A different bike and other stuff you probably don't want to know about

[Lee337]

Deauville

For the past couple of days I've been riding around the county of Lincolnshire on one of LEBBS (Lincs Emergency Blood Bike Service). Bikes. You may recall, I've so far had their FJR and R1200RT. I also had the Honda NC750 and NT700. Neither Honda I rate very highly and the NT700 is probably one of the most uncomfortable bikes I've ridden since the early '80's.

Well, this time I had the fleets 2012 Honda Deauville. An equally loathsome bike, slightly more comfortable than it's newer siblings but slightly more vibey. I was quite happy to get off so I could get some feeling back in my fingers.

With its 5-speed gearbox, I found I had to keep the revs up in traffic as cruising around in 5th at 60mph and trying to overtake a car doing 50mph by twisting the throttle did very little. So, drop it down to 4th and twist, and at least there was enough go to overtake. Same around town at 30mph, keep it in 3rd (as I do my Tiger) and twisting the throttle is about as much use as the UK's current Prime Minister. It's not fared too badly over it's 30,000+ miles either. The only obvious problem I've had over the past two days is one of the pannier catches broke. The catch was a little stiff on one side and just had to break whilst in my care. So, a 'bodge it now, fix it later' solution was found.

So, slow to ride and I get it, that suits some people, but with low down weight and surprisingly good in the twisties, all is not lost for our little Deauville. At one point I was approaching a set of 2 roundabouts & heard the fairly unmistakable roar of a Ducati behind me. A quick look in the mirror confirmed a power ranger on a Ducati fast approaching. I wasn't going to pull over, especially as I was about 20m from the first roundabout, so with little Deauville between my legs, I leaned into the first, a quick left, right into roundabout 2 and a look in the mirror as I left. I expected said power ranger to come blasting past me, but no! he was around twice the distance behind me as he was at the first roundabout.

Now, I'm no riding god – far from it as anyone who's blatted past me will testify – but the Deauville doesn't handle too bad.

No idea what the MPG is as I didn't look but after around 190 miles, I still had ¼ tank of fuel left of the approx. 19 litres I started with.

Moto II

Sick of my phone closing google maps when I needed it, I splashed out & bought a Moto II sat nav, the little round thing that attaches to your bars with elastic bands and works off an app on your phone. While I do have a Garmin Zumo for the Tigger, it's hard wired and I wanted something I could use on the blood bikes and Trophy should I need it. I've now used it on various bikes, either in record or navigation mode for around 700 miles and I think it's pretty good. Going off route doesn't really phase it, like any good sat nav, it just re calculates. For recording your ride, it's good too, keeping track not only of your route, but riding time, actual time, average speed, altitude climbed and dropped and max speed. It's these last two that you need to be wary of. The altitude records total distance climbed.
Yesterday I climbed 1126m. Now that's good, except Lincolnshire is pretty flat and the highest point is only around150m. The other thing was it recorded my maximum speed as 140.7mph – on a bike that tops out around 118mph.

But as a sat nav, it's pretty good. The jury's still out whether it was worth the cost though.

Jacket

I bought a new jacket, not any jacket though, a mesh jacket with appropriate armour. It was 28oC yesterday, so it came in very handy when combined with a proper motorcycle 'wicking' base layer. It's by a company called Venti, which appears to be owned by Oxford.
I was a bit sceptical about mesh jackets, after all, both my Alpinestar jackets are pretty well vented, but not only did I save £30 on my car tax, and another £40 on my bike insurance, I had a few quid burning a hole in my pocket. I stopped off at my local Triumph dealer the other day & noticed thwy had mesh jackets for around £70 which, oddly enough is what I'd saved this month. So Fridway after work, knowing it would be a hot weekend, I set off to buy said jacket.

They'd sold out.

Luckily, they'd just had some new stock in of another mesh jacket by the same manufacturer. The good thing was they were priced at £59.99, so I bought one of those. It comes with a waterproof, removable liner, so should you get caught out in a summer storm, you at least have some rain protection, that is if you remember to take the liner with you.

Do they work?

Well, yes, they do!

I was quite impressed at how cool they can keep you at anything above 30mph. Anything below that, certainly with the Deauville's screen and they're probably no better than my Alpinestars jacket, but riding across the lincolnshire fens towards Skegness in 28oC, it certainly seemed to do the trick. You could feel the cooling action as the airflow through the mesh acted on the wicking action of the base layer. At one point I even thought 'You know what? I'm feeling as bit chilled'

Today, in 26oc, and with a normal T-shirt, not so much, but I believe it was still better than my Alpinestars.

So, saved myself £70, spent £60 - Not a bad couple of days really, but I'll be glad to hand off the Deauvill eot someone else tomorrow.