The Rite Of Spring

First sunny Sunday of the the year: bike ride.

A few of us met in the cafe on the airfield and had a full English - always a good way to start any enterprise. (It's usually known round here as a Full Welsh Breakfast, but I can't see any difference from the standard variety. But it did the job: I wasn't hungry again until 6 pm.) Our Secretary was there, with her husband, on her Triumph Thruxton 900, and another member who was riding a Bonneville. The one I traded in against the Sprint last summer. Which had originally been owned, before me, by another Club member. It's all a bit incestuous, really. He likes it, though. He has shorter legs than I do, which may account for it.



We sat outside for a long time, drinking coffee and waiting for the mythical 'others' to turn up, but none did, so we decided to make it a short day. Basically, as it was nearly lunchtime by then, we went for a pint. Twenty miles away.

We spent a lot of time in the nadgery little roads between Pembroke and Tenby, along the coast. The views were spectacular, but it wasn't Sprint country at all. I was in first and second gear nearly all the way, and was constantly thinking about the amount of dust and gravel on the little-used roads, and what happened last time I rolled over some gravel on the Big Red One. It was a relief, after we had parted and gone our separate ways home, to get it on some main roads and let it rip, in a cautious and thoroughly legal way, of course. Sports and sports-tourer bikes belong on big roads. It's only at about 60 that the Sprint starts to make sense and get into its stride. Riding it on B-roads is like ploughing a field with a Derby winner - possible, but with a deep sense of wrongness.

I kinda wish I had taken the XT.

Ride of Respect 2012

Another excellent day riding one-handed round the villages of Wiltshire while high-fiving local schoolchildren.

I didn't have to make the silly-o'clock start that I had to make last year as my start time was at a very civilised 11 am. I left home at 8 am, fuelled up and set off up the M4. It was a cold and wet day, but as it was the first really long ride on the Sprint I was keen to see how it performed, whatever the conditions. I stopped at Leigh Delamere services to kit the bike out with Union and Welsh flags, as I did last year:



My plan was to meet blog commenter Conniesdad on the airfield - basically, turn up and hit the phones until we made contact. In the end I rode right past him, as he was waiting for me at the entrance gate and had left me a voicemail to say that was where he would be. However, the iPhone, inaudible at the best of times, was in the bike's topbox and I didn't get the message until about five minutes ago.

In the end, I parked up and waited for him to arrive on his 'rather camp' (his words, not mine) teal-blue VTR Firestorm. It was a great-looking bike, and with his rather minimalist exhaust can, it sounded good too. Like a civilised Ducati, if that's not a contradiction in terms.



We had a chat and a burger and then our group was called. Of course, I was over by the bins getting rid of the coffee cups and couldn't find the bike in the crowd. Amazing how many red 955 Sprints you can find when you don't need them. I counted three before seeing Conniesdad's hand waving over to my left, guiding me back to the correct one.



Numbers were slightly down on last year. I think last year there were 10,000 bikes, and this year the BBC estimates 4,000, although it is too early for the final figures to be in. Guessing at one pillion passenger per three riders, that would mean £50-60,000 for the military charities that benefit from the ride. Not bad, all in all.





This will be the last Ride of Respect, as the fallen servicemen are no longer repatriated through RAF Lyneham. The repatriations were moved to RAF Brize Norton some time ago, but apparently the organisation of this year's event was too far gone to cancel, so the Police agreed it could go ahead. The purpose of the ride is threefold: to show respect for the servicemen killed or injured in their country's service and raise funds for military charities, to congratulate Royal Wootton Bassett on its 'promotion' from plain old WB, and to thank the people of the town for their extraordinary decency and dignity in lining the streets to mark the return of the fallen, at a time when the government of the country seemed to be turning its back on them.

I waved goodbye to Conniesdad at the end of the ride, and watched him do a cheeky snap overtake of a white van before turning the Sprint's nose towards home. It was good to meet up, and we established during conversation that this was the first time I had met one of my blog readers 'in the flesh'. All those friends I have never met! (There is one regular commenter that I have known for 40 years and even shared a house with, and he knows who he is, but that sort of doesn't count.)

An unremarkable ride home along the M4 on drier roads ended the day. I was very pleased with the way the bike performed. I kept the speeds sensible - cruising at 85 or 90 (that's in kph if any policemen are reading this) and the bike achieved just over 50 mpg. That's just a little less than the XT returns, for speeds half as fast again and a lot less drama. I had a slight ache in my wrists and forearms for the last 50 miles, probably down to the fact that I am not used to the leaning-forward position yet. But the double-bubble screen gives a quiet and non-blustery ride, the fairing keeps the worst of the wind and weather off, and the riding position is way less cramped than the Bonnie's was. My knees didn't trouble me at all today - last year, I could hardly walk after two hours on the Bonnie. Changing to the Sprint was a good move.

All the magazines rave about the Triumph triple engine, both in 955 and 1050 manifestations. I can see why. It's very eager, and has more power than I can safely use. There is useable power from 2000 rpm onwards, so you can be lazy about changing gears, but dropping two and letting it howl to the redline is quite addictive. Cruising at 80 sees the engine turning at 4500 rpm, which is just less than half the maximum on the dial, so it feels unstressed but still lively. It just wants to keep going, which makes for a relaxing and fatigue-free ride. Apart from the slight ache in the arms, I got off after 300+ miles feeling as fresh as a daisy.

Not only was this an opportunity to do a bit of bonding with the bike (it has spent most of the 7 months I have had it in the garage, as the XT is still my daily hassle-free choice, and I have only ridden it about 2500 miles), but also I got to find out the results of my mechanical playtime over the last few weeks, when I replaced the head bearings, refreshed the forks, and fitted new pads to the front brakes. One, nothing fell off, which is always the first definition of successful spannering. Two, the bike now steers as sweetly as it did when new - I can't believe how I dared to ride it in the condition it was in before. And three, EBC HH pads have transformed the braking from 'fairly good' to 'bloody hell!'. A two-finger squeeze on the lever stands the bike on its nose, just like the comics said it should.



Oh, and I have finally found a place to put the 'Team Bike' sticker that I have had hanging around for a couple of years. It was free with an edition of the magazine back in the mid-70s (I remember getting one, and then losing it) and I found this one in a pile of old magazines that someone was throwing away a few years ago. I also have a 'GB' sticker with 'Bike Magazine - Invasion Force' on it, but I couldn 't find anywhere on the Sprint's slim and shapely arse that would take it. Maybe another day.

Bearing Up

I saw the doctor on Wednesday, and she signed me off work for a week. I am no longer ill (i.e. I feel pretty much OK), but I need to rest my leg and keep it elevated so that the antibiotics can get to work on clearing out the nasty things that have caused the infection. So, naturally, I have been working on the bike. (Seriously, I am fairly immobile. I can be up and about for half an hour or so, but then I need to rest again or the leg starts to throb and swell like something in a science fiction movie. But in the periods when I can get about, where better to do it than in the garage?)

I've been getting a bit panicky about the Sprint being out of commission. I have booked in for the Ride of Respect next month, and I was having visions of having to do it on the XT, which would have been less than ideal -and take twice as long.

Regular readers who have the slightest interest will remember that the steering bearings had become very rough and notchy, leading to a slightly embarrassing tumble at work and some entirely preventable cosmetic damage to the bike. When I got the headstock dismantled, this was what I found:



No wonder it wasn't keen on corners!

Yesterday and today I spent working on it intermittently. I had to cut the old bearings off. They are an interference fit and were very reluctant to leave the party. To get the new ones on, I had to leave the stem in the freezer overnight and heat the bottom race up in the oven beforehand. With all that done, and a few mighty blows of a hammer and chisel, the new ones went on without too much drama. And don't they look better?



I then drained half a litre of 12-year-old brown sludge out of each fork leg and replaced it with nice fresh 10W oil and put it all back together. While all the plastics were off, I took the opportunity to fit some better headlight bulbs. The Sprint's headlights are shockingly bad, and I am hoping that these Osram Nightbreakers will improve matters. HID lights seem to the technical fix du jour, but I am not keen to go down that route until I have exhausted all the other (i.e. cheaper and less hassle) alternatives.

This morning, the bike looked like this:



BTW, that's the garage after I tidied it up to store the new kitchen units. You didn't want to see it before, honestly. Note the sophisticated jacking arrangement to keep the front end off the floor.

Tonight, it is back on its wheels, plastics fitted, and ready to go. A light drizzle and failing light meant that I wasn't too keen to test-ride it today, but if the weather holds I will take it for a few milkes tomorrow to see how it is shaping up. But even pushing it along the driveway I can feel that the steering is totally different; light and smooth as opposed to chunky and recalcitrant.

A shakedown ride, and then I will commute on it for a few days just to bond with it again. I'm looking forward to it. Assuming I can bend my leg.

Need my head sorting out

Yep, it's confirmed. A few days standing out in the rain in November have wrecked my head.

I'd better clarify. While I was under orders to keep the garage clear so that the kitchen fitters would have somewhere to leave the flat-packs (after first getting it clear, in comparison to which the Augean Stables were a bit of light dusting) the poor old Sprint had to sit outside in the wind and rain. When the flat-packs were unflatpacked and installed, the garage became a kind of dumping-ground for bags of grout, fractions of floor-tile and odd bits of plastic whose purpose was never quite clear. This situation lasted for about six weeks in all, during which the weather was proper Welsh wet. The XT suffers this treatment all the time, of course, but seems to be able to shrug it off. This is one of the great advantages of using a trail bike as a drudge - they are built to get wet and mucky, and to fall over a lot, so a bit of rain and rough treatment is hardly going to upset them. Bearings are sealed, O-rings are everywhere, cables have little rubber boots on to keep the water out, and everything is designed to be as weatherproof and durable as posible. A two-wheeled Land Rover, if you like. It isn't that the Sprint is delicate (people I talk to in the forums run them year-round and to astronomical mileages) but it doesn't shrug things off like the XT does. It needs looking after.

And after six weeks of not being looked after, the steering had virtually seized. Moving the bars from side to side was like stirring a bucket full of stones. A bit of gentle toing-and-froing got it to move a bit easier, but it was clearly in need of attention. Rumour has it that the steering head bearings are not over-lavishly lubricated from the factory, so it's a failure that is waiting to happen. The schedule says to dismantle, clean, lubricate and adjust the head bearings every two years. The bike is 9 years old and there's no evidence it has ever been done, so it's not a surprise that things have gone wrong.

It was a dry afternoon here today, so I took it out for a gentle ride. Well, it started gently, anyway. It wasn't as bad as I had feared. The bike was quite rideable, but every corner was threepenny-bitted (should that be fifty-penced these days?) and cornering at speed felt none too secure. Even straight line riding was a bit weavy, but not bad enough to prevent some checking of the power curve. All in order there. So there's no putting it off or hoping it will get better on its own - something must be done. It's bang-on due for its 12,000 mile service now, and dealing with the steering head is part of the schedule, so it is now in the garage again and when I get a bit of time I will make a start. 12k is the big one, and there is lots to do. Luckily the XT is romping round like a teenager at the moment, so it's no hardship - and in fact a considerable luxury - to take the Sprint off the road and give it some proper attention while the XT continues its winter duties.

I suspect that cleaning and lubing the bearings won't be enough. They feel too far gone, so I will be ordering up a new set shortly.

Winter is icumen in ...

Lhude sing o-fukkit!

I've been commuting on the XT recently, and the Sprint has been waiting patiently behind the house. In fact, it hadn't moved a wheel for about three weeks until last night, when I wanted to take it to the Triumph Owners' club meet. The brakes were sticky and the head races had gone rather stiff. The first was easily solved with a few hard stops, but the head races kept me threepenny-bitting the roundabouts until it eased itself. That's an item on the 12k service which will be due soon, so perhaps I will see to that properly when I tackle the big 'un.

The run out and back was in the dark and, bloody hell, but the Sprint headlights are dreadful! Dipped beam isn't too bad, with a decent spread, although there is a gap in the straight-ahead position, like a missing tooth in a smile, so you are constantly riding into a black hole. The main beam, however, is strong straight ahead but has nothing to the sides, so if the road bends or you lean the bike (neither being infrequent occurrences), you lose everything. I have adjusted the lights patiently (you need to take the effing bodywork off to do this, grrr), but they are still poor. How poor? Well, the XT is a trailbike with a small headlight, more for legality than actual night riding, and the XT's lights are actually better then the Sprint's. That's how poor.

My run to the pub takes me through a small village and I noticed a tractor with some kind of brushing attachment behind it coming the other way when I was going to the pub. On my way home, I realised what it was: for the space of about a mile, the road was covered from edge to edge in a thin layer of field mud, damp and very slippery. I dread to think what it was like before the clean-up. I kept the speed right down and made it without incident, but it made me think that in a situation like that the XT is much the better mount. As this is Wales, and a rural area, and with more of the same rapidly approaching, I think it's time to give the Sprint a good clean and polish, and put it away for a while. It's a main roads bike, happiest on a charge and with a long journey in prospect. The XT is happiest on back roads, at lower speeds, and on a bad surface gives a lot more confidence. Sliding it around is fun; sliding the Sprint is an underwear-changing experience.

And if I drop it, it will suffer less damage and be fixed cheaper. Not that I plan to.



Go to bed, one of you.

Screens, old and new

When I got the Sprint, it came with a rather strange windscreen which turned up at the top, almost vertically. I now realise that this is a proper Triumph accessory screen, named with great originality and wit "Triumph Higher Screen, Tinted" (officers, for the use of), costing a huge £116. I didn't like the appearance, and in practice it is a mixed blessing. It is awesomely good at keeping the wind off the rider. Even at highly-illegal speeds (on a closed track with trained, professional riders, of course) riding behind it was eerily calm with almost no wind pressure at all. Unfortunately, with that undoubted benefit came the worst wind noise I have ever had on a bike. It was unrelenting and harsh. At any speed over 60 mph, I could not hear either the exhaust or the engine - just the chaotic blast of white noise in my 70s-rock-deafened ears. It looked somehow wrong, too - the Sprint is pretty sleek and racy, and this looked like it belonged on a 30-year-old BMW tourer*. One member of a forum I visit called it 'nerdy', and I have to agree. It's, how you say, sensible, like a Pakamac on a supermodel.

On the same forum was a guy in Taunton who offered to swap. He was 6'4" and needed a higher screen; he had in his garage a double-bubble screen which he didn't want. Strangely, a double-bubble screen was what I did want, so we agreed to exchange. I received the DB screen yesterday and put it on the bike. It looks a million times better. I haven't had a chance to test it on the road yet, but I'm hopeful that it will be quieter, even if it lets a bit more wind through. But from an appearance point of view it is already a success. I'll be sending the other one off to Taunton as soon as the guy lets me know he is home and able to receive it.

Before:



After:



*Not that there's anything wrong with those. But horses for courses, and all that.

New Arrival

Today, at 12:00 mid-day, gender uncertain, a bouncing baby bike, 207 kg, mother and baby doing fine, father ecstatic.



I had a short but useless test ride last week (heavy traffic, narrow roads, more supermoto territory), so today I got the chance to confirm that I had made the right choice - or not. When I picked it up, it was sunny and warm, and I had a long afternoon ride planned, but within ten minutes I started getting rain spots on my visor, so I headed for home and got it under cover. This wan't a bad idea, as it let me check out various things that had been nagging at me (where the bike fits in the timeline of engine improvements, what had been modified and how, oil and water level checks, and so on). And then, miraculously, the clouds cleared and the sun came out. So off I went - a circular route I often use when I need a ride but have no reason to do so, about 50 miles round the coast and back down a main road with a nice mix of twisty and gun-barrel straight.

First impressions are very good. There's as much power as I am ever likely to need, and it seems to cruise in the 70-90 area effortlessly, which is roughly my benchmark. No idea about top speed yet, but the rate at which it reached the ton and was still pulling urgently suggests it won't be anything I will use very often. Handling was very secure. Even only 100 yards after leaving the dealership, I was trickling it in traffic feet-up at less than walking pace, and at higher speeds it just seemed to go where I pointed it. I didn't see much mileage in exploring the limits of the tyres on a first outing, but I had no problems in laying it over for tight corners, and it was rock steady.

The sound-track is a curious one. Going through the rev range, there is the addictive howl that other owners have mentioned, but there is a bit too much wind noise to hear it well. The bike has a Triumph-branded 'not for road use' carbon-fibre can, and it seems fairly subdued (I had TORs on the Bonnie, and they were noticeably louder than standard). At idle, there is a lovely burble from the back end, while the sound coming from under the tank reminds me of a washing-machine full of ball-bearings. I believe this is normal: at least I hope it is.

It's got a flip-up aftermarket screen, which I am in two minds about. For wind protection it seems excellent, with no buffeting at any speed up to 90+, but curiously there is a lot of wind noise at the same time. The dealer says he has a standard screen coming in, so maybe I will try that to see if it is any quieter. I can't say I like the look of the present screen very much (too upright and scooterish), but it seems to work very well.

Both headlights come on for both main and dipped beam, so I believe it has had the usual modification made. (The standard lighting is notoriously crap. Twin headlights, one for main and one for dip, durr, and it's only a matter of adding two relays to existing connections to make both lights work in both modes. Why they left the factory like this, I have no idea.) It would have been No. 1 job to sort this out if it hadn't, as I ride at night frequently. It still has its original tool-kit, and the contents are shiny and untouched. For a 9-year-old bike, this is amazing.

The only issue so far is the riding position. The last few bikes (Bonneville, Honda ST1300, GT1000, Bandit and the daily driver Yamaha) have been fairly upright, and the leaning-forward riding position will take some getting used to. My wrists were getting a bit sore and my hands tingly after an hour in the saddle. But I am sure that is just a matter of practice and adaptation.

When I picked it up from the dealer and rode away, I was all tippy-toes and nervous. It's always the same with a new (to you) bike - different weight and balance, different power characteristics, different clutch, brake and throttle sensitivity - and it usually takes me a few miles to feel I am in control of the bike rather than the other way round. Today's ride was therefore fairly conservative; everything done gently and overtaking only on the obvious opportunities. Nevertheless, we covered some ground at speeds that were not too shabby, and after 50 miles and an hour in the captain's chair, I feel I could ride it anywhere.

And that engine - all the magazines say it's a peach, and they are right.

More tedious hagiography later, no doubt, and a comparison with the Bonnie, which already feels like history. You could say I was pleased.