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.