The Aprilias of Bruce & Jean

Amazingly, they bothg look in remarkably good shape, considering the
mileage they've done and where they've been, and they both sound
absolutely perfect.

A few little 'repairs' here and there. Cable ties feature
prominently[1] and the shock on Jean's (the one that snapped in
Patagonia and was repaired) seems utterly devoid of any damping
whatsoever, but if someone had told me that a brace of Italian bikes
would get 16,000 miles (I think) across the Americas without any major
problems, I'd not have believed it.

Absolutely love the custom-made ally panniers.

Bruse's left-hand mirror had stripped the thread in the clutch lever
housing. A repair was effected at the Chateau with QuikSteel, which
seemed to impress Bruce enormously. It is, indeed, wondrous stuff. The
rest of the weekend was spent drinking wine, swapping tales of Latin
America, faffing with bikes, and letting Bruce loose on the GPz750 and
(more prosaically) the GN250.

A good weekend.

[1] Down, Pip.
[2] A sort of two-pack paste that comes in a roll with one substance
as the inner filling and the other as the outer. You just slice off
however much you want, and munge it around like plasticene until the
two ponents are completely mixed, and then apply it. It sets as hard
as rock, and is the absolute biz for plugging holes in things.

 

I would, but I've known a few on the Tiger list who have done epic
trips on Pegasos. I'd choose one (or a Tiger) over a BMW for that sort
of thing any day of the week.

 

TOG@Toil spoke:

Their web site is totally FUBAR in Firefox4 and not much better in IE

http://www.k-seal.co.uk/Quiksteel.htm

--
Rob_P
UKRM(at)indqualtec.co.uk
uppercase(d) BBIWYMC#1 BOG#11? MRO#31 IBCDBBB#1(kotl)
FJ1200, CCM130 Benelli Cabriolet (gone)
Looks like Rab C Nesbit.

 

Agreed. It pops up in Lidl's occasionally as 'Flash Bonder', which gives
one a double-take.

 

<installs product alongside J-B Weld in my personal pantheon of indispensable
bodgery materials>

 

Nice one. good to see they're back in one piece. Jean and Bruce too.

Can't you buy that commonly in the UK? It's all over the place over
here in France. Cracking stuff it is.

 

Buy?? I thought they just magically appeared as half a pack of ten year
old stuff in the bottom of that toolbox I rarely get out. The one that
lives under the trolley jack.

 

Yep, been using it for years. It's as common as amalgamating tape, &
I'm still amazed at the people who didn't appear to know about that
either.

 

I plugged a fucking great crack in the front of my CB250RS crankcases
with that stuff.

--
Lozzo
Versys 650 Inter-Continental Hyperbolistic Missile , CBR600F-W racebike
in the making, TS250C, RD400F (somewhere)
BMW E46 318iSE (it's a car, not one of those 2-wheeled pieces of shite
they churn out)

 

Now there's an idea.
Thanks

 

You could probably make crank cases from it

 

So Jean didn't fancy a couple of laps on the SS?

 

Great stuff. I used it to repair a washing machine drum whose
hex-drive from the pulley had rounded off. It was still going strong
many months later when I sold the washing machine for £125,000; I
threw in a free house as well.

 

That is hardly a ringing endorsement, you know.

 

Not just the b9kes, us as well

Yer, but the motor is the Yam 660

21750 from Toronto to BA airport.

Done over 24000 now.

Aprilia have missed a trick by not being interested in the trip as they
have far surpassed all expectations of reliability.

I think Bonwick will support me in mentioning that Vern does a cracking
job.

I'll be getting some of that for future trips.

Lovely motor, strong with smooth power all through the range. It dips
into slow bends and needs fighting into faster bends. I wasn't happy with
the feel of it over 90mph though.

Nice bike though for the age.

I don't know how he manages to get speeding tickets on it

Totally porked out thanks

 

BMWs are shit, they all seem to break

 

Don't start ..... she was eyeing up TOG's all weekend !

 

Don't start ..... she was eyeing up TOG's all weekend !

 

Don't start ..... she was eyeing up TOG's all weekend !

 

Don't start ..... she was eyeing up TOG's all weekend !