The Motorbikerist Thread

[Barry]

All the cool kids get Triple Black

[DeskJockey]

Rufford Ford?

[jamcg]

It looks a bit like it but there’s no stranded Mercedes sprinter so I’m not sure……

[integrale_evo]

Nope, the entry road isn’t right

[tim]

Rufford Ford?

No, Walsingham in N.Norfolk.

[mik]

Happy new bike day Tim

[tim]

So yesterday was New Bike Day. I took my 12 year old daughter Evalyn along with me as she loves riding pillion. It's a 1hr 10 ride to my preferred BMW Motorrad dealer in the deepest bandit country of Suffolk, but what a lovely day for it.

There was a bit of faffing with DVLA/BMW computer system to get it registered so they sent us off to the nearby farm shop for a breakfast on them while they made some calls, but an hour or so later we were back and ready to go.



A GS is a bit taller than an RT, but not as much as it appears looking at them. They sit on a ridiculously tall centre stand, probably because of the long travel suspension and I expect it's the same centre stand part on the GS Adventure models which are another inch higher, which makes me look a bit ridiculous standing next to it, but actually on it they're fine. At 235 kg vs 270 it's also usefully lighter than my old bike.

All the same I was a bit nervous when Ev pulled herself up onto the pillion seat, on a surface that wasn't very flat, with an audience! We wobbled off like rank amateurs ffs. Anyway it only took a few mins to get settled into the different riding position and having much less fairing around me, and we enjoyed the ride home. Ev is a great pillion and it wasn't long before she was standing up on the pegs, and furiously waving at people as per.

Fuck me it was hot tho. 31 degrees in leathers by the time we were home we were pretty cooked.






This is the first BMW I've owned since they switched to the big LED screen, so I spent some time going through all the various options, configuring DYNAMIC PRO and ENDURO PRO modes to my liking. I especially liked this bit




We're off on my RoSPA group social ride this morning, out to Norfolk Norfolk coast, so that'll get another 100 miles or so on it. I've already booked my first tour 2nd week of October to ride down to see my folks, so need to get some miles and the running-in service on it before then.

Happy days!

[Barry]

Nicely done Tim. The dash is excellent for the main, altho "so many" screens to toggle through sometimes. If you find a quick way to the "units" page to switch to Kms please let it be known

[mik]

Looks pretty serious

[IanF]

Nice.. as a bike novice, is there much adjustment available for the seat/pegs/handlebars etc, so that different size bikerists fit comfortably?

[tim]

Nice.. as a bike novice, is there much adjustment available for the seat/pegs/handlebars etc, so that different size bikerists fit comfortably?

Yep BMW are pretty good at that sort of thing. There’s official bar riser accessory and 4 different style/height of seat available, and each seat has a high and low adjustment at the back and front of the rider seat, so it can be on two levels or tipped fore or back.

The GS can also be ordered with a low chassis which takes a fair chunk out of the ride height. I’m fine on the standard bike with standard seat in low tho.

My pal had a GS Adventure on a high seat and on the centre stand it’s comically huge next to me at 5’6

[tim]

Nicely done Tim. The dash is excellent for the main, altho "so many" screens to toggle through sometimes. If you find a quick way to the "units" page to switch to Kms please let it be known

Yeah that’s a few clicks isn’t it. Not too bad a job to bookend a trip though.

Have you tried the bmw connected ride navigation app? I had it running alongside my Navigator VI on todays trip and it’s pretty decent for “free”

[Barry]

Nicely done Tim. The dash is excellent for the main, altho "so many" screens to toggle through sometimes. If you find a quick way to the "units" page to switch to Kms please let it be known

Yeah that’s a few clicks isn’t it. Not too bad a job to bookend a trip though.

Have you tried the bmw connected ride navigation app? I had it running alongside my Navigator VI on todays trip and it’s pretty decent for “free”

I haven't bothered with either tbh, Nav6 is pure extortion considering the machine behind the badge. I'll persevere with the phone GPS for this year.
I did see a 3rd party 3D printed GPS adaptor which claims to at least utilise the cradle power supply, I might try that next.

[tim]

MyRoute-App is very good on web and phone app, and I think they’re doing another of their lifetime sub deals.

We run all our group social rides and trips away through it

[Barry]

I'll take a look cheers, altho we tend to wing it and figure out routes as we go. We have first night booked after landing on Thurs, and we know we have to be at Paul Ricard on Fri, after that it depends on the weather

[Marv]

Stuff about nice new bike

Is that Reiten Motorrad on Glemsford? Not that far from where I live now! They seem like a friendly bunch TBF.

235kg isn’t as heavy as I thought they are! I like the fact that despite all your rospa training you still wobbled down the road on the first ride (that’s not a dig at you or rospa.. I’m just glad that we’re all like that really, irrespective of experience/training!)

[tim]

Yes Reiten. They are top notch. This is the 3rd bike I've bought from them now. Their Sausage Saturdays are a good social event too.

[tim]

Was out last night putting some more running-in miles on, and I thought I'd check out some of the Byways Open to All Traffic around Thetford Forest, there's quite a few, including a really wide one called Harling Drove. I thought I'd venture down it, slowly.



You can't quite make it out from the video, but a little way in there's a blue van, with some cars, and a group of people. One of which was a "lady" who was not dressed for a "woodland walk". I suspect they might all have been taking it in turns to take her temperature or something.

[Marv]

I’m determined that next year I’m gonna put some decent effort into doing a half decent amount of greenlaning… once you’ve memorised these boats, you can be my guide Tim

Though I’ll skip the part of the guided tour which is for dogging observation, thanks

[Marv]

The more I look at this, the more I like it!