SV-Wolf's Bike Blog

[sv-wolf]

Yeah, I know, Blues, but I left my camera with a friend down in Dorset, and won't be going down there for another month to pick it up. For the present, pics are what I don't have.

Thanks for finding and posting that great photo though. It's very difficult to give an impression of how spectacular the engine room actually is. Most of the pics I've seen are not as good as this. It's hard to get a good angle.

For the tecchies, the picture shows intermediate and low pressure tanks of the 'Prince Consort engine. The high pressure tank is out of sight. For reasons of space, it was placed below the intermediate one. The two shafts to the left of the main tanks are operated by a secondary beam. They pump water into, and air out of, the condensing tank which cools down the steam after it has been discharged from the pressure tanks.

[blues2cruise]

There's a Youtube video that shows some of the operation.

[sv-wolf]

Great rideout this morning up to Grafton Water with Five Counties Motorcycle Club. Fifteen riders met up at the Baldock Extra services at 9.30 ready for the off. It was a circular trip, but mercifully we stopped off half way at a cafe in St Neots so that my aching limbs could relax a bit. I'm getting used to the Blade on fast roads, but much of this was relatively slow riding on the twisties or in heavy traffic. Everyone says that despite being a sportsbike, the Blade handles well at slow speeds. I can vouch for that because she pulls consistently right through the rev range and there is plenty of power low down. No-one seems to mention, though, that at slow speeds she also becomes acutely painful on the wrists and arms.

The countryside is looking great at this time of year even up around St Neots which is very flat.

We were back home for 1.00 pm, which just gave me time for a bite to eat, a quick wash and a change into trousers and shirt, ready to attend a 'tea party' to mark 30 years of the Letchworth Centre for Holistic Living where I used to work. I don't often get to go to anything quite as dainty as a 'tea party,' so I was intrigued. It was great. I got to speak to a lot of friends I haven't seen in many a long year, and relive some old memories. There was a pioneering spirit about the Centre in the 1980s when I first worked there. We dared to suggest to a rather crusty medical establishment that maybe one of the reasons people got ill or failed to recover from illness might have something to do with a condition that we called 'stress' and that people's mental and emotional condition was as important as their physical one.

I had a long chat with Tim, an acupuncturist, about his new Beemer, and discovered that he also had also met at the Extra services that morning with a different club and gone for a rideout. Later I met Steve who used to work for a county health and welfare group and is deeply in love with his DL650. We discovered that we had both spent our lives avoiding four wheels. Steve told me that he had given up a good salary and large town-centre home to move out into the country where his kids can grow up wild and he can do tai chi in his back garden every morning without being overlooked. Sensible man.

I walked the two miles back home from the Centre feeling very chipper. Before going into the house I stopped for some moments to admire the Blade where I had left her parked up at the side of the road. I can't believe how great a condition she is in, or how good looking she is, or that she is mine.

That reminds me. I must now go and get her off the street before it gets too dark.

I don't know if this will work, but here's a picture of this morning's Five Counties rideout, waiting for a train to pass at a level crossing barrier. I'm the one on the blue bike nearest the tree.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/ ... ad9ffe41bc

I still haven't got my camera back, but I've decided to invest some funds in a new one - a proper one this time with all the bells and whistles and, while I'm at it, I'm going to do a course in basic photography. It will come in useful on my Big Trip. Which reminds me also. I still have to find my dual sport.

[jstark47]

Not to belabor your patience with stupid questions, but....... can't your friend just post your camera back to you? That would work here.

[blues2cruise]

Not to belabor your patience with stupid questions, but....... can't your friend just post your camera back to you? That would work here.

Also here.

[sv-wolf]

LOL. Could do, but to be honest I'm not actually missing my camera right now (except when I post on TMW and get roughed up a little by Blues for not including pics . ) Besides, if I got it posted back to me I wouldn't have an excuse to take a trip down to Dorset on the bike in a couple of weeks - fast roads all the way, just made for the Blade, or, while there, spend some days camping on isolated beaches along the Dorset/Devon coast - 95 miles of one of the most awesome natural environments in the world, almost achingly beautiful. The region has its own sub-tropical microclimate. For anyone who prefers the country to the town, Dorset is heaven on earth (IMHO): it has no cities, no motorways and no hypermarkets, just miles of gorgeous coastline with coves, stacks, arches, lagoons and coastal bars, rolling hills, flowering meadows, a profusion of wildlife, pretty villages, hidden harbours, fossil sites, stone circles, neolithic earthworks, crumbling castles, old pubs, smugglers tales, glimmering blue skies and loads and loads of sunshine. Here are some stock pics of the coast I've found on the web.

http://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images ... coast.html

All about three hours ride from me. Who wouldn't? I think I'll wait and pick up the camera.

[blues2cruise]

Spectacular coast. I didn't know England had such sunny sandy shores.

[sv-wolf]

I'm finally homing in on my long-distance bike. I've narrowed the field down to just two models: a Yamaha XT600 or a Suzuki DR600. At the moment it looks like the DR600 is out in front. It ticks all my boxes (well almost - nothing is ever going to be perfect). I've been checking it out on the Horizons Unlimited HUBB site which is a source of information for long-distance riders. The site is truly impressive. The amount of information it holds for global, two-wheel travellers is truly astounding. Its forums are always humming whenever I visit it. There are about sixty of them altogether, and many of the main ones regularly have between 200 and 500 people currently logged on to them.

Neither the XT nor the DR is directly available in the UK - they are both American imports. There's a demand for dual sports here, but none of the big manufacturers will sell them to us. Why? Don't ask me. Round-the-world and long-distance riding has always been popular in the UK (never more so than now) and people are crying out for bikes like this.

There is a downside to buying an American or Australian import in the UK (European imports are generally hassle free). The manufacturers will not give a warranty, and spares have to be ordered from the States or Japan. I've never bought an imported bike and don't really know what the issues are beyond what you hear on the rumour mill, but I guess I'm about to find out.

I'd prefer a second-hand bike because that would make the carnet cheaper, but I can't find any decent ones up for sale at the moment - none this side of the arctic circle at any rate or in a condition I would consider buying. I have, though, found a dealer who imports new Japanese bikes from the US. He's based in Reading, which is conveniently just 50 miles from my home. He has a new DR for sale (the last of his current consignment). He offers his own 12-month warranty as part of the selling price, which is a nice little inducement. I talked to one of his sales staff this afternoon about it and convinced myself it would be worth taking a look. I'm riding over there tomorrow.

I scare the "poo poo" out of myself on these occasions, because I know how impulsive I can be. Should I risk the chance of losing this bike while waiting for a relatively rare second-hand one turns up? Or should I jump now? I tend to jump. I've had many a cause in the past, though, to wish I had a more measured approach to decision making but... We'll see.

Wish me luck (and sound judgment).

[dr_bar]

Good luck and good judgement on your journey tomorrow.

[blues2cruise]

Doesn't Yamaha have the 650 Tenere in Europe?