Pondboy's BMW F650GS News

Sunday 2nd January 2005
Happy New Year to all and sundry.

Today I met up with carcher2k who has a 2 month old Dakar and was looking for some company to have a ride out with. We met at a nice pub called The Rose Revived at Newbridge on the A415 between Andover and Witney.

After a chat in the car park, Andy led me off on an excellent ride on country lanes up the east side of Witney to Hailey, west to Minster Lovell, then along towards Burford before looping south of Brize Norton to Bampton and back to Newbridge for a pint before we went our separate ways. The weather was brilliant and the Cotswold countryside was looking beautiful. By the time I got home at 1.15pm I had put another 111 miles on Mellow Yellow and just broken the 4,000 mark in total.

Monday 3rd January 2005
This is a big year for Pondgirl and I. In March I reach my half century and in April we will celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary.

As all things seem to go on three's. I have definitely decided to go ahead with my planned tour round the coastline of mainland Britain. I intend to visit as many of th 168 mainland RNLI sites as are accessible and raise as much money as I can for the RNLI.

The trip will be around 4,000 miles and take about 16 days. More details including the planned daily routes are on my RNLItrip page .

Saturday 8th January 2005
Well I suppose it had to happen. I have applied to become an official "tosser". Just sent my £10 off to UKGS'ers to become a forum sponsor. All other "tossers" can expect the two finger salute if they see me on the roads.

Sunday 9th January 2005
Pondson has effed up his computer, so I went out for a ride to set myself for a day or two's arsing around trying to get it to work again.

65 miles round Goring, Wantage then up to Oxford and back. Took some pictures of Mellow Yellow for my new Accessories page and then settled in for an afternoon of hell trying to get his computer to act as anything better than a toaster.

Monday 17th January 2005
I am waiting for my new Pirelli Sport Demon tyres to be fitted to Mellow Yellow. The old Bridgestone Trailwings were not fully worn, but the front let go several times while I was out on Friday and left me wibbling round the roads like a granny pushing a dody supermarket trolley. On some corners I was taking three bites at them as the front went wide then started gripping only to go slithery again. Not confidence inspiring.

The rubber has a decidedly shiny plastic look to it and feels as hard as nails. There was around 2mm left on the centre of the rear and a bit over 3mm on the front. I would prefer to change them now, rather than risk dropping my bike. I know which would be the more expensive.

The Pirelli's look good in the pictures, but I'll measure the tread depth when I get them home and see how they feel after I have put a few miles on them.

Tuesday 18th January 2005
Got my wheels back today with their new tyres on. Dave at Motorway Tyres (Henley) had done a great job. He had been very careful with the rims, taping them up before putting them on the machine. He said the Trailwings were a bugger to get off 'cos they were so hard.

The Pirelli's certainly feel like they are a softer rubber. They also look like they have a more V shaped profile, with a narrower centre section and much more available rubber on the shoulders. Now I need to get them on Mellow Yellow and try them out.