A New Chapter.

I've been a bit lazy updating my blog recently, but a lot has been going on. I'll start with the biggest first.











I've sold my beloved BMW R1150GS to Ferg.









Its gone.








And been replaced with THIS!!

A nice, shiny, brand new BMW R1200GS Adventure. Which is fucking awesome.

A while back I had a shot of Faithir's GS which I enjoyed, and its sort of been niggling away at the back of my mind. I tried to convince myself that I didn't need or want a new bike but I was wrong. You only live once, so fuck it, get what ye want.

I've spent the past couple of weeks running it in. As always I had the Gopro with me so there's a wee video.

When I picked the bike up from Motorrad Central it was pishing doon which stung my face fucking good style with the open Bamboo lid, so I headed doon the coast to the better weather. My mate Bruce was hosting Forth Fat, a fatbike meet for Pugsleys and other fat tyres pushbikes, so I got the crack with them for a bit. I opted not to join Fat forth as I wanted to get out on the new GS, plus I prefer to keep my beachriding a solo affair or just ride in wee groups with mates.

The GS with the fatbikes.

A few days Andy (you'll see him if you watch the video to the very end) and I got a good evening spin up the hills then doon the coast. It's a favourite route for me. If you're bored enough to regularly watch my videos on youtube you'll no doubt recognise some of the scenery. You'll probably agree with Andy's comment at the end of the video too.
I've been a few longer runs. I headed down the borders on the first really warm day of the year to St Mary's Loch via the fast sweepers of the A7 to Galashiels then the tighter A707 through Selkirk. The road wasn't the only thing that was tighter, I had a few arse clenching moments as there's a few patches of gravel on the road from Gala to Selkirk. The scenery opens up as you come along side St Mary's Loch and I followed another couple of bikes to The Glen Cafe on the bank of the loch where I stopped, planning on getting a quick drink of juice. I hadn't stopped anywhere for cash and the Glen Cafe can't take payments by card, but someone got me a can of juice. Cheers if you're the guy on the white Ducati!.
I carried on to Moffat where I had more seat chewing moments, this time with wildlife and sheep on the road. Apart from that the road is great fun, with some nice twisty bits and some great scenery. I stopped at Moffat where I got a message from Aidan who was also out for a spin. We arranged to meet up. For some reason I suggested we met back at the Glen Cafe where I'd just came from. Now, I was just down the road from the cafe but Aidan was fucking miles away in North Berwick, back up in East Lothian. Forgetting that while Aidan is a very competent motorcyclist, he isn't John McGuiness, I had said that it would only take him an hour to get down to St Mary's Loch. It took him a fair bit longer. I stuffed my face with a nice sausage, egg and chips and shot the shit with an old guy who was out on his bike for a while, before Aidan turned up on his new bike, a Triumph Tiger 1050, and we headed back home via Innerlethen and Peebles.



My GS with Andy's in the background

Dave on a proper bike for once in his life.

Borthwick Castle

At Stow

The Glen Cafe, St Mary's Loch

Heading to Moffat

Aidan's Tiger.

Another run I went on took me over the Forth Road Bridge to Fife where I followed the tourist route along the coast. This turned out to be a fucking shite idea. The east coast part of Fife I was on was quite densly populated. As I rode from The Bridge though Burntisland and Kirkaldy I barely got out of 30mph zones. When I hit Leven I joined the A915 to St Andrews which would have been great fun if it hadn't been pishing with rain and the fuds driving infront of me had went above 35. Still, I've not wrote Fife off, there's some great roads to be found over there from what I remember. Just avoid the fucking tourist route.

Looking over the water to Edinburgh.

St Andrews

So the differences between the 1200 Adventure and the 1150?

Well the 1200 seems waaaaaaay taller. Its like low level flying! The big trallie, lazy lines, pendulum effect is really exaggerated as you swing from left to right, which is fucking good fun. The new motor seems a lot lighter, as in it revs up much faster and has less vibration. It's quite a bit faster too, but I've not really been able to give it the baws yet as I'm still running it in, but even then I can tell its got more go than my old bike. I miss my loud pipe. My 1150 had a full Remus system which was loud as fuck. The standard 1200 system sounds really good for a standard system but I miss the roar of the Remus. The brakes on the 1200 don't have the same bite as my 1150's brakes, but this is probably down to the 1150 having servo assisted brakes. The 1200 has a MASSIVE tank. 33 litres which gives a tank range of over 300 miles and even with a tight new motor I'm nearly getting 50mpg. The 1200 feels lighter and more chuckable when riding, but the 1150 felt a wee bit more stable, the 1200 very slightly wagging it head in high winds, but nothing to write home about. All in all I'm really chuffed with the Adventure, but the 1150 is still a shit hot bike. 

Hope you like it Ferg!

Not so good was my Pugsley. The frame cracked. Fucking nightmare.

What was good though, was Surly. The cracks seemed to be a fault that was affecting lots of Pugsleys and Surly have sorted it all out. So gone is my mint greet Pugsley and here is the new repacement yellow frame. Surly have tweeked the frame a bit which has hopefully sorted the cracking problem, and I quite like the yellow which is a sort of matt finish and I think it looks pretty good with my red hubs.



I quite like the yellow too. I might get Smillie to give this one the mint treatment but I'm happy with the yellow for now.

HB was really fucking chuffed with this. Honest.

I have been out on the pushbike but my wee Ricoh camera broke so I haven't been taking many photos, these ones were all taken with my mobile phone, so sorry if the quality isn't up to scratch. I'll get out and get some decent photos of the Pug and the new GS soon.