Tuesday, Apr 17, 2012 at 14:45
All these blokes that do this kind of stunt are little bit off-centre to start with, I think.
People get divided into widely different groups, as regards how they view them.
The two main groups are those whose just think they're nuts, and just tolerate them - and the group who think they're highly admirable, and that they warrant star accolades.
I'm sort of in the middle. I admire the blokes persistance, and his fund-raising efforts - but I still think he's nuts! LOL
It never ceases to amaze me how the Long Paddock draws these people out. Living along Hwy 1, I used to see all types trudging past. Mad cyclists (most often Japs, for some reason), walkers, trolley pushers, dozens of other types of contrivances - they used to come past regularly.
Most had no idea of the road and weather conditions they would encounter - and most seemed stunned by the amount of flies and insects, and by the relentless heat (a lot always seemed to travel in Summer!). Many were ill-equipped, and many were unaware of the adverse impact of passing roadtrains.
I think a lot of truckies have fun blowing these mad cyclists off their bikes, and I've seen many cyclists take to the gutter when they saw a truck coming!
The brother and I had a few hilarious moments when living on the
mine at Higginsville. We did contracting work at Redross Nickel
mine, about 7kms up the Hwy. We often had to move items of earthmoving equipment or trucks between the Redross
mine and our
mine.
We used to use little fold-up Z50J Honda 50cc motorbikes for transport back, when we moved items of equipment. Often, we had to both ride one Z50J back down the Hwy.
Of course, the Z50J barely had room for a pillion passenger, so one of us would drive the Z50J, and the pillion passenger usually found it more comfortable to stand up on the rear footpegs, hanging onto the drivers shoulders.
We'd be barrelling down the Hwy like this, at the Z50J's maximum speed of about 60kmh - and travellers coming towards us and overtaking us would slow down in disbelief - obviously thinking we were a couple of nutters, on a 5000km West-East trek on a Z50J!! LOL
Cheers - Ron.
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