The photo in my previous post showed only the head of the nail. Unfortunately, this nail was a bit of an iceberg with about 2.5″ of it actually inside the tyre.
You can see that the nail has damaged the inside of the sidewall of the tyre, so sadly that’s an ex-BT021 as it is not repairable…
Here is the dead tyre with the nail head exposed.
I will be steering clear of those “unswept” areas of the road surface from now on…
One week’s commuting into central Reading and all that queue skipping and riding down the hatched sections has given me this:
At least the pressure in the tyre hasn’t changed.
We’ll see what the tyre guru has to say.
… later…
Update 21-Jun-10
The photo above shows only the head of the nail. Unfortunately, this nail was a bit of an iceberg with about 2.5″ of it actually inside the tyre.
You can see that the nail has damaged the inside of the sidewall of the tyre, so sadly that’s an ex-BT021 as it is not repairable…
Here is the dead tyre with the nail head exposed.
I will be steering clear of those “unswept” areas of the road surface from now on…
My dealer has promised me the first test ride on the new Sprint GT
I can’t wait…
.. was the time this morning when the first birds starting singing.
A Chaffinch.
Closely followed by a Blackbird (That’s Turdus Merula, not Geoff up the road on his Honda…)
Sad or what?
[No wonder it’s called a “Blackbird” – can’t think what the literal translation would be 
]
Now – back to motorcycles…
OK. Fed up with bike posts?
Here are my pets:
Arnie in the snow this winter.
Why “Arnie”. Long story. Both my kids play brass instruments so the dog (apparently) had to be named after a brass composer, a British brass composer. Sir Malcolm Arnold got the nod so here is “Arnold” or “Arnie” as the kids dubbed him – because he was hunky (like Schwarzenegger)
Here he is at 9 weeks old.
…and at 1 year old with his soulmate (and room-mate) Hedera (more later)
For a while we had three Springers: Rosie (14) on the left and the brother/sister pair of Bramley (now with the Mother-in-Law) and Arnie on the right.
This is Arnie after he disgraced himself with the cat-flap. When he was little he used it as a door and followed the two cats in and out – at 2 years old he was a bit big…
After impaling himself on a steel reinforcing spike on a building site (he was chasing a rabbit), here he is looking much the worse for wear and sorry for himself.
Heddy is a ginger tom. Originally we had two cats; Holly and Hedera (only the vet got the joke – they were both Christmas kittens. Look it up…)
Heddy is now 13 but still thinks he’s a dog (or is it Arnie that thinks he’s a cat?)
Here are the silver wheels fitted to my Sprint:
Job done.
Next…
This has taken a while, but there was no way that I could undo the two engine mounting bolts to fit the crash protectors. The obvious answer was to ask my dealer to do it whilst the bike was being serviced. With the fairings off and an experienced tech, it was the work of a few minutes.
Now I feel that I have finally laid my little driveway “incident” to rest.
I have blogged about the “gold” wheels on my Triumph Sprint ST. I have now reached the stage where I have fitted a BT020 front tyre as I prefer the older compound to the softer BT021. The rear came fitted with a BT021. Both wheels have been checked out and balanced (and cleaned…)
Next I have to swap the front disks from my current bike and fit the wheels…
I had a long ride on one of these today whilst my Sprint was at Bulldog Triumph having a 12k service.
Having never ridden one of these (shock smiley required!), first impressions were of the high and forward riding position. Almost as if you are sitting over the front wheel. No fuel gauge – only a little yellow light that was glowering at me.
What a brilliant noise! I was riding it around town in 2nd gear just for the burble on the over-run. Very fast but I struggled to hold my head up at anything over 85. If you can high-speed-tour on one of these you have my admiration!
Almost got to the wheelie stage before returning the bike – but it only had 90 miles on the clock so decided that maybe wasn’t such a good idea.
If I could have two Triumphs, I’d have one of these. Or maybe a Street… 🙂
In my quest to find the perfect sports touring motorcycle (just an excuse to ride lots of fancy new expensive bikes actually…), I spent a couple of hours on a Honda VFR1200F today. The bike was from Hatfields of Crowthorne, it was dry and sunny but cold.
OK – I stopped at Bulldog for a coffee 🙂
First impressions: don’t like the colour but other than that, it looks a bit BMW-ish. I think it’s the fairing with the round badge and the swingarm/drive shaft assembly.
The heated grips were awesome – too hot in the end. The bike was really comfy and suited my riding position. I took it down the M3 and it absolutely flew along. With only 600 miles on the clock, I didn’t thrash it (too much) – suffice it to say that the exhaust valve gives a VTEC-ish kick when actuated and the sound changes from a V4-fart to V4-howl!
The mirrors were clear at all speeds.
The steering and handling were what you’d expect from a new bike, although I did have a bit of trouble riding around the mini-roundabouts in Crowthorne as the transmission was really jerky at low speeds. Is it a(nother) Honda fueling issue? Don’t know but I didn’t like it. It does the same at low speeds in high gears.
Better than the K1300S that I rode the other day?
No (see comments on jerky transmission).
Would I like one?
Yes please.
For £12K+?
No thanks.