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

Mr Visor and I went for another nice trip today - about 80 miles through Herefordshire and Powys, me on the 125 again (obviously!) and Helmut riding my Street Triple. Lovely weather, lots and lots of cornering for me to get in practice and great views.....stopped for coffee at a bike stop we go to a lot, we couldn't have anything to eat as there was a wedding in the camping field that they were serving food to, then went somewhere else where there was going to be a wait for a table and a further delay on food....so finally on into Hereford for a very, very late lunch. Homemade bean chilli nachos with jalapeños for me, triple (!!!) burger and chips for Helmut. Another great day's riding, all in all .

 

Yes, don't worry, I make sure that he doesn't push too hard trying to match my fantastic riding skills and superior speed .

 

I did a 50 mile solo ride on my Low Rider S on Saturday. I've come to really enjoy and appreciate my solo rides. Of course they aren't truly "solo" since I'm always with one of my trusty motorcycle friends. Today I chose to head west over Gates Pass, into and through Tucson Mountain Park and then Saguaro National Park-West. This park entrance sign is located in a small pullout on the front side of the Gates Pass climb.


As I started up the climb I found myself behind two cars. And in front of the cars was an old pickup truck moving v-e-r-y slowly. The driver noted people behind him and considerately pulled off to let us pass by. I gave him a little honk and a wave as I rode by, smiling at the sight of the old truck.

Moments after I pulled off by the Tucson Mountain Park sign, the driver of the pickup pulled into the pullout, too. He's the one who kindly offered to the a photo of me with my bike.


When the driver stepped out of his truck, we began to chat and I complimented him on his truck and asked him if he'd tell me a bit about it. It's a 1931 Ford Model A. He's the third owner and has had it about six years. And it has all of 40 horsepower. He also told me that he has one other vehicle in addition to this truck. But he loves to drive this truck and does so nearly daily.






There have been literally thousands off butterflies around here this season as I've mentioned in other posts. Since the rains have lessened, their numbers have started to drop somewhat. But not around this guy's truck! He commented that they seem to like oil and gas. If you look closely you can see a few butterflies in the photo of the pickup's hood but I couldn't get any closeups as they'd fly away if I got close enough to get a good shot. I did happen to catch one on his shirt, though.


After my conversation with the Ford truck owner I continued my ride over Gates Pass and down the other side towards Saguaro National Park--West. The desert is still quite green thanks to our very wet monsoon season.




After riding through Saguaro West as we call it for short, I swung into Tucson Harley-Davidson which is also on the west side of town. I thought I'd check to see if they got any new bikes in since I was last there. Nope.


And my last stop on the day for for gas. My tank was running low and I like to fill my tank at the end of a ride if possible so I'm all gassed up the next time I pull my bike out of the garage. Gas prices seem to be holding pretty steadily at the prices on this pump.

 

That's what I've heard, Ade. I don't fret over the prices too much when I fill my motorcycles as the Harleys get 45 mpg or so and the Speed Triple over 50mpg. But...I'm not even gonna say what the gas mileage is on my Mustang. If it wasn't such a gas to drive (pun intended) or if I had a long commute each day, I'd probably think pretty hard about trading it for something else that wasn't quite the gas-guzzler. It's amazing how many people have RV's or camper vans these days based on their gas consumption. What ARE your prices these days, @littleade??

 

This is what my German Toy did on a long run back from Scotland Sandi. I’ve only just got it after years of wishing and dreaming. On the Scottish trip I paid £1.55 / litre for top quality unleaded (E5 we now call it, ie only 5% of chip fat added ..) That is the most expensive fuel I have ever bought…

 

Wow, Oldskool! That's amazingly expensive. If I'm calculating correctly, that's over $8 per U.S. gallon! Is that right??!! The current exchange rate would put £1.55 at $2.12 U.S. I looked up the liter to gallon conversion and learned it's .264. Yikes. If gas cost that much in Arizona I would definitely need to look into trading my Mustang.

So....how's that German toy?! Have you posted any photos of it on the forum?

 

To be fair Sandi, that was the exception. It works out to £6.97 a gallon. Thankfully it was only a top up, around half a tank. On the NC 500 sometimes the gaps between fuel stations can be quite long. We usually pay around £6.25 a gallon now…… It looks like we will
Be going that way with the Natural gas we use to heat our homes too. There seems to be something of a shortage and price spike in all fuels over here ..!

This is the German toy . 350BHP flat four turbo…
When my dad passed due to Covid I inherited some £ . So I thought what should I do with it. He would not have wanted me just to pop it in a bank account, he would have wanted me to enjoy it. So I applied your logic in shopping …..and treated myself.You are a long time dead…
I was amazed at the mpg I got . But that was motorway driving between 60-85 mph.

 

Took the mountain bike on a good gravel ride. Fall weather is heading my way with overnight temps due to hit the low 40s (F) this week. This is one of my favorite views any season.

 

87 miles for me today on the little Herald and @Helmut Visor on my Street Triple - some lovely roads out to Abergavenny where we stopped for a coffee and to admire all the bikes at the cafe in the bus station and then on to Bronllys for a late lunch before heading home. The weather today has been amazing after a drizzly start and the trip out cheered me up no end after a rough day at work yesterday!!

 

Been out on the rocket a lot recently, so a ride on the GS was overdue

 

Looks like a beautiful place to ride.

 

It is, the sun was hiding today but it was still warm ,lots of bikes out today as there's probably not that many good days left this year

 

I've been doing solo rides the past few Saturdays and thoroughly enjoying my time alone with my bike. But yesterday I did a ride with one of Mr. Sandi's and my best riding buddies, RT. I took my Low Rider S and RT was on his Street Glide Special. Mr. Sandi chose to stay home with Ellie, the Boxer, and watch college football. I enjoy football but.....football over riding on a beautiful sunny day?! That's just c-r-a-z-y.

RT had just gotten a new pair of Michelin Commander III tires mounted that he'd been waiting literally months for and wanted to get them a bit scrubbed in before heading out this Thursday on a trip that three (perhaps four) of us are doing up to Las Vegas. More on that later....

The weather was lovely and we turned the ride into a bit of a shopping excursion. I wanted to go to the Western National Parks Store to get a couple of goodies for my best girlfriend's birthday and RT had never been there before. I picked up a book on hiking routes in Tucson and a pair of earrings for my friend and RT found a cute little tee-shirt for his grandson. We got in a few more miles after the shopping stop for a total of about 50. Only a couple of photos this time 'round..just enough to show that the ride really happened.

 

Another 100 miles for @Helmut Visor and I yesterday, we went the very scenic way round through Herefordshire and Shropshire and called in to see friends. Me the L Plate warrior on the Herald 125 and Helmut riding my Street Triple with me daydreaming of when it would be me riding it!!! Another good day of experience put in; 17 days until the start of my DAS lessons and 22 until my Mod 1 test. It's just a good job that the person who leant me the Herald didn't put any sort of mileage cap on it as it's getting ridden at every opportunity .