Summer Riding

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Summer Riding

Summer Riding

We came back from a weekend break in Barcelona to watch the opening two stages of this year’s Tour de France cycling race  to be greeted by similarly hot weather as we’d experienced there, as well as a message in the Motorrad Riders’ WhatsApp group saying that Shaun Napier was organising a ride out from Bahnstormer at Alton on Thursday evening and who would like to come along?

So Alison and I quickly said yes, and we then had to decide on what to wear…

Now our Klim Latitude and Altitude gear is excellent stuff: waterproof and also has many vents you can open to get some airflow through, plus as you can see in the photo, you can also partially unzip them and then hook the sides back to prevent them flapping in the breeze. The only problem then being that the RT’s fairing is so efficient, it doesn’t let much air hit the rider and passenger, even with the screen in the lower position, as we found out on our Eurothrash 2024 when it was up in the high 30s/low 40s.

We also decided to wear our Hedon “Hedonist” helmets, usually reserved for the Distinguished Gentlemen’s Rides on the ZRX1200R.  That did make it a bit breezy with the screen down on the A3 on the way back.

The ride was fabulous: heading out from Farringdon down to John’s Cafe at Hayling Island for Hayling Bike Night. A really lovely ride with the smells of summer fields of wheat and barley, etc. and being able to watch the sun start to get lower in the sky over the coastline as we decided to leave.

But the ride made me decide that we really did need to buy some jackets with more airflow for really hot weather.

We’d thought about some “Air” type mesh jackets after the Eurothrash as well as a few rides in the Canary Islands in a ‘regular’ leather jacket and were tempted by Alpinestars and Klim’s offerings, except that the Klim ones are much more expensive and we do, of course, already have Klim gear. So I’ve plumped for the Alpinestars ST-2 Air and Stella ST-2 Air jackets for the two of us:

Not us...

Not us…

Sadly, they only come with shoulder and elbow body armour, so I’ve also ordered some product-compatible back protectors for the two of us.

They should all arrive this week, just in time for another rideout on Friday evening.

MoT Time Again

So then. The MoT test.

Blue Rex was last MoT’d in July 2024 but as it wasn’t getting much use last autumn or winter, I decided to delay getting it done until now, mainly due to having it ready for the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride – Guildford & Surrey Hills (again this year, it should be the most popular ride in the world, even ahead of the London one that we used to ride in).

I took it to my usual place where they’re very thorough, so although it passed again, it had an advisory as the braided steel covering on the rear brake hose has worn where I have struggled to get it onto the too-short R&G paddock stand.

Anyway, it passed, with a recorded mileage of 20,024 which is up a massive 106 miles since last time. That’s an average of 5 miles a month…

Bike Shed Moto Co London Christmas Lights Ride 2025

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What better to do on a cold December’s evening than go for a ride around London to look at all the Christmas lights and end up back at the Bike Shed for a fabulous dinner (I had the sausage and mash and she had the steak)?

So we took off the panniers to allow for some city filtering, fired up the RT, and switched on our heated vests (and gloves and seats and grips, etc.) and Alison did the honours with the GoPro on the back.

Anyway, here are some highlights from the footage:

Oh and the BMW Connected was shockingly poor and failed to connect for more than a few seconds at a time (if at all).

The new 2026 BMW R1300RT

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BMW have finally announced the new 2026 R1300RT, following on from their usual release process of R1300GS, then R1300GSA, then R1300RT.

They announced it this afternoon and released a video on YouTube:

At first glance it’s very angular, and I’m in two minds as to whether I like it.  It also comes with Automated Shift Assistant, i.e. automatic control of the clutch and gears, with a ‘manual’ or ‘dynamic’ mode, which will no doubt be an option as it is on the R1300GS/GSA.

I’m also certain that Alison will love the option of the heated backrest and grips…

I’ve just spent a few minutes on the configurator to spec one up to similar spec to my R1250RT and it comes in at £24,461.

First Service

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No, nothing to do with tennis.

The RT had its initial service in late March 2024, so was due another service – its first “full” service – a year later, so I booked it in for 1 April 2025.

In the meantime, it’s been back to Bahnstormer for the SOS button issue to finally be fixed and they also took a look at the oil mist from the damaged rocker cover on the offside.

It was going to be a quickie this time, so I turned up and hung around whilst the service was carried out and I may have accidentally scoffed a bacon and sausage bap whilst I was there!

The rocker cover is still weeping, apparently, despite having had new rocker cover bolts and a gasket fitted, so I’ve bought a litre of oil to keep on the RT just in case and they’ve quoted me for a replacement rocker cover.

Mileage is now up to 4,768 miles.

The next planned ride is with Bahnstormer themselves down to Cornwall, so I’ll be trying out a new dji microphone setup after the last disastrous video shoot, where I went into detail about the powered phone bracket, navigation, and a mini-test of the R1300GS, all of which had no (or hardly any) sound and narration captured…

Jamaica Inn

Jamaica Inn

Herself was supposed to be coming for second unit filming, but is double-booked, so I’ll revert to a two camera setup with one on the Arai and one on the bars instead.

 

BMW Motorrad Connected (Cr)App

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I’m hoping that some of the issues I’ve been seeing with the Connected app may be due to overheating of my iPhone 15 Pro in the charging cubbyhole because of wireless charging couple with the app’s insistence that it has to be unlocked and open on the app for it to work…

I say I’m hoping, because allegedly the iPhone 16 Pro should have better thermal properties.  We’ll see.

More ridiculous behaviour from the BMW Motorrad Connected [sic] app in the meantime, though: I’ve upgraded my iPhone 15 Pro to a 16 Pro last month so I needed to transfer the apps and data over.
To make an informed decision on which capacity I went for, it’s good to check how much storage I’m using and the iPhone told me I’m using a shedload of storage for the BMW app. Not surprising, given I needed UK, Spain, France, German, Switzerland, Netherlands and Belgium maps for my recent trips.
So a quick look at the app and it tells me there were 16 updates available for some 44GB.
And there’s no way to delete the stored maps unless I download the updates and then delete them afterwards!
FFS…

Eurothrash 2024 Day 10: Luxembourg to Home

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Just 582km to get us home from Luxembourg via Belgium and France.  In total, Eurothrash 2024 was 1,904 miles or 3,064km and averaged 54.3mpg.

The RT was battered and bleeding but got us back. What a trooper!

So yes,  the bike is excellent. But the BMW Connected App is simply awful. It falls over all the time. It drops in and out all the time. Give us CarPlay!

Eurothrash 2024 Day 9: Aix-les-Bains to Luxembourg

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France to Switzerland to France to Luxembourg.

We left Aix-les-Bains in bright sunlight and 32°C and 571km later we arrived in Luxembourg having endured an absolute deluge (and the temperatures falling to 22°C).

The weather forecast was good for our homeward trip the next day. Another cheeky upgrade to the room in our hotel, the Sofitel Luxembourg Le Grand Ducal, which was lovely, and as for dinner, well that was excellent stuff washed down with a bottle of Luxembourgoise wine.

Eurothrash 2024 Day 8: Cannes to Aix-les-Bains

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We were meant to be staying in Grenoble after a long trip along the Route Napoleon.  Sadly, neither happened:
  1. Firstly, the hotel emailed us before we left saying that there had been a lot of motorcycle thefts from their car park, so they were no longer accepting bookings from travellers with motorbikes…
  2. Secondly, as there was an oil leak from the right hand side cylinder head rocker cover, we weren’t sure if the RT would make it, so we wanted to stay on the major roads in case we needed to pull over and get collected.

So, 506km and one litre of oil later (the latter to replace the new waterproofing for our boots, trousers and the RT itself) we got to the Mercure Aix-les-Bains Domaine de Marlioz Hôtel & Spa

and a lovely glass of wine (plus some flavoured water at reception).
The battered and bruised RT made it with no real issues as well, which was a bonus.
Fabulous dinner (and wine) at the hotel.
The next day was planned to be a longer day heading to Luxembourg via Switzerland so a two stop strategy ws in place to refuel us and to top up the RT’s oil.