While this machine is still strange to me, comparisons with the Bandit 600 are very clear. This bike feels SOLID and in some ways its what I expected from a big bike and what the Bandit doesn’t deliver. I never really got used to the Bandit’s high revving motor. One touch on its throttle for example and the engine whines at high speed and first gear is just for getting going and many times I tried to move up into an imaginary 7th gear. Riding on the Sprint and you are aware that there are pistons going up and down and creating a great deal of power and forward motion. The throttle isn’t on some hair trigger. The clutch and gear change are both much heavier and this can lead to a tired hand in traffic. Out on the motorway, there is just so much willing power to spare. Cruising at 80 is entirely comfortable and 90 feels no different at all. Getting up to 100 which I think I did just feels like driving – on the Bandit it felt like a real event and not very comfortable. Riding all day? Hmm. My shoulder was hurting after 45 minutes but eased off. There seem to be more riding positions than available on the Bandit: you can ride with bent or straight arms and that helps. Other nice things: it has a fuel gauge and an auxiliary power socket. What I don’t like: as one review said, the mirrors give you a great view of your shoulders, and I noticed that the the fork oil is leaking when I arrived home. What next? A service, new fork oil seal, a luggage rack and a tank bag, a Scottoiler and maybe get the headlights rewired so that they both come on. 
biking
My (fingers crossed) Triumph Sprint ST
Due to some rather expert ebay bidding I yesterday won a nice low mileage blue Triumph Sprint ST which I am planning to raid my savings for and pick up on Friday. I am already dreaming of that ride home up the A1M. Here are the ebay pics which really don’t do it justice. Just sitting on it and hearing it start up as I did the other evening made me realise how much more solid it is than my Bandit 600.
Palliative care comes to motorcycling
As an ex-nurse this advert jumped out at me for what looks like one of those eerie hissing air-filled ripple mattresses that we used to nurse very ill or boney patients on. Now it looks like being moribund is no longer a barrier to enjoying motorcycling:
Charley Boorman’s next ‘long way’
Motorcycle News tells me that the more appealing half of the dreaded duo is planing another trip – from Ireland to Sydney, this time using some motorbikes (starting on a rebuilt 1957 Triumph) but also other means of transport. His mate is ‘off making films’ and he is going with just two other people – instead of the ‘crowd of luvvies’ that one recent quip in MCN mentioned follwed them around on their previous trips.
The link to an interview with CB is to be found here. Or this embedded bit of code might play the interview here:
The end of the world dream
I am in Hong Kong (not anything like it in reality) and I am in a hotel (like the Adelphi Hotel that I stayed in in Liverpool recently) then walking across the flat roofs of buildings and I climb into the window of an attractive young woman that I am about to initiate into some sexual practice. As I look out again I have the impression that the buildling is moving quite quickly sideways. I jump out onto a nearby roof and realise that there is a huge earthquake about to happen and that this is going to be the end of the world. There is something hidden just beyond the end. A huge light falls apparently from the sky and I just avoid it as it smashes down onto the roof. Someone goes by on the road riding a motorcycle with sidecar. I pray and realise that afterall, the end of the world is a religious event and that I still go for refuge to Christianity.
The cause of suffering is attachment
Last week my cranky old bicycle that I found ages ago that now has a broken saddle, wonky bottom bracket and dodgy gear changer and which I left unlocked outside my house was taken away. I was mildly annoyed at the inconvenience. Yesterday evening I came home to discover the cover of my new motorbike had been moved and my neighbour told me that she had disturbed someone fiddling with it. An hour later the whole cover had been removed. Clearly someone was casing it to see how easy it would be to steal and probably whether it was worth it. The result of that for me was intense anxiety and a strong sense of vulnerability and, today, one more lock on it and I moved it even closer to my front door.
The Buddha once asked a king how he would feel if a member of his family experienced distress or disgrace. The king replied that he would suffer intensely. the Buddha then asked him how he would feel if someone in his kingdom that he did not at all know were to experience distress or disgrace. The king replied that it would have little impact on him. The Buddha said that this shows that the cause of suffering is attachment.