Looking good outside so I am going to do a few miles on the old girl, pop down to Triumph dealer blag a hot chocolate,then one minute silence on top of Portsdown hill, then home to thaw out.
Failed to start this morning Maybe I took to long moving the car around so I could get my bike in the garage last night, it took about 10 mins with the lights on and engine off so maybe that drained the battery a bit too much. Luckily i had a 'spare' old battery that worked. 12.6v ignition off and 11.8v when the lights are on. There just wasn't enough juice to crank the engine over a second time which is where it fires up. I will put the Mottobatt on charge this evening and see how it fares by morning. I took the opportunity to fit my new mirrors, off came the £5 carbon ones from Squaredeals as I just wasn't getting on with them, plus they added 5" to the width of the handlebars. On went the matt black type that angle above the grips. They are slightly larger than the circular ones but give better clearance when filtering. These also came from SD but not from their clearance range As I was running 30 min late due to changing the battery and swappign the mirrors the roads were a lot clearer, just have to be more aware of the speed limit on the A40 into London where the 'average speed cameras' are where it is 3 lanes at 40mph Fitting my new digital Voltemeter tomorrow
well it was a lovely day so took Doris to newlands corner to meet up with some surrey triumph owners club members for a coffee and bacon buttie told the wife I'd be gone an hour and a half, returned 4 hours later, oops!! great 100 mile spin round the countryside with a stop at whiteways cafe. Bloody freezing by the time I got home tho'
Today I did about 300klms, went for a spin down dewars pool road ( windey road through Forrest ) to Bindoon and then GinGin, stopped for breakfast at the CU cafe then on to the "Gravity Centre" , It's a Government run observatory for Scientists. They have some really interesting displays that demonstrate the effects of Gravity, was a great two hours looking through the centre. Was even better day to be outside on the bike, started out at 9:00 ish was only about 8°c got to 22°c by midday, bike loved the cool air, ran really strongly, new battery really made the electronics etc run smoothly and bike was like new ! Felt like it had just come out of the dealers with a top service, really was running so Sweet, ran her at full throttle up through some of the hill's and still averaged 20klm to the litre (56 mpg) two up ! Got home about 1:30 - 2:00 pm great day out not too hot like it can be even this early in the spring. Was 40°c last weekend and they forecast 37°c this coming Tuesday. Great to have fine cool enjoyable riding conditions, beats your pouring rain eh Pompey Mark.
Washed it, taken pics <3 Planning to ride out to the Raven Cafe at Prees tomorrow. Its the last day of business for the cafe in its current form, as the greedy bastich landowner reckons he can cut her out and make more money alone.
If you have any other days like this, keep it to yourself it's awful here at the moment and I'm at the w place all weekend Andy
Andy Andy Andy, life really is a bitch over here in OZland, We have so many great weather Day's here, it's so hard too choose which day to ride on ! We have the opposite problems to you in Europe, it gets way way TOO HOT ! Summer days can reach nearly 50°c ! So we voluntarily get wet to stay cooler ( evaporative cooling ) faster you go the cooler you feel, but you might look the goose in the servo's when you stop for fuel and food ! But you're still out riding. Eh .
I've ridden in almost 50c (no not in Scotland!) and it is like riding into a massive hair dryer on full blast! i would stop and saturate my shirt and 1 minute later it would be bone dry and you would be roasting again,i got a tip from a guy i met he soaked his shirt then put his jacket on that way the shirt stayed wet and you therefore keep cooler,a lot of guys had the gel waistcoats the ones you put in water and the gel balls inside soak it all up and keep you cool...ish!
Yeah. Hi Doug, there's nothing like the feeling of roasting like a bag of peanuts in a fan forced oven ! More and more guy's on their bikes here are getting those evaporating work safety vests to wear when riding, they work best under a vented jacket as they don't dry out quite so quickly, the wife and I carry a litre spray/mister bottle to re-apply water on the move... Works great. keeps the mind and body in the happy zone ( not too hot ) we don't do it too often but when you have too during a long tour/holiday. You have try something to make it more bearable ! Just found a bolt missing from the bike's frame ! 10mm fine thred Allen head screw, and guess what you can't find @ the hardware store ! Any 10mm fine in any shape or form, so stuck for now! Monday will have to go to the local Engineering supplies store.... Bummer.
