Well, it all began when a friend put 9 litres of diesel in his BMW R1200R. I took my siphon kit to the garage, siphoned out the diesel, put 5 litres of unleaded in and pressed the starter. Away she went although a bit smoky when revved up. Anyway he has been hankering for me to buy it so I trundled it from the garage into a car park. Mmmm. Good news is that it is very light. It is however undeniably agricultural in nature. Press the starter and it leaps to the left with torque reaction and everything, screens, bars and hands rattle about. The motor at standstill produces loads of clatter too - although it had just had a £450 major service that day. The tail is high and it is a long way over those giant panniers especially with a big cylinder to clout your left shin on in so doing. The engine revs up in a lazy way - no instant wham so it just felt dull. My K75C has more zip than this and the Kawasakis are from a different world. The whole bike just looks clonky in an iron bridge kind of way. Best bit of the whole bike is the effortless roll on centre stand. Now that is something I would like.
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Saturday 20 July 2013
Thursday 18 July 2013
All change !
Absolutely delighted to have sourced a 1958 Simson AWO 425 Sport. The deal has been done on a good old fashioned gentlemen's agreement with the seller who will check the bike over before releasing it for collection. Hopefully I should have it in a couple of weeks from now.
This now makes the purple ZX6R F1 redundant as I am love with the ZX6R F3 Streetfighter. So now I'll strip off all the nice goodies I have upgraded it with, replace them with the standard parts that I still have - and sell it.
The Manx Grand Prix trip is now transformed as I will be going on the Simson and taking part in the full IOM VMCC Rally activities. The only issue is how to get the Simson up to Heysham for the ferry as I really don't fancy doing 50 mph in the slow lane of motorways all the way up there for 160 miles at night. However we have a plan.................A while back I had the van fitted with a towing hitch and light socket and also bought a strange wind up A frame device that hooks the bike to the van and trundles it along on the bike's back wheel. I have never used it as it was bought in a rush of blood with track day daydreams in mind. Oddly enough now that I have ridden quite a few tracks it does not seem that important after all so I have cooled off on this. Anyway the plan now is to tow the Simson to Heysham and park up the van in the docks car park.
Right, now to send off the Manx Rally entry form and we are all set woohoo !
Monday 15 July 2013
Festival of 1000 bikes - the riders
Phil Read made his trademark tidy progress, John Cooper did not look at ease - maybe it was the misfire coming on with his works BSA triple, Mick Grant was on it and in a no messing swift mood, Rob McIlnea had a steady pootle round, Too Tall Tel Rymer went wheelytastic, Tepi Lansivouri trundled along but boy was Christian Sarron quick around Devils Elbow. Wow. Dunno why Andy Kershaw was out there, Jim Redman took it nice and easy, Carl Fogarty managed to kill 2 Ducatis in one day, Neil Hodgson was really sharp and Jamie Whitham must have had a bet on to be going that quick. Great to see one of the Lowes boys zipping along on an RG500 and a real surprise to hear the Strine accent of Freddy Sheene. Just like back in the day could not tell who was on the JPS Nortons but great to see and hear them and the Duckhams bikes again. Every Norton rider knew how to pull monster wheelies though. No idea who rode Joeys SP2 or which one of the 4 cylinder replicas was McGuinness. Maybe they could have old fashioned white bibs with names on.
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The only silent place at Mallory Park
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The new Crighton rotary racer
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Festival of 1000 bikes
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Festival of 1000 bikes
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Saturday 13 July 2013
Friday 12 July 2013
Norton Commando
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