The uk.rec.motorcycles regulars have a fairly regular rideout that starts in Aylesbury. See ukrm runs page for details. I did the anniversary run back in March on my old bike, so was keen to do one on the new bike.
I rolled up at the Horse and Jockey just before 11am, expecting to be the first one there, but about eight guys were already waiting, and another five or six arrived over the next half an hour (ukrm events are always hopelessly delayed by waiting for the smokers - by the time one has finished, another one has lit up, and so it goes). Mostly sports bikes (a few SV650s, GSX-R750s, ZX-6/7s, a Blade), and one Kawasaki 1500 Intruder. A group had ridden down from Birmingham, and the next week someone came down from north of Manchester - there's dedication.
We set off on the usual route to Buckingham, Bicester, Thame and Postcombe to finish at the England's Rose, a bikers pub on the old A40. It was the first decent ride after the first service, so I could use the engine more freely, and had a really good time. I did my own thing and rode along at "making smooth progress" pace, which put me about half way down the group, some of the fast guys being, err, very fast indeed. Had a good chat at the end with Daz, who'd picked up his new Blade the day before, and Jonathan who'd had his post-DAS new SV for one week. Daz had spotted from the way I rode that I'd done some advanced training, and I think he was really only sticking behind me because his bike was still being run in...
Then back off home to get to a baby-naming party, and I was only an hour late...
I had to take my recently-made leather jeans back to Hideout Leather
for some adjustments yesterday, so we made it a short day trip to
Cambridgeshire to visit some friends we'd met in Canada at the
Triathlon world championships. We did about 160-180 miles I guess, the bike was going
very nicely indeed. A good mixture of fast roads, A roads and a few
lanes, and the opportunity to see three figures on the speedo
occasionally. Memo to self: Must not forget that there are faster
bikes around ! The two sportsbikes that appeared apparently from nowhere on the A14
must have been doing 130+, I totally missed them in the
mirrors. Still, at least we got a friendly wave.
Thea enjoys the back seat more than the old Deauville - she can feel
the better stability as well.
We saw a couple of other RS's too - a red 1100 with a missing
windscreen as we left Hemel, and a new silver 1150 in Hertford (on his
way to Sawbridgeworth, no doubt).
Thea was off at a running event on Saturday, so I did a ride from
home, onto the A5, then off from Hockliffe on the A4012 and A507 all
the way to Buntingford, and up to the Silver
Ball cafe on the A10 for lunch (All Day #2, mmmmmm). No other
bikes there, which was surprising. The A507 is an excellent biking
road for this part of the country, mostly wide and sweeping, a bit
twisty near the end, and no speed cameras as far as I know. Then back
home via Hertford and the twisty road through Bengeo. Got slightly
entangled in a race between an R6 and a Porsche on the A1(M), but let
them go.
Off to the NEC show this morning - lane discipline on the M1 is
nonexistent. The M45 was recommended as a quiet road with no cameras,
and less police, so it was fun to achieve a decent speed for a while,
the bike was absolutely rock solid, too.
Saw plenty of new bikes at the show. The Ducati concept bike actually
looks better in the metal than in pictures, but I still wouldn't want
one. The new VFR looks horrific from the front, and the new Pan is a bit
of a barge. I sat on a few different bikes, and didn't regret buying
the RS for a minute. BMW had the full range on their stand, including
an RS in the two tone paint scheme, which looks good from some angles,
and rather '70s from others. I tried on a few helmets, none any
good, I have a funny shaped head. I stumped up my pound to see the
freestyle MX demonstration - very impressive stuff, especially the guy
who rides without a front brake. It's no coincidence that these guys
are all teenagers, at some point, you must realise you're not
immortal, and stop doing it the next day.
A nasty mixture of both dry and greasy roads on the way home, one
roundabout in Daventry had me practising supermoto-style foot down
cornering as the bike slipped sideways.
I suffer a lot from cold hands, and I've been a bit disappointed with
the heated grips on the BMW, compared to the Honda items I had
before. They don't get really really hot, and they're not fat enough
that they warm your whole hand. So it seems I can't use ordinary
leather gloves in the winter any more.
The stock uk.rec.motorcycles answer for winter gloves is the Hein
Gericke Pathan Lobster, available for a mere 30 quid. I found there's
an HG shop near Harrow, which is a not unreasonable detour on the way
to work, so I went in there this morning to buy a pair. I tried them
out on the +2C, 25 mile journey back home this evening, and they worked very
well. They keep all the windblast off the grips, so you can feel the heat
all the time, and I got back with really quite warm hands. Highly
recommended.
It was a lovely bright clear day, if a bit cold, so we decided to go out for
a ride over to Oxfordshire for lunch at the Riverside Cafe in Benson
(a favourite destination from when we used to live in Reading). There
were some great views on the way of the Chilterns on one side, and the vale of
Aylesbury on the other. After lunch, we took a few pictures and headed
back home, getting a bit chilly as we got nearer. It was only about 3C with low cloud when we got back, and
that was before 3PM.
It's been pretty cold in the south of England for the last two or
three weeks, so in that time, I've ridden to work just once, and been
out once last weekend. Definitely felt a bit rusty, it took quite a
few miles to
get used to the speed of the bike again, after having only driven the car for
a while.
I got a BMW tank bag for Christmas (how does Santa know these
things?). Part of the fitting kit is an adhesive strip you need to fix to the base of the
tank, and the manual says you need to do this at a temperature of more
than 20C. So I may not fit the bag until July...
Very windy, but dry roads today, so I fitted in a quick 45 mile ride
this afternoon even though it was rather cold out. I was hoping to get some pictures
at Mentmore, but the sun was a bit low. This photo of the Great Train
Robbery bridge will have to do:
First time out for a couple of weeks, for various reasons. I'm really
impressed by the stability of the bike in windy conditions, like it
was today. I've fitted a Halfords Xenon H4 55/60 headlight bulb, and
it does seem to be a bit more effective than the stock bulb, worth the
10 pounds I think. I also fitted the BMW tankbag that I was given for
Christmas. It was easy to fit, and so far the mapholder at least has
been very useful.
A lovely spring Saturday in southern England, so I went out for a 100
mile ride round Hertfordshire. A5, A4012...
I then had a mechanical moment... See so far section.
Another fine spring day, and a shorter ride around North Bucks. Past
Chequers, but no sign of Il Presidente Blair this week, and on to
Mentmore where I took the photo on the front page, and this one.
Very long time since I wrote anything here, bad weather, holidays and
other things meant I hadn't actually ridden very much other than
commuting. So, a day out at qualifying for the British MotoGP round, was going to
make a change.
I left home pretty early, and just went 100 miles straight up the M1 to
Donington, where the weather was already warm and sunny. First up were
the 125s, tiny 70kg strokers ridden mostly by Spanish teenagers, but still
amazingly fast, only 7% slower lap times than the MotoGP bikes. Corner
speed is very impressive.
Untimed MotoGP session was up next. The mix of the new big four
strokes and older 500cc two smokes makes for an interesting noise. All
the four strokes sound different to each other, but still not really
loud enough. The Aprilia triple is probably the loudest, but Barry
Sheene's right, they should run them on open pipes. At the end of the
session, Valentino Rossi crashed, and I was able to get some pictures
as he was taken back to the pits.
The afternoon had timed qualifying for all classes, Barros doing the
fastest ever 2 wheeled lap of Donington to claim provisional pole
(that was eclipsed by Rossi on Saturday).
Then back down the M1, to Northampton where I got fed up and went
cross country for the rest of the trip.
Went for a short ride around between rain showers and the anticipated
frost/snow tomorrow. Not otherwise notable, but took a couple of pictures.
Donington Park for the Grand Prix qualifying again yesterday - no pictures this
time. The MotoGP field is really impressive in the flesh (and metal
and plastic), even more so this year with the Ducatis and Kawasakis
and the new V5 KR Proton. The Proton sounds the best of the bunch, the
power of the Ducati is amazing, you can hear the rear spinning up as
they try to get the power down as they're going along the straights.
This morning I went on TVAM's breakfast run to the excellent Piggy's cafe in
Lyneham, which entailed getting up at 6.15, Unfortunately, this was
not a problem as Heather had had us up since about 4.30...
I came back on my own to get home early, and took this photo on the
downs near Marlborough
So that was 400 miles in two days, rather more than my usual quota,
wrists and neck were feeling it a bit when I got home today.
I did the TVAM "Look, Lean and Roll" course this morning. This
consists of training in countersteering effectively, and also good
cornering technique (Look where you're going, Lean the bike, Roll on
the throttle). It's held on a big tarmac rink at the MoD testing
ground in Chertsey. They set various out courses using cones, and
everyone rides around them with some 1:1 tuition from the observers
if/when you need it.
I easily managed to drag the pegs on
both sides at no more than 25mph, and was slightly regretting my recently
lowered footpegs towards the end of the course. I was one of the more
experienced riders, and there were some people on the course who
looked pretty hopeless at the beginning, but had improved immeasurably
by the end, so it was time well spent for everyone. A very enjoyable
way to spend the morning.
Living near Reading, we were used to having the foundations and
windows rattled once a day by a BA Concorde on its way to New York. It
was always an impressive sight, so I decided that I'd go up to
Heathrow to see the last three in-service flights landing before the plane was
retired. I went on the bike to avoid the traffic congestion, and
easily found a spot almost under the flight path. It was great to see
and hear these beautiful aircraft landing for almost their last
journeys.
I set off early on July 7th to go to France for the day to see the Tour de
France Team Time Trial. Got down to Eurotunnel in an hour from my parents'
house, and was soon installed on the shuttle.
When you arrive in France, the train takes several minutes going slowly
round a big loop, they could cut 5 minutes off the 35 minute crossing right
there ! Lorries travel in these open carriages with the drivers in a single
coach at the rear.
So, onto the Autoroute for 110K down past Arras, and then onto the back
roads. Northern France has some really nice biking roads. They're usually
well surfaced, and of the open, sweeping, empty, variety, with no
artificially low speed limits. Very different to the UK, although there are
still a lot of small villages to break up the rhythm.
The TdeF stage was between Cambrai and Arras. This area was the frontline
in WWI, and there are little cemeteries everywhere, as well as the more
well known enormous ones. This one, at "Upton Wood" contains mainly Canadians.
I reconnoitred part of the race route, and then went to the start in
Cambrai. Didn't see too many riders, as it was still a bit early, and it
started raining before most of them showed up. The teams were setting up
the warm-up equipment for the TTT. What happened to FDJ's team bus budget
this year ?
After the rain started, I needed to back to get my wet weather gear from
the bike, and once trussed up I decided to go off to the small hill near
Trescault, where I'd decided to watch the race.
The whole village, and then some, were out in force.
After a few teams passed, the rain started again, and was intermittently
very heavy. The teams were doing unbelievable speeds downhill through the
village in such dodgy conditions.
This France2/3 camera crew stopped to clean their lenses. K75/1000/1100s
are very popular as utility bikes on the race, being used by the TV, press
photographers and most of the police motorcycle escort.
Once USPS had gone through, and it was still raining hard, I changed my
earlier plan of moving up the route to see the finish, and headed back for
home. It was intermittently raining and extremely windy, but the bike was
behaving well and felt very stable so it was still a struggle to stay close
to the 110kph wet weather speed limit.
Got myself moved onto an earlier departure, parked the bike at the terminal
while I went shopping, and when I returned I found that another RS had
appeared - in fact from the colour I wondered initially if it was Terry
from the RS Forum. It wasn't (bike not rusty enough for a start), but a guy
from Newport Pagnell who'd been watching the Tour for the day as well.
The trailer in front of us is the Eurotunnel Cycle Service, which I
knew about but had never seen before. In order to cross by bicycle,
you ride to the terminal, they put your bike in a trailer, and you
travel in the attached van. Seems a bit convoluted really.
Then a quick run back up the M20 in high winds and increasingly heavy rain,
and back to my parents' after 13 hours and 360 miles. The Indian takeaway we
had for dinner was extremely welcome as I'd only had a cheese sandwich and
two danish pastries all day...
A Friday in late July must mean it's time to go to Donington for the
MotoGP practice again. This year, I had the company of Ian from the RS
Forum. We met up on the A404 near Maidenhead, and set off for the
Midlands. A bit over 130 miles and an 1:45 later, we were parking up
at Donington after an uneventful run. Riding in company does make the
motorway slightly less boring though.
MotoGp is obviously gaining popularity all the time, as when I went in
2002, there were only a few thousand people there on Friday, but there
must have been 2 or 3 times as many this year. We stayed to watch both
MotoGP sessions. The noise and speed of the bikes and the smoothness
of the riders is just incredible to see close up. Right at the end of
the session, we watched Kurtis Roberts lowside his Proton KR right in
front of us. He then stood on the outside of Goddards for a couple of
minutes and risked screwing up everyone else's last laps, what was he
thinking ?
After a loooong walk back to the bikes, we went home
separately. As I was leaving the circuit, one of the Boxer Cup riders was
testing his bike in the huge empty carpark. They seem to wheelie quite
well.
Traffic round Birmingham was horrible, and I took to the
back roads for the last hour or so as I was well fed up with motorways
by that point. Home with 280 miles ridden, feeling quite broiled and
tired.
Once again I made the pilgrimage to Donington for MotoGP practice. A
different plan this year, as I wanted to see the BMW Powercup bikes
which were on later in the day. So I didn't rush up for the first
MotoGP session, and picked a non-motorway route,
roughly A4010 to Aylesbury, A413 to Towcester, A5 to Hinckley, A447
then A511/A42/A453. This is a nice route, apart from the interminable
slogs through High Wycombe and Aylesbury. It doesn't have any fixed
cameras outside urban areas, either.
However, the "Safety Camera Partnerships" were out keeping us all
safe, and I passed 3 mobile vans, one hidden in a slight dip on a fast
open stretch of the A5. In each case, oncoming motorists were keen to
warn me of the dangerous piece of road ahead, that the mobile van was
monitoring. So I was able to be sure to ride very "safely" in that
area.
Overall it was much more fun than the motorway, and a bit more than 3
hours riding time in total.
There were more people than ever at Donington on the Friday. I managed
to get a few half decent pictures, but pocket digicams aren't really
up to doing sporting events well. My new camera does have a movie
mode though, which captured the sound of the bikes rather well, but as
I don't have any movie editing software, I can't inflict 45Mb of it on you all...
The afternoon MotoGP session was marred by light drizzle, so the
riders were only out for 30 minutes, which was a bit
disappointing. The Powercup was good fun though, a couple of the
riders in particular were really caning the bikes round, with lap times
in the 1 minute 39 range compared to 1 minute 28 in MotoGP.
10 Nov 2001 - Ride
16 Nov 2001 - NEC show
26 Nov 2001 - Gloves
7 Dec 2001 - Benson
The Thames at Benson26 Dec 2001 - Nowhere
28 Dec 2001 - Ride
Bridego Bridge, nr
Cheddington, Bucks2 Feb 2002 - Ride
23 March 2002 - Ride
Woburn Safari Park Lion
Silver Ball Cafe, Reed
30 March 2002 - Ride
View towards Leighton Buzzard
from Mentmore
12 July 2002 - MotoGP
Sitting concussed on the wall
Examining broken thumb
A small section of the bike park
3 January 2003
Ashridge monument
Flooding in Watford
12 July 2003
Looking west towards Chippenham
12 October 2003
Group shot
One of the observers
One of the participants
24 October 2003
Spectators in Cranford
Some 1960's technology
This
is a Bus
Francaise
des Jeux "Bus"
Luc
Leblanc and "friend"
Craner Curves
Tamada
Rossi (less yellow this year)
Edwards does a practice start
Bikes are not the only noisy things at Donington
Ian and the bikes
Randy
Mamola and friend on the 2 seater Ducati
Powercup bike
Rossi
Seen
in car park
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