Who is this guy?

[Kev Murphy]

Always owned a motorbike or two, from before I was old enough to sit for a licence.
Got married at 21. First ex used her free time to cultivate a 'friend with benefits' while I worked two full time jobs, and she shot through from S.A. to Sydney with him after 3 years. Had the hide to try and register a baby in my name, born 15 months later.
After she left, I converted everything I owned into cash, my home, (walk in, walk out, complete with furniture and food in the fridge!) 2 cars and a taxi, complete with licence, and my bikes, a new Suzuki T500 twin and an Electroglide.... bought two brand new Honda fours, Yoshi 900 kitted them both and added turbos. Gave one to my mate and we toured Australia/North island NZ/NG on a working holiday from Christmas 1972 until March 1976. Short term high paying jobs. 144,000 Km in 39 months. Rented a 250 dirt bike in New Guinea. Was there 4 months.

Worked underground coal mines, open cut coal mines, hard rock nickel mining, offshore oil rigs north western Oz, new building work Darwin a year after Tracey, went fruit picking, was always a job available, both in-trade and out (was a Sparkie) Worked Shipyards, Blast furnaces, steel rolling mills, Aluminium smelters, many and varied jobs of a wide variety and diversity.
Made sure that the deserter ex would get nothing of my assets, by spending cash as fast as I earned it, and kept moving.
Joined the Army Aug 76 with $11.68 cents to my name, served until Nov 80, then moved from Melbourne to Qld
Between  the ages of 18 and 30, I was active in the skydiving community, and I also used to scuba dive when aged 25 to 30. Second marriage when I left the Army put paid to availability of finances for said sports.

When the second marriage fell apart '89, (amicably) I moved from Ashmore on the Gold Coast to Melbourne for a few weeks, then Linton near Ballarat for four months, before finally moving to Portland, Vic. in 1990. With the transfer from Qld to Vic, and a few moves, I let my license expire by a few months, and was restricted to riding a small bore chook chaser until I had my full license again. Got a well looked after '80 model 900 BolDor in late 1990, and the job I had left weekends free, so many trips were taken to Adelaide, Broken Hill, Gippsland, to keep in touch with friends. Found out several months later that the 2nd ex had also moved from Queensland, and was now living in Warrnambool, just 100 km away. Haven't sighted her.

Retired the BolDor in 2010, still had a little Yammy 250 squirt box as a commuter bike. Reached retirement because of health problems at age 62 in 2010, and as soon as my Super payout arrived, I started looking around for an ST, as I have always admired their reliability.
Found a suitable 98 beaST July 2011 at a good price, rang the guy, gave him cash at his door two days later and rode away. The longest period off the bike since has only been 5 days between starts, and that was because of foul wintry weather and a bout of the 'flu, so I guess my only current sport is cruising, visiting friends, and making new ones.
Overhauling the clutch master cylinder on Thursday next week, and fitting new timing belt on the 20th of this month prior to Nelson meet.   See you there!
Kev

[Kev Murphy]

Thanks, Brock...I knew it would be moved to the right place

[Biggles]

Strewth!  You've had more jobs than I've had hot dinners!
Thanks for the autobiography.  Sounds like you're cured of women.   

[Kev Murphy]

Yep, Biggles... been there, done that, still got the bruises, lol

[Biggles]

Yep, Biggles... been there, done that, still got the bruises, lol

I'm the opposite.  Apart from student jobs, I've had three careers. 
Wimmin?  The same one for 45 years!     

[ST.George]

  And thru all those multifarious adventures and vocations you appear grounded so well that u can bare parts of your history to us. Very interesting what you've done. You have pursued some amazing adventures. I look forward to meeting in Toowoomba next year if u r going to the rally and listening to your stories. You bought a Honda4 for a friend? AMAZING. Good luck 2yer Kev. And with a name like Murphy I'm thinking there's a few blarney yarns on offer. Me - I'm just a humble semi-retired DIY builder married to a bi-polar wife (yes, both her parents r Polish) for 25 yrs. Got a nice house in the Gong overlooking the Tasman Sea. Usually beautiful weather here in the Illawarra. Gr8 riding country.

I m fighting a speeding ticket (75 in a 60zone) on the ST that will ruin my 38 year record with no tickets if I don't win (yes that's 38!). I do have a chance of winning tho because the magistrate is taking a real interest in my research of the weaknesses of speed detection devices in NSW. I will let one and all know of the result but if I win then many thousand of dodgy speeding tickets will not happen if the RMS implements the 'best practice' system I m advocating. More on this later.

[Kev Murphy]

very good chance I will be that way next year, as I want to visit some friends Newcastle and Port Mac area, and Toowoomba is only another days ride...
Best of luck with the ticketing saga, and hope you heal fast and soon.

[Marcus]

WOW Kev, that was an amazing read. I'll see you in Nelson.

[Wild Rose]

Welcome Kev to OzSTOC from Toowoomba Queensland the home of the 2015 National Rally 
We may all see you here 
It sounds like you have done it all
Enjoy your ST1100  Enjoy the Forum 

 

[Kev Murphy]

There's a very good story behind how I gave my friend the bike.
My best mate, we went to school together from around age 7 or 8.

As teens, we both had the dream of one day travelling Australia, he scrimped and saved towards this pie in the sky project as we both toiled at our apprenticeships. His first bike was a little second hand  BSA bantam , that he bought when he was 16 and he progressed through two larger machines (250 and 300 cc) up to an old 20+ year old 500 cc 1947 Sunbeam s7 shaft drive. He couldn't afford to buy a new bike, and still have cash to travel as well.
When the opportunity arose that I was free to travel, I tricked up the 2 brand new Hondas with the 900cc Yoshimura kit, cams, and turbos, tupperware and sadddlebags. I had to increase the rear sprocket by 6 teeth, then the front was changed from a 17 to a 14 tooth, because with the Turbo they could peak at 11000 rpm, around 300 Kph. Both bikes were fitted with dual steering dampers, because the Honda frame became unstable above 250 Kph. They were painted with Dulon Wildfire "Black Magic" (gold flake mist sprayed over black base) with a gold metallic flake Scorpion stencilled on the sides of my bike, and a Taurus zodiac on his. Both bikes were then sprayed with 'diamond dust', and then 3 coats of hand polished clear lacquer. In direct sunlight, the paint showed as a glorious chunky gold metallic, at night time, the "diamond dust" reflected in lights as a rich metallic blue, similar to reflective parking bay signs on the highway. When delivered, both bikes were put into my shed, and I tossed blankets over them.

 I invited Jeff around, took him to the shed, and whipped the blanket off mine. Asked "What do you think of that?"  He drooled.... and crawled all over it, inspecting the 4 into 1 exhaust and turbo. All he could say, over and over, was "Magnificent!... Magnificent!"

I broached the subject of touring, and he was a little sad that I would be leaving. He confessed "My bike is just too old, and I could never afford a new one,.... I have some money aside to spend on a tour, but not enough to stretch as far as replacing my wheels, yet..."

That's when I walked to the back of the garage, turned on the lights, whizzed the blanket off the second turbo beast, and asked "Do you think you could handle this one, would it be suitable to you for touring??"
Soft bugger burst into tears.

We both submitted our notice at work the following day, were on the road 16 days later and travelled together for the next 3 years, until he finally married the ballast on his pillion seat and settled in Sydney early in 1976.
I dropped by and visited them both on the way south from Qld in 1989, and stayed with them for a week in 93.
We kept in touch with phone calls, and then emails on a weekly basis from early 1998 when we both went on the  Internet within 3 days of each other.

Poor bugger was killed in an industrial accident in September 1998.
Vale Jeff, my mate, my buddy, my lifelong friend.
 

[Biggles]

I m also fighting a speeding ticket (75 in a 60zone) on the ST that will ruin my 38 year record with no tickets if I don't win (yes that's 38!).

Best of luck with that.  Queensland Magistrates regard all speed detection devices as being infallible and all challengers as being lying idiots.  No quarter given.

[Shiney]

Awesome stuff Kev, simply Awesome

[Assassin]

There's a very good story behind how I gave my friend the bike.
My best mate, we went to school together from around age 7 or 8.

As teens, we both had the dream of one day travelling Australia, he scrimped and saved towards this pie in the sky project as we both toiled at our apprenticeships. His first bike was a little second hand  BSA bantam , that he bought when he was 16 and he progressed through two larger machines (250 and 300 cc) up to an old 20+ year old 500 cc 1947 Sunbeam s7 shaft drive. He couldn't afford to buy a new bike, and still have cash to travel as well.
When the opportunity arose that I was free to travel, I tricked up the 2 brand new Hondas with the 900cc Yoshimura kit, cams, and turbos, tupperware and sadddlebags. I had to increase the rear sprocket by 6 teeth, then the front was changed from a 17 to a 14 tooth, because with the Turbo they could peak at 11000 rpm, around 300 Kph. Both bikes were fitted with dual steering dampers, because the Honda frame became unstable above 250 Kph. They were painted with Dulon Wildfire "Black Magic" (gold flake mist sprayed over black base) with a gold metallic flake Scorpion stencilled on the sides of my bike, and a Taurus zodiac on his. Both bikes were then sprayed with 'diamond dust', and then 3 coats of hand polished clear lacquer. In direct sunlight, the paint showed as a glorious chunky gold metallic, at night time, the "diamond dust" reflected in lights as a rich metallic blue, similar to reflective parking bay signs on the highway. When delivered, both bikes were put into my shed, and I tossed blankets over them.

 I invited Jeff around, took him to the shed, and whipped the blanket off mine. Asked "What do you think of that?"  He drooled.... and crawled all over it, inspecting the 4 into 1 exhaust and turbo. All he could say, over and over, was "Magnificent!... Magnificent!"

I broached the subject of touring, and he was a little sad that I would be leaving. He confessed "My bike is just too old, and I could never afford a new one,.... I have some money aside to spend on a tour, but not enough to stretch as far as replacing my wheels, yet..."

That's when I walked to the back of the garage, turned on the lights, whizzed the blanket off the second turbo beast, and asked "Do you think you could handle this one, would it be suitable to you for touring??"
Soft bugger burst into tears.

We both submitted our notice at work the following day, were on the road 16 days later and travelled together for the next 3 years, until he finally married the ballast on his pillion seat and settled in Sydney early in 1976.
I dropped by and visited them both on the way south from Qld in 1989, and stayed with them for a week in 93.
We kept in touch with phone calls, and then emails on a weekly basis from early 1998 when we both went on the  Internet within 3 days of each other.

Poor bugger was killed in an industrial accident in September 1998.
Vale Jeff, my mate, my buddy, my lifelong friend.

Awesome story Ken !! A friend like you might only come along once in a life time, or maybe never...!!

[Kev Murphy]

Went digging around, found some old photos... One of the Titan 500... I think this was the day after I took delivery early 70's.
The shed in the background extends halfway behind the house, the access doorway is in the centre. This is where I presented Jeff with his Turbo Honda


A couple of snaps of the old Boldor 900... about '93 and 94, I think.... Front crash bar removed and chrome 4 into 1 replaced after impact with a kangaroo....

... but that's another story.

[ST.George]

  Keepemcummin Kev!!! 

[Brock]

The Hoonda in the drive way looks a tad photo shopped in to me

[Gadget]

Thanks for sharing Kev. 

[Kev Murphy]

The Hoonda Zuki in the drive way looks a tad photo shopped in to me

Only enhanced (sharpened) the outlines of the bike, is all... well picked, Brock
Not with photo shop program tho, I don't have it.