What a dramatic 10 days we had! I am still in love with my 120 Jota, what a machine it is, but it didn’t start well with a shake down run to Bellingen ending in a broken gearbox selector spring in Walcha, resulting in a 1000km round trip rescue for my cousin Ross in his Ute. Thanks mate I owe you one for that. Owing turned out to be a major service including valve clearance check on his Suzuki bandit 1200. And a beer or 3.....
Shakedown run number 2 showed a much quieter clutch after I disassembled and cleaned the clutch plates and sorted the small burrs on the basket. The new 4 spot brake calipers courtesy of Neil Trillo proved quite powerful as well.
All was ready when I spoke to John Kokany and he told me of his Jota failing to proceed on his shake down run. 5 days to go is not a good time to need a complete ignition rebuild!
Friday night saw a small gathering at the fibro palace for beer and pizza plus a bit of storytelling. The Jota was packed and ready so with John on his Jota we headed off to the start at Heathcote. A quick run the to Macquarie pass and down to Nowra for a coffee saw fine weather and John finding the Jota was playing up. Peter and John headed back home to swap bikes but the Jota came good so they decided to turn around and met us at Batemans Bay. We had a great ride from Nowra to Braidwood, with a good counter lunch, followed by a spirited run down the Clyde Mountain. Next stop was rhubarb gelato at Bermagui, then the twisties down to Tathra, then on to Eden and a well deserved beer.
Day 2 and with a deadline to meet the ferry an early getaway was followed by a stop at Cann river for brekky. We made it to within 50 km of the ferry when Johns Jota threw in the towel. On the side of a freeway with no hope of getting it going, we had no option but to leave him with a phone number for Serge in the Victorian club. Luckily Serge and Anthony where home and could perform the rescue. A spirited ride to the ferry ensued, hoping there’s no photographs...... we actually got split up, Chris on his own, Peter and Sasha on the BMW’s, and me following vince. We made it and managed to get to the bar, phew!