What Have You Being Doing With Your Non-triumph Today?

Brilliant photos, @Mrs Visor! I'm glad the photographer got some good ones of you and your Blade. That first one is definitely in need of being framed and hung in a prominent spot!

 

So I enjoyed a lovely trip to North Devon with Mrs RevPaul last week.

We "discovered" it through a one week holiday in an Airbnb in Appledore in October 2020 between lockdowns and have been returning regularly since. We're hoping to retire to the Barnstaple / Bideford / Braunton area in the next couple of years and have started house hunting.

We like the idea of Braunton because of its proximity to Saunton Sands which are beautiful. The beeches, dunes and marshes were used to rehearse the D-day landings by the allies and the evidence is still l there to be seen.

So Thursday last week we wanted to see how easy it was to ride from Barnstaple to Saunton, and the closest to riding a proper bike that Mrs RevPaul will ever get is an e-bike, so we hired a couple for the day.



Mine (foreground) was lovely, not only was it possible to adjust how much battery assistance you can, it also had automatic gears that worked out how hard you're pedalling and chose the appropriate gear! Saddle + no suspension was a pain.

Got from Barnstaple train station to Saunton in an hour of gentle riding and then walked out to Crow point (our favourite bit) to munch our sarnies and enjoy the views.


Checked up on this slowly rotting beached boat, it had a roof last time we saw it.



The engine had been revealed this time, but I suspect it's beyond even the skills of @darkman or @Iron to restore.

All told a lovely ride/walk out.

I will add few more photos later but I've just been called to tea.

So now several days later ( I need a better work life balance). I thought I'd add a couple more photos from the next trip a couple of days later to the middle of the beach (but this was done by car and a long walk over the dunes).



Walking in from the Sandy Lane car park, (£2.50 for the day including a free cup of tea! But I drink coffee.) you get to a huge sandy almost U shaped valley. It was like walking on the top of a dune version of Striding edge. The people in the valley were using their body boards to "toboggan" the slopes. There were another three sets of dunes to clear to get to the beach.

But its worth the walk because the beach is so long and deep that any visitors are well spread out.

After munching our sarnies while watching the waves in the distance, we walked half a mile or so by the sea, South West towards Westward Ho! (The only town in the UK with an exclamation mark as part of its name) and then back into the dunes and tried to find our way back to the car park. Dunes are very disorientating without a map (so we bought one when we got back to the car park), but some basic navigation tactics eventually got us back to the sandy gully.


And on the way back to the car park we found these; who knew daffodils could cope with sandy salty soil?


So glad we had that break.

 

That looks beautiful!

 

I guess the cylinder head is still on the engine as the head bolts are still in place, not sure its worth the effort of digging it out though Lol.

 

It really is and so much history to explore as well.

 

Indeed! The rockers seem intact as well (and probably rusted to the pushrods) but it would be an awful lot of digging.

 

Cleaned the w650,and a bit of maintenance on both toys!

 

Commute for me on the Blade today; at the moment I feel like any dry chink in the weather needs to be exploited .

 

A fortuitous trip past Squires early yesterday as Dad's Taxi allowed me to spot a CCM test ride day.
Ummm need to call in on the way back and find out the score.
Duly visited on my return, I was pleasantly surprised to find they had some empty slots
A quick nip home, pic of licence check to show any points for their insurance and just like Mr Ben I'm now back as a motorcyclist

Out on a Maverick first.
Then out on a Heritage Street Classic
Liked the 2nd one better but that's £12k for a 600 single.
The Heritage Classic is the one with gold rims.

 

I like the minimalist approach of these bikes but £12k is taking the p*ss. The number plate mount on the Classic looks daft. I'd be looking to alter that if someone bought me one.

 

If you bought one on that day they gave you a "free" map upgrade to take it from 55bhp to 62 or something like........ err hang on, it's new and it's premium priced already!!!

Apparently the map upgrade normally costs an additional £499

The so called £1000 off this weekend consisted of £499 map plus £500 "worth" of accessories

 

Thank you for the great report. I had lots of fun while reading it. The pictures are great too!

 

Wonderful, @RevPaul!

 

Thanks @Sandi T (and @Markus), I wasn't sure whether a cycle ride would count (hence using the Non-Triumph thread) but our experience / love of that corner of North Devon needed to be shared.

There's so much to see, explore and experience and it doesn't really matter too much about the weather (if you have the right gear). God willing we'll be retired to that area in a couple of years' time.

 

I popped up there a year or two ago for a factory tour and a discussion about a potential acquisition. It didn't quite work for me as an only bike in the end, but I have to say that I was very impressed with the Bobber.

 

Great,night at The Fish,Ringwood, Dorset

 

So did you test ride a CCM?
If so, what did you make of the handling?

 

lol, it took me a while to spot the difference (other than the missing Ducati).

Nice belly pan

 

I'd already tested the flat tracker and had a quick spin on the bobber. It would have been as an only bike though, and they're just a bit too brutal for the bimbling/cruising I tend to do. Otherwise, though, they handle superbly.

 

I found the handling good but alien to my current experiences. It actually felt over stabilised and I felt after the test ride that I hadn't used the steering at all; quite bizarre.

I checked the wheel sizes on my return and noted the rather large diameters, 19".

I did wonder if it would be more to my liking with an 18" or even a 17" front.

Anyone old enough will remember the days of 16" fronts which were truly awful, FZ 750, Gpz 900.
The above test ride seemed the opposite end of the spectrum.