James' day out

With today's beautiful weather, I decided the time was right to have my first proper ride on the bike purely for fun - all my riding so far has been commuting to work or into college, so it was good to get out.

And, as the girlfriend was with me, decided to go out 2-up!

The weather was absolutely beautiful - when we stopped off for lunch in Effingham the sun was scorching down. Cans of coke were much appreciated by the both of us, and a couple of people came along and commented that the bike looked nice in the sunshine.


Discovered a couple of things about riding 2-up. Firstly I need to install my ZX-6R shock because the bike was wallowing into every dip in the road, and some of the more severe ones (or when I was going a little too fast) that lovely unique belly pan was bottoming out.
Secondly everything seems to take a lot more effort when there's two of you, even braking. The only easy bit was accelerating downhill!

Oh, and look what I caught in my lil' light!

Die wasp DIE.

All in all a good day out - put around 200 miles onto the bike, had a lot of fun alternatively scaring myself and the girlfriend, although a bit of bad news for her did marr the ride home, but that's by the by, and overall we enjoyed ourselves. Taking a pillion for a longer ride was also interesting, I'll have to try it more, but definitely not luggaged up, the thing would wobble like jelly in a 'quake.

Epsom is horrible to navigate by the way. Just horrible.

Popped into Get Geared as well to have a look at some bits and bobs and came away with some reflective stickers for my lid - been looking for some for a while, and I came up with a little design (which, fyi is now how you can recognise me when following):

Tempted to add little claw marks to the end of the paws. Yes/no?

And other than lookin' awesome, my little paw is also bright:



So overall, good day!

P.S. If you were the red curvy with SRAD forks I passed on the way into Leatherhead...smart bit of kit!

I don't see the point of the reflectors. If someone following hasn't seen your rear light, standard reflector and a 7" x 9" bright reflective yellow number plate then they are blind and no amount of reflective stickers is ever going to help.

You might find that the 'wallowing' is your girlfriend unsettling the back end. I went for a ride the other day with my girlfriend on the back and she handled it perfectly, and I had no wallowing from the rear of the bike at all, my back wheel didn't unsettle.

Originally Posted by Lozzo

I don't see the point of the reflectors. If someone following hasn't seen your rear light, standard reflector and a 7" x 9" bright reflective yellow number plate then they are blind and no amount of reflective stickers is ever going to help.

I didn't do it for any specific safety bonus - I just thought it looked cool, but it can't hurt neither

[tonyk]

Enjoy the sun.......
i'm stuck on night shift, by the time i get home i'm too tired to go out...

Have you adjusted preload for a pillion on the suspension ? It will wallow like a bitch if you haven't.

Pretty sure I saw you in get geared, was it you and your missus upstairs trying on boots while my best mate tried on every pair of size 44 boots they had in there. Round about midday..ish.

Originally Posted by Scythe92

You might find that the 'wallowing' is your girlfriend

bit harsh

Originally Posted by specialone

Have you adjusted preload for a pillion on the suspension ? It will wallow like a bitch if you haven't.

Tried to, but it seems either I'm weak and feeble or the preload adjustment on my shock is rusted solid. *Really* need to get around to fitting my new shock...

Originally Posted by Vergey

Pretty sure I saw you in get geared, was it you and your missus upstairs trying on boots while my best mate tried on every pair of size 44 boots they had in there. Round about midday..ish.

That'd be us did he find anything in the end?

Ended up going to helmet city up in tatsfield and buying the goretex versions of some of the alpinestars he had tried on in get geared