Would someone go for a ride for me?

bwolfie said:

I rode my Combat for the first time yesterday with a stuck clutch around my parents yard, it's 5 acres, does that count.

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I'm surprised swoosh hasn't said this yet, but I'll say it for him:

WIthout photos, it didn't happen!!! :mrgreen:

To the OP, I'm firing up my 850 in a while to ride down to the annual English Conclave, an annual All-British car and motorcycle show. I'll try to get some decent photos to post. Won't be any riding shots, just bikes in the show line and parking lot. Hope that helps!

Debby

Photo's didn't happen because the ride took place in the 5 minuites I had before I needed to leave to pick up my 3yr old. I'll get some pictures next ride around the yard.

No rides for me this weekend, raining. :cry: Of course we haven't had rain for a while so it's not a bad thing, although the roads are greasy right now.

But it's suppose to get back up to 80˚ next week so I hope to get a little ride in.

No rides for me this weekend, raining. :cry: Of course we haven't had rain for a while so it's not a bad thing, although the roads are greasy right now.

But it's suppose to get back up to 80˚ next week so I hope to get a little ride in.

Thanks to all for the ride updates. Hopefully the doctor will turn me loose within a month or so. Glenn, when I get my wings back, you're on for any or all of those canyons. I know them well.

I did warm the bike up to tweak the carbs. This necessitated a couple runs down the "test track". Does that count?

I understand Steve, but when the age anxiety gets into your head, it's hard to cure. All I can do is fight it until the reaper comes.

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I'm as frail human nature as anyone but also had in human states forced on me I never thought I'd survive or would end up life crippled and/or vegetable to garden.
Life is as real as a soap bubble and no one in their right mind should risk popping it on two wheels, period - end of logic, throw in the ole towel and wrap it up off em.
I am not a bit fooled now that once on two wheels you can control how much trauma comes your way. Oh sure do what you can, I sure do, but still question myself almost daily if I'm really cut out for this biker hobby or feel a lucky enough punk.

What I preach teach is a way of re-growing neck which relieves brain stem and spinal cord function which is a direct cause of most organ and joint failures. I learned it from others before me but didn't believe em till about a decade into career. If not for that I'd be a goner a number of times and also divorced again instead of 22 yr with my Sweet One, ok She Who Must Be Obeyed, but I can take it now and she does same thing so she's not divorced again too from you know who.

I once thought I was a weakling and emotional wimp, but turned out to be damn neck birth injury, now I express the best genetic hands to play out of the deck dealt me. While on the esoteric side of life, seems I'm more often in the right place for the right experience when my upper cord is doing good and radiating into the aethers. Others volunteered this same thing to me so I've decided to believe in that coming true too.

Deep down I'm often more relieved on bike break downs than getting it fixed.
Can you understand that, nay feel it - coming form hobot, the fake daredevil?

Yo bird... Was not a very long ride maybe 10-12 miles away but headed over to a Brit get-together in Baptistown, NJ today. Beautiful crisp Fall day and I took the long way. Bike started on the first kick after sitting about 3 weeks but when leaving with crowd watching it took 3 kicks. Have had worse luck. Nice selection of machinery but some obviously never even ridden -- could eat off them though. My favs were a few rough Triumph rigid bobbers with no trace of paint or polishing, not the gleaming fucking Gold Stars. Hot dogs and Johnny Cash type band with musicians of my era with some Irish rover music thrown in. Sorry -- forgot camera. Maybe someone else was there?

Russ

I do some marketing work for a local Honda store and as such attend most of their store functions. A large group of us gathered for one last, shop sponsored, ride this season. I rode the Norton to the shop but because they have been bugging me to use a shop bike I rode a lesser brand on the ride. We did a scenic tour up North from Allen, TX to Loose Wheels (a bike friendly establishment) in Sherman, TX. You may think Texas is flat and uninteresting but I can tell you that we have some nice twisty back roads in my part of the world. These roads were made even more exciting by buckling in places as a result of the drought. It was a good day to ride. The temperature was under 100 degrees for a change and we even rode through a few rain showers. (We will take all the rain we can get with no complaints.) I rode my “lesser brand bike” back at high speed on the Interstate, picked up my trusty Norton and headed back home. I had to unlearn that nasty habit of shifting on the wrong side! I hope this helps your arm feel a bit better. The picture was taken at a point we discovered that we were lost. We did managed to get where we were going and that is the important thing.


Lesser brands on parade

I can do a quick ride report but no photos. I tried to upload them but photobucket locked up on me. I'll have to try again tomorrow I guess. :?

Today's ride was to this year's edition of the English Conclave, which is an annual All-British car and motorcycle show. It's held in a city park in the northern suburbs of Denver, and it's a nice ride from my home in northern Boulder County. The weather was perfect today, sunny and in the 70s. We've had crappy weather all week, but today was perfect!

I rode my 850 but didn't enter it in the show this year. Last year it won an award so I think I'll quit while I'm ahead! :wink: We did have four Nortons in the show this year, all from our club members. There were lots of Triumphs in the show this year, but not as many of the other marques. Only one Vincent, but it was a rider, fitted with Amal Mk2s and K&N pods. I saw a really nice looking AJS. Three BSAs, a few others.

I took the long way home, through foothills and a couple of my favorite canyon roads. I got 90 miles of riding in today, all on back roads. Very scenic and the bike ran great. The only bummer was a very high police presence here in Boulder County - I encountered no less than five (5) "county mounties" on the way home! No tickets today though.

Debby

Ok, I switched to Firefox and got some photos uploaded. Chrome is just not happy today. :?

This is my bike in the parking lot. I didn't enter it in the show this year, partly because I was too lazy to detail it, but also because I didn't get there early enough:



Norton lineup in the show. All from our club members!



Our club "booth", with my bike on display at the back. It wasn't really a booth per se, just an ez-up with our banner and some chairs. Worked for us though!



I have some other photos but they're mostly non-Norton. I could post in the Anything Else section if anyone is interested.

Debby,
Where did you get that leather (looking) pannier? Is it on both sides? I'm looking for something like that for my S, so I only need one side.

Dave
69S

Dave, it's a set of leather throw-over panniers that came with a Royal Enfield Bullet that I used to own. The bike is gone, but I kept the bags. Don't know where the original owner found the bags. You could check the Classic Motorworks website, http://www.enfieldmotorcycles.com/, but I don't think that's where these came from. They should have some similar bags though.

If you only want a single bag, I think it would be better to get a tailbag or tank bag. Seems to me a single pannier would be unbalanced, plus I'm not sure how you'd attach it. These just go over the seat and I use a couple of bungees to keep them in place.

I guess that's a disadvantage of the upswept exhaust. Those high pipes look great, but it's more difficult to fit luggage.

Debby

Yeah, trouble with mine is the pipes get in the way and there is no sissy bar at all. I suppose I could just fasten a bag to the rear of the seat or loop with some bungies.

Thanks,
Dave

I am so done with fairly soft type saddle bags leather or syn-fiber, unless internal frame supported or by frame to hold off shocks and above up swept peashooters.
Now some hardened thick serious seam tooled tanned leather box like bags would be the cat's meow. We see small versions as tool kits on quaint old Brit Iron.

Here's size that can fit w/o an issue, but for the floppy sows ear shape holding.
Just throw over rear loop loose hanging bags with tie down to keep from flopping out very far. After a while shock indents and bottom sags and everything sorts piles together in side. I much prefer hard bags now for real life errands and travel.

debby said:

I have some other photos but they're mostly non-Norton. I could post in the Anything Else section if anyone is interested.

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Post them here.

hobot said:

I am so done with fairly soft type saddle bags leather or syn-fiber, unless internal frame supported or by frame to hold off shocks and above up swept peashooters.

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Works a lot better to throw them over the seat rather than under the seat. No issues with muffler clearance and they don't get sucked into the wheel either.

Works a lot better to throw them over the seat rather than under the seat. No issues with muffler clearance and they don't get sucked into the wheel either.

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Aw shoot debby give me slack, it would of looked silly with saddle bags thrown over my cushy comfy Gravel Roughness absorbing King/Queen seat. Where's your sense of style for gosh sakes : )

It was a really glorious evening in Fullerton for a ride Sunday and I set off on a short jaunt to explore the newly rideable Commando and enjoy a bit of a lark. The ride was great, the traffic fairly light and Norton didn't miss a beat until the shop was just about in sight when the fire went out. Sorry Swoosh, no pics, they would only have shown me pushing the Norton the last 500 feet anyway.

I'll miss Scotties this week but do intend to make it on the 29th. Come out for a visit, there were two Commandos there last week.

Vintage Paul