Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Also check the location or the battery terminals.

Yes my Harley has an odd terminal set up that requires specific batteries.
The spare one was for the c90, I didn’t have it near me when I ordered and went from their registration based list thinking how wrong could it be and it’s only twenty quid.

Nearly 90 miles by the time you add the road bit to/from the start and end points. What a looooong day!

Some of the toughest rutted lanes I’ve done. Some of them I haven’t done before and most I haven’t done for 2 years.

Phew. I was so slow!

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What’s the tracking app, Rever? Do you know if it’s any good for plotting road routes? I’ve often thought it would be good for Komoot to just add in moto as an activity type. Google maps just doesn’t work out when you’re trying to force it to go the fun way

See Halfords/gsf/eco have the same issue.
Just thought I'd mention that the terminals location is important too as I've made that mistake before.

You motorbike at audax pace ;)

Who are we all using for insurance? I’ve gotta set up a new policy for another scooter I have while it costs more to cancel my existing one or move over the new bike onto it than let it run.

Complete joke

Finally, some dirt. There were some deeeeep watery bits today….one of which I attempted injudiciously fast. Good laugh, I’ve never come back so filthy.

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Lots of breaks and painfully slow ruts for 6 hours. It was not fast. Ha!

Edit: Most of the time I was looking at the speedo it was around 20-25mph. Problem was the ruts and lanes that required crawling. Coupled with all the stops the software didn’t log.

Software was OS MAPS because I paid the year for the proper maps to find other lanes. Not impressed. Software is dogshit.

Software is dogshit

I found route planning on the phone impossibly frustrating, but kind of bearable on the desktop version. Ultimately though, it always felt like hard work trying to understand where you can ride legally with it being quite limited in Bedfordshire.

Yes. Totally agree. On the desktop you can just about struggle but it is even less interactive than the council-run websites of definitive maps. So you’re still cross referencing the OS with the council, with the risk of a TRO on arrival.

I feel like I did myself a disservice not just paying the higher fee for GLASS or TRF membership. Their apps are better-rated. Hell, even Outdoor Active is a better app.

OS is just the typical weak “boardroom of middle managers made a thing”.

It's a lovely morning for a ride... let me just check OS maps, the local council definitive maps, the TRF green road map then plot the route so I know where to go. Then get shouted at by ramblers and dog walkers. Ahh freedom :D

Don’t forget to also tailback via a different route to make sure nobody follows you home to know where you park the bike.

Yeah, still lucky with that here. We had a 50 minute drive, unloaded the van by the side of the road and went riding for two hours over the mountains. Close to hero dirt with the rains mid-week, so grippy. Tired today.

This is what’s been making me smash my head over riding off road. It’s just so complicated and finding where to ride has been a bit off putting.

The very definite advantage of a pickup truck is that you can stop at a car wash on the way home and jet wash the shit out of the bikes. There’s an incredible fine dusty silt that is a total prick to remove any other way….harumph.

After the ride yesterday, hitting every deep puddle on the return, I washed the bike for ages with the hose at home.

I turned my back for a moment and when I looked around it was filthy. No idea how it is so difficult to be clean.

Valves and oil on Wednesday so gotta clean it down.

Thats a really unfortunate amount of damage for a little drop and catch something on the way down kind of a deal. I think we've all had an injury (maybe not that bad!) thats caught us off guard and been a right PITA from something really mundane like stepping on lego and rolling an ankle fully.
Hope it doesn't get him down, 3 months is a lengthy recovery.
Did an ankle twice racing MTB's as a teenager, second time I very much broke it, pins metal work and then metal work back out. Honestly after 18 months it really has never bothered me again. The other ankle and knee though, I guess I walk weird or asymmetric as the other side is a bag of spanners compared to the bolted back together one!

He's probably got a bunch of stuff to do, but get him onto learning a new language or something that'll soak up 3 months of time being on the recovery into a positive new thing*

*or endlessly shop for bike parts and spanner away in the front room :D

Yea first thing I suggested was a new language.

He seems like a very intense type, going all-in. Within a week of getting the DR he did all the things most wait months to do. So I think he will be going all-in on the recovery.

I feel about 85 years old today. Wobbly leg, is properly wobbly. Back and shoulders not a lot better.
I've felt better after actually falling off. 250 MX bikes are hard work.

Thoughts and prayers

Creakier than a motel mattress.

A somewhat princely sum later and the DR is back home. Had it serviced, oil, filter, valves checked (in’s were slightly baggy), new rear pads…

… because after that 6-7 hours last week I got down to the metal! Ha!

In other news guess who went Mr Moneybags, and bought the megabucks tyre changer?

Got hit by customs but I was expecting that.

Zero instructions in the box, but the original paperwork was also missing from the address/customs window so possible that HMRC did a naughty and lobbed the assembly sheet.

I tested it with a spare front 21” wheel and it took a bit of jiggery pokery but I didn’t break much of a sweat. Mostly just awkward learning how the machine does its thing.

Got the dry, old, stiff tyre off the rim completely, and then put it back on again. The inner tube remained intact. I left the tyre bone dry without any tyre soap and it was stress-free. I call that a win.

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Which one is it and how is it different to the abba tyre changer?