“Try something new today!”

Whilst that’s the slogan Sainsbury’s likes to use to persuade shoppers to enter their doors and part with their cash for products allegedly guaranteed to tickle their tastebuds – frankly now that I am car-less, and since it was closer than Tesco’s, am more interested in whether or not I could indeed try something new and fit my shopping onto the bike……. 😛

Whilst bling may be king, I was lucky enough to find a bike that had many accessories already attached such as panniers, a Scottoiler and R&G crash bungs – and I solemnly promised myself that I would only add what I considered necessary to survival or comfort – which frankly tends to be one and the same thing to me 🙂  Fast forward and I now have a top box (52 litres) and an air horn 😛

Have bike – will shop! (might need stabilizers though!!)
food, stuffed, filled topbox, panniers crammed
Let’s get that all on board!

One weekly shop later – and ninety quid lighter (doesn’t go far these days does it lol!) and I had filled each pannier  and the top box. And was rather pleased that I hadn’t had to strap anything to the seat either.

Of course it made for an interesting ride home!  Turning right at T-junctions was rather hazardous to my balance and I certainly was more cautious with the braking. I don’t ride with pillions so have never had to deal with excess weight on the bike  – for those of you who know me, no comments please about my own weight or the size of my overnight bags thank you very much 🙂

So what did I learn? Well the Sprint is built like a workhorse and admirably up to the task of lugging my gear about (it’s just me as a lightweight rider that has the difficulties!!). The panniers are fitted with excellent elasticated hold straps to keep your gear from falling out when you open them. They are also deep enough to hold a full size helmet, whilst the top box by GIVI  is pure genius!

Having previously considered a 46 litre top box on my FZ6s to be ideal, I was concerned that anything larger would dwarf this bike, be subject to  a wind tunnel effect and upset its handling, particularly as the sportier position means the box is more exposed without my body blocking it.  I needn’t have worried – I never even noticed the thing! And it’s proving the best item for the bike as it’s large enough for helmet, gloves, locks, spare visor, waterproofs, hairbrush, cuddly toy and anything else I suddenly think I might need on a trip out. With this box there’s no need for the panniers as well which is even better as it makes filtering a breeze 🙂

Incidentally my thanks must go to Mark, at Flitwick Motorcycles, who stood around for 20 mins acting as a hand model, holding the different sized boxes (46, 52 and 55 litres) onto the back of my back so that I could view them in situ and analyse their aesthetic value! How’s that for service!

I did make it home safely but frankly I’ve also have learnt that if I can’t beg, borrow or “steal” a four wheeled vehicle from family, friends, or even complete strangers! that three bottles of wine, a ton of cat food and all the rest of the paraphernalia that I consider necessary to tempt my palate are best purchased through a store’s home delivery service 😉

Ride safe

Good rubber will enhance your pleasure….Part 2.

In my last post I was  wishing for rain to try out my Michelin Pilot Road  3s – well as if made to order, the heavens opened up a day later and the rain came forth 🙂 

As it was a day when I abserlootley needed to use the bike as it was booked in for my air horn, I wrapped up in wet weather gear and a tad nervously but also excitedly  ventured out. First it was off to Luton’s High Town with a mix of roadworks, manhole covers, mini roundabouts, potholes and lots of lovely painted wet road signs.  Silvano (my Triumph Sprint ST 955i)  on his new tyres made light work – in fact it was as if running on air in the nicest possible way! Getting round corners wasn’t remotely hard work on the wrists and counter steering was a breeze. Never mind the Road Pilots – this was just the effect of round rather than square tyres 😛

With the rain steadily pounding down I was careful not to push too hard as there were literally streams of water going diagonally across my path and man-hole covers were being pushed up by the volume of water! However when I hit the Thorn turn (between Toddington and Leighton Buzzard) I definitely had a big grin on my face as I took the s-bend with ease – hoorah!

As I pulled up to Flitwick Motorcycles, I was unimpressed to see the rain stop and the sun come out – and realise that for the first time in six years my waterproof Daytona M-Star boots had let me down – urgh wet toes are not cool 😦 AND two fingers of my left hand were distinctly damp. Having said that the Halvarssons gloves are at least three years old and, like the boots, have kept me dry in the most horrendous of rain storms. We’ve also racked up about 45,000 miles on the boots and about 30,000 on the gloves so I think I’ve had my moneys worth. Will have to look into replacing or repairing and will let you know how I get on with that!

Yana De Silva
Yep – I definitely looked just as bad!

Since I have no wish to show any pics of me looking less than fab here’s something else to laugh at 🙂

Anyways back to the biking – once the air horn was fitted I decided it was time to play again! With water all over the place but no extra chucking it down I wanted to see if the Road Pilots would engender confidence or confusion.

Taking the twisty back road from Flitwick to Westoning I went into those corners without a hiccup – then a water and gravel strewn hill to Barton – and again, whilst avoiding the gravel, those new boots on my baby stuck to the road like glue 🙂 That new technology seems to work a treat but Michelin explains it so much better!

Michelin Pilot Road 3s
Nice n Grippy boots for my baby!

Incidentally I may finally have solved a little bit of a problem I’ve been experiencing with my braking. At times I’ve been concerned by how light this bike can feel under hard braking – as if the back wheel hasn’t got the weight of the bike on it. A quick discussion with some older biking mates gave me a solution. Back in the day, when they were taught and I was just a twinkle in my mum’s eye!, they were always told “use your back brake first to settle your bike then pour on the front”. Whereas in my day the back comes on at the last moment when less front is needed.

I guess it’s also a case of different bikes different circumstances as the Fazer didn’t really have this issue. So on the way home I tried it several times – t’was indeed an EUREKA moment 🙂 and Silvano is nicely settled and driving to a halt each time rather than a back tyre developing a new relationship with air!!

So all in all a good day indeed to test out the new tyres, and also find out that my waterproof kit isn’t so waterproof  😉

Ride Safe

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Good rubber will enhance your pleasure….

I know I know… smut smut smut! but hey it’s my blog and I’ll write what I like – and this week has definitely been about my pleasure :-).  Seriously though, I can tell you, hand on heart, that thanks to some nicely shaped rubber, in the form of a new set of Micheline Road Pilots, I am a very satisfied woman.

There is that moment in every rider’s life when they know they need new tyres. It’s when your beloved, agile, two wheeler develops the handling abilities of a pig on a spit. Your riding turns from a flowing sweeping god/goddess into that of a gutter hugging newbie on L Plates with a minimal 125cc of power (well we’re all riding gods/goddesses in our imaginations lol!).  But like the cavalry to the rescue my Road Pilots have boosted me into the upper echelons (yep my new word for the week ;-)) of riding. No longer do I find myself 50-pencing it in an effort to tackle a roundabout – instead I sweep in and out … with  a maahooosive grin on my face lol!

Owning a sports tourer and riding all year round means I look for longevity in my tyres alongside an ability to grip in the wet. Usually a devotee of Bridgestone,  at one point I was persuaded to look elsewhere and try out the Metzeler Roadtech Z8 Interact. I clearly recall being like a kid at Christmas anxiously and excitedly waiting for them to arrive. Yet like so many Christmas presents I was deeply disappointed in them 😦

There was always an edgy sense of disquiet in the corners when riding in the rain. Even allowing for the hazard of a wet day, it was disheartening to feel uncomfortable on familiar routes where previous experiences on Bridgestones in the same conditions had never caused me a moment of panic.

Michelin Road Pilot 3
It’s official – I’ve become a nerd! That may be the case but take a look at the weird tread pattern on these babies!

I chose the Pilots after my dear bruv raved on about his Pilot 2’s and since his bike is his main form of transport and he knows a thing or two about riding I was sorely tempted. The final deciding factor was the strange coincidence of my purchasing a copy of Fast Bikes, which I never normally do, and finding a three page spread on the  upgraded Pilot 3s 🙂

Clearly it was fate. The writer had road tested them to a degree I am clearly never going to, in both wet and dry and not found them wanting. It led me to the website where I read up on the strange new tyre tread with its special pockets aimed at dispersing the water – definitely a tyre planned for the wet weather me thinks!  I managed a gorgeously smooth 25-mile ride after having them fitted at Flitwick Motorcycles – then it peed down so I gingerly headed home conscious of the spectre of untried slippy tyres.  But several rides later they’ve been scrubbed in and I’ve  thoroughly enjoyed the riding.

Now it’s just a case of waiting for a good old-fashioned downpour to really test them out…. wish me luck 🙂

Ride safe

The finer art of balance….or not!

WELL it had to happen someday…. yep you’ve guessed it, I dropped my bike 😛 I know I know – I am a twat!! However in my defence it was one of the most ludicrous things that has ever happened to me and was definitely the result of A- not knowing my own strength,  B – gravity and balance fighting it out and of course C – total idiot factor lol!

Triumph sprint st 955i
Sorry Silvano – didn’t mean to put your privates on show!!

Silvano has been in my possession a mere seven weeks and I am pleased to say that despite much of my time being taken up elsewhere which has significantly reduced our outings, I have notched up another 900 miles in the last four weeks bimbling around. More on those adventures later…

This infamous bike dropping moment occurred after a week of weather that has been getting steadily shittier! It was pouring with rain (yet again) and the bike was parked up beside a kerb rather than facing into the traffic as it’s a narrow road. However the camber was quite low on the left side. This meant I had to give it a real tug to get it off the side stand………and realised too late that the bike was not stopping at the usual midway point in a straight line, but ye gods was continuing to fall ….all the way over to the right eek!

Despite my best efforts I could not hold 207kg dry weight of Sprint ST on my right leg, let alone one with a full petrol tank and down we went with me rolling clear at the last moment. It took me about five seconds to realise that lying on my back staring up at the rainy sky was not a good thing in a main road 😮 . Fortunately for me the citizens of Barton-Le-Clay are a good sort and I was quickly surrounded by lovely people (ok lots of nice guys with big muscles!) who picked Silvano up for me. Several were then in hysterics as I threw my arms around his tank, hugging him and apologising profusely to him for dropping him and revealing his private parts to the world!!

Let me be clear, the bike was not in gear, not moving, and I didn’t crash or skid into anything nor was I hit by or in contact with a third party! It was just a mad mad mad moment that fortunately hasn’t turned out too badly thanks to those fantastic, wonderful, cannot live without and which every bike should automatically come with… yes I am of course referring to R&G Crash Bungs. A round of applause for you methinks particularly as the right side bung did take quite a scuffing.

My word but those crash bungs certainly do what they say on the tin! My fairings escaped any scratches, my mirror and my top box both gained a minor graze and the can has two teenie marks on it. Thankfully I wasn’t using the panniers at the time and aberslootely nothing else seems to have made contact with the ground. And of course I didn’t injure myself in any way since I didn’t actually hit anything – more of a graceful flop :-).

Needless to say this was the last straw and I’ve now had my bike lowered! After all I’ll take all the help I can get and at least I now have more than tip toes down:-)

So now that’s out of the way, I can honestly say that I hope it’s the one and only time I do that…. and I am very thankful that I had my helmet on thus disguising me so that I can walk into my local post office without anyone pointing at me …..”hmm there goes that girl who dropped her bike!!!” –  oooooohhh the shame!

Ride safe

Waiting for the good times to roll!

AFTER three weeks of my new relationship I had expected to be blogging about the joys of my new man….instead I find myself thinking “be careful what you wish for – cos ya just might get it!!” Oh if ever there was a truer saying!! I wished for a fulfilling new relationship, one where my new partner would be good-looking (shallow I know!), easy-going and not too concerned with my foibles  –  And that’s exactly what I got with my new love, Silvano the Triumph Sprint 955i  – but I’m sad to say I have clearly miscalculated 😦

Don’t get me wrong, Silvano is all and more that a girl could wish for – the problem is me!! (hard to believe I know :-P) and the faint possibility I may not be in the right place for a new relationship! You may have noticed that I haven’t been blogging about my adventures lately (silly me – of course you’ve noticed and no doubt been disappointed by the lack of my blogs dropping into your inbox lol!) and that’s because I have barely been out on the bike…… da da dah! shock horror! Anyone who knows me knows I practically live on my wheels in my free time, yet in three weeks  I’ve notched up just over a measley 700 miles!

I seem to spend an awful lot of time looking at the bike and, understandably, admiring his physique  – just not riding it eek! The few times that I have been out I find myself constantly wavering between worrying about car drivers and enjoying the ride. My nervousness may not have been helped somewhat by watching my sis fall off her bike the first time we went out together! Mind you in her defence she was doing the unexpected – a U-turn! And my trauma was lessened by the fact that she did rather gracefully lay down her bike rather than hurl it down the road 😛

silver triumph 955i
Getting to know you …. my new man Silvano, the triumph sprint st 955i!

Obviously I realise I have just had a major accident and that will take time to get over – and of course I have a mild (did I say mild lol!) tendency to over think things so recognise that I may be over analysing things here…..nothing that can’t be cured in the short term by  a couple of metres of  bubble wrap and a police escort each time I go out lol!

Seriously though, there is light ahead as when I forget about the indecisive nature of car drivers I thoroughly enjoy myself.  For the most part I feel comfortable and very in control on my bike  – it’s just when a numpty car driver does something odd I find myself flinching a tad!

My 700 miles have been spent on familiar roads in the dry getting used to the differences between the 955i and the Fz6s: the handling (very smooth), the power (rapid response) very different brakes (front needs to bite down just a bit otherwise you keep rolling!!), and height (a teensy bit tip toey). All in all I’ve been taking it easy and getting to know the bike and that can only be a good thing.

A bit like a hand made dress I also find myself fidgeting with odd things trying to get them just right – The Datatool alarm is driving me nuts – all that pfaffing with buttons every time you so much as look at the bike, and I have experienced the sheer embarrassment of the horn – dear lawd my farts sound louder and have a lot more depth to them but problem soon to be solved as I’ve now ordered an air horn! 🙂 I’ve also experienced a downside to losing more than two stone in weight – there’s not much left to weight the bike down lol!

And after 15 mins of practice and one wrenched arm I can now get the heavy thing onto its centre stand with ease. But my ultimate blonde moment had to come when I finally realised the main difficulty with not being able to read my satnav despite the 101 different positions I’ve been moving it to, is that the screen light was on too low a setting ……..(should I really be allowed out on my own lol!).

So what does this mean for my new man and I? Have I rushed into a new relationship too soon? Am I on the rebound? …well since this isn’t an extract from the Sun’s agony aunt column or even worse the Jeremy Kyle Show, I’m pretty sure that it will all pan out 🙂

In the coming weeks I’ll be making more effort to get out and about on proppa day trips – (pity I’ve got non bike commitments over the bank hols but family is family!) So I am still waiting for the good times to roll… must remember to breathe, relax, recall my training, and above all accept that I can only be responsible for my own actions … Anyone fancy a ride out? 😛