Saturday night was a bit sleepless due to a little, ok a lot, excited about taking Nikki out on the bike on Sunday.
I found, a week or so ago, that I couldn't adjust the preload on the rear suspension. The C clamp tool that came with the bike, great as it is for the job, has a handle only a few inches long. For leverage, this is, to put it bluntly, bollocks! At least I assumed it was a leverage problem and not that it had seized due to never having been used!
A trip was paid to the father in law to be's who always has a tool for any kind of job and thankfully found, that with an extended bard with a 16mm socket on the end to fit over the handle, the suspension preload selector moved surprisingly easily.
Revelation: The bike comes with the preload set on the number 3 setting. As a cautious move, I notched it up to 5 and took the bike for a very quick spin round a block of houses. To my horror, I found that I've probably been riding the bike with my preload too soft as number 5 felt perfect for me!
Panic set in after this revelation as if a number 5 setting was perfect for me, this would be an indicator that a 6 probably wouldn't be ok for me + another! Up it went to a number 7!
Now usually I'm a believer of all of the gear all of the time but to test the suspension, Nikki was a little self concious of getting on the bike on the street where she'd grown up clad in all her new clothing. I wasn't too fussed as I knew we'd only be doing a max of 10mph and had fallen off plenty of times much faster on my push bike. So helmets on and onto the bike she hopped worrying about the amount of "wobble" she had caused to the bike! I reassured her that this was fine (now wasn't the time to tell her about my first time as a pillion and falling backwards after trying to hike up onto the peg!), checked she was ready to move and off we went down the road!
After a very short distance, turning around and back to the house, I was confident that the bike was setup well enough and we left for home shortly after.
With the sun shining as we arrived back to the house, I suggested that we went out on the bike seeing as it was now fully set up and we had all the gear which was met with some reservation but responded to positively.
Now for those that do ride bikes, think back to the first time you put all your clothing on... took a little while didn't it? For those that don't ride, I think the only way I can put it is try and put another 5 layers of clothes on top of what you're wearing and you'll get the same kind of manouverability that you experience when you've got all the motorbike gear on!
After about 20mins of getting ourselves together, we made off without a clue where we were going and only with the knowledge that again, after missing breakfast and lunch, we needed to eat soon!
Pulling away initially, the bike felt a lot more stable once up to 30mph. The first roundabout came and we made it round perfectly! I knew from there onwards that everything would be fine.
The first time we stopped after riding for about 10 minutes incorporating national speed limits I heard a voice from behind me "I know you can't see this, but I've got a massive grin on my face!". I don't think I could have heard more reassuring words and at the next set of lights, we done our first bit of filtering. As I approached the front of the queue though, the lights changed earlier than I expected. Accelerating harder than I had done previously from 1st gear, the front wheel lifted but no more than a foot! It was at this point that I felt I would feel one of my pre arranged signals - hit my shoulders repeatedly if you're worried - but to my surprise it never came! A swift change to 2nd and back on the power ensured a smooth landing for the front wheel and off we went down my usual roads to Portsmouth.
From then onwards, every time I had a chance to speak, the signs were good from Nikki letting me know at one point that "this is amazing!". I think as a biker, we forget sometimes that feeling and exhilaration of being on powered two wheels for the first time.
The bike was flowing nicely through the country lanes, the fresh, cool, crisp air funneling smells of freshly cut grass through the helmet was fantastic and the sunshine infront warming our faces through the visors was perfect. I couldn't have hoped for a better day to have brought Nikki out on her first ride. We even spotted Lama's in a field that we had driven past so many times before!
The rest of the day was spent riding around Hampshire enjoying the country roads and visiting places that we used to live in which was a nice trip down memory lane too. All in all, a perfect day out.
Now, the downside is that as the suspnsion preload is a the top setting, it may not be able to cope with the panniers and the top box too which will add another 35Kgs. For the moment though, I'm not going to worry about this but have it in the back of my mind that a suspension upgrade may be in order!
I'm hoping that the next post will finally reveal all the places that we are going to be visiting in Ireland!
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