THE GOOD BUCK

I’ve learnt some valuable lessons in the last week. For a start, my plans are useless in the face of reality. I had planned to sell the Honda VFR750 and part-exchange my Triumph Sprint for a Triumph Street Triple (Striple) at a bike shop. I thought they’d be able to give me a good price for mine as they’d already inflated the price of the Striple. Ha! They offered me £1,700 for my bike. Not even. So, change of plan, sell both bikes privately and buy a Striple. I tarted them up, got them listed, thinking one would sell then, buy the Striple, sell the other. Suddenly I had two people interested in the bikes. Typical, but I could always push-bike for a few days. A guy came around to see my Triumph while I was at work. I left it chained to the house and left the key with Wendy so he could start it up and see there was nothing wrong with it. Apparently he did. Then stopped it. Then started it again. After a few goes it wouldn’t start again. I  got home to a dead bike. I thought he’d drained the battery, my initial google said that it’s a big ol’ engine and it drains batteries. Fair enough, I ordered a new battery, while I put the current one on charge. The next day it still wouldn’t run. And it was making a horrible noise. Like something was rattling around in the engine. I did a lot more google research and found the early 1050cc engines were known to have a flaw, this disc that only allows the starter motor assembly to spin one way. Called the sprag clutch. I found a video of a 1050 with sprag clutch issues and it was the exact sound. The guy who sold it to me knew the sprag was going and sold it on quick. I’d never even heard of a sprag clutch so he got me good. I had to tell the guy who wanted it that it wasn’t for sale, then text the guy who wanted the Honda and tell him the same as I needed it for work. I found a video on replacing the sprag clutch, which helpfully listed the parts you’d need and their numbers so I could order them off the Triumph site. £385 for the parts. £16 for a workshop manual. £40 for a battery. Oh yes, the pain keeps coming. Today was my day off so I thought I’d strip the bike down. Then I got an email saying my battery and bits were arriving today. Bonus. It was fiddly getting the fairing off, and a royal pain trying to prize the engine covers off without using any force, but the job itself was suspiciously straight forward.   Stripped it down to there, and didn’t need to go any further. As the guy on the video said, Triumph have never stated that the replacement is and upgrade, or recalled and […]

There is a book called Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance. It’s supposed to be expressing spiritual enlightenment through observation of ordinary life with a motorbike. It’s twee, home spun, anecdotal, badly written rubbish. So, a perfect template for this blog. It’s just I’ve been trying to make small, but fundamental, changes to my driving attitude. Which has made me reflect on what is wrong in the first place. The mistakes: Do not try and impose your will on the universe. Accept the situation as it is, do not say “should/ shouldn’t”. They should be doing 50mph/ indicate, they shouldn’t get in front of me then brake… We probably all know someone who spends their life perpetually angry and/or upset because the arbitrary rules they impose on life aren’t respected by people or events. This is bad.   Ego. It’s not about me. Remove self from the equation.  When someone dives into the minimum safe gap you’ve left to the vehicle in front, don’t take it as an insult. Don’t risk crashing thinking “you’re not pushing in in front of ME.” If you remove self, it’s not a personal challenge or a slight, it’s just the gap has been decreased so you need to roll off the throttle for a few seconds until it opens again. Over the course of a whole day it’s unlikely you’re going to lose more than a minute or two but everyone gets home alive and keeps their job. Also, if you accept, and expect, people pushing in you don’t get yourself into a state about it. You can either spend the whole day angry and tense or relaxed. The external situation remains virtually the same, but you can choose how you react to it. Instead of being a victim of external forces you are a passive observer of them. Taking control of the situation by not trying to take control.   It’s a work in progress, but it’s definitely the way to go. Of course none of this applies to motorbikes. I swear, I didn’t even know what road rage was until I got a car licence. On a bike slow traffic is just a mobile chicane. Traffic jams are a stationary chicane. No-one cuts me up or holds me up. They may try to kill me with oblivious U turns in front of me, or pulling out without looking, or changing lanes as I’m overtaking, but that doesn’t give me rage, just wakes me up. You see what you’ve done now? You’ve got me on to motorbikes. After my initial reservations, I now concede the Triumph is the better bike. ABS brakes, bigger engine, and now I’m getting used to the gearbox, oodles of ‘go’ on tap. I think I was shifting up too quickly. It has a huge spread of speed for each gear. If you want to accelerate, on the slip road joining the motorway for instance, leave it in each gear longer and it will fly. And although I’ve […]

I’ve been window shopping bikes for a while now. I know, I know. I love my VFR750 and it’s wonderful and will run for ever, etc, but the grass is always greener. I was looking at bikes I’ve had before and for which I have a nostalgic fondness. In spite of the actual performance of some of the bikes. But they are all old, old bikes now. My VFR is 25 years old this year. Then I was looking at the new (-ish) Triumphs. They do a rather nice naked (no fairings) 675cc triple. And the odd thing is, they are really up there on the reviews. Class leading, indeed. The downside being they are hugely popular and a premium marque, so expensive. That one is second hand and £4,800. All the talk is of the distinctiveness of the triple engine. Not revvy like an inline 4, lumpy like a parallel twin, or thumpy like a V twin. Lots of torque, fast, and responsive. With a unique triple character. I was very sceptical. I thought MotorCycle News (MCN) were just being jingoistic fanboys. The Triumphs I remember were basically semi-mobile teach-yourself-engineering devices. With additional muscle building from pushing it home. But every review, UK, US, Aus, all say the same. That’s a hell of a turn up for the books. So, I kept searching the ads, picking my ideal bike,then not buying it because it was too expensive. And I do love my VFR. Then my lovely VFR spluttered a bit and wasn’t running on all cylinders. Just for a few hundred yards, but then you’re conscious of it. It’s been getting more tricky to start for a while but I put it off as getting at the carbs on a V4 is a bit of an ordeal. Once it’s got to not running on all four you have to do something. I stripped it down on my day off. Fairings off, seat off, tank off, airbox off, disconnect the carbs then prise them out, take the bottoms off the carbs remove the jets, clean, poke and replace. Put like that it sounds like a really easy job. So not.  Two of my jets were completely blocked and were really hard to clear. Then just pop it back together again. It took me over 5 hours sat outside in the freezing cold. I was miffed. All that faffing about to poke a bit of wire down four jets. Enough is enough. I hit the internet again, thinking about getting a newer VFR, I love mine, so a newer one, with fuel injection and ABS would be brilliant. I sourced several. A bit over budget but not by the vast margin of the Street Triple. Then I cross referenced them with MCN reviews. To my amazement they said the VFR800 was good, but the Triumph Sprint ST (Sports Tourer) was in every way better. A Triumph. Better. Than. A. Honda. The VFR is legend. The Best Bike Ever Built. The yardstick. […]

I’ve completed day 26 of my run streak today. A minimum of 2 miles every day. I will accept 1 mile at a desperate push, but so far I’ve stuck to a minimum of 2. The idea is that running every day is the quickest way to regain my fitness, stamina and, hopefully, strengthen my weak running muscles that caused the IBTS. Before I got the IBTS I was trying to go for a sub 3 hour marathon, and I was fairly fit, so I was knocking out lots of PBs. More or less at will. I went for a 10 mile one and near killed myself. I got it, but when I checked back it was only a few seconds faster than when I was run streaking. So, I know it’s the way to go. I’ve gone from 3 months of injury and a really gentle and tentative start on January the first, to making my ‘long’ run a half marathon (13.1 miles) last week. About 4 miles in to that run I was having self doubt. “Can’t do it! It’s too far!” Today I set out to do a 15 mile run and I felt so good I was going to do 18 miles. My knee started hurting though, so I settled for turning round at 8 miles. My knee held up on the way back, but it was lucky I turned when I did, as the wind was in my face on the way back and I flagged badly. The last 3 miles were tough. Another 2 miles would have been too much. But the good news is I set out to do 15, did 16, and my knee held. A nice easy 2 miles tomorrow. Another positive is some people make it their running goal to do a thousand miles in a year, I’ve started off from tiny runs, there’s another 5 days of this month, and I’m currently on 133 miles. As always, everything is subject to injury, but so far, so good. In other running news, I’ve been doing one run of hills. This involves running through the pitch black park, over several bridges with steps, one of which is unlit, and doing hill repetitions on a steep bridge that crossed the Mersey, but goes nowhere, so there’s no traffic on it. Also dark. It turns out the Mersey bridge, running up one side, down the other, then back again, is .4 of a mile. 2½ miles (with 4 bridges) to get there, then hill reps. My second go at that route, this week, I got there then did 3 miles of hill reps. I’m going to need one for the 24 hour run anyway, but I’ve got a head torch for the dark training. Some loud! I got a cheap, generic one from Decathlon, but it was rubbish. Hard plastic with no padding so it digs into your head. I asked my running chums on Twitter and everyone recommended this brand (LED Lenser). […]

It’s only as I sat down to start this that I realised I’ve not done a blog for 3 months. I’d just done the Chester marathon, set a new PB, but failed at my target. And it was hilly, which I didn’t remember from last time and for which I hadn’t trained. Turns out missing my target was the least of my worries. Trying to slog up the hills then sprint down the other side to make up time absolutely battered my knees and gave me Iliotibial Band Syndrome (IBTS –now I’m wondering where the T comes from-), which is a tendon (T?) that runs down the leg past the knee. It gets inflamed by “too much, too soon”, or unaccustomed hills etc. I thought I’d shrug it off, but it laid me up for best part of 3 months. I kept going back to it, doing a run or two, then it would flare up again. As of the first of January, my new year’s resolutions, I’ve been on a run streak (run every day) and 2 sets of exercises specifically designed to strengthen the weak muscles that cause the knee into excessive lateral motion. They are horrible. I’ve avoided strength training these last 9 years because it’s awful and tedious. Needs must. I’ve even had to be sensible about the running. I usually return to running with a 10 mile run. I tried a few 5s, before breaking again, in the 3 months I was out of the game. This time I started with a 3.3 mile circuit, covering my watch so I wasn’t going for a time, and just plodded it out. Then I slowly built it up. Like some kind of sane person. After a fortnight, with my ‘long’ run at 6 miles, I cracked and did a 10 mile run. My knee didn’t break so I thought I was alright. Then I started to let it slip. They say hard run one day, easy the next, never back to back. I did the 10 mile (long, by current standards) then a hill run, then another fast one. And my knee flared up. Panic! Back to 2 miles easy, 5 miles easy, 5 miles easy. My knee forgave me, so today I did a test run of a half marathon (13.1 miles). And it held! YAY! As I was going ‘long’ I didn’t batter the pace or put hills in to it, but as a steady run, it showed my knee will work. So now it’s back to easy day tomorrow, maybe a hill day, easy day, fast day, easy, etc, and keep up with the IBTS exercises. Fingers crossed I am back in the game. Realistically my sub 3 hour marathon isn’t happening for at least the first half of this year. *sigh*   The other reason I’ve been absent was the politics thing. I put all my time into flagging up St Jezza and the Glorious Socialist Worker’s Utopia on the thrice damned Facebook, […]