chris (This one time on …): now that’s a good way to … Rooey (Jewellery for Eng…): But how long would you gi… Lee (aka SHimmer4… (More Mountain Mad…): love the team name Pieter (HUMM 2009 - It's …): Dave, some shenanigans he… David (HUMM 2009 - Ridin…): Next year Thomas, next ye… User One (HUMM 2009 - Ridin…): Looks fantastic Dave. I a… chris (HUMM 2009 - Ridin…): It looks like enormous, e… Pieter (HUMM 2009 - Ridin…): I think Stephen is pointi… Mr Furious! (HUMM 2009 - Derby…): Nice write-up so far, You… Rooey (Brain Training): The (not so) average car-…
Tuesday 13 July 2010 at 8:44 pm
Just back from a wet weekend of trail and road riding in the Lake District on the Tenere with people from the xt660.com forums. On Sunday I'll be riding a four hour Hare and Hounds in Cambridgeshire with TBEC. Then next Friday Sarah and I will be crossing the channel for a two week jaunt through France and Spain, taking in the Horizons Unlimited Mountain Madness event in the middle of the first week.
Thursday 17 June 2010 at 9:36 pm
It all started with Tom as a bit of a joke, about riding so-called 'adventure bikes', while doing most of one's mileage to and from work. Then a message dropped into my PM inbox on pbmagforum.co.uk which began "I am writing to tell you of the inaugural Adventure Commuter camp..."
Monday 17 May 2010 at 8:39 pm
(to be sung in the style of The Clash's 'Drug Stabbing Time'. At least, that's what I was doing on my way home, but then my mind wanders in mysterious ways sometimes)
It's felt like a long cold winter, but there's signs of summertime in the air - quite literally if like me your commute involves a lot of country lanes close to rivers.
Monday 17 May 2010 at 4:37 pm
Until the start of April, I'd never managed to sell or otherwise rid myself of a motorcycle in 8 years of riding. Well, I sold the CG125 to Sarah, but that doesn't really count, since I moved in with her shortly afterwards. But with seven bikes occupying the garage at wildchildHQ, things were getting a bit silly, and apparently innocuous tasks became marathons of climbing over bikes, swearing, dropping bits under bikes, and swearing a bit more.
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Friday 30 April 2010 at 8:51 pm
The Ten' got its 6000 mile service at the start of last week, and at the end of the week, the OE Metzeler Tourances came off and were replaced with a shiny new pair of Mitas E-09s.
Saturday 13 March 2010 at 8:30 pm
Shortly after 10:30 tomorrow morning I will line up to start my first motorcycle race - a four hour Hare & Hounds Enduro run by the Trail Bike Enduro Club (TBEC).
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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.
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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.
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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".
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Linkdump
places i've been, things i've seen
» driverchris
Graphic designer, bike and car nut, and vague acquaintance through the PB forum. I enjoy dipping into his blog from time to time, and this is a particularly cool post - classy interpretations of motorsport paint schemes, applied via the medium of Photoshop to a Fender Strat. Can you guess them all? http://driverchris.blogspot.com/2009/07/strip-for-strat.htmlNo comments | ¶
» Lois on the loose
Stumbled across the name Lois Pryce via the ADVrider forums. Have just finished reading her first book, detailing her ride from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego on an XT225 Serow. http://loisontheloose.com/No comments | ¶
» Old man on a bike
The print version of this got dropped on my desk at work by a colleague. 73 year old man rides from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego on a CG125. Hooray for daft adventures.
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