 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Big boys' toys!
I have loved motorbikes for a few years
now. In March '95 I was the proud owner a brand new Cagiva Roadster
125 (and a dodgy haircut).
Within a year or so I was bored, and craved power, but instead I did a straight swap with a local shop for a Honda XBR500.
Don't knock it, it took the pair of
us to the Isle of Man, for the '97 TT races. Slowly (well, by bike standards).
It was quicker than Sally's bike, a Honda NS125R, which we still have,
and will keep until she finally gets on with and takes her test. (she's
on her second CBT!)
About 18 months later, and the itchy throttle hand was back. This time I went for the Ducati Monster, and a few months later, started a new job and added an NTV600 to the garage to get me to work in the rain.
We've had a selection of cars over the last few years, a Fiat Uno and Vauxhall Astra when we got together quickly made way for a Honda Accord Aerodeck. The modern version of which has been ruined with 4 doors, they used to be cool. Bits started to go wrong, and we chopped it in for a Rover 416GSi, nice enough, but a bit too 'family' really. We were considering alloys and a spoiler, when someone kindly drove into the back of it when Sally was coming home from work one day. Minor looking damage was enough for an insurance write off, and we found a 216GTi, which was much more fun.
A while ago we were half considering a new car, and went for a test drive in a few. We looked at used Alfas and new Fiats, and just out of interest we drove the new Mini. Then bought one.
Update
The Ducati is not very well! It made nasty noises on the way to work, ridiculously early one morning, then went very quiet. It was recovered (free breakdown cover, from Carole Nash- no relation!), and found to be seized good and proper. I think the technical term is 'catastrophic mechanical failure'. We now have an interesting new paperweight. Unfortunately, the replacement engine I ordered from a breakers has arrived, with a mounting bolt snapped off still in it. Im none too impressed, that's going back. Hopefully have it back working soon.
No hurry I suppose, it is a summer bike after all!
Well, I have it back, it's working, and I am going to sell it 'cos I've spent too much, and I don't trust it not to go bang again!
Sally needs to get on and take her test this year, so we'll worry about sorting her out a new bike first.
Ok, so that didn't work. The new (secondhand)
engine sounded like a bag of nails (worse than most Ducatis, and it's
not a dry clutch), I was told that it could be small end bearings, and
expensive, could be cheaper to replace the engine...
We decided not to go there!
I managed to convince a bike tuning company to buy it as a project.
As a result
I have a new toy, it's a Triumph Speed Four, and it's fantastic. 
The first couple
of weeks were a bit tedious, limited at first to 5,000rpm, then stepping
up to 8,000rpm until 1,000 miles. Well I'm there now, I've done
the running in, now I'm only limited by my ability ;-)
(Excuse the
quality of the pic, I took it at 0530 one morning, with the Siemens
S55 camera/phone, 'cos I just noticed I had 1,001 miles on the clock.)
Further update
In short, this page needs a re-write. We have a new bike each on the way, Sally a Vespa, Graham a 'Silverwing' super-scooter. Graham won't be riding for a while though, see disaster.
I really will get around to chopping some of this about, and updating it one day. Most of it's well out of date. We still have the Mini, but we're thinking of changing it, here's why.
Ok, the Silverthing's gone. Now I don't have to ride 50 miles each way to go to work, I wanted to get something a little less barge like. So here's the current contents of my garage. 
We're gonna do a bit of touring on the BM, here it is packed up for a weekend in Suffolk. Won't be doing much filtering on that! 
(Mobile phone pic again, this one doesn't get any bigger!)
I need to be a bit careful on the throttle too, I wheelied it on the A12 with all that luggage and Sally on the back! Try explaining that without saying "it's because of the extra weight with you on the back"!
