Stew

You are far too easy to troll , sorry, I'll try to stop it. Not promising, but I'll try.

1 minute ago, 2and3cylinders said:

I did look up " your" castle but you can't tell from your photo that it has a moat and it's details.  I'm an architectural engineer and will go crazy in GB and Europe (on my bucket list).  I'll probably get killed stepping back taking a picture by a passing bus, falling in a hole, trampled by a cow or sheep (any Euro Bison in Scotland?)

I don't know how you tolerate your Scorpion helmet, I'd be totally claustrophobic in it.

Every try one of them new fangled brain buckets with an internal drop down visor and a PinLock main shield liner?  Better yet a flip-front with all the techy features and tack on a BT comm unit...

 

I value having a face, so no thanks to your flip up's, your open faces etc etc etc I have another full face with more 'slot', and a clear visor with a sun visor inside, but it's for when it is proper winter, not yet.

I think that the stupidest looking thing ever is some dude with all the gear on, and the front of his helmet flipped up, you know, like a police motorcyclist, trying desperately to give you a telling off while looking ludicrous.

Each to his own mate, you do you. I'll stick with proper full face helmets.  I wonder why motogp or motoamerica riders dont wear flip ups?

You people are a BAD INFLUENCE!

Since I got it

Just now, peteinpa said:

Wow! more pics of old castles Stew! Nice!

We've castles round every corner here Not joking, you can hardly move for them! Caeverlock is a wild one though, if you google it you'll see the shape.
 

After an overnight storm, the sky cleared for a couple of hours this afternoon, so I headed to Caeverlock Castle. Lovely ride out, although I might need to switch to a clear visor soon, it was pitch black and raining hard on the way home. No biggie, visor up and no rain on face with the puig touring screen anyway.

mine goes blank about once a week, and also in 6th gear, so I know if it is blank not to change up.

1 hour ago, peteinpa said:

six cameras on the bridge. 😮😲

Gloves over your number plate, easy!

Supermarket plastic bags under my boots. Job done!

Just now, Dodgy Knees said:

Will do but bike in lockdown at mo. 😩

Sorry, I genuinely forgot.

Those look great @Dodgy Knees  , bit expensive mibbe, but please let us know how good they are, especially if it is raining. Thx

Yep, lovely!

Another awesome afternoon out on the bike. No traffic at all, well, I saw 1 car, 1 bicycle and 2 hikers.

An interesting idea, but I'll pass. Too short, I like my boots a lot longer.
Plus, I wonder on the effectiveness if you ride with your toes on the pegs, rather than your feet. My boots are probably angled upwards a fair bit (never checked, never felt the need to )

One idea I saw years ago was a fibre optic cable that you just shoved into your tail light, and if you attached the other end to your handlebars, you could see at a glance whether or not your tail light/brake light was working by the glow in the fibre optic.

Super helpful guy , I got an answer really quickly when I emailed him after getting the Eastern Beaver fuseblock on my old vstrom.

2 hours ago, HGP61 said:

MCS in Kilmarnock have one on as a demonstrator, had a good look round it at the dealer but felt no desperate need to try it out. It might be a brilliant bike but it's not more brilliant than mine.

I actually set out to go there yesterday, until my utter dependance on the mighty tracer being able to run on fresh air put paid to those plans.

I was thinking about getting rid of my crf250 for a tenere 700, but have never even seen one in the flesh

Oh, I forgot. This guy came back one time to tell me that a Niken is only a tiny bit wider than a bmw gs1200. I think he might have been playing some wierd game of Top Trump. Actually walked down the road, turned round, and came back, to proudly tell me that.

I'm no luddite, but a real bike should only have 2 wheels. Oh, and a drum brake. Oh, and a rubbery frame, elastic forks, poor lighting and leak a bit of oil.

Of course, he overlooked my medical condition 'weepingforksealophobia'

BTW, the original post wasn't in any way having a dig at the Niken, I was just astonished at the evangelical fervour of a man without a motorcycle towards a man with a motorcycle. Clearly the Niken has a powerful spell to it.

I've nothing against it, just doesn't particularly interest me.
Bike shops here are few and far between, and test rides , hmm some do some don't .

If I happened across one that was a demonstrator I'd cheerfully take it out for a ride.
But this was scary cult like, proper obsessive. I mean who comes and tells somebody that there is a 'better' bike than theirs, then walks away. I was the one out on a bike
There are loads of bikes 'better' than mine, depends who you ask. Some people like Honda's for goodness sake. Dull as dishwater

So I am sitting chilling out , having an Americano, and I see this guy all , you know that way, looking over my bike, walking around it, inspecting it, and you know he's going to come and talk bikes.

Sure as eggs is eggs, over he comes. And starts going on about how he was convinced that the Tracer 900 was a brilliant bike.
UNTIL he tried a Niken.
I tell you, I got the full brochure description, 80% more front end grip etc etc
He even walked away a few times, then came back to tell me more.
Then his parting shot was, 'please, from a complete stranger, promise me youll test a Niken'

CULT!

based on my stupidity today, might I suggest a majorly overlooked but vital accessory.

FUEL!

1 minute ago, betoney said:

When the light starts flashing its Morse code for "Time to change the right hand inputs from 'sport' mode to 'economy' mode for a bit... 😎

I have got the flashing light many times and I immediately tame it down, have managed 20 miles a few times and once I got 25 miles before reaching a gas station and that was a 4.5 gallon top off. 

Twice , in the past 20 years, that I can remember, I have been stuck at the side of the road.

BOTH TIMES out of stupid petrol.

Once coming back from Amsterdam via Eurotunnel, which was around 2011 ish, and today.

I'll take that , operator error.

10 minutes ago, 1moreroad said:

You only got 8 miles from the fuel light on to empty?

Maybe 10.

I was seriously going for it for a bit though, but I was still shocked.

Quite clever, eh. He is a nut for Motorhead. This is his wee crafts shop/tearoom, hahahaha

I saw them on their first and second tours in the UK, my ears are still ringing, but he was better with Hawkwind.