New Bike - A tale of two trailies......

[Bigjawa]

When I moved out to the sticks, I didn't realise just how shit the roads would be locally. Given that our entire village is built on a bog, it's no surprise that the local roads are in pretty shit shape. So I fancied a trailie. The RE Himalayan was floating my boat and ticked all the right boxes. Cheap, pretty light, simple to work on and reliable. Supposedly. So after a browse of the local dealers I found a 2020 Himalayan with the big service done including the valves. Had a look and it was very clean, so I bought it.




So the first thing I did was add a set of GIVI crashbars and drench the entire bike in ACF 50, knowing that it would have to be ridden in all weathers. At first, everything went swimmingly, it was economical (80mpg!) Would cruise happily at 60, handled well, was fun to throw about and soaked up everything the local shite roads would throw at it. It was fun to ride too, the engine isn't as gutless as it's 24bhp would suggest, just thumped along nicely. Anyway, it wasn't perfect, the front brake is famously pants and the rear was a bit too sharp, despite the ACF50 the metal parts began to suffer, the gear indicator played up and eventually stopped working and the speedo misted up.

Then one day it started and immediately stopped again, put the engine light on and when it ran, it ran perfectly until it would stop without warning. So I booked it into the dealer on the 3rd of march to get it sorted. They wouldn't be able to take it for 3 weeks, the K12 had no MOT so it was back to the trusty £500 YZF-R125 for 3 weeks. Typically It ran perfectly on the way to the dealers. Anyway they diagnosed the problem as being the fuel injector, so suitably replaced, the gave me a bill for £127.

Now I had booked the bike in on March 3rd. Turned out the warranty expired on March 2nd. Would they budge? Would they feck. One day out of warranty and they tell you to take a hike. On the way home I noticed the back brake was binding. I got it home, pulled it off the bike (not an easy job either) and cleaned and greased it all up. Worked perfect for about a day. Turns out that RE use anodised alloy pistons and pins, which when expsed to an Irish winter, corrode into a mess. I was a bit fed up by this stage so a bit of googling turned up the fact that the bike should have been recalled for new calipers. I was at a loss why the dealers hadn't flagged this up on their system so I tried phoning them repeatedly, no answer, I also emailed Royal Enfield and the dealer and got zero response.

By now I'm pissed off and fed up with the sight of it. So I advertise it and an old boy comes along and gives me a big wad of twenties. So It was bye bye Himalayan.

So, what to replace it with? I wanted a trailie as the Himalayan was great on the bumps. Unfortunately there was no big trailes at decent money locally, a few Transalps with lunar mileage, a Dominator that had obviously been crashed and badly rebuilt and an XT600X that the guy wanted silly money for. Then I found a mate was flogging a R1150GS. He had bought it with an oil leak and like all bikes with a simple problem, had ended up rebuilding the damn thing. The previous owner had basically thrown a touratech catalogue at it had a Remus pipe with Y-Rohr, MRA Screen, Touratech bark busters, a big alloy plate on the front of the engine, a K&N and some sort of performance chip.

Mine for a decent price. So here it is.



I'll be honest, I'd never ridden a big GS before apart from a brief spin on a 1200, first impressions are of it's immense size compared to a Himi. and after 17 years since I last owned a Boxer, the torque reaction was a bit of a throwback. The gearbox is much better than the old aircooled twins and the funny front end didn't seem anything too out of the ordinary. It's great fun to be honest and I can see why people rave about them. I don't like the silly overdrive 6th gear though. The chip apparently makes a big difference but I have nothing to compare it with, they guy I bought it off is an ex BMW tech and he reckons it's very quick for an 1150.

Futeure plans involve doing a Couchy and fitting 17's as I cant see me ever taking it off road because of the sheer mass of the thing. It's more than quick enough. there's a bit of clutch slip at high revs in 6th but the plate literally has 140 miles on it so hopefuilly it'll bed into the pressure plate and flywheel. In a previous life I was a clutch specialist so If I do end up putting a new pressure plate and flywheel into it, I'll reline it with kevlar performance liners. But for now, I'll just plod about and enjoy the scenery!

[Count Steer]

It's the right colour too.

[KungFooBob]

I found a really cheap 1100 on ebay a few days ago, it only had 104,000 miles on the clock!!!!

[Skub]

Health to wear man,looks like a clean example.

Was the Enfield dealer a certain Ballymena bunch?

[Bigjawa]

Was the Enfield dealer a certain Ballymena bunch?

Indeed!

[Count Steer]

It looks in v good nick. What sort of mileage is it? I had a 2003 - same colour but none of the add-ons, just a set of Al Jesse ally panniers/box. The bash plate should stop crud/wear and tear on the engine. The other vulnerable bit is the bottom of the forks, you could get protectors for them but I didn't and the finish went a bit manky (I'm not big on washing/polishing and it was an all-year round ride).

If I could only have/have had only one bike - that's the one.

[Bigjawa]

So, the first 600 or so miles have passed and it has been a pleasure, it's not fast by any means but I think that not a whole lot would keep up with it along the local back roads, grunting out of corners in 3rd seems to be it's strong suit, with that lovely bellow out the back, but I've had to do a few runs down to the big smoke so the normally useless overdrive 6th gear allows it to sit at 80 odd doing 4000 revs. I don't have any experience of a non chipped one but it doesn't surge and still puts in about 44mpg.




Oh aye, my missus calls it Kevin because it looks like the tall minion.

But being me, I have ordered a set of 17inch cast wheels from Motorworks, the Conti Trail attacks are grippy enough, but I like the sort of giant supermoto look. No doubt I'll put a set of those Michelin Road tyres on it as they work well on the K12 with twice the power, plus it always pisses in these parts. Bloke in Motorworks reckons it'll improve the handling too, not that I found much wrong with it.

[KungFooBob]

I had the original Trail Attacks on a Varadero and they seemed to warm up super fast, you could give it beans pretty much half a mile from home. My mates just been instructing at the 'ring on his 1250GS on Trail Attacks 3's and has been getting his knee down.

I like the idea of the 17's, but when Couchy did it the mudguard gap looked a bit silly.

[Bigjawa]

I had the original Trail Attacks on a Varadero and they seemed to warm up super fast, you could give it beans pretty much half a mile from home. My mates just been instructing at the 'ring on his 1250GS on Trail Attacks 3's and has been getting his knee down.

I like the idea of the 17's, but when Couchy did it the mudguard gap looked a bit silly.

There's nothing wrong with the TA's at all, I had one wee spin up on a wet roundabout, but given the amount of trucks and tractors that use it, it was probably a bit of diesel.

I see what you mean about the guard. I know a German crowd did a guard specifically for this conversion but it's not on the website now. My mate speaks fluent Kraut so I'll get her to ring them in case they have any old stock.

[Bigjawa]

So I did a Couchy....

[Skub]

So I did a Couchy....

Kept it for a week?

[Bigjawa]

So the other day I would have had the Himalayan a year, which I actually felt a bit sad about as it was a nice wee bike.



But the GS has been boringly reliable and on the 17's has proved to be tremendous fun, it probably could do with fresher shocks both end, but it handles better than I will ever need, but I decided to fit some trailie tyres to the original spoked wheels, TKC80's were hard to get and expensive so I plumped for Anakee Wilds.



SO I get them on and go for a quick spin round town.

OMG, what have I done?

I've ridden trail tyres before, but these initially seemed like they were going to let go at any time, done about 20 miles so far to try to scrub them in, I know a gravel road so hopefully it'll take the wee rubber bits off and remove any remaining releasing agent.

They do look the dogs bollocks though.*



*Dogs in pics have no bollocks. They're bitches.

[Bigjawa]

So I took it off road. Like trying to wrestle a hippo in the muddy bits, might as well have had a slick on the back, was ok on the less muddy stuff, found the best technique was to just welly it.



Wouldn't be in a rush to take it anywhere muddy again.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I used to use my Super Moto off road on Pirelli Dragons, they were just as useless as any of the "trail" tyres, if you want good tyres off road you have to go for proper knobblies, though when you get stuck with knobblies, you're properly stuck, I used to carry a small shovel to dig the bike out with.

[Bigjawa]

I used to use my Super Moto off road on Pirelli Dragons, they were just as useless as any of the "trail" tyres, if you want good tyres off road you have to go for proper knobblies, though when you get stuck with knobblies, you're properly stuck, I used to carry a small shovel to dig the bike out with.

They're supposedly 50/50 and have an M&S rating. I think the weight doesn't help. It's the same trail I used to lose 5-0 when they were chasing my DT125R, it flew up where the GS just sank.