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Pulled a short video together now that I'm back from my work travels. I tried to throw some music over the top (by a Welsh band, naturally) but after upload to YouTube the audio quality became distorted - so you may wish to mute. UPDATE: I've now sorted the music quality, and it'll default to 1080p if viewed via YouTube, rather than the embed below. In truth I had actually managed to film probably about 70-80% of the entire ride out on both days, so this video barely scratches the surface! Tommy is lucky, on the ride home I had put the cameras away so didn't get to capture my leaving him for dust on that beautiful, flowing road I'll see what photos I took on my phone and share any worthy ones later. But for now, sit back and waste 5 minutes of your life...

I had a bloody great weekend, loved every minute. 100 per cent agree on a second meet every year. End of August ?? Blackhat you choose? Great ride out,,,, lots of miles, loads to see, great roads, perfect speeds (fast X slow), really like riding with you lot as we now know eachother's riding style's over the years. Your a great bunch of lads. Thanks Merve for the route and leading the way. No crashes is good as it doesn't spoil the day. I had good fun at the back, kicking up a sand storm on poor Tommy,,,, I know you were swearing at me, I can lip read,,,,, + out sneaky pint was so funny at the time. Really good weekend,,, my boots were full of water when I left Merve but the rest of me was dry. I took A40 home in the end,,,, was busy, had to do a lot of 50mph filtering. My back tyre is dead, I'll be lucky to get the week out of it. Yellow mellow,,,, pitty you didn't make it after all your time trying. Thanks all,,,,, chat soon,,,,,,, ps I didn't take any pictures, sorry Pat

I made it back home safely too. I had a thoroughly enjoyable time, can't believe 2016 would have been my last time out on one of these...! Anyway, thanks Merv for the planning (it was a fun ride) and supplying us with a BBQ. Thanks to Tommy for catching my bike (!! - I'm an idiot). Also thanks to Tommy and Drewps for the chaperoning home (hope you didn't mind me wizzing past you on those twisties, Tommy?) It was great seeing familiar faces again (Andrew, Jason, Tommy, Paul) and wonderful meeting new faces (Merv, Martin, Pat). I'd be up for meeting more regularly too. I'm away with work now, but will check through my footage and see if I captured anything good.

Before I say anything else "Thank you" to pilninggas for yesterday, just brilliant mate tho some of those roads were terrifying! but the views at the end were worth the terror. The "stop and wait" system worked great with just the one glitch, soon sorted out. It was fun to see you all again and I'm just sorry I could only make it for the Saturday, I really needed to end the day with a pint or three with you all. got home around 7PM so just under 2 hours from when I left you all on the mountain top. I have a good lot of videos from the ride out and will stitch something together in the next few days and upload it when I can, hope you all made it home safe and sound and see you next year wherever that might be? Oh and I have some of Pat trying to climb the mountain on his fazer! yep I'm still laughing.

So as I asked a few weeks ago "was the ABBA superbike lift any good?" Well to cut a long story short SWMBO has bought it for me for my birthday (YAY) it turned up in several boxes, well what's a birthday without something to open! and she had got me the whole kit and caboodle, I mean the lift the trolly widget and the extension arms for front and rear wheel removal. So I can now take the wheels off and still move the bugger around the garage. It was expensive tho just under 3 hundred quid. Anyway the point of this missive is to say that the thing is just brilliant, after you have attached the bobbins to the bike it's a simple matter to just hoike it into the air with one hand which brings it into the same height as if you were using the centre stand, for which up till now I have to use a lump of wood under the rear wheel to get it to the height where this old sod can then just about get it over the hump onto the stand and that's using both hands and still struggling with 350Kgs of dead weight. So I'm just saying, if you have no centre stand or struggle to use the one on your bike then this thing is the dog's danglies when it comes to ease of use. This is what she got for me. Plus I can now take off the centre stand and suspension and the swing arm to grease them whereas before it took 3 different set ups to do these jobs!

Well I sort of got this video uploaded and hope you all enjoy it, it's only a flavour of the day but it was fun out there never the less. I'm sorry about the language on the video if you show it to your kids or partners please turn the volume down! Well here goes nothing. Also it seems I have had my camera set on 480p not the 1080p it should have been so the quality is well to be honest crap, I will see if I can upload an better version later. https://youtu.be/wLROAaQliVo

Ok, so HOW many times do we hear the pub championship winning [email protected] say he has saved 3grammes from fitting a different headlight bulb. They say losing a bit of weight makes all the difference, well after that diabetic business I had/have/er? anyway. From October I am now a trim 75kg, (around 12st). That's over 4 stone down. Now this year my bike has felt a lot quicker, initially I had to change the suspension preload by quite a lot and it certainly goes a damn sight better. I thought my cock up fitting those wheels with a 40 instead of a 44 tooth sprocket would be on my to do list. Not a bit of it, pulls it fine now I have got rid of the flab. That got me wondering, 130kg for the bike 105 (ahem) for me as a starting point at my worst. 235 on (lets be honest) 45hp. That's .19hp/kg Now 130kg for the bike, 75 for me and 45hp. 205 = .21hp/kg Or, in real terms, its worth around 11%, so not eating all the pies got me a right result. Lot of waffle if you ride a cruiser or a superbike bit on a sensitive little bugger like mine its made a hell of a difference. And yes I am bragging about losing a shit load of weight.

It's been a while since I started a new post, so thought I'd share my new toy! Picked it up last week, I'm 30 this year so I thought balls to it and had a brand new bike. Gone for the new speed twin... Pics attached. All I'll say is that it's awesome, torque for days, nice and easy to ride - even at a spirited pace Sorry it's not a yam [emoji851] Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

3000 in a week, surely? bloody soft as shite northerners, get on your bikes ya pansies....

I'll be down for that!

Prepped my boys Virago in readiness for an MoT (booked for tomorrow,) He started a new job in April and has been on training so no time for bikes. His bike has sat in the shed since last year. Replaced front brake fluid and cleaned and adjusted rear drum brake. checked all lights work, checked spokes on wheels and fork seals. Didn't check steering head bearings as no centre stand and I was on my own but took it a wee run and they felt fine, so should be good to go tomorrow

Ok long story short. I was on the YOC weekend ride out but my phone died and I couldn’t get it to charge, the charger port has been faulty for a while so I’ve been using a wireless charger at home, but shit for brains here didn’t bring it with me. Anyway I was telling the guys & bipps in the pub and finners said oh yes that happens to me a lot, you need to make a small plastic hook and poke it in the port you’ll be amazed how much crap comes out. Well I never got round to it while I was away to be honest it was quite nice not have phone for the weekend. But gave it a go when I got home. Wow how much crap can fit there is amazing thanks Finnerz iPhone charges perfect again now.

I have had that advice my whole life mate......"Don't stick that in there" has been the bane of my life

Thanks all for a great couple of days. Managed to get home just in time to avoid the rain and pick the Mrs up from the station so bonus points for me and good boyfriend points from her lol. Shout out to merve for arranging and sorting out a cracking route! I agree on 2 meets a year - happy to try and sort something for Derbyshire again if that's what people want Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

Im home now too. The usual post weekender ablutions and tidy up. Pretty wet on the way home [perfect as far as I am concerned]. Nice to meet old friends and new faces. We managed - bar a glitch - to stay together throughout - hopefully the pace was on-point. Always a win, when no one falls off or drops their steed. Getting up the Vale of Ewyas to Gospel without hindrance was spot on, i doth my cap to Slice doing on the FJR. We do need to try to do 2 a year if poss. I do like Derbyshire as a standard as it's central and those roads are ace. The NC returned 87mpg overall - i need to rag it harder.... I dont have any photos, thanks for putting yours up Drewps.

Back home in one piece. epic ride taking in most of mid and South Wales as that’s where satnav took us. great to meet everyone again and thanks to Mervin for organising it. now for my photos Me on set off Tommy and I at Lake Bala Yacht club. Special invitation only Dollgeau for chippy Penmaenpool toll bridge Llwyngwril over looking Barmouth on right Aberystwyth Cwmafan aqueduct Cracking ride up the Rhonda valley, just like Switzerland Our campsite Moon day after solstice Glyn Tarell Oasis cafe Pat’s hill climb Talybont-on-Usk Duke Nukem fixing his tdr Mine shaft at Capel Gwynfe brilliant time

Well, home showered and with a brew. Bloody good weekend. Fuelled up 7 times, 49litres in all, actually works out at 48 to the gallon over the 540miles I did. Refuelling at 75 miles seemed to be the best, Some great roads and some amazing places. God knows how stuff gets delivered to some of those people. Only pain for me was thinking I would kill the current chain with this trip, bad move, set up a high frequency vibe that lost me several nuts and bolts over the weekend. Had to remove the other heat shield before I got home I think my hands will be numb till august, where next? We should make it more than once a year too. Oh, and all the rain we were worried about over the weekend, I think I got it all from just past Broadway for 90% of the trip home it absolutely fct it down. Other times just heavy, lol.

High pressure coming in from BoB. TF.

Well peeps it seems that SWMBO has been booked in for her OP in just over a month from now! So pretty sure that I'm fubard for the weekend but just looking at the map I "might" be able to make it just for the day on the Saturday? It's only about an hour and a half from me so weather permitting and hoping I can get away for the day I hope to see you all then.

If you’re at home tomorrow afternoon I could nip over and have a look pm me your address and phone number

If you cba why would anybody else spend the time. This forum is for the benefit of every member. Not a free fixit for the lazy.

What you were dripping ugly fluids? Nice one Fizz, id like a change but my financial advisor has a long list of things that are really boring that I have to pay for. Nothing important, daughters uni, for example.

I've got a new speed twin on order :smug: Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

Just had to crack open a bottle of Kraken which was also a Christmas present as I've just heard that I am going to be a grandad again.

Sorry about that guys, bloody server update took up the remaining disk space and crashed. Took ages to manually sort it out. All good now

Is this any good mate Sorry bud, couldn't resist Try here https://www.yamahapartshouse.com/oemparts/a/yam/5432e4e5f870020b14e39b77/muffler

the final day eventually arrives and Tommy has arranged Jimmy to come over and have some breakfast and to ride with us via his home top of some hill last shot of McCaig's tower Jimmy led the way to Inveraray. The Vital Spark replica in the backaground Droopy checking out his trump the boys mike and I need the loo At jimmy's house we had a nice brew by his lovely wife and the Waverly came past. I lived in Devon and the Waverley was based there for a while. The last ocean going paddle steamer nice view from Jimmy's Hoose we blatted along via Glasgow, refuling there and just took the motorway home into the wind, which was fine for my bike with a screen. Mike and Tommy struggled but we met up at the refuel stops. that's it. 1663 miles, £178 in fuel and priceless memories. If you havn't done it yet, what are you waiting for.

Left the military in January... I guess I missed the desert so much I went back voluntarily, currently over near Kabul. I'll be back in blighty in March, got something special hidden away in the unit for when I get back.

Glad you're OK Slice. What everyone says about driving standards really resonates with me. In my youth, I spent time working on speed limits, designing roads and white line schemes. In the '70's and '80's, we used "science" to determine appropriate speed limits and design white line schemes which prevented the main causes of accidents/incidents........Driver Frustration and Vehicle-Vehicle, or Vehicle-Pedestrian conflicts. Human beings come with an inbuilt perception of risk (self preservation) and behave accordingly. Speed limits and road element design used to take all of that into account so that traffic flowed freely, but safely and drivers didn't get frustrated into making dangerous overtakes. However, the ignorant Safety-Crats who have successfully created the "Speed Kills" myth, have created a society where the only "known" bad driving behaviour is to exceed the speed limit. Not using mirrors properly, hogging lanes, using mobiles, driving so slowly that you have 20 cars queueing up behind you are no longer considered unacceptable - there are virtually no traffic Police out on the roads dealing with these drivers, only officers in camera vans sat at the side of a dual carriageway targeting people driving at over 70mph - hence the only thing most people see as "bad driving" is Speeding. in times gone by, when rural roads had 60mph limits, traffic flowed freely and overtakes were minimal because drivers were content that their speed was "appropriate" to the conditions/risk and frustration was limited (this being approximately the 85 percentile speed for humans driving in those conditions with their risk perception). Imposing a blanket 50mph limit to make things "safer" (because only speed kills), now frustrates 85% of the driver population because they feel they are going too slowly for the conditions and the risk, prompting dangerous overtakes - it human nature to get frustrated when we can't do things within our "safe zone". Conversely, with the increased population and vehicle density in urban areas, speed limits, except near the odd school, have been left at 30mph or 40mph - which in many cases is too fast - and I now experience plenty of drivers who drive at less than 30mph in town centres, because they see the real risk in travelling at 30mph with lots of pedestrians in close proximity to their lane. In a pedestrian-vehicle collision, speed does indeed kill and dropping speed limits will definitely save lives - how about 20mph in every town/village centre where there are concentrations of pedestrian activity (I'd vote for that). In vehicle-vehicle collisions, the difference between a closing speed of 100mph and 120mph isn't going to cause a dramatic reduction in driver fatalities (driver will most likely die in either scenario) and having a car hit a pedestrian at 50mph will be just as fatal as one doing 60mph (or more). Somehow, we need to get away from the message that the only way to drive safely is to drive slowly and to get back to Policing our roads properly and teaching and managing the driver population to drive properly. in almost every situation we, as bike riders encounter, it's Bad Driving that causes accidents - that's what our Police and Government should be focussed on. Ironically, travelling back from Edinburgh on the A1 recently, we saw a big LED traffic sign with the warning message "Frustration Causes Accidents", showing that someone still understands the science..............but then shortly after, there was a speed camera at the side of the road, on a straight, wide, clear section of dual carriageway !!!!!!

headed towards Oban via skye we stopped at a few places along the way Torridon we were stuck behind a group of cars who couldn't get round a campervan. He pulled over as we were turning sharp left, to top that off, my front brake lever felt funnny and had to pump the brake to get it to work. Turned out a small torch used for checking my oil level jammed itself between the lever on occasion, Phew! strathcarron - Arrina this bull was not impressed at all stopped off near Applecross Inn called the walled garden, lovely in there till 3 bikers turned up the route over applecross was in scotch mist again vid of Tommy and mike down the Bealach Na Ba https://youtu.be/BW-zFRW26jM made it to Skye had to ride directly to Ardaser to catch the Mallaig Ferry Mike had a senior moment as he couldn't find his wallet to pay for the icecreams he promised us, he eventually dug down enough into his pockets to find the wallet Stoped off at Glenfinnan where HP fans can see the viaduct I also liked this "snow piecer" Glenfinnan Station Glenfinnan viaduct Ballachulish Next stop, Oban. Tommy's old haunt. had a great meal in the Italian Tommy went off to do some personal stuff so Mike and I were forced to take a tour of the distillery Oldest and smallest in Scotland. Is was a great tour and had 2 glasses of whisky with a keepsake all for the sum of £10. Oban grew around the distillery rather than the otherway round We also got a ferry ticket to Mull as we were spending 2 days here to recuperate before going home The ferry was to Caraigmure and nothing there whatsoever, a bus can take you to Tobermory for £11 return which was more than the ferry, we wisly spent that at the inn instead nice internal feature, anchor and chain for foot rest then the next ferry back Oban Chocolate cafe chilling after a day of not riding and watching the setting sun just captured this we all called it a night, then Tommy says if I still wanted to go to McCaig tower, was about 11:45 and I thought sack it, let Mike go to bed. So we were a little pished I put this on Facebook live and Mike was watching it he thought we were tucked up in bed Last day tomorrow

day 4, left Mey and headed for Dunnet the most northern point on the mainland, a lot of scotch mist around can you tell what it is yet? Anglo/chinese relations starts with Droops stop off in Tongue in Lairg Aparently the new home for space travel. Haggis pastie with tatties and neeps in too young family cycling from Hamburg to Shetland, rather you than me Loch Eriboll those rocks on the other side came from USA a few milenia ago vid of another group gpoing the proper way round the NC500 https://i.imgur.com/gaaWago.mp4 stop off in Durness Smoo caves Elf and Safety gone mad topping up the amber nectar in Durness. Bernie came bouncing around the corner on his Goldwing combi and stopped to have a chat Scourie Lochinver view from the digs fish were jumping in the loch whilst we were having dinner

Looks the bollocks slicey

Power House caliper piston rebuild kit is done. Need new pads, though.

Home safe and sound at 6.40. busy now so post in a bit

Smashin. Stopped in Malvern for fuel and a brew atm. Eta 5 ish I suppose.

You can have my details, Slice. I’ll message you. So glad you’re wife is doing well. My best friend is going through the same right now. Cancer it tough - particularly the treatment.

Had a blast. Bit apprehensive in the first couple of sessions, but settled down ok after that. Definitely rode faster than novice group, like Finnerz says theres a good range of abilities and I was towards the slower end of the group but by no means embarrassed. The higher overall speed meant I could keep flowing better. Missed the final session as absolutely knackered and didnt want to risk it. It was packed full, and on track were Dean Harrison and Ron Haslam in the fast group. I could count road bikes on one hand, all the others were trailered/vanned in, along with all of the gear that goes with em, race bike/track bikes, some wonderful machines there. And me on the humble fazer. Next up is an evening trackday session sometime in June July, probably another in August, the the Road Bike only day in early Sept.

Well it's very pretty and all but now there is no chance whatever of keeping up with you! My only Triumph had 2 speeds, warp factor WTF! and dead still with various ugly fluids dripping on the floor, but I was only 17 at the time and had no idea. (Before you say anything Jimmy yes it's the rider not the bike!!!) ?

Don't ever be sorry for owning a Triumph. Great looking bike bud. I've got its granda, a 1959 Speed Twin Yea, cmon bipps, you know it makes sense

The rear rim is done. Lots of cleaning, sanding and buffing with steel wool. Got a bit of rash on the outer lip but it's 35 years old. Not perfect but it'll do. I wish I could take the time to grind the paint off the spoke faces but I have so much else to do. I might do it later if I have a break in parts arrivals. The engine still has no cylinders, waiting on studs.

Sounds like an idea. Don't use my bike for work much at all. It's 16 mile each way along a dead straight road. With unlocking the garage, the bike and putting on leathers it takes 15min longer. And the bike does 10mpg less plus oil than the car. The 3k miles thing sounds fun though. Esp with landmarks.

if I don't kill myself b4 then ,, im in.

Drewpy, I checked the website of the hotel/guest house at Pandy and it seems that they are not set up to take bookings that early so we might have to wait till the new year rolls over before it becomes available.

There are loads of "how to's" on youtube. just find the one your most comfortable with and have at it, this guy is setting up a set of floats but the principle is the same.

I’m really happy with my AGV Compact it’s by far the best helmet I’ve ever owned which isn’t saying a lot as apart my first helmet back in the eighties I’ve got by with budget helmets, anyway I’ve been looking for a new helmet for my son as I’m taking him to IOM for classic TT and can’t bring myself to stick a Cheepo lid on him and also he’s same size as me which means I get another lid after IOM. So after a bit of research (google) I decided on a Scorpion Exo 510, first impressions it looks really well made the amount of features it has compared to anything else in it’s price range is really impressive it has inflatable cheek pads for the perfect fit also cheek pads come with an emergency removal system so helmet can be removed easier in the event of an accident. All the vents are multi position and can be opened and closed while riding with gloves on, the interior tinted visor is 3 position height adjustable, outer visor is pin lock ready and the pin lock comes in the box, I haven’t fitted it yet but apparently it’s max vision so no edges to peer around like on my AGV. I went out for test ride today and was well impressed it’s much quieter than my AGV which isn’t really a fair comparison as that a flip front, there are probably quieter helmets out there but you’ll be hard pressed find one with the features this has for anywhere near the same money.

so we go anticlockwise on the NC500 route taking in a bit extra. Mike is complaining about the milage so I start telling him its 5 hours travelling etc which does the trick A9 was f*&cking boring say hello and goodbye to IOM Bernie first stop Tain and a 60's cafe called the sunflowers cafe, belting out summer 60's chunes just past Tain there was a place called Morangie, not sure why Mike was dying to stop there Next stop was Tommy's fave place, Ardgay we then travelled off the beaten path along the A836 via Bonar Bridge. It was what we would deem a C class road, this went on for miles on single tracks with passing places. Suddenly we came upon an Inn in the middle of nowhere, Crask Inn this was built in 1800's for drovers. it has its own water supply (and filters) with a generator (wondered why it was so dim with the lights) we had a great chat with Denise the landlords wife. the landlord was also a minister and had a church on the premesis. this was the view from Crask inn and pretty much for a few hours riding the natives get in the way too https://i.imgur.com/XN57vNT.gifv Kinbrace, where mike went for a pee and suddenly loads of traffic appeared then back onto the A9 and an afternoon tea stop at Berridale i had a massive eton mess cake (which I ate all of it) then up to Wick and John O Groats then on to Mey in Thurso and the Castle Hotel I had braised feathersteak mmmm Our hosts Mike from Liverpool, Mike and ? from east europe

F#ck me Drew yer dragging this out a bit the suspense is killing me and I was there ?