I've been using the Triumph to commute to work on for the last week or so - had a little hiccup when the right-hand silencer split. This was soon remedied by the purchase of a pair of TOR silencers. Now these come with removable baffles; being a responsible rider I have not removed these, but no matter, as they still sound like a B52 bomber - even LF who has no interest in bikes said they're bloody loud.
I'm still trying to get to grips with the sheer uncomfortableness of riding the Triumph - spurred on by Trobairitz's decision to get rid of her Bonnie I thought I'd ride out at the weekend and look at some other bikes. First stop was at the Triumph dealers, where I had a test ride on a Tiger 800. It was OK, nothing really outstanding. Then I visited the local Moto Guzzi dealer - these bikes are lovely, but so small! Couldn't fit on any of them. I then took a ride down to Kempton Park where there was a classic bike show and auto jumble; the car park was so full of interesting bikes I spent an hour wandering around. Liked this strange concoction of a cafe racer
and was interested to see the flyscreen attached to this Velocette - must be graded to let only the little flies through!
I'm concerned: a reference to "LF"......so, back on the scene then, eh? Now, putting this together with "sheer uncomfortableness of riding the Triumph" - despite bar risers and quite a high lift on the bars themselves - and might there be skeletal problems arising from certain activities of a *ahem* horizontal nature here?
ReplyDeleteThere are two choices as I see them: a) continue in the relationship and switch to a full-on Captain America hog, or b) do the right thing and buy a Ducati 916SPS.
The decisions are never easy. I guess for me it wasn't too hard as I still had my Suzuki in the stable and could compare and contrast.
ReplyDeleteGood luck on making the decision. Maybe you'll find something more comfy and if not you still have your current bike to scoot about on.
Affer - as you rightly spotted, LF has returned but alas, it's a purely platonic relationship at the moment so your deductions as to the cause of my uncomfortableness are unfounded. I live in hope, though!
ReplyDeleteTrobairitz - as you say, I still have a bike to use, and given that I don't do any long rides anyway I guess I could put up with it. Must stop reading bike magazines and feeling jealous of other blogger's adventures.
ReplyDeleteEl D:
ReplyDeleteMy criteria is value for $$$. Not the best, but reliable, cheap maintenance, adequate power, lots of dealers, parts availability.
no matter what you buy, unless you are a pro racer you will never reach the limits of design anyway, so it doesn't matter.
My preference is for quiet pipes.
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
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