January 2021

Confessions of a First Time Restorer – Part 1

Posted on January 21, 2021 | by Salli Griffith

Part One – How it all Began

Firstly, let’s get the introductions out of the way. My name is Jon Case and I’ve been riding for just over 3 years, and a member of TVAM for 2 years. A few years ago I reached that mid-life crisis moment. I’d had enough of the career lark, the kids were in their teens, my wife had her hobbies, and I had some personal issues that were in the process of being sorted. To that end, and thankfully with the support of my family, I packed the career in and decided to start again. I handed back the company car, gave up the sales job and went working stacking shelves in a supermarket. This turned out to be the best thing I had ever done career wise. I re-discovered happiness.

A few months into this I found myself thinking about motorbikes one day. I’d always wanted to ride a motorbike but had never learned. My father had been a surgeon in the era when helmets were not compulsory and protective gear was not a priority. He was very anti-bikes due to the number, variety and seriousness of the bike injuries he saw. So there was no chance of me being allowed to learn to ride, and then I never got round to it when I was older.

I’d always loved cruisers and always said that one day I was going to own a Harley. It was never anything but cruisers. No other type of bike interested me. This I put down to being at a very impressionable (read hormonal if you wish) age when Terminator first came out and, of course, there were those Meatloaf album covers!

It just happened – I decided I was going to learn to ride a bike. A bit of research and I was booked onto a DAS with Bike2Bike in Newbury, fortunately a very good choice. I worried about telling my Mum, but she was very supportive. I did my CBT – God knows how I passed that! I really could not get the hang of this ‘clutch with the hand’ thing and spent half my time stalled. The examiner obviously wasn’t watching when I did a wheelie out in front of a car when pulling onto the road for the first time (a buttock clenching moment, I can tell you). Before even thinking about Mod 1 I decided I needed practice. Through Bike2Bike I hired a 125 for a few days, and just spent that time out riding on quiet roads learning to control the bike and that flaming clutch. But I wasn’t enjoying it and that worried me. It felt like the slightest gust of wind would blow me over. I didn’t feel in control. It all just felt wrong.

I decided to persevere, and I did my theory, rocked that – 100% on the test and 76% on the hazard perception, and booked my Mod 1 training and test. The day of the training was a revelation. I started moving on a big bike and it was a eureka moment. This is what I had been expecting. This was what I hoped it would be. This was fun! Soon Mod 1 and Mod 2 were passed, and I was on the bike hunt.

Cruisers! Aah, they’re just great. Many will disagree but that’s the beauty and variety of biking – there’s something for everyone. The look of cruisers, the sound, the ability to mod, the lack of electronic gizmos, the feel of riding one, the low seat position, the admiring looks of passers-by (well, in my imagination anyway) – fundamentally, the feeling and the image! I soon realised though that a Harley was not what I really wanted. Lots and lots of research and Excel spreadsheets followed. For the money I had there were issues with age, reliability, value for money and the lack of performance that money would realise when buying a Harley badge versus other brands. I settled on a 2009 Yamaha XVS950A Midnight Star with 5,800 miles on the clock. This was a lot of bike for the money, and on Wednesday 13th September 2017 I proudly rode home (very tentatively – I bottled parking at the motorway services and drove straight out) and everyone was out!

Roll on a year and I was very happy with my bike, and I still am. She’s gorgeous. Whenever there is something wrong with her I end up a nervous wreck. ‘What’s wrong with her? Is she okay?’ I worry more about her being ill than the kids, but I never said that. And I’d lay money on that there’s a good few of you nodding in agreement. She has that lowdown torque, just the right amount of power for me (okay, it’s a measly 55BHP, but that does me fine, and she keeps up with more powerful bikes without the slightest problem), the wonderful sound I achieved with a new exhaust and hypercharger, the look with the removal of the pillion seat and a few carefully chosen bits of chrome bling.

The simplicity of the bike, not even a fuel gauge after having a car full of toys. A re-modelled seat to make it comfortable after more than 100 miles. The removal of the screen for non-motorway trips. The feeling and the image! I defy anyone to say they haven’t admired themselves in a shop window as they ride past! I was a happy chappy. To quote one of my colleagues at the time – ‘I’m not interested in motorbikes and I don’t like smoking, but you looked cool as **** when you rode out of work yesterday with a fag in your gob’. I can see all the heads shaking in disgust at smoking while riding, but if you position that ciggy just right, there is no ash issue!!

Anyway, I had always planned on getting an advanced riding qualification but wanted some time in the seat first. Starting to ride at my age I was extremely conscious of not having a big metal cage around me. I was also conscious that whilst I had nearly 30 years of driving experience under my belt, and knew how to handle roads and traffic, I was pretty pants at riding a motorbike. I wanted to be a lot better. A friend, John Stevens, who was a member of TVAM until he sadly died earlier this year suggested I join TVAM, so that was what I did.

I was fortunate enough to be allocated Jim Bates as my Observer. He patiently guided me and taught me a huge amount. I’d always thought I was a good driver – not great, just good, but the amount I learned from Jim was astounding, and can be credited to having saved me from one accident that I know of. I didn’t rush it as I worked weekends so it had to be fit in when I could, but in November last year I passed my Advanced test. I just missed out on a F1RST by riding too slowly! But that’s me, and I rode as fast as I personally felt comfortable doing in the pretty grotty November conditions. I’m a much better rider now (and driver actually), but still have plenty I can learn.

So, we finally arrive at the joys of 2020, and me actually getting to the point. I had recently changed jobs and was looking forward to getting more involved in TVAM. Doing various additional courses, going on trips and finally being able to attend St. Crispin’s Sunday. Then 2020 really kicked into gear and all plans went out the window.

I am fortunate enough to be a critical worker and in no danger of losing my job or being furloughed, but we were, and continue to be, affected by Covid. My wife’s business has suffered. My son missed college and had to have assessed BTEC grades. My daughter continues to suffer. She missed a quarter of her GCSE syllabus and still doesn’t really know if her GCSEs are going to happen. My wife’s uncle and our neighbour died of Covid, my friend John Stevens died, and then to top it all my Father-in-Law, Peter, unexpectedly died in his sleep in May.

Peter had numerous vintage bikes in his garage that had not been touched or used for years. My Sister-in-Law decided to take a BSA Bantam and a Triumph Tiger Cub, and my wife asked if I wanted two others. This kind of threw me – I knew nothing about bikes apart from how to ride them. The mysteries of an engine are exactly that to me – mysteries. They would need restoring, they hadn’t been started in at least 20 years, probably more like 25. But they’d been kept inside. Could I do it? Would I have the skills to do it? What on earth is a Rockerbox? Where would I do it? How would I learn? Ultimately, what the hell is a BSA C15 when it’s at home? The questions and doubts kept coming. But the seed had been sown.

Yes, you’ve guessed it, there were two BSA C15s available if I wanted them, a 1961 and a 1967. Time to ask the experts. I joined the BSA C15 Restoration Facebook page. I got, and continue to get, amazing advice from these people. Things like buying the bible according to BSA C15 owners – the Rupert Ratio books which look at the C15 in minute detail. Which tools I would need to get, i.e., Whitworth. I asked advice of the BSA Owners Club and found out that C15s are good bikes for a first restoration as they are relatively simple. Both bikes have matching frame and engine numbers, the 1961 still with its original paint. A couple of posts on the TVAM Facebook page yielded good advice. I picked Jim Bates’s mind on a ride out to the Sammy Miller Museum. It’s really worth a visit, a fantastic place, and if anyone wants to buy me a bike, I’ll have a Zundapp K800 please – I’d love to read Nick Tasker’s take on that bike.

All this was answering questions, quashing doubts and pushing me more and more towards giving it a go. In the end I decided to go for it. A shed/mancave was purchased, a van was hired and then on the 1st November the bikes came to their new home.

On my first day off after bringing them home I got the bikes out of the shed, looked at them, and thought ‘Oh Good God, what have I done?’

But I have dived in there, am making good progress and learning a huge amount. I now know what a rockerbox is. So you can find out what that progress is, I will write some follow ups to this over the next few months to let you know how I’m doing, what adventures I’m having, my successes and my failures. It won’t necessarily be every month as I do have to earn the money I’m spending on them, and it’s a slow process being my first restoration. I am having a thoroughly enjoyable time though and hope you will enjoy reading about it. The strip down of the first bike is well progressed, so next month I’ll give you an update. Bye for now, and stay safe.

Jon Case

First published in Slipstream January 2021

Go to Part 2

The Future for TVAM and our Environment?

Posted on January 21, 2021 | by Steve Dennis

During the national lockdown and with the various regional tier restrictions that followed, it has given us all a bit more time to reflect on our family priorities and key leisure activities. Our normal European bike tours have not been possible, plus overseas holidays cancelled. One outcome for many of us, has been to place a greater emphasis on the UK for riding and ‘stay at home’ holidays. In particular, the local environment of the Thames Valley plus surrounding counties, where many of us walk, ride and cycle to enjoy the outdoors, gaining some much-needed recreation and exercise.

Looking at what we do within TVAM, we essentially ride for pleasure, with skills instruction to aid our enjoyment whilst honing our safe riding skills. Put bluntly, we ride around in big circular routes burning fossil fuel. At this point it’s worth stating, “and long may that personal freedom continue” as I, for one, enjoy this activity immensely. It did however make me consider what we could do to mitigate our own CO₂ emissions, aka Carbon Footprint?

After doing some on-line research it seems that a large motorcycle’s CO₂ emissions are around 160-200kg of CO₂ per 1,000 miles, whilst a healthy mature tree absorbs around 22kg of CO₂ per year.

Putting this into context against TVAM activities, I wanted a ‘ballpark’ figure to work with, so if TVAM have ~500 active members on social rides, weekends/trips away, training and track days which on average do 1,200 TVAM specific club miles p.a. that gives a club Carbon

Footprint of around 100 tonnes of CO₂ per annum. This represents a sizeable forest of trees, almost 5,000 in total, which need ~2 hectares of land (20,000 square meters, equivalent to 5 acres).

This stark fact made me realise the size of the challenge faced, in wanting to fully offset our club CO₂ emissions, but nothing worth doing comes easy. I then mused on ‘eating the elephant one bite at a time’ if we could just plant a tree for every member – each year for the next 5 years. This would make TVAM the first motorcycle club in the UK (in the world?) moving toward becoming a Carbon Neutral Organisation. But what would this cost and how to achieve it?

I was pleasantly surprised that funding the purchase of sufficient trees is not the financial issue I had anticipated. Buying in bulk (1,000) Oak saplings 2-3 ft in height (60-90cm) have a cost of less than £1 each. It turns out that the English Oak is one of the best species for fixing the maximum amount CO₂ in the UK climate.

My thoughts are to align with an existing Thames Valley Woodland Charity with a similar catchment area to TVAM so that the ‘halo effect’ benefits the local community, helping with our club profile and recruitment; we plant the trees where we live or ride our motorcycles.

So what do we do – what’s next you ask?

The TVAM Committee have looked at this initiative, making a number of constructive proposals as to how best TVAM can support and implement for 2021 onwards. Namely that this is not mandatory on the membership, it would be funded entirely by additional voluntary contributions collected and donated from the membership. In January we will create a five year carbon neutrality campaign on the website. This will allow members to donate a one-off amount or to set up a recurring annual donation. If you are an income tax payer, we should be able to collect gift aid on this amount.

Volunteers required!

I will be looking to raise a small team to actively drive this initiative forwards, anyone who feels passionately about improving our environment is welcome to get involved. You will be asked to contribute as little or as much as you can spare e.g. become a day volunteer to go out supporting our tree planting activities along with our (yet to be) chosen woodland charity partner, or man an information/donations desk at St Crispin’s. I would stress that this initiative is just at the embryonic start-up stage and it will be up to the volunteer team to create and shape our detailed activity plans. We will be working for and on behalf of all TVAM members, with responsibility to deliver results in a productive and transparent way. Once up and running, we will track our progress against annual targets and report regularly via Slipstream and/or groups.io.

If you have comments, questions, suggestions or feel you can help, please make contact with myself directly winstnig@outlook.com or via the contact box in the web shop area for CO₂ Neutrality donations.

Many thanks for your support

Nigel Winstanley

First published in Slipstream January 2021

Round Britain Rally 2020

Posted on January 21, 2021 | by Salli Griffith

The Round Britain Rally is an annual event that normally runs from the beginning of April to the end of October and involves using your bike to visit landmarks around the UK. I’d heard about it a few years ago and decided to enter in 2020, taking advantage of no longer working full time.

All the relevant information is to be found on the resolutely old-school website at www.roundbritainrally.co.uk . It’s probably best viewed using Netscape Navigator at 640×480 on a CRT screen. The site very concisely describes the aim of the rally:

“The objective is to encourage you to use your vehicle for recreational touring in some of the best countryside on mainland Britain. This will require you to explore back roads and lanes that you may otherwise avoid, to visit places of interest (landmarks) that you may not have known existed. To prove you have visited the landmark you will be required to take a photograph of the site with your motorcycle/tri-car at the scene.”

I sent off my entry form in January and was rewarded in mid-March with a full set of rules and a spreadsheet with the list of 80 landmarks. These were sited from Helston in Cornwall to Haster near Wick, from Pembroke in SW Wales to Orford in Suffolk, and all over the place in between. So you already get the idea that doing the whole lot would be quite a challenge. I’d decided that at a first attempt and especially given the Covid-19 restrictions that had to be observed, I wasn’t aiming for the whole set, but would just concentrate on days out from home and see how many I could manage.

The landmarks all have point scores, lower for those that are easy to find and near main routes, higher for places that are miles off the beaten track and far from any other landmark. Adding up the scores for those you visit gives you a total and an overall ranking from “Finisher” (up to 200 points) to “100% All-Rounder” at 2000 points with no errors.

One dubious advantage of the first lockdown period was that at least I had plenty of time to plan routes. I worked out that there were around 25 landmarks that should be fairly easy to reach from home, so I spent time googling them, bookmarking any relevant website for more details, and entering waypoints and routes into Garmin Basecamp. It struck me that doing this in ye olden days of the rally, just with a map and no internet references would have been an awful lot harder. As soon as lockdown was over, I was ready to set out to get the first three in my plan on a brilliantly sunny day. These were: The old Control Tower at Greenham Common (the closest to home); a memorial on the site of the old ironworks at Bratton in Wiltshire and Great Coxwell Barn in W. Oxon. The route was an easy 134 miles and took in some familiar roads on the way out before getting into new territory for me beyond Pewsey. I really enjoyed this section on the A345, A342 and B3098.

Then, some familiar Wiltshire roads via Avebury and back through the Vale of the White Horse. I’d scored 55 points and had a fun day out.

I wasn’t too bothered about planning the most efficient routes as I was looking to have enjoyable rides more than anything else. The least efficient ride I did was 200 miles to East Creech in Dorset, making 200 Miles for 1 Landmark (MpL*). The best was 197 miles around Herts/Beds/Bucks/Northants for 4 landmarks, so 49 MpL. The longest day was about 300 miles. I did work out after a couple of outings that the best strategy for me was to cover the most distance on the way to the first landmark and then work back from there, as visiting each landmark gave a break in the ride every hour or so and it meant I wasn’t left with a solid 2-3 hour ride home at the end.

The landmarks themselves varied from extremely low key to enormous, including war memorials, pieces of civil engineering, statues, and historic sites of various types. As advertised, plenty of them you would not have known existed, and some were rather poignant. At RAF Tempsford, now mostly reverted to fields, a stone pillar marked where SOE agents were flown into occupied territory during WWII, many never to return. A small plaque by a field in Northamptonshire recorded where a B-17 bomber had crashed on a training exercise that took the place of a cancelled raid, with the loss of most of the American crew.

A particularly memorable ride was to get 2 landmarks near the Welsh border. I had an errand to do near Stroud on the way, but with that done, set off via Gloucester and the north side of the Severn Estuary. The A48 was an enjoyable road and went through some towns that were more picturesque than I expected. At Lydney Harbour, I found the memorial to the Severn Railway Bridge disaster and took some pictures across the estuary. It was a dull day with rain starting, but rather an atmospheric view. The next target was St Michael’s Church at Garway in Herefordshire, which I reached after a brief flirtation with Wales and then a tricky approach up and down some ridiculously narrow, muddy AND steep lanes. The church dates from 1180, but had no direct road access, so I had to be satisfied with a rather distant picture. I then had a 2 hour ride home in pouring rain and discovered when I got back there was another nearby landmark just over the Welsh border that I hadn’t known about!

It was our wedding anniversary in mid-September, so we did a combined night away and landmark grabbing tour through Sussex and Kent. At the Rudyard Kipling statue in Burwash, against all the odds, we met another rally participant on a modern Enfield 650. He had ridden up that morning from Devon on a plan to grab 6 landmarks that day, with more the day after. He was clearly a more serious participant than us and said he’d actually completed the rally a few times with a full score.

After doing all the trips I’d planned, I added up my score for the first time and found that I’d made a slight error with one photograph and so if the rules were strictly applied, I’d be 10 points short of a Bronze award. Arrghh! So as insurance I ended up doing a detour to Wivenhoe in Essex on a day that I already needed to go over that way for other reasons.

That done, I submitted my entry and soon heard back from the organiser, Dave Hancock, that I had qualified for a Bronze award with 420 points. To get the next level, Silver, I would merely need another 380. A job for next year, perhaps?

In summary, doing the rally lived up to my expectations. I had several great days out on the bike, mostly in fine weather, I travelled on lots of new roads and learnt a bit of obscure history along the way. If you fancy a crack at it yourself in 2021, all the entry details are on the website.

www.roundbritainrally.co.uk

Trevor Warwick

First published in Slipstream January 2021

New Online Presence

Posted on January 21, 2021 | by Salli Griffith

How long does a website last? In the case of TVAM’s nearly 10 years! Though continuously developed and tweaked, even our Webmaster Steve Dennis agreed the underlying format had reached its sell-by date in 2020. In the fast changing world of online, especially during the past year, the Committee agreed in August it was time for a new one. A requirements document was written and five web developers invited to tender. In the end we selected a submission by a club member which included a lot of his free time as a volunteer, making the venture affordable, whilst an agency, City Click Media, undertook the design.

A small working group was formed to manage the development which included writing all the copy, sourcing images and also developing a new logo. All done over the Christmas break. The new site is very firmly targeted at non-members encouraging them to: Request a free Taster Ride; Apply for the RideUP Scheme; Buy the Advanced Rider Course, or Meet us at St Crispin’s. All great calls to action which visitors can use to engage with us.

Many organisations donated time and resources to the project at no-cost including; IAM RoadSmart, Nutty-Tart-Grafix, Hounddog Films, Toggled, This is Nicely Done Productions󷐬 and Nippyfingers Publishing, making it a true team effort and to everybody involved we offer our thanks.

To help promote the new website a 15s video has been produced for use on social media. Please look it up and forward it on to your biker mates who may not have (yet) joined the Club.

This new site for tvam.org will go live towards the end of January.

Salli Griffith

First published in Slipstream January 2021

A Change of Seasons (Part 1)

Posted on January 21, 2021 | by Nick Tasker

So, 2020 is finally over. I don’t think there has ever been a year that so many people all over the world have looked forward to seeing the back of. As motorcyclists in the UK, we snatched a scant few weeks of good riding between various lockdowns, but European trips were largely cancelled. The smart ones with flexible schedules shot off to Scotland at the earliest opportunity, but the weather was typically appalling by that point in the summer. In the end I escaped the claustrophobia of my own four walls on four wheels, not two.

My motorcycling blog saw traffic more than double as bored bikers headed online for their motorcycling fix, but I was generally stuck at home and able to provide little in the way of new content. With a vaccine on the horizon and hopes of a return to normality for 2021, has the global pandemic permanently changed motorcycling in any way?

fantic caballero rally 500 — *Off-road specialist Fantic’s lighter and cheaper Triumph Scrambler 1200 competitor looks genuinely capable.*

Looking over my notes from the last few weeks’ sustained barrage of press-releases a few trends do start to emerge. For one thing, we might be about to see history repeat itself as the complacent European and Japanese brands find themselves tripping over more affordable and increasingly well-spec’ed offerings from India and China. The flood of cheap and nasty 125s has abated, with quality and features improving as product ranges expand up the capacity ladder.

At the same time, we’re seeing traditionally off-road-exclusive brands like Fantic bring genuinely intriguing road-legal offerings to market. I don’t quite think we’re going to see Triumph once again swept aside in a wave of better and cheaper machinery as they were in the 70’s. The more established brands do seem to have learnt their lessons from history. Manufacturers with existing small-capacity programmes are expanding them; those without are scrambling to extend their large-capacity-focused ranges downwards. Still, competition is going to be fierce and some of the established businesses may not be able to survive on the more meagre profit margins that will be on offer once traditional motorcyclists stop buying £20,000 toys in the numbers they’ve become accustomed to.

As old age begins to bite, motorcycling’s traditional bulk-buyers are increasingly looking for smaller and lighter machines that will be less likely to overwhelm them at the next stop light. The few young riders that are fighting their way into the sport despite all the roadblocks don’t have any loyalty to the old brands and are just as likely to consider a Zontes as they are a Yamaha. They also don’t know or care which brands are genuinely European and which are simply classic brands slapped on Chinese-made hardware. A long-time motorcyclist might be able to tell the difference between an unbranded brake calliper and a top-shelf Brembo item, but they’ll still struggle to convince a cash-strapped twenty-something that such jewellery is worth five times the price.

All of this means that I’ll be watching how the industry reacts and changes over the next couple of years with great interest, and that the list of bikes I’m looking forward to riding in 2021 has never been more diverse. Let’s take a look, shall we?

HONDA

By sheer number of interesting new models, the Japanese brand takes the top spot. That being said, like many of their established competitors, we’re mostly talking about small capacity bumps (CRF300L, Forza 350/Forza 750) and light styling work (NC750X) as older engines are reworked to meet the new Euro5 emissions regulations that come into force this January. We may no longer be part of the EU, but the UK market isn’t anywhere near big enough to justify the development costs of its own models, so we get what Europe gets. The good news is that in most cases these emissions-related tweaks also result in more power and in a few surprising, but very welcome cases, less weight.

But wow, talk about blindsided – I did not see either the Trail 125 or CMX1100 Rebel coming, though perhaps I should have. In the same way that the original Trail 90 was derived from the C90 of the time, it must have been relatively cheap/easy to repurpose and restyle the current Cub platform to create this intriguing new off-road focused model. The low-range gearbox its ancestor featured may be missing, but the Trail 125 makes up for it with more power.

And while ground clearance improvements may be marginal, that rear-mounted snorkel and light weight should mean you can take this thing damn near anywhere – as long as you’re not in a hurry. The only slightly worrying thing is that Honda UK has been strangely silent on UK/European pricing and availability, with all the press focused on the US launch. Here’s hoping we’re not going to miss out like we did with the CTX700…

The Rebel 1100 is interesting if only because it shows that Honda are serious about extending their platform-sharing approach to every engine in their range. Shoehorning the latest Africa Twin’s 1.1-litre parallel twin engine complete with DCT gearbox into their existing CMX500 Rebel chassis caught everyone by surprise, but now adds credence to the rumours of a similarly-powered CB1100X sports-tourer. I’ve got a soft spot for feet-forward cruisers, but an even softer spot for do-everything road bikes that combine reasonable power with all-day comfort and hard luggage. Add in Honda’s excellent six-speed dual-clutch transmission and you’ve got a potential 2022 bike I’d ride tomorrow.

honda trail 125 — *Look at that snorkel! Look at that luggage rack! Imaging how light it is! I bet you could ride that anywhere…*

Triumph

Triumph’s new entries are notable, if not necessarily terribly compelling. The brand announced it would cut a quarter of its UK workforce during the summer and the pressure was presumably on to put some new metal in dealers without spending any significant sums on development. The internet (and some personal friends) collectively lost their minds over the Trident 660 and as an avowed previous-generation Street Triple fan they assumed I would be all over it. But I’m afraid that I may be as cynical about this machine as I suspect Triumph’s product planners were. Detuning and sleeving down their current 765cc three-cylinder engine and slotting it into a cheaper steel-tube chassis with even cheaper brakes and suspension is a price-point play, plain and simple.

triumph tiger 850 sport — *Some stickers and ten horsepower off the top; laziest rebrand ever*

The retro styling is very fashionable right now, and the £7k price is extremely competitive, but it’s very telling that journalists coming back from the launch have been very polite and noncommittal about the performance. I’m sure it’s fine, and if you really want a new middleweight naked that looks a little less futuristic than the current alternatives then, by all means, go right ahead. But one day you’ll pull up next to a more powerful, lighter, better-specced 675cc Street Triple and I suspect that you may have some regrets. Low-mileage Street Triples from that era can be had for less than half the price of a new Trident 660, and won’t really depreciate much further. And if your heart is truly set on that single round headlight, there are kits you can buy for the Street Triple that’ll do that for you too.

Then we have the ‘new’ Triumph Tiger Sport 850. The name alone had my attention, as I pictured a smaller, lighter, more modern version of the practically Neolithic 1050cc-engined Tiger Sport. I imagined a slick half-fairing, aerodynamic hard luggage, and a full suite of touring creature comforts. Instead, some bright spark has put new stickers on the base-model Tiger 900 and taken 10bhp out of the engine. Hilariously, none of the marketing material suggests any actual mechanical changes, implying that said power cut was achieved solely through software changes. I daresay a Power Commander and some dyno time could get it all back just as easily.

If ever there was a motorcycle designed by the marketing department, this was it. The base-spec Tigers probably weren’t selling terribly well, as no-one walks into a dealer and then signs up for a fractionally cheaper PCP plan in exchange for losing most of the features that made the bike so compelling in the first place. My read on such models is that they exist purely to allow the advertisers to quote unrealistic starting prices in their ad copy, and are rarely actually purchased by anyone (I’m looking at you BMW). My guess is that no-one was buying base-spec Tigers, but Triumph didn’t want to lose the opportunity to write “starting from £9,300!” in their ad copy. This is their attempt to bring in some buyers who can’t convince themselves to accept the stripped-back option, but could live with it if they convinced themselves that it was actually the “sporty” option. It’s the most cynical thing I’ve seen a manufacturer do in a long time and suggests that Triumph are really feeling the pressure.

Ducati

Ducati are a brand I usually steer well clear of, because their line-up already contains too many things to tempt me. Admittedly, the purchase prices and running costs can usually throw a bucket of ice water on any serious notions of ownership. In the meantime, the brand is slowly but surely shedding everything that kept it rooted to the past, and not everyone is happy. Traditionalists are losing their minds over the fact that the new Monster abandons not only its iconic steel trellis frame but also the stylish single-sided swingarm they know and love. They complain that the reinvented version looks too much like the Japanese competition, which is deeply ironic if you know your motorcycling history. But I strongly suspect that folks old enough to lament the loss of these ‘defining’ features haven’t bought a Monster in years – they’ve been buying and riding far more powerful, expensive motorcycles and were never the target customer anyway. Younger riders who choose Ducati for their £10k naked bike aren’t likely to care how true to the spirit of the original M900 their new bike is. But they will probably appreciate the significant weight savings brought by that new extruded aluminium frame.

ducati multistrada v4s — *I need to start playing the lottery…*

It will be interesting to see how those older, more affluent riders react to the new Multistrada V4. If moving away from the classic L-twin and it’s expensive-to-service cambelts wasn’t bad enough, Ducati surprised the entire motorcycle world late in 2020 by announcing that their V4 Granturismo engine would also leave behind desmodromic valve actuation in favour of the same spring-based system that every other engine manufacturer in the world has been using for decades. Modern engineering means that the advantages of using separate followers to close as well as open the valves of a four-stroke engine have fallen away. And while tradition might have been reason enough to persist until now, switching to a mechanically-simpler system has also allowed them to double the valve-check service interval to a staggering 36,000 miles.

Kawasaki have been embarrassing the competition for years with their 26,000 mile intervals, and Triumph’s more recent large-capacity engines aren’t bad at 20,000 miles. But I’m willing to bet that plenty of Multistrada owners won’t ever cover 36,000 miles in the entire time they own the bike, trading in as many do every three years under their PCP agreements. Those owners will never actually pay for a valve check ever again. For people like me who keep their bikes for years and rack up six-figure mileages, this means significantly reduced servicing costs over the life of the bike. Throw in world-first features like adaptive cruise control and the kind of refinement and attention to detail that Audi’s stewardship has instilled over the Italian brand’s recent history and we’re left with a seriously compelling do-it-all motorcycle.

Tour, commute, embarrass sportsbike riders at trackdays…I bet you really could do it all, and perhaps even without the traditional flakiness and servicing expenses for which Italian motorcycles have been known in the past. The only two flies in the ointment are the reported thirst of that engine (compensated somewhat by the impressive 22l fuel tank) and the purchase price. In theory you could ride out of your local Ducati dealer on a Multistrada V4 for ‘just’ £15,500, but given what you’d sacrifice over the ‘S’ version, I daresay nobody will. I expect the base model to be quietly dropped after the first year, just as they did the cooking-grade Multistrada 950. Add the ‘Travel & Radar’ pack to get the touring basics like panniers and heated grips (as well as that fancy radar-guided adaptive cruise control) and you’re going to need to find more than £20,000. I’d also be adding a top box and a bit of crash protection, so let’s call it a nice round £21,000. At that price, it had damn well better be the only motorcycle you’ll ever need, because you’re certainly not going to be afford to buy any others.

Nick Tasker

First published in Slipstream January 2021

Next month Nick moves on to review the other Italian bikes that warrant some page space, along with the rest of the Japanese and the European manufacturers, Indian and Chinese, plus the electric bikes new to the market…

Go to Part 2

From The Chair (January 2021)

Posted on January 21, 2021 | by Andy Slater

Welcome to 2021 and let’s hope we get more riding in during the coming season than we did last year!

Despite Brexit and COVID I’m personally looking forward to trips abroad, even if it’s only to Scotland… more seriously, I’m hopeful that after we’ve all been jabbed the government will allow us to re-start our monthly meetings at St. Crispin’s and all of those wonderful TVAM activities will feature again in the Club’s calendar. Whilst preparing for the AGM our Chief Observer pulled together a list of all the training activities we as a Club undertake and the list was daunting. In a normal year our volunteer coaches deliver around 11,500 hours of training for members. Around 5,500 hours of that is via club courses developed by members, such as Look, Lean and Roll, Advanced Bike Control courses, weekends away (remember 7Ws and 3Rs?) and Skills Days at Castle Combe. Roll on a COVID-free summer.

This will be my last ‘From the Chair’ piece as, after five years on the Committee, the last four as Chair, I’m stepping down. By the time you receive this copy of Slipstream we will have elected a new Chair and Treasurer and I offer both of them my congratulations and support.

The past five years have seen the Club membership grow by just under 20%, we undertook two membership surveys where a third of members participated which gave the Committee guidance on things that needed to be developed. As a result we created the Red Badge Zone to support Associates, started the RideUP sponsorship scheme for young riders, and held the annual MotoJumble on the day of the AGM. Hopefully, this will be a feature again next January. During this time lots of technical work has also been undertaken by the Committee which often goes unseen, including compliance with GDPR regulations, European Package Tour Directive, FRS102 financial reporting, and consolidation of our Charitable status and aims. My thanks to everyone involved with these complex matters and also the writing of the necessary policies to support them.

The past year has given us further opportunities for change. Whilst Committee meetings on Microsoft Teams can never replace face-to-face discussions, Zoom conferencing has allowed the Team Leaders to meet almost monthly during the various lockdowns. This created a forum for discussion and innovation as ideas were shared on how to keep the club active, including Observer swaps for Associates, how to manage bookings for social rides and tips on holding virtual team meetings.

The restriction of only six on social rides has been an eye opener with many participants actually preferring smaller runs. As run leaders know who is attending they have been able to plan suitable routes and stopping places. Certainly six bikers arriving at a café causes less hassle than 26, and everyone gets served quickly so the ride can continue. I guess we may see some social rides continue to be offered with limited numbers going forward.

We’ve also seen a huge move towards online during the past year. With this in mind we developed the ‘Free Taster Ride’ offer on our website and open Facebook page following on from the Father’s Day offer. This is proving to be a popular way of attracting new members and has been a replacement for our St Crispin’s ‘Fluffy’ rides. Many thanks to the Observers who support these Taster Rides. It was with this in mind that the Committee approved the investment in a new club website. After 10 years it was time to refresh our online presence and hopefully you’ll approve of the new site due to launch this month. Read the article on the project on page 15. We’ve also just launched the popular BikeCraft course online with six online events over the coming weeks (see below). Thanks to the team for this development and I encourage members (especially Associates) to register for these highly informative sessions.

So all the very best for 2021 – keep the shiny side up and ride safe.

Andy Slater

(retiring) Chairman

Sand Dunes & Souks

Posted on January 6, 2021 | by Salli Griffith

It goes without saying that 2020 has not exactly been the year for international travel, with or without a motorcycle. The world grinding to a halt has brought uncertainty and frustrations to many of us and as a keen motorcycle traveller, who loves nothing more than making a beeline for Folkestone and the Channel Tunnel when the summer arrives, I’ve certainly felt this. That said, the change in pace has brought its advantages and a chance to reflect on past trips. I recently found myself flicking longingly through photos of Morocco which I visited in September and October 2019 just before all the borders closed. Whether you are a seasoned traveller of the Maghreb, or you have Morocco on the bucket list, I hope you find my experiences of this wonderful country interesting.

Having seen a fair amount of Europe on the bike, I was keen to venture a little further from home. Morocco had really appealed to me for some time, mainly because I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I booked three weeks off work and set sail on the Santander ferry from Plymouth. Not owning a ‘proper’ adventure bike, the trip was done on my Yamaha FZ8. Absolutely no off-road capability, questionable luggage-carrying capacity, and high mileage from being used as my commuter made it an interesting choice, but it had two wheels and an engine so it was good enough for me. Also, it was my only option!

Rif mountains.

The first part of the trip was fairly standard, the 24-hour crossing the Bay of Biscay, then making my way down through Spain, stopping in Burgos, Madrid, Malaga and finally in Algeciras. I had made the decision not to camp on this trip so was booking cheap hostels along the way. Algeciras was the destination as it was here I planned to make the crossing to Africa. On approach to the port town there are dozens of kiosks and travel agents advertising crossings to Tangier Med, meaning there is no need to book from home and making it very easy to remain flexible. I was lucky enough to find a very helpful agent who booked me a flexible ticket both ways and even threw in a free bottle of wine. I chose a cheap hostel overlooking the port and took an early crossing the next day.

My first night’s accommodation was in Chefchaouen, the ‘blue city’. I had met up with another solo traveller on the ferry and we decided to grab lunch in Tangier, a 45km drive around the N16 coastal road from Tangier Med. The first five miles out of Tangier Med make you feel a long way from home – just two hours on a ferry and you have arrived in a totally different world. The crowds lining the sides of the main roads, the small shacks and the barren landscape are a far cry from the relative greenery and affluence you left behind in Western Europe a few hours ago. Shortly after, we went our separate ways and I joined the N2, winding my way through the northern Rif Mountains into the touristy blue town. On arrival in Chefchaouen, and like most major towns and cities, you are unable to get anywhere near the centre with your vehicle, which is where most of the hotels are. Tipping a local to help you find a safe spot for the bike and your way to the hotel is a wise move, as the old streets can be maze like.

Todra river.

One night in the blue city was more than enough. The town that looks so idyllic on Instagram exposed as some old building painted blue in real life, and the small narrow streets are plagued by tourist overcrowding. I took the backroads to Fes from here, avoiding the signposted main roads and opting instead for the R408, a very rural back route.

This was a good move as it was quiet, beautiful and full of small communities where you see the real Morocco. Stopping anywhere near these villages attracts a crowd in seconds which at first can seem intimidating, but you soon realise that the locals just want to say hi and be friendly.

Arriving in Fes, I was hailed by a parking attendant and ushered into his car park. This seemed a bit of a con at first, but I accepted, paid and tipped him an extra 10 Dirham (80 pence) to look after my bike whilst I spent a couple of days in the city. This tip turned out to be the bargain of the holiday. On my return he was very proud to show me that he had remodelled his corrugated iron barn around my chained-up bike. Slightly embarrassed of having doubted the man, and humbled by his generosity and hard work, I tipped him again before loading the bike up and heading out into the Sahara. The cities are full of people who will harass you for money and it’s wise to be vigilant to this, but you will be bowled over by how kind the vast majority of people in this country are to travellers. Fes is a fascinating place to spend some time if you want a break from the bike, with plenty of interesting attractions and activity to fill a rest day.

It was after leaving Fes that the fun motorcycling really started. The N13 heads south from the city and is a fantastic road with long sweeping bends that take you into the peaks and give the full view of the vast desert you are passing through. I continued this road to Errachidia and onto Merzouga the following day. The latter part of this turns into long straight desert roads which can be a bit of a slog in the heat, but it is worth heading south to experience the vast sand dunes and rolling desert scenery.

Touring in Morocco on my FZ8

Another must see whilst in this part of the country is the Todra Gorge, with its single-track mountain roads through the vast canyon of the Todra river and the famous mountain pass of Dadès Gorge. Even in peak season, these roads are reasonably quiet and are the perfect playground on two wheels. The scenery will take your breath away around every corner too.

After a couple of days of exploring mountain passes, only to eventually discover they turned to gravel tracks and turning back (on account of my lack of knobbly tyres), I picked up the famous Tichka pass, which takes you north from the Atlas mountains and into Marrakesh. I was looking forward to Tichka, but had unfortunately timed it with some fairly major resurfacing work, meaning dozens of harsh gravel sections which were causing punctures in trucks and 4x4s. Miraculously I made it through without an issue and into the city. Biking through this bustling city in the heat was not an experience I would repeat in a hurry. On approach I was harassed by kids on mopeds trying to sell me directions, something which was made worse when a local crashed into the back of my bike as I stopped to avoid a pedestrian. Fortunately, we were both okay and there was no damage.

It was in Marrakesh that I decided to wander the souk, an experience I would highly recommend. Largely unchanged in format for centuries, the souks are a labyrinth of stall traders and a fascinating insight into Moroccan culture. As I have a love of cooking, I treated myself to a traditional Moroccan tagine. Looking back, buying fragile cookware when you’re a thousand miles away from home on a motorcycle, isn’t the most sensible thing to do. And in a scene which wouldn’t have been out of place in a ‘Top Gear’ special, I found myself disposing of some of my best Primark apparel to accommodate it in the top box. I was extremely pleased, and shocked when I unpacked it in Reading with not so much as a chip on it.

The day had arrived for me to head for the port and back to Europe. I had seen the best bits and always planned for a day of motorways, it seemed a fair trade off for more time in the Atlas Mountains and rest days exploring the cities. The port at the weekend is far busier and chaotic than during the week, with ferry timetables seeming to go out the window and boats missing their arrival time slots the journey back to Spain took just shy of 12 hours, and I arrived in the early hours of a Monday morning. I had enough time during the final leg of the tour to ride round the Algarve before heading North through Portugal, crossing Northern Spain, into the Picos and back to Santander for the sail home. I arrived back home late Sunday night before dragging the bike back out for the Monday morning commute up the M4 into London, still covered in red Saharan dust.

Fantastic roads, unbelievable scenery, a warm and welcoming culture and great value for money means I’d highly recommend Morocco as a biking destination. One of the best things about motorcycle travel for me is the feeling of how joined up the world really is, and this is hard to ignore after a trip to this amazing country. You can leave your home in the UK, jump on your bike and a few days later be riding past some sand dunes in the Sahara Desert. There are a few ferries and a bit of paperwork to navigate in between but it really is that simple. You do not need any expensive equipment or special vehicle to visit Morocco – I am a firm believer that the best Adventure motorcycle is the one stood in your garage – just a bit of common sense and a thirst for adventure.

A few tips for first time visitors:

Motor Insurance and Currency
The Moroccan Dirham is a closed currency, meaning it cannot be bought outside of Morocco. Entering Tangier, you will see kiosks selling the Dirham which is roughly 12 to the Pound.

On arrival the port authority will ask for your V5 and they will issue you with a small card. Use this at a kiosk in the port to buy your Motor Insurance, which cost 30 Euros for 10 days. Periodic police checkpoints in Morocco will ask you for this card so keep it somewhere handy. Most checkpoints wave you through and if they do stop, they are very friendly with no issues.

Accommodation
Accommodation is inexpensive in Morocco. Even in the relatively touristy rural areas of High Atlas and Dadès Gorge, you can get a nice room with breakfast and dinner included for around 25 euros. I was in Morocco in late September and early October, one of the most popular times with travellers avoiding the height of the summer and never struggled with finding somewhere. I tended to book a day ahead online but had a couple of times where I just found somewhere en-route.

It’s worth checking out the Riads. These tend to be family run and have 2-3 rooms. The hosts I met were incredibly accommodating, and they were great value for money. A great way to get a more local feel and some delicious home cooking.

Food and Drink
You will find plenty of roadside restaurants, and supermarkets are common in the towns for lunch on the go. For those worried about food hygiene, most traditional Moroccan dishes are slow cooked so I had no real issues. Avoid salads and drink bottled water only. Hotels and restaurants do not serve alcohol, but it’s easily found in supermarkets if you want a few cans.

Local driving
As you can probably imagine, the driving standards are not quite on par with, say, TVAM standards. There are broadly two types of vehicle to watch out for, the 40-year-old Mercedes van with four odd wheels carrying 8 tons of luggage on the roof, and the highly impatient tourist minibuses. Neither want to wait for you, or get out of the way, and neither will factor their vehicle’s limitations into their overtakes. Go round every corner expecting the worse and be ready to back off. If you brave the motorway for whatever reason, be extra careful.

The road quality is also worth mentioning. The surface is generally good, however I encountered lots of road improvement works which see you sent out onto a gravel track for a short stretch. I was on road BT023 Battlax sport touring tyres on the Fazer and was fine but keep this in mind, both when riding and deciding whether to pack for puncture repairs. If you are on a bike with off-road capability this should be no problem at all.

Safety
As a precaution I kept my camera in my lockable top box and all my documents, money and phone in my tank bag which I never left behind…exactly the same as I would at home. I took a lightweight lock and used it but rarely felt like it was necessary.

In terms of personal safety, I never felt at risk in the rural areas. Wandering around the cities alone at night is not advisable, particularly in Fes. If you want to go out to a restaurant, your hotel will arrange someone to take you and bring you back.

Andy Barnes

First published in Slipstream November 2020

Resources
Morocco Overland by Chris Scott is a great book to have whilst planning your trip. Geared up to those going off the tarmac but also extremely useful if you just plan to stay on it!