Ross Noble mini interview
The funny man talks bikes and his trip around OzRiding around Oz is always going to be challenging, was it harder than you thought?
I find riding a piece of piss, I find performing a piece of piss, but it's when you combine the two that's difficult. I had to be on-stage by 8.00pm, so I couldn't just stop to let a storm pass. It was dawn to dusk. The weather changes got me, from riding through the desert which is like holding a big hair dryer in front of your face, to riding through Victoria where it's icy cold in the mornings.
The hardest thing?
I was riding through the desert in the dark, I had an hour to go to get to my hotel and everyone told me not to ride in the dark, there were loads of kangaroos and all I could smell were the dead ones and I was shitting myself.
Would you do it again?
God yeah! In a heartbeat
What were your favourite roads?
The Putty Road, Macquarie Pass and the road between Perth and Cairns via Darwin.
I especially like the markings on the road before the flying doctors. That's where you pretend you're a fighter pilot. You give it heaps, [brrrrrrrrrrrrrr] lift the front wheel in the air to take off, and just when you're about to launch you actually end up flipping it and falling off the back, but it's fun to pretend.
Why did you choose a BMW R 1150 GS Adventure?
Cause it's what I had in the shed.
What else is in your shed?
I actually lost seven bikes in the Victorian bushfires, but I'm slowly but surely replenishing my collection. I lost a Gixxer 750 track bike, my trials bike, a load of dirtbikes, my Beemer, and my motard. I've got a new R 1200 GS Adventure now and a Raga replica trials bike.
You've had a few lessons with Dougie Lampkin?
Yes, that's when you realise you're actually really shit. It's not the jumping or scaling that s the most impressive, it's impressive, yes, but it's when he just pops it up onto a three metre fence and just rides along the top.
Your dream bike?
I'm not one of these people that says I'd really like a Desmosedici, actually, I'd really like a Desmosedici, but unless you're Casey Stoner you're not really going to get much out of it. I'd probably take it to the track and scare the absolute shit out of myself and that'd be it. Maybe Steve's McQueen's original Great Escape bike.
But then I suppose I wouldn't be buying a motorbike so much as movie memorabilia. I'll ride anything. Some people are really good at riding one particular discipline, but me; I'm really bad at pretty much all of them. But if it's got two wheels, I'll ride 'em all.
Is your 18-month-old daughter Elfie interested in bikes?
She's got good balance. A friend of ours bought her one of those three wheelers but she can't reach the controls yet. If she's interested, and she probably will be, she sees me riding my trials bike around the garden. I was watching the world indoor trials the other day and she ran over next to the TV and was going gooo oohh aaaah. Whether she actually liked it or thought it was daddy on TV, I don't know. But I didn't tell her otherwise, I just said yes, that is daddy and yes, daddy is that good.
And congratulations on a splendid publication. I rush out and buy it every fortnight. I've done hundreds of interviews these last few months and this is the only one I've actually looked forward to
Interview courtesy of Australian Motorcycle News
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