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Just One More Mile - Initial Planning
A diary blog, covering details of the initial planning for our Round The World motorcycle trip in 2008...15 April 2007
Bike Swap Weekend...
Similar in concept to the "Wife Swap" TV programmes, or so I'm told...
On Thursday evening I rode over to my sister's mansion near Blackpool to swap my regular R1150GS for the Adventure model I've bought ready for our round the world trip. My reasoning was simple - it had been sat in her garage for several weeks and since I bought it I've hardly ridden it. I also wanted to have a really good look round it so I can work out what I need to change in order to prepare it for the trip, even though I won't start doing so until much later this year.
Despite having sat unused and having acquired a layer of dust it started first time, and I enjoyed the ride home. Comparing the 2 bikes, which are theoretically very similar, kept me occupied all the way home. The Adventure is much taller - so much so that I can only just reach the ground with my tip-toes, the suspension seems more plush, and the engine and gearbox are much smoother - I guess that might be down to the difference in age and mileage, as the non-Adv version is 3 years and 11k miles older.
Over the weekend I've adjusted the suspension - dropping the preload down to soften it up a bit which results in it being a bit lower, helping me get my feet down better, and spent a lot of hours cleaning and examining the bike from close up. It really is in excellent condition, as you can see from the picture below, taken on a short ride up into the hills on Sunday afternoon.
I'm going to ride it to work tomorrow, as I need to be near Leeds and the traffic is terrible in a morning, and then return it to the security of Nikki's garage where it can stay tucked up until I next get the urge to ride it - which is likely to be in June, when we are attending the Horizons Unlimited meeting near Derby.
On Thursday evening I rode over to my sister's mansion near Blackpool to swap my regular R1150GS for the Adventure model I've bought ready for our round the world trip. My reasoning was simple - it had been sat in her garage for several weeks and since I bought it I've hardly ridden it. I also wanted to have a really good look round it so I can work out what I need to change in order to prepare it for the trip, even though I won't start doing so until much later this year.
Despite having sat unused and having acquired a layer of dust it started first time, and I enjoyed the ride home. Comparing the 2 bikes, which are theoretically very similar, kept me occupied all the way home. The Adventure is much taller - so much so that I can only just reach the ground with my tip-toes, the suspension seems more plush, and the engine and gearbox are much smoother - I guess that might be down to the difference in age and mileage, as the non-Adv version is 3 years and 11k miles older.
Over the weekend I've adjusted the suspension - dropping the preload down to soften it up a bit which results in it being a bit lower, helping me get my feet down better, and spent a lot of hours cleaning and examining the bike from close up. It really is in excellent condition, as you can see from the picture below, taken on a short ride up into the hills on Sunday afternoon.
I'm going to ride it to work tomorrow, as I need to be near Leeds and the traffic is terrible in a morning, and then return it to the security of Nikki's garage where it can stay tucked up until I next get the urge to ride it - which is likely to be in June, when we are attending the Horizons Unlimited meeting near Derby.
posted by DoctorZippy # 19:58 
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