Hi, After 12 years of no motorbike I've taken the plunge and bought a bonneville t100. Should be picking it up this weekend. What are your top tips for this bike in particular and back on a bike after a break of too long? Cheers,
Welcome to the forum! For the first few rides take it steady and don't get overtired, traffic flows have changed in 12 years and also road surfaces, neither for the better! Keep alert and at least get a new properly fitting helmet. The T100 is a wonderful bike, what model year is yours? Let us see some photos. Ride it for a few months before you add any farkles! Best of luck and happy riding!
I've gone in hard with a brand new T100 in the green dual tone paint. No photos till I pick it up tomorrow (at 08:31 as soon as the dealers is open!) I've been and sorted kit, all my old kit I got rid of about 6 years ago, so brand new HJC v10 in the tami black which looks super cool IMHO: https://www.helmetcity.co.uk/hjc-v10-tami-black/ Went down to a local big bike shop and full fitting advice etc. PAINFULLY aware of the state of the roads as I cycle to work mostly. Even the major dual carriageway stretches of the ring road here are like a farm track in places. MAYBE I should have gone scrambler... ;-)
@THEMike Welcome to the family. Yes as above. Just take it easy. Get to know the bike and what it is capable of. As for riding it comes back straight away couple of rides and it will be like you never stopped. Do hit the upload a file button bottom right and show of the new toy. Of course when you stop playing. There is so much stuff out there and you can really change your bike to what ever you like. I always consider the seat as I like more comfort. Joe
Not to steal anyone's thunder. But. I too recently purchased a 2022 T100 with 400 miles on it. Its sitting in the garage waiting for decent weather. I have not ridden a bike since about 1970. 54 YEARS! Not to worry. I am taking the two day skills course this weekend. Depending on how that goes, I will either move forward and start riding again, or I'll sell the bike and move on with other things. In the meantime, I'm enjoying wrenching on it a bit. I added a center stand and I will be adding a set of motone crash bars, a sump guard, and a rear grab rail.
And so you should be, that's lovely. Welcome to the forum, I've found the inmates to be really encouraging and helpful. Take it easy getting to know the bike and how rusty you are. I'm a great believer that we can always learn and a back to biking course won't go amiss. I did a local one when I returned to riding after a long break it was really helpful. Then when you've got a few miles under your belt something like the police Bikesafe sessions are a great pointer for improving. Enjoy the ride.
Welcome to you as well. I had a 36 year break. It takes a while to get the skills back and you've done the right thing in organising some training. Take it easy give it time and I'm sure you'll love it (weather permitting). Enjoy the wrenching, but if you're thinking of fitting the Motone Craig bars be prepared for some serious agro getting the engine mount nuts and bolts back in place and torqued up to the correct torque. I'm regretting buying mine. Enjoy your new ride.
Love that color. I ended up with the gold line and, while I do like the gold line, I prefer your color scheme. Enjoy.
Welcome to both of you to the forum and to riding your T100s. @THEMike, in addition to the good advice already given, I'd suggest adding a windshield to your gorgeous green bike. It took me a long time to put one on my T100 but am glad I did, even though I'm still working out the best adjustment to it. It's made a huge difference in highway riding, which isn't my favorite but sometimes necessary. Congratulations and I hope you love your bike. @rpg51, taking the class is a super thing to do. The nice thing about the T100 is it can be fun riding as tame as you like and it has plenty of pep (third gear, anyone?) to put a huge grin on your face.
Welcome back!! Your T100 is very smart. No tips other than the usual "ride to your abilities" line. The T100s and T120s are so easy to ride, as you've probably already found out. They are also very forgiving and handle our country's atrocious roads with ease. Happy riding!
Thanks. I am expecting some bad words to come out of my mouth while installing the Motone bars. I don't like the look of most crash bars. The Motone bars are a bit less offensive to me for some reason. We shall see. I considered passing on bars altogether. Thought better of it. I might pull them off after a year or so when I hopefully get over the high risk drop days! I took the two day basic rider course last weekend and passed. So, here we go!
I just got back from my first short ride on a motorbike in about 50 years. Had to get the vehicle inspection done. This is such a smooth sweet bike. What a joy. I just have to get used to the weight under 5mph. At speed it is so smooth and responsive to slight counter steering pressure in the curves. I need to take it slow. It will come. I love this bike.
I installed the Motone crash bars Saturday. I spent about two hours trying to get an open ended shorty wrench on the backing nuts. What a knuckle buster. Blood was shed. I was able to get the nuts off, but getting the nuts on the the bolts torqued with the bars in place was pretty much impossible. Finally, just as I was about to throw in the towel, I pulled out a pair of angled needle nose pliers, and that tool did the trick, they provided easy access and enough grip to torque all the bolts up to 40nm. Wish I thought of that two hours earlier. If you use a pair of angled needle nose pliers the job is about a half hour start to finish.
