Category Archives: Bikes

Bike stuff

BMW K100RS Leaves Nirvana

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Waved goodbye to the BMW this afternoon as Phil Millard of Acceleration Collection and Delivery Service arrived to take her to sunny Scotland. He’s a professional bike transporter and came recommended by Dave Hewitt (Biffta) on the vintage Honda site www.honda-sohc.co.uk. We had to take the luggage off (again) to fit the bike in the van; this will give the new owner some good practise at fitting and removing the luggage as there’s a definite knack to it.

Here’s Phil in his van with the bikes:

He can be contacted on www.AccelerationCADS.co.uk

The Anarchy of the M25 (in a Car)

Sooner or later I will recount the saga of my Triumph Sprint ST955i. But for now, let’s just say that I’m commuting from Reading to St Albans every day in a car…

Rinding a bike round there every day is great (especially in the weather that we’ve been having); I don’t go mad but don’t drive along in lane 1 at 55mph either.

Riding a bike you know that you always have what it takes to squirt away from any potential danger with a mere flick of the wrist. My 98k mile Focus is different. It’s not slow, but I don’t like to go “fast” in it, which means lane 2 at about 75 most of the time. At that speed the M25 can be very threatening as the trucks move out without looking or signaling and BMW-man is 2 feet behind you, on the phone and in a hurry.

I can talk about BMW-man coz in the 90’s I was one. I had a succession of company 5-Series cars and was usually the one in lane 3 (on the phone)…

Anyways, a solution to the “bike-less” status could present itself this weekend. I promise to write about my Sprint (with pictures) at a later date.

Fastbikes Magazine and our Suzuki GS550

As you may have noted, Rich ‘Moby’ Newland (Editor of Fastbikes mag) has bought our project GS550. He came over from Bath in an enormous Sprinter van to collect it on Thursday last week (1st May).

I have met most of the editors of the top bike mags over the last few years and I must say that Rich is a really nice guy. Very personable, knows his bikes (old and new) and in no way could be accused of “looking down his nose at us mere readers” (now who could I be thinking of?). He explained his reasons – same as most of us actually. Wanted one when younger, couldn’t afford the insurance and now fancies doing one up.

He isn’t going to feature the resto in the mag (shame) but will blog about it on the Fastbikes site here

Here’s the “before” photo:

BMW K100RS

I promised a picture with the luggage fitted: here it is.

Honestly, how difficult can it be to take a photograph of a bike like this? Answer: very difficult. Your average cheapo digital camera (like the one I have) can’t handle the white bodywork and black engine. This is the best of about 20 shots – this one was on auto but in the shade behind a barn. I tried all sorts of sun/shade/fixed aperture shots but this one was still the best. Any advice on how to do this (without spending zillions on SLR cameras) welcome.