Hello from Adelaide

Those white rims may be a little painful to keep clean. My gold rims get dirty enough... Mainly from brake dust.

 

It is more like peak half hour and only if you are going towards Civic or out of one of the major centres. When I first got here I was living in Braddon and driving over to Bruce for work and I wondered where all the cars were. Even driving in the same direction as everyone else from Holt to Bruce with a detour through Belconnen to drop the missus off is like taking a Sunday drive.

I was driving from Lewiston (out near Virginia Plant Nursery) into either the city or Keswick for work when I was in Adelaide and even before they were doing the Pt Wakefield roadworks it was as pleasurable as getting kicked in the nuts for an hour and a half...and peak hour was from 6am to 10am and then 3pm to 7pm, bumper to bumper. Canberra traffic Three F'n thumbs up

I am expecting cold. Although I have a weird thermostat. I was with a group of people in Canberra they were rugged up and I was in just a shirt. Living in the hills has given me a bit of resistance to the cold.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, the hills are certainly chilly, but I find it is the wind in Canberra that really gets you cold.

 

Sounds great. I end up leaving home early and leaving work late just to avoid wasting time in traffic.

Did you ride from Adelaide to Canberra? People make the hay plain sound very depressing.

 

Welcome to Canberra. The Hay Plain is a bit depressing, but better to experience it and make up your own mind about it yeah? I did the opposite and moved to Adelaide at the beginning of 2007 and rode from Canberra to Glengowrie in one day on my ZX-10R, so on a VFR it should be no problem. I even got smashed by a storm between Hay and Balranald, the high winds and foaming diesel on the asphalt made it a bit nervous for me, the rear wheel was breaking traction in a straight line haha.

As for Canberra, there are some nice roads about but you have to travel a fair bit compared to Adelaide to reach the good stuff. But with the Snowy's and various coast roads within a couple of hours there is enough to keep you occupied.

I still think Adelaide is the most liveable city in Australia, if it wasn't for the lack of job opportunities there.

 

Heh, yeah, I get that kinda thing all the time riding home in winter. I find the worst part is the air turbulence and spray off the trucks when going 110 km/h bashes you around and blinds you.

Most of my riding ends up being commuting these days but it will be good to meet up with some Canberrians and go for some rides some time. I never really got involved with the local scene here for one reason or another.

Yeah, the problem is I have lived here my whole life so it seems really boring to me. It is a good place to live over all though.

 

Jules848 and I are moving to Adelaide in November... More to get out of Canberra than for any other reason (I've been here 33 years and I'm over it, Jules has been here about 3 years and hates the winters)

We drove down there and spent a week looking at houses and suburbs trying to figure out where would be good to buy and settle in, and I actually really enjoyed the trip across the Hay plains. Absolutely spectacular watching the weather roll across that big, big sky

 

Cool, doesn't make me so depressed now that someone enjoyed the trip.

Where did you settle on? As I said I am up in the hills. It's a beautiful area but the weather is pretty cold so you probably want to avoid that if that is one of the reasons for leaving Canberra. Plus it's a little too removed from the rest of Adelaide for most peoples liking.

 

Spent most of our time looking around Belair, Hawthorndene, Flagstaff Hill, Aberfoyle Park etc. but ended up finding an awesome house in Clapham that we can hopefully get for the right price It's one of those 'worst house in the best street' scenarios... Has a great view of both the city to the north side and the ocean to the west

 

The hills are nice (and closer to the nice roads!), but yeah it can be a bit removed from the goings on closer to town.

I lived in Glengowrie and then Hyde Park, a bit exxy for Adelaide but Glengowrie was nice and close to the beach, while from Hyde Park you could walk into town and just a nice area in general, with lots of pubs/cafe's and restaurants nearby.

 

I'm in Canberra now and I have done some exploring. I am feeling very much like a stranger still! I'm sure I'll settle in soon.

Edit: What can people recommend in terms of authorised Honda service?

 

I guess that would be Canberra Motorcycle Centre (CMC) in either Fyshwick or Mitchell. Both those places are "industrial" suburbs for Canberra. Nasty places really - we like to keep our furniture shops, hardware shops, sex shops, brothels and motorcycle shops in those places.

 

Rick Miller is among the best motorcycle mechanics in Canberra, and is accredited with all the big Japanese manufacturers. He's been taking great care of my Firestorm for a couple of years now, as well as our ZX6R

He often gets busy, but it's well worth booking 2 or 3 weeks ahead to have your bike serviced by someone as thorough as he. CMC have never done me or my bikes any favours at all...

Rick's number is 6288 5229.

 

Cheers, I'll be sure to check him out.