Some of you have asked for a copy of the Honda CRF1000 A-D Owners Manual so at 7Mb here it is…
The clutch lever is dead, long live the clutch lever
So I finally took the plunge… last weekend I picked up my Honda CRF1000D, a victory red Africa Twin. Initial impressions of the bike are very good and the DCT gearbox is exceptionally smooth, it is certianly intuitive and perhaps even better than I thought it might be. So far I have only been off road in the Epynt Ranges but the gravel and forest tracks locally proved how good the G Mode DCT box can be – and with the traction control light flashing away, warning and then controlling the rear wheel slip, I scrubbed in the standard Dunlop Trailmax road tyres. I took some stick from bikers old and new telling me it was not a real bike, but I’ve been riding since the age of 16 and I am now aged 52, so even with my poor maths that’s 36 years on two wheels… I don’t have anything else to prove. I am still keeping a manual bike but quite honestly if the technology is this is good then one might wonder if the clutch lever is going to become redundant – I suspect not, or at least not quite yet.
New Workhorse Required
My 15 year old R1150GSA has now taken me on trips covering at least 210,000 km and each year I struggle a little more with insurance, breakdown cover and parts availability. Last year BMW deleted thousands of spares from their catalogue making it more and more difficult for old bike owners to keep their beloved bikes on the road as daily rides. I am not a cynical man but clearly this move was made by BMW Accountants who want riders to buy new bikes every few years rather than keeping models on the road. Even Motorworks and James Sherlock are struggling with some obscure new parts and I keep a good selection of secondhand parts from breakers in stock but it is getting harder…
Now before anyone shouts there is no way I am getting rid of my GSA but I need to be realistic about what I can do on my extended solo trips and have to be self sufficient. For those of you looking at my Overland Motorcycle Workshop resource you will have seen the increasing electrical troubles no doubt caused by older and increasingly brittle wiring and whilst a complete rewire may be the answer perhaps I need to just accept a new bike is required and retire the GSA – she owes me nothing. So the question is what option should I take. I have a refundable deposit on a new Honda Africa Twin but also have my eye on the older technology packaged in the Yamaha SuperTen. Next week sees the launch of the Africa Twin in the UK but I am open to suggestions… anyone…
Nothing’s better – Autumn 2015
Great to see my article published in the BN Magazine and for those of you joining the page for the first time via the BN link then ‘welcome’. The majority of the information on this site is linked to my extended solo motorcycle tours but as you now know I am always happy to answer any questions and am proud to have been asked to be a holiday adviser for the organisation. Please feel free to drop me your details via the contact me page or you can follow me on Twitter using the links on my home page or @tyclyd
The Lapland War
Riding south from Ravaniemi on the E75, I spotted a small side turning leading east marked Tervola and slipped quickly of the rough north south route, into the unknown. The brilliant sunshine glimmered of the the new bridge over the Kemi, as I stopped in the shade of the Kirk. Finland’s wartime past is not widely publicised but knowing the Russian pacts and advance from the east and the Finnish resistance and the earlier Lapland War, the number of German and Finnish war graves with similar dates reinforces the strategic importance of this river crossing in 1944.
