Finally, I got out for a ride this weekend.
The sh1t stuff first, I was due to ride with Steve, my brother, and his mate Calvin. Calvin, whom always likes to look trendy (not)
turns up in a pair of jeans, in fairness, he's new to riding bikes but we managed to convince him he would need something warmer and as we had to pass by his house on the way out anyway, it was no biggy.
While he was taking, what felt like for ever (think waiting for a woman to change her dress
) I looked over at Steve and motioned to my wrist (time) so he climbed of his bike and wandered over the road, as he passed by Calvin's bike he looked at it, then me, then pointed to the rear tyre and shouted, "Come and have a look at this" fooking cloth and wire showing on his rear tyre
That ended Cavin's day and made us late to meet the last rider, and I hate being late..
So, we set off to met Antares at Glossop, 3 miles out, Steve hits a big fook off pot hole, dents the rim and deflates the tyre in one hit, scary as hell..
that ended his day. To make matters worse, turns out while he'd thought his bike was automatically taxed when he registered the V5, it wasn't
so the recovery company wouldn't recover within his policy but they would pick him up and get him home for £220.00 That's life I guess. Anyway, it obviously wasn't his day, he walked a few yards to a pub for a coffee, he said it was like dirt and to top his day off, the pub had a power cut so they were sat in the dark and cold.. Good job he can laugh about this stuff
So, that was the background to the day, now for the ride, my first on the XR since picking it up in November.
I left Steve at the side of the road and rode down the hill to the Café at Glossop where I met our very own Antares, I only know Ant (which is how I'll refer to him from now in
) from being on the forum. Anyway, he's at the café, filling his face with food and coffee
I explained the situation and said he could just go and ride and we'll catch up next time we're out. As I've learned over the years, bikers are like one big family and he wasn't having any of it and insisted on coming with me back to Steve to se if he could help out.
There wasn't anything we could do so in the end Ant and I decided to ride off and leave Steve to be recovered
My usually road, A57 snake pass, was closed and I wasn't familiar with the back roads in this area, fortunately Ant is so he agreed to lead and off we rode. Had a good scoot around some great roads. Turns out that just of the road I've used for years there's a great stopping place, bit of a wildlife sanctuary, car park, toilets, and a café, had a coffee and a hot dog. Rode some more, parted company somewhere near Penistone and made our way to ourv respective homes, so, cheers to Ant for leading the coffee & Hot Dog..
The bike;
finally, I hear you say..
I've had some fast bikes, Thunder Ace, fast but handled somewhat like a school bus. Tuono, fast, handled but no allrounder. XR, fast as F :038:k, handles, comfy, I'm guessing all day comfy, I was in the saddle for 90 mins on Saturday getting to Steve's then from 10am until I got home at 3:30pm. I'm on the Tony Archer reworked seat, only rode 15 miles home on the OE seat so can't compere but I can say the Tony Archer seat is wonderful, no pushing toward the tank and as I said, all day comfort, all for £120.00 I'd call that a result.
Roads were busy so not much opportunity for a scratching session but when we did get a chance for some, err, spirited riding (I think the official term is, making progress) I felt the bike handles really well, no scary moment, even though there were plenty of damp and even wet patches on the road. On the motorway over to Steve's I did find on one of the long bends, M62 to M6, at well in to 3 figures, the bike weaved, I didn't feel like it was going to develop in to anything bad but there was a detective weave.
Conclusion; I made the right choice
this bike is awesome, it has everything, speed, acceleration, comfort, handling, touring capability, scratching, hooning, even shopping in there's ever a need. Very happy..
I'll let Ant tell you about the full beam incident
Here's to the next ride.
Oh, just one thing, gotta stay away from the clutch, 40 plus years of using the clutch is a hard habit to break..
And I can't believe I didn't take any photos, I'm usually a pain with how many I take.. next time eh..
windy
