twowheeler
two wheels are best
After a week of holidaying in London and the south of England, and visiting the Norton in Southampton, I was as excited as a young bull in a cow paddock to finally arrive in Leeds. Good friends expat Casey and Sadhana were minding my VFR in their shed and I couldn't wait to see and ride it.
In preparation for this trip, I bought it last year on Casey's advice - http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5990. Casey knew what I was after, knew the bike and its previous owner. In fact it's registered to him - as a non-resident I couldn't get over that hurdle - while I took care of finances and insured it. Casey did the running around for me for the MOT, etc, too which was bloody brilliant .
Plenty of luggage capacity -
Took it for a test ride around the local suburbs after committing the route to memory - no Leeds street map and no mobile phone coverage meant getting lost wasn't an option - and came back stoked. Great crisp condition, comfy, really lovely engine and exhaust note (a couple of baffles removed apparently). Geeky pic grinning like a loon upon return and, in hindsight, the last time I felt strong sunshine on the bike ! -
Packed the next morning and setoff on day#1, an all-day ride through the Yorkshire Dales National Park and a bit of the Lake District National Park, to arrive in Heysham in the late evening in plenty of time for the 2am ferry to the Isle of Man. That was the plan anyway , it didn't quite work out that way.
Under the cover is Casey's XC Falcon V8 road-registered supercharged drag car, which he'd just pulled from a container after shipping it from Oz. All his own work; you could say it turns a few heads in the UK .
The XC kicked my arse a minute later as I snagged the edge of a pannier on its bumper. A timely lesson about roomy but super-wide panniers; I was very careful about them for the rest of the trip. No filtering . . . . -
Up through Harrogate then west until the B6160 and the start of the National Park near Bolton Abbey -
More to come . . .
In preparation for this trip, I bought it last year on Casey's advice - http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5990. Casey knew what I was after, knew the bike and its previous owner. In fact it's registered to him - as a non-resident I couldn't get over that hurdle - while I took care of finances and insured it. Casey did the running around for me for the MOT, etc, too which was bloody brilliant .
Plenty of luggage capacity -
Took it for a test ride around the local suburbs after committing the route to memory - no Leeds street map and no mobile phone coverage meant getting lost wasn't an option - and came back stoked. Great crisp condition, comfy, really lovely engine and exhaust note (a couple of baffles removed apparently). Geeky pic grinning like a loon upon return and, in hindsight, the last time I felt strong sunshine on the bike ! -
Packed the next morning and setoff on day#1, an all-day ride through the Yorkshire Dales National Park and a bit of the Lake District National Park, to arrive in Heysham in the late evening in plenty of time for the 2am ferry to the Isle of Man. That was the plan anyway , it didn't quite work out that way.
Under the cover is Casey's XC Falcon V8 road-registered supercharged drag car, which he'd just pulled from a container after shipping it from Oz. All his own work; you could say it turns a few heads in the UK .
The XC kicked my arse a minute later as I snagged the edge of a pannier on its bumper. A timely lesson about roomy but super-wide panniers; I was very careful about them for the rest of the trip. No filtering . . . . -
Up through Harrogate then west until the B6160 and the start of the National Park near Bolton Abbey -
More to come . . .
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