Aye – been told that the thing starts to wake up properly above 5k rpm… just need to not be in a 30 or 40 zone to find it ;-) I was being entertained by just how tractable the engine is though – sitting in a 30 in 4th, and a slight increase in throttle and the thing picks up and goes! My TDM would only do that in 2nd!

Ski – no idea on the various prices – I have 0 no claims, and a licence that is freshly minted (well, it was in the summer)… so suffer from expensive insurance. That said, the Speed Triple is costing £280/year fully comp… which isn’t bad for a pretty sizeable machine. The TDM 850 was coming in at £80 third party fire & theft for comparison. Never owned or ridden a 125 (other than the day of CBT) but expect they would cost utter buttons to insure (my prices are for a 33 y/o living in Cumbria)

I think I may have hit the heady hights of 3000 rpm this morning, but I was in town so couldn’t do much more than that anyway ;-) Just waiting for some nice weather to get out and open her up properly!

I think the main things I am going to be adding in the nearish future will be some better leathers, boots and lid… and possibly some luggage.

Entirely take your point on loud cans – it was something being toyed with, but I can see better ways to spend my cash in all honesty. If I ever need to replace the exhaust I will probably do it… which is why the TDM had a full Nexus system on it… but it is pretty far down my priorities. May get a Corbin saddle though ;-)

Oh aye – was considering a Monster, but it had to be an S4… and… well… I just really wanted a Speed Triple more (been an ambition since ’94 to own one!)

Hornet – it’s the Triple.

Peter – that’s interesting to hear… I had been toying with a high level carbon can (though a road legal one, not a race can) just to boost the road presence like ;-) My lid is so quiet that I can’t hear the engine much through it, my TDM had chuffing load cans on and that let me hear what the engine was doing better ;-)

Shall keep that tyre advice in mind too – think the rear looks about half worn at the moment so should see me through a fair few miles yet.

Molgrips – that’s what I love about the Speed Triple (and the other big nakeds) they look just like a motorbike should look.

Only been out for a short ride around the town on it thus far – waiting for a sparky to turn up and fix things… but early impressions are it is much easier to ride without killing myself than I imagined (bit of a pussycat… but I am only using teeny throttle openings) and it is disarmingly fast.

I expect it will be a lot of fun once the weather improves a bit ;-)

He he he he… my one is prettiest*.

Not got any photographs yet, cos it only got wheeled out the van 30 minutes ago, and I had to go for a very quick play… but ooooh so pretty.

It is also rather nippy.

* This is a blatent lie, it is so not pretty… but it does look ace!

I have 2 cats and a dog…. does that mean you all hate me :-(

Got the dog mainly to keep me company when working away from home (he comes with me and often sits under a bush watching me work). He is also a good excuse to get out and have some exercise even when the weather is crappy. Being a Border Collie he needs quite a lot of walks too! His poo gets scooped, unless it is out of harms way (he likes to deposit in deep undergrowth, which is fine by me – can rot down naturally without causing any one a problem, and is much better than festering in a black bag in landfill for the next few hundred years). He is very, very rarely on a lead – mainly because Collies are pants on leads, it just isn’t in their nature! He does, however, come to me when I call. Will walk beside me (for a short while, before getting bored cos I go too slow) when told. Will wait when told. Generally is well trained and kind of obedient – not my doing, he used to be a farm dog!

My cats on the other hand are mini-extinction events. They are currently house cats though so the local wildlife populous in these parts is safe. Until we buy a house and put a cat flap back in (though my Maine Coon is rather enjoying being a house cat so may decide not to bother going outside much, and he was the main culpret in the wholesale slaughter of wild animals when we were up in Scotland).

Taking it you don’t make your living from photography? If not then you don’t really have anything to loose, and it could be a door opener for future work. Getting your stuff exhibited can be a real nightmare (just moved house to a completely different region and the thought of having to go back through that whole thing is giving me the fear… so I am putting it off until I have built a new portfolio of more local images!)

They would probably catch me on a mountain bike to be honest ;-) Seen some ‘Busa’s kicking about the UK with Rozzers onboard of late. If it helps get the utter coxs off the road (both 2 and 4 wheel variety) then I am all for it!

(I ride a motorbike like a gayer… but I don’t care cos life aint a race!)

The parking comment – it isn’t a case of getting better at parking… I work in places where often I have to get into a tricky spot to keep out the way of other things…like JCBs, or traffic if it is a roadside job. You simply cannot get a pickup into a tight space either due to the crap turning circle or the physical size of the thing.

Seriously – unless you actually need a pickup (so you are moving around very, very messy and/or very very heavy things) don’t do it. I liked the fact I could throw sewage covered pumps into the load bed, and carry heavy bits of metal over fields… but still happier with my Vitara! I may switch to a van next time though… especially if I could get a wee 4×4 based van with decent economy. Not sure such a thing exists though.

Don’t get a Navara/Pathfinder… they are shite. Mine blew up with stunning regularity so I got rid of it after a year (now drive a Suzuki Grand Vitara which is a lot better!)

The ONLY pickup I would even entertain these days would be the Toyota Hilux. The rest are all pants. And I would only get one if I were using it as intended (lugging large cargos about the place off road/down dirt tracks). They are just waaaay too compromised to use as an every day vehicle unless you are justifying it on the grounds of what it can do (they are a bitch to park, have massive turning circles and can have slightly tailhappy tendancies when unladen).

If you really don’t have a use for 4 wheel drive get an estate instead. Trips to fuel pumps get both boring and expensive! (My Vitara does more offroad than most 4x4s I would say – usually wind up trundling down some dodgy tracks and terrain most weeks… though it is possible to get through most of it in a Berlingo as my Dad keeps demonstrating… so long as you know what you are doing… though I win when it gets really claggy/snowy!)

Yep – do a bit… done a few weddings (don’t like to do them, but friends and friends of friends keep on asking so I do). Generally I do more the landscape and travel side of things – doesn’t pay so well, but that’s not entirely the point.

I read Zen somewhere in Amazonia… it were ace. But… I think if I read it for the first time now I would also be a bit miffed. A lot is down to time and place.

I shall start working on the getting fit soon… lacking the motivation at the moment. Hopefully it will start to sort out in the next wee while though.

I think cameras are banned tomorrow ;-)

I don’t normally do blue cheese, but I have some funny french stuff at the moment that is more than pleasent ;-)

My general rule though is:

Is it blue.
Is it made from Goats/Sheeps.

If both these are answered “no” then it is, indeed, the food of the Gods. If either are yes then usually it is Satan’s own cockscrapings.

I suspect it will barely turn a wheel for a few weeks to be honest.

Just starting to get myself ready for a top Summer really ;-)

It’s only an extra 40bhp man… what’s the worst that could happen ;-)

20k from front tyres eh… how many at the back end though??? :-)

I am reckoning it is going to be an awful lot better and more fun than my 1995 Yamaha TDM 850 that is for certain.

Should add – it will have the wee nose cone fairing on it when it arrives (the last owner didn’t like it and removed it, but the garage are refitting it before sending it up)… just starting to think that a nice high level carbon exhaust would look rather fine…

Damn this is going to get (even more) expensive!

Insurance quotes just in – £288 fully comp… not bad… only had my licence 6 months ;-)

Smee… it worries me that even with the *yikes!* swear filter I know exactly what you were saying ;-)

Perhaps I phrased that wrong!

Ride to London… nah… would rather not. The roads around these parts (Lake District) are somewhat nicer I suspect ;-)

I am not doing at all well… I am, however, drinking a LOT at the moment.

Going to try and knock that on the head, but not until after this weekend. Hopefully sometime next week I should be able to start getting back to living life rather than just passing through it, and start getting out and doing some exercise and stuff.

Either that or I need a damn good dose of something to poo myself thin ;-)

http://www.lfw.co.uk

All you could ever need to fulfil your malty desires ;-)

That said, I am currently enjoying discovering the many new ales available in Cumbria… the diversity is just blowing my tiny little Orcadian mind ;-)

Can’t you buy the entire country for a tenner yet???

Goddammit where did my picture go!!!!

It should have been a Triumph Speed Triple 955i

Got to be…

I may have to buy one in the next few weeks… cos my TDM is just a bit… unexciting really! I was supposed to be having a look at one this weekend, but accidentally drank my own bodyweight in beer yesterday afternoon/evening/night in Leeds… then had to get back to Cumbria this afternoon.

Oneday soon though…

(I love the new one too, but too much cash, also love the Street Triple, Aprilia Shiver, KTM Superduke (and R)…. but funds are not that generous yet)

Bollocks… I haven’t got new tyres for the car yet, which means that the drive over the Southern Uplands on Monday is going to be far too exciting… again (was shocking a couple of weeks ago, back end all over the place on the M74 and that’s in a 4×4!).

It’s not that my tyres are illegal on tread btw. Just 3/4 worn on the rears and they have been utterly crap anyway (not a big fan of the Bridgestones). Got to source some Yokohamas to get fitted soon.

Depends really… if we are heading into a global depression then I think everything is going to be half the price this time next year… but none of us will have any jobs so it will be kind of a moot point!

I get to live and work in the Lake District.

The scenery.

The light, especially early/late in the day.

Pretty high levels of freedom (ie not working outside today as it is grim, so sitting home, laughing at my animals and trying to get some wedding photographs finished off and up into the sales gallery).

Going to have to make better use of my new found locale soon, just too much going on in life at the moment to be able to settle and enjoy myself. Hopefully that will all work itself out in the next few weeks though.

Damn… I knew I was going the wrong way! Sold our 5 bedroom detached house in Scotland, and will be buying probably a 3 bedroom… perhaps 4 bedroom… terraced house in a few months. Probably.

That said – we are sitting things out for 6 months, so lost 15k on the sale, and should hopefully more than make that back on the purchase due to the falling market…. so hopefully we will come out ontop. I think if we stayed where we were there was a strong liklihood that we would have found ourselves with no equity, or quite probably negative equity since the talk is of prices halving from peak to trough. So glad we got the house sold otherwise we would have been stuck where we were for quite few years… and I would have had to keep commuting 200 miles each way as I had been for the last few years until I got utterly sick of it!

Now… if prices fall enough we may be able to afford somewhere with a garage!!!! Not that there are many of those in these parts, unless you go for an estate house, and not really wanting to do that.

:lol:

By born “around there” do you actually mean Barrow in Furness ;-)

My wee sister was born there, and hates to be reminded of the fact for some reason… think she has ideas above her station though!!!

I have managed to avoid the Laurel & Hardy museum thus far ;-)

Funny enough I did live here once before, but that was 25 years ago… not that the place has changed much since I was a wee lad at Lightburn School.

I do enjoy drinking the occasional pint of XB though ;-)

That little Sigma is a nice lens – seen some stunning images taken with them over the years.

Provisional and CBT for any moped type things…. don’t know about invalid carriages though ;-)

Yeah… there was beer last time too ;-)

I am very versatile with my drinking!

Last time I walked into the pub and started chatting to anyone random in Ulverston I was accosted by a very insistant and very “nice” boy. I had to threaten him with physical violence eventually to make him leave me alone!!!

The bar man was in stitches. Git.

Hmmm… Sunday… not sure yet – an old friend is enticing me over to Leeds to drink my bodyweight in beer, and I was kind of thinking of taking the “scenic” route to get there… via Macclesfield… to look at a motorbike ;-) That may be the main draw for going through to Leeds come to mention it!

Aaaah Cap’n… it’s nice to see this place hasn’t changed too much :lol:

Aye Foxy… just don’t want to constantly hassle you like!

Gutted I couldn’t go out with yer good man today doing that mountain biking thing… but got a big week this week and need to shift as much of this lurgy as possible.

Nah – not Kendal… that’s a metropolis that is! Ulverston.