bob's Blog

Last Tuesday I booked the day off work so I could attend my very first demo! The demo was part of the campaign by London bikers to protest about the local council starting to charge motorcycles for parking. I have been to London before but only by train or bus so I was slightly worried about riding through it! The meeting point for the demo was the Ace cafe (on the outskirts of the city). But first I had a long ride along the motorway to reach London (very boring!). The motorway ends or starts (whichever way you look at it) at Heathrow airport but I took the junction before it. I then had to join the North circular road (the old ring road around London) and that's when I hit the slow moving traffic. It didn't help that the London tube trains were on strike, forcing commuters to use cars or buses. I couldn't filter through the traffic as I had panniers on the bike but I saw many smaller motorbikes and scooters filtering through the traffic. Some of their moves had my hair standing up!
Anyway, I made it to the Ace cafe ok (although just before the Ace, a parked car suddenly pulled out in front of me). There were hundreds of bikes there and after more joined, we formed a convoy and slowly made our way into the heart of London. As we rode, riders were sounding their horns and handing out leaflets explaining what the demo was about to Londoners. More bikes joined us and by the time we stopped to hear the speech, the place was packed with riders and their bikes. Then we all rode around the streets of London very slowly. The police were very good and their was no trouble at all. Londoners and tourists clapped and cheered as we rode through the streets!
After the demo finished, I found myself alone in the city centre and started to think how the heck am I going to find a way out of this city! Some advice from a taxi driver and a fellow biker got me on the right road which took me down the Mall and past Buckingham palace and then along side of the river Thames. No time to go sight seeing as my full attention was taken up by the crazy car and taxi drivers, not to mention the risk taking scooter riders!
Thankfully I rejoined the motorway and pulled into the first service station for a well earned break. Never have I ridden through such traffic and seen so many crazy drivers on the road!!
The trip back along the motorway was again boring but I kept the speed up to 80 mph and the bike eat the miles. Reaching home I silently thanked the bike for getting me home. The Sprint really is a nice sports touring bike. My only complaint is that I need to add bar risers to raise the handle bars to take the pressure off my wrists.

Last night we watched the Cardiff Devils ice hockey team beat the Manchester phoenix 3-1. We used to be big ice hockey fans but then life got busy with bringing up the children and we stopped going. But after last nights game, we promised ourselves we will get back into it again

Took a ride to my eldest daughters place to drop off a pack of photo paper. When I was leaving, she came out and took a photo of me using her mobile phone. Must say I was surprised at the quality of the photo! Anyway, thought I would share the photo with you all

Well what a day it turned out to be! We were up by 5:00 and on the road by 5:45 so we could reach the bike shop with time to spare. The only thing we needed was to top up the car with fuel before leaving Cardiff. So we pull up by the local Tesco supermarket garage and the only pumps in use are the pay by card type. So half asleep I inserted the credit card and started filling up. Now keep in mind our Peugeot 307 has a 1.6 diesel engine.

As we leave Wales and cross the border into England, I can feel the car slightly juddering and mention to the wife we must get the car serviced soon to correct this problem. We are an hour away from the bike shop and the car is running but still juddering now and then. All is quiet in the car and I start thinking about this juddering problem. I then think about when I topped the fuel tank up that morning and a horrible picture flashed up in my mind of me reaching for the unleaded petrol pump! I break the news to the wife saying I think I put unleaded petrol in the car. We then talk about if I really did put petrol in the tank, the car would of cut out within a few miles of leaving the petrol station so the outcome is we carry on driving. A few more miles down the motorway we decide to stop at a service station and grab a cooked breakfast and a cup of tea. Yes, you guessed it! The car would not start but no problem, we have breakdown cover so we give them a call. The young lady who answered typed in our details into her computer then informed us our contact had ran out last August Now we are totally f***ed. Miles from home with a car that won't start plus a bike I'm suppose to pick up later that morning. The young lady suggests for a large fee a local breakdown company could be called out to deal with the problem. We agree to pay this fee and the breakdown company swiftly arrives (there place is right behind the service station we stopped at). Much sucking of teeth and slow head shaking by the guy who looked at the car. He tells us his boss can drain the tank and clean the fuel pump but it's going to cost us They got us by the short and curlies so we agree to have the job done. Meanwhile I get on the phone to the bike shop and explain our problem and the guy said he would wait until we turn up. After an hour or so the job was done but then we had to fill the tank again for the journey back.... but this time with diesel!

We were using our Garmin sat nav to navigate with and thankfully it took us right outside the bike shop which was situated in a small town. First look at the bike I was impressed. I then carefully looked it over and underneath the bike for any oil leaks. Everything looked fine but the last owner did a botch job resraying one of the fairings which is easily fixed by having it done correctly. I bartered the price (paying cash) and got the price down but to be honest with you he could of insisted on the original price as another customer wanted to buy it so I'm glad we made it to the shop

The journey back: After checking the controls on the bike, we headed to the nearest garage to fill the tank up. Now the Garmin Sat Nav had taken us to the shop via motorways and I expected the return journey to be the same route.....WRONG! I told the wife I would follow her so all she had to do was hit the 'home' button and follow the route (which she did). This time the Garmin decided we needed a scenic route and after leaving the garage, took us on A type roads through England and then entered Wales from the North. From there it took us down the middle of Wales on A and B roads (B roads are small country roads). The weather was dry but bitterly cold with the wind making it feel even colder. I was wearing my thermals under my leathers and after a few hours I had to stop to warm up and have a hot cup of tea. The wife, warm and snug in the car forgot I was freezing my arse off on the bike and it wasn't until she spotted my frantic arm waving that she pulled over. When we did stop, we also had something hot to eat which made me feel 100% better and we continued the ride home without me feeling too cold (four and a half hour journey time with the last half in darkness).

So how did I find the bike after that long journey?? The bike handles superbly and with it's 955cc triple engine, there was bags of power if I needed it. The bike was great on the twisty narrow B roads although I took it carefully as in a few places farmers had left mud on the roads when they came out of fields. There's lots I want to do with the bike, number one is adding heated grips and then adding a rack on the back and then panniers but I think I will give it a service first before I do anything else.

Tempted to take it out tomorrow but the weather will again be bitterly cold so instead I will spend a few hours checking things on it.

Sent an email last night asking about the bike and got an answer back. The bike is still on sale. I asked if there was any damage to the bike and the reply was it looks like the fairings have been repainted and there's a few scratches. I studied the photos carefully again and the fairings look ok. Maybe the last owner dropped the bike? The bike is ready to be ridden away which means it's road legal but I will still need to carefully check over the bike to make sure it hasn't been in a smash. With 7,300 miles on the clock, it looks like it's been used as a 'Sunday bike' (only used on the weekends). Just wish I lived closer to the shop so I could give it a look over sooner

Here's another photo of the bike. By the way, the oil stains on the floor is not from the bike (or so I was told!)

Brian and CHC posted comments on my last blog (thank you both!). I tease CHC about HD's but secretly I do like them (but don't tell her that! ). Brian mentioned Buell or a Norton and BSA but my budget won't go that far (expensive bikes even second or third hand). I did enquire about a Honda Deauville that needed lots of TLC but the seller never came back to me even though I left messages on his phones Makes me mad to think in Europe it's cheaper to buy a bike there than in the UK........ even Triumph's!! I think UK bikers get ripped off