Autumn

Autumn / Winter

Its that time of year again where you need to verify the thermometer and look for eight degrees or more, if it is then dig out thick socks, inner gloves and thermal neck warmers.

Col and I have been out on the bikes when we can on Sunday mornings, but Jon, Wealthy and Matt haven’t been able to make it so typically more than the final handful of months.

For the final ride of the summer time we headed to Shobdon airport, a place suggested to us by an individual Col knows. The roads had been quiet, the climate warm and the leaves nevertheless on the trees. It took a even though to find the cafe there but we both like the planes and there was lots of flying action going on to hold us entertained for the hour we spent there.

Shobdon Airfield

The road we utilized to get back property was an old favourite the B4364, this has some great sweeping bends and sufficient to preserve you busy in between faster sections.

For the subsequent handful of rides that we managed to get out on, a clear adjust to the season was noticable, the leaves had started falling from the trees and the roads had been covered by a constant damp layer. Also this was the point at which inner gloves would make good sense as temperatures had dropped beneath the magic 10 degrees which we prefer for our longer rides.

We decided the Wenlock route would be good for the reduce temperature finding some fun along the B4363 with its 3 hairpins and undulating slopes.
One of the weekends started out fine and sunny but we ended up caught in fog which made for a shorter and miserable ride, but there had been really a couple of make the effort to go to the cafe in Bridgnorth.

Bike Show at Birmigham NEC

The final week of November the Motorcycle reside was on at the NEC in Birmingham and Col and I went for a look. Col booked our tickets on the web saving us some money for our day out. We headed straight for our favourites Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki but got distracted by Kawasaki and the new H2 they had on show.
The race version we very first looked at appears sort of ugly but brutishly handsome at the same time. It has bits of plastic sticking out of the sides of the lower front fairing and exactly where the mirrors go like wings from a formula 1 auto, the panels had been all carbon fibre but quite angled and pointy, then the frame is of the trellis variety. From the front it created me factor of a Storm trooper from Star Wars. However there is some thing that makes you want to maintain hunting at it.
The road going version didn’t look really so interesting with the massive flaired exhaust pipe and single headlight, but i am certain right after market place bits will make it a lot more appealing.

The H2R (track version)

They had a single link to a dyno tester on show and a guy from Kawasaki told us it has been measured at having 326bhp! The Kawasaki guys then ran it to show us what it sounded like. Great! I cant wait to try one out one day.

I picked up a deal on SBS brake pads, I purchased the front sets and had the rear set thrown in for free of charge.

Also Datatag had an supply have been you can register your self on the Datatag Ice technique. Then if you are involved in an accident, assist can scan the sticker attached to your helmet and they can find out who you are and info you have entered.

We are in the initial stages of planning next years road trip, following speaking to the guys at Roadshuttle when at the bike show we have added a suprise entry to the list which is acquiring us excited, we have narrowed it down to 3 destinations.

1 Geneva and the Swiss Alps using the road shuttle

2 The Pyrenees hiring a van

3 Somewhere in the UK just on the bikes

I also needed tyres but utilised a neighborhood motorcycle shop to provide and fit the tyres at a extremely affordable value. It was the 1st time i had removed the wheels from the Fireblade and they had been easy to do. I utilized the Abba stand which tends to make access to the chain and brakes simple as the help leg is nicely out of the way.

The following day i went to scrubb in the tyres, well I say scrubb it was far more like wash them in as the roads have been soaked for 80% of the ride.