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May 31 BMW K 1200 S - A Gentleman's ExpressHad the big German brute for about a week now and loving it. Super quick, with a claimed top speed of 170 mph. Picked it up from Doncaster last Friday and then took it over to Chester via the Pennines. Terrific handling and rock solid through corners thanks to some ingenious german telelever suspension gismo. Took the bike down through the twisties of Wales at the weekend and racked up almost 1000 miles. The bike is so comfortable though it feels like I've done about half that. Friends I've spoken to are a little divided on the looks and paint job - some like it but it does not have the wow factor of other big bore superbikes
May 17 Summer of BikingPretty good schedule of fun stuff coming up. First off mastering my new 120 bhp Aprilia Mille RSV V-twin supersports, which is a seriously quick bit of kit. Only tapped into about 50% of its potential so far but this big bore bike is ballistic. Only premonitions of "It was a moment of madness m'lud" keeps me from becoming a complete lunatic on it. The quest for bigger and faster bikes is addictive
Next week we've got a party going up to Donington to do a Ron Haslam track day. should be good for sharpening up handling and in my case, really getting to grips with high speed but controlled cornering.
Next Friday going up to Doncaster to collect the big BMW K 1200 S and do a test ride for a few weeks...all in the name of writing a review for MSN Cars - their first bike article. Should be good fun - the big Beamer is good for 168bhp. sorting out a good route back down South - think I'll go to Wales and take some photos of it and then head to the West country
then in July I've got the BMW R 1200 S for two weeks (again for an article) which is another high performance motorcycle - this time powered by a revised two cyclinder boxer engine which is being touted as the most powerful Boxer yet. Should be alot of fun. Considering taking it across Spain
More soon Wheelie day and Motorcycle stunt ridingHad a somewhat bizarre but enjoyable day last week learning to do stunts and wheelies at a disused runway in Bovingdon. Four of us took part, taking in turns to ride 1200cc Bandits up the runway at 30mph, and then learning how, with a deft twist of the wrist, to launch the front wheel skywards. Not as terrifying as it sounds thanks to incredibly good tuition from our two instructors Paul and Dave. Paul is an ex Army Motorcycle Stunt team manager/instructor. Top bloke who looks uncannily like Phil Collins and can pull some amazingly good tricks...riding while doing a handstand, doing wheelies with his legs over the front handlebars and other such nonsense. top laugh. the day was pepped up with other stunt monkeys/lunatics including one guy who set himself on fire, did a massive wheelie and then crashed. Top entertainment! Some photos here - the amazing ones are the professionals, the slightly crap looking ones are us novices.
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