Jindabyne                   23rd-26th January, 2010

Having just completed a terrific Australia Day weekend trip with the Club, I was relaxed and looking forward to getting back into the workforce after enjoying an unexpected holiday for all of January. My last job had become a complete bore. My immediate boss was a real workaholic and expected me to do well in excess of 45 hours work per week, which was far beyond what I was prepared to do... especially as I was employed and paid for a 35 hour week. What irritated most was being at work until 8 pm on Friday evenings finalising the week’s reports – much to the horror of my kids and drinking buddies!

Unusual for me, I derived a cunning plan on how to depart the company – in a way which would cause the most ‘inconvenience’ to them and the most benefit to me. I only took this approach after being given the ‘short straw’ and told that I had to work over the Christmas - New Year period. Having had the GSXR750 serviced, polished, new tyres fitted and as keen as mustard to join friends on the Porepunkah and Jindabyne weekends, I was all dressed up with no permission to go. Rather unfair indeed!

So my plan was to give notice on the last day of work for all the bosses (23rd December) and leave them little time to find a replacement. At least this way there was a chance of being shown the door and being able to attend the Christmas Camp. Upon giving notice, I felt extremely relieved, but my boss was really peeved. He insisted that I owed the company and yada yada yada – I had already phased out!

I simply stated “No George” and let HR know that I did not want to work with this workaholic again.

In a surprise turn of events, they did show me the door and deposited a month’s salary in my bank account the following morning! (as well as three weeks holiday pay)

You bloody ripper... Porepunkah and Jindabyne – Here I come!

5,000 kilometres later... I am feeling super relaxed and in the zone.

Ben has asked me to pen a few words for the magazine in between producing the Club’s DVD, looking for jobs and attending interviews.

And the subject that comes straight to mind is TYRE PRESSURE.

For the better part of 10 years riding, I have always stuck with the manufacturers recommendations: CBR1100XX – 36 front, 42 rear and GSXR750 - 36 front, 40 rear.

I remember Murray at ‘Treads and Things’ laying down the law and telling me not to under-inflate the tyres or you’ll wear them out too quickly. Murray and I had become good friends after I accidentally forgot to pay for a set of tyres fitted for a Tassy trip – a set of HPX for the blackbird which were ordinary and felt very vague, but were a manufacturer’s recommendation for the Blackbird. When I went back to pay for them, Murray was quite relieved and offered plenty of discounts on every return visit.

Anyway, after reading plenty of articles on the internet and listening to the guys in the Club (finally), I decided to drop the pressures of my tyres for the Jindabyne trip. I am currently running the Michelin Pilot Road 2CT front and rear tyres on the GSXR750 and at pressures of 32 and 36 psi. At first I did not notice any difference but after a while I realised that a ‘vagueness’ had disappeared that normally occurred while the bike was upright and being tipped into corners. Next, I felt MORE GRIP on the front while cornering, but this caused me a new problem. Now, with the ability to enter to corners more quickly and get around without front end drift, I was riding beyond my ‘normal’ and often went for the comfort of a front-brake dab just before tipping the bike in, only to get through the corner thinking why am I going so slow?

This became very clear when returning down the ‘Orbost twisties road’ in a freight train following Ben Warden, Ben Fuller and Clifford for the entire 86 kilometres! I was able to ride enjoyably without pushing the limits too often, though at one stage I did lose the front end when braking too long into the corner. It all seemed quite easy to recover, but I am not sure I understand why? Probably releasing the brake allowed the tyre to re-grip!

So the upshot of the dropping the tyre pressure by 4 psi? A SUCCESS! Not only better from a riding perspective, but the tyre wear is even across the entire surface! For years I have never been able to use that last centimetre of rubber at the edges of the tyre, but with a reduced pressure, the edges got a workout. AND it looks impressive…

So having learned my lesson the hard (stubborn) way, the next thing to address, is the SUSPENSION!  I’ll have to start playing with compression/rebound/preload settings or even lash out and get the suspension professionally set-up!

BUT FIRST, it’s back to finishing the DVD and looking for a NEW JOB. When I have the cold hard cash coming in again, it will be time to review my bike options. The GSXR has quickly reached 10,000 kms and it might be the best time for a trade-in or private sale?

Time for a Suzuki GSXR1000 perhaps?

(Besides, the Club needs to get a better mix happening - plentiful numbers of ‘allegedly boring’ CBR1000’s exist already!)

Or maybe an R1?

 

Peter Feistl