this time that I realised that I had absolutely no idea where I was (other than the Mount Canobolas area)! Not to worry, I have a full tank of juice, so let’s just follow these roads & see where I end up

Fortunately I came to a road sign, which, conveniently had been run over by someone, (possibly the crashed car about 20meters away).  Oh well, not much for it but to keep looking about which would see me make another wrong turn to end up at some guys locked farm gate with a “No Trespassing” sign, which was kinda funny considering where we were, but then, considering the local hoons love to come out & do burnouts in the forest, I can’t really blame them for requesting some privacy.                          

A long & winding road & yes, it was fun to ride down there!

If only this road was bitumen – it would be world famous as a bike road

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, blocking out the scenery…

                

With still no idea where I was, I did the only thing a man in my position could do… I kept on riding around hoping to find somewhere that looks like a road out of this place – I’ll be buggered if I am gunna ask for directions (I am male after all)!



Yay, I am nearly on a bitumin road again

Anyway, about another hour of misdirection’s & general stickybeaking around the forest I did ultimately make it back to a bitumen road; out towards the Panuara forestry commission office (I think) – I may have to check on Google maps at some time if I can be bothered… this ultimately returned to bitumen out towards Panuara (to the south of OJ) & ended up buzzing into OJ via Springside roughly 3 ½ hours later, stopping only to try to talk to some wood ducks grazing at the side of the road near the Rural Bush fire centre. As they didn’t want to talk to me, I continued into OJ to grab lunch, just to top my day off – I never did get my cuppa tea, but dammit all, that was fun

If you squint you can just see the wood ducks grazing near the road

               

 Oh it’s a great day to be alive!

So Mote it Be

Leigh

Porn!

What is it with men & our fascination with the bizarre? From train spotters to bird watchers to footy fanatics we are truly out there, we have our favourite stuff & we prattle on endlessly about this subject & attend shows & join clubs & websites to talk more about our favourite fetish... and as with every sweeping generalisation, this grouping includes me; hence this blog, the Love Cub, Silver Surfer & Mighty Lamb.

As i am a male, I also have quite a few favourite websites & magazines that I peruse on a regular basis, for want of a better term, could best be described as scooter porn! And My favourite Porn mag is … Old Bike Australasia… ooh ahh… oh the photography… the chrome… the deep metallic paint… hmm carburetors... oh I'm in heaven!

Thank gawd I am not the only loony out there who wants to rebuild a hideously archaic underslung motorbike! Although most of the aficionados in old bike mag are into “real” motorcycles, one does see old scooters in there from time to time just to prove scooterists are part of the club!

So I have purchased my favourite piece of porn & was happily reading it over a quiet coffee, when I chanced upon a “letter to the editor” from someone called Laurie Fox in Mount Gambier South Australia claiming to have a whole heap of early Honda Cub plastic parts. Good I thought, hopefully, I can buy some NOS (New Old Stock) sky blue Cub parts – Cool. At this stage, anyone into vehicles starts to note the pride with which I say “NOS” it can add credibility to a restoration apparently!

So with this in mind, I spent 3 days of ringing random Mount Gambier phone numbers in search of the Mysterious Mr Fox. This got me know where… no leads, nuffin! Bugger it!

I was so excited that I was going to get to make some way cool purchases, yet I came crashing back to earth so suddenly – just goes to show how lucky I was that a Cub is a reasonably popular motorbike & re-production parts are still readily available as opposed to those that do up realy obscure stuff! To paraphrase myself; I have Options with this!

So, to sum the experience up; Much like real porn, the whole exercise left me feeling rather empty & unsatisfied… & very jealous!

So Mote it Be!

Leigh

Blue… I’m so blue over you…

Well, with the gardening done, i was feeling able to "waste" some time on a Manly Hobby!

So onto the nerd-box I go & straight to E-bay… So now, on top of “how much is this going to cost” & “where am I going to get the parts for this work” I now have the “What if they no longer make the body parts that I need” to worry about.

 I have come the conclusion that I am stuffed; the colors of the plastic panels that are for sale all appear to be NOT the lovely sky blue that the Love Cub was originally; This compounds the other issue that I have with the available plastic headlight & under handlebar bits; the Love Cubs are different to the ones that I see on e-bay … I will have to be careful to contact these sellers so that the worst case I can get an entire colored plastic set in a color that I like & paint the bike to match… However, I am NOT going pink with the color scheme!

At this point I must ask, why the bloody hell did the previous owners paint it mat black? I know the answer to this already; I just wish they hadn’t painted the handlebar plastic!

Well it turns out these are the hard bits to find on the interwebz...

Hmm, maybe that nice light green would be cool, whereas, if I do the Love Cub in the very popular red, I am pretty sure all the people around OJ will think it is an ex-Australia Post Postie bike & not the wonderful Honda 50 that has had all those songs written about it!

Please don’t take that as being down on the mighty Honda CT110 Postie bike - they are Australia’s top selling motorbike after all, but they are not a Cub!

Anyway, the e-bay thing is interesting; rather than a website based supplier (such as the Vespa & Lambretta part selling ScootRS.com) you really have to be careful with what you are ordering (ScootRS do tell you to quote your scooter model to reduce the risk of the wrong part being delivered, which is reassuring when you are not buying off a local business

Well, there is nothing for it but to start e-mailing pictures to prospective suppliers so that I can be sure that I am on the same page, like the carpenters say “Measure twice & cut once!”

So Mote it

Leigh

The Garden

Well the weekend was a write off weather wise. We ended up going to watch a movie to break the monotony, ya gotta love trashy super hero movies (The Avengers) I loved every minute of it & the boys even stayed engrossed for the entire length of the movie, no small feat there, Yay to The Child Bride for that idea!

Monday was a revelation; Sunny & lovely in a Wintery way but VERY brisk!

As usual it was the Dan & Leigh show. So with that in mind, we decided that it was time to catch up on some much overdue pruning that was required around the house. So all rugged up against the cold we set forth to do battle with my “garden”

All I can say is that thank god I’ve had my tetanus shots, the roses left my arms & fingers shredded (despite the heavy leather gloves & thick long sleeves)… maybe I SHOULD have pruned the bush rose last year rather than thinking about it whilst having a beer!

A Garden visitor too concerned with finding grubs!

One of the nice things to happen was that a magpie was so intent on eating that he came to within touching distance of where Dan & I were gardening. Cool that wild life isn’t worried by a couple of people hacking at their semi-feral roses

The highlight was Dan & the lemon tree. As OJ is cold, a Meyer lemon will grow in a sheltered position; unfortunately, Meyer Lemons have 3cm long spikey thorns on them. This is OK normally, as I prune & dispose of them… unfortunately, Dan thought it would be funny to sneak up on a gardening dad & swat him with one of those spikey branches… Kids, if ya didn’t love them, you’d just about kill them at times!

Dan, you wouldn't hit Dad with that spikey stick now would you?
Sure he wouldn't!

Anyway, with the gardening done, I could now justify a bit of (E) cub time - I promis the next post WILL be Cub Related!

So Mote it Be

Leigh

Nachos

So the upside of the shopping was that I grabbed all the ingredients for Nachos… Yep Man-Food-Shopping was good. As Alissa was coming over for the weekend, much to the excitement of her younger brothers, I thought a Saturday nite Nacho dinner would be the go… Fantastically easy to cook & fun to eat. 

I often cook when I am at home, & I wish the boys ate that well as often when I cook regularly!

Oh well, such is life!

Mr Hard Core…NOT!

OK, so after a much needed work session, I returned home, hoping that there would’ve been some progress in Cub-land; no joy on that front as it turns out!

Unfortunately, the hydro-blasters had not finished the clean of my mean machine so I couldn’t play with the engine or the frame. This fact was not too upsetting ad Dear Ol’Dad had arranged this all thru “Mates” so I can’t complain about the price!

In a similar vein, the upholsterer had not finished the seat, so there was no forward gear on that side of the equation either. Looks like the Cub time will be much reduced this break!

No biggie; there is heaps of other things for me to get on with.

The next problem was that of the weather in OJ at the time… 5 degrees & a forecast of snow down to 1000m (OJ is at 850m above sea level)… not high enough to let the snow settle, but it is high enough to be dam cold & miserable! 

8:30 in the morning & it was wet, cold & gloomy all day (this pic is rather over exposed!)

Especially if you want to go for a relaxing ride on a scooter!

Well the cat’s out of the bag & the whole cyber-world now knows that… I am now in the “Not Hard Core Club”; but hey, I can live with this fact, I ride scooters after all!

On the upside, as I have also been away at work for a while, it’s time to do the “stuff” that must be done instead… first cab off the rank was to do the food shop; if the Child bride had to be at work & if I was stuck driving a car, the least I could do would be to make the most of the situation so that we all weren’t down doing a Sunday arvo family shop. And I get to buy “Man Style”; how much meat do I need?

With that done, I was out to the beer shed. First, I wanted to go all Zen like with the remaining innards of the Love Cub…  BUT most importantly, I had some home brew to bottle. I had set the batch of apple cider fermenting before I went away for work, so, now that I had returned, time to bottle it into the last of my clean750ml long necks (the remaining bottles will ned some washing & sterilizing before i use them!)

  

The homebrew set up; the cupboard is lines with some off-cut polystyrene

Home brewing is another of my weird quirky hobbies, so it was good that I had to clean up push a path thru the Love Cubs Bits in order to get bottling… how happy I was, alcohol & motorcycle bits!

A fantastic way to spend the arvo before going on the afternoon school run, Ah, it is good to be home!

So Mote it Be

Leigh