Canberrans Sips Again

[DAN85]

Ill be there <i></i>

[Max]

OCI, 7pm sounds great. I'd be a little uncomfortable having a lady rider into those sorts of surrounds guys. Heidi is certainly "one of the boys" but let's look after her a bit


Max - "Look after yer mates"
Madmax - GSX1300R Black and Blue Buses Rule
Good Bike, Good Woman, Good Road, Good Weather, Good God - Good Bye!
Smith and Wesson - The original point and click interface.
Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.
<i></i>

[Max]

Hi guys,
any thoughts on our social sips? Wednesday nights? Thursday nights? Any nights? Heidi, Dan and I attended OCI and had their very good Schnitzel and beer chaser tonight. The actual night we socially sip is irrelevent, as long as we're having an interface with other Bus riders

Cheers.


Max Madmax - GSX1300R Black and Blue Buses Rule
Good Bike, Good Woman, Good Road, Good Weather, Good God - Good Bye!
Smith and Wesson - The original point and click interface.
Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.
<i></i>

[Heidi1]

I Luurrrvve snitzel
<i></i>

[Max]

Do I hear Canberrans clamouring for OCI this Wednesday night??? Heidi, Dantheman, (Busdriver is in Cairns and on the turps), Ressac, Shayne, Markus, Youngblood, Saracen (it will not rain - breath easy and relax bloke).


Max
Aussie Rocks Madmax - GSX1300R Black and Blue Buses Rule
Good Bike, Good Woman, Good Road, Good Weather, Good God - Good Bye!
Smith and Wesson - The original point and click interface.
Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.
<i></i>

[monyx]

Yep - in for this week aboard Canberra's only Back/Silver K5 so far as I've seen anyways

Well what is our estemed librarian doing in the paper
...promoting Busa's alright (CT "Monday Profil p.3) way to go Heidi! - I even learnt some things I didn't know about the busa.

Sorry no formatting from the AAP newswire:

Mark.


Author: By The Canberra Times
Publisher: The Canberra Times
Publication: The Canberra Times , Page 3 (Mon 29 May 2006)
Keywords: Hayabusa (5)
Edition: TT

Life in the fast lane THE MONDAY PROFILE






D OWN at the drag racing track, she's known as The Librarian. She arrives on a massive black and purple motorcycle, her red ringlets peeking out from beneath her helmet, and takes her place among the field of racers - all men, few smiling, many mean-looking. Heidi Pritchard is one of the few women in the world who is brave enough to ride a Hayabusa, also known as the Suzuki GSX- 1300R - the largest, fastest road bike ever made. ''The Hayabusa really is the last of the superbikes,'' Pritchard says. ''It was built purely for speed. As soon as you get to any real speed on the track it forms a little pressurised cell around the rider - your elbows and your knees get tucked in and your head gets forced down on the tank. But as well as going incredibly fast it's also great around corners, and I go touring on it all the time.'' It's a huge step up for a woman who started out at the age of 25 riding a little silver bike named ''Piglet''. ''I was sitting at Tilley's [Cafe] one day and a guy pulled up on this huge silver bike, and I fell in love with it.'' The bike - which she later realised was actually rather small, just 250cc - was for sale, and after an initial conversation that involved some haggling over the price, Pritchard and the bike's owner embarked on a relationship, during which the asking price for the bike dropped lower and lower. ''But there's a name for girls who do things like that, so I ended up having to beat the price back up.'' And thus Piglet - so named ''because he was only half a hog'' - got a new owner, who then needed to learn how to ride (not to mention get a licence). On getting her L-plates she took the bike on to the open road, and within two weeks was confident enough to ride to Yass. The ride went smoothly so she kept going on to Gundagai, then on to Albury, and on until she arrived in Melbourne. ''I had to buy clothes on the trip. My flatmates fed the dog and I learned to ride a 250.'' Frustrated by the number of leather-clad men on big machines who would kick her tyres and tell her Piglet wasn't ''a tourer'', Pritchard decided to do as many kilometres as possible on her little Kawasaki, and sent her mechanic postcards from all over the eastern states. Within a couple of years she had outgrown her first bike and upgraded to Darth Vader - a big, black Honda CB-750. The pair were inseparable for several years until a relationship pattern began to emerge, and Pritchard's eyes began straying to other bright young things, notably a crimson red Suzuki Bandit 1200. Pritchard took the Bandit to a track racing day, and it was there that she first laid eyes on the much- anticipated Hayabusa. ''Years earlier I'd seen drawings of these bikes, and they were so different to anything else. They were just beautiful - the first bikes to be designed in the wind tunnel at Boeing. Then the first European testers started to do rides, and these people who had been riding for 40 years were just terrified by this bike.'' Two Suzuki reps were at the track with the first two Hayabusas to arrive in Australia, but when they couldn't convince any of the male riders to do a test ride they approached Pritchard. ''One of the guys took me aside halfway through the day and said, 'We've been watching you on the track and you're going okay - would you take this bike out?' They said that if a girl was game enough to ride it, the boys would have to.'' After some cajoling Pritchard agreed, took the bike on to the track, and bought one on the spot. That was in 2000 and she's now on to her third. The first beloved bike was stolen from the basement carpark of the National Library, where Pritchard (who was formerly a teacher) works as the manager of events and education. ''I never realised I loved a thing so much until I lost that bike. I had it all tricked out for the track and I had race tyres and suspension and a race air filter. I cried quite a bit.'' Her insurance paid for the bike to be replaced, but this one already had 1000km on the clock so she bought Hayabusa No. 3 - ''The Bathroom''. Pritchard had just bought a house in the inner north and set aside extra money to renovate the bathroom, which was ''all asbestos and lifting tiles''. ''But the day after I settled on the house I was just riding past Action Motorcycles and thought I'd just go in and have a look.'' She couldn't help asking what it would cost to do a changeover of her bike for a brand new one. ''He gave me an amount and it was exactly the amount I'd set aside for the bathroom. I know it sounds silly but there's really something about having a bike and knowing you're the only person who has ever ridden it, knowing that you've run it in properly, and knowing that every ding is yours.'' After joining a Sydney-based Hayabusa owners' club Pritchard was invited to join the other riders at a drag racing day at the Eastern Creek Raceway over Easter. ''There were big bikes and terrifying men and not a lot of instruction,'' she says. But the race marshalls showed her around and told her what to do (and what not do do). So she decided to give it a go and joined the line of riders who emerged from a dark tunnel into an arena with lights flashing, music blaring and spectators screaming. ''I've always said there's no glory in straight-line speed,'' she says. ''The glory is in doing corners well and really learning to ride your bike. But with drag racing you go out there, the light goes green and you go really, really fast in one direction and try not to hit the sandtrap at the end - it rocks.'' Pritchard, now 36, ended up doing many races, her top run being 11.6 seconds over the 800m track. That's about 205km an hour. ''I always thought these boys that put turbo kits on their bikes were just ridiculous, but I've come back thinking, 'I really need a turbo kit!'. So I'm already thinking about how to upgrade The Bathroom.'' The Monday Profile is a series reserved for local identities. We hope you enjoy getting to know some of the people who help weave the social fabric of Canberra. Look out for it every week in Times 2. <i>Edited by: monyx at: 29/5/06 6:17 pm
</i>

[Max]

And cuts an excellent figure doing the modelling thing on the grass in front of her bike. Way to go Heidi girl.

Wednesday night or Thursday night guys? We need a decision. Schnitzel ist on ze menu of course.


Max- This is our ......(sweeping hand)........Librarian!
Librarians Rock - Madmax - GSX1300R Black and Blue Buses Rule
Good Bike, Good Woman, Good Road, Good Weather, Good God - Good Bye!
Smith and Wesson - The original point and click interface.
Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.
<i></i>

[Heidi1]

I'm considering a nude calender next.

Thursday suits me. <i></i>

[Max]

Thursday suits me too, what a racket with all the guys stampeding the doors down getting to answer the message, I think we should consider Thursday the new Social Sips night. All in favour say "Aye".

I am going to leave the calender thing alone as I will get into a heap of strife if I venture anything about it


Max
Aussie Rocks Madmax - GSX1300R Black and Blue Buses Rule
Good Bike, Good Woman, Good Road, Good Weather, Good God - Good Bye!
Smith and Wesson - The original point and click interface.
Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.
<i></i>

[DAN85]

aye aye im up for thursdays. ill be at oci on thursday night. <i></i>

[Heidi1]

Good for me. <i></i>

[monyx]

Either night suits - Thurs this week a-ok. <i></i>

[Max]

Excellent mate, 7.00 at OCI, Thursday. Heidi is signing autographs.


Max
Heidi Rocks Madmax - GSX1300R Black and Blue Buses Rule
Good Bike, Good Woman, Good Road, Good Weather, Good God - Good Bye!
Smith and Wesson - The original point and click interface.
Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.
<i></i>

[DAN85]

We better still be going tongiht otherwise ill disown the gang ill start my own gang <i></i>

[monyx]

I'm a fair-wheather biker...so not looking good to keep the busa dry haha ya gotta give me a few more weeks before I get it wet! <i></i>