Pedro

"all the water", what do you mean by "all" the water? My winter boots are Stylmartin leather boots with a sort of waterproof liner. I guess I'll go shopping ...

In Portugal they might not have been drinking coffee (not tea either ), and after would be hanging around the exit of the next 60kph motorway exit with a speed gun waiting for me.

If you were to ride around a couple of weeks in the UK in September, northernmost the Isle of Man's latitude, do you think you'd bother with proper waterproof boots or would the occasional small shower proof leather boots be good? Also, would one be really cold or ok with jeans? Asking for a friend...

I love the moss in the middle, but it's frightening not to see around bends. That looks like riding on a narrow tunnel.

They look ok-ish, in a budget sort of way. But if you put one next to an Africa Twin they look proper shit. I like that cafe, Bob! Never been much a fan of hanging around traffic police but I think they're different in the UK.

15.000.000km Don’t polute my brain with doubts! I tended to this engine’s main failure point, which is the rocker arms, appart from that there are no real known failure areas for my generation engine. I’ll deal with symptoms as they appear and try to do as much preventive maintenance as is practical to do so and advised by my mechanic, then it’s up to luck.

109000km today

I did I change tires when they feel bad to ride on, and amazingly these never did so far.

At 16000km these are running out of thread, but amazingly very smooth and a delight to do corners as long as you remind yourself they’re not a sporty tire. I decided to see how far the would go because I’ve never had a worn tire that handles as nicely as this (no rain, though). I think there is no better tire for a big trip on a big trail bike. In a couple of days they’ll be replaced with some Continentals. The next pair of Mitas is already in the garage, but only to be fitted a few days before the next Morocco trip, which so far is very uncertain regarding dates.

Rode north today, with the 3 hours motoway trip extended another hour or so for smaller roads long way alternatives

I checked their website, there is a 500cc version previous to this one with a one cylinder engine. On that 500cc there is a scrambler version which is the base version with 150mm non adjustable suspension travel, but then there is a 200mm suspension travel with adjustable suspension. Maybe there’s some of that coming to the 700.

Back then a vtwins’ rear engine overheated easily. This also spins the right way to exit transmission via a drive shaft, which they wanted for being more resilient to war. Also they were quite fast. On today’s boxers you could obviously get more specific power on other configurations, however heat is still an issue on warmer climates when you travel not going very fast on higher output engines, ask anyone with a KTM or a Ducati, the character of the engine suits travelling and ease of use, and people still like the shaft. I personally like how it both pulls from 2500rpms and also sounds like an airplane at 8 or 9000rpms. I am aware it’s a Nazi airplane, though, it’s a guilty pleasure.

Is it really a Yamaha engine though, or a copy?

Do you access your garage through the house? A secured from inside garage door would be ideal if that’s so.

Looks nice in black. I have been pondering the same.

You would think so but no. It was gone long before I got the 1150.

I ‘ve said before, the holocaust, climate change, plenty of stuff not your fault. Sadly my hair is also one of those things, but if I catch who did it I ‘ll be pretty upset

I think where they are probably their buying power at that age makes them not really worried about bikes. Nowadays most people on a new GS are renting it, at 2 or 3 years they just pay a grand or two and switch over to another bike, this makes that they don’t really care about the bike. Also they’re clueless, you see plenty of people in that video being equally clueless on lighter bikes with offroad tires. The equipment doesn’t save you if you’re going from a high grip surface onto slippery wet ground while cornering and adjust nothing.

It’s your doing, Pete, being so charismatic all the time and now making fun of him openly. Shouldn’t play with people’s feelings like that!

A friend of mine has one. Feels heavy and a little lazy around interesting roads, and not really frugal on motorways at normal speeds. An oldschool touring bike I think, he misses his Strom 650 except when taking his wife for Sunday morning coffee.

Just watched the first few, the guy wheeling the big gs showing off and was my favourite one. There’s a theme though, which is dropping stopped bikes and disrespecting speed on dirtroads, I think a few have little experience or respect for what they’re doing.

It’s available here and you still see a few about, new and old. Just checked, it’s not on their website anymore so I was wrong.

Ducati went in and got their mentality from Audi, which are masters in creating dominating machines. Biggest number of bikes on track means they get 3 or 4 times more data to study than everyone else. It’ll be the Audi R8 of the moto GP, no Audi R8 ever stopped at LeMans, while still dominating on pace.

I meant dudes going because it’s full of women, not because they like what women like.