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Expensive lesson in the school of hard rocks.......



Hi Everyone, just got back from a cool weekend away with thirty other
Triumph's. It was a run organized by my local shop, a seaside location
450km away where we stayed overnight in an old historic convent now
converted to a Pub and hotel, $50 a head for rooms ,rear parking for
bikes,tea and breakfast..It was great value !
there were two groups that left 3 hours apart,I joined the later group
which was a small group of 8, 2 sprints, 3 daytona's, a trophy 900 a speed
triple and a errr slow chopper thingy :) we left town at a sedate pace but
soon were up around 200kph once in the country, I was the only one with two
on the bike besides the chopper {which chose to sit on 130kmh and meet us
up there :)} I settled into 4th on the run for most of the way, I saw 245
kmh on the speedo for a short while but I was catching the speed triple
fast and backed off because of the stones that we have over here, which is
the main reason for this mail !! Get HEADLIGHT PROTECTORS !! at the first
stop we were having a bit of a joke about the price of the headlights on
the sprint, on the second stop I was'nt in the mood for jokes as a rock
thrown from another bikes tyre had smashed my left hand headlight {the
lights are all one piece so this means replacing the lot ! } not a great
start to the weekend. once we got up to the destination we met with all the
others at the hotel and another sprint owner showed me some home made
protectors that look really good. He went to a car accessory shop and
bought a set of stick on protectors for a car, he traced the outline of the
lights onto them and cut them out, they stick on with double sided stickers
that are velcro in the middle so they just pull off for cleaning. Its a lot
cheaper than a complete light set !! On the return journy all 30 bikes left
together and I sat in 8th position the last in the fastest guys,My missus
had given me a severe talking to in the pub the night before that I wasnt
to race to the front and lead again at any cost or my family jewels were on
the chopping block !! anyway we sat on 200kmh on the straights and 170-190
around most of the corners (long sweepers mainly) on the second stop Bingo
My other light had a rock through it... :~{ on inspection of the other
bikes a 1999 daytona had lost the right indicator lens, the right light and
the park light Ouch aswell, another 1994 Daytona had a smashed protector
over the left light, the trophy had a smashed screen behind the
instruments, and also a few of the plastic radiator protection strips were
smashes out and the fins were a bit second hand...I wish we had those
protectors....... the speed triple hade some nasty marks on the over
exposed oil cooler too but lucky for him they all hit the lower tank and
not the fins... So the moral is get some protection and try to keep youre
distance, although when I did my second light I was sitting back 10 bike
lengths or so but at 200kph you seem to catch the rocks on their second or
third bounce and they hurt like hell as they have almost stopped and you
knock them back up to speed with whatever part of you or the bike that hits
them. The roads here are terrible and small blumetal constantly pours from
the rear tyre,but even on the smoother good roads the occasional rock flys
up. OK Ive ranted enough exept to say the dealer was on the red sprint with
the carbon exhaust and I was on the Black one with the stainless
exhaust,him solo me two up and I stayed with him all the way to 245 :) and
mine used average 2 litres per tank more than his....he pulled the best
Mono's tho AWSOME ! :) 
catchya !!

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