Daves Blog

The MRA double bubble screen for the K1300S arrived yesterday morning as expected and took me all of about 5 minutes to fit. At first I thought it’s not that much different to the stock screen, and while the curvature of it isn’t it’s about 2 inches longer in the middle and looked as though it should raise the air flow. I am a little disappointed it doesn’t have more of a bubble to direct the air flow around me though as is implicit in the double bubble design. I think MRA are stretching the point a little here because as far as I can see it’s a single bubble screen.

Anyway, I got the chance to try it last night on our weekly trip to the Oliver Cromwell with Roundway Riders and while it’s not eliminated the drumming turbulent noise in my helmet it is a definite improvement. This at least shows me I’m on the right track.

This morning I contacted Sportouring to order Meike a Schuberth C3 Lady and SRC collar as it’s her birthday on Monday and she’d like the rider/pillion comms back. I was chatting to Mike there and mentioned I was disappointed so far with my C3 because of the noise. It just so happened he had a Puig double bubble screen there for a K1200S (same fitment) and he offered to send it to me to look at before deciding if I want to buy it. How fair is that? I’ve dealt with them a couple of times now and quite honestly couldn’t recommend them highly enough. Chances are that screen will arrive tomorrow and it’ll be interesting to see how, if at all, it’s any different to the MRA one.

Anyway, back to last night when on the way home I had the chance to try the K1300S brakes in a real life emergency stop. It was dark and we were following a car along the A342. Single carriageway road with no street lights. We were doing 50mph when all of a sudden and without any warning he slammed on his brakes and swerved across the carriageway. Full emergency stop. I’d seen a shaddow of something on the left and as he was braking there were what appeared to be feathers flying out from under and around the left of his car. It never ceases to amaze me how fast ones brain works in such circumstances. As I was braking as hard as I dare I considered swerving round him on the right, but as that’s the direction he was going in, ruled it out. I also considered the same on the left, but as that’s where the ‘feathers’ were flying from, ruled that out too. Leaving me with the only option to stop as quickly as possible. I was of course also conscious of Meike on the back and hoped she was holding on hard. She was, the brakes were superb, and we stopped about 8 to 10 feet short of the back of the car.

Once stopped we then saw the poor injured deer struggle round from the car with it’s back or back legs broken and of course it was obvious what had happened. Obviously it wasn’t feathers we’d seen but rather fur from the deer. I know we eat them, but I really hate to see a life injured in such a way. Poor animal.

Fortunately the next vehicle along was the local farmer who offered to deal with the deer and so after a short pause, we were able to continue home. I must admit I was then very conscious of all the hedge and tree lined dark roads we had to ride along and grateful that firstly the deer hadn’t jumped out in front of us and secondly that the brakes had worked so well. Even while I was breaking I was preparing for the impact of us hitting the back of the car. The odd thing is, I’m pretty certain the ABS didn’t kick in at all, which probably means I could have braked even harder. Probably without Meike on the back, I would have but who knows?

Back to Meikes new helmet… they didn’t have her size in stock but it’s on order and so as soon as it arrives I’ll be able to report on the SRC comms which are supposed to work up to about 300 yards. I doubt this to be honest, but we’ll see.

At least for me. The new owner has just been to collect it and I hope they have as much enjoyment from it as I have. He’s got a fairly long ride home and so it will give him plenty of time to find out of course and play with that wonderful torque. I hope he’s not disappointed and gets miles of fun from it.

I took this picture literally seconds before he rode it away and apart from the, to be expected and unavoidable discolouring of the exhaust pipes, I think it looks almost as good as the day it was delivered, nearly 3 years ago.

So now we’re back to a ‘normal’ two bike family and I must admit while I know I’m going to miss the Bandit I am looking forward to the extra space in the garage. It’ll be much easier now to work on the K and the Divvy as well as other garage based chores. Now to update the blog home page.

Yesterday I ordered an MRA Double Bubble screen for the K and I’m hoping this is going to move the turbulence away from my neck when riding. Hopefully it will arrive on Wednesday so I can try it Wednesday evening.

Got up at 6.30am yesterday… That’s right, 6.30am on a Saturday - madness! Had to in order to have the K1300S to NOG for its first service by 8.00am. Meike came with me on pillion and sure enough we arrived at 8.00am on the dot. Bike was straight into the service bay. Unfortunately it had rained a lot the night before and so while we didn’t get wet from rain, we got splashed with all the muck and spray from other vehicles. By the time we got there the bike looked like I’d ridden across country.

While we were there, waiting the one and half hours for the service to be completed, I noticed their K1300S demo bike was fitted with a Remus Hexacone and so of course I had to have a listen. Then of course I had to go and ask the price and then to top it all they just had to tell me they had one in stock lol. Consequently the bikes now fitted with one and I have to say it does look and sound much better for it. There’s no question the K1300 exhaust can is a great advancement on the water cannon fitted as standard to the K1200’s, but even so I still found it a little too quiet for my liking. As I’ve said before I don’t like seriously loud exhausts at all but I do like them to sound, well, sporty and this certainly does.

By the time we left to come home the sun was out and the roads had dried a lot and so I deliberately took the back roads home. I must admit the sun shining, the dry roads, the freshly serviced bike and the great sound from the exhaust all led me to ride in a somewhat spirited manner and I think I may end up paying for it. Coming down into a small village where the speed limit dropped from 60 to 30, I saw a police camera van, but way too late. I know I was reducing speed at the time but I’m really not convinced I’d shaved enough off at the point I imagine the camera was pointing at. If I’m really lucky, he’ll have got the car in front of me or he won’t have had any means to get my registration number (eg no forward facing cameras). So far in my motorcycling I’ve never been caught for speeding and it would be a real shame if I have now as I’m usually very observant and respectful of the limits, especially the lower ones, but with so many cameras and speed traps around it really must be only a matter of time I guess. Fingers crossed, he didn’t get me, and I’ll take it as a lesson to be more careful, but only time will tell. Guess I’ll be dreading the post for the next week or two.

I know why my C3 helmet is so noisy! It’s turbulence from the top of the K’s screen. I can’t explain why it doesn’t affect my C2 as much, but there’s no question in my mind now. From the stock screen I can feel the wind, and turbulent wind at that, hitting my shoulders and this is just the right height to be just under the helmet. This explains why if I move my head up or down a couple of inches, or put my hand on my chest just below the helmet it becomes significantly quieter. There’s a number of after market screens available for the K1300S and I think I’ll try a double bubble one as this worked well on my Bandit, directing the air around me rather than into me. More on this of course as I decide and progress.

Speaking of the Bandit I’ve spent some time today getting it ready for its new owner who’s coming to collect it tomorrow. I have very mixed feelings about this as I love riding it. Not quite as much as I love riding my K1300 though. I’m satisfied its going to a good home where it will continue to be well looked after and so that makes me feel better about it. I’m also looking forward to the increased space it will give me in my garage. As I’ve said before, I can always take Meike’s Divvy for a blast when I want to and so I won’t be without my second bike.

Unfortunately the weather yesterday afternoon and today has been pretty awful and so I haven’t got out on either bike. Tomorrow’s a bank holiday but as usual, as it isn’t in the USA I’m not likely to get much chance to enjoy it. Still, the weather is supposed to improve again this week and so I’m already looking forward to Wednesday evening with Roundway Riders and The Oliver Cromwell.