First Ride with UKGSers

I had a great day out yesterday with a crowd of GS owners. Captain GSA picked a nice route with quiet roads (at least, as quiet as they can be in the overcrowded corner of our isle) which provided plenty of fun including water, gravel and a couple of alpine hairpins. Some 26 of us found our way to Littlehampton where we stoked up on fish and chips - very good they were too.

Back home I had slightly exceeded the 600 miles target for the first service so it''s just as well it went in today for the service!

These are not my photos, they were taken by Sidpic on the GS forum

Starting out

In Littlehampton

Where we were obliged to show off or Twat suits..

Having a Ball!

On the new bike. I am riding around all the twistiest hilliest lanes I can find and it's behaving impeccably. My 600 miles service is booked for the 31st March which means that I have to be a bit careful not to put many more miles on it. I am planning a longish rideout with other GSers on the 30th and need to keep some miles in hand for that.

I have now rigged up leads for my Gerbings heated jacket liner and for a TomTom satnav. I connected the heated jacket direct to the battery via an inline fused lead but for the TomTom I plumbed it in via a Canbus connector to the spare Canbus socket under the centre trim panel. I now need to think about how I connect up my iPod. At present I am using custom earplug/speakers for the TomTom connected to a little Bluetooth thingy. But I need to multiplex the iPod somehow. I am not at all sure I can do this with the current Bluetooth gadget and I am not sure if the TomTom will recognise others. It's the TomTom Rider 1 and it doesn't for instance, recognise the Jaba bluetooth thing I use for my mobile.

Unlike the Goldwing, I have no built in electronics for this sort of thing, so I might just install an autocom and possibly, use my Garmin 2820 from the Goldwing, instead of the TomTom

It's Raining And It's My Fault!

Because I cleaned my bike.

I put more miles on the F800 today in order to meet the "deadline" which I imposed on myself by booking my first 600 mile service due in a couple of weeks. Until these initial services are out of the way, I always feel very constrained on a new bike. 600 miles is too short a distance to go for a decent tour - besides which the "running-in" limitations on revs etc. means that sustained high speed cruising to some distant destination is no-no, but it''s quite a long way for just cruising the local lanes. I compromised today by a lengthy exploration of lots of country lanes with nice twisties and hills followed by a reasonably quick return home along main roads. The net result is some 300 miles on the clock and a very dirty bike that needed a very good wash.

The sun was shining and it was very warm when I started but by the time I had finished cleaning the bike, it was raining and cold. I used sDoc 100 to clean it - first time I have tried it but it seems to get a good press so I hope it does what it''s supposed to and protects the bike with a corrosion inhibitor as well as helping to clean it.

My verdict on the bike so far is that it is simply brilliant. I had been reading various pundits on different forums say that it was too focussed on off-roading to be a good road bike, mainly owing to the 21 inch front wheel. What a load of cobblers! This bike turns as fast as I shall need it to. The wide bars, the light weight etc make it very flickable and the super engine certainly make it a capable tourer too. I am very eager to use the full rev range - currently restricted to 5,000 rpm - it will make it an exciting bike to ride quite fast and to cruise comfortably at a decent mile eating speed.

The seat is quite a lot higher than the Goldwing and even familiar roads revealed new secrets to me today as I was able to see over lots of hedges that previously obscured interesting stuff - often it was fabulous houses in the middle of nowhere with enough land to build a couple of golf course and motocross circuits. Sometimes just pretty countryside.

New Arrival

Picked it up from South London Motorcycles this morning! The bike feels really stable and planted in the corners, new tyres notwithstanding. Only a few miles on the clock so far but I have booked the first 600 mile service for two weeks hence, so I hope the weather will cooperate!

I am really looking forward to taking this baby off-road. I rode through all the potholes I could find on the way home (and our roads these days have plenty!) and the bike and suspension felt really great. I have to get used to the crazy BMW indicator system which needs three switches where the rest of the bike world makes do with one and I need to curb the urge to see what it can do with its 85 HP - at least until I have a few more miles on the clock. At the speeds I travelled home, the on-board computer was indicating instantaneous mpg of anything between 65 and 90. I'll be well pleased if I get that sort of mileage in normal use!