A close successor is now in the Indian bagger racers, that put 170 hp through it.

The worst thing about riding them is the idiot robot laughing clown looking back at you, once you see it you can't unsee it.

And I reckon Boris re-earned his old nickname of Bull Bar.

Definitely not Roo proof. 

The pic got me looking at other bikes I liked around that time, GPz750s and 1100s, even found a Kawa turbo 750 for sale. Got great memories of riding with a bloke who had one, 1989 after my Commando threw a rod and I picked up a cheap Katana. Life was pretty shitty for a couple of years, and I was running early Sunday morning therapy rides with the blokes who hung out at the Kawa dealer in Nambour. Could never get past the Turbo, could close right up on corner entries, but he would get boost on the exit and pull away again.

I managed to push the Sportster 7kms once, I was a lot younger then.

It started OK on the roll down, went back and picked up my stuff and headed north. Only stopped at fuel stops on hills so went up the New England highway. Managed to buy a new battery in Lismore on Monday.

I didnt want to leave it on the side of the road so I started pushing it along the footpath. With the tyre being flat it was a bit hard to push so the first hill I encountered I started it up and ran alongside the bike. I got halfway up the hill and thought "fuck this" so I jumped on it side saddle and proceeded on my way.  Just as I came over the top of the hill a cop car came over the hill from the other direction so I quickly jumped off . Sure enough the copper had spotted me and did a u bolt and pulled me over. He asked me why was I riding on the footpath and I told him I wasnt riding on the footpath cos I was pushing the bike. He didnt give me a ticket but he told me I had to push the bike home.  

Looks interesting, aimed at the new line Sportsters. Looks way better than previous Polaris Scouts, and have to admit better than the short lived Victory Octane, more rounded tank.

More suspension travel than the liquid cooled Sportsters, more comfort and more lean angle.

Still an ugly liquid cooled engine though.

Be interesting to see them on the road.

Round the north of Kingaroy is the centre of Australia's Duboisa industry, worth about $2.7 million to growers annually, with an added value to pharmaceutical companies of about $100 million.

The industry is pretty secretive, but the crops aren't highly secured, just tucked away down back roads behind normal farm fences. The Corkwood bushes planted in rows across the red volcanic dirt paddocks, but generally with a screen of 2m high grass, hard to get good pics from the roadside. Corkwood leaves go in one end and scopalamine comes out the other. In tiny doses it's an anti nausea and anti seasickness drug, in higher dosages, euphoria, hallucinations, memory loss, death.

Saw the cute old Ford ute in Blackbutt, the wooden tray was a work of art, all the metal bits done in stainless steel, including cast stainless tailgate latches

Finally a Victory pic at a lookout before Hivesville, unfortunately the softwood scrub at the lookout has grown enough to obscure any view. Wild Corkwood trees in the scrub and along the road reserve along the way.

Part 2 tomorrow.

The country is cleared enough so that going over the hills you get a big sky effect, the horizon is lower than you. I stopped and tried to get it on a pic but it didn't come through. Keep going past Proston and you come out near Durong. Not much there, school, bowls club, general store, 2 churches, 1 for sale, community hall. The store doesn't sell fuel anymore, pumps are gone, but there's a new bulk tank and a credit card terminal across the road. Looks like a quiet place, but in 2022 coppers sprung some blokes who had bought a bush block out of town busy extracting coke from stuff imported from Columbia in lots of 20 litre drums. Seized 11kg of pure coke, about $3 million retail, a bit more than the annual return to the Duboisa growers 100km down the road. Coppers were pretty shy on details of what it was dissolved in, but coke needs a polar solvent, so water or alcohol or ether maybe. It got through customs. May be they were bring in containers of South American soft drink syrup concentrate, putting the coke back in Coca Cola.

Got a burger at the general store, had to fight off a couple of feral chooks that were real keen to share it. If you go through there with a few mates suggest you ring ahead, that way you might not have to wait half an hour for a burger. It might wake up the old cat sleeping in the armchair in the store too.

Got rained on for about 80kms on the way home, but still a great day out, about 390 kms.

The rough roads showed me that I've almost got the Progressive shock, 1" longer than stock, on the rear rising rate suspension adjusted properly for the sort of roads I ride.