Belfry

This has been on YouTube for a month, but just in case you missed it ... Isle of Man TT legend John McGuinness takes a Bennetts bike guy's 5th gen on track and rolls it over 100,000 miles--then gives his assessment. Neat.

I enjoyed riding and hanging out in Nelson and at a few SumSums, Didit. DR sounds exciting. I wish you the best!

59 for a week. Street riding since my early 20s. Minibikes (including the venerable CT70) and dirt bikes as a teen. Found a photo of my 1982 Seca 650 from the mid-80s. Always a stickler for proper gear: Arai helmet (good), long-sleeved T-Shirt, thin leather driving gloves, Converse runners (not so much 😆). Haven't been anywhere on the VFR for two years. I'm hoping the plague will die out this summer so I can tour again.

Got my tube of Oxgard at Home Depot.

I caught that too. I think under seat exhausts look great--particularly on bikes with a SSSA. Rice started a thread the other day about under tail exhausts: The video covers theories about weight distribution and cost, and issues like heat--though I've never found that to be an issue on the 6th gen. I just assumed the move away from under seat was a design trend on current street bikes (possibly for the reasons mentioned). That is one of the few things I dislike about the 8th gens: Single-sided swingarm and nice wheel, obscured by the huge muffler. Mr. Fish suggests replacement with a smaller aftermarket can, but it feels to me like there are some conflicting design/compliance values at Mother Honda.

From what I can see/read, there have been no significant changes since 2014. I'm just happy to see that the VFR 800 we've come to know and love, in sports-tourer form (as opposed to the Crossrunner, adventure-style design), is still being sold as a current model elsewhere in the world. It gives me hope that Honda will keep developing the platform and could choose to bring it back to North America at some point. (Nothing wrong with adventure bikes, so long as they don't squeeze out other styles.)

I tripped across this today while looking for something else: The Chronicles of Mr. Fish. I'm still not sure that I'd trade my 6th gen for a 2018 8th gen, but I wish Honda would offer them in North America so I could at least feel conflicted. Nice to know they're still selling them in Blighty. I think Oz had a 2017 model ... not sure about Europe.

I started combining bike tours and hiking about 15 years ago. That shot of the Wasatch range was taken after 2,500 feet of elevation gain--a lot of switchbacks were ... back switched by that point. I haven't found a way (or a camera) to adequately capture steep grades in photos. But to your point: 180 degrees from where that photo was taken was this: The summit of Mt. Timpanogos. We didn't go all the way to the top. We were already three hours in and though we started early, the temps were getting high and water was low. On the way down, we started to catch up to some other hikers. Speaking of small, insignificant things: They're the little dots of colour on the trail. A few years ago I was discussing summer holidays with a neighbour. She said: "So you must really like Neil Peart." I knew Peart was the drummer for Rush, but I thought it was a bit of a non sequitur until she explained that he had written some books about motorcycle touring, hiking--and playing stadium rock concerts. She lent me her copy of Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road. It was written after his wife and daughter died. He took to the road to work things out. He rides a BMW GS, but don't hold that against him. I read another of his books (Roadshow: Landscape with Drums, a Concert Tour by Motorcycle), where he rides between Rush gigs. I'm only a moderate Rush fan, but in those books he mostly avoids the rock lifestyle and writes about riding and hiking.

I may be the last person on the planet to discover these things, but while perusing the cleaning section of my favourite auto supply store recently I spotted one of these and picked it up on a whim: It's just a sponge covered in soft, fine black mesh. I previously had good luck using Turtle Wax Bug & Tar Remover to get bug guts off the paint, but this thing works like a magic eraser with just my usual Turtle Wax car wash. The mesh is very fine, so it doesn't seem to harm the finish. I think it was $4. P.S. Anyone know why yellow bug guts are the hardest to remove? Any entomolgists in the house?

I got home Sunday afternoon after spending a couple of days in Denver, then riding to Park City, UT, spending four days hiking there and taking three to ride the 1,000 miles from Utah home. No issues with the bike, total mileage for the tour was 3,525 miles/5,673 kms. First, thanks to Tony (Didit) for organizing another great SumSum. It's always nice to see familiar faces and meet some new folks too. The rides were great, and this was the most educational VFRD event I've attended. I learned a lot watching Lee and Kevin's stator-ectomies as well as Ernest's chain resection. My bike is due for some maintenance this winter. Since reliability is important to me, I'll be inspecting (and probably replacing) my stator. The chain also has some stiff, slightly kinky links, so chain and sprockets are on the list too. I also enjoyed the parking lot Corner Carver Clinic™ with Tammy as pilot. For some reason I always like turning right better than left. The cornering tips gave me a new way of thinking about cornering so that left turns were more enjoyable (an opportunity to practice) for the rest of the tour. It was great to finally meet the famous Carver clan, and see the enthusiasm with which mini-Carver tore into Kevin's stator transplant. It was unfortunate that Kevin and Lee had to sit out the ride days waiting for parts, but the superhuman effort by Fred and Lisa to rescue Kevin from Bozeman, MT and the parking lot repairs that allowed everyone to ride home were inspiring. I hope Honda is aware of sites (thanks Miguel) and rider communities like ours and that it encourages them to continue development of the V4 800 and bring it back into the North American market. I decided to try something new on this tour. I left my trusty Nikon digital camera and Samsung netbook behind and brought only my Samsung smartphone. I hate typing with my thumbs, so I picked up a small, folding bluetooth keyboard to use with the phone. I also bought a US SIM card to avoid outrageous roaming charges. It all seemed to work pretty well and was a much smaller, lighter setup. I arrived at The Chief Motel on Tuesday, unloaded the bike, showered and headed toward The Rocket looking for other VFRD inmates. I spotted Tony and a few others walking to the brew pub next door for dinner--and SumSum4 was on! The next morning I set off with Curry, Al and Gordon but our progress was quickly halted by a lot of unprocessed hamburger meat in the road. We made our way to the site of the stoned presidents. The old west town of Deadwood, where I noticed that while the ladies were scantily clad, they seemed a bit wooden. We carried on to see more stuff carved out of mountains (you'd think they could find an easier medium to work with), the Insane Equine: On the ride back to Custer, Cogswell wanted proof of where he takes his moto-touring holidays: The next day Cogswell and I decided to see the Needles: And revisit the presidents to compose them in a shot with something truly impressive 😜 Not VFR-related (but I used the bike to get there!), a few shots from the back end of my trip: Ski jumpers practicing at the Utah Olympic Park (Look closely, there's a little guy inverted over the water. This may be where the phone lets me down as a camera.) Park City historic downtown. And a few beauty shots from the hikes in and around Park City. Ski runs. Park City from the hills surrounding the Olympic Park. Bonnie Lake in the Uinta National Forest. Provo Falls. Wasatch mountains from 9,500 feet, about three hours into the Mt. Timpanogos hike. As a nice lady in a tiny (one pump) gas station in Oregon told me: "May you never ride faster than your guardian angel can fly!"

Ditto. And there is always the 34468Randy solution: The toolkit, spare tire, forgotten jacket, etc. in the form of a thin, wallet-sized plastic rectangle with your name and a bunch of numbers embossed on the front. 😉

Exactly the opposite for me. I can't get that interested in MotoGP despite the variety of courses, shoulder dragging and big name battles. I'm on the edge of my seat watching the TT though as they go 135+ mph on roads (new lap record this year, I've read), inches from buildings, fences, spectators and suck the squirrels out of people's hedges. This is on my bucket list too.

My tires are good for the ride down and the day rides, but might be a little sketchy by the time I get home depending on how far I go in Colorado, Utah and Idaho. I checked Rice's site, and their prices are comparable to FortNine and Rider's Domain with the 35 percent discount. Any idea what they charge for balancing and installation? Does the 35 percent discount apply to labour too? 🤔

I'm finally off the fence--just booked at the Chief and registered. It's usually not clear to me how the summer will unfold until it gets closer. But then again, I have managed to make the last two SumSums (didn't have a VFR for the first one), so it would be a shame to break the streak. I'll most likely be tacking a week of vacation on to the end of the meet (as I have the last couple of times ...), so as before I'll have to slab it most of the way there. Intercepting the group headed south from Canada and the Pacific Northwest might still be possible for the last day or two. Now to get the bike in shape and start envisioning the ride with some of Maxswell's "wild anticipation." And thanks again to Tony for scouting and organizing!