Mayday walk

Not too much exciting riding going on at the moment here; I'm just using the Triumph to commute into central London every day - actually, that can be quite exciting, what with dodging wayward pedestrians and cyclists and avoiding murderous white-van drivers......anyway, the Mayday weekend dawned bright sunny and warm, perfect riding weather. Unfortunately, I'd somehow promised LF I'd go for a walk along the river Thames tow path with her. Sunday morning we caught the train down to Windsor, which is a quaint little village with the queens' favourite castle towering over it. First thing spotted was this very nice Honda Valkyrie. We strolled along all afternoon watching the boats floating by and admiring the houses, big, small or modern they all looked great in the sun. After a mid-afternoon stop for lunch, and a brief stop off at Runnymede to examine the memorial marking the spot where infamous King John signed the Magna Carta all those centuries ago, we arrived at the town of Staines early evening, 8 miles from where we'd started, jumped on the train and went home. 

Honda

walk the plank to get on the narrowboat

who says you need a big boat to relax on the river?

Runnymede, memorial to the signing of the Magna Carta

Spring blosssoms

Windsor castle

 Monday morning was another blue sky day, so we decided to catch the train back to Windsor, this time we walked upriver, again enjoying the scenery in the sun. We eventually reached Maidenhead, again 8 miles from Windsor, so caught the train home in time for tea. Although I'm a Londoner through and through, I must admit it was really pleasant strolling alongside old Father Thames, through ancient villages that seem not to have changed for centuries. Couldn't wait to get back on the bike Tuesday though!

rural church

houseboat

traditional house

queue at the lock

modern house

An unexpected day in the sun

Wow, this has been a roller-coaster 24 hours! Yesterday evening I somehow got sucked into one of those pointless arguments about nothing with LF, only this one escalated into the full-blown screaming kind where all reason goes out the door. So I followed in a mad rage slammed door mood into the rainy night. After walking around kicking dustbins and passing cats I finally calmed down and made my way back to the flat. Trouble was, reason hadn't returned with me so I decided to sleep in my car (huh, at my age!). Anyway, the expected fitful nights sleep ensued, waking at each night sound until the early morning light stopped me dozing, and I got out of the car to stretch. Wonders! The temperature had somehow risen to almost warm. Luckily I keep my motorcycle gear in the boot of the car as there's no room in our tiny flat, so I was soon togged up and riding off. Would you believe me if I told you I actually got too warm by about 11am, and had to unzip the jacket vents! It's like nature decided we'd suffered enough this spring; frosty on Friday morning, now Sunday is 18degC! Wherever I stopped, the cafes had dozens of bikes outside, people walking around in tee-shirts, ladies in skimpy shorts, Oh and by the way ladies, if you don't want guys looking at your cleavage, don't stun us - thick jackets and bulky sweaters to low cut tops in one day is just too much to take! Anyway, the ride today has been great, I'm resting now in a little park somewhere, drowsy in the sun. Guess I'll soon have to go home and face the music (and get a shower), but I'm going to try and keep this feeling going a bit longer. Thank you Father Sun for cheering up my shit day!

A fine day for a road test

A welcome change in the weather, Saturday dawned bright although still very cold. It seemed like the perfect time to try out the new heated grips, so I went out on one of those aimless rides that are so enjoyable. I headed down the A316 into Surrey, then decided to call in at Jack Lilley Triumph as they usually have hot coffee and some interesting bikes to look at while warming up. The new paintjob on the Bonneville really took my eye - shame its too small for me.

Anyway, as I was admiring it, I got chatting to one of the salesmen, and ended up taking a Tiger 800 out for a test. It seemed quite nippy along the dual carriageway, running up to 100 quickly enough and feeling very stable, although the noise generated by the tall screen was pretty high. Off into the twisty lanes and it handled quite well, all in all it did what it should for a new bike - it all worked, except that is for the gearchange, which was notchy and seemed to have more nuetrals than gears. The seat also seemed pretty hard and unforgiving; I mentioned both of these points to the salesman when I got back to the garage, he reckoned the gearbox problem was due to an incorrectly adjusted gear linkage, which you would have thought they would have rectified before letting their demo bike out! Obviously the seat problem could be rectified by eating more meatballs.

I realised I wasn't far from the local Suzuki dealer, so decided to take the chance to ride over there to see if I could get a demo ride on their Vstrom, as that seems to be the bike closest to the Tiger, on price anyway. What a revelation! It was comfy, relaxed, not that much slower than the Tiger and also did everything a new bike should, including changing gear easily! One thing both bikes had in common is that they were quiet, whooshing along rather like a motorised refrigerator.

Its good to ride these new bikes; firstly to help with that decision as to what to buy when funds allow, but also to put into perspective the views expressed in those bike magazines that seem to think these bikes are slow plodders. They're fast enough for me. Strangely enough, once I got back on the Triumph, it didn't seem much slower, and with the soundtrack from the exhausts bouncing back of the trees was actually more fun. I got home with a big smile on my face.

New bits for the bike

With the weather here still bitterly cold, I fitted a windscreen I’d had sitting in the back of the garage since last summer, in an effort to keep the cold at bay. I’d also bought a pair of wrap-on heated grips at the bike show, so thought I’d fit those as well. The fitting went well, once I’d realized that the six pages of instructions for the screen fitment were in fact one page repeated in six different languages (I know..but I never read the words, just look at the pictures).


So, all kitted up, I went for a ride. The screen sort of does its job of keeping the wind off my body, but is very noisy and creates a hell of a turbulence at the top of the screen, enough to move my head around and blur my vision at 60mph. So that’s coming off again. The heated grips worked well, although due to the design of being wrap-on, they inevitably make the grips much larger diameter; probably not suitable for Ladies with small hands. Still, I only envisaged them as a temporary measure, to be removed whenever the weather warms up a bit.

I still only managed 10 miles before the fingers stopped working though – let’s hope spring soon arrives with some warmer temperatures.

Clean screen

Big hands needed

I've been thinking.....

Thinking...a very dangerous thing to do. Anyway, now I'm skint courtesy of HM Tax inspectors and can't afford a new bike, I started thinking maybe a few little modifications would help me feel happier about keeping the Triumph. So there is a business quite close to me that make and fit modified seat units for Thunderbirds, they really clean up the rear end and make the bike look a little swoopier. The only disadvantage I can see is that there's nowhere for luggage, so I'd have to carry my sandwiches in a backpack. What do you think? Oh and here's the website www.retrocaferacer.com

Pristine but slightly boring Thunderbird

                                                                      Sexy rear end!

 

Plans delayed

Due to an unanticipated turn of events, the purchase of a new bike has been delayed – Her Majesty’s Government and myself have had a slight disagreement over the amount of tax I should pay this year, and despite some, ahem, creative accountancy, all plans for new purchases are on the backburner.

On the positive side, the Triumph is back home with oil leak cured, and my beard is growing luxuriously voluminous, as you can see from the poor quality snap attached.



Motorbike show at Excel London

There hasn't been much motorbike activity here recently, due to (a) snow, (b) the Triumph springing yet another oil leak from the new engine, then deciding to kill two batteries in quick succession. So for a nice change, I took the day off work yesterday and went to the London Motorcycle show at the Excel centre. In recent years this show has been a bit....boring, but I must say this year I found it most enjoyable, maybe because I'm actively looking for a new bike, and there seems to be plenty of new models around. I must admit for having the hots for the new Honda CB1100, as apparently did every other biker over the age of 55 yrs to judge by the huge crowd around it; unfortunately when I did manage to fight my way to the front and sit on  it, it proved too small for my lanky limbs.

Picture from internet

After sitting on just about every other bike at the show, I seemed to have narrowed the list down to Triumph Tiger XC, BMW800GS, Ducatti Multistrada (oops, too expensive), BMW R1200R (too expensive) and Triumph Thunderbird (too expensive) - which isn't much of a list if you take away the one's I can't afford.  In fact, after checking out the prices of the two I thought I could afford, it seems like I may just be in the market for a used Bandit 1250, provided I can fix the Triumph and get a reasonable price for it on e-bay.

So I decided to just keep on looking around the show and admiring all the custom, specials and classics of which there were a lot more this year than previously. Here's a few photos.

Old Indian on Victory stand (I think Victory have just bought Indian)

I know its a car, but it was very well done