Road trip and some great machinery

This isn't a prelude to resuming regular blogging but Jennie and I have just got back from a 6 day autumn road trip and thought I'd share some of the photos whilst I was cataloguing them as it was such a cool time.  Click photos to enlarge.  The trip covered part of the lower half of NZ's north island and it was a great opportunity to catch up with some friends in the region at the same time.

My mates and I did a bike trip late last year over a 160 km long road called Gentle Annie which traverses some pretty wild country at altitudes up to around 3000 ft.  Jennie had never been over it, so it was a great opportunity to put that right.  The small country town of Taihape where we stayed overnight was coincidentally having their annual gumboot-throwing day and it was great fun seeing people of all sizes, shapes and age throw standard-sized gumboots as far as they could.  The record is 67 metres (220 ft) which is pretty impressive.  There was also sheep-racing and racing ride-on lawnmowers.  We love eccentric events like that!

Choose your gumboot!

Letting fly

Entering the Gentle Annie road proper, it was a gorgeous day but you need to take care as it's rare to see more than a handful of vehicles over it's entire length.  Not a place to use as a racetrack, especially with some of the drops into valleys.

Lonely, majestic country

Remnant from the days of horse-drawn coaches

Remote cattle farm sign.  Nowhere in reverse (nearly!)

Beautiful river valley

After traversing Gentle Annie and staying in the lovely Art Deco city of Napier overnight, we headed south to Mount Bruce, which is renowned for its bird life.  It was fantastic to see one of our native parrots, the Kaka, at close range.  Very little fear of humans, but they wouldn't oblige by holding their wings open so that we could get a shot of their bright orange under-wing feathers.  Nonetheless, they still looked great.

The NZ Kaka

There were also trout and giant native eels in one of the streams and in the photo below, some of the eels were close to 6ft long!  

Giant native eels

Bush ferns unfolding at Mt Bruce

We stayed with friends north of Wellington for a couple of days and they took us to the Southward Automotive Museum.  We hadn't been there for over 20 years and it's grown into a world-class "must see" stop for anyone travelling in the lower north island.  Here's a small selection from their fabulous collection.

Not just cars but bikes and lots of other stuff

The next photo believe it or not is actually an unpowered trolley built for an annual race down a steep town street where gravity does all the work.  Most people are happy with a bit of plywood and 4 wheels from a baby pram but not this guy!!!  The answer to the question "Why??" must be "Because he can".  Incredible workmanship.

The ultimate machine for a trolley derby - slight overkill?

Mercedes Gull Wing Roadster  - elegant simplicity

Streamlined Czech Tatra from the 1930's!

Just part of the collection

Stanley steam-engined car

All copper-bodied car!

The ultimate non-skid tread pattern on a vintage car!

Brough Superior sidecar outfit with Austin car engine - worth megadollars

I think the trike below was manufactured in the USA.  Acetylene headlamp, chain drive to the front wheel.  One might imagine that the steering was somewhat heavy! Not sure whether the cylinder head cooling fans were original but in terms of effectiveness, we might be able to reach a conclusion of our own!

Beaten with the Ugly Stick......

The vehicle below is a British Bond Bug which was built in the early 70's. It had a 700cc 4 cylinder motor of very limited horsepower. At the time it was released, it was regarded as a bit of a joke but in these days of the SMART car and other super-compacts, it doesn't look out of place at all and I LOVE it!  I'd love to own one and with a bit of suspension tweaking and a 675 Triumph motor, sigh............. 

Way cool or a big embarrassment???

A Star Wars cockpit long before Star Wars

Early NZ rail dragster with a 28 litre V12 Allison from a P40 fighter

The scooter below is a Triumph Tigress from 1958 and still looks incredibly modern. Available as a 250cc 4 stroke twin or a 175cc single 2 stroke.

Triumph Tigress - very sleek

Triumph's sister company, BSA, produced some clever designs and the photo below shows a standard BSA bicycle (from the 1950's I think) with a small 2 stroke which drives the hub.  The ordinary pedals remain in place which was a wise move because as a kid, I remember someone in our village having one.  He spent more time going purple pedalling trying to start the engine than he ever did being propelled along.

Good idea from BSA, ruined by reliability

V twin Indian, but with a Moto Guzzi configuration
How rare is this???

Rotary-engined Suzuki RE5 from the early 70's

Nice NZ kit car from the 70's based on a VW floor pan and engine

Messerschmitt bubble car first produced in 1955
White car is a Suzuki!!

The vehicle below is a U.S-built contraption from many decades ago. Forward power was provided by lowering the central wheel with a hand-operated lever and no clutch so take-off might have been just a touch rapid!  Similarly, disengaging drive at critical moments may have been a trifle hair-raising; made even worse by the brakes which you can see as blocks which press directly onto the tread of the tyres. Medical insurance was presumably mandatory!

Voted least likely to be a commercial success....

Before we came home, we dropped into the small town of Otaki to look at a Maori church which had been rebuilt a few years ago after it had been virtually destroyed by arson.  The restoration work is stunning.  Traditional Maori decoration lines the church.  The grey vertical panels in the church are woven from strips of the native flax plant and the buff-coloured lining on the roof is comprised of individual stems of a native plant not unlike pampas grass.  Every pew space has a magnificent hand-embroidered kneeling cushion and embroiderers from round the world donated their time to make them - quite moving.  I'm not a religious person, but worshipping in a place like this rebuilt with so much love and natural light must be quite an experience.

Church entrance

Looking away from the altar

So there we are..... a few photos from our travels.  Hope that you enjoyed seeing them - nothing quite like road trips!

For Nick and Angus MacPhail....

This post was written after I said I'd stopped blogging for an indeterminate period, BUT ..........

I got home yesterday to find a wonderful link to the past in the Comments section of my previous post from Nick MacPhail who lives in the Channel Islands between the UK and France.  We've never met but may well have been within a few metres of each other in the days when I drag raced at the same time as his brother Angus - what a small world it is these days!  Angus' bike, Ag's Barra, was featured in a photo I took and put in an earlier post about innovative engineering HERE .  I won't repeat what Nick said as you can read it for yourself in the comments section of the previous post.  It's well worth reading and also, the YouTube link to Angus' fantastic drag bike "Jade Warrior" HERE  is a rare treat.

Yesterday, I accompanied my mate and riding partner Davey Uprichard who lives near Wellington up to Auckland for his IAM advanced riding first assessment ride under the eagle eye of Philip McDaid, Chief Examiner.  It was a real win-win day as in the morning, we were able to spend a few hours at the annual classic race meeting at Pukekohe, just south of Auckland in the company of another great mate and riding partner, Dave Easey from Auckland.  For a country of around 4.5M population, some amazing bikes come out of sheds at this time of the year, many of them startlingly innovative.  So Nick and Angus, this post is for you guys in recognition of your appreciation of both smart and rare engineering! (This is only a very small sample of the bikes that were present, both in the spectator park and in the pits).

Dave, Davey and yours truly at the track

Rare Morini 350 V twin from the early 70's

Laverda Jota 3 cylinder in what looks like a Spondon frame

Flawless vintage Morgan 3-wheeler with Matchless V twin motor

Weston race bike - looks like a speedway engine is fitted into a Norton frame

Beautiful Triumph Trident late 60's factory race replica

Weslake-engined race bike

XR Harley replicas - superb engineering

The photo below is of a Brough Superior lining up on the dummy grid for a vintage race.  All these bikes are raced hard with no concession for age or scarcity.  Given that the price of a Brough at a classic bike auction would probably be greater than the cost of a modern factory-supported superbike, the owner has exceedingly large balls!  He's also to be congratulated for not wrapping it in cotton wool and for sharing it with the rest of the population.

Beautiful Brough Superior

The bike below is one of the rarest bikes you'll find - a desmodromic-valved Manx Norton.  It was built by a Kiwi called Brian Thomas to a design by Doug Hele, who was a legendary designer at both Norton and Triumph.  It was their correspondence and friendship which led to Doug's bike being re-created.  A stunning piece of workmanship.

Desmodromic Manx Norton

The next bike was my personal favourite - a Kreidler 50cc racer from the 70's.  Winner of numerous world championships, the bike produced in the order of 11-15 horsepower at close to 17,000 rpm!  The engineering is simply exquisite and when you realise just how small it is, finding a talented rider with the weight of a 10 year old child must have been a nightmare!

One of the best examples of engineering perfection anywhere

Kreidler front view - mountain bikes have wider wheels!

Flawless Benelli Sei 6 cylinder from the 70's

Another exceptionally rare motorcycle is the bike below.  The Hesketh V twin was produced in the UK by Lord Hesketh who used to be involved with F1 car racing.  Manufactured in the 1980's, it was overpriced, unreliable and soon went out of production.  Nonetheless, still a good example of someone trying to innovate.

A Hesketh V 1000 in perfect condition

My mate Paul zoning in

Those photos end the relatively short stay at the Pukekohe race track.  We said our goodbyes to Dave Easey part-way up the Auckland motorway whilst Davey and I headed north west for a date with the Chief Examiner of the IAM.  Those who have previously read of the stress I went though to pass my tests will remember that the examination criteria are based on UK police rider standards - a daunting task for anyone!  I was enjoying Davey's discomfort and deliberately hadn't filled him in with the details.  If I had to suffer the pangs of apprehension, he bloody well could too - that's mates for you! It's interesting that one of Davey's first actions on arriving at Philip's premises was a rapid visit to the toilet.  You may well think it was a nervous one, but I couldn't possibly comment, hehe!

However, Davey and Philip are both Irishmen from not too far apart and within seconds, had lapsed into accents which took more than a bit to follow - probably to keep me totally in the dark!  After explaining what was going to happen and equipping Davey with a radio, we set off on an assessment ride of well over 100km covering a mixture of motorway, urban, and all forms of countryside riding.  It was my intention to sit out back, sniggering and chilling out but Philip put a stop to that by saying that it would be good observer training for me!

Philip and Davey about to set off

Half-way through the ride, we stopped for the first de-brief.  Philip told a delighted Davey that he was already riding at an advanced level and that the improvement areas were only small, rather than any major errors in technique.  Hardly surprising to me, given that Davey and I have ridden together so much and that I'd trust him with my life.

For the second part of the ride, Philip put me directly behind Davey to take the main observing role, but cunningly being able to watch me at the same time - no pressure then!!!  Because Davey is such a darned good rider, there (regrettably, haha!) wasn't an opportunity to "ping" him for anything major and it was a thoroughly enjoyable ride in a relaxed atmosphere.  Returning to base, there was a full debrief and Philip asked me to complete the formal report with 3 improvement opportunities for Davey to work on.  He was congratulated again on such a great performance, particularly for first time up and invited to join IAM as an Associate.   All that remains is for me to allocate him a mentor in the Wellington area and enjoy hearing about his rapid progress through the forthcoming check rides.

All in all, one of those sublime days - away from home riding bikes for 12 hours in great company, covering almost exactly 500 km and seeing some fabulously rare motorcycles to boot.  Oh, and returning home to local smoked fish and marinated mussels as an entrée and baked sticky ribs as a main course, washed down with good beer.  Real man-food courtesy of Jennie, bless her!!

Sincere thanks too to Philip for giving up his time on a voluntary basis to spread the message about high level safe riding, it's hugely appreciated.

A nice run on 4 wheels

Dontcha hate it when the weather refuses to play ball?  Normally, the weather is pretty predictable in NZ from Xmas until the end of April with warm, settled weather.  However, this year, the La Nina weather system has been hanging around the north island and has given us the odd few days of unpredicted rain and high winds when we least expect it.

We had to defer a planned fishing trip for a few days finally getting it in mid-week (with Jennie out-fishing me as normal) and yesterday, we finally managed to do a 420 km round trip to the lighthouse at the Manukau Harbour Heads on the Awhitu Peninsula .  I'd been there with my riding partners over a year ago, enjoyed the run and had promised to take Jennie.  Mind you, the day didn't start on a promising note as Jennie's cat Thomas was clearly unwell when I got up to feed him.  Fortunately, the vet in Thames, some 50km down the coast was able to see him so we set off in Jennie's two-seater with Thomas perched on her lap in a cage.  We left him there for diagnosis whilst we carried on to the lighthouse.

Awhitu Peninsula and the lighthouse location

The Awhitu Peninsula is sparsely populated despite being quite close to Auckland.  It's also exposed to strong westerly winds and big seas coming across the Tasman Sea from Australia and many vessels have got into trouble on the bar at the harbour entrance.  The next picture will give you some idea of the average wind speed in this area!

No mistaking the prevailing wind direction!

It wasn't blowing all that hard as we drove up the peninsula although there were some very dark clouds in the direction we were heading, despite an encouraging weather forecast.  The roads are a motorcyclist's dream - continuous twisties all the way although you need to be on maximum alert on the narrow roads for the few sightseers on this route who inevitably have their brains in neutral.  The last km before the lighthouse is hard-packed dirt with gravel on a downhill gradient.  Fine on a road bike if you take your time and no sweat on 4 wheels.

It's a bit of a steep trek from the car park to the lighthouse and we were both fairly warm by the time we reached the top (err......  trying not to say too much to each other to hide the panting!).

A 100 metre climb from the car park!

By Awhitu Peninsula standards, it wasn't blowing all that hard and although we only felt a few spots of rain, it was really laying it down on the north side of the harbour, courtesy of a sudden summer squall.  Pretty spectacular as long as you weren't out in it!

Moody shot of squall passing through

The CEO enjoying the spectacle

The lighthouse itself was restored in quite recent times, having originally been built to guide ships through the treacherous harbour entrance in the mid 1800's.  The lack of bureaucracy is refreshing.  It's open all day with no-one in attendance.  Apart from very informative info on the history of the area, there is one sign politely asking you to close the lighthouse doors on the way out and another asking you put a donation in the coin box for upkeep if you've enjoyed it.  Wonderful in this day and age!  Oh, and not the slightest hint of vandalism anywhere - fantastic.

The Awhitu lighthouse

Harbour mouth - blue skies on the horizon

Apart from the odd sheltered area, plants don't grow very tall at the lighthouse but I was rather taken with the shrub in the foreground below which resembled an out-sized hedgehog with all its spines.  Wonder if it would grow in our garden?

You wouldn't want to fall into this shrub!

On the sheltered eastern side of the Awhitu Peninsula, there are (apparently) lots of pretty beaches.  Unfortunately, road signage isn't all that flash on the maze of tiny roads and even with a GPS, finding one was more by luck than good judgement.  Graham's Beach below was virtually uninhabited and we must go back up that way do do some more exploring when we have a little more time (getting back to the vet's before they closed was in our minds).

Graham's Beach - where is everyone?

Arriving back at Thames, the vet announced that Thomas had a throat infection which antibiotics would clear up but there were some other treatable issues which older cats can get which would require attention in due course.  (Vet-speak for saying that we'll be taking out a second mortgage in the coming weeks to pay for it!!).  Still, animals are family so all we can do is grit our teeth and pay up.  Nonetheless, a great day out together which we thoroughly enjoyed.  The Street Triple is hopeless for 2-up riding but trips out in Jennie's sports car are great fun too.

Oh, and one other thing.  Not that it's any big deal but this is the last blog post, at least for the foreseeable future.  They say in retirement that you're busier than when you were in paid employment and that's certainly true in our case.  Jennie and I are both voluntary computer tutors for Senior Net, a nationwide organisation to provide computer tuition and support for senior citizens.  I've also recently been appointed national training co-ordinator for both the motorcycle and car divisions of  IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists).  This will involve designing and running a database to ensure that members receive training in a timely manner.  This will be the main focus for some time, so more than happy to put blogging at the bottom of the pile. 

I'd like to wish my fellow moto-bloggers in particular every good wish, safe riding and thanks for such entertaining blogs.  I've really enjoyed them, not only because of our shared love of two wheels, but also for the comradeship and a peek into lives in other parts of the world.  We're not so very different are we, despite politicians trying to raise unecessary artificial barriers between our cultures.  Take care and I'll try to make time to see what you're all up to on the odd occasion!

Michelin Pilot Road 3 tyres progress report

This post is predominantly for my mate Jules in Australia.  He's been nudging me along to write a progress report on how the PR3's are going on the Street Triple.  Personally, I think he simply wants to sit back and watch the fur fly as everyone seems to hold strong opinions about tyres, even if there's bugger-all objective evidence for aforesaid opinions!  The report is a bit nerdish (oh all right, anal!) so if you want to do something exciting like watching paint dry, it's ok by me :-)!  Think yourself lucky - Jennie has to put up with this sort of behaviour all the time!

Background
Just to recap, I'm an Avon fan, having had them on my Blackbird and then the Street Triple.  I fitted them to the ST after being a little disappointed with the Dunlop Qualifier sport OEM tyres.  The Qualifiers gripped ok in the warmer weather, I was nervous about them in cooler, wet conditions and they also tended to tip into a bend rather than roll in smoothly.  By 6000 km, they had lost most of their tread and also lost their shape.  The replacement Avon Storm 2 sport-touring tyres did most things really well but were outstanding in the wet, which was not unexpected based on past experience. They were replaced at 10,000 km which was satisfactory, given that the ST gets used for its intended purpose although the front tyre triangulated a bit towards the end of its life.  I would have happily used them again except that the NZ Avon importers had hiked the price significantly beyond that of competing brands.  That was the spur to look around and the PR3's sport touring tyres were chosen.  Photos of the Storms and PR3's when first fitted, together with some accompanying remarks can be found HERE.

The PR3's have now been on for nearly 6 months, so how have they gone so far?  Before we get to that, let's have a think as to why opinions on tyres vary so much (a euphemism for unadulterated bullshit in most instances) .  There are many variables which impact significantly on tyre performance (road surface and temperature, ratio of straights to curves, tyre pressures, bike weight and geometry, riding style to name but a few. Bike magazines which test normal road tyres round a test track for lap times don't replicate real world conditions either.  In other words, we're not comparing apples with apples in most cases. I'm not going to offer up much in the way of hard science either BUT what is relevant is that the ST has been ridden by me over virtually identical road and weather conditions for a touch over 20,000 km using 3 different sets of tyres.  At least this gives strong comparative indications, if not absolute ones.

First Impressions
The PR3 is similar to many modern road tyres in that it has dual compound construction - harder towards the centre to reduce wear when vertical and softer towards the edges for additional mechanical grip when leaned over.  I have the higher load rating "B" specification on the rear.  Carcass construction allegedly also increases the contact patch area when leaned over but other manufacturers make that claim too.  Where the PR3 is significantly different is in the tread pattern.  Michelin claim that they are the first to use the fine grooves (called sipes) which are a feature of some performance car tyres for clearing water at a higher rate than conventional rain grooves.  Here's a picture of the front tyre when it was first fitted:

Pilot Road 3 front - brand new

After leaving the tyre fitting place, my first noticeable impression was at walking pace coming up to the first set of traffic lights. There appeared to be a slight vibration through the bars at around 5-10 km/hr.  I actually wondered whether the transverse sipes were creating a harmonic at low speed. It wasn't enough to be worrying and it now seems to have gone away.  Don't think I was imagining it!  After taking it easy for 50 km or so, I started to explore the characteristics a bit more.  Turn-in was similar to the Avons, in that it's a progressive roll rather than the more pronounced drop in of the Dunlop Qualifier.  The reason may be due to a less crowned profile.  I'm also of the view that the PR3 is fractionally slower steering than the Avon Storm 2, but not to the extent that it's an issue and feel perfectly at home on them. In fact, they were so reassuring that there were no chicken strips on the rear tyre at the end of the 160km trip home.

Experience to date
The tyres are just coming up to 7000km from new.  Three characteristics are immediately noticeable.

• The profile is perfectly even with little or no hint of squaring off  on either tyre or "triangulation" on the front.  

• There is heaps of tread left.  I regret not measuring the tread depth when new but there is still over 3mm in the centre of the rear hoop  which suggests that 12000 km + will be easily attainable, even riding with enthusiasm.

I set the tyre pressures with a quality digital gauge (NEVER with a gas station inflator) and run them at 35-36 psi front and 39-40 psi rear, a little lower than in the Triumph manual.

Here are photos taken today, showing the tread and even wear profile.

Front

Rear

Front - worn nearly round to the edge and minimal tearing

As mentioned earlier, the PR3's were chosen over the Avons principally on price - NZ$600 fitted and balanced against $NZ650.  If you factor in the clearly superior tyre life, then it makes the PR3's a really attractive economic proposition.

• The third characteristic is performance.  In the dry, they really grip.  Job to say whether they're any better than the Avons because my mental bar is set lower than the limits of either brand of tyre but suffice to say, they're confidence-inspiring.  However, in wet conditions, they're sensational.  I thought Avon were great (and they are) but the PR3's are better.  In my last post on riding Dr Andy West's Daytona 675, he enthused about their performance in the wet and has subsequently said that when the Supercorsas are worn out, he'll be replacing them with PR3's.  Clearly, the Supercorsas are a superior tyre for continuous high speed work such as track days but for everyday road use where they don't reach the high operating temperatures required especially in the wet, grip is probably less than the PR3.  They certainly didn't give me much feedback in damp conditions.  Another interesting thing I noticed when Andy was riding my bike and I was following him in the wet was that the tyres were leaving a noticeable dry line behind them.  Perhaps this is an indicator of good water-pumping ability.  Must observe other bike tyres too.

Well, there we are - some impressions of the Michelin PR3 based on a comparison with other tyres fitted to the Street Triple and used in near-identical conditions - hope you think that it's been worthwhile.  More to come at life end.

Addendum:  The full end of life report can be found HERE

Triumph Daytona 675 ride impressions

Ok, let's start with an introduction - the chap in the photo below with the beautiful Daytona 675 is Andy West.  I think you know the disreputable old geezer on the right so the least said about him the better.
 

A pair of Triples (sounds odd...)

Being oh so terribly formal, Andy is Dr. Andrew West, a prominent figure in the world of science and commerce and Vice-Chancellor of NZ's Lincoln University.  At a far less formal level, he's a life-long bike nut and also has an early Triumph Trident and an immaculate '69 Triumph Bonneville in his man-cave at home.  As I was also due to find out during the day, he's a really down to earth nice guy and a bloody quick and safe rider too.

Going back 6 months or so ago, Andy contacted me through the blog as he'd seen the link to my Street Triple review and asked for my views about its suitability for his wife as a post-learner machine.  As well giving some opinions, I'd offered Andy the chance to ride it for himself and draw his own conclusions.  Today was that day so rode down the coast to Thames to meet him, bring him home for lunch and then settle into the serious fun of trying out each others' bikes!

A few showers had passed through in the morning but the weather was brightening up, the roads were gradually drying and the portents were good for using the bikes how they were meant to be used (in the name of thorough and objective road-testing, you understand).

Bike swapping - throw your keys in the middle and see what you get!

A quick walk-around
A preliminary perch on the Daytona showed it to be poles apart from the Street Triple.  It may share the 675 power plant, by that's about as near as it gets!  The Daytona is the closest thing to a pure race bike on the road as you're likely to encounter.  The strongest (and slightly unnerving) impression which hit me when first climbing on board was the near-complete absence of anything in front of you!  I always wanted to ride an Imperial Stormtroopers bike from Star Wars and this is the nearest thing to a terrestrial equivalent!  The low screen and mirrors were way below the eye line and it felt like you were sticking right out in front of the bike.  The clip-on bars also felt like they were vertically below my chin although amazingly, they felt perfectly comfortable.

The seat height is greater than the ST but the narrower seat allowed me to rest on the balls of my feet with complete confidence, also due to the bike's light weight at around 165 kg.  Controls were identical to the ST, so they were instinctive.

Wossit go like, mister?
Andy had warned me that the Daytona has a very tall first gear and he was right! Cutting through dozy holiday traffic in Coromandel village required more concentration regarding road positioning than the ST.  I never actually had to dip the clutch but the fingers were ready if required.  The saving grace was the big torque spread of the motor and I'll come back to this later.

Getting onto the open road was initially unnerving.  The lack of anything in front of the face and the head down, arse up riding position felt quite precarious and coupled with the narrow, low bars, I didn't feel all that confident about hustling through the bends.  Probably no bad thing as the road was still slightly damp in places, the supersports-oriented Supercorsa tyres weren't up to high grip temperatures and there's not much in the way of rain grooves on them either. In fact, they felt quite vague and I didn't like the Supercorsas much at all in those conditions.  Considerable scope for going down on your arse if you pushed really hard, I'd imagine.  I think that for the wide range of weather and temperature conditions I ride in, a good sport touring tyre like the PR3 would give a lot more confidence.  Andy also seemed inclined to this view after riding the ST3. Steering on the Daytona was completely different from ST with its higher, wider bars.  Because of the race-style steering geometry, moving the body around the bike and weighting the pegs was all that was needed to change direction on the D675, with far less emphasis on heavy countersteering.  The faster you went, the less conscious steering effort required!

Up in the hills south of Coromandel, we stopped briefly at a lookout to compare notes and both of us had  huge grins on our faces!  Andy was completely enthused about the grip from the Pilot Road 3 tyres fitted  to the ST and I was blown away with the pin-point accuracy of the steering of the D675.  The other thing which took me by surprise was the relative comfort of the Daytona.  Even for my knees which have taken a hiding over the decades, the high footpegs were surprisingly comfortable.  The thin seat wasn't bad either but for longer hauls, it would definitely have an Airhawk pad fitted to it.  One thing's for sure, you'd never suffer from a cold bum on this bike - heat transfer from the high level pipe and muffler through the thin seat is quite pronounced!

Now here's a thing which I'm sure that many riders have experienced.  If you're not riding too well, often a short stop will make a world of difference and you feel transformed when you hop back on.  So it was with riding Andy's bike.  Even though our stop was less than 5 minutes, hopping back on the Daytona afterwards felt completely natural and my riding was much more assured.

On the run down the coast to Thames with the roads having dried out, we started to use a bit more throttle, particularly when passing small groups of slow-moving holidaymakers.  Whilst the Street Triple is no slouch at all, the greater horsepower at the top end on the Daytona was very noticeable and pretty impressive.  Whilst the top end was indeed impressive,  it still compared very favourably with the ST at lower down in the rev range.  This means that in normal on-road conditions particularly in making snap overtakes, it would completely outshine Japanese IL4's of similar capacity which need to build revs to develop power.  The extremely slim fairing and screen were also more effective than you might imagine.

Is there a downside to the Daytona?  Well yes and no.  It has higher specification suspension than the ST and the setup is on the firm side.  If I was to regularly use one on the Coromandel Peninsula roads, I'd want to knock off a whole lot of preload front and rear and rely more on the excellent rebound and compression damping to lower the tendency to jump about on the more uneven road surfaces. On sweepers with better finished surfaces or for trackdays, it would be nigh-on perfect as it was.  I'd get rid of those Supercorsa tyres though.  The Daytona does have passenger pegs but anyone perched out back is in for a world of pain.  It's that "fitness for purpose" thing though - you don't buy a Daytona for hauling a pillion or lots of luggage about.

On pulling up in Thames before Andy continued home, we were still genuinely smitten with each other's bikes and couldn't keep the smiles off our faces. As I write this quick review, I'd imagine that Andy is telling his wife for the 100th time that the Street Triple is the perfect bike for her.  He can't really lose can he, with a Daytona AND an ST in the shed?  I'd happily do the same except the only thing I'd lose would be my balls, courtesy of someone near and dear!  It's easy to see why both machines have repeatedly won "Bike of the Year" titles in numerous international motorcycle journals.  So there we are,  two incredible machines with the Street Triple having a broader use and the Daytona being more highly focussed. With only being allowed to have one bike at a time by She Who Must Be Obeyed, it has to be the ST for the conditions I ride in, but oh for a Lotto win to help with the case for both of them!

Thanks Andy for a fantastic day, both from the viewpoint of the company, your riding skill and letting me use your Daytona how it was meant to be used!  Catch you for an even longer ride in due course!

Design elegance!