Featured What you been doing with your TRIUMPH today??

Today I took my Speed Triple RS out for a little solo spin. He was looking a bit forlorn because I've mainly been riding my new Low Rider ST for the past few weeks at the expense of my Triumph and my other Harley. I must say, it felt great to be back out on Speedy! I also wanted to get out on each of my bikes for at least a short ride this week because Steve and I will be in Mexico all next week to do some scuba diving. Ellie, the Boxer, will get a week with her favorite dog sitter. But the bikes will be on their own.

It was a gorgeous day today. Our infernal (more like inferno) desert temperatures are finally dropping somewhat. The highest I saw today was 80ºF and I was out at the warmest part of the day. Thanks to our low humidity, it usually feels about 10ºF less than the actual temperature.



Off I rode to the master-planned community of Saddlebrooke which is on the back side of the Catalina Mountains about 15 miles from Tucson. My first stop, a quick one, was in Catalina State Park about five miles to the south of Saddlebrooke. This photo was taken in the parking lot just before going into the park through the admission gate.



From there I meandered along a back road into Saddlebrooke. These next three photos were taken at the stop sign at the road that puts you on the big loop that encircles the massive development and golf course.







Looking towards the mountains across one of the golf greens about halfway around the loop



After the loop and on the way out of Saddlebrooke there's a Minit Market (yes, they spell minute Minit) where I often stop for a snack when I ride this route. Here was today's "healthy" pit stop.



Golf "cars" are one of the most common forms of transportation in Saddlebrooke. The vast majority of residents here are retirees and many of them play golf. But even many of the non-golfers elect to drive these vehicles.



Back home with 56 miles on the afternoon and a big, contented smile on my face

 

You can't beat a bag of "Ringo's" for a healthy snack

Some nice views and write up there, thanks.

 

Great ride report @Sandi T . You are so lucky to be able to ride in such lovely conditions and beautiful locations.
I’m sat in my lounge looking out at the pouring rain here in the North West of England and hoping for some respite from the rain. In contrast my last ride was Wednesday this week in rain of biblical conditions. lol

 

I guess your riding season is the opposite of most of us, unless you go on a road trip. Here in Albuquerque we're blessed with around 300 days of sunny weather a year, and not too hot in the summer. The 5,300 ft elevation helps!

 

The Speed is looking great, Sandi. What a fantastic option if you don’t fancy riding one of your Harleys.

 

Sunday ride with my usual group , mostly BMW riders, on the way back one of them who is considering trading his R1250GS for the new 1300 offered to trade bikes .. so I ended up riding a 1250GS on a twisty road I know quite well
How did I find the GS vs my Tiger 900 ?

• The boxer engine felt smoother
• Riding at the usual pace felt absolutely effortless
• The seat is wider more comfortable
• Seat height was about the same , perhaps just a bit higher
• Weight while riding slow: I felt no difference
• Love the clutch, it is light and progressive, makes it easy to feel the gray zone
• Brakes are more powerful
• Engine is also more powerful but sensations were not as different as the numbers suggest
• Quick shifter is ROUGH
• Wind protection is better
• Suspension felt very similar to the tiger
• The GS was on Dynamic Pro setting
• Foot pegs on the GS are higher so my knees are more bent than on the Tiger
• The GS is very responsive to course corrections, ie: avoiding a pothole
• Once turning it feels very stable , but somehow like a remote control , hard to explain

It was a positive experience and reaffirms the Tiger is a great choice for me, having a bigger engine will just tempt me to ride faster and I'm trying not to, specially since the GS that does not transmit any emotion at my usual riding pace, I found it almost boring.

 

Sandi
Such a sharp looking speed triple !
Is it hard to adjust your riding between the harleys and this ?
The weather looked great , 80F is the ideal temp in my book

 

Thanks, Armando! I really like my Speed Triple RS a lot. I find it’s not that difficult to adapt among my three motorcycles. But if I haven’t ridden one or two of them for a while, I do notice it feels a little strange. When I got my most recent Harley, the Low Rider ST, I rode that bike a lot for about three weeks and my other bikes not at all. Then when I rode my other two bikes, independent of brand, they both felt a bit foreign. But it only took 10 or 20 miles until both of them felt completely comfortable to me again. I actually like riding multiple bikes and feel like somehow it makes me a more competent and confident rider.

 

The hard part @Armando Morales about swapping bikes is if you have a modern bike, say Jap or Triumph, plus at least one other older british bike, say again a Triumph.
With the gears and rear brake reversed, issues are easily created.
My mates dad smashed into a slowing down Range Rover pushing the back window in with his helmet/head after swapping from his classic Triumph (T5?) to his Moto Guzzi. Pressing heavily on the gearlever and hanging on for dear life doesn't have the same deceleration effect as the brake pedal
This resulted in a hospital visit with a broken tibia, which, when your in your 70's, isn't a good idea.

 

Well I have done absolutely nothing regarding my Triumph since the ride out over a week ago, it has been stuck in my garage since then and I am unable to get it out to either ride it or clean it, scaffolding is blocking access, so it will have to stop as it is for the foreseeable I guess.

 

Fitted a Triboseat anti slip cover for the pillion part of my Tiger 1050 seat after complaints from the better half

 

Not today but yesterday. I took my tiger to get a winter treatment based on ACF50. Brilliant job done by Barrie from Premier Motorcycle Care. Here are a few pictures on the process and the final result. I think the bike looked better than the day I rode it from the dealers.

 

Wow! VERY nice

 

Like the "white out" pics Steve, it looks very ghostly, a bit like those films you see of old sailing ships appearing out of the fog crewed by ghost pirates jim lad, ah ahh.

 

Helmut and I went on a nice ride to the Baffle Haus https://www.baffleculture.com/bafflehaus and back today - Street Triple and Multistrada. The weather was a bit on the showery side but not too bad; it was just lovely to be out enjoying the bikes after the weather of the past week or so .

 

Added lights to the panniers (running, brake, flashing turn indicator); added a light bar to the top of the license plate (running, brake, progressive amber turn, deceleration sensor, license plate light); added some reflective tape and stickers to the boxes and the wheel rims. Future project will be putting lights behind the reflectors in the top box. This week it goes in for the 600-mile service and will also get the fog lights, heated grips, and quickshifter installed, that weren't available at bike pick up time!


Running lights, light bar currently set at 20%, may up it to 40%


Left turn


Brakes, before adding the light bar


Reflective tape, no flash


Reflective tape with flash, doesn't do it justice - once the sun goes down and car headlights shine on the bike from the side, it looks like Tron wheels and lines!

 

That certainly lights up the rear of the bike. Do you run with the top box and panniers on all the time and do you have plugs so you can take them on and off? Cheers

 

Still in the break-in period and have only really been commuting or running errands, so yes the boxes have stayed on so far. If I'm not carrying my work bag or planning on picking up supplies then the top box will likely come off first. I keep waterproof gear in one side and my tool bag in the other, so they'll likely stay on most of the time. The connectors are 1/4 turn weatherproof bulkheads though, so I can quickly disconnect and remove them.

 

Following my putting the Thruxton in its vacsac over the weekend, I today SORN’d it. Whilst I was looking for the v5 I noticed the MOT has run out on the 17th of October. I have not ridden it for the past few weeks, so lucky me lol.
Won’t bother to MOT it until next year when it comes out of hibernation for the riding season.

 

Wow, @Wessa! What a process. Your bike looks fantastic, like it spent a day at the spa. Which I guess it sort of did. How expensive was it? Whatever they charged, I'd sway from the photos that it's worth it!