What Have You Being Doing With Your Non-triumph Today?

This adventure trail riding is a piece of cake.



Biscoff cheesecake with toffee fudge sauce and a pot of tea..... very nice.
This is at a cafe in Sowerby bridge next to the railway bridge



A very convoluted route but using the absolute minimum of main roads.

 

This is what some of the off roading looks like. Ripping down here listening to Kaiser Chiefs on one ear bud ..... what could possibly go wrong!
Nothing today as I kept pinching myself



How many bikes can do all this?
Sit on the motorway at a comfortable 65mph, do this off roading lark, and entertain me chasing my eldest on his ER6 last night around Pateley Bridge.



Look at these for peppered chicken strips

 

This weekend Helmut and I went to see both sets of parents; we planned to bite the bullet and go on the M5 on the way there as I had finished nights that day (Friday) and Helmut was working until mid afternoon. It was BOILING hot and we filtered for what seemed like a huge chunk of the journey - thank goodness for motorcycles as cars were well and truly stuck for hours. I have to admit to being VERY hot and grumpy though . Lots of considerate drivers and a few thumbs - up from van windows etc. Still, the motorway is always my very last resort on the bikes.....

We had planned to come back on a nice interesting route on Sunday, however absolutely biblical rain, being later away from his parents than we had perhaps anticipated and the fact he then had to drive back to work when we got home meant that we took the motorway again....and again did plenty of filtering, although nowhere near as much as the trip up there.

About 430 miles done in total and at least I got to use my birthday gift from my stepdaughters and their other halves - I can confirm that it is indeed waterproof and very handy!! https://www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk/motorcycle_parts/content_prod/649396

 

My beautiful Fireblade has been admitted to an inpatient facility (local mechanic!) after a wait of several months to see what the slow oil and coolant leaks discovered during the MOT are about. I am missing riding it very, very much, especially in the gorgeous sunshine!

 

With Hondas reputation for engineering, reliability and quality, then hopefully it will be something trivial. Please do keeps up posted though as I for one am curious as to it's cause.

My Kove developed a very minor leak of engine oil at around the 700 mile mark. It turned out to be a minor issue as it was a hidden copper washer on a 6mm bolt, tucked right up on the head behind the radiator.
Totally hidden from any angle and can only be seen with a small mirror without stripping it down.

 

Hopefully it will as you say, be trivial. There is no sign that there is a leak until the fairings are off; I check the oil level regularly and it has not dropped. The mechanic was happy for me to "ride and watch", however I would rather get whatever it is sorted before it gets worse!!

 

Flippin' eck Mrs V, I'm in shock! Honda may have made some "boring" machines (Fireblade excluded of course) but they're (nearly) all known for being boringly reliable.
I had 3 Blades backin the 90's, RRP, RRS and RRV and never even changed a light bulb in any of them.
I'll be very surprised if it turns out to be anything remotely serious.

I had a very small coolant leak from new on my first R1 in 1998 which I could smell but didn't find until I took the fairings off. It looked like a leak from the head gasket but on further investigation by the dealer it turned out to be a flaw in the head casting requiring a complete new cylinder head which really peed me off somewhat but fair play to the dealer who did a top job of replacing the head and putting it all back together. That wasn't a Honda of course!

 

Good times at Glasgow Bike Night yesterday - plenty of chat and the punk rock band were ripping it up! I wish the crowd had shown their appreciation a bit more.....

By a funny coincidence, I was parked right in front of the West Coast's Triumph stand...... on my new Honda!

Back again next month - 31st July 6-8pm.

 

Another fairly local ride out on the Kove yesterday. Thoughtfully, the highways even painted the stripes to match my bike



And obviously a bit of unmade road thrown in

 

Went by car to the local Ducati day, whilst I am not really a scooter fan there was a very nice selection of machines, I do appreciate the customisation on some, and the amount of work and money they spend getting them to this standard, and they are 2 strokes so that is a positive. My other outing was another local event, a hill climb at Barbon, set in wonderful countryside, with a plethora of different machines, although only a few sidecars, what I really like about these events is the ability to obtain a day licence, and run what you turn up on.

 

As you @Iceman I'm not a scooter fan but can appreciate the engineering, paintwork and general attention to detail some of the owners go to.

Here is someone I knows scooter with a ktm 300 exc motor in it, needless to say it goes like stink but rather him than me.



And here it is being dyno tuned (still photo taken out of a video).
As he would say "it sounds mint!"
Which I have to fully agree, it does indeed

Note kliktronic gear shifter.

 

I started on a Lambretta back in the 60's so I'm a bit of a fan.

A mate gave me a pile of Scootering magazines recently and I'm surprised how much of the scooter scene is centred around the late 70's/80's scooter revival with murals and glittery paint rather than the original 60's mod treatment of two-tone designs and chromework.

An age thing I suppose.

 

Helmut and I went to the ABR on Friday at Ragley Hall with some friends, returning today on our Ducatis. All seven of us managed to get our tents in the same place, with a gazebo in the middle which was a nice "base camp" area for us.

It was an absolutely cracking weekend - gorgeous hot, dry weather, great atmosphere and bands, lots of stalls and lots of things to see and do. I did an on road test ride of the new Honda Hornet SP - it's a fantastic machine, sounds great, handles so well and is effortless to ride. There is absolutely nothing to not like about it and as we came back in from the ride I was thinking that I'd like to stay out on it all day....keeping a clean driving license would be a challenge with that bike though, it eggs you on. It's a huge amount of bike for the money and I like the looks. My Striple still trumps it for character and handling in my book...the Hornet is almost TOO faultless to ride....but it would be a strong contender should I ever be without a Street Triple (zero plans for that to be the case!).

The highlight was today - my very first trail ride on a RE Himalayan....well I LOVED it once I had totally relaxed and got used to the bike moving around underneath me, what a blast!! I even overtook some slower folk . I think off road riding definitely warrants some further exploration by me .

 

A very nice engineered machine, I don't think I would have the nerve to ride that full on though.

 

Out with my mate on his new BMW R12nineT.
What a cracking looking bike..... I'm almost jealous!

 

Has there been a diagnosis yet for the Fireblades leaks?

 

No, not yet. I am going to tomorrow afternoon to have new tyres fitted on the Ducati, so shall ask then.

 

I have ridden all three of my bikes today, so have put it in the "non Triumph" section, seeing as two of them are!

Firstly, I did 110 miles on my Street Triple and visited two new cafes for Bike and Brew Passport stamps. I am enjoying discovering new places:

First stop was Talybont Stores:

Second was the barge at Pontymoile Basin:

I would visit both again.

I then took my Hyperstrada a few minutes down the road for some new boots. I am trying Michelin Road 6s for the first time, I will not be sorry to not have the Metzelers on any more - I loved them in the dry but hated them in the wet!

When I went to get my tyres fitted, my beautiful Blade was waiting outside - it had had a leaking rocker cover gasket, which is now replaced and hopefully all in full working order again. One of the owners is a friend of ours, so she came to collect me in the car after I took the Ducati home to be able to return and fetch the Blade. It was lovely to ride it even the very short distance home for a few minutes via a friend's place and put it back into its rightful place in the garage (even if all three of my bikes need a good clean!) .

 

You can't beat two strokes for keeping you occupied don't buy one if you're not an enthusiast!

This piston has had it's ar5e thrashed for just under 4000 miles from new.

Yamaha TZR 70 piston and barrel.

It looks like the top ring locating pin has been lost. The top ring has then spun until the exhaust port has guillotined it, crushing part of it into the second ring groove.

New barrel and piston required.

 

Wow that is well and truly fcuked.