Anniversary Edition

Spotted out and about in Ireland recently

Street Twin

I put my Triumph into the shop recently for its first major service and they kindly loaned me another bike for the duration, an almost brand-new Triumph Bonneville Street Twin 900, one of Triumph's ever-popular parallel twins.

I must say that it was quite a bit different to what I've been riding lately. 

First reaction is that it's a small bike. Unfaired, no luggage, very light and with its short wheel-base relatively easy to move around, at least compared to some of the lumps I've had over the last couple of years. 

Sitting on it, the pegs are set well back, so you lean forward onto your wrists like a race bike and while the riding position felt a bit cramped at first I soon got used to it. 

The gearbox produced a very Triumph-like 'clunk' into first and away we went. Acceleration, brakes, handling, all excellent, and the slightly non-standard pipes give a lovely burble as you trundle along.

As with most naked bikes it would benefit from some sort of screen at higher speeds, and you'd need to fork out for some sort of luggage were you to plan going anywhere on it, but that's not really what this bike is all about. 

It's a shame that it rained most of the time that I had it as I didn’t really get a chance to put it through its paces, riding it with my sensible hat on to avoid any unpleasantness on an unfamiliar machine and greasy road surfaces.

The only downside worth mentioning was that I found the switchgear a bit fiddly and difficult to use with gloves on. Using the indicators was a bit hit or miss as the buttons were quite small. You would maybe get used to it on longer acquaintance. 

Could I be persuaded to trade it for my current ride? Probably not, which is no slight on the bike itself. It's an excellent piece of kit, but just not the sort of machine I'm looking for at the moment. 

I took the Street Twin back and picked up my own bike after a service which cost a little under what I paid for my first three bikes combined! Nonetheless, everything feels just a little better, a little sharper than before, so I guess that it was money well spent.

Touring In Bygone Days

I am particularly taken by the very last sentence

Winter Is Coming

Soviet IZH Planeta 4

Surrounded

A couple of weeks ago I went for a ride with a few mates, about two hundred of them.

On a long stretch of dual-carriageway we found that we'd picked up an additional rider. A young lad on his 50cc moped found himself gradually surrounded by the column of bikes as he was overtaken from both sides until he was right in the heart of the pack.

There he was minding his own business and now he was part of a big loud organised demo run. His face was a picture. He kept looking all around him as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. He had no idea what was happening or what to do but keep on going.

Not the actual moped rider

He stuck with us for about a mile before peeling off down a side road at speed, looking over his shoulder all the while.

At the very least he will have a story to tell his mates.

Ugly Duckling

Triumph TS8-1 (1981)

(Via: bikepost)

Long Necked

Out for a run at the weekend and this radical Swedish-style chopper turned up. Powered by a S&S motor it's the front forks that really catch your attention. I imagine it is great on long straights, but it struggled a bit in city traffic.

(Spotted at AUOB Edinburgh)

Space Saver

I think that I'd rather have the extra fuel, to be honest.

Scooting Around

Not really a scooter person, but you have to admire this early model Lambretta with it's PAV trailer.

(Spotted at AUOB Edinburgh)

False Promises

In an earlier post I mentioned that the dealer that I had bought the Triumph cruiser from had made quite a song and dance about all their second-hand bikes coming with a “full dealer service”.

However, this seems to mostly have consisted of glancing at the bike sideways and then stamping the service log as done. Very little actual work appears to have taken place.

I mention this because the front brake had been feeling rather stiff lately so I planned to take it apart over the weekend, give it a good clean, and fit some new pads to see if that made things better.

On taking things apart, it was obvious that not one bolt had been as much as loosened, most didn’t look to have been touched since the bike left the factory.

Yup, this definitely looks like a brake caliper which went through a rigorous dealer service less than three months and about 1k dry miles ago, doesn’t it?

First things first, clean everything and remove the pistons and carefully scrape away all the surface deposits to see if they could be salvaged or would need replacing.

They turned out to be not as bad as I had feared, and they actually polished up quite nicely once all the crud was removed. So, no need to replace them for the time being.

The rest of the caliper bits were de-greased and cleaned up before being reassembled with new pads and some clean brake fluid, after which they felt much, much better.

And the moral would appear to be, no matter what promises are made to you, always check things for yourself.