What You Been Doing With Your Triumph Today

I’ve managed twice in the last 3 days to get out and enjoy this late spell of warm sunshine for a couple of short (ish) rides with a friend/near neighbour - Ivan - who is relatively new to motorcycling.

I’m really not sure whether or not I had a direct influence on him swapping his ‘brat’ style learner bike for a Triumph once the examiners had given him the right to destroy his L plates, but I’m pretty sure that the Thruxton I originally urged him to buy and an unofficial ‘tour’ he had of my T300s played a pivotal role in his eventual selection of his black Thruxton.

I’d always said that I’d be more than happy to lead him out for some riding experience once he’d passed his test and torn up his L plates - I didn’t want to do it before his test as I feared I might have unwittingly passed on the personal bad habits that I’ve undoubtedly acquired in 56 unbroken years of riding - and so we’ve been out on 3 or 4 occasions over the past couple of months when time, weather and (his) family/work/leisure commitments permit.

On Friday we headed east and out across the Somerset levels stopping briefly for a quick glimpse at Muchelney Abbey on a round trip covering just over 70 miles on mainly B class roads. No pictures, though as I forgot to pick up my phone! It’s an age thing.

Yesterday (Sunday) I had an appointment to undertake my first IAM ‘observed ride’ but I got a phone call on Saturday postponing the meet because the observer had double booked a family event and I agreed that should take priority. ‘Standby one’ on my thoughts of doing a write up of the IAM gig …

With the IAM cancellation freeing up a nice, sunny if not exactly warm day I thought I’d go and visit a friend and former colleague down in South Devon via a scenic route across Dartmoor but that trip, too, was instantly cancelled as he had short notice family commitments so … cue a quick text to Ivan and a frustrating hour trying (wholly unsuccessfully!!) to connect a Garmin Zumo to my computer and try to work out a relatively short local loop! I’m not at all well versed in sat. nav. technology and use - the TBS already had a mount installed when I bought it early this year - and I bought the ZUMO from a fellow forum member and have used it a couple of times to ease finding and reaching unfamiliar addresses locally but I really want to use the thing to plot out a route on unfamiliar, scenic roads that I can ‘research’ on Google Maps. All of this bit about sat navs, by the way, is an expedient to explaining the irony that some may perceive in the photos (hopefully) below of my Thunderbird with a fairly big sat nav sat on the handlebars AND a turn by turn route plan hand written on a piece of paper stuck to the tank with blue masking tape … :laughing: :upside_down_face: Yer’ve gorra larf, ay yer? (that’s for any block cuntray members we avv!)

Any road up me duck - the route directions took us out - again on B and C class roads - but this time I routed us north into the triangle of rich, rural farm land that lies between the brooding hulk of the Exmoor Hills to the west and the slightly softer and greener uplands of the Quantocks to the east. I won’t bore you with specific details and I failed - miserably - to take photographs of some of the scenic delights in which we immersed ourselves on our 70 or so miles of pleasant riding.

We stumbled on a cafe for a brief coffee stop and Ivan managed to choke down a well stuffed bacon bap while I satisfied myself with a simple coffee … probably instant as it wasn’t exactly a gourmet/bijou outlet … which was enough to get us both back on track with a view to enjoying the ‘return’ half of the trip.

Our return route took us by Bishops Lydeard where we diverted briefly around to the West Somerset Steam Railway station in the hopes of seeing a steam train but - typical, I guess - we were 10 minutes late! What we were in time for, however, was an enormous roads police presence around the west Taunton area with patrol and ANPR cars haring around the place and, I think, even the eye in the sky! Not sure what it was alll about - perhaps an exotic county lines bust or just a road safety campaign (we could certainly do with one around here, driving standards are, generally, abysmal) but it wasn’t a problem for us as, with me leading and my IAM ‘experience’ coming up, I’m unlikely to be trying to outrun any patrol cops any time soon!

All in all, we covered around 70 miles and enjoyed some really good roads, some nice warm weather and some lovely views. I’ll try to get some more pictures next time but it’s difficult to contemplate disturbing the rythm once you’re ‘in the zone’ and enjoying the ride. That’s my excuse …

Ivan chowing down on a nice bap!!

At the coffee stop.

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Nice day, I’m sure Ivan enjoyed it. I’m often the same with pictures, riding along thinking that would meke a nice pic… nah, I’m having too much fun to stop :grin:

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Just a run up to Tintagel, me and SWMBO on our Speed and Street Triples, nothing unusual about that…
Except having bought the B#W about a month ago I’ve been riding that since to acclimatise ready for 2-up riding again, we did a shakedown couple of nights away around Dartmoor and Exmoor last week.
Back on the Triple and WOW!
Occasionally I need reminding what a brilliant bike the Speed Triple is.

On the way up we passed a shed load of bikes gathering for some sort of run from the Cornwall Services on the A30, anybody know what that was?

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Snap. I stayed off my street triple for 2 or 3 weeks after getting the T100… I knew I’d be blew away and indeed I was!

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Answered my own question via Google.
The Martin Jennings run

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Not done anything with bike today, but been doing clothing maintenance for the change of season.

I replaced a broken press stud on leather jacket and cleaned it up before hanging it up inside house together with jeans, won’t been needing them again until next spring.

For winter I wear waxed cotton gear and the trousers still had a worn in mud colour despite earlier cleaning, so I resorted to to drastic measures, namely scrubbing with washing up liquid, then putting them in the washing machine. They still had a brown hue after that, so I repeated the process, and now after a fresh wax they’re looking black again. Until after tomorrow’s ride that is…

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Exactly what @HelmutVisor and I tend to do - sometimes I am riding along enjoying it so much that I don’t want to stop for photos as it will ruin the moment. They rarely look as good as you remembered the ride anyway as for me it’s so much about how it is making me feel as well as the surroundings.

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A few hours riding in the countryside today :slight_smile:

When I stopped to drink coffee from my flask, a passer-by’s opening remark was ‘That’s when they made proper motorcycles’, to which I answered, ‘What, 2018?’. :rofl: (I then proceeded to explain the styling and fakery on the bike.)

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Commute for me today…bit chilly, lots of layers already (@HelmutVisor may have said Michelin Woman) but sunny and dry and a good ride. Almost dark when I got home, I have been kidding myself it’s still summer but dark as I get home and only just getting light when I set off for my earlier shift makes that difficult :grimacing:.

Got snapped on my way there…

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You must have plenty of miles racked up now?

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Not many (about 800) from my test pass at end of Jan until end of April but about 5000 since then. I just want to be out on it all the time; was really annoyed working every hour I could last weekend for overtime as the weather was perfect for the bike :rofl:. Hopefully a good few more to come this year :crossed_fingers:.

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Thoroughly enjoyable ride out this afternoon - sunny and fairly warm. I didn’t go anywhere special, just a 60 mile loop of my local roads and enjoyed every moment. The Speed Triple just makes me permanently grin :grin: There’s no better therapy than riding a motorcycle :+1:

Hopefully we’ll get a few more days like today before winter sets in.

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Noticed recently a whirring noise coming from front of bike that changes with road speed and doesn’t change if I apply brakes lightly (so not pads/disc making the noise). So today I had front wheel off to check bearings. They feel smooth and solid, but left one when going from forward to backward turning feels like something is moving slightly (ball cage broke?). Anyway, will replace them. So, do I spend £14 for ‘Slinky Glide’ bearing and seal set from Wemoto or £60 for OEM parts? After a quick Google, decide on OEM parts, presumably they use a good brand and are guaranteed to fit.

Was going to get rear bearings too and do those but at £140 quid will check them first. (Though bike’s done 44,000 miles so probably a good idea to do them, just not this weekend.)

Whilst I’m splashing the cash, I bought a bearing puller set from Amazon. I’ve done the drifting out of old ones on a previous bike, but there didn’t seem to be much of a lip to go on with these wheels, and I want to reduce the chance of buggering things.

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Commute again for me today, pretty wet roads this morning and the odd rain shower to keep me refreshed :rofl:. There was a big diesel spill coming out of a filling station that continued for about 15 miles so I am guessing a HGV must have had more than just the usual over - full problem. Anyway, it’s the hilly, twisty section to my commute which I usually really enjoy. Today I just found it a bit anxiety - inducing with the road a rainbow and the constant smell of diesel :grimacing:. The steepest hills were the worst, especially where there were some temporary lights on a steep downhill section, think the slope and the time spent waiting had provided optimum conditions for tank emptying :rofl:.

Dry roads and a great ride back this afternoon though :+1:.

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Nuff said…

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A quick run down to Moll Springs today for my leaking Street Triple fork to be sorted. Got the textiles out for the first time since last winter. It’s not particularly cold but damp and threatening to rain.

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new set of michelin P5s to scrub in …
St.albans to H cafe … then on to the quaint village of Bibury…
Back roads and country lanes and a bit of sunshine …happy days!
Stopped middle of nowhere for a smoke and remembered to take a photo

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Had a run out yesterday on the Thruxton to my local dealer to get some rubber mounting washers for my tiger screen. The originals have perished. They didn’t have any in stock so I will have to wait for them to be ordered and delivered.

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Changed front wheel bearings today. I did start out trying to draw them in with a threaded bar and suitably sized sockets but they wouldn’t go in straight so resorted to tapping them in. Unfortunately, I did that a bit too much and there is no free play on the spacer and bearings are stiff to turn :frowning:

I think originals were in a bit stiff too, because I realised when checking them again before removing that the spacer was fixed and I was turning both bearings at once,.

After removing old bearings, they feel like they have a slight side-to-side play in them. Don’t know if I did that pulling them out, or if that’s wear. (Wished I’d checked new ones for that slight play before fitting them, could just be natural tolerances).

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Beautiful October day.
So off to Super Sausage for a breakfast bap and a coffee.
Back through the Chilterns to a mates house to watch one of the BSB races on TV. Then further through the Chilterns to home.
Went past the route of HS 2. No one working of course….
First photo could be titled Great British Engineering and HS 2…
Thought I’d stop for cheap petrol but apparently they ran out in 1967.



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