Well, last weekend marked the end of Valentino Rossi's career as a racer. We have been fortunate enough to witness many greats in the last 40 odd years of racing, but this man transcends the levels of being brilliant to greatness. He has given us many an hour of the utmost fantastic viewing and I am sure many countless hours of bench racing conversations. I was really concerned for him, keeping my fingers crossed that something tragic would not happen to him, and thank fully his career has come to a close with him intact. This man raced his heart out, had tragedies on the track, lost some friends along the way, but all through it he raced. Injuries, highs lows he raced. And for that I am thankful that he made it to the finishing line. He will be forever known as quite simply one of the best racers of our era. Sad but pleased to see him walk out the door. 

Speaking of making it to the finish line, I did not complete my ride last week, that makes three lizard rides in a row now that I have failed to complete. I smacked the Diavel into a pothole that would make the grand Canyon seem insignificant. The result a broken front rim, a smashed headlight a bent frame and a ruptured fuel tank. Re did the damage to my hand. I didn't fall off, but I clattered to a halt about 30 meters down the road with fuel pissing out all over the place. I also landed on the gear lever which I am pretty sure has stuffed the gear selector arm, as it is really difficult to put into gear. Thank fully I am fully ensured and hopefully all costs will be covered. So i sit here with only 1 bike at my disposal, thinking about switching over to a 950 Multistrada if they write the bike off. I will find out on Monday. Thanks to the lizards for all the kind words in my absence haha, no empathy that lot.

The Hippy, perhaps one of the most underrated motorcycle racers we had in NZ.

In his last race he was only 1/2 a second a lap slower than the winner and still 20 seconds faster for the entire race distance than last year. Amazing really

An oldie of me in one of my favourite places

The year that I went on the exact same corner I saw to LC's , and this image from the day shows the same, strange

Simple eh?

I was just looking at this bike a couple of days ago.

The origins of Daytona

I'd love a garage like this

You can still buy them today. Saw one for sale a couple of days back with just 600K's on the clock

This is a model!!!!!!!

Goodbye Vale. Thanks for the memories