BMW Day at The Ace Cafe Sunday 10th May 2009

A group of us will be coming down from Northamptonshire to attend the BMW Day at The Ace Cafe Sunday 10th May 2009 from 0900 located just off the North Circular Road at Stonebridge near Park Royal. Some Gabfesters from the very friendly forum of that name will be meeting us there too.
Now, if I can persuade Rambling Bob to bring his English accordion maybe he could give us all a song....
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Catching up with NAM

Finally caught up with Northants Advanced Motorcyclists again last night having been tripped up by an endless run of do this and that over recent weeks. Great to be back in the company of the brisk, swoopy style that is the NAM trademark and satisfying that a lot of The System is at last starting to become automatic. Still got a little way to go though as the ride showed that a couple of sloppy habits have crept back in to my riding. Good to hear that Sunday's turn out produced 52 riders and 8 new associates signing up. If you are reading this and have not done so then find your local branch and turn up - it will enjoyably change your riding for the better.
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The wrong trousers

This weekend not just one but two types of biking trousers came up for daft money. First up a pair of JTS leather jeans in excellent unmarked condition surfaced at a car boot sale - got em for £12 ! Only fault a broken zip but this under repair for £18 so great, RRP £139. Next in one of those horrible chav clothes sheds I stumbled upon a pair of Karrimor stretchy cycling trousers - great under kevlar jeans for £9 so now all trousered in !
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Triumph Sprint ST 1050 Road Test

Today Pure Triumph on The Embankment in Wellingborough kindly held a test day. I had booked a Triumph Sprint ST 1050 and duly turned up. Having handed over driving licence, passport and signed for £1500 excess I was given the keys and use of the bike for an hour on my own. Other manufacturers take note, if Buell, Harley and Triumph will let you loose why can't you ? Sitting on the bike the first impression is of how small it is. Both feet plonk on the ground, you sit in the bike rather than on it with your bum flush against the step to the pillion seat and a hunched reach to the bars. All the controls are to hand and feel sweet to use. There is little sensation of weight as you paddle the bike about nor any top heavy feel. This feels like a well worked out complete package. Turn the key and press start with a whiff of throttle, wang goes the rev counter ! Yeehar, this is going to be fun. Snick into first for the first of 6 very positive gears and away we go. Lovely, silky triple power delivery with the fuelling nicely sorted out. Onto dual carriageway and gently up through the gears - hang on - what was that snarl beginning just as I changed up ? Go back down a gear and let it rev - whoohoo ! There it is, that triple yowl that I've read about in the comics. The power delivery is linear, no nasty snatches or sudden upward power steps just a constant whooosh. The handling also feels like that of a small bike. It is absolutely planted on the road at all times, smooth over the bumps and goes exactly where you look in an instant with no dramas or sensation of falling into bends. Onto the twisties and the temptation to leave it in lower gears is too strong to resist - just listen to that ! Effortless rapid progress with nice predictable but strong engine braking. Hauling the bike's speed down to get back onto a dual carriageway needs only a finger on the front brake - you just know you've got all the brakes you'll ever need. Granddaddy niggles ? No heated grips on this bike, the wind blast from the tiny screen comes as a shock, the speedo dial is in a tiny font and hard to see and there is no gear indicator. Tell you what BMW. On the basis that you do not mind using proprietary engines, this one in a miniaturised K1300GT would make a stunning all rounder.

Michelin Maps

Just received Michelin maps 513 Normandie and 512 Bretagne as back up in case the on board Blackberry fails.
Hard to believe that 30 years ago whilst living and working in Germany I would cheerfully set off on 2 week trips with a pile of maps and no mobile.
Today I gulped looking at them. Mmmm Satnav rules....
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Normandy Trip

Just finalised plans for the trip to Normandy via Brittany this summer.

Ethel is off across to Calais then on to Rouen for the night. Next day we go on to the St Malo area for 3 nights to explore then it's off to the St Lo area and 2 days of escorted battlefield tours finishing off with another night in Rouen before coming back via Calais the next day. Can't wait...........

Anybody with any useful tips is welcome, such as " I know a great K75 specialist in.........on the way, just in case "

BMW Test Day

I recently enjoyed a BMW Test Day.

Here is my alternative, totally subjective and unrepresentative Road Test report by way of a contrast to Motor Cycle News “ On the track, at 18000 revs, this bike still has 500 rpm to go over the rest so the winner of our group test is…..” nonsense.

GS650. This is like a BMX bike with a light switch power delivery engine in it. It really does twiddle about like a bike but this is unnerving when stepping off a heavy bike. Everything happens all of a sudden, go, steer , stop – bam, bam, bam. Not at all the commuter trudger I expected. This too had the horrible fuelling glitch just as you feed in the clutch to pull away that I had previously experienced when riding an 800ST and kindly cut out on me in front of the Beemer masses just as I fed the power in.Oddly enough the very same 800ST was there and smirking in the background – the joke’s on you mate, you are now only fit to be used as a test hack.

K1300GTSE Wow ! What a bike. An absolutely stonking engine. Wanna rev it ? OK goes like stink. Wanna short shift ? – does the same. Creamy smooth power and slick shifts everywhere. Only downside is tingly vibration in 2nd gear at 30mph through the footrests and tank. A huge improvement is modern indicator switchgear. Thank God for that. I looked at the bike before I went out just to see if this one had it, great, otherwise I would not have ridden it. I do not need 160 bhp cutting in just when I don’t want it. I have yet to meet any German with 6” long thumbs – but they must have existed to have designed the now thankfully obsolete old switchgear.A big heavy lump to move about to park. It steers and corners great but gives the sensation on cornering that something big and heavy is being swung about in circles, well bits of circles, so plan ahead accordingly. The brakes wipe out speed instantly so no worries there.Predictably the only toy I played with was the heated grips – the ride itself didn’t seem to need anything else. OK then I forgot.A great bike in my view – I really liked it.

GS1200 Stop the world I want to get off. Go around the world on this ? You must be kidding. Turn the key and press start the thing leaps to the right, everything judders about and the engine sounds rough and clanky.Away we go and it sounds like a cross between a WW1 biplane and a tractor, engine delivery linear but not smooth through the bars or footrests plus muffled pops and bangs in the exhaust on successive downshifts, gearbox clonky both ways.It handles, steers and stops OK but as a concept I just don’t get it. Handy for looking over hedges I suppose but dunno what else.Monster height makes give way junctions and parking a nightmare for 29” inner leg. OK, I know buy this lowering kit and that lowered seat – but then what is the point in the first place. I gave up and handed the bike back to sort out when I got back as I just couldn’t be arsed to try to haul the thing about.

Schuberth C3 Helmet

Tired of waiting for new stock in white I rushed over to Hein Gericke in Northampton to scoop up the gloss black one in my size.Just goes to show that you gets what you pays for. An instant improvement over my £99 HJC, as should be expected I suppose. Immediately upon setting off the wind roar was noticeably quieter, then in traffic you notice an increased vision splay from the wider visor aperture and can see traffic out of the corner of your eye. Up to speed and wind turbulence or gusts make no difference at all, no more sudden head bobs. There is some wind noise but noise is low. The helmet is very light by comparison to what I am used too – you do not notice it is there. The ventilation works properly too, the dreaded sudden misting up of spectacles as the speed drops to walking pace is gone so no more constant visor raising at every roundabout or town.The helmet shell is small in comparison, down from size 62 HJC to 58 Schuberth and the helmet profile is smaller too. The strap is connected by means of the plastic ribbed band arrangement you see on ski boots, which in this case goes through a snap shut fastener with a downward pull tab to release. Very funky. The drop down internal tinted visor is in a pleasant neutral grey and does not foul spectacles.All in all a very nice product that works, well done Mr Schumacher !
After a week I discovered that the spoiler under the chin is removeable, velcro, so it is no longer such a squeeze to shut the front. Also belatedly discovered that the visor has a snap shut over a catch which stops the wind noise mentioned above and makes the helmet eerily quiet !

Airhawk seat cover

The Airhawk seat arrived yesterday and this morning was the first opportunity to give it a go.Trying out various amounts of air it turned out that the least amount used to inflate it is best.It is super comfy, does not skid about, and with so little air in it does not boiing you around. The cover has a fabric top which is nice to sit on. It has the added benefit of the raised seat height creating a better riding position, in my case, as I am now more up over the bars and suddenly have a riding position I really like. The pad completely covers the riders seat area of the K75C and does what I wanted - namely give extra width at the front sides of the seat where it can dig in after a while.So far so good.................

Enter Ethel the Beemer

Here is Ethel the Beemer my lovely old 1986 K75C all ready for a busy summer.
The idea of this blog is to keep a live record of various ramblings as we go off on trips plus any various bits and pieces I've come across.