A Christmas break

Merry Christmas & a prosperous new year to all.

Yes, it's that time of year again where I find myself thinking back to this time last year, where we could go where we wanted, see who we wanted to (within reason, I'm sure my better half would have lines to draw somewhere), where we were discussing which island in the Canaries, we would visit this year, as well as what other warm destinations we would go to.

The Garage had two bikes in there, a working Triumph Tiger 955i and a stripped-down Honda CB1 - 400 which was very slowly being worked on. We both had redundancy to look forward to at the end of May, if 'look forward to' is the right phrase, which in my case, it was. I was planning on completing the Sea-to-Sea ride in aid of MacMillan at the end of June and planning had started on my mammoth ride to visit the most easterly, northerly, westerly and southerly points of mainland UK, taking in the lowest and highest roads along the way.

I did a deal on a 05 Tiger 955i, which I was informed only required a clutch and an MOT but before I could arrange to go and pick it up, someone else gave me a 1993 Trophy 1200.

I had no idea where I’d find the time to sort out the Trophy, let alone where I’d find the money, but as it’d only done 17,000 miles and been laid up for (I was told) 5 years, how bad could it be?

Then someone in China ate a bat! (allegedly)

Everything changed. On the plus side, as I was no longer commuting (working from home), I not only saved fuel and parking money, but also wasn’t paying out for a coffee in my local coffee shop and was saving 2 hours a day to boot. The rest of the year is documented here, in this blog, so I won’t go on.

Tiger

Despite it being December, I’m still riding, I’m in Tier 3 as I write, so can still go out to play, but I mostly restrict rides to volunteer rides with VRUK. I’ve managed two this month and posted a Video blog of the last one this year (2020).

After the last ride, I’ve done nothing aside from giving her a good clean. She now sits in the garage on a trickle charger until she’s needed again.

Trophy

As it’s been cold and wet, I’ve done little to Tabitha since my last blog on 12th December, although I’ve stripped the old, ripped cover off the seat to see what condition the foam is in and I think I might be able to save it. I can get a second-hand seat for around £70 which has no rips or I can buy a new seat cover for around the same price. I’m still undecided on that point. I’ve also cleaned up the rear brake disc and measured its thickness. It’s 5.7mm and the minimum thickness is 5.0mm, so once I’ve sorted the wheels, I’ll use it, rather than replace it. I’ve started cleaning up the front brake discs as I’ll be re-using them too. Again, they’re well within the minimum thickness (4.5mm). 

Update

Thanks to a fellow member of TOMCC (the Peterborough branch), I've managed to get a seat. It's off a 1996 Trophy and is a slightly different profile to the original, but it looks good and all for £40.

 

Anything else, will have to wait until next year, which I’m hoping will be much better than 2020. The bar is not too high, so as long as we can beat this Covid thing, it shouldn’t be too hard.

And, just for the record, I’m still working, my better half finishes on 31 December 2020, but my redundancy date has been moved to 30 June 2021.

I don’t mind that, firstly, it means I can take a month out to do my mammoth tour in summer weather and second, if I’m going to be unemployed, Winter is not the time I would have picked anyway.

Here’s wishing you all a fantastic 2021.

Lee