YeeHaa!

Well, I got the service done and without getting wet - which considering the forecast was a minor triumph. Now I am all set to do some serious riding except that the next few days are taken up with various obligations that will prevent me from getting on the bike at all. I got the dealer to fit an Optimate charging lead during the service, this should ensure that even when I am not able to ride the bike for a few days, I will be able to keep the battery in good condition.

Another maintenance thing I want to do is to apply the tankslapper vinyl I ordered and have now received, to the areas of the paintwork likely to get scratched. One such area is the engine cover just above the brake pedal where the leg zip of my Roadcrafter suit seems to rub.

Six Hundred Mile Service tomorrow!

I did a few miles in some rare sunshine yesterday but limited by the need not to go much over the recommended 600 miles before the first service - I don't wish to vitiate the warranty by ignoring the service recommendations!

So - it's off to Doble's bright and early tomorrow morning where I shall then spend an hour and half waiting for the bike to get done. As I live some distance from the dealer's it is better to wait and collect the bike there and then rather than making my way back home, only to jump in a cab back to Doble's. They do have courtesy bikes but there isn't one available tomorrow.

After that, I look forward to a few days of decent weather so that I can head off for the Yorkshire moors and dales to really stretch the Wing''s legs..

Starship Enterprise has landed!

At 9:00 am I decided I could make it comfortably to the dealers before the insurance on the ST1100 ran out at 10:00 am when the insurance on the Wing was due to kick-in. I reckoned without two things - it started to pour with rain when I was half a mile down the road and the traffic was exceptionally thick. Neither of these things would normally bother me much but today especially, I did not want to wreck the Pan which might have spoilt my entire day and more aggravating still, I had cleaned my visor with some special gunk just before leaving the house and it now seemed to have a greater affinity for water than a fish. I literally could see nothing unless I opened the visor completely - thus getting soaked and half blinded by the rain. As a result I got to Doble's in time but with little to spare. The process of buying a bike takes a lot longer these days than I recall on any of my previous splurges. The dealer is required by law and/or their insurers etc. to read over a long list of checkpoints with you, some bordering on the absurd but all designed to save you from yourself and I suppose more importantly from the dealer's viewpoint - to save him from an expensive court case if you press the wrong buttons on your new bike. Finally, after an hour or so with the rain still coming down but rather less like the onset of the monsoon, I was able to jump on the Wing and head for the hills.

At least that was my plan - to go to the South Downs for a tool around to get used to the bike. However, inevitably I suppose, the heavens opened and I bottled out and came home. Here she is - thankfully you can't see all the rain splatters! I shall instead have to content myself with the 5lb collection of manuals that come with the bike - I want to find that "Good Weather" option button on the control panel.

This is the Big Day!

Up with the lark - or at least whatever the little perishers are outside the window that have woken me at 4am. Far too early to nip over to Coulsdon to pick up my Wing and plenty enough early to leave me no excuse not to get down to the gym where I am endeavouring to shed a few pounds. The bike may be able to carry them but I am not so sure about my legs. One other good thing this morning - Scribefire now works for me - I just failed to notice its discrete little icon in the status bar at the bottom of the screen!

Powered by ScribeFire.

Wordpress Glitches

I chose Wordpress for this blog having seen how flexible it appeared and also the wealth of themes and plugins around the net. Setting it up has mostly been a trouble-free experience, including making a few posts and adding a variety of plugins to do stuff like displaying photos. However, a couple of glitches have occurred, like the sudden disappearance of the Visual Editor (at least in FF. It was OK in IE on Parallels - I use a Mac). Google had a boatload of hits referring to the same problem which no-one seems to have cracked conclusively yet although some folk have had success with a variety of different approaches, none of which worked for me.

I have worked around it by installing yet another plugin - another rich text editor that replaces the tiny_mce editor used in Wordpress 2.1.3. I found it here

Suspension

Not content with worrying about GPS before I have even taken delivery of the bike, I am now thinking about the suspension, especially after watching this video by Traxxion that basically condemns the stock suspension out of hand. I wonder if there is anyone in the UK qualified to install the Traxxion system should I decide the bike needs it?

GPS and Helmets

I really value GPS in my cars and on my bikes. On the ST1100 I am trading in for the Wing, I have a Tomtom Rider (Version1) and I listen to the voice prompts via custom ear plugs with built in speakers. These are pretty comfortable and fit far better inside a helmet than any speaker system I have tried, although my BMW flip-up actually has a ton of room for speakers compared with any other helmet I have tried, including the Schuberth - which was supposed to be pretty much the same as the BMW helmet, which Schuberth make.

What is bugging me are the very unflattering reports on the built-in SatNav on the 2007 Wing and it looks as if a Garmin Zumo 550 might be a good thing to get. I shall hold off until I have tried the built-in unit but I am not hopeful after getting used to the facilities offered by the Tomtom. I should be able to use my existing headset for the Tomtom with a Zumo, though I am not certain.

Rocky Mountain Holidays

An email offering me a 25% discount on last minute bookings reminded me of two great holidays I have enjoyed in North America (Canada and USA) with Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Holidays. They use Triumphs principally, although they are getting a BMW R1200RT and the Moto Guzzi Breva 1100 for this season. Nothing is too much trouble for this outfit - like cleaning bikes every day and helmets at every stop! My bikes were the Tigers in these pix. Now I am acquiring the Wing, I am starting to think about long tours in Europe, I just hope I can find a company that does it as well as these boys.

Bike Clothing

I have been musing about possible changes to my biking apparel. I normally use an Aerostich Roadcrafter two piece suit which I have found very practical both for touring and commuting. However, rather more in keeping with the style of the bike and the summer days I hope to see again before too long, I am now thinking about a separate jacket and pants - either Draggin Jeans or Hood jeans as they seem to offer a fair degree of protection and would not require me to stow the pants of my Roadcrafter suit when I am off the bike. I have roadtested the Aerostich suits a couple of times in 15 years of using them and both times the suits survived the impact and slide and more importantly, so did I - with minimal damage and I am pretty sure the Roadcrafter is a lot stronger than a pair of jeans even though it''s based on Cordura rather than Kevlar as the basic construction and stitching is far heavier but I ride more sedately these days. :lol:
I am a bit reluctant to get these mail order if there is any chance of trying a pair on, so I will go looking for supplier, not necessarily local as it will make a good outing on the bike when I get it.

Add-Ons

Even before I have taken delivery of the bike, I have ordered a couple of things I am pretty sure I will know I want for it. The first of these is some protection for the new paintwork in the form of clear plastic patches to be applied to areas that get scuffed, such as the sides of the tank and corners of the trunk. I am getting these from The Tankslapper - although why they chose such a name I don''t know, I only ever had one and it was a really horrible experience.

I have also ordered a set of DVDs on maintaining the bike from Fred Harmon. I am not much f a home maintainer these days if the truth be told and I don''t want to sepnd a lot of time on it but eading various forum posts it seems likely that I shall want to understand a but of what goes on under the skin, even if only to add a bit of farkle here and there.

What I ordered and Why

I have had many motorcycles over the years, just two were the same - Kawsaki ZZR 1100s and I still have one of these. The motorcycle I have ridden most in the last few years though has been a Honda Pan European ST1100. I was getting a bit fed up with some aspects of it, mainly the wind buffeting on long motorway sections and a lack of power for overtaking. I looked at a number of alternatives for a powerful touring bike including BMWs, Yamahas and others and one I thought I had settled on was the new Pan - the ST1300. A longish test ride convinced me that it had excellent weather protection, much better power delivery than the Pan and it went round corners better too. What eventually put me off was a lot of negative publicity around the deaths of a couple of police riders and the comments made by some professional testers following the accidents, that the bike was inherently prone to high speed uncontrollable wobble. Even though this seems to have been the case for the police spec bikes only, I was concerned and certainly wasn''t going to get it past SWMBO.

I am not quite clear how the Wing invaded my consciousness, suffice to say it did and before long I was dreaming about touring Scotland on one. Nothing for it but to go to my dealer to try one. Contrary to my initial expectations, a long test ride showed that it went round corners pretty well and was extremely comfortable. The luggage looks as though it will hold the mass of photographic gear I like to take along on expeditions pretty well - although the Pan is pretty good for this too.

So I ordered this gorgeous red model - 2007 with airbag and satnav from Dobles in Coulsdon and I am due to pick it up next Thursday 17th May. I can't wait!

Just Installed Wordpress

Another Goldwing owner uses Wordpress for his Goldwing Blog and it looks very smart so I thought I would give it a try. Installation could hardly be simpler, I wonder how usage will be and what it takes to develop a nice theme of my own? Basically, I like simple elegant themes - I hate flashing stuff and cluttered pages which are seen an awful lot on motorcycle pages for some reason.

Am I mad?

I have gone bonkers and just ordered the biggest and most expensive motorcycle in regular production. Whether this will turn out to be a happy decision or a stupid mistake, I shall just have to wait and find out - I shall try to tell it like it is in this blog. I should also say that blogging is totally new to me and if my miserable attempts to keep a diary at various points in my life are anything to go by, this blog may not be around for long.