Firstly, I wish you a happy new year!               It's 2008, hope some good things come to you in this year.

I measured the variator rollers from the 6-Hour Race.  I take them out as they're too light for the road as I use (presently) Polini 4.4g's for the track, & 6g's for public roads.  Saying that though, we've not been out on the Bandits for yonks, & certainly not after the 6-Hour. 

Using a vernier caliper I took approximate comparison measurements of the "6-Hour rollers" VS the same rollers used in the other bike which hadn't done the 6 hours of racing, of course.  The original diamiter of them is 16mm.  Non-6-Hour rollers roughly averaged at 15.9mm diamiter.  The 6-Hour rollers roughly averaged 15.85mm.  There were noticeable flat spots on some of the rollers.....not too bad, but this is another good reason to mix up the rollers after each regular inspection that I do anyways because of changing from track to road rollers.

At worst, there was an 0.1mm difference between the rollers, & that'd be measuring the flat spot.  When I 1st had the 6-Hour variator apart, in the outer crevises of the roller body were very fine deposits of, probably, roller powder that'd worn off the rollers.  The powder felt like talcum powder: it was that fine.  I was glad that there was no sign of the variator sticking which was a unknown factor for the race.

I'm not keen on the finish on the inside, roller side, of the Malossi variator: it's a rough shot blasted-type finish that has a hard coating.  AFAIK, the Polini is smooth at that part, & I remember the angle plate is a chrome finish.....all round a much better finish.  But it's not to say that the Malossi would differ any in performance or roller wear-rate compared to Polini.

  It's been raining more-or-less continuously throughout the Xmas & New Year period.  The Maleny Kenilworth Road to town has been flooded, & the rain was that hard that we doubted if we'd be able to make the journey to town for fear of excessive flooding.  Worst water we had across the road was that it was up to the sills of the car......just take it easy going through in 1st gear....don't make waves & flood the engine. 

Been getting a bit stir crazy, as have our cats & dogs.  Cats have got nowhere out on the paddock for a dry place to take a dump or leak, & the stores in Maleny have run out of kitty litter, & so we've been having to recycle the stuff in the box which is like granules of clay.  What we had to do was to try drying it out with a heater all day yesterday.....this was done in the tool shed, I hasten to add, as it stunk of amonia.  Got the box of litter back in here in the afternoon & it was stinking like hell, still.  Added baking powder to try absorb the amonia: no apparant effect.  Added some ground coffee which did the trick although Shelley could smell it, but it was certainly much better than before.  I even added a shredded newspaper to try bulking out the litter with fresh dry matter.

The cats did use the tray a few times in the night, but I'm sure they weren't too impressed with their toilet, & so I've gotta buy some expensive litter crystals from the stores, today. 

 As it's been raining so much, apart from a few movies on DVD & tape, all I've been doing is watching Youtube videos of docos about UFOs (there's no TV here, but we've got Broadband).  I guess what got me started on this was not only the weather & boredom, but also being a Muse fan (Mathew Bellamy is a UFO & "conspiracy" believer afaik) .....being reminded through their lyrics about the "big picture" of things.  Found heaps of interesting docos.  Shelley found a few full-length UFO docos & movies on P2P share sites.

We've had an ambition for a long time to see the Min Min Lights up in Boulia, south of Mount Isa in the Outback of Qld.  I mean, these things have been around for Aboriginal yonks: I guess these would be like seeing UFOs.  We'd done satellite spotting before from Mount Tinbeerawah in Noosa, & also from our paddock here which is heaps of fun.  We'll keep an open eye & mind for UFOs in the future when we go on any night trips.

Gotta be going.....go get that kitty litter!