Bit of an early start today, for a mind numbing drag up to Colchester to view a potential bike purchase. This was an opportunity to give my new Halvarssons Arvika mesh jacket an outing, and was certainly worth it on this trip, especially during miles of filtering on the A12 on the return journey.
Looks like I’ll have to make some space in the garage, as an Aprilia Tuareg will soon be keeping the Fazer and the Speed Triple company.
Whizz kid sitting pretty on his two wheeled stallion.
(26-07-26, 02:53 PM)robbo Wrote: Bit of an early start today, for a mind numbing drag up to Colchester to view a potential bike purchase. This was an opportunity to give my new Halvarssons Arvika mesh jacket an outing, and was certainly worth it on this trip, especially during miles of filtering on the A12 on the return journey.
Looks like I’ll have to make some space in the garage, as an Aprilia Tuareg will soon be keeping the Fazer and the Speed Triple company.
Good choice I would say.
I love Aprilias quite a lot, I ve been having RSV Mille and Tuono, which I quite hardly modified in those times. Newer tuono and RSVs are also very funny bikes :-)
So enjoy, if you will take it.
02-08-26, 07:19 PM (This post was last modified: 02-08-26, 08:43 PM by Faze2.)
Little ride out to The Bulls Head at Monyash, Derbyshire dales.
Nice roads , nice folks.
Then over to Eyam Brewery tap room at Tideswell derbyshire ........... couldn't ride back after havin some Black death
Yesterday’s breakfast run was a mob handed affair with 8 in total. One of the rare attenders was on his new Speed Triple RX1200, certainly a dark glasses job to overcome the bright lemon popsicle paintwork. A fairly normal mainly B road whizz, got us down to Rye, before heading across the marshes to Brenzett, and then on to Horsmonden area for breakfast.
Just before the breakfast stop, I noticed that if the brake or indicators were used, the speedo/rev counter clock etc display, went out. Then reappearing after roughly 500 metres had been travelled. This carried on until there was no display at all, and remained so all the way home. Although there was no display, both left and right indicator telltales were faintly lit.
Resolving that was today’s project. Indicator relay proved ok and all fuses were intact. By a sure fluke , a cursory wiggle of the clutch switch, and it all burst into life. Happy days. Separated the clutch switch and gave a squirt of contact cleaner, as well as the two plugs at the back of the clocks. The next ride will the test that all is ok, but feeling confident at the moment.
Whizz kid sitting pretty on his two wheeled stallion.
24-08-26, 10:11 PM (This post was last modified: 25-08-26, 09:27 AM by robbo.)
Super early start yesterday, for my annual S.London to Cornwall day trip. My pal who had the Versys, has now got a brand spanking new 800 Tiger Sport. The running in period being over, so this was to be its first proper ride.
The alarm went off at 05:45, giving me plenty of time to leave home and make our 7am meet at the Shell garage at South Godstone. All gassed up we were away at spot on 7, quickly departing Surrey into Sussex and then Hampshire via the A272, for a quick tea stop at Loomies. Usually I take the Winchester by pass to get back onto the A272, but access to the bypass was closed. The diversion included backtracking the 4 miles that I’d just ridden. I always worry with diversion signs, that they just scatter a few about locally, and then let you fend for yourself. This diversion wasn’t instilling a lot of confidence and time was ticking away. Time to rely on the Garmin XT, which soon had us on the Stockbridge Rd. The river Test runs under this high street, and always stop to watch the fish competing with the ducks for morsels of food. Alas with the river so low there was no action to be seen.
We pressed on to Chard, which is about 180 miles from home, and was time for petrol. However the Tiger had a problem, having lost the bolts out of an after market hugger, and zip ties weren’t going to get this fixed. The Lidls opposite failed to come to our rescue, as we’d hoped they’d have an assorted bolt pack. A local store had some M5’s which was get us on our way, but were only the slotted head type, but beggars can’t be choosers.
By the time we got to Honiton it was obvious that we wouldn’t have time for a sit down lunch, as there had been a long stretch of freshly gravelled road which really slowed us up, so grabbed a burger from a roadside van, run by a very nice lady who I always stop at for a drink.
It was just gone 3pm when we walked into the Tamar Inn for a traditional pint of whatever’s local. As time was seriously against us, a return journey over Dartmoor had to be given a miss, and headed straight for the A30/M5 before getting back on the A30 at Honiton. All was relatively ok other than the gravel to Chard, where , still having 30 or so miles of petrol left, we pressed on to Crewkerne. On the exit of this town I found myself on my own. On backtracking the Tiger was in trouble again. The slot headed bolts were gone and one of the support arms looked very second hand. The best bet was to remove it, and the toolkit on the Fazer sprang into life. Luckily we had enough bungees and cargo nets between us to lash the offending hugger onto the back of the Tiger, which to my mind, looked better without it.
A petrol/coffee stop just before Shaftesbury, saw us on the last leg, with the A30 serving us well up to Micheldever, where we had to opt for the M3 to get us home in the shortest time. We made good progress behind a sportily driven Porsche, until blue lights in the far distance signalled a breakdown. Nothing too serious, but delayed by rubberneckers who insist on slowing to a crawl just to see what’s going on. Eventually our turn off was next, and was soon on the Hogs Back A31 headed for the London end of the A3.
It was 11pm when the Fazer key was turned to OFF for the last time, with 491.3 miles on the trip meter. After subtracting 3 hours for tea/burger/beer/coffee breaks, we had been in the saddle for a good 13 hours, which certainly made this trip a bit of an epic, although not a totally enjoyable one. Still there’s always next year…..maybe.
Whizz kid sitting pretty on his two wheeled stallion.
Clearly too much time on my hands. Noticed the hero blobs were looking a little fatigued. A quick blow over with the rattle can and I think they look better in black. Another trivial thing that I noticed, the right side one points slightly forward and the left side points slightly back. Are they all like that?
Decided to go out for another "random ride" (just picking directions at junctions), so headed east on the A27 as I'd planned to do on a previous one before an accident ahead made me pick a different way.
This time I got out to near Chichester and saw the sign for the A286, so picked that, then a little later there was the B2146 which was later followed by the B2141.
It's been a long time since I'd ridden them and I'd forgotten just how much *fun* they were!
So much so that, after stopping off at Selsey Bill for an ice cream, I turned around and rode the same roads back the other way and they were still fun.
Another 100 miles on the clock and a big smile on my face
(06-09-26, 02:28 PM)Ned Jough Wrote: Clearly too much time on my hands. Noticed the hero blobs were looking a little fatigued. A quick blow over with the rattle can and I think they look better in black. Another trivial thing that I noticed, the right side one points slightly forward and the left side points slightly back. Are they all like that?
No, they should be both the same slightly back. Usually occurs after a fall or the footrest has loosened.The footrest is held to the backplate with a Hex bolt and it is keyed, but the key can be damaged allowing the footrest to move when tightening
Unfazed, Ok, thanks for that info. Will have to explore a little further. It’s hardly noticeable unless you are looking for it but now I know it’s out of kilter it will irritate me.
I took advantage of what might be the last bit of good weather to get out on a Random Ride again.
The only frustrating part of living in Portsmouth is that you only have 180 degrees to explore (unless you can float!) so I headed out east, towards Bognor, then just past Chichester I turned up into the countryside.
Annoyingly, a couple of road closures forced me back on to the A27, but eventually I found a road that wasn't blocked, which took me up to the A285 and towards Petworth, but I turned off before there and went north east again, reaching Stane Street, then turned back west along the Horsham road and down the B2133 to the A272.
On the A272 there was an accident, with a Police Officer pointing everyone down a small country lane and I found a few nice stretches of road, but none of them particularly long, which was a shame. I also found some horrible bits of road where the surface was broken up or there were potholes all over the place, which was really not fun at all :-(
I really had no idea where I was, but there was a Learner up ahead, so I followed them, figuring their instructor would know the local roads and, thankfully, I got back onto the A272 again and followed it until the A3.
I had thought to continue down the A272 to Loomies, but actually missed my turn (oops!) so took the next turn off and ended up on some *very* tight country lanes, including one with a sign saying "Single Track Road, No Passing Places. Do Not Follow Sat Nav"!
I took its advice and turned off, although the road I got onto wasn't much better...
I finally got onto the road to East Meon and took Church Street which *is* a nice bit of road and, even better, rather than just following it back to the A27, I took the Hambledon Road that brought me to World's End and one of my favourite runs that ends on the B2177 at the back of Portsdown Hill.
So another 120 miles under the wheels and a nice day too :-)
30-09-26, 06:27 AM (This post was last modified: 03-10-26, 11:27 AM by b1k3rdude.)
(26-09-26, 09:52 PM)Grahamm Wrote: I took advantage of what might be the last bit of good weather to get out on a Random Ride again.
Nice ride really,
I remember still those days, I have been living in the UK, not so far from Porstmouth too :-)
I had two Suzukis there, so every ride even for shopping were fun.
gear should watch some of these videos 
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