Stew

That isny gonny happen, me no speeky redneck

Hope it goes well. No shut in syndrome here , I've been out on the bike almost every day for the past fortnight. And unless it snows or drops below freezing, I will continue to go out and ride my bike almost every day

I haven't used it yet. LOL back atcha

Absolutely they do. Unfortunately I wanted a bridie , but hey, I'll settle for a sausage roll at a push. The cheese and bean bake was a tempter tho

Treated my beloved to some new lube, I mean nothing beats a good lube before a ride, amiright?

Living the dream lads n lassies, living the dream..... Damp, 40f , quiet roads. What a brilliant wee ride I've had, about 2 hours of back roads, with a diversion to a traditional Scottish snackery (Greggs )

I DEMAND my estimated travel range , where has it been hidden ? Enquiring minds need to know.

All I have is this And yes, the arrow in the kill ring is mine , I KILLED BAMBI!

Cheers And God Bless us one and all ('in your best Uncle Scrooge accent') It is maintained by the farm, and by the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) They were only re-introduced to Scotland a few years ago, there was a load of info at the place, all different tag colours on their legs denoting where they originally came from (Wales, Europe ) I'm blessed that I can look out of my window, or sit in the garden and watch a few fly around the loch every day, but I'd never seen that many at once, the photos do not do any justice, there were tons of the things Interesting little side note for the North Americans. I recently made a prehistoric arrow for a musem , using a couple of red kite wing feathers that I found while wandering around the lochside. And some of the Americans went BALLISTIC with rage. BEcause it is illegal in the USA to even pick up a fallen raptor feather. I had to end up putting a disclaimer on my youtube video hhehehehe, but you can kill deer, I'm not allowed. NOT FAIR!

Yes, I did indeed. Stopped at my friend's cafe, and thrust the flask into his daughter's hand, and said 'Americano with sugar in there please' And that sheep strolled across the field , with red kites inches from it, as it strolled straight across a part of the field where a load of chicken had just been scattered. The sheep caught my eye, because it was so laid back about it all.

Does it say on the tyre (tire) ? If so I'll check mine and let you know. But not today, it is hammering it down and the bike is under it's blankie.

Touring. If you want a look from a million angles, I've tons of photos on the day trips sections...

Welcome aboard. Same height as you and same year bike. I'd go with mirror extenders , front mudguard extender and radiator guard , cos those are inexpensive and almost compulsory. Then ride the bike for a bit, get used to it and decide what you want to change/improve for your style of using the bike. I've got the puig on mine and I have zero wind hitting my helmet, and ride with my visor up a lot of the time. And it's not in your line of sight or anything. I think you'll get used to the seat. I put an old sheepskin over mine if riding more than a couple of hours at a time. At first I thought the seat was pretty awful. To sum up, get those few wee bits, then burn petrol

Nearly forgot I stopped at the lochside, only about 4 miles from home when I remembered. I also had christmas presents from last year with me to open (from my sister , its a standing joke with us all) Got an awesome Tshirt and some crazy book.

60mph winds and horizontal rain all morning, then around noon the rain stopped (the gales didn't) so it was time to ride. Flask and cake on board and wheee, away we go. No idea where I ended up. If anybody can tell me how to get a trip from Rever onto here that would be cool.

Alisia, the concensus seems to be that FJR panniers are better and cheaper than Tracer ones. Sorry for the hijack, you know what we are all like when we get talking about bikes.

I lathered mine in ACF50, but I have been in some proper grubby places lately. I need to get a hose. I even bought some cleaning stuff, monkey glue or something. This is bad. My vstrom was washed twice in 11 years. I've already washed the Tracer once! Next thing I'll be buying a goldwing and filling the panniers with pledge and yellow dusters

70 gr ? I'd be deliriously happy if that was all my front wheel needed with the Michelin on it any advances on 110g ? Anyone? Michelin are deafening in their silence responding to my enquiries regarding this.

Forgot. When I went into the wee tearoom, proper old fashioned quaint tearoom, the ladies serving told the other customers I was the Stig off the tv car programme A couple of old ladies were almost swooning , hahahaha, I might have to go back , and take a spare helmet, I mean, everybody loves a rich widow, am I right?

Did a great route this afternoon, with a few new wee roads I hadn't ridden before. The weather was kind, around 7c and sunny, with the roads mainly drying, with wet or damp under trees. I had great intentions. Strapped the gopro on, set up a new route app on the phone (Rever) , then set up a mic in the helmet into the phone with a voice recorder app. All determined to absolutely have a day without exceeding the speed limit once (since I would be filming it of course) I managed about 12 miles before I broke and rode 'normally' , but it was great fun. Got worried a couple of times when I saw a wee orange light flashing when accelerating really hard, but then realised it was the TCS light, woops) Stopped off for cake of course at Abbey Cottage Tearoom then on to a beautiful place on the outskirts of Dumfries called The Crichton. The Crichton - Wikipedia As I was looking for somewhere to park up and take photo's, I spotted a couple of lads with bows. So I went to have a wee chat with them, and they were right friendly lads, having a great time shooting, but with not very much idea of what they were doing. So I ended up spending about 30 minutes with them talking them through some bits, explaining some things, and hopefully we'll hook up at some point and I'll take them out to do some shooting in the woods (Archery is my thing, if you haven't already, check my youtube channel, it is not your techno blingy 'youtuber' usual garbage, just me having a laugh with my bows https://www.youtube.com/c/hutchie2112 Anyway, another grand day out on the Tracer. Not many photo's today, but I have about an hour of gopro footage that I might edit together at some point.

Your bike is just the clean version of mine. How do you keep it so clean? Mine is manky.

Same as @bowlin01 , Lomo dry bag gear is brilliant, and inexpensive. I'm using their throwover panniers. I have a full set of givi luggage from my last bike, but I think I'm done with hard luggage now. Bike looks lovely, shame you couldn't get the faster grey one like mine of course

I was practicing my fast starts at every stop for traffic lights yesterday (as you do) , and on my 2015 and my lightweight skinny body, A mode TCS ON and if you just let the clutch out almost normally in 1st, at about 3k revs and then when full clutch out whack that throttle open and keep it open, and you shall be rewarded with the front coming up about 1 foot off the ground, smooth as silk, and stays there for long enough to make you smile, then it gently comes back down again, smooth as silk, and then when I click up into 2nd there is a brief sort of bump as the front goes a wee bit light and the tcs says no. Only difference from stock would be the Booster Plug, no ECU Flash. If I switched the TCS OFF I'd be lying on my back with the bike on top of me, in 1st 2nd or possibly 3rd. (sort of like Dani Pedrosa that time in motogp practice starts, I could watch that clip all day, there is a better one somewhere where John Hopkins is just looking over at Pedrosa on the ground like 'what are you doing down there')

The fitter balanced it using some fancy electronic balancing rig in the back of his van. I didn't see it, just what he told me. The mechanic who sorted the vibration issue used a manual jig. He also said that the weights that were on the wheel were in the wrong place, making the situation even worse. (and as an aside, he knows the fitter, who has in the past 12 months hit the booze hard sadly, and thinks his judgement was to say the least impaired when he fitted the tyre) All I know is the bike is vibration free now, but I have the heaviest front wheel outside of Sturgess I have contacted Michelin, both via their website and via their twitter contact. Just to see what they reckon.

And I thought you colonials were all patriotic and would be all excited about that wee cottage