We went to see Jeff in hospital in the morning. I am heartless and unsympathetic
and was keen to get back on the road straight away. I was overruled though
by more caring characters and we agreed to stay another day to make sure
Jeff was OK. This left us at something of a loose end, so some of us decided
to go for a ride round the local area.
We stopped at a restaurant for lunch and pointed at random items on
the menu. I was trying to avoid eating too much by this stage, too much
wholesome restaurant food 3 times a day was beginning to adversely affect
the bike's performance, and so was happy enough with some sliced sausages
and a bit of bread.
Over lunch we had agreed to swap bikes and so Mike got on the Tiger
(and needed some help to get it off the side stand, it is a tall bike,
taller even than standard), Jeremy on the TRX, I got on Jim's Sprint and
Jim rode my FJ. The Sprint was very impressive indeed, very good handling
and lots of power, more pull than the FJ, which is saying something. Jim
was less impressed with the FJ, perhaps bikes have moved on in the last
15 years? Suddenly it started _really_ pelting down with rain and we sough
shelter under a garage forecourt. Jim wanted the Sprint back, and Jeremy
was amazed that Mike had managed to come so far on such a bone shaker as
the TRX so wanted his Tiger back. Mike likes FJs, though had found Simon
Morleys to be very walllowy, so I offered him a go on mine (which isn't)
and so ended up on the TRX. It took me a while to feel comfortable on it
(at least partly due to the way it was pelting down with rain) much more
so than the Sprint ST and so much so that Mike got bored of following me
and overtook. It is an odd experience being overtaken by your own bike.
We looped back into Leizen, filled up with petrol, reclaimed our bikes
and set off for Kalwang, down the motorway. It was still raining very heavily
at this point, and whilst Jim and Mike went haring off into the distance
I settled down to about 70, nasty things happen in the rain on motorways,
and unlike mountain or country roads they don't get any more fun at speed,
especially in torrential rain. It certainly was torrential eventually too.
I got to feel really quite wet, though inspection back at Kalwang showed
that my waterproofs had done the job, but the cold nylon was feeling wet
(I didn't have the liner fitted).
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