Messages

Haven't been on the site for a few months. Last visit it seemed to have been invaded by Russian bots so I thought it was going under. Glad to see it seems to have been cleaned up and still here. I sold my Blackbird during the summer (bought new 2001, sold 2006 bought same bike back 2013 and sold it again 2025). I still have my 2007 1400GTR with 29,000 miles now on it. Moved house 2024 so haven't been able to use it much but hope to have more time next summer. Bike likely parked for winter unless weather unfathomably nice at some point. I'll keep it taxed insured and MOT'd just in case. Not many GTR owners left on the site I think.

.

50 bikes is impressive. Or, if it took you that many to realise you actually need a GTR, then maybe not? Hehe. Welcome to the forum

Welcome. I also have an 2007 registered model so one of the first made. I took the previous owner's bar risers off after a couple of months cos my other bike's a Blackbird and the risers made my GTR just too upright from what I'm used to. Mine has Top Sellerie dual gel seat, Kaiko throttle control bought from a member here and Remus pipe. I've also fitted slightly higher screen as I'm 6' and heated grips but otherwise it's fairly standard. Why mess with something that's great to begin with.
I passed my test in 1976- like most on here I'm an old fart so you'll feel at home.

Welcome aboard from one of the members who still owns a GTR1400. Sadly, like bikers everywhere nowadays, we're nearly all old farts on here. But friendly in our dementia aided way.

Enjoyed reading about your trip. I'm much more familiar with the first half (down to the Dordogne). I make the trip to France just about every year (inc covid). In 2022 I went 24 May for 6 weeks by car & caravan with wife and electric bikes. I returned 1-10 Sept on my GTR1400 with mate Andy on his Tenere 1200 with tiny tents for run to Black Forest.
If you're near Rocamadour I recommend visiting St Cirq lapopie. Tiny village clinging to the side of a mountain over the River Lot.
Living near Belfast I ride/drive 2 hours to Dublin then overnight Irish Ferries to Cherbourg. Have already booked ferry for late May 2023 (5 1/2 weeks with caravan). Thinking of going back to France early Sept 2023 on GTR ,and flying Mrs Mc from Belfast to Nice a week later. Then collecting her from Nice airport on the GTR1400 and taking your route North  then home via Cherbourg. I previously rode to Catalunya MotoGP, collected her from Barcelona airport the following day and took 6 days bringing her home on a Varadero 1000 I had and she loved it. Being a Northern Ireland native gives me dual citizenship so I've a British passport and an Irish passport. Using the Irish passport I can stay as long as I want and avoid the intimate body search.
A tip is to buy the Michelin map 721. Some of the town names on this have a green border. These are the towns that appear in green on the road signs for N and D roads. The motorway routes to the same towns are in blue on the signs  so easy to avoid. 200 miles (a tank of fuel) is only four or five 'green' towns to remember so you navigate from one 'green' town to the next and mostly forget about the zumo.  That's how I did it 25 years ago and still do. I really only use the zumo near the end of the day to find an exact campsite.
Second tip is pitchup.com. British website with links to campsites across Europe. Before setting off in the morning you can find and book a campsite at your chosen destination and pay in sterling. Surprisingly, I found it often cheaper to book the campsite on pitchup than directly with the campsite. Saves hearing the phrase after a long day 'Desole', monsieur. Le camping est complet".

Welcome. I too have the pre 2010 service manual. It was a free download but can't remember where from. Google pdf service manual for Concours 14 and GTR1400 and they're available.

We live in Northern Ireland, about 40 miles south of O. C. We've two passports, Irish and British and use the Irish one in France (They're taking Brexit quite badly) Lucky enough to have taken early retirement so no great hassle isolating if we have to. Think it'll have all calmed down by the time we get home but will see. Daughter came home from Dubai last month via Dublin. She wasn't asked to do anything either in Dublin or back home. Ferry booked to Dublin so no point traveling Dordogne to Germany. Not too stressed to be honest.

I've  been in France since 4 Aug (car and caravan, not bike) and we have been able to keep ourselves pretty much to ourselves most of the time. Wearing mask in shops and crowded markets and using the caravan shower helps. Not due home until mid Sept so the France - UK quarantine might be lifted. Travelling via ferry to Dublin (no current need to quarantine France - Ireland) then drive home  to N Ireland (again no restrictions at border). Unsure where I stand if I was arriving home this week.  If I have to quarantine in Sept  I will.
So I think you're correct to head off. Situation in Western Europe no worse than UK IMHO as long as you're sensible. I've bike toured a few times alone - my French improved and I met  some great people. Enjoy

As someone with 3 discs gone in my neck and 4 in my back (unfixable according to the surgeons)  I understand how you feel. My outlook is pain management (morphine patches of increasing strength for many years now). Sad to hear you're off bikes and hope you can return to two wheels in the future.

Feck off back to England, sh!thead. Hehe

Great footage. Both onboard and with the drone. What drone are you using, please?

Update re Shark Evo one 2.

A small but important piece broke on the visor of the helmet. It's just a small triangle that holds the visor onto the side piece. I came home from a ride and found the visor loose. I've never removed the visor but just clean it on the helmet so it wasn't a case of carelessness either.
I contacted Ghostbikes who sold me the helmet and, at their request, emailed them photos of the broken part of the visor and the whole visor to show it was otherwise as new and hadn't met tarmac at any stage. They promised to take this up with Shark to claim a new visor.

Within a week a new visor arrived in the post directly from Shark.

I've no connection to either company other than being a satisfied customer but just want to give credit where it's due.

The bike I bought had already been fitted with a Top Sellerie seat. This is a French seat, the one on mine has gel inserts front and rear (I looked up their site with the label to see whether it had no gel, just gel in the front, or both). I've also ridden two GTR1400's with the stock seat.  I think mine looks great but over a long run I'm not convinced it's hugely better than the standard seat.

This is only my personal opinion but if you're gonna alter the seat from standard then do it properly. I've seen a few modified seats and they look like exactly that - modified seats. You'll spend a fair bit of cash getting your seat altered and it'll very likely look like a seat that's been messed with (somebody's sure to come on and say they have had one modified and it's the bees knees).

IMHO, either buy a custom seat for it (Top Sellerie, Corbyn etc) or leave it alone until you've had the bike on a really long run and can tell if you absolutely must change it.

Also, if you buy a custom seat, you can sell it and put the original back on when you sell the bike. That brings the price down a bit. If you modify the standard seat, anyone viewing your bike thinking of buying it is going to hate what you've done to the seat.

It comes with a 5 piece accessory kit including a flexible hose with connector on the end (see photos) that allows me to fit it onto just about any tyre valve.
I'll admit it doesn't really have the oomph for paint spraying - you have to stop and wait for it to re-pressurise too often to be practical but it's OK for putting stain on a fence or similar. The attachment for just blowing air is great for cleaning dust off stuff eg. blowing grass and debris off the lawnmower. I got it from Screwfix. Still on their site. For not a huge amount of money, it's much more convenient than a foot pump /cigar lighter pump etc and I use it a couple of times a week so for me it's a  justified spend.