Daves Blog

Just got back from a long weekend in Wales with Roundway Riders and once again it was really enjoyable. We stayed in the same huge house as the last time with its 11 bedrooms and full size snooker table and went on some fantastic rides including the ones there and back. The weather was good too. Sunny on the first and second days, overcast on the third and ending sunny on the fourth. Great company, great roads, great weather… what more could you ask for?

Meike rode her own bike there and back and thoroughly enjoyed it and it gave me the chance to get the K1300S run in which I’m pleased to say it now is.

Here we all are at a ‘rest’ stop on the way to the house. Blue skies!

I rode back marker on the way there which was perfect for allowing me to keep varying my speed etc. while running in the K1300S. That’s Meike’s bike to front left in the pic.

Just setting out from the house on the second day to lead the ride out. First stop, M&P in Swansea and then over the Black Mountains to New Quay (the Welsh one) and finally back home. We rode on some truly fantastic roads. Smooth and well maintained with plenty of bends and fortunately not much other traffic around.

Here’s the full crew at the top of the Black Mountains on the A4069 prior to tackling the descent. From left to right… Ro, Nkosi, KJ, Ade, Frenchie, Rinksy, JD, Nelly, Lou, me, Meike and Sue. Thanks for a great weekend peeps… you’re great.

The K1300S behaved impeccably and is a real pleasure to ride. It feels so much more sure footed than the K1200S did. I don’t know what that’s down to, perhaps the ESA2 or the tyres but whatever it is, I can already tell there’s a very very long way to go to find its limits. There was one ‘incident’ that I’m not sure I understand yet in that on one stretch of road, the quick shifter simply wouldn’t. Shift, change gear that is. I was accelerating at the time so that’s when it really should work, but it just wouldn’t. At all other times it’s worked perfectly and so I don’t know what caused this. Even later in the same journey, without stopping and restarting the bike, it worked perfectly. Perhaps as I live with it more, I may realise why. It’s booked in for it’s first service this coming Saturday morning, and so I will ask about it then too.

During the course of last week I’d fitted the rack and the pannier mounting frames which of course were straight bolt ons from the K1200. Previously I’d bought the BMW large soft bag for the rack but I found with the panniers on the bottom of this bag would have rubbed on the top of them. To be honest I wouldn’t have needed the capacity anyway and so last week I also bought the small soft bag which fitted perfectly. That meant I could take all the luggage for us both easily leaving Meike to ride her bike without additional weight or unbalance.

The only real cause for concern on this trip, apart from a driver of a black van and another driver of a Citroen C4, who both decided to overtake, on separate occasions when I was already over-taking them, has been the Bluetooth connection between the Zumo 660 and the Schuberth collar. When it works it’s great but twice, and at the most inconvenient times, it simply stopped. Of course I didn’t realise until I’d missed a turn and then it seemed no amount of switching on and off would get them to communicate again, until we got back to the house. When of course, everything then worked perfectly.

Looking at the Zumo forums it appears there are issues with Garmins Bluetooth implementation, particularly on the 660 and so I hope they get it fixed soon. I do have the option to hard wire the headset and so will do so if I’m leading any rides soon. I’ll also be keeping a close eye out for the fix.

The Bandit is sold! To a very nice chap who’s coming to pick it up next week. I’ll be really sorry to see it go as it’s a great bike, but with the K1300 and now Meikes Divvy I really can’t see the point of keeping it. It will be much better with someone who’s going to use it much more.

Think that’s about it for now.

Not much to write about at the moment to be honest, well, that’s not stictly true, but there’s not much I am going to write about lol.

Meike’s been out a few times on her bike and seems to be getting on well with it. Certainly she’s a lot happier on it than she was on the 250 and so hopefully as the weather improves she’ll only want to ride it more and more. I’ve ridden it a few times too and I have to say it’s great fun. Obviously we’re not thrashing it yet, but I’m looking forward to when we can. I reckon there’s some get up and go in there straining to get out. I’m certain I’d be happy with it as a substitute for the Bandit and so I can see us going to just two bikes in the not too distant future. Obviously it doesn’t have the torque or power of the bandit being just half the size engine wise, but never the less it’s a fun bike to ride and easy to chuck around etc. If I want more power then of course I always have the ‘K’. So far we’ve got about 300 miles on the Yamaha and it’s already booked in for its first service at the end of the month just before Meike’s planning to ride it on our Mermaid Bikers annual Wales trip.

Speaking of Mermaid Bikers, we’re changing the clubs name and at the moment there’s a poll up on the forum to choose the new one. Roundway Riders is winning at the moment… named after Roundway Hill or the Battle of Roundway if anyone wants to look it up. Generally speaking we were all happy with the name Mermaid until the new landlord of The Mermaid pub decided to re-commence bike nights on the same night as ours now at The Oliver Cromwell. I have asked The Mermaid if they’d consider changing their night so we could then more easily support both, but so far no reply. Strange attitude! Anyway, we’ll be changing our name soon so watch this space.

I’ve been looking again at new comms systems for the bikes as a new bluetooth system has been introduced by Schuberth for the C3 helmet. Of course being Schuberth it’s not cheap but it is by a million miles the neatest system I’ve seen yet, with all the bluetooth gubbins built into the helmets collar. I’ve made some enquiries on price and so hopefully will know soon. I’ve wanted a new helmet for some time because while I find the C2 comfortable and reasonably quiet, it doesn’t seem to fit my head shape well. It tends to sit too low over my eyes and this is supposed to have been addressed in the C3.

Anyway, that’s about all the news for now, but watch this space :)

OK, now don’t feint or fall over… yes, it’s amazing…

Amazing I’m posting again and so many amazing things to report. Firstly, thank you for the messages of well being, I’m fine. I was pretty ill over Christmas and the new year but I’m fully recovered now and back in the saddle - literally.

Something very odd happened this winter. Last winter you couldn’t keep me off the bikes but for some reason I just haven’t been interested through this last one. I think it was November we went on a rideout, I parked the bike in the garage and apart from cleaning it, didn’t give it another thought until earlier this month. Well, it’s not true I didn’t think about them, but I had no desire at all to get on ride either one. That all changed earlier this month with the appearance of sunshine, and despite low temperatures I couldn’t be happier to be back riding again.

Of course we’ve continued to meet with Mermaid Bikers, now at the Oliver Cromwell every Wednesday evening, but until a couple of weeks ago it was more like Mermaid Drivers. The official bike nights are starting at the OC on Wednesday 31st March, just after the clocks change to give us longer evenings. If your local and free, please do turn up and help make it a success as well as meet a great bunch of people.

Last Saturday we went to George Whites looking for a new pair of boots for me - I have wide feet and find most ‘normal’ boots quite uncomfortable. Anyway, we didn’t find any suitable because of course they cater for ‘normal’ people. We did though come away having put down a deposit on a new bike… Yes, I know, amazing lol. It’s for Meike although I suspect I wouldn’t be unhappy to ride it. It seems having given it lots of thought she does still want to ride but was deeply unimpressed with the Ninja 250. I have to say it is somewhat gutless and so she’s finally agreed with me to have something bigger… A new Yamaha XJ6S ‘Diversion’ in red.

I have to say I think they’re a very smart looking bike and size wise it seems more than OK for her. We’re supposed to be collecting it this Saturday but at the moment I’m still waiting for the insurance paperwork to come through so not sure we’ll be ready in time.

If the bike is as a good as the test reports suggest and goes well enough then there’s every possibility that later this year I’ll get rid of the bandit and just keep this and the K1200S in the garage. I’ll know that a lot better after riding it of course.

Last Sunday we attended the Afghan Heroes ride through Wootton Bassett. If you don’t know what I’m talking about then you must have been asleep because it’s been covered widely by the press including the national news on the TV. It was truly an amazing event to take part in with so many other motorcyclists. Everyone met up before the ride at Hullavington air field and I have to say I’ve never seen so many motorcycles in one place. News reports suggest there was anything between 10 to 22 thousand bikes and so I think 15 would be about right.

Here’s the view behind us while we waiting for the off…

You can see the bikes in the distance (horizon, to the left) still queuing to get in.

Here’s the view in front of us…

Truly amazing! We left the ride in waves of 500 bikes and to be honest following press reports the week before about how we weren’t welcome, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Well, as usual, the press couldn’t have been more wrong. People turned out in their thousands to wave, clap and cheer us on our way. The crowd in Wootton Bassett high street was just incredible. With everyone taking part having paid at least a fiver to do so, the charity is expected to make well over £100,000.00 which is just brilliant.

I think the most moving thing I saw was an old lady sitting outside a home on the way there, wrapped in a blanket to keep her warm and waving her union jack and all with a big smile on her face. It made me realise that the people actually did recognise what we were doing and appreciated it.

Truly amazing.