French Run: The Chateau is open

On the Thursday night, if anyone wants a bolthole.

 

All of us, about £100, TPO.

 

Sorted and noted!

 

Of course, I'll take you for a pint and a fight too.

 

Are you coming to mine first on the friday morning, or shall
I meet you en route? I reckon M11 > M25 will be boring as
hell, so heading over my way first might see if your luggage
strapping ability has improved.

 

heh, the Blackbird has hard luggage.

We can meet at yours or en route, depends which route we're going to
be chasing you down.

 

<cough>
Please, though you put me on the later ferry.

 

If it opens, things can still fall out.
Never underestimate the power of the incompetent.

There is only one way and that's M25 then M20 to Dover.
We are going from Dover, right?

At least it's less than 10 miles of A12 to the M25 from mine and
you'll miss quite a bit of M11 and M25, but the choice is yours.

 

Sure, but as someone else has said, chances are you can wangle an
earlier boat.

Oh, I've just been finalising/paying for the ferries. POSL says there
are road works as you come into Dover which have been a PITA. "But
they won't bother you if you're on bikes, will they?"

I just hope the bloody weather improves by then. I'd like to take the
Ducati, but if it's raining the K is the sane choice.

Just had the leccy windscreen fixed by Brian Giles - an operating arm
snapped (they're oddly cheap castings and apparently this can happen).
Only £50 including the parts so no biggie. He lent me an R1150RS just
to get from his gaff to work and back again.

Bloody nasty thing. Rough as a badger's arse, odd riding position, not
enough weather protection, and the handling felt insecure. I got back
and said, cautiously: "Odd bike, that...."

"Horrible!" was what he said. Dunno if they're all like that. I've
only ridden two new-style boxers that I liked: an 1150GS (inevitably)
and an R850R (another Brian loaner) which was *really* nice. So much
sweeter than the bigger bikes and didn't feel much slower.

Oh, and if Timo's reading this: I stuck the fuel gauge in, the one I
bought off Ebay, and it works a treat. That was a piece of luck: I've
bid on several, and always been outbid at something like £35-40. But I
won this one for £10.95. Go figure.....

 

How did you get on with the Evo brakes?

<nods> I like the older 850s.

 

Does the 1150 have 'em? This was a well-worn example.

Um, I mentioned the brakes to him as they seemed to have a load too
much lever travel. If you pumped them, the travel lessened
dramatically, suggesting there was air in the system. he said someone
else had complained, tried the lever, and said: "That's not right" but
whether it was just air, or Evo brakes, or Evo brakes + air, I dunno.

Timo said they made an 850GS, but hardly any were sold here. I'd like
to try one now.

 

What the Evo system does is apply servo assistance to the brakes. If the
servo assistance is absent, there's still some braking, but it's pretty
soggy. Did you hear any servo whine? Also, I suspect that the servo
assistance could mask degraded brake performance through air, spongy hoses,
elderly brake fluid or whatever.

http://www.bmbikes.co.uk/specpages/R850GS.htm

I ought to try one of the early R850R models sometime.

 

I know what it does - I just don't know if all the 1150s had them.

Hm. Top speed 117mph. IIRC, the 1150 manages about 125-130, doesn't
it?

<Looks again>

Coo, they didn't make very many of them, did they?

 

I've ridden the 1100S and RS. Both have horrible rough engines. Nasty vibes.
Fairings that don't work and footpegs so high a Gixxer Thou was more
comfortable.

 

The riding position is a bit odd on the RS - the last time I had this
particular one, I did fiddle with the seat height but it didn't help
much either. It's too much like you're supposed to have your knees up by
your ears.

And yes, the weather protection is a tad shite and I've pretty much had
exactly the same issues with it as you describe.

Which reminds me, I need to give him a bell to ensure I don't get stuck
with that bike on Tuesday.

Actually the R1150R loaner he has/used to have is quite nice, too. In
fact, it's mostly this RS that's a tad 'orrible.

Not bad. Proof that you can get lucky occasionally on ebay.

 

That one doesn't have Evo brakes - it's a bog standard, non-ABS bike.

It's just air, and I think I've had that problem as well.

I've only ever seen two for sale in the UK, so you may be a while. The
other issue with them is that they are 1100GSs with a smaller engine,
despite them being built parallel to the 1150 as well. So no six-speed
gearbox etc.

 

I wasn't

Natch.

 

My boss at Xerox bought one at the same time as I bought the 1150. He
didn't like it when I kept parking my "new shape" W reg bike next to his
"old shape" X reg 850. He was a notorious cheapskate: his previous bikes
were an MZ, a Suzuki GS850 and a GPZ1100.