Belinda has a comfortable life down here with extensive cleaning, modern lighting and a trickle charge.
biking
Back on my GS
It is so good to return the heavy unexciting beast that is the 1200RT to the dealer in Welwyn and jump back on my own GS after its service. The GS is more comfortable, a higher ride, nice wide bars for countersteering, a zippier motor (well, it seems like it) with a much nicer note, so much easier to handle. However, bizarre road closures – both down to Lind Motorrad and back to Cambridge – led to a strange route. See below:
For more detail:
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Riding the BMW R1200 RT
Motorcycling blog reviews are popular among the people that like that kind of thing. The only time I get near a bike that isn’t my own is the rare occasions I am lent a bike by the dealership that services my bike in Welwyn Garden City. One of those occasions was today, a beautiful sunny Saturday, a rare nice day in an erratic UK Spring. And the bike I got to ride up the sunny A10 back to Cambridge was an RT – as ridden by UK police.
It’s impressive at first sight with its cool circular headlights almost dazzling you so you don’t notice its bulbous front. This model had keyless ignition and a kind of lock-on hand break which according to Kevin some people set by mistake then are surprised to not be going anywhere when they try to head off from the lights.
So off I go. There is a large sweeping cross between a small ring road and roundabout that you exit from Lind Motorrad onto. And you often have to pick your gap between the cars heading onto it at speed from your right. The funny thing is that you drive on to the roundabout feeling uncertain on an unfamiliar bike but by the time you leave it you are confident.
So what did I make of this classic old man’s (all high vis and flip-fronts as they say) touring bike? What I liked: not quite so tall to throw a leg over, smoother gear changing, the back break actually slows the bike down, quite comfortable riding position and comfortable at (very) high speeds. What was not so good: less wind protection from its wide but actually short screen than the GS, a less comfortable seat (I thought this was meant to be a supreme tourer), heavy steering that seems to pull you round a corner in a disconcerting way, heavy to push around, not exactly zippy. So this bike rides exactly how you think it’s going to: a bit heavy and, I have to say it, a little bit boring (I’m not wishing I were riding it through this bank holiday weekend). Thankfully I would not swap my GS for this bike. The GS and especially the huge and high Adventure model has impressive road presence especially with some bright LED auxiliary lights. Nice look.



First sunny ride of the year to Bury St Edmunds and Clare and Cavendish
Weather in the UK went from horrible late winter to heatwave literally overnight last week, so my ride today, out from Cambridge was the first in good weather since last October. I have ridden through rain and wind to keep this bike going and even enjoyed it though the bike has got dirtier on each ride. Today I rode out to Bury St Edmunds via Mildenhall and back via Cavendish, which must be one of the most beautiful villages in the country. There were lots of bikers out, a couple of them behind me from Mildenhall most of the way to Bury, a little intimidating but I noticed they kept scrupulously to each village speed limit, suggesting it was someone out doing some training.
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Back on the roads (of East Anglia)
The worst of the winter past and a battery throbbing with volts back into the bike, it has been dry enough to get out on the roads.
Last weekend or so I found some roads close to Cambridge that I am sure I have never visited before:
And today I rediscovered the nice route down to Saffron Walden and back via Little Walden and Linton – only 38 miles, it felt like a longer trip:
Poor old bike has not been properly cleaned for nearly a year and is showing signs of wear – the dreaded bubbling paint on the cylinder heads and rusty fastenings. Today I attacked a couple of selected regions for some muc off treatment. With a service coming up soon I am wondering whether Lind Motorrad still provide the complementary cleaning that they did when they were SBW.
Finally, this plug in seems to have been updated and should show the last GPX file:
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Inactivity bites
Since sometime in late November I have struggled to keep my bike running, travelling up to Cambridge on the train from Liverpool Street every couple of weeks to take the bike out, have some fun, charge the battery up a bit in the process and maybe end the ride with some rudimentary cleaning courtesy of my battery-powered pressure (low pressure) washer. What was great fun in July and August – getting out into the East Anglia country without having to spend an hour or more in London traffic – turns into a chore in wet and cold December to February. Also, as we all know, batteries don’t hold their charge so well in cold weather. My tracker can tell me the volts of my battery from 60 miles away. Sometimes I am surprised. 12.2 volts can start up the bike. Sometimes it doesn’t and my amazing Antigravity pocket-sized charger has saved the day and been impressive in starting the engine. But when my device was warning me that the battery had only 11.3 volts I wasn’t too optimistic. Nevertheless as ever, I struggled into the biking gear, heaved out the bike to start up and attached the clever Antigravity but… nothing. So now my dirty R1200gs sits in my garage without a heart and my battery is here in the kitchen, charged up and being checked every day to see whether it still has legs – which it seems to. Not quite time to replace it. (Its a shame Odyssey don’t make a battery the right size for the 2014 GS otherwise I would have forked out on one already.)
My garage is getting closer to being ready for a motorcycle relocation.