A couple of weeks have passed since I wrote the first post although only just posted it up.
After much faffing, I decided my mechanical knowledge wasn't quite up to it and put the bike in the local garage. New brake pads and a front wheel bearings plus a new front tyre and the bike is running fine.
Shock, I picked up the bike yesterday and crapped myself on the half mile journey going home? Have I forgotten how to ride my bike?!?
I've also lost my neck tube so off to the shop this morning to buy another one and headed out for the first ride of the year. Riding nervously towards the dual carriageway, I couldn't resist.... Using the slip road as a drag strip is too much fun! I forgot how fast the bike accelerates and before I'm even thinking of leaving the slip road I'm close to breaking the speed limit! The grin turns into a manic laugh as I thunder down the road remembering every reason why I love biking! The fresh air, the sun shining through my visor warming my face through the cold winter air! I put 100 miles on the clock and regain my confidence in the bike and myself.
We've also been looking at the sat navs and intercoms and the Scala Q2 looks good but is expensive considering that we're on the same bike. The sat nav will most likely now be the Garmin 550. It appears that Tom Tom do not do maps to cover eastern Europe...
With the accessories decided on, the next step will be to figure out the hard luggage options for the bike and to start looking properly at where we may go in Ireland!
Sunday 30 January 2011
The start of a whole new journey!
So the journey began last August having taken a trip to Wales alone with the bike having gone away for a couple of days riding round some of the best roads I have ever come across even though it rained, hard, for a solid 24 hours.
I knew that I always wanted to go away on the motorbike but couldn't have left my other half behind. This was the first time we'd spent the night apart in over 5 years through choice rather than not having any option and it felt odd.
When I got back home though, to my surprise, Nikki my long suffering girlfriend, had decided that she did want to go away on the bike as a pillion and the cogs started whirring!
A couple of weeks later and it was holiday renewal time at work. 1 week in May for our anniversary, another week in July (going away in June has always brought about trouble for us!) and 4 weeks starting at the end of August all approved by my manager. The time was booked off for our first second and third motorbike trips!
It didn't take long to decide roughly where we were going. It was decided that we would visit Ireland first as we'd always wanted to visit but hadn't been, Scotland second, our 6 month anniversary was spent in Edinburgh and we'd always wanted to go back but hadn't got round to it and then 4 weeks round Europe.
Roll forward to 2 weeks ago and we'd not done any planning on where exactly we wanted to go, not thought about what luggage we needed for the bike, not thought about riding gear, intercoms and sat navs and most importantly, the bike was off the road due to not having brakes and something wrong with the steering...
Time to start planning!
I knew that I always wanted to go away on the motorbike but couldn't have left my other half behind. This was the first time we'd spent the night apart in over 5 years through choice rather than not having any option and it felt odd.
When I got back home though, to my surprise, Nikki my long suffering girlfriend, had decided that she did want to go away on the bike as a pillion and the cogs started whirring!
A couple of weeks later and it was holiday renewal time at work. 1 week in May for our anniversary, another week in July (going away in June has always brought about trouble for us!) and 4 weeks starting at the end of August all approved by my manager. The time was booked off for our first second and third motorbike trips!
It didn't take long to decide roughly where we were going. It was decided that we would visit Ireland first as we'd always wanted to visit but hadn't been, Scotland second, our 6 month anniversary was spent in Edinburgh and we'd always wanted to go back but hadn't got round to it and then 4 weeks round Europe.
Roll forward to 2 weeks ago and we'd not done any planning on where exactly we wanted to go, not thought about what luggage we needed for the bike, not thought about riding gear, intercoms and sat navs and most importantly, the bike was off the road due to not having brakes and something wrong with the steering...
Time to start planning!
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