Jewellery for Engineers

Friday 12 March 2010 at 9:38 pm This is really rather cool. In my geeky engineer's mind anyway.



Made by Kinekt Design and spotted on driverchris' blog.

Happy Birthday to the Ten'!

Monday 01 March 2010 at 10:09 pm Today, my Yamaha XT660Z Ténéré (to give it it's full name) is one year old.



It was registered to it's first keeper on the 1st of March 2009 by Fowler's of Bristol. I know very little about this chap, apart from inferring that he didn't really get on with it, as he sold it on after only two months to another chap who threw most of the Yamaha accessories catalogue (engine bars, sump guard, Akrapovic exhaust system, top box and panniers) at it, plus a set of Oxford heated grips for good measure.

Then on the 23rd of January this year, 5 weeks and two days ago, I became the third owner. The bike had led a pretty sheltered existance, covering 2,863 miles between March and September, and then sitting in a garage in South Wales for the rest of the year. Today, it has just shy of 4,500 miles on it - meaning that in my short period of ownership I've already done well over a third of its mileage. I covered 1000 miles in the first 15 days, including the Dragon Rally. (more)

Back on two wheels

Thursday 28 January 2010 at 9:57 pm Up until last Saturday, I hadn't ridden a bike since some time in mid-December. Despite the plethora of machines in the garage, I've ended up using the van to commute in for a month or so - which has given me plenty of time stuck in traffic to contemplate how much I'd rather be on the bike.



This was taken on Saturday afternoon a couple of hours and about 40 miles after buying the black bike in the picture. It's a 2009 Yamaha XT660Z Ténéré. The white one in the foreground is my mate Tom's 2008 model, which he bought new this time last year, and has been having all sorts of fun on, some of which you can find here. (more)

DR800: Desert Racer? Dakar Replica? Dragon Rallyist? Deceased and Replaced?

Monday 25 January 2010 at 9:35 pm For the next (and long overdue) fleet update, I'm going to jump from the first and smallest capacity bike to what was, until the start of December, the most recent arrival at wildchildHQ, and remains the largest capacity bike in the garage - the 1993 Suzuki DR800S "DR BIG".

(more)

Happy New Year

Friday 01 January 2010 at 7:44 pm So that was 2009, and this is 2010, and with its arrival comes the customary temptation to reminisce over the things which have happened during the last lap of the little blue-green ball around the big yellow ball, and make grandiose plans to pass the time during the next lap.

This year, I've given in to this temptation, of which more below, but before that please allow me to wish you all the best for 2010.


(photo by Dave Haines) (more)

Lost and Found

Saturday 21 November 2009 at 7:56 pm I've been somewhat quiet on the motorcycle tinkering front lately, partly through laziness when it comes to writing stuff, but mostly because, after a very hectic start to the year rushing to have bikes ready for various events/trackdays I decided I needed to chill out a bit and actually ride the things.

But things being what they are, I've got an ever growing list of jobs to do on all the bikes - some enforced by things breaking, others prompted simply by my need to fiddle with things. So to help me procrastinate get my head in order, I thought it would be a good time to post an update on each bike - beginning with the longest serving member of the wildchild.org.uk fleet, our trusty Honda CG125 BR-J. (more)

More Mountain Madness

Tuesday 17 November 2009 at 12:35 pm Continuing the theme of making plans for next year, I've just signed up for the 2010 Horizons Unlimited Mountain Madness.



Having entered the small bike (sub-645cc) category last year (courtesy of Dave Haines and his fleet of DR-Z400s), this year I'm going for the big bike category, which means taking the mighty DR800 off road. Of course that means rebuilding it, as it's currently liberally strewn across the garage, but that is just a triviality (erm?). I'll be teaming up (as "Team Fermented Fettlers") with Tom and his 2008 Tenere, and we're both dragging our respective other halves along for the roadtrip to the event for good measure.

It's going to be good. And hopefully considerably warmer than the Dragon.

Here be Dragons!

Tuesday 27 October 2009 at 6:36 pm The bikes in this photo belong to Tom and Al, a pair of thoroughly disreputable characters I know through the Performance Bikes magazine forum. The photo was taken by Tom on their way to the 2009 Dragon Rally in North Wales last February.



Why am I mentioning this now? (more)

Out with the old

Saturday 24 October 2009 at 4:39 pm

I bought this jacket some time around the start of 2002, shortly before swinging a leg over a motorcycle for the first time to do my Compulsory Basic Training course. Over the intervening seven years and nine months I've probably worn it on at least 50% of days. I've worn it on every bike I've owned, and almost every bike I've ridden. I've sweated in it in the summer heat, been stranded in snow on the M1 in it, and slid down the road in it.

And twenty minutes ago, after taking this photo, I dropped it into the wheelie bin outside wildchild.org.uk HQ.

Of course nostalgia is often misguided - in reality it was worn out several years ago - it's not been waterproof since before I left Uni in 2005, and I've replaced the velcro on the cuffs only to wear it out again - and it's only my stubbornness/laziness/tight-fistedness that has seen it in use for this long. But it's done pretty well for a £100 jacket.

I bought it's replacement yesterday from Hein Gericke in Birmingham - in a neat closing twist within half a mile of the place I did my CBT all those years ago.

Photo Frenzy pt2: TBEC Hare & Hounds, Adstone

Wednesday 23 September 2009 at 7:48 pm Continuing the theme of 'places I've taken my camera on a sunny Sunday' - back in early September I found myself driving down the M1 to Adstone, Northants (specifically here) to watch a Hare and Hounds race organised by the Trail Bike Enduro Club. More on my main motive for going along at a later date, but it also gave me a chance to work on my action photography without being stuck 200 metres back behind a catch fence (more like 2 metres back behind a bit of tape). A selection of shots below... (more)