My new motorbike.

[stuart]

Have sold the Yam and bought a new Aprilia Tuono Factory, V4 175 bhp rocket ship!

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[om15]

Stu, where you been, that looks very nice and fast, have you still got the Ducati?
I have joined the Dorchester and West Dorset Advanced Riders, I am the only one not on a 1200 adventure touring bike, ( my feet wouldn't reach the pedals.)
You may accrue a few points on your licence with that.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Serious swingarm on that, Stu.
Looks like it might be a slightly longer version than the track model for more stability?
Engine looks very low and compact - you probably just have to think yourself into a corner rather than steer it.
Veeery nice indeed!

[stuart]

Have sold the Ducati om lovely bike but never used it after buying the Yam, good idea to join the advanced riders will lower the insurance costs.
Yes the swinger is cool Fox3 basically the bike is an RSV4 with handlebars a smaller fairing and different ecu, lots of toys on it like a pit lane speed limiter quick shift/blipper Akrapovic slip on with race mapping etc oh and 3 stage launch control but I haven't got the balls to use it (yet) lol. Nearly forgot have fitted a roadlok security device see below.

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[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Get yourself an 'Aircraft Armed' sign too

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

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[stuart]

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Now that IS cool Fox3!

[603DX]

A very tasty looking machine, stuart. The name "Aprilia", the fact that it's Italian, and has a V4 engine, caught my eye. A friend of mine was very proud of his 1938 Lancia Aprilia car, which also had a V4 engine, so I did a quick check to see if there is any connection between the two Italian manufacturers.

Apparently not, your new bike is a product of the Piaggio group, having no connection with Lancia cars as far as I can find. And comparison of the specs and performance of the engines shows they are light years apart! His car engine was about 1.3 litres, with a power of around 48 bhp, compared with your 1.1 litres and 174 bhp! So it seems just a coincidence of names and very general engine descriptions.

Anyway, ride safe!

[stuart]

Thanks for that 603dx how things have changed!............anyone else got stories of their motorcycling past? or present? would love to hear them rgds Stu.

[Yamagata ken]

That's a lot of motorcycle. Far more than I could use. It's making about 110bhp more than my Suzuki SV650, and the Suzuki's performance envelope far exceeds my courage and ability. Jeepers!

[4mastacker]

Is that one of them bikes what goes from nought to the Magistrates Court in under two seconds?

[reddo]

I still have Junior

[stuart]

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Got this for my birthday it's an Abba Sky Lift ideal for cleaning maintenance etc, a bit expensive but a lovely piece of kit and made in England.

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[om15]

I have just ridden 4000 miles on my Triumph in the past 3 months, mainly practising for the IAM test, this has left me partially paralysed, neck and arms have taken some stick, so reluctantly I flogged the Street Twin and bought this Yamaha Tracer this morning, I was looking for something with a better riding position and with a small fairing and screen, I rode the bike back in pretty bad conditions, very gusty and driving rain, and it is really comfortable and easy to ride.
I scraped a pass on first attempt, so now can relax and get back to enjoying biking, going for a longish ride next week with my IAM observer for a coffee down the west country, so see if I can stand after a couple of hundred miles, will advise.

Tracer collected with 1 mile on the clock, extras are comfort seat, soft panniers and engine crash bars and bung, dripping with mud when I reached home, cleaned polished and treated to a can of WD40 before being tucked up in the garage until the sun comes out.

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[stuart]

Well done om the Tracer is a lovely bike I had one as a loan bike when my MT10 was in for a service and was very impressed, very comfortable and lots of oomph practical too with the panniers and screen, I had heated grips on my Yam but Aprillia don't do them as oem so I've bought some Gerbing heated gloves very toasty.

[om15]

Before I made the decision I read all there was to read on this bike, all reviews were good, I was sad to sell the Street Twin, I have had 5 consecutive Hinkley Triumphs in nineteen years, admire them for the brand, reliability and build quality, but this is much lighter than say the 800cc Explorer which is rather a solid heavy bike, I wanted a light weight tourer with enough oomph to get me around, I will let you know how I feel about it when I have a few miles under my belt.

[603DX]

I trust that I may be forgiven for posting details of my personal dream machine, amongst all of these "superbikes", many of which marques I have never heard of.

I'm not now, and never have been, a practising motorcyclist. In my teenage years I was fascinated by the allure of bikes produced by H.R. Davies and Phil Vincent; the Comet, Rapide, and above all the Black Shadow. The latent engineer in me was impressed by their mechanical ingenuity, their superb appearance, and their reported performance. But the powerful alternative attractions of girls and cars somehow extinguished the urge to straddle the noisy beasts myself, which is probably part of the reason why I'm still here today!

Common sense has led me to sublimate the two-wheeled "boy racer" temptations over the years, and I'm perfectly satisfied most of the time with the comfortable safety of my four-wheeled Bavarian automobile, which if I really wanted to could easily exceed the dizzy speeds of the Black Shadow. But on the very, very rare occasions when I see one on the road or on its stand nowadays, I still experience twinges of that heady excitement of my youth, when I used to almost drool over them ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Black_Shadow

[G-CPTN]

A teacher at my school had a Black Shadow with the 'dustbin' fairing.
As a teenager I could only dream.

[Capetonian]

A court in the Netherlands has banned the Hells Angels biker club because of its culture of violence.

Ironic, because when I was about 20 and wandering round the Walletjies (RLD) of Amsterdam I was the victim of an attempted mugging by a couple of non-reflectives (they were even a problem all those years ago). I was 'rescued' by two very large and scary looking gentlemen, on foot, in Hells Angels regalia.
They told me that part of their purpose was to keep visitors safe. Having had no further contact since then with Hells Angels, I've always assumed that they were peaceful people who want to look scary!
Given the Dutch tolerance for most things, I am surprised.

[llondel]

When she was about 18, my sister and her passenger got knocked off their bike by a passing car that didn't stop. Next thing they knew, a bunch of greasy leather-clad bikers (her description) had stopped and were making sure they were both OK and checked over her bike to see that it was also OK. She said that at the time she was more scared of them than what had just happened. The two-wheeled fraternity look after their own, in general.