Tiger Miles and C14 Tight Trousers

 The Tiger is healed. I wasn't sure of going off piste with the engineering when I first did it, but trying to keep to Triumph's design demands when they themselves won't support them with parts pushed me over the edge, and I'm glad it did. The how-to is here.

It now starts on the button, idles steadily at 1200RPM (I set it with a spacer nut on the throttle idle bolt on the intake manifold), and has become my go-to ride again. Take out the it-never-worked-right idle control plunger and you've got a functional Triumph 955i motorbike.

The end result? I'm putting miles on the bike again this summer and hope to have it within 5k of the 100k goal before the snows fall. Next year I'll go over the top.

Many miles in many weathers on and off road. The Tiger's solid... which prompted me to put the Concours 14 up for sale. I got a couple of nibbles but wasn't feeling it so I took it down again. Why sell the Connie? It costs twice what the Tiger does in insurance each year and is half as comfortable (I've never been able to make it fit me right). My better half and I went out to Stratford for a play and it was rock solid.

When you have the hardware, you can show up in Stratford for a play dressed like a biker and turn into a well dressed theatre goer in moments!

... and yet we both got off it after a couple of hours of riding limping. It's a younger person's machine and I think it's time to let it go. Considering I stepped from a Fireblade to the C14, the next step is likely to be a (frickin?) Gold Wing, but that's me aging gracefully. The combo in the garage is more likely to be the Tiger and some godforsaken recovery project I'm neck deep into figure out rather than the Tiger and a cruiser.

While in Stratford we stopped by Perth County Moto's Bike Night. The new location has piles of parking and the new store is enormous! Well worth a trip out, and we've proven that you can rock up to a play and transform into theatre goers when you've got a top box and two panniers.

A brilliant trip to Stratford has left the C14 is hanging by a thread. Being a competent sports tourer with hyper-ballistic skills isn't enough anymore. 

PCM's new (to us) digs impressed.

When I look in the garage, this is the one that still gets my attention. Sell the C14 and find the guy selling the 955i Tiger in Windsor last year for parts and see if he still has it?

Lots of 8s

 

I've been on the road for work for the past couple of weeks (Newfoundland is spectacular!) The weather from there followed us back and we haven't seen the sun for many days, until this weekend! It finally broke and I've gotten some riding in.

I was hoping to get the old Tiger to 100k this year in its 20th year on the road. On the way to that I managed to hit eighty-eight thousand, eight hundred and eighty-eight kilometres! Very satisfying, and the bike looked great doing it:

I pushed my luck the next day and took Connie out for a couple of hours to Hockley Valley and back...

Weather's been good this week too, maybe we're finally into spring time! I had the C14 out again for a ride over to the Forks of the Credit after work today... time to make some miles!

Past Another Cold, Dark Winter

 I'm getting back out with regularity now that the worst of the winter is past. Both of the regular road bikes are fit and took to the road effortlessly. I had a bit of a breakthrough with the Concours14 last year and we're understanding each other a bit more. It's a big old bus but it's remarkably agile for how big it is and we've come to a kind of mutual kinesthesis, but I still took the Tiger out first because it's like putting on an old shoe....

... and we picked up right where we stopped. The goal is still to get to 100k this year in the bike's 20th year on the road, and I think we're good to get there.

I took the Tiger out again for some exercise in the gaps between snow and ice at the end of March....

But when I took both bikes out between the ice storms of April (isn't Canada magical?)...

I enjoyed the Connie so much that in another break in this never ending winter last week the C14 got pulled out in front of the Tiger (which enjoys pride of place in the garage).

I took the bigger road home and passing cars was like being on an arrow loosed from a bow; what a monster that bike is! ...And yet so versatile with piles of luggage space, no chain maintenance and (now that I've got the tires and shocks worked out), exceptional handling for its size. All of that and the adjustable windshield makes it feel a bit like flying an F14 Tomcat.

The Bonneville project is still not getting the time it deserves, but I'm in a new phase of work and I'm enjoying pouring my time and energy into that. In the meantime, both road-ready bikes are facing a promising riding season.

Making Miles on the Concours

We had a break in the Canadian winter (in April) and I finally got a chance to exercise the Concours.  This jaunt took me over 250kms from where I live in the tedious industrial farming desert of South Western Ontario, an hour up to the road to the edge of the Niagara Escarpment where I have a small chance of finding a corner to ride around.  It usually gets colder by the lake, but contrary to physics, it went from 12°C when I left up to 27° by the lake.  It only dropped down into the low 20s again once I found some altitude on Blue Mountain (a hill anywhere but in Ontario).  Even on the straightness I got into moto-zen riding mode.

https://goo.gl/maps/6DWBjfGv1WgbX6Ws5

It's been a long, cold COVID winter #2 and the opportunities to make miles on two wheels have been thin this spring.  A warm Sunday to get up to the big water and stare at the blue horizon was much needed.

It is actually nuclear powered!  I feel like I really bonded with the Connie on this ride - we sailed for miles and we had many more in us when we stopped for the day.  If you're light on the throttle it gets reasonable mileage, but it's a wonderful thing when you wake up that motor.  Kawasaki has a special touch with engines.

I had the 360 camera along for the ride and put together a montage using an incredibly complicated process that involves batch processing the 360 panaramas into 'tiny planet' images and then clipping them all together in video editing.  It isn't for the faint of heart, but it sure looks unique.  This is the how-to if you're feeling brave.

First Ride of the 2022 Season: Scratching That Itch

Imagine having an itch you can't scratch for 112 days.  Riding a motorcycle in Canada is an ongoing act of stoicism.

It was a long one this Canadian winter.  I'm usually able to get out for a cheeky February ride, but not this year in Ontario. Winter started later but when it came it clamped down on us like an angry professional wrestler and didn't offer any breaks from Polar Vortexes and snow.  My last ride was mid-November, it's now March.

T'was -22°C on Friday and tonight we've got freezing rain and snow into tomorrow, but it was a balmy 6 today so off I went.

The C14 started on the first touch and was bullet proof on a 30km ride up and down the Grand River:

The bisons were out at Black Powder.

It was mennonite o'clock as I shook the cobwebs out of the Connie.

The Tiger took a bit more convincing but that wasn't its fault, I'd had the whole fuel injection system out for a cleaning and it needed to get represussurized.  Once it had fuel it took off like a rocket!

Leaning into a corner, finally!

The zipper replacement on the jacket is working like a charm!

The roads were thick with sand and salt so after a cleanup everyone is back under a blanket waiting for the next break.  I'd be a year rounder if I still lived in Norfolk (UK).

On the upside, the 750cc cylinder head for the 71 Bonnie project came in so I've got other things to do!

On bike photos were taken with a Ricoh Theta camera attached to the windshield and auto-shooting every 8 seconds.  If you're curious, here's a bit on how to make awesome on-bike 360 photos.  Here's another published on Adventure Bike Rider Magazine in the UK:  How to capture 360-degree photos while riding your motorbike.

Looking forward to leaning into more corners in less than another 112 days!