I will be commencing my Wild Atlantic Way trip hopefully within a month. As long as the weather looks good I will be aiming to do the 2500km road trip in seven days on a motorcycle with no plans in place.
No B&Bs booked. No hotels. No plan!
I will be using the hashtag #WaWIn1Week so follow that as I will be live tweeting throughout the journey.
After a great Thursday night racing and the weather being exceptionally kind, Saturday rolled up. When I left the house it was glorious! So sunny it was almost hazy. I had to stop half way there to put my waterproofs on as it looked like it was going to chuck it down, and by the time I arrived although it hadn’t rained it looked like it was going to, big time! It was dark and there was some proper big ass black clouds floating menacingly over head. It did not take long for them to burst! And so began the theme for the day, sunny, windy, cloudy, raining, heavy ass raining, sunny, warm, windy, cloudy… and repeat!
The first race of the day had to be cancelled after a couple of restarts but from about 1.30 -2.00PM we did get some more continuous according to plan racing, it even looked like, for a short while, that the road closure contingencies would be used to get the final race in however as the winds had picked up again the riders and management decided against that.
So all in all it was a great days racing and thankfully, ultimately no one was fatally injured. A rider was critically injured as was a spectator when a bike left the track and hit her in a garden, a tragic freak accident, however thankfully and mercifully all involved and injured people are now well on the mend, and all are expected to make a full recovery.
See you next year! Onto the TT!
Just a quick note to all the riders, teams, and spectators, have a great and safe Race Week! Keep an eye on my twitter where I should be live on Thursday and Saturday!
It’s gonna be great. And if you can’t get down there check out the BBC for live coverage of ALL practice and race sessions!
Let’s go Tyco BMW!
Having recently purchased a TomTom Rider V5 as my sat nav solution for my motorbike I became very aware that whilst browsing for the product it was hard enough to find out exactly what came in the box. To level the playing field a little I have made the following Unboxing Gallery. And just to be sure, to be sure, that any perspective buyer is completely aware of what comes in the box the contents are as follows :
TomTom Rider (V5) Sat Nav
Ram Mounting Kit (Non locking) for Mounting on bars (includes rubber to protect bars)
EU & UK Plug Options (For Wall Charging)
TomTom Rider Charging Dock & Mount (For on bike charging)
TomTom Rider Mounting Base Plate (&mounting screws, washers and bolts)
TomTom Wall Charger
TomTom Rider Wairing Kit for Hard Wiring to the Battery (see my next posting for how to hardwire to the CanBus system on a BMW Motorcycle)
USB Lead (For Syncing, Map Updating and Charging)
Documenation
At this stage I have had no real use of the satnav but when I do I will update with any thoughts and a short review. As I have already stated I will be commencing some Motorcycle VLogging Soon, so I may well cover the sat nav on one such journey.
One point I feel I must raise at this stage is that with the supplied mounting kit the use of a locking kit (approx £55) is a must unless you are very disciplined in removing the sat nav each and every time you are getting off the bike. With the system supplied with the device it could be taken off your bike within 5 seconds with no trouble. It could easily be gone during a quick stop at the ATM or whilst paying for fuel. There are many other mounting systems available that will give a little more security for a quick stop but be prepared to take your kit with you for any stop that is going to be more than a few minutes or when the bike is out of eyeshot. These devices are so expensive and so appealing to scumbag thieves that you have to be aware they are vulnerable and should never be left unattended.
Enjoy your exploration!
TomTom Rider V5 UnBoxing Gallery :
This year I took myself over to Birmingham for what is meant to be one the best Motorcycle Shows in the UK. It was my first time over and without doubt I will be booking my tickets ASAP for the 2015 Show.
With a great variety of manufacturers present along with pretty much all the accessories you could safely carry away the show has a lot to see and do.
This year the show piece, in fact the show stopper was the Kawasaki H2 and H2R, and when the track ready version was put on the dyne the show literally did stop! The ear defenders they were handing out were actually a requirement, if you had any sense! This bike is deafening, more importantly this bike is impressive!
You can check out my YouTube Video of it on the Dyno below :
Here is a Gallery showcasing some of the other outstanding machines on display – and check out that Honda ‘Prototype’ – is this the new soon to be released Africa Twin! Hell I hope so!
Some how I missed these photos in my ‘To Attend To’ folder on my computer, so for that I can only apologise.
A few very quick words will have to suffice as I am so far out of date, but another spectacular NW200 this year and I look forward to the next. Thoughts and Prayers of course with the family of , Simon Andrews, the rider who was tragically killed at this years event.
NW200 2014 Gallery :
I recently changed my bike, however prior to getting rid of my old one I did make a few final modifications, 3 of them successfully and one not so much.
The BMW G650GS is the baby of the GS range from BMW, but regardless of the fact that it is the smallest it is still a great all round machine. It will go pretty much anywhere and with its punchy 650cc single cylinder engine it is snappy enough, however it goes lack in top end power.
The weight of the bike (in that it is very light – a wet weight of 191kg) means that it is easily managed and thrown about the B-Class roads.
However with it being classed as a dual-action or adventure style bike it doesn’t come with many add ons that other bikes higher up the range take for granted. For me a taller screen and some wide pegs were an absolute must and they came courtesy of eBay.
The screen costing a mere £55, and the pegs costing a whopping c. £25! When you consider ‘branded’ wide pegs come in at around the £200 mark, and a screen being at least £120, these were two absolute bargains and can not be more simple to fit.
The 3rd successful add-on and another ridiculously easy modification to add was some tank guards, with one purpose only – to protect the tank paintwork and plastics.
Unscrew -> Remove -> Screw back on -> Job done!
First of all we will have a look at the high screen :
The Standard OE BMW Screen :
Simply Unscrew, Replace and Screw!
The New Screen :
Following the successful and obviously simply installation of the Screen I replaced the OE Footpegs with some new Wide Pegs :
Simply undo one nut and bolt, carefully reeve the spring and replace in the reverse order – job done!
Then we have the Tank Pads from Wunderlich – Peel off the 3m sticky pads, line them up and slap them down!
So as far as I am concerned these 3 simple modifications made a huge difference to the bike. The tank guards did just that no more needs to be said, the wide pegs make long days on the bike so much more comfortable, if if you have to go standing, much much safer and of course stable and more comfortable. In fact if you intend to do any riding whilst standing on the pegs, wide pegs are a necessity, it is that simple! Finally the screen – a great job, long days on the bike become so much easier. Buffeting is dramatically decreased and passing a lorry or bus on the motorway becomes much less of a worry.
As can be seen from the gear I bought it doesn’t have to cost the Earth to preform these simple modifications, and the question I got asked most re the pegs was do they feel sturdy and strong. Take it from me as a big biker, the pegs are fine, they held me without issue, and if they hold me at about 17-18st I’m sure they will hold you too!
Unfortunately however all was not plain sailing. I also bought some Rigid Industries Dually Auxillary Lights, just to make night time riding a little more tolerable. I did a lot of research on which lights to buy and came to the conclusion that these were the lights I was looking for. User reviews consistently rate them highly, all across the world, and no one who I spoke with that had a set could speak badly off them. They are extremely bright, extremely durable and extremely tough, and by all accounts plug and play simplicity sets them up. Unfortunately I never got that far!
For me the issue was where to mount them. The G650GS is a reasonably small dual purpose bike, there simply isn’t much spare room kicking about on it. That means mounting options are very limited. I was reduced to the option of mounting them on the crash bars.
Initially I went for the side of the bars, it was then, rightly, pointed out to me that in the event of a spill you could be forcing the lights into the engine. And the fact that these things are so tough you will do damage to the engine of they go crashing into it.
My next option was on the bottom of the bars but as you can clearly see the clearance was an issue and then wiring them up and getting the light throw correct was just going to be a nightmare.
Unfortunately thats where the story of the lights ends, I never got them fitted, and then changed my bike. The new bike having aux lights my Rigid Industries Dually Lights became surplus to requirements and I sold them on. Just prior to that I was looking at getting a custom mount made but that never developed.
If you are the owner of a G650GS with Rigid Industries Dually lights fitted get in touch as I would love to see them fitted and get an opinion from an owner as to how they work for them.
Anyway that concludes my G650GS story and as I have said I have changed the bike and will be adding more info in relation to it soon, as well as doing a little bit of Moto Vlogging, so stay tuned for that, and thanks for reading!
The Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland are by no means strange to bikers from across the world. Just look at Newcastle, Co. Down’s Main Street on any given Sunday (or any given sunny day) and you will see rows of bikes lined up outside the Town Hall, awaiting or having just returned from a zip through the Mournes. Look across the street at anyone of the Coffee Shops or ice-cream shops and you’ll find the riders of said bikes enjoying a much needed treat, or getting the energy levels up before starting off on their journey.
Bikes from across the country and beyond congregate here, the riders all united by their two wheeled machines. And it is from here that the journey begins.
Many bikes have left the coast at Newcastle and ascended into the mountains, where well maintained roads twist upwards and onwards. The sights are enough to guarantee a return by any visitor, especially on a bright sunny day, the landscape here is truly breath taking.
But there is another side to the Mournes, after all this is the Kingdom of Mourne, not simply a one way route. However this other side of the mountain range is effectively untouched, but it is no less beautiful. There are sights on the other sode of the Mournes that will leave you breathless as quickly, maybe even more so, than anywhere else on the range.
Most riders go Newcastle and up, may I suggest that you try Newry and up.