Last weekend I did a ride on the Speedmaster that was the norm for my old Tiger a 1k day ride which I will do again on the Speedmaster but not next weekend maybe in a couple months or so, The Tiger loved the open road and you could go to the pub after the ride but the SM is a different bike all together, harder rider even with the Ohlin rear suspension upgrade and the Corbin seat upgrade around the 750km the arse was getting a bit tired of being in the saddle but still it was a very enjoyable ride and the bike didn't miss a beat it's only two years old so it shouldn't miss a beat. When I first got the bike 400km was about all I could do on it, so I accepted it was going to be a town bike but now I know this bike is so much more ! I would like to know how far other SM rider have ridden in a day I can imagine rider in other country with their open highways could clock up some big Km/miles in day.
Wowser, that’s a good ride. I’ve been down that east coast road a couple of times and it’s just awesome. (Well, most of NZ is awesome, especially the South Island). Dropped in at the Moeraki boulders and carried onto Invercargill then kind of clockwise through Te Anau, Doubtful Sound, Fox Glacier etc. Those roads don’t necessarily lend themselves to doing big miles so well done.
Wow that is a big ride in my estimation. Here in the UK I typically ride 100+ miles for a ride out, so well done to you.
The length of the route you drove is really impressive! Last year I left at short notice because of a storm warning with my wife in the early evening at Lake Garda and drove in a night drive with our TIGERs just under 700 km. That was so far our longest route, which we drove only with 2 short stops.
I don't like highways and stick to the smaller, quiet, roads wherever possible, even when touring. So I usually average 50km/h and a typical 300km tour day is 6 hours riding. Maybe do 400km with some highway riding to cover the miles.
I'm really impressed, I had the speed triple out for its 1st start up for 5 months,, - 4deg and on the return they had dropped a ton of salt on the village roads, not happy ,the most uncomfortable 4miles I've done In a long time. 10mins riding =5hours getting the salt cleaned off
Hi Markus Nice ride and at night and two up is great ! The Tiger have great headlights for night riding and are a good all round bike, I sometime wish I still had my old Tiger but I still love the Speedmaster now that I can do longer ride on her. Thanks for the post, I was starting to think I must be crazy doing these long ride
Hi brown mouse 300 to 400 km ride is still good going I say, I don't know if I got this right " It's not the destination it's the ride" heard that or seen it somewhere and I think that sum us all up what ever the distance we enjoy the ride cheers
Hi Pedro I'm rally impressed that you got on your bike at - 4deg ! my bike would not move from the garage at 10deg C and here in NZ they don't use salt on the roads so I feel for you having to clean the salt of your bike after any ride, Here they use grit very fine stone that is hard to see on the road but you feel it when you ride on it and to corner on grit is like riding on ball bearing but I would rather have grit than salt Cheers
@Jacknzone: I can only confirm your statement about the quality of the headlights of the TIGER. Since I am regularly on the road to the office before sunrise, they prove themselves incredibly. Your long distances really impress me. My wife and I will be traveling to the Côte d'Azur in June, but will make the trip 2 days to see some sights along the way in Italy. On our up to 10-day tours, we always "build in" certain rest days to recover and recharge our batteries in between.
I've turned into a real wimp as I've got older. I used to ride 12 months of the year without thinking about it, hail rain and snow. Hot water bottles stuck inside my gear lol non of todays fancy kit. I'm leaving off the bike for a couple of weeks now to wait till there's no more salt going down. Booked to go to Isle of man in mid May so I just need to have some patience