InvictaMoto's Red Pepé Blog

Today was fitting day. After a few days of unseasonably warm and dry weather, it turned a little damp and colder. Luckily it stayed dry and with Claire bringing the tyre in the car I took the motorway route. Amazingly, the amount of mud around the new junction wors  on the M20 and the road down to Kingsnorth covered a once clean under carriage.  Once fitted I had a ride back. Luckily Pepé didn't need the dbPower to start at Laguna as he did first thing in the morning.  With "miles to empty" showing 23 miles I decided to drip into Tesco just up the road.  The fuel station was packed with three or four cars queuing for each row of pumps. I rode through and off to the M20 home. With the gauge telling me in about three miles that the 23 had become 0 I decided to fill up. I went along the coast to Seabrook and filled up. Nought to empty meant I could only get a fraction over 17 litres into the 24 litre tank. The first fill up since October! And a ...

The tyre arrived yesterday lunchtime with courier DPD. When I got home I pulled the invoice from the plastic wrapping and found it was all in German. Further reading showed that it had come from Bydgoszcz in Poland. Now I thought that Avon bike tyres were made in Melksham in UK. Looking on Avon's website shows that they were bought out in 1997 by a US company called Cooper Tire and in 2018 production was moved for most of the Avon range to European factories.  Although motorcycle tyres were supposed to stay in UK. Given the lack of riding I have been managing of late, the journey from Avon to Bydgoszcz and back would be about 1700 miles.  More that I did in the MoT year 2018/19! Carbon mileage? Update 22/2/19 Emailed Avon. Yes. The Cobra and Cobra Chrome are made in UK. Update 25/2/19 Booked for ride in and ride out at Laguna Triumph in Ashford for 0900 March 9th.

At the MoT a few weeks back although a pass again,  Pepé was marked as needing a new front tyre at some stage. It's about a mm above the wear blocks in the tread. So I have ordered a new Cobra. There is a new Cobra Chrome (AV91) on the market but at 20% more expensive than the standard Cobra (AV71) to stay Chrome-free. It should arrive later this week so I need to get it booked in at Laguna to get it fitted. Update 19/02/2019   Tyre has been despatched.  Have to see how long it takes to arrive. Update 20/02/2019 Tyre arrived.