Bloody snow

I wish it would either snow properly or not at all. Yesterday we had a
fair bit of rain and I was thinking "Great! clean roads tomorrow!"

Today I wake up to find that it's snowed - lightly - again. I was
looking forward to taking the TLR out for a spin, but not if there's
loads of salt about.

 

Sir starting to regret the purchase of a Suzuki already?

 

Heh! No, it's no worse than other bikes I've owned. It is, however, a
summer toy with >32K miles on it and certain expensive parts, such as
the bottom radiator, are getting a bit manky. The brakes don't take
too kindly to this shit either.

I know that if I wash it afterwards then that'll help, but as it
probably won't get used for the rest of the week then it'll simply sit
there damp and rotting.

The special reason I want to try it out is that I've just fitted an
Ohlins steering damper obtained through Ebay and I'm itching to see
what difference it'll make.

 

Sir should have had a word with Mr Honda and bought one of his
'Rustrepeller' motorcycles. I was out for a bit on the Pan this
morning, and after 70k miles in all weathers it still looks like new.

Chamois leather and a heated garage. YKIMS. I had a 'busa. Fucking
thing rotted so quickly I had cheesemakers asking if they could analyse
it to speed up their processes.

Probably just feel like you've tightened up the steering head bearings
with a 6 foot extension pole and left the steering lock on.

 

Hah! could be. At least it's adjustable, so low-speed corners on wet
country lanes should feel less heavy with it wound down.

I did try bolting the two dampers back to back, then pushed & pulled
them so as to get an approximate adjustment equivalent to the
original's.

I noticed a couple of things: air in the original causes it to "skip"
slightly as it's pushed/pulled, and one of the dampers - presumably
the original - appears asymetrical, in that it extends further than it
compresses compared to the other damper.

I suppose that it could be that I'm pulling harder than I'm pushing,
or vice versa, and one damper has different higher-speed damping than
the other, but I did try to keep it equal.

 

Yes - but (and I say this without the intention to insult or annoy)
you're fucking weird.

I did like it - I doubt that I could have lived with it half as long as
I've lived with the Pan.

 

I was tempted to keep it when I bought the Pan - but I didn't have a
justification for two bikes, remembered how it had to have new discs
all round after 4 weeks winter use and new exhausts after a further
four and thought '**** this for a game of soldiers'.

It was very different, fast and smooth, but deep down it was cheap tat.
A Lada with a sprts engine and a bit of bling.

 

Without the bling though...

 

Bear says...

I'd like a sports bike with a Lada engine.

 

TLR: better than a Pan Euro.

Hmm, not a ringing endorsement.

 

I'm bling free. Tasteful ornamentation however...

 

It is a couple of grand cheaper - but some of that will be the lack of
luggage etc. I would expect things like brake discs to be similarly
made on both - they weren't though.

 

"Suzuki - cheap for a reason"

 

Exactly - they pass off their shoddy monkey metal bikes as the best by
laquering them with shinola and hoping that the punters can't see past
the sequins in their eyes.