Categories
Motorcycles

Llangollen Motorcycle Festival 2018 Report

Last weekend I popped by Llangollen Motorcycle Festival up in North Wales. Having not attended before and staying with family nearby, it seemed like a good day out plan. Situated on the Royal International Pavilion ground in Llangollen (pronounced Lan-gof-len), a short walk from the town centre, the event saw thousands of bikers descend to check out bikes and attractions on show.

LLanBikeFest 2018 - Triumph Speed Triple R low
Triumph Speed Triple R low

In the pavilion there were hundreds of classic and famous bikes on show, from famous race bikes to old Brit bikes from times past. Celebs John McGuinness, John Reynolds and Steve Platter gave talks and Q&A sessions, with some interesting opinions from McGuinness with regards to Honda! Outside, there were many stalls to pick Motorcycle gear, new bikes to check out from Triumph, Indian and Suzuki – who were offering test rides for visitors. It was interesting to see the new Triumph Street Triple R low in the flesh – very few seem to be available at dealers for test rides. Something Mary and other shorter female friends are tempted by; my daughter at 5′ tall could pretty much flat foot on it. 

Categories
Gear Reviews

EZ-Go Helmet Carry Strap Review

Picture the scene, there you are parked up in town to do a spot of shopping, juggling your helmet as you try to carry shopping and find your wallet to pay for stuff. If only you had a third hand or somewhere to put your helmet. You don’t fancy leaving a few hundred quids worth of lid hanging on the bike, especially with action cam and intercom gadgets attached and you may not have a huge top box to dump it in(or it may be full of other stuff). This is where the EZ-Go helmet strap comes in as an idea you can’t believe you didn’t think of.

In essence, the EZ-Go is a simple padded strap with helmet ratchet clips on each end. You just slot the two ends into the two halves of your helmet’s ratchet strap, then carry it over your shoulder. A two-second job, that frees up your hands whilst you’re out and about. Genius!

Categories
Riding

Best San Francisco Motorcycle Routes in the Bay Area

San Francisco motorcycle rental - Harley Davidson Road King
Rented Harley Davidson Road King

Over the past few years, I’ve made a number of trips to the Bay Area, hiring a number of bikes from San Francisco motorcycle rental firms and explored many great routes and locations. Here I have rounded up a list of the best San Francisco motorcycle roads I’ve enjoyed ready for you to download and check out if you’re in the area.

  1. Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz
  2. Palo Alto to Soquel (Santa Cruz)
  3. San Jose to Fremont (the long way around)
  4. San Francisco to Port Costa
  5. San Francisco’s best Tourist Spots
  6. San Fran, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe Loop

These routes are all hosted on MyRouteApp, a great app for planning and sharing routes from which you can download the routes in many different formats. Or export them directly to your SatNav via the MyRouteApp Windows or Mac connector app.

Categories
Riding Videos

Prudential Ride London Sweep Team Volunteering

Well you’ve got to love the Great British Summer… Insane, heatwave for weeks, then the weekend you’re scheduled to spend on the bike, it pours down something chronic!

Last weekend I volunteered to help our with the Prudential Ride London cycle endurance race, scheduled to have around 40k Lycra warriors tackling a 100, 46 or 19 mile route. My job was to carrier a cycle mechanic pillion with a tonne of tools and supplies and sweep up those stopped with bike or medical trouble. I feared I’d be dealing with loads of heat exhaustion and dehydration cases, but no, we were dealing with countless punctures and freezing wet cyclists instead. I lost count of how many inner tubes we got through, with many cyclists hit by repeated punctures.

Categories
Clothing/Protection Gear Reviews

Hideout Leathers Hi Pro Trousers Trial Fitting

Confirming measurements in situ on bike

Last month I started the process of getting some bespoke made to measure Hi Pro textile trousers from Hideout Leathers. This week they were ready for a trial fitting, where I could try on an early first cut to test for size and see what further tweaks are required.

Categories
Videos

California Revisited – Exploring the Best San Francisco Motorcycle Roads on a Bonneville

Having rented big Hog’s on two prior work trips to San Jose, I opted for something a little different on my last visit. For this San Francisco motorcycle rental I went for a Triumph Bonneville T100 is perhaps an unlikely choice, but was surprisingly capable and comfortable to explore the Bay area from Santa Cruz up to to Petaluma in the North, whilst still being a lot of fun to fling round the bends. Check out the highlights from my weekend adventure to cruise the best San Francisco motorcycle roads.

Categories
Motorcycles

San Francisco Motorcycle Rental at Dubbelju – Triumph Bonneville

I wanted to try something a bit different which I could fling around the bends without grinding foot boards

June saw me back in California for another two week work trip in Silicon Valley, and again stuck out there over the weekend with nowt to do – what a drag. The last couple of trips I had a couple of Harley Davidson rentals, a Dyna 103 Low Rider and a Road King; so this time I wanted to try something a bit different which I could fling around the bends without grinding foot boards. This is when I found Dubbelju (pronounced double-you), who are also based in the Mission district of San Francisco, but offer a much wider selection of bikes, from adventure and touring to custom, cafe racers and street bikes. Read on for the full low down on my bike San Francisco motorcycle rental.

Categories
Maintenance

Replacing Clutch Cable on Yamaha Fazer FZS600

A common job on any bike with a cable clutch that’s done a few thousand miles or worse has had a snapped cable. As time progresses cutch cables will stretch, requiring adjustment to bring in the slack, but eventually, they will need replacing. Similarly, if they have frayed or kinked preventing easy movement a replacement is the best course of action. Here I’ll walk you through step by step how to replace a clutch cable on a Yamaha Fazer FZS 600 (1999-2003), but other bikes will be fairly similar, tending to vary only on how the bottom end of the cable connects to the clutch.

Categories
Clothing/Protection

Custom Motorcycle Gear – Hideout Leathers

Trying to find motorcycle clothing that fits well can be a real struggle. Nobody wants ill fitting gear, making you worry if armour will remain in position in an off or just looking naff. I’m fairly tall and slim, so finding trousers long enough in leg and with slim enough waist is not easy. My wife is somewhat the opposite and similarly finds it tough to hunt down gear short enough – it’s not so easy to turn up leathers. This is where Hideout Leathers really corners the market with their custom motorcycle gear tailor made for you.

Motorcycle Gear Hideout Leathers

Tucked away in the Essex countryside a short distance from Saffron Walden, Hideout Leathers have a small store and workshop, where they sell many decent brands off the peg from the likes of Rukka, Dane, Halvarssons and Lindstands.  But uniquely they offer their own range of custom tailored motorcycle gear, an alteration service for off the peg item and an repair service for older gear.

Categories
Motorcycles

Cheap(ish) Euro 3 Commuter Hack Motorcycles to Beat the London ULEZ

You’ve all heard the news of the London ULEZ coming into effect from April 2019 that will penalise all pre-Euro 3 bikes within central London. That’s generally anything older than 2007 will be hit with a £12.50 a day charge, with London only being the start – many other UK cities have already started similar proposals, so if you’re running a cheap old commuter hack, time is ticking.

the recent motorcycle crime epidemic is making insurance premiums prohibitively high on anything of value or large capacity

We’d all like splash out on a new bike, but not all of us have the financial luxury and PCP deals are rarely economical for a daily commuter doing big yearly miles. Even worse for those who live in inner London, the recent motorcycle crime epidemic is making insurance premiums prohibitively high on anything of reasonable value, large engine capacity or desirability.

So where does that leave a seasoned commuter on a budget needing a ULEZ motorcycle to replace their trusty and reliable commuter hack? Here are some suggestions of practical Euro 3 compliant bikes for city commuting that won’t break the bank both to buy or to insure.