InvictaMoto's Red Pepé Blog

So. Wuss time. The weather through the week was either heavy frost (car scraping) or light snow. So I emailed Laguna to say if the weather didn't improve maybe postpone today's booking and re-arrange. Jim emailed to say they would come and pick it up. Free of charge. I accepted. Pepé went this morning. Back this afternoon. Test passed but an advisory on front tyre that's getting low. I know that it is getting near replacement time.

The seat I bought on eBay went off today to Elsemade with Hermes. The cost was £6.49 for a package up to 5kgs. When I weighed it the box and seat came out at 2.66kgs.  The cut off for the cheaper rate is 2kgs. I have also changed my mind about the finish. The suede effect might look good but when I saw the picture of the faux carbon effect cover I decided that was the way to go. So. Let's see how long it takes for Alastair to turn it around. https://www.elsemade.co.uk/triumph-seats/ Update 25/01/2019 Hermes delivered the package on Thursday, yesterday.

Good old Father Christmas left this under the tree and I have used it to secure Pepé against the bike thieves that infest our civilised society. It is supposed to be difficult to cut through and carries the Sold Secure label. Okay it won't stop the scum with a van and a team to lift the bike in, but it might deter the wanker that tries to ride it away. Or at least make them go and try someone else's bike instead. I opted for yellow as it looks bright as a reminder it is fitted. The alternative was black like my Abus HB and the Oxford Chain I also use. 

As expected I needed to use the dbPower unit to kick Pepé into life. Once connected it was the first press of the button the get him started. I let him warm up whilst I went and got togged up. . The air temperature according to my car was 2°C. Once I set off I found I had an air gap around my back! My thermal technical shirt had ridden up leaving a gap. Luckily it didn't affect me too much on the ten mile ride to the Blue & White Café. When I went out on New Year's Day I forgot to reset Trip 2 to keep a total of mileage. This time I did. After breakfast and a chat I needed the jump to get Pepé going again. Once started he runs perfectly. The run back was pretty gentle. The wet patches had dried out a bit and it felt safer on two wheels. It was no warmer though. So total recorded Trip 2 mileage looks about 20 miles. I didn't check when I stashed him away in the garage. Next week. The MoT. posted from Bloggeroid

Elsemade has got back to me.  There is less pressure on us to get the job done as Claire won't be pillion on the bike until the summer at the earliest.   Having the seat re-sculptured to make it more comfortable is worth it.  Buying the used seat off eBay means that if and when I sell the bike in the future the original seat will be available as well.  I don't like the idea of hacking that one to bits. I should have done the same a few years ago when I had the Bandit 1200 seat remodelled. In the end it wasn't much better after it came back (not Elsemade!) and looked ugly as well. I have decided to have the seat made an overall 4 inches wider so that it won't clash with the pannier lids when they are opened.  A more sculpted shape with a gel insert to add a bit of comfort to Claire's butt. Less like a brick. There are quite a few options for materials and stitching.  But generally the "Highway" style looks what  I want for Pepé and Claire.  (...

So it would appear that my 2.3 litre petrol engined motorcycle is marginally more economical than my 2.0 litre diesel car.  I guess this can in-part be attributed to the car spending five days a week simply going to the station and even weekends just doing local journeys where the Rocket can get up to speed a little on more open roads. In both vehicles I have yet to get an average up to 50mpg. I got near in the car but a long traffic jam saw it fall short.  On Pepé I almost made it on the Czech trip on the slow country roads between the border and Brno. When you own a Rocket worrying about fuel consumption is not something that automatically springs to mind. It's a 2.3 litre three cylinder cruiser. But, Fuelly is a bit of fun and I like to see what the mpg comes out at.  No stress. Fun to see what it gets down to! In fact, when on vacation in Florida later in the year I might add the hire car and see what that does! https://invictamoto.blogspot.com/2019...

This Sunday is Meldrews' Sunday.  The current debate is where to meet this time. I expect by Sunday we'll be more concerned with the weather forecast.   That they have had snow in the north-east, some 350 miles north of us in the south-east, seems to have paralysed the newspapers and forecasters. "Beast from the East" they cry.  The winds are from the north though and incredibly that's where the Arctic is. So we might expect cold winds. So it looks as though we need to wrap up warmer, it is January after all, and then see what happens on Sunday.

With the probability that my work patterns will change from April 1st, I am hoping to get out more on the bike and put some miles on it. Depending on a list of jobs that Claire will have for me, and of course, the dog to walk! Not so long ago I was a regular 10000 to 120000 a year rider.  But the embarrassing thing is that since owning Pepé I have managed just over 7000 miles.  When it goes in for the MoT in a couple of weeks I'll see exactly how miserable this last year has been.  Yes. They record the mileage. I expect it to be less than the miserable 2000 mile average per year I have owned it.  

In a bit of a stall point at the moment as Else is not replying to my email nor my Messenger posts.  He gave me a price to do the reshape and I bought a secondhand rear seat to get it done. I emailed last week to see and he posted on FB that his daughter was ill and so he was not working until the new year. I might have to see if there is someone else to do the job instead. I wasn't in a hurry back in October when I kicked this off but as we head into the new year I want to get it booked in and done in time for the better weather when Claire will feel comfortable enough to get on the back. Let's see how it goes and I will start looking for other places to get the job done.

My brother, Neill, and I have been looking at this since the autumn.  By the time we thought of it, the hotels near to the circuit had gone up astronomically and were mostly booked up.  There are a few in the £150 to £350 a night category. So I had to expand the search outwards and to cut down the journey on the way there to the north of Le Mans.  Gradually the search area had to be increased up to 60kms radius. I have a booking with booking.com at a hotel just to the north of Alençon, breakfast included.  It's not far from the F1 hotel we stayed in back in 2012.  That seems to have disappeared from the booking's site.  The nearby Campanile where we ate is a lot more expensive and doesn't come with included breakfast.   I do like the Campanile idea though and Claire and I stay in them quite regularly when we are away even when we have Reggie with us.  But at over £40 a night more it might not be worth the change. How to get there? ...

It's that time of year again when Pepé has to go and have his annual check-up to see that he is road worthy.   One of the reasons why despite rubbish weather I hauled him out of the cold garage yesterday and into the winter sunshine. At least there's not as much salt and grit laid down by the road authorities at the moment. I hate to have to wash it off after a ride!! Pepé is booked into Laguna on the last Saturday of the month, so a few weeks to keep him roadworthy!    January 26th. Firmly in the diary.

I forgot to take a note of the start mileage. I know the 50/50 competition is over but maybe a tally of the year's mileage would be embarrassing. Today just used the dbPower unit to get Pepé to start and then a circular route up the A20 to Ashford. A quick stop at Laguna Triumph for a photo opportunity and then down to New Romney and back along the coast. Out about an hour all told. New Year's Day and not many cafés open. Didn't want to stop although the dbPower was in the pannier just in case. posted from Bloggeroid