Had this on a Vauxhall once, cracking along in lane 3 making good pace when every light on the dashboard came on and all power from the engine ceased. Getting across 3 lanes of traffic without power is not fun. In my case it was a faulty plate in the battery, which stopped all power!
Were your riding trousers washable ?
Steve
I was on my way to football training, so had my full training gear on under the Kevlar jeans. So the training kit bore the brunt of any adrenaline escaping !
Down side, it was 24C… and I had to push the bike to safety a couple of times at busy junctions… which wasn’t pleasant when being all layered up.
Just me or is anyone else bemused by this?
Triumph announce plans to take on the MX and Enduro World Championships.
Seems strange for a company who have never fielded a factory team to suddenly decide to have a go, and then doing it in a disicipline about as far removed from any of their current line up.
I wonder if RC has told them a 1200cc parallel twin isn't going to work yet?
Funnily enough, I've been pondering whether to pop up to On Yer Bike in Aylesbury to swing a leg over the Multistrada, once I've tested the Tiger on Saturday. It's a lovely bike and a better size for me than the GS, but it's not cheap spec'd up in the 950S guise, servicing is expensive and I'm not sure whether it'll be a good fit with the low seat on (which I would definitely need).
Probably well worth a look, though, because it's a bloody lovely bike.
Nice “big adventure” bike on-road (ie how 99.9% of us use them) test in Bike this issue.
Harley vs Multi V4 vs GS vs KTM SAS vs Africa Twin.
They liked the Multistrada best and gave it a 10/10.
Unfortunately if you look at enough tests then you can find the one you really want comes out on top. I kept looking until I found the one that said the GS was best even though the KTM came top mostly. The Multistrada did seem to constantly win the best 'road' adventure bike though. It had the smoothest engine and gearbox. My GS engine feels like a tractor and the gears are a bit tractor like too but I still love it.
After over 30 years my wife is finally and unfortunately giving up long distance touring around Europe (upside is she will now fly to airport , Nice and I pick her up from there!,) so I get to play on my own for a few days) For the last 11 years I have always had Multistrada’s A because they are superb bikes and never let me down,B that engine!!!!!!!!(currently on a 1260) and C the comfort and riding position suited my wife perfectly
So I am going to be taking this opportunity to finally have a change from the adventure style and get something a bit more sporty, thought about it and decided to stay with a twin, 4 cylinders leave me a bit cold now after a big twin all these years, just love the torque but it also limits me, not after GS !!! or a Harley so narrowed my choice down to an R1250RS or a SuperDuke GT, case of follow my head or heart
In the meantime, I am going to be putting my superb 1260 up for sale soon, bought in 2019 it only has 3200 miles due to the lockdown, (would normally have around 10k by now) comes loaded with extras, rad guard, Garmin 595 wired in sat nav mount, touring pack (panniers, heated grips, centre stand, base to accept givi top box rack, professionally fitted Vultura graphics kit fitted (got fed up of just red colour as I’ve had all the versions since they can out in 2010) Ducabike water pump guard, Ducati Alarm system, givi tank lock ring and bag, quick shifter and blipper, NEW roadtec 01SE tyres etc etc etc, this is the manual suspension version as being old school I prefer it to the skyhook, been there had one and didn’t like it . Will post some pictures if anyone is interested, just testing the water!
Last edited by Frankie169; 21st July 2021 at 07:35.
Really enjoying riding this, the colour scheme was the reason I bought this one, never been a massive fan of red which for a Ducati sort of limits you slightly haha…
And maybe next year I’ll be getting one of these as well…
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Last edited by Martylaa; 21st July 2021 at 07:47.
@Tony - this is worth a watch...
Im out riding with a die hard Enfield fan today. He will be on his interceptor aptly named “ Jensen”
I have yet to read a bad review! Everyone raves about them, the single consensus is junk the std pipes ( something like 12 kgs) which contains the cats, and replace with an aftermarket pipe.
Power wise a mahoosive drop from the Duc though.
Oh I don’t ride fast, I bought the Duc for touring and comfort but for a ride out for a few hours I really like the look of the RE, same as you I’ve yet to read a bad review and totally agree about those pipes, that would be the only thing I’d change.
Hopefully a good friend is getting one next month so I can try his out…
I got back, yesterday, from a two week break on the GS; first tour for a week in the Lake District, Yorkshire Moors and Dales (via the Peak District and Cat and Fiddle, Snake Pass etc.) then onto Inverness for a weeklong bimble around the Highlands.
The GS performed flawlessly and wasn't the lump I feared it might be on the likes of Hardknott and Bealach na Ba (the latter made all the more difficult by dense cloud from half-way up)...and the signs have been moved, presumably to make it more difficult for people to cover them in stickers.
As usual I didn't get many decent snaps, but here are a few (not in any particular order).
Last edited by Stanford; 21st July 2021 at 15:21.
The first tour was with Rapid Training and with guys I hadn't met previously - this one involved moving base all but one night where we spent two nights.
The second tour was with Haggis Tours and mostly with guys I had been on tour with before - this one was based in Inverness so luggage could be off-loaded.
2900 miles covered over 14 days including one day up to Wetherby and two days back from Inverness so, apart from the return journey, neither tour involved massive mileages every day (between 130 and 230), but some quite technical (as well as fast) rides.
Last edited by Stanford; 21st July 2021 at 20:17.
Just thought I’d give an update as I asked you guys a while ago on where to go for beginner training. I hope it might help anyone else getting into riding and save them scrolling up through thousands of posts to get back to Tony’s original journey!
Ended going with my original thought of the bmw rookie to rider scheme. Training finally went ahead with the BMW rider school in Royston. I cannot recommend them highly enough, lovely set of guys and gals up there who take you through at a pace your comfortable and give great individual feedback.
The first part of the 7-day course is the cbt which they do on the bmw g310r. Single cylinder bike that’s nice and light for you to get used to riding round a car park and take first steps on the road. The guy with me had been riding a KTM Duke 125 around London for a year or so and found it was a sufficient step up from that to be a worthwhile use of a couple of days.
The next days of the training were on f750gs bikes. Given the recent stretch about adv bikes, thought I’d just mention that they seemed perfectly capable bikes (from my novice point of view), nice and docile at low revs but started to take off when you get up through the revs. Comfy and easy to ride.
First we were back in the car park to do the mod1 practice with lots of cones, the guys had great tips for making it easy and after a day or so we both got the hang of doing all the manoeuvres without dragging the rear brake.
Next out on the roads. Gotta say that getting on the roads was mostly functional rather than fun, the instructors were very thorough and really prepare you for the test as well as being safe on the roads, but you don’t end up doing many fun turns…
So I passed both mod 1 and mod 2, which was great, and now thinking of actually getting a bike, which is proving a harder decision than first anticipated! I’m sure I’ll get there soon though! Can’t wait!
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Well done. I also did rookie to rider with BMW (in the north, rather than south) and found it worked very well.
Now you've passed, and once you get a bike, I highly recommend some further training - Bikesafe, ROSPA, IAM, whatever... anything that improves your safety has to be a good idea.
I did get a bike through the scheme, although I cancelled the PCP immediately and paid for the bike to avoid the interest charges. However, I then traded the bike after about 7 months, so whatever I saved in training and equipment costs I probably lost in depreciation.
I reckon the plan to get a second-hand bike is probably best - unless you are 100% sure of the style/size/brand of bike you want.
I went out for a ride late evening, returning in the dark. Denali lights are mint
Empty roads all the way to Ribblehead and back.
A chance to give the GSA a blast with no dawdlers in the way.
Not easy to capture the big red moon. It looked 10 times the size to me.