Things are rolling along at a nice pace . Today I bought the first motorcycle. Deciding what to buy has been  long process with many changes of mind along the way. There were a number of criteria to meet & few bikes were able to meet all of them. The bikes need to be lightweight, with low seat height, but with suspension & ground clearance which will be happy on rough roads & tracks. They should be bikes that are equally at home going into town to fetch some milk, or taking us into the Bungle Bungles. The low weight & low seat height are more important to MrsTea than myself, but I also don’t want an off road ‘weapon’ , the type of machine that isn’t happy unless ‘going hard’. Actually .....I would like something like that, an enduro bike ......BUT... I know it would quickly become a problem. I want to ride *with* MrsTea, not constantly going faster & then waiting (as I tended to do when we were younger), I want to be able to putter along the road, conversing with her about the environment we are passing through & maybe even the meaning of life!  Having two identical bikes makes sense for that reason alone, also  because only one set of spares & tools need to be carried. I had decided that a pair of AGbikes (farm bikes) would be most suitable. Either the Honda CTX Bushlander or the Yamaha Ag200e. Both 200cc with electric start. However buying new would stretch our budget too much, & after months of keeping an eye out, i have been unable to find any for sale secondhand within reasonable travelling distance. Plenty of Agbikes for sale, but very very few that have a compliance plate (which is required for road registration). Farmers pay a few hundred bucks less if they don’t want to register the bike. I had been fairly confident of obtaining compliance plated agbikes, but with our departure date just 10 weeks away I’m keen to cease procrastinating & get things ‘sorted’. In this frame of mind I started looking at what was available all over again, & what a good move that turned out to be! Why? Because I discovered a model I hadn’t previously come across that is very similar to the ag bikes in many respects. It could be considered a ‘soft roader’ trail bike. The Honda SL230. It doesn’t have the latest fully adjustable suspension & a motor that can flip the bike over with a flick of the wrist, but it does have a soft seat, adequate off road suspension & ground clearance. It has an exceptionally quiet all stainless steel exhaust system, & can get around 250kms from it’s 10 litre fuel tank. To my eye, it is a neat little machine, nicely finished, without all the extraneous plastic crap that many dirt bikes seem to have.’It has pillion footrests & a strong rear subframe. Whilst no pillion will be carried, there will be no worries about mounting a rack on the back. We will need to be able to carry camping gear, food, water, 10 litres extra fuel, spares & tools.

Initially I found the light weight machine quite strange, being used to my Thunderbird which weighs around 215kg compared to the SL’s 105kg. Riding the SL down a loose gravel road I felt unstable, like the front wheel wanted to ‘wash out’ from under me. But when I remembered the ‘lean forward/elbows up’ off road style of cornering from years ago, suddenly the SL felt ‘right’, with the front wheel doing as I wanted, & the rear just following. Dirt & road styles of riding are completely different! The quiet exhaust certainly stifles the motor, which is a bored out version of the motor I had in a Honda XR200 (enduro). The XR went harder. Nevertheless, the bike gets along quite nicely with a few revs, & should be capable of cruising at up to 100kph. I can’t quite believe I’m saying this, must be old age creeping up..but I will refrain from ‘releasing’ the extra ‘go’, in favour of quietness! This particular bike is little gem, having been exceptionally well cared for in it’s 7 years/8000kms life. It would have to be one of the cleanest second hand dirt bikes I’ve ever seen. It had recreational registration, but this will be cancelled, as I will need to get full rego for it. So I’ve bought it unregistered & without a roadworthy certificate (RWC), but everything on it is perfect working order so passing the RWC wont be a problem. I hope MrsTea approves when she gets home soon.......I think she will.  Cuppa