That's not magnificien scenery ... this ...

I’ve just seen some Queensland tourism ads with beautiful imagery of some lovely places. But they kept banging on about the “magnificent scenery.”
Now, Australia is my native land, and I’m very proud of it. But if we’re setting a benchmark for 'magnificent scenery', the Queenstown–Glenorchy Road on New Zealand’s South Island might be a useful reference point.
A road winding between mountains and a vast turquoise lake, with snow-capped peaks around the next bend—that’s scenery that makes you pull over because you can’t quite believe what you’re looking at.

H-D FXRS

A nice grab of Josh's FXRS featured in this month's HEAVY DUTY magazine.

Triumph Sprint ST at Britomart

This 2005 image shows the recently released Triumph Sprint ST 1050 parked outside the also recently opened Britomart train / bus interchange in downtown Auckland. 

It produced a spectacular backdrop of light and contrast and textures that really fitted the angular line of the bike. 

It was a bike that set the tone for a lot of Triumph’s future designs. The styling was done by an external UK design company, the Renfrew Group, and they came up with the ST and Speed Triples that changed Triumph’s ongoing fortunes in the aesthetic stakes. 

Some of the earlier Hinckley/Bloor designs were a bit hit-and-miss in the looks department. 

They arguable stared the Street Fighter genre with the Speed Triple, buts some of the early models with their 'modular' engineering concepts were, well ... as enthusiasts we tended to look past their visual shortcomings. We had new TRIUMPHS!

This machine was a very capable Sports / Tourer - with the emphasis on Sport. Perfect for NZ. 

The 1050 Triple is different - it has some of the torque of a big twin, or V-twin, with some of the free-revving ability of a multi. 

And still one of my all-time favourite motorcycle engines. In fact, I still own one!

Honda Rune

A lot of people lost their shit when the Honda Rune first dropped, 'they Runed a Goldwing' etc. 
But it was a really, really nice motorcycle, particularly for a big guy. 

Those forks worked really well. 

A Honda tech told me that the problem when bikes get to a certain mass and rake is that the friction of the telescopic forks plunging up and down starts to impede the efficiency of the suspension, and these trailing bottom-link forks worked really well. 

It was also, by some margin, the best-sounding stock motorcycle I ever rode. 

It was a brilliant, rich, deep Ferrari-type sound. Just fabulous. 

I really enjoyed this bike. It's a shame that the styling of a very capable machine alienated so many potential buyers. I loved it.

The Grand Prix 132cc

I finally managed to find some photos of the exact minibike I had when I was eight years old. Except this one has had the chain guard removed. But apart from that, this is really where it all started for me. I had a home-made lawnmower-powered job before this - but the Grand Prix was the first 'real deal'.
The photo is of me standing with the machine out the front of our new house at the time, with my old man's 307-cube Chevy-powered Holden Premier in the background. He was more interested in my mugshot than the bike. And probably the car!
My bikes were something that came from my grandfather, who was a keen motorcyclist and cyclist.
My parents indulged me/him.
I have some great memories of this machine.
My guitar teacher lived directly across the road in our quiet Southern Sydney street and his brother Bruce was a bit older than me, but we were friendly. And they had a mate called ‘Lünz’.
He was six-foot-seven, dressed like a 60’s rocker with rock star hair, and got about on an immaculate Norton 850 Commando, that was often parked directly outside my place. Right next to the loop of the front yard that was my track.
One day as he was leaving Bruce’s, I asked him if would ride beside me - to tell me how fast I was actually going.
Up and down Boronia street with this giant laughing … 35 … 36 … until it was tapped out at 40kph, and starting to weave.
I also knew right then that was me, or what I wanted to be, sitting on that stunning motorcycle, with the sound of Norton megaphones singing an anthem as he continued away up the hill in epic style.