Flash as Michael Jackson...

Righto, so my poor old GoPro has been playing up a bit lately and there has been the odd suggestion that perhaps I should look at replacing it.  Well, I persevered with it for a fair while just so I could ignore those suggestions but finally gave in last weekend and ordered a new Hero 3 white - the cheapest GoPro with wi-fi.

I chose this model, not just because it was the cheapest but because it really does everything I need from a video camera.  I simply don't need the 4K video if all I'm doing is some basic videos for YouTube.  The neat thing about it is that I can use my current remote (or phone) to drive it.  Anyway, four days after ordering it the camera arrived from Singapore - impressive.

There are some subtle differences between it and my old one:

Of course, when you get a new toy then you simply must play with it, so today I went for a wee pootle around the Apiti Loop.  A nice little ride on a pretty damn nice autumn day.  The video below has a few snippets from some of the best bits of the Loop:

There doesn't appear to be too much wrong with the video although it seems to pick up some "noise"from the bike at around 5k rpm - I've had that with other devices as well.  As for the sound quality, well I think it's better than the previous GoPro and you can hear the bike pretty nicely.  Oh, and it also takes pictures of course.

So it works - and hopefully it'll last me a fair while...

Just looking

So, the plan this year is to replace the Vee at some stage.  At the moment I don't really know what I want other than another adventure bike.  What I'm not sure about is whether to go mid-size or large.  I've decided that I don't want to tackle the gnarly stuff - just good gravel roads.

On Monday I got to do what is probably the first of a few test rides while I decide what I really want.  Currently Yamaha are running out the old 2013 Super Teneres (no '14 model and the '15's are on their way) and they can be had for a reasonably good price.

And so I found myself in at the local Yamaha dealer swiping the keys to the S10 on their floor.  One good thing about this test was that I had just stepped off the Vee so it was going to be pretty easy to compare the two bikes...

My first surprise is that they're actually not that big in person and when I swung a leg over the bike I found that I was just about flat-footed - nice start.  I also discovered that they hide their considerable (263kg wet) weight very well - the bike was very easy to get off the stand, move around and even put on it's centre stand.

I fired her up while putting on my helmet and pulled out into the rush hour traffic.  Initially I thought the throttle was a bit jerky (not used to it) so I changed the engine mode to "T".  This settled things down a bit but when I got out on the open road I was left wondering if I really was on a 1200.  Stopping and switching to "S" mode soon stopped the wondering...That jerkiness disappeared too once I got my head around the bike a bit more.

To be honest, the bike pulled in a pretty similar fashion to the V-Strom.  Plenty of torque which got things happening pretty quickly but delivered a fair bit more smoothly.  At one stage I tooled along at 80km/h in top gear and the bike didn't mind at all, pulling pretty cleanly (and this a brand new motor) away once the throttle was opened up.  With just over 3,000rpm on the dials at 100km/h there should be plenty of range in the 23l tank too.  At higher rpms there was also some nice noises coming from behind me too.  The gearbox and clutch was sweet as a nut too.

Cruising along on the open road I found myself very comfortable with the wide, flat seat and handlebars that were in exactly the right position - high and wide.  I got a fair amount of wind noise but like an idiot I had left my ear plugs behind and was wearing my noisy adv helmet.  I wish I'd had my plugs so I could have compared the noise to the Vee (which is pretty good wind noise-wise).

Getting back to that weight, the bike felt planted to the road in a similar fashion to the Connie and very stable in what was fairly windy conditions.  The weight sure is carried low and the bike could be flicked around at low speeds very easily.  At higher speeds that planted feeling felt great when I punted it hard through a couple of sweepers.  While it was wearing more road oriented tyres than the Vee, there is no question that the S10 out-handles the Vee.

One thing I had expected more from the bike was the brakes.  Don't get me wrong, they are fine and better than the Vees but I kinda thought that they'd be a bit more special as Yamaha usually puts very good brakes on it's bikes.  That being said, at least they weren't grabby - you don't want that sort of behaviour on the gravel...

A former Yamaha owner in full-on drool mode

Anyway once I'd showed the old man the bike I had to return it and carry on mulling over exactly what it is that I want...decisions, decisions...

One thing I do know is that the S10 is a very nice bike (if someone gave me one, I would not complain) and would be pretty fantastic to tour NZ on.  The thing is, there's a lot of choice out there...

XT660R

On Tuesday night I dropped the Connie in for the fitting of her 13th pair of shoes so I somehow needed to get home...enter a Yamaha XT660R with only 460km on the clock.

It wears a sticker on the side of it which says "Enduro" but it doesn't look much like an enduro bike to me.  Yamaha NZ describe it thus:

The XT660R is a highly evolved member of the XT clan that thrives on journeys of any length. A bike that can waltz through the weekday commute and head out on the adventure trail when the weekend beckons.

Whatever it's supposed to be, it is a nice little bike.  I say little because I got off a 280kg tourer and the little blue bike felt tiny.  I was actually surprised to see that it's wet weight is 181kg - it feels a lot less than that.  A reasonably low (for this style of bike) seat height also made it a doddle to get on and off and stop at lights etc.

Screen looks aftermarket to me, as are the bark busters

 One of the nicest things about the bike is it's great motor.  It is the same 660cc fuel-injected, water-cooled single that lives in the Tenere and after riding Colin's one I new that it'd be pretty good.  The beast fires up straight away and settles down to a muted (yes, very quiet) thump, thump.  Once underway it is surprising how smooth the single is and the motor definitely doesn't mind a few revs.

First gear is possibly a bit tall for off road stuff and the 5 ratios are spaced fairly wide giving effortless cruising at 100km/h (you may even need a downchange on big hills if you want to maintain the legal limit) and the ability to sit on slightly higher speeds should you want to be naughty.  I think that if you lowered the gearing slightly for off-road riding you would still easily be able to pull 100km/h without pushing the bike too hard.

Around town I didn't take it out of third gear and thought that perhaps the fueling was a little snatchy, although the bike is still new so maybe it just needs some more miles under the wheels.  I didn't attempt a wheelie (due to my lack of skill in this department) but the old man went for a wee squirt and he reckoned it was a piece of cake and even popped it up in 2nd...

Brake line is in the way of the speedo most of the time...

Handling-wise, the XT is similar to pretty much every other single-cylinder adv-style bike I've ridden - light and chuckable.  (I had to adjust my riding style after stepping off the Connie).  The brakes were just fine - nothing stunning but they simply work with no nasty faults.

Old hooligan prepping for a taste of Yamaha

On a lot of motorcycle forums the Yamaha XT series seem to get a lot of stick for being an expensive option - especially when something like a DR650 can be had for around $8,500 (I see one NZ dealer pricing the XT at $12,300).  But these yammies are built very well, are far more modern in design and offer more goodies than other options: locking fuel-cap, immobilier, fuel-injection, liquid-cooling, digital speedo etc.  Up to potential buyers to decide whether it's expensive or not...

Pipes are too quiet

So would I have one?  Well, probably not.  While I could be looking for a new Adv bike in the future I think that I still need a bit more poke than a single can offer - I tend to have to ride a fair bit of tar before I hit the gravel and also would like to be able to carry the kitchen sink on tour if need be.  I bet she would be fun on a tight gravel road though...

Pick your Adv weapon...

Sena 20S

All righty then, in yesterday's post I mentioned that I'd got myself a new gadget in the form of a bluetooth intercom so here's my initial review of the new toy - a Sena 20S.

Nice box I s'pose

On opening the box there was all sorts of stuff that I had to work out what to do with and a manual thicker than the Connie's.  After a bit of ooohing and arrring I eventually had to dive in and fit the thing to my HJC.  This next bit is missing the neat pictures of the install I had planned as I have recently discovered that if you don't put the SD card in the camera the pictures don't come out very well...

Anyway, I managed to fit the speakers and microphone in the helmet fairly nicely with all the wires completely hidden in behind the lining of the helmet.    The small microphone is about the only thing you can see inside the helmet.

Next up it was time to fit the charged up intercom onto the helmet clamp and fire it up to see if I could make it work.

Helmet bling!

With not a lot of bluetooth experience I grabbed the manual and dove in.  Within, oh, about 2 seconds I had the intercom hooked up to my phone and was talking to Mark while sitting in the lounge with my helmet on...Connecting to the Zumo took another 2 seconds.  Man, what a tough job!

On the road

Come Sunday morning it was time to hit the road and test the intercom properly.  I left home with music pumping from my phone and into my helmet.  I always wear earplugs to kill the wind noise and I was very pleased with the volume coming through to my noggin.  Stopping for gas I simply turned the volume down with the dial as I hadn't memorised how to mute it...

On the ride up to Waiouru I kept the music pumping but once Neil turned up with his SMH-10 it was time to try out the bike to bike feature.  We had a little bit of trouble connecting but I think that was because Neil's GPS was trying to tell home where to find Taupo.  We eventually got it sorted and I got to hear how hungry Neil was for the next 40 minutes or so...

Starting off on the road I thought that Neil was whispering to me but then I worked out that there was a separate volume level for the intercom function (and later the phone too) so I turned the volume up a bit and it was like normal speech over a telephone.  I also found that instead of pausing or muting the music completely the music volume was just lowered and I could just hear it quietly in the background.

At times we were probably at least 800 metres apart and sometimes one of us had traffic and even a few corners (ie out of line of sight) but still the reception was very good.  It was only later in the day when it was a bit windier that I occasionally had trouble understanding Neil - he was on his naked Speedy so I guess we might be expecting a bit much from a voice activated microphone?  He reckoned that he could hear me just fine so it's probably down to microphone placement and wind protection as to the quality you get from the microphone.

Later on I got a surprise when I got this ringing noise and after fiddling with the intercom I was talking to someone on the phone.  This worked just as well as everything else so far and the person on the other end of the line could not tell that I was on the bike - he reckoned it sounded a bit like I was in a small room.

The next thing I tested was the GPS by telling Captain Zumo to take me home.  Unsurprisingly I soon had voice instructions breaking in over the music to let me know of all the turns I needed to take - too easy.

So, first impressions - a pretty neat bit of kit.  But I still have a lot to learn with regards to driving it.  I managed to use the jog dial to switch the tracks I was listening to but there is so much more you can do - some functions can even be activated by voice.  I may need to read the manual...

One of the other neat things is the Sena app which I have loaded on the phone.  Like some of the other functions I have yet to work out, I still haven't played with the app much.  One cool thing in the app is that it has a quick reference guide for the intercom built-in - this could be handy on the road.

Oh yeah, battery life?  Well, we did just over 600km, so probably about 7 hours riding and some playing around with the unit at lunch time and the intercom was still doing it's thing when I got back into Palmy.  It will be interesting to see how it fairs on a longer ride but I do have the option of plugging in to charge while riding too.

So far all good news...

A little Korean

Today was a lovely stormy day so I thought it was a great idea to take the Connie to replace these:

And today's loaner was not the lovely little MT-09 from yesterday but this little white beastie:

Apparently its a 2013 Sym 250 Wolf - hard to tell with absolutely no identifying markings...

Its quite a pretty little V-twin and managed to get me to and from work in pouring rain and a howling gale (some people are missing roofs tonight).  Glad I didn't have to take the 250 out on the main roads...

As you can see from the above picture it is fitted with an aftermarket pipe and this made it sound pretty sweet for a 250.  The bar-end mirrors don't really do it for me.

Apparently its somewhere around 25hp and it was absolutely fine around town as long as the revs were kept around the 5,000 mark.  Everything else seemed to work ok although I didn't really like the front brake (there was a bit of shuddering) and the clutch could do with some adjusting.

Anyway, like I said before, quite a nice looking, fun little bike which would probably be great for a learner of for commuting on.  The Connie did feel slightly bigger when I got back on her...

Tiger vs V-Strom

Okay, so after I tamed the Tiger I've been nagged into putting down some thoughts on the Tiger versus the V-Strom.  But beforehand I need to let you in on a little secret - pretty much no matter what the bike is, when I get a ride on it I like it - I just love riding all sorts of bikes...

So, all bike reviews usually have flash tables and charts to compare specs because as everyone knows, numbers are what really are the most important thing - not what the beasts are like to ride.  Here's my whizz-bang table:

The highlighted stats perhaps indicate where the particular bike might have an advantage over the other but we still haven't fired them up yet...

One thing that both bikes had in common was the tyres.  Both bikes are wearing Mitas E-07's and both Neil and I really like these - in the conditions we were riding in they were...wait for the cliche...confidence inspiring.  The only difference is that the Tiger wears a 21 inch on the front to the V-Strom's 19.  Also, Neil's tyres were at the end of their life (a very respectable 11,000km) where as my rear only has just under 3,000km and the front about half that.

Walking around the Tiger you can see what Neil spends his pocket money on - he has added quite a few nice little farkles to make the bike his.  The most noticeable being the crash protection and the Arrows can but there are little things like a "foot" on the side-stand, the fog lights, bigger/wider pegs and the list goes on.  There are also a couple of invisible farkles in the form of upgraded springs both front and rear.

The bash plate looks the biz and the V-Strom could use one as the plastic cowl on the bottom is really only for looks and there's a nice vulnerable oil-cooler hanging down below the front exhaust header which I'm sure would not appreciate being clobbered by a rock.  The Tiger also probably has slightly more ground clearance (and plenty more suspension travel) although even on the 42nd Traverse I don't think I scraped the cowl on the ground.

Righto, so we've walked around the Tiger and checked out all the sparkly farkles, time to get on and see how she fits.  So the seat is slightly higher than the V-Stroms but I think that it is perhaps a little narrower up close to the tank and I didn't really notice the seat height as a problem.  Flicking the side-stand up and lifting the bike to vertical was a piece of cake - to me the Tiger felt even lighter than the stats indicate.

Neil had his tank-bag on and it sat up high and forward enough that it didn't get in my way.  This also added to the feeling of sitting "in" the bike rather than on - fairly similar to how it feels on the V-Strom.

Neil has also adjusted his handle-bars and controls a fair way forward.  He has done this so that the bike feels better when riding standing on the pegs - the larger foot-pegs also help here.  The position of the controls didn't really affect anything when riding sitting down either although I had to have a couple of goes at finding the indicator switch.  The handle-bar position also feels a lot more "aggressive" and I felt that it made me feel more like grabbing the bike by the scruff of the neck and cutting loose - bummer eh?

Finally it was time to fire up the beast and get rolling.  After finding the key (partially hidden by the tank bag) I thumbed the starter and the little triple snarled into life before settling into a smooth purr.  By comparison the V-Strom sort of explodes into life before settling into a typical V-Twin rumble.  The triple obviously spins up quicker than the twin and both engines definitely have distinctive personalities.

Leaving Hunterville and getting out onto the open road I definitely noticed the lower gearing on the Tiger.  Neil has dropped one tooth on the front sprocket and while I have also recently done the same on the V-Strom the smaller Tiger engine is spinning nearly 1,500rpm higher than the Vee at 100km/h.  With the Tiger engine being so smooth this isn't really an issue but possibly hurts the fuel economy on long sections of sealed road.  Later I was to find that the lower gearing meant that when off the seal there was always a gear for every condition.

Turning off the main road and onto Murimotu Road we started to encounter a few more corners so I had the chance to start to get to learn the Tiger's handling characteristics.  To me the bike felt very light and chuckable - just like a big dirt bike.  I had thought that the 21 inch front might slow the steering down a little (I've noticed this on other bikes) but I had no issues there.

The roads were a little damp in places so we didn't push too hard but I had absolutely no complaints about the suspension and brakes - everything just worked and I felt quite at home on the unfamiliar mount.  I was also getting used to the engine and found that 4-6,000rpm kept things humming along pretty nicely.  The clutch and gearbox action were just a couple of other things that I didn't have to think about.

Turning off onto Watershed Road we eventually left the tarmac and got onto some great gravel that was in really nice condition.  Things did not slow down a heck of a lot and the Tiger felt really good - it didn't take me long to get used to how it handled in the gravel and I really got into it.

The smooth power delivery was really nice as you came out of the corner.  You can just roll on the throttle and the power comes in nice and smoothly and it's easy to tell when you get near that point where the rear wheel wants to break traction and if you really want to, you can then back it off a bit - or not.  With the combination of the willing motor and lowered gearing the gearbox gets a fair workout which I actually quite enjoyed - I was riding the bike the whole time.

By comparison if you are a bit ham-fisted on the V-Strom it does not take much at all to get the rear end to break free - the torque from the twin can be a fair bit more violent if you are not careful.  Neil had this happen a few times (and think it probably put a grin on his dial) but soon came to grips with the beast and was napping at my heels.  The Vee also doesn't require as many gear changes - it will lug at low revs (generally I try to avoid 1st gear on gravel) and between closer corners it is fun to just hold a gear and then back off and enjoy the engine braking (and music) as you slow up for the next turn.

I ended up doing probably close to 100km on the Tiger in gravel and enjoyed every second - except perhaps some mushy stuff where the front end tried to go out from under me a couple of times, the worn front tyre was probably my enemy here.  One of the highlights was in the afternoon when we were on fast gravel and having a real ball - both bikes got their legs stretched and we even copped some air over a hump in the road at one stage!

In the end I had to give the Tiger back and clamber aboard the Vee for the ride home.  It actually took me a wee while to get used to the Vee again whereas I'd felt at home pretty quickly when I had got on the Tiger.  So I guess that sums it up a bit really - the Tiger was an easy bike to come to grips with and one heck of a lot of fun on the gravel.  It's now added to the list of bikes I've ridden and wanted to take home with me...

New Vee video review

Liking what they're saying about comfort and ridability.  Max torque at lower rpm is great and will make the bike a good relaxed tourer.  Really want to see what they're like on gravel...

Engine sounds very similar to old one...

The new Vee

One of the first write-ups I've come across on the new Vee: http://canadamotoguide.com/2013/12/02/suzuki-1000-v-strom-launch/

Update on the peepers

So Saturday's C1KC was my first longer ride wearing my contacts.  They were in for nearly 11 hours of riding and probably over 15 hours for the day.

I was kinda worried about my eyes drying out (and forgot to take eye drops with me) but found that as long as I kept remembering to blink often enough I really didn't have an issue.  Funny how remembering to blink can be a bit of an issue when concentrating on certain sections of the ride...

One of the things that the optometrist mentioned when I first started talking contacts with him was an increased sensitivity to light.  I have definitely found this to hold true, especially when driving or riding.  Stopping to change to my tinted visor in Pemberton was well worth it stopped the squinting.  The tinted visor stayed on for the rest of the day.

Funnily enough Meanie was cursing his glasses when we got to Upper Hutt and I had to have a little smile to myself.  I was especially glad to not be wearing glasses when we rode over the Rimutakas as there was a bit of fog as we started the descent as well as the odd spit of rain - the exact conditions that have caused me problems (particularly at slow speed on the DL) in the past.  It was good not to have to worry about fogging and also knowing that if I did experience fogging I could always pop the visor and not get rain on my glasses...

So, very happy with how things went - I even got them in pretty smartly at 4am in the morning...

On/Off Update

Righto, so yesterday was my first outing with the new wireless back-pack and remote for the GoPro so I thought I'd do a little update.

So, what do I reckon?  Well, it's pretty damn good.  Using it carefully it's allowed me to make far more use of the battery - I shot nearly 10 gigs of non-HD video on one battery without it going completely flat.  No more leaving the camera on and hitting the record button when you want to film or take a picture.  It does make the procedure a bit more complicated but is well worth it:

1. Turn the wireless back-pack on.  I can see it's on by checking the little LCD screen on it's back.
2. Turn the remote on.  This then links with the back-pack and we're ready to go.
3. Select the shooting mode.  Ok, so this is a bit tricky - you need to know what each little (as in very little) icon on the remote's screen means.
4. Press record.  Away laughing.

To stop recording and turn off the camera:

1. Press the record button again to stop the recording.
2. Hold down the on/off button.  It does the normal GoPro flash, flash, flash and then switches off.
3. Switch the back-pack off.  Now everything is off and none of the batteries are discharging.

Pretty simple and it just works.  Far easier than pressing the buttons on the camera and wondering if it's actually on or recording.

Now to just work out what all those icons on the remote mean so that I can select continuous photo shooting (one of my favourite modes) instead of burst mode - spot the differences...

On/Off

This week I treated myself to probably what is the most expensive on/off switch you can buy - a GoPro wireless back-pack and remote.  Why is it expensive?  Well, because my Hero HD is an old model I miss out on some of the nifty features that the back-pack offers - like live preview on mobile phones etc.

The wireless back-pack

Remote and "key"

But I do get to be able to remotely turn the camera on, select the shooting mode and start and stop recording.  And because the remote has a screen (tiny) I will actually know if the camera is working - perhaps the system is worth it just for this amazing feature!

I had read of people having issues getting their back-packs and remotes to work with their cameras but I followed the instructions and updated the firmware on my camera and both the back-pack and remote and as soon as I snapped the back-pack on I was able to turn the camera on and take some pics by using the remote.

Two new "doors" came with the back-pack

To use the system all you do is turn the back-pack on (with the button on the new door - the other buttons are now redundant).  This puts the back-pack in standby and the only battery being used is the one built-in to the back-pack - the back-pack will suck from the camera's battery once it's battery is flat.  The small LCD on the back-pack shows battery status etc, so you know it's going.  The camera itself is still off.

Then when you need to film you turn on the remote and a few seconds later it connects to the back-pack and turns the camera on.  You can then change the shooting mode if you want or just starts recording/snapping.  I have noticed that there is a bit of a delay between pressing the buttons on the remote and stuff happening on the camera so you probably won't be able to quickly snap off a shot of something in a hurry.

One little annoying thing is that now I have three items that need charging by usb.  The back-pack and camera use a standard mini-usb cable but the remote has a weird setup (so that it remains waterproof).  I guess we'll see how much of a pain this turns out to be...

Anyway, the next item on the agenda was to work out where to put the remote on the bikes (so far only the Connie is sorted).  The remote comes with the attachment key (top pic) and a wrist strap.  The key allows you to hook it onto a keyring or use it for attaching a tether etc.  The wrist strap can also be used for wrapping around "things" like ya wrist or the handlebars etc.

But I had a Projekt D Handy Stick lying around and decided to give that a go.

First up I had to take the bolt out that holds the left-hand side handle-bar on.  Man, what a mission - Kawasaki must own shares in lock-tite!

I just managed to remove this without breaking anything...

Then I simply bolted the Handy Stick on - I used a bit of thread-lock on the bolt but didn't go overboard...

Handy Stick looking handy

To attach the remote I decided just to trial some velcro and see how that goes (I will make up a wee tether as well).

Cockpit getting a bit busier...

Sitting on the bike I was easily able to reach the button and I could just make out the display on the screen.  I'll have to be careful operating it while riding but it will definitely be easier than stopping to play with the camera.  Hopefully I'll get to try everything out next weekend and will be able to report back on how things went.  Then of course I need to work out how to mount it on the DL...

Not me

Righto, so today the Connie was dropped into the shop for some new shoes and of course I then had to beg a ride so I could get back to work.  Unluckily for me they had no trouble finding a bike for me so I did have to go back to work - but that's another story...

This time around I was given another cruiser in the form of a Honda VT750C Shadow.

Looks very nice from this angle

Now right from the start I'll have to admit that the little shadow was probably never going to light my fire (sorry Brenda) but if you take a look at the comparison between the Shadow and what I climbed off then you may notice the odd difference in spec and realise that it had a lot to live up to:

So in terms of performance it's not really a fair contest.  Riding the beastie I was a little surprised that it had to be revved a bit to get going (the clutch needs some adjustment as it only took up in the last few mm of travel) but once rolling she was very relaxed as I trundled through town in 3rd gear with the motor probably only pulling around 2,000rpm - perhaps less.  I didn't take the bike out of town but I'd guess that it would also be happier puttering along quietly in top gear for hours on end and that your license would  remain fairly safe.  Otherwise the motor was pretty much silent, although when you gave it a bit there was some muffled V-twin type noises (and vibes) a happening - different pipes would add a bit more character!

From the front it looks a bit like a...

Comfort-wise the shadow was a typical cruiser with a feet forward riding position and what felt like a very comfy seat.  The ergonomics that come with the riding position were actually quite good - I did not have to go searching to find anything like I did on the M109.  But the riding position kinda had me leaning back a bit (where I'm normally used to a more upright or slightly forward lean) and I think that after a while that might be a bit hard on my back.

From this angle it still looks like a...

The brakes were a little wooden feeling and you needed to give both a decent dab to brake rapidly - certainly no danger of being thrown over the handlebars.  Engine braking was pretty good though.  Handling was definitely in the lazy cruiser league and the ride was pretty soft overall.  Moderately spirited riding would probably have the bike leaving bits of shiny stuff on the road.

While I may be being a bit hard on the bike I would say that it is probably the ideal "beginners cruiser" as it does most things pretty well and is unlikely to get anyone into too much trouble.  It's a Honda too so it's bound to keep humming along happily for ever in a day without costing the owner too much in R&M.

Anyway, while the Shadow is not my cup of tea, I still enjoyed my little ride (I love getting to ride a variety of bikes) and wonder what I'll end up on next time...

That new toy...

On my Wings over Wairarapa blog the other day I mentioned that the ride over to Masterton was memorable in that I got to try out Brian's latest toy.  So I thought I'd better share it with everyone - I'm sure Geoff and Troubador will approve...

2003 Speed Triple 955

After selling his VTR a while ago Brian has obviously been missing it (I still miss mine too) and decided that he needed another "fun-bike" to hoon around on and to keep his Connie for the more serious touring.  He spotted this beastie at the local bike shop and somehow or other it ended up following him home.

It's a second hand bike so it has a few little nicks and a ding in the can (Brian's already onto that and a new can is in the works).  It also has those terrible bar-end mirrors which are also probably going to go (they really are only good for getting a warrant of fitness - not for seeing anything behind you).  A rad guard (and oil-cooler guard) are on there way too.

Parked next to a truly classy machine

Anyway, I got to ride it!  So naturally hopping off the Connie and onto the Striple felt a little funny - it's just a tad smaller/lighter than the Connie...

But, straight away I was comfortable on the bike - as with a lot of naked bikes the riding position and wider handle bars always tend to be a lot more comfortable than say...a gixxer thou.  If she was mine I'd definitely ditch the mirrors and adjust the gear lever (it's just a little high) and then it'd fit nicely.

The clutch needed a decent pull but once released the bike pulled away nicely - reasonable torque and a very smooth mill.  The engine's smoothness also lends to it feeling happy to rev and pretty smartly I had gone up through the box and was managing to keep up with Brian on my Connie.  I'd have to say that the engine was kinda like a smoother Bandit 1200 (got a bit of time on a couple of those eh) but with perhaps not quite the torque.  This makes it a very easy engine to live with.  Even with it's current pipe I thought that the bike sounded lovely as you went up through the gears - soon it will speak with a bit more authority.

Barty McFarty checking out the bug-eyed monster

The brakes were very nice although I kinda grabbed a handful first time up - I think the riding position had me thinking I was on the DL with it's unimpressive front brakes.

Climbing off the Connie I also had to get my head around the Trumpy's handling.  The chassis feels really nice and tight with what feels like a front-wards (is that a word?) weight bias.  I rode the bike through to Mangamire so got to pilot it through plenty of nice tight corners and had absolutely no complaints with the handling - although I was in no way pushing things.  I'm sure it could be hustled along under the right conditions...

At the end of the road we swapped back bikes and I let Brian know that I approve of his new toy.  I'm pretty sure he's going to enjoy his time on it.