MooN

I thought the kit under the triumph seat was a bit lightweight, but at least it has the neccessary bits to tension the chain. I still reckon that on most modern bikes, what with the ecu controlling the engine and most other stuff even the dash being digital and electronicly controlled, apart from changing a fuse, there's not much you can repair roadside anyway. so the quality of a toolkit is acedemic.

thanks @Sir Fallsalot I meant OPTICAL zoom, not mechanical, but I just couldn't think of the word for it. Brain dead having started back to work today after another 4 week furlough ( that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! )

if you're looking specifically at zoom capacities, most codern cameras ( especially compacts but some Bridge models as well) have a mechanical zoom and also a digital zoom, for good quality you want as much mechanical zoom as possible rather than digital zoom, which deteriorates detail quality. That's what I was told by a professional when I was looking at compact cameras. Other than that I am clueless

naaah, the French only worry about the rain if its getting in the pastis and watering it down...

MEDIC! MEDIC! I bet you saw your life flash before your eyes. I was expecting some ripe swearing in that vid though

well it wasn't me for once!

I can see that abs can render the braking power ineffective but would a locked wheel slide be more efferctive? in the dirt I mean.

can someone explain in terms an idiot (me) can understand about ABS and the desire / need to disconnect it when riding offroad? Now, I don't do "proper" hardcore off road riding but trails / dirtroads in the dry . Bike is tiger 800xc ABS. The ABS is deconnectable and I understand that this is most desirable for off road riding... what I don't understand is why? Whilst riding stony trails this afternoon, in a couple of steeper down hill sections, on loose stones, I distinctly remember thinking that I had to be really careful to not lock up the rear with the brake cos it'd become uncontrollable... a front wheel slide would be an automatic attack of "lying down with a motorcycle on top of me" . I then remembered that I had ABS so was able to relax a little. It may be that an experienced rider would be able to control a slide, a rear wheel slide at least but I'm curious as to what circumstances would make a rearwheel slide preferrable to controlled ABS braking?

I've no idea what the rules and regs are on the GR routes Bob, probably differs fron region to region, I just give walkers a wide berth and stop for horses. problem for horses is that if I switch off, the alarm runs its auto diagnostic and emits a crescendo series of beeps... no horses today though, just a couple of walkers.

I seem to remember that on XRV.org the first wave of subscriptions was to access certain parts of the forum, but I could stil post and read the general stuff, the 2nd wave meant only subscribers could post. I stopped going.

I decided to eschew the tarmac today and adjusted the suspension accordingly. having pretty much run out if ideas within the 10k radius I decided to ride some of the local trails, starting with the GR13 ( staying within 10 km of home) This is actually the first ever trail I rode on the transalp back in 2005 0r 2006 having been inspired by ride reports from, if I remember rightly, Grizz, Gnomad and one or two others on DSUK or maximum bikes. I picked up the GR13 at Champs sur Yonne and took a wrong turn almost immediately, but discovered the way into the village football field back tracked a couple of hundred yards and headed east along the correct trail I'm not very fit and am still learning the tiger off road, so I stopped regularly to think about what I was doing and to catch my breath, also to look at the map ( I use a paper IGN , (O.S. equivalent) for this sort of thing) and actually enjoy the "proper" navigation. as you can see, this is no technical "off road" riding a la Boboneleg or Sirfallsalot, but more or less wellmaintained, dry limestone trails through the vinyards. One of the things I love about riding these trails is that I came across no fences and no gates... at all. Looking out over the river, South East to Vincellottes and directly South through wooded sections above Irancy and back on the open trails across the plateau to drop down the other side back to the river and home. nearly 3 hours in all. Finished at the car wash to get the dust off,

same here. Annoying thing is that I desperately need to get to mother in laws house to shut the heating down, and get the papers for her car as we can't do anything with it without the paperwork and the longer we leave it the more it's going to cost. I'd go down by bike, so alone, be alone in the house and ride back alone coming witin 2meters of absofucking lutely no one but nope... 10 km limit. I'll be able to go as from monday... which is when I start back to work....

you've missed the point. a robust business model is not their aim. the only acceptable business model today is " more money, faster" so, once a forum has ( for example) 1000 active members, buy it for 20,000€ ( for aruments sake) impose an annual subscription of, say 25€, if you lose a third of members cos they're too tight fisted to pay for full access to the forum then you rake in 18750€, the first year ( so you lose 6250€ ) but gain what? 10,000€ in advertising? ( i have no idea what that is worth, but if they didn't make a substantial net gain, they wouldn't do it) the second year, the advertising is the same and subscriptions drop bay another third as the site deteriorates, that's still 14,000€, subs + advertising. there are obviously various other accounting manipulations that allow you to pay less tax or lower charges due to the aquisition of a new business or assets being less than a certain number of years old, or employing less than x number of people or whatever, all of which is pure benefit to the parent company. multiply all this by n number of sites aquired and by y number of years it's been happening and you have your big fat dividends for the people who had sufficient money to invest in the first place. they lie to the people they buy the sites from and cheat the people they take subs from ( as they have no interest in maintaining the site after the first 3 years as the investment / profit curve no longer meets their required figures.) but hey, that's acceptable and even normal, they increased profits. oh FFS, now you've got me going too...

Nail... head. 10km lockdown ends monday, curfew pushed back to 21H00. Obviously I go back to work monday...

you've misread him , Pete knows when something's not right, he just doesn't know how to do anything about it

I'll admit to not really understanding the terrorist mentality... I imagine because they represent authority, for the same reasons that push moronic fuckwits to throw bottles and stones at ambulance crew or firemen. The worrying thing is that the police stations have been sufficiently securised ( is that a word?) to make the agressors target homes and familys as easier targets.

i watched that with horror. Went down hill faster than people could jump off. Started with subscription demands too as I recall.

it'll tell you in your bike manual what the manufacturers recommendations are for chain maintenance. Triumph says to Lube evey 300km for mine but I don't do that. To be honest I just look at it periodically, if it looks a bit dry I'll lube it, or if I've been on a long run in bad weather. I can tell by the feel of the gearchange and general vibrations, as well as ( on this bike) throttle snatch, if it needs tensioning a bit and am learning to detect when it needs a lube. some bikes are more sensitive to it than others. Frequency will depend almost entirely on usage and conditions.

wow! was that not slipping?

I am no expert on this, but i reckon I need a new chain when it needs constant adjustement, ie after every ride, which would indicate it's stretching really fast. Or if you've reached the limit of adjustement on the tensioners. There's also something about if its at the correct tension and you can pull the chain off the rear sprocket far enough to see the teeth then it's fooked ( or something like that). I'm sure Bob or Cateeclan or somebody properly technical will be along to give you the correct info ( No, not you Pete!... you don't keep your bikes long enough to need to tension the chain, let alone replace it ) I rarely actually clean my chain, but when I do I use parrafin, like you'd put in a parrafin heater or lamp, and a paintbrush. Flicks it bloody everywhere though .

that's true.

Through to St Bris le Vineux Thanks to the wind turbines for the well maintained gravel trails! and so home . for a well earned mug of tea.

Having adjusted the chain ( which i'm shit at, find fastidious and hate doing) in order to eliminate a bit of throttle "snatch" that appears on the tiger if the chain isn't "just so", I decided it needed test riding. One of the phone nav apps I use is a compass that you can put a "target" on and it adds a second directional arrow to the compass showing straight line bearing and distance to target. As i'm still restricted to a 10km radius from home I switched that on and just stooged around with no fixed destination, just keeping an eye on the " distance to target" readout. Easy! left home around 15H30 and rode for around 2 hours. I've been here before but a loooong time ago so none of you will remember the pics I took at the time. During the occupation, auxerre prison, and later the psychiatric hospital opposite was used by the Nazis as an interrogation centre for resistants and political prisoners from the area ( communists mostly or anyone caught in possesion of a firearm). Once the prisoner had confessed to his, or her, crimes ( usually under torture) they were taken in small groups in the back of a lorry to a small isolated clearing down a dirt track in the nearby village of Egriselles. Here they were propped in front of 3 trees ( most couldn't stand) and shot. This is the place and the one tree still standing between the winter 1942 and summer 1944. 43 resistants were shot at this tree. There is no indication from the main road that this place even exists. riding out from there ( and in search of a lighter subject) I crossed back towards the North East and approached Auxerre from the hills to the east came up against this level crossing closed which was uncool cos the deviation would send me at least a couple of km outside my permitted zone. Nothing for it then ( cos I hate turning back) I'm going to have to see if this goes through anywhere interesting. judging by the tracks in the grass, at least 1 car had been through so I reckoned that where a car can go, i can go ( I seem to remember that this same thought got my in some trouble last time... remember the pic of the tralp on it's side up a gulley in the woods? i It did eventually come out back onto the road, but not before a dodgy right angle turn that nearly had me off due to trying to change down whilst standing on the pegs and ending up grabbing more throttle than intended... I cut through an industrial estate down to the river and rode alongbetween the river and the old GIPN barracks, which is now a small industrial estate, though they appear to have maintained the shooting range as Military property, I presume for the local Police National. i stopped for a pic of it ( you can just make out the sign " stand de Tir" on the building if you zoom in, and the " Military property" signs on the gate. I wasn't going to hang around for a better shot though as with recent events in Rambouillet ( Police personnel have been targeted by terrorist attacks in their family homes) they are more than a little jumpy about this sort of thing at the moment. I crossed the riverand rode through the town south, crossing the river again south of Auxerre at La Cour Barrée and cutting through to Vincelottes and up into the Vinyards I even managed to fit a mountain pass into the day all 206metres of altitude! and back through the vines to St Bris le vineux

which would explain why they've always been the haunts of skinflints and tightwads!