So I finally took the plunge .......

Saturday morning dawned wet and windy, which was a shame as I was collecting the new bike and hoped to get some miles on it. Then the realisation set in that I no longer had shiny aluminium and chrome to worry about cleaning, so it was off to my local Triumph dealer, Jack Lilley, to collect it. The salesman Geoff was apologetic that even though it was an SE version, the special equipment hadn’t actually arrived from Triumph, so the bike was minus the top box and heated grips although the tall screen was in place.

Don’t worry about that said I, I just want to ride the thing. Of course, the minute I set off the heavens opened but I carried on regardless with a mile-wide grin, a bit cautiously I admit as I remembered a story about new tyres and wet roads not mixing very well. I eventually had to stop when the puddles in the Surrey lanes grew to the size of lakes, fortuitously adjacent to a rest area complete with burger van. One large cuppa and a veggie burger later, the rain had stopped enough for me to carry on. I got home about an hour later, impressed that my seven-year old Revit jacket had not leaked, and that the new bike was filthy and covered in mud.

Old habits die hard though, so I could not resist giving the bike a quick wash down before putting it away in the garage. Sunday was equally crappy weather, but I still managed a gentle ride around for a couple of hours, explaining to LF that I had to run the engine in on the first weekend, as we intend to be riding to Holland next week. Hopefully.  Anyway, I was feeling so rebellious when I got home that the bike got put away dirty, now that’s a first for me. All-in-all an enjoyable weekend; first impressions are how nice to ride a bike where everything just works – no more looking around to see what just fell off!

Oh and just as a postscript – Geoff the salesman tells me that my old Thunderbird was a star of the small screen, having appeared in episodes of ‘Miss Marples’, or some such crap series. Still didn’t increase it’s trade-in value though!