Weekend rides

Saturday - an evening ride with Alan around the Bays and coffee at the joint next to Wellington Motorcycles.

Sunday - early afternoon around Grays Road, Haywards and to the Rimutaka Summit. Then home by 1530.

That was it, just 170kms. The bike has now done 12888kms.

Rides Tiger and Sprint

I had a day off work and the weather was okay. Riding home from Stratford at night in the cold on The Capital 1000 Cruise convinced me I should look at a bike with a fairing.

A call was made to Carl at Motorad and it was confirmed they had a new Tiger demo and a 2005 Sprint I could ride. This was all part of the next big decision - replace the Speedtriple (S3) with a new one or something different. So far I am not looking past a Triumph triple.

I took out the Tiger first and then the Sprint, with a stop at home for lunch with the Sprint.

Summary: I wouldn't buy a Tiger, I may buy a Sprint and the Speedtriple is an exciting ride.

Notes on the Tiger:

• Comfy seat no discomfort going over bumps.
• Great exhaust sound at lower speeds - burbles, pops, louder than S3
• Screen is not much good - keeps the wind off the chest but noisy at 100kph, buffeting on shoulders. The S3 with just the bug screen is better.
  
• Good riding position for touring - a good choice for a long distance cruisy ride.
• My legs are too short for this bike - I just don't feel comfortable stopping and starting off and parking it. It wouldn't be long before I dropped it while parking up.
• Suspension is bouncy - don't like it.
• Can't get used to the look.
  

Notes on Sprint ST

• This is a 2005 and the new ones have higher bars and screen.
• Comfy seat no discomfort going over bumps. Could ride on this all day
  
• Can't hear the exhaust around town - still got the triple sound when opened up.
• Screen seems okay - no buffeting at lower speeds and is probably as good as it gets at higher speeds. The screen on the SV1000s I had worked well - something Suzuki got right.
• I like the riding position and didn't have trouble with wrists or hands. Seat height allows me to put my feet down and feel totally in control.
• Suspension seems okay - the bike turns well and it didn't take me long to get used to the narrower bars from the S3 and Tiger.
• The motor runs well at low revs (2000 - 2500) at round town speeds. This bike is easy to ride slowly as I tested on a gentle cruise around the Southern Coast road.
• Overall a bike I would like to own.

However, the S3 still rocks. It is more responsive to throttle, sounds great and is exhilarating to ride. The sensible choice is the Sprint.

When they get a new Sprint I will have a look at it. During summer the S3 will more than satisfy.

Wednesday night ride

The weather looked okay and no wind. I left home at 6.15 so was sure I would miss the start of the ride. Therefore I rode to the summit expecting to catch up to the group. However, they hadn't left so I was there by myself for about 10mins.

It was then off to the tin hut. One the way down the hill I heard a loud sound of metal on road and in my rear view mirror saw a bike sliding to a stop in the middle of the road on a corner. He was okay and little damage to the bike. The road was a little wet and we were not going fast, so who knows why the front was lost?

About 20 riders turned up and some newbies. I got home just after 9.00pm.

Saturday - a short ride

Saturday at 4.oopm. A ride up and around the inlet, then back around and home. Just a ride to fill in the day.

Capital 1000K Cruise

The ride was on Saturday. I left home at 6.00am and got home at 11.30pm.

It was a long difficult day. From Ashhurst (250ks) I teamed up with Des who was on a Blackbird and we rode our own ride away from other groups. We did our 1000 + kms.

We stopped for two riders who had binned and the second rider died. We didn't learn of the death until we finished the ride - a real shock as I didn't think the accident was that serious. KB link

Scrubbed in new front tyre

A new Avon Storm was fitted at 11280Kms on Saturday morning. I got home and just missed the rain. Today was a better day so a ride to the summit and back home via Haywards to make sure the tyre was okay before next Saturday's long ride.