288 was the sort of mileage I would do in one day a few years back.

When the weathers good I find it hard to do less than 90 miles on one outing, but I am 62+ and ageing faster it seems. I think we all need to get some in before this ‘oily’ stuff becomes too expensive to play with! “Said the bishop to the.......”.

I still see some beautiful roads and scenery on my delivery rounds which I have yet to explore on my Buell.

Had my first serious ride out today to make the most of the weather.....and a friend had recently bought a new bike; one of those funky new RE Himalayan ‘Scram 411’s He traded his 500 Scrambler which was developing a number of older RE issues.

As the RE was still running in we stuck to the twisty back roads and 50-55, but it was ok. We did the Skenfrith road to Abergavenny and the Bus Stop for lunch. One thing you notice after Covid is the number of little village stores that have closed. The once buzzing ‘Steel Horse’ biker pub and cafe on the Abergavenny to Usk road is also no-more, and has been converted to a residential property. They used to do a really good full English.
Oh well! The Bus Stop is still thriving with its breakfast rolls and coffee.

We rode west again on the A40 then over they nice twisty mountain road towards Hay on Wye. Rolling into Hay we passed people crowding along the footways out of town. Lots of intellectual looking or wanna be book loving types? The Hay Festival was on!

On the Peterstow Road opposite the main car park we swapped bikes. I was surprised how big and roomy the RE felt after the compact XB. This thing feels like an armchair, even if the seat is on the narrow side. The leg room gave my XB cramped legs a welcome relief spell. The seating position is ideal for cruising country lanes and taking in the scenery.
The Scram rolls away easily with very light and neutral steering. The motor naturally feels very soft, but is smoother than the old 500 and even less 88 ccs and a couple of horses it feels just as flexible and as capable.
The rear wheel seems to wander a little, which upsets the balanced feel slightly, but nothing too serious. I would have tried to up the rear preload a bit. The rear shock sits low at the front of the swingarm and works via a couple of linkages. I would also fit some pure tarmac rubber such Roadtec 01 tyres to see if that
Improved the tracking.

I probably wouldn’t buy the Scram 411 in preference to other bikes out there, but I sort of wished my friend had bought 2 of them for when I went along. I kept wanting to let rip with bigger and more eager Buell. On the plus side I got 68.5 mpg of V-Power today. That was £17.57 to cover 161 miles. Not bad for a day out on sunny roads.

After my Yuasa battery died late last year I paid a visit to my favourite battery emporium last Wednesday.
They had the right heavy duty replacement in stock so I asked the man to prime the battery and to let it stand for a few hours to let all the bubbles evaporate. I agreed to collect the item later just before closing. At 5:15 pm I called to collect and they suggested leaving it upright on the optimiser for a few days more.

On Saturday with 13.1v and 0.00 resistance showing I dropped the new battery into the XB’s tray. My poor Buell had not started for several months and the injectors spluttered needing 2 or 3 prods of the button before the motor fired up fully. Not surprising really given the lack of use, but once it fired the old mill still impresses in the way it pounds away after a lengthy stand as if I’d ridden it only last week! There’s plenty of life in the old dog yet!

Edd , hopefully you did let it run long enough without fouling the spark plugs!?

And the battery you bought is that a agm style battery?

_________________
The sound of a V-twin engine braking is music to my ears!!

I explained that it lies reclined. YTS AH14-BS Heavy Duty and the brochure said AGM. I didn’t think they did two types of sealed battery, but I will check again in case I confused them with bubble speak and they gave me a tuber item by mistake.

I do not normally run the motor unless I ride it, but I was concerned about whether the last attempt was battery or a bike system glitch as the starter just clicked. The battery failed a load test so
I replaced it. Then I ran it until all the vapour stopped coming out of the muffler! 8 months is a long time to stand.

Sorry YTX14H-BS High Performance 240Ah!

MOT time again and pitiful mileage done over the year. I’m too embarrassed to say the numbers!

Anyway, the test was booked for last week, but my fave tester had to cancel. This did give me the opportunity for a trial run. Yes it fired first time after *** months standing, like it had run yesterday!

I had a minor shock at one set of lights while pulling away from the other cars on a still warming up motor. A big silver/grey SUV went passed me like I’d hit the brakes. It was one of them BMW M60 bolides (1100 NM of torque! ). Like 0-50 in what seemed only 2 seconds. Dangerous in the wrong hands, but hey! His range just dropped by 50 miles!

I followed him for a couple of miles until he hit the motorway. All good I put the Buell away for the week.
This week it sailed through the test. My tester at ‘Gas Junky’ in Cheltenham told me that he now had a diagnostic cable for XB’s and was there to help if needed, which is handy as my palm has died. He’s a very knowledgeable chap with a lot of experience especially with Triumph, but I think that’s Hinckley models because the parts are more available.

Despite the overcast weather I got the feeling that spring is in the air given I had a blast down the A40 after the test with no scarf or extra layers!