Yamaha Super Tenere test ride

Had a chance to take the new Super Tenere out today for a few hours, lots of fun, great bike, seriously better than a BMW GS. KTM Adventure would have the edge off road I think. Still the S10 held it's own, even 2up.

Coming together

Busy day today. After finishing off the frame brackets yesterday and painting the frame it was assembly time. First off swingarm, shock (with new spring), forks and wheels

Then add the bodywork to see how it sits

Then get the engine in

Then have a feeling of satisfaction

Just waiting on some spacers for the wheels, and exhaust flanges so I can build the exhaust system. After that it's all pretty easy.

Any old iron

Take a 2 gallon lorry air tank found on the road-

Strip of coating and cut a hatch-

Cut and weld an old Firestorm high level link pipe to form a chimney stub-

Paint black-

Burn stuff-

RIP Bonneville

Monday we had to have our cat Bonneville put to sleep. She'd had kidney failure, and despite spending a weekend in the vets on a drip and medication she was getting worse. Will miss her very much.

Run free missy.

Sparkle

With many thanks to Scarlett Rickard I now have a beautiful sidepanel painted up for SB#3. She took my idea of the number 11 with mexican skulls inside and turned it into this-

XTs, TTs, XTZs, C90s?

What do the above have in common?

Thumpers, or indeed, thumpettes.

Dave and I crashed the XT500 forum run at Llanthony Priory on saturday. There were some nice beasts there, and it was good to catch up with a few people too.

Then we rode like hoodlums back along the Gospel Pass.

More thump

A kind friend came over saturday and left me with his van a lot lighter. The reason? He deposited his DR800 in my shed.

In bits.

A bearing has gone inside the gearbox, and the engine requires splitting. This is job number one. After that job number two is reassembly, followed by job number three which is building a sidecar for it.

VJMC but not J

Cardiff VJMC show

A nice run out on the Speed Triple saw us at the 1st Cardiff VJMC show. Plenty of bikes in the car park, and plenty more inside. Some real gems there and definitely worth going again next year.

Done

After a busy day the old trumpet has fresh oil and filter, fresh coolant, and I cut and buffed the £20 rattle can paint. Come up nice.

In the ghetto

This weekend saw plenty of bike activity. Saturday saw me pulling the guts out of the wiring loom for the Speed Triple, a few little things to do now and then MoT this week hopefully. Looking forward to hustling the old girl again.

Today saw the Tenere getting some hoodlum love as I made the link pipe up for the Ghettotrapp silencer (Micron race silencer with Supertrapp end plates) that I'd made at the end of last year. I thought I'd get some practice in TIGing up the tube before making the system for SB#3. Quite pleased, though I need to be more consistent with my filler rod.