Nov 4th - Thundersprint Cavalcade - Sunday 11 May

This also came the other day. Kevin is an old friend of the site. - John

Greetings from Germany,

Wheeltrax have recently added the new dates and prices to their website. And the good news is... WE ARE HOLDING OUR PRICES FOR 2008! In a world of ever increasing cost this is a refreshing change.

Not only are we not increasing pricing over 2007, we are also expanding our range of services.

New additions include:

1. A 4 night "Dambusters" tour - With visits to the Mohne, Sorpe and Eder dams as well as the site of the bridge at Remagen.

2. The "Eifel Adventure" tour - As part of the "Great Escape" or "Taste of Freedom" this day tour lets you try out some stunning roads in the morning and have a bash at indoor go-karting in the afternoon.

3. Wheeltrax "Masterclass" Rider Training - 2 training specific dates (4 nights) or the option of training while you tour. this is a course like no other! Check out the details on our "Rider Training" page.

4. Suspension set-up service - Make sense of the black art of suspension tuning. And at an unbelievable price!

5. On-board video - As well as being a fantastic tool in an aid to training, our on bike video is perfect for capturing your tour on DVD.

Even what you would call our "standard package" is a stunning and an almost unbelievable experience to those who have sampled it. If you have any doubts go to the Wheeltrax "Customer comments" and see for yourself before visiting our website.

Please be advised: Places tend to be booked up very quickly! Even though the new dates have only recently been released one tour (13th - 20th June) is already fully booked. If you have some dates in mind a deposit will secure your place/s (deposits are fully refundable up to 8 weeks prior to the tour start date).

We would welcome any enquiries that you may have regarding our tours and will be pleased to help you plan your motorcycle holiday in 2008.

Happy biking,

Kevin Smith Tour Director Wheeltrax Motorcycle Tours Birkenweg 12 57627 Marzhausen Germany

Tel: 0049 2688 988848 Mobile: 0049 1756 015 039 Web: www.wheeltrax.com 

Nov 4th - Thundersprint Cavalcade - Sunday 11 May

This came in the post the other day. Meant to try and go to this last year. One for the diary - John

So rolls by another month. It's hard to believe it's November when you look at the weather. I've had quite a pleasant time commuting up and down the A5 from Shrewsbury to Oswestry. True I've had the odd tingly finger on the colder days, but there's been few of those. However now the clocks have gone back things are slightly different. The A5 is a notoriously dangerous road and it's even more so in the dark and wet, so I can see the bike getting used less as we get towards the end of the year, out of self preservation.

I took a weeks leave at half term, just to give my wife some relief from a bored 10 year old son. Spent most of my time doing odd jobs round the house and taking wife and son out. I also found the time to clean the bike. I can't recall the last time it was cleaned, so it got the full works including a wax.  I was a bit annoyed to discover some wear on the paintwork. This was on the frame on the right, just where you right leg is. Can't say I'm the type of rider that grips the bike with his legs, and even if I was I'd have thought the tank would have suffered first. So, another job for the winter service.

Daryl, Ed and I have booked our tickets to the NEC show. I could do with a new lid and some boots, but the boots are the priority, as mine are falling apart. My Shoei is not too bad, a few chips here and there, if I see a bargain then I may spring for a new helmet too.

John

John,

Derek's item has been added to the FAQ section,

Greetings,

Our spring is notorius for going from a beautiful clear day to sheets of rain the next. However, the weather finally cleared last Friday so a group of us from work decided to take a ride…...

We took a ride down to Port Shepstone the long way around…...via Richmond, Ixopo and Umzimkulu. The Richmond road is a popular ride with regular “Breakfast runners” as it has some very nice curves and after Richmond the road dips down into a river valley. There is also a very nice section of road after Umzimkulu with some long wide stretches where you can really let the bike breathe…. I do not have the courage (yet) to exceed 160 km/hr but the SV does this quite easily at 7500 rpm in 6th gear.

We finally had lunch at a place called Leopard Rock in Oribi gorge. Really nice view. We returned back to Durban via the motorway. The ride was long though……450 km in total and we only got home at 16:15.

Interestingly I did not have as serious a “numb bum” as I thought I would. We have all agreed we will do this again but the other way around and go through the twistys on the way home. (Dave, like myself, was a curvy owner previously and you expect a numb bum after an hour or so. I don't suffer as much on the pointy either)

Regards,

Dave Loubser 

Hello John

I am Jose Luis,from Spain,sorry but i cannot write you i don´t have much time free.Regards,bye.

Some of you may recall that Jose fitted an R1 front end to his SV and also made some mods to the rear suspension (see October 2006 in the archives). As you can tell from the message above I didn't get a lot of info, but the pictures tell the story. Looks like normal front SV caliper fitted to the rear.

Hi John thought you might like a picture of my pointy up in the Pyrenees last month on holiday!

We did 2000 miles all together and the roads were awesome! The bike was a comfortable ride and apart from a dodgy tank of fuel, it ran like a dream!

loving the site keep up the good work,

Simon.

How about a full right up? Charlie and Ewan style.

Greetings,

I finally ordered a Tail tidy from Crescent Suzuki only to find out they source it from Evo Tech who are linked on the SV website…..… must remember to pay attention !

Anyway to avoid the postage costs (50% of the actual cost of the tail tidy which was 50 UK Pounds) I managed to get a visitor to bring it out to me.

It was relatively easy to fit, it fitted perfectly and the only real hassle I had was removing the old tail section which had two bolts high up and in a corner which made it a little difficult.

I mounted the fuse box and the fuel tank stand onto the cross brace of the new part quite easily. One minor draw back, I seem to have a slightly reduced carry space under the seat.

The back of the bike now seems to be far cleaner, although I suspect that the next time I ride in the rain it will leave me with a bit of a rooster tail. I finally got to the last job of sealing up up the small underseat gaps with some black silicone a week after the pictures were taken.

We of course are now into spring which for me means unpredictable weather with lots of rain. I need to invest in a really good all in one rain suit next. When the bike is out of warranty next year in April, I will replace my front brake lines with braided stainless hoses and new pads. On my K2 SV this made a major difference.

Regards,

Dave Loubser

Must get around to doing this mod myself, nearly everyone does this to get rid of that ugly lump of plastic that Suzuki fit.

Hi John,

Here is a picture of my 2003 SV650S on a European tour this July. The picture was taken in Norway inland on our way from Stavanger to Odda.

Well done on a great site by the way.

Regards

'sparkymarky'

Great, why not write up the story and I'll put it on the site

As you can see from the lack of text on this page, people rarely write to me directly anymore. I guess the functionality of the forum gives people all the freedom they need to do what they want. It's a shame but you can't have it both ways, a couple of years ago I was swamped with emails and I struggled to keep up.

So what's new here. I managed to get to the Border patrol rideout on the 8th September. Nice to meet people off the forum there and the weather was reasonable too. Darren's (Kwak ZZR) off put a damper on things but at least he walked away from it (apart from the broken collarbone). Shame about his SV1000 too, such a clean machine.

I thought I'd fixed my front brake problems, but sadly they returned [see summer 2007]. Once the new pads bedded in, the sponginess returned. So I went out and bought a brand new bottle of DOT4 and bled and bled and bled, the damn things. I now have a nice firm brake lever. I can only assume the brake fluid had absorbed some water, as I saw little air coming out.

Winter starts to draw in and the liners for the jacket and winter gloves have emerged from cobwebs in the garage.

John

1st September 2007 - The leaves are drooping

Another season swings by. It's been a busy old summer this year, though not necessarily from a biking point of view. The nightmares of the football tournament are slowly fading away and the more recent pleasures of the French trips and the weekend in Edinburgh linger.

I've had few excursions out on the bike this summer apart from the daily trip to work, and I would normally resent that, but the Normandy trip more than made up for it and I'm keen to repeat the trip next year.

Nice to see a local board for us West Midlanders, Border Patrol, set up on the forum. Had crossed my mind to do this myself, but I knew I couldn't give it the time it deserved. I'll try and get to the meetings when football allows.

Hope a few of you noticed the SV on this months main page. Decided to treat myself to a new SV. Still running it in at the moment, a full road test to follow.

Hopefully we'll have a dryer autumn and I can get out a bit before winter hits. I'm going to try and get to the Ponderosa for the 8th September for the Boarders rideout.

Finally, Thanks to Greg Wallis, aka Jonboy,  for all his help on the forum, and also to wish his successor Dave Gillard, aka Fizzwheel, the best of luck.

Enjoy the summer

John