Featured What you been doing with your TRIUMPH today??

Your reminiscing about riding back in the day brought back a few memories from the decade before yours when visors were yet to happen and the split lens Mk10 goggles were the order of the day.

Once, when riding in freezing fog, so no goggles, I blinked and the eye lashes on both lids instantly froze together preventing me opening them. I very quickly found that scrunching your eyes up as tight as possible rapidly thawed them allowing you to see where you are going.

The only problem with the goggles was that they didn’t entirely protect your snozzle. Having caught up a bee going in my direction I ended up going cross eyed trying to pull the sting out of the tip of my nose. Not easy with gloves on and still riding.

 

Totally agree. Having experienced the brakes on my son’s Honda CBR 650 R I decided to change the pads on my 20 year old Ducati. I found the Brembo website such a bugger’s muddle that I went for EBC pads for fast road and trackday use and really pleased that I did. What a difference.

 

Even when you retire there is still never enough time. I worked for a further five years so have only been at this retirement lark for 5 years. But still young enough to buy another bike.

 

If you are into aircraft as well as bikes a visit to Sywell near Wellingborough is recommended. The following photos were all taken there. In addition it is home to The Blades, a four plane acrobatic flight piloted by ex Red Arrows guys an gals, the only acrobatic team in the world licenced to carry passengers! They normally practice on Wednesdays and Fridays.

The above image of me with my new machine was taken at Sywell and the blister in the background houses the Warbirds.

 

When did you get the new bike, @Baza! It looks great and you look happy...even with the helmet on!

 

Our Sunday group ride saw a decent turnout this morning with eight of us gathering at "the usual" QuikTrip gas station to pay our $5 / gallon. I rode my Speed Triple RS but was the only Triumph in the bunch on this day. The others included a BMW 1250GS, a Yamaha Tracer, and four Harleys--a Pan American, Street Glide, Heritage, and Road Glide Ultra.

I had considered aiming us up Mt. Lemmon for the first time this season but decided against it because this is Memorial Day weekend and I'm sure that a lot of other people also thought it would be great fun to go up Mt. Lemmon, too. On holiday weekends that mountain road--along with the restaurant at the summit--is filled with automobiles, bicycles, and motorcycles. Someone on today's ride shared the tragic news that there had been a terrible motorcycle crash near Milepost 13 on Saturday and that one, possibly two riders had died in the accident. I don't know any details but every summer, sadly, at least one motorcyclist crashes and dies on Mt. Lemmon and most often the victims are riding sport bikes at well over the speed limit. Catalina Highway, the 25-mile road up Mt. Lemmon is absolutely gorgeous and one of my favorite rides but it's challenging even riding the speed limit which is generally between 30mph and 45mph. One of the big draws of going up "the mountain" as we often call it is that at the summit it can be as much as 30-35ºF cooler than on the desert floor. During the ride up, you pass through five biological life zones. Anyway, I digress as we didn't even ride up Mt. Lemmon today. But we may well ride it next Sunday so consider this a prequel.

What we did do was ride up to Oracle and had breakfast on the Oracle Patio Cafe's patio. Even though the temperature difference isn't as much as that of Tucson vs. Mt. Lemmon's summit, it's always 10 degrees or so cooler in Oracle than "down" in Tucson. Oracle is at about 4,000 ft. while Tucson is around 2,500 ft. After breakfast, half the group turned around and rode home while the other half (including me) rode the Webb Road Loop which adds about another 20 miles. But it's the best 20 miles of the overall ride with a lovely twisty hilly road, part of which has virtually no auto traffic at all.

And......no photos today. I don't know what the heck I was thinking! Or NOT thinking as the case may be. I guess I was too engrossed in scintillating conversation to pull my iPhone out and snap pictures. But I've posted lots of photos from our Oracle breakfasts in the past so some of you can just visualize us lounging on the patio with plates filled with yummy breakfasts. Next time......

 

Late last year. Decided that in the foreseeable future I would find the riding position on my Ducati a tad too aggressive. And, ideally a bike with a lower seat height and less weight, which the Triumph does.

 

Could be just the bloke we're looking for Andy .. if I send the ticket, do yer reckon you may be able to come over and help out with our esteemed Prime Minister ? Thanks in advance.

 

Was very busy those days. My wife's brother diagnosed with ALS 7 years ago had a crazy dream. Tour the "Lac du Bourget" with adapted bikes, and a lot of people around. After 1 year of preparation, we did it last Saturday. 4 adapted bicycles, 7 als patients, and a total of 200 peoples registered.
My nephew works in movies industry, and decided to make a short movie of the adventure. As I'm local, know the roads, and have a bike, I have carried him and a camera on the triumph (added to a full filming team, cars, drones).
So spent my day on the bike, on twisty roads. The Triumph Sprint ST 1050 is not the usual bike for that exercise, but the higher pillion is a real + for a cameraman.
For the ones who need some images to know more about the event, here are some media coverage we had (sorry all in french).
Some foreign participants anyway, UK, Taiwan, Australia.

https://www.savoie-news.fr/reportages/societe/article/evenement-solidaire-le-tour-du-sla-rsquo-c

http://www.lessorsavoyard.fr/41412/...ils-vont-faire-le-tour-du-lac-du-bourget-velo

 

Well done mate !

 

Wow, what an awesome event, @Hubaxe! It must have been so satisfying and special in particular for your brother-in-law to see his (not so) crazy dream come to fruition. Please let us know when (and how) your nephew's movie is available to view. What was your experience like carrying the cameraman? Makes me think of the reporters and video folks on the motorbikes i the Tour de France.

 

Lovely story @Hubaxe, enjoyed reading the brief of the ride. Although a terribly merciless disease, the impact of the ride seemed comical in comparison to what the people go through.
As the machines are electric, the challenge will not be physical effort but “above all to avoid too many jolts when pedalling” , explains Antoine Lemaire.

 

I’ve just been programming my patented “ Tank Nav”
directional system.
Well, to be honest, just I’ve written out the route for our Assen MotoGP trip. Now I’m going to get it laminated and stuck on the tank…

 

Yup I’d agree with that ….and lots of froth in Holland
Gone flashy this year. Colour coordinated with the RS paint job…

 

Excellent. It reminds me of the time when I was on foot in the small town where we live and two much sought after classic bikes stopped to use the bank’s cash machine. A Norton International and a KTT Velocette.

Whilst I was admiring the machines I got into conversation with one of the riders about his navigation aide. Like you he had listed the waypoints of their route on paper but the paper was like a till roll because on the bike’s handlebars there was a twin roller device that held the route list and by twisting the knobs on the side of either roller you could scroll the route list forwards or backwards. Absolutely brilliant.

We had planned to go to Assen in 2020 but the dreaded lurgi scuppered our plans.

 

Added a bit of carbon to the link pipe join,and here's a pic from this year's dgr.

 

Just like roadbooks used on rally's.

 

Yep, except the rolls were exposed to the elements.

 

I love the roulette green!

 

A deserted Pennine Way at the A57 Snake summit this evening but it was quite cool at just under 10 degC!

Looking South to Kinder Scout plateau in the background....

The high ground in the distance is Higher Shelf Stones, Bleaklow, the crash site of the B29 bomber "Over Exposed" on Nov 3rd 1948 with much of the wreckage still there today.