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Can we post long, very long stories of trips and funny or special moments? Can be in episodes, so not tire you to much.

@BusBoy Here they are in Scotland.

I knocked this together from bits on FB, a diary which gives up after a couple of days, and photos. I realise now that there was a lot of video as well on the FB pages. I shall have to do some editing before the next post. 31st Aug 2017 Said goodbye to my daughter and family near Guildford and hit the motorway down to Dover. Caught a ferry across and then rode towards Antwerp and then Arnhem. Didn’t get quite as far as that and stayed at a campsite not far from Nijmegen owned by a biker as it happened. Friday 1st Sept. Got up to a misty morning, a wet tent and a lovely atmosphere with geese setting off to feed. Ideal time for a shower at 0700 as I was the only one about. Following my mate Titus’s advise I packed up and set off without breakfast, not even a brew. The plan was to do a hundred miles before breakfast; I managed a hundred and twenty before stopping at a rest area and having some watery/milky porridge and a coffee. Then it was over into Germany, surviving the gridlock around Hamburg after endless miles of filtering, and making it up into Denmark where I stopped for a coffee and a roll. It was then about a hundred miles or so to a campsite not far from Copenhagen. Not many photos as motorways look the same wherever they are, boring. Useful for the commute though. There was a so called rock happening there in the town. I walked over to the village square but was horrified by the density of the crowds. Little kids there as well looking frightened. I took a few snaps of the streets but kept the phone in my pocket zipped up in the crowds. Tomorrow morning it’ll be over the bridge to Sweden.

This was a great bike. Absolute torque beast. Like a loving Pitbull, it was strong, big, but friendly and dependable. Super, super fun to have the max torque at 5500rpm! It was stolen after 14 month of owning it with 13.400 miles. The thieves were maybe expecting less miles!! That happened on the 21st of July 2006 and still upsets me today. Created such a bond with it! Went to the Nurburgring on it ( the pictures here are at the Ring, Schwalbenschwanz in March 2006 ), went round the UK on it, Land's End to John O'Groats with its 874 miles that went by in a blur in a day and a record time! Went to Le Mans and many parts of France, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg on it, used it every day during those 14 months. Some vehicles really mark us. A motorcycle will always get under the skin more than a car, at least for me, and this one will always be my “one”!! A curiosity of life was that after ordering it, I got the chance of visiting the Factory with the Portuguese Owners Club that was touring the UK and visiting the factory. Many of them were my friends and took me along on their Factory Tour as a guest! On that visit, luck would have it, that the production line was making Speed Triples in yellow and, with my uncontrollable enthusiasm only surpassed by that of a mad Labrador Retriever puppy, I made so much noise, the tour guide eventually found the VIN number that had my name on it and I saw it! There were 2 destined for Jack Lilley, finished already and waiting to be tested, and one was for me! 3 weeks later I was reunited with it. Well, there is a chance the Triumph Factory guide made the whole thing up, in truth I didnt put a mark on the bike I saw, so it could be another one, but I like Walt Disney’s words: “When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.”

My current bike is a 2018 Speed Triple R, Dark Edition, Its a special edition done by 8 Ball for Triumph. It didnt really sell because the cot for the paint job was high, so I got lucky and bought it when everyone was buying the 2019 RS model for an excellent price from Jack Liileys. Its the 4th Speed Triple I have had, all from JL. To be fair I would have happily stayed with number one, that was my favourite, if it hadn't been stolen... So, originally bought in England, went to Germany and is now in Portgal. Ocasionally gets the company of the Mamoth and its little and large! And in Portugal keeps going inadvertadly off-road... On those ocasions I swear a lot and remember my childhood horse riding days!! I will try to put a video when at 1500 meters high the road was fit for GSs, not Pirelli Supercorse and MotoGP Ohlins.... 10CPRO190901-130821.MP4

That comment reminds me of my friend who last year traded in his Speed Triple for a Himalayan. As he came out with a big smile on his face he said '' look I've got a brand new bike and £600 '' My other mate replied '' yes, but you've just lost 112bhp'' ?

I'm with Pete, I love to roam around old buildings. Used to get into plenty as a kid.?

Thank you! Although, 136 hp on slicks off road seems quite enough to me!

Nice!!! Lovely horses!

Lovely photo. Like the light. This was rough. Crossing the tail end of a hurricane helping with disaster relief. We were headed for Grand Turk if I remember correctly. That's a 35,000 tonne tanker.

Same here! ?

You will have to behave yourself now Bob LOL

Plus those CV carbs work better with the air box installed

You lost him right there, that will have given him palpitations.

Here they are coming back from Tregaron, before you modified the rack I think. Just a few weeks before the Scotland trip. No paint either. Ten bloody years ago!!!

You doing gyenaeclogy as well now Tym ?

How come no one told me to wear safety glasses when im cleaning out orifices? lol

No,no,no!! Up, up and away we go!! Of course you can do it! You will have to clean a lot after, but 100% you can! My bike was so dirty... Its an amazing paint job because its mate and all these crazy tracks I ve been in haven't damaged it.

Hoy!! I get the jokes and my bike is not filthy!! Its just not as clean as yours Mr I-have-a-garage-with-addequate-facilities!

that's the stuff, you're our own one man scooby gang, Pete

Hi!! Well spotted!! I was up North in my innicial stages in the UK, which was great to be able to deal with down South when moved to London. I started in Leeds, then Manchester, then Cheshire. 4 years of Northen England. I was very, very happy there. One of the reasons I left Portugal was because I wanted a bike and after 3 month in the UK I had one. I had the bike, the friends and the life I knew I wanted, but never thought I'd get!! For that, and so many more reasons, the UK is my real home. I landed in a job that had 5 bikers and then made friends with a very good group of guys in Cheshire and my biking life was a lot more then I could have ever dreament!! North Wales, Peak District, Lake District, yorkshiredales. Every weekend but also during the week, because I was working with the Foot a d Mouth outbreak and only had a bike, so that is how how I went to work most days, even in the bleak month of March 2001. I literally went from zero to hero in 3 month!! On a magical little bike, Hornet 250. I travelled from Cheshire to Lisbon on that bike, with its tiny 4 cilinders!! Through a massive storm that landed us ( me and the bike!) In Roscoff, France instead of Santander, Spain! My first ever solo trip was for sure the best start to adventuring any adventure rider can have. But that is another, very long, story. And I wont go into North-Sourh divisons, but, and much more relevant, I shall declare my allience in the War of the Roses to Lancashire, not Yorkshire!! Pedro is experienced with UK biking culture from afar. Is life has a huge whole in that he never had the chance to be there in person, to live it, to be around what is for sure the funniest, nicest, craziest biking scene ever! Maybe one day, who knows, he can spend some time there! You guys could push him a long, he needs a push to go North!! Saying that, it is true bikes and bikers have changed a lot. We have the Pre-Long Way Round Era and the Pos-Long Way Round Era, where BMW GS stopped being the Old man-odd (and very tall!)-unfashionable-bike to the hip-modern-racy-fashionable bike. Best bike in the World, true fact, but not my choice. Im very fortunate to have experienced so much in the UK. My love for bikes is old, as old as me basically and because I was brought up by an Anglophile, there could not be a better combination or a better place to be for me! I was Triumph through and through before I left Portugal and my heart is Speed Triple, so after having a crash on the Hornet, upgraded to the first 1050 in 2005, when I moved to London and became the Rat Pack girl at Jack Lilleys. Actually I lived in Sunningdale, so I didnt have the "pleasure" of the London pollution!! Another fabulous 4 years, new group of friends, different biking scene. Many trips to the Continent, alone or leading groups, weekly nights at the Ace cafe and weekend trips to the Surrey country side, mainly Newlan's Corner. Around 15 000 miles a year, I WAS busy!! And in between a challenge, Lands End to John O'Groats in less then "some" hours, have you heard of it?! Another story... made it, with some delays courtesy of the boys in blue!! Most surprised face I have ever seen, on that Scottish Policeman, when my helmet came off!! We have to do stupid things when we are young ( maybe when we are old too, maybe!), its how it goes. Great times!!

Hi Phil, you too Have you got some teeth now? ?

The air cut off valve was full of crap, ugh...butt, so far all the expensive parts look ok.

Well, so far, the main and the pilo t jets are clogged, this is pre carb cleaner condition...

I don't suppose you remember, but on July 2012 I posted a report in which, riding the XR in the woods, I found an abandoned puppy and took him home. He was barely one month old, very sick and had a serious case of scabies, left to die in a heatwave. This is him after a couple of weeks at home: And this is him now, spoiled and 8 years old, having survived serious liver surgery last year: He's the man! ?