Reply With QuoteTony you're not going to put dual purpose tyres on the R9T are you?! Stay away from Bike Shed and Instagram
I use Sena and like it. Seems to be the main one and Cardo was left behind somewhat when Sena launched. I have the SMH10 on an old helmet and the 20S on the current.
Tony you're not going to put dual purpose tyres on the R9T are you?! Stay away from Bike Shed and Instagram
I’ve had a few sets of Metzler Torrance’s and do not expect any performance on trails, grass etc. I literally got stuck in the middle of a grass field in France after it rain a bit because the grass was too wet for the tire to get grip.
Tkc s are a great tire and once you stop be nervous about the ‘ wiggle’ and accept it’s a knobbly tire and so won’t feel the same in the road it’s actually very good at both. Not amazing at both but very good.
Which version do you have? I've a Shark Spartan Carbon which is similar to my old Shoei GT-Air.Originally Posted by Matt8500
Sena certainly seems to be the most popular brand, but the Youtube lot (Missenden flyer etc etc) mostly seem to recommend switching to Cardo Packtalk.......any ideas why?
Channel sponsors (disclosed or otherwise) or old timers and stuck in their ways I would imagine.
It’s a 10U designed for the helmet.
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They do look lovely, and the large fuel tank is a boon as id ride around the borders and Scotland so a few extra miles available would be useful.
Is your rear a non-standard size?
I ask because Metzeler Tourance seem to be, or were, the 'adventure' tyre of choice for BMW.
https://www.metzeler.com/en-uk/produ...ze=&rear-size=
A few years back myself, my main ride buddy and one of my sons invested in an Interphone Tour system. For us, it was a total game changer, the ability to chat and have good banter on our bikes was amazing. Throw in the ability to receive calls, connect to bluetooth devices, I wouldnt be without one now. I currently have a Sena SRL integrated into my Neotec 2, and its paired to my mates Interphone. The ability to warn or advise your mates of any possible hazard is a great benefit, such as police spotted, safe to pass, crap on the road etc. The better ones have a decent range so even if you cant see your mates you are still in contact. I would also add I had one of the old wired jobbies many years back, very temperamental and unreliable. The new stuff is light years ahead.
Stuart
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Ill leave this here
https://youtu.be/HufowXTlutE
Lastly Tony I would echo everyone’s comments on whilst TKC ‘s look cool parked up, they will not be nice to live with. Dual function tyres are noisy wear down fast and are squirmy when cornered hard. I know I have mates who love them..............Whilst riding in Morroco. I know I use em on my my GS.
Get the grippiest road tyre for Tangerine Dream and appreciate the stability, quiet, and length of time twixt new tyres.
Another shout for the Trail Attacks. I have Conti Trail Attack 2’s on my Africa Twin and they are excellent on road whilst leaving a bit of capacity for mild off tarmac use if needed.Not sure if they are available/suitable for your bike, but I've had the Continental Trail Attack 3's on my GS for the last 6k miles (having replaced the stock Michelin Anakee Adventures after about 7k). The difference has been night and day. Of course I use my bike 95% on-road and that's where the tyres excel - but on the odd occasion I find myself off-piste, I've not had any concerns.
Here's a picture - and a review:
https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocia...-3-tyre-review
I will be replacing mine in a month or so and will definitely fit the same again.
I’ve used Sena professionally for years. Very good kit. Reliable, good battery life. Good coms bike to bike and phone. The speakers aren’t hi fi but they’re good enough with all the other noise going on. Not cheap but highly recommended.
Just returned from over 2 weeks in the road. Our original plan was to reach Istanbul, but with Bulgaria and Greece closed (at least when we needed to cross pre-15th) we re-routed! To maximise time down south, we loaded the bikes onto the Motorail from Dusseldorf and used Austria as the start/finish point. Because of the favourable train arrival/departure times, we only transited Austria and avoided having to quarantine in Austria. The general itinerary was:
UK Eurotunnel > Germany > motorail > Austria > Italy > Slovenia > Croatia > Serbia > Romania > Serbia > Montenegro > Croatia > Slovenia > Italy > Austria > motorail > Germany > Eurotunnel > home.
In all, we covered 4k miles of some of the most diverse and just fantastic roads on and off-road. Bike of choice? The GS. Forget sports tourers. The roads switch from ribbon smooth tarmac to broken, dirt, gravel, mud (or are non-existent), and the ability to switch instantly is nevessary. No other bike I know can carve fast sweepers at 51degrees of lean, navigate broken tarmac along single lane width mountain roads, or go off-road up and down mud/rocks.
I will let the pics do the talking...
Motorail selfie
We headed south and covered 3 days of the Italian Dolomites taking in all the main passes and some very small obscure ones - especially towards the east including the Forcella Lavardet and others.
Timmelsjoch
Passo Gardena
Forcella Lavardet - one of th real highlights, 50km offroading down a lesser known trail. The Eastern Dolomites are special.
We covered the Vrsic Pass in Slovenia and headed up to the top of the Mangart. Incredible views.
Crossed the hard border into Serbia and discovered the vast climb of people out of poverty from years of war.
Then to Romania where we would be based in Sibiu for 3 nights days to explore the beautiful country. Must go back as it needs more time.
From local modern machinery...
To the beautiful tourist squares of Sibiu
To the mighty Transfagarasan
The Vidraru Dam where Clarkson and TopGear spent the night
The Transalpina
And the DN66A through Cerna-Sat where it was 100km offroad through some beautiful but also seriously hard ‘3 people to pull the bikes out of the mud’ mountain routes if you didn’t have full offroad knobblies.
But after a whole afternoon of the gravel rocks and mud, it was soon back to this and more 51degrees of lean
We crossed into Serbia where there were derelict factories and remnants of what looked like the Gulag.
Then onto the stunning sweeping roads of Montenegro through amazing gorges, valleys, and varied terrain
On our return, we came up the Adriatic Sea and spent quality time on and off the bikes in Split, Croatia.
We headed to Krka National forest where over 15degrees downhill incline on deep loose rocks defeated us and we spent ages trying to turn back in 30degrees C. We just didn’t have the right tyres for the job, and it was so steep that the engine would turn against compression downhill!
But we made it out and ended the evening at thr Tiki bar on the beach
Heading north through the forests, we set the navs back for our return to Austria via the Grossglockner
But weather closed in at it was snowing and 1.5C at the top which made it tough going on tyres that were already shagged after over 3k miles of hard riding and were now down to the wear bars.
We loaded up the motorail again and are glad to be home safe and sound. It was an epic trip. So many memories. Still buzzing from sensory overload. Need to decompress a bit, and back to reality!
Lots of lessons learned as always from a trip like this. But will be doing a similar trip to this again - and hopefully reach Istanbul!
Last edited by spareparts; 21st July 2020 at 08:46.
Looks fabulous
Andy
Wanted - Damasko DC57
Fabulous trip and great pictures. Thank you for sharing
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
WOW. Awesome road trip.
Stuart
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What a fantastic road trip....looked awesome
My crappy effort over the evo triangle..浪
Amazing trip Spareparts! Thanks for the write up
WOW! That scenery looks epic. What an amazing trip.
And looks like some challenging terrain as well.
Thanks for sharing.
So many memories! The diversity of terrain, the laughs when we all capsized at one time or another offroad, and perhaps one of the best was when the local chap came trundling along on his 50cc stepthrough whilst we were trying to navigate a muddy water filled crested corner. He simply carried on and used his feet to get him through! Here we were with £55k worth of the latest bikes, equipment, stuck in the mud, and he just carried on through. It was just brilliant lol!
Some thoughts: Sena comms between the 3 of us worked really well throughout. The right tyres for the conditions are paramount... but sadly I don’t think a single tyre exists that would cover both the fast road/track riding, the diatance, and the rocks and mud we went through. The Pirelli Scorpion Trail2s I had for the trip were outstanding for all the sealed road stuff at 51degrees of lean, fine for the light trails, but failed in the mud and deep loose rocks where full knobblies were needed. After 4k miles fully loaded, they still have another 1k miles... perhaps. I will switch to Scorpion Trail STRs for my next set.
Border controls: even at the hard borders with Serbia/Romania/Montenegro we had no issues. Returning to the UK: the locator form was pre-filled, but UK border control are not checking them! They just ask if you did it but do not ask for evidence. Soft borders - zero checks anywhere. Borders which were supposed to be closed between Austria and Slovenia are not closed.
PPE is necessary throughout Europe. They take it far more seriously than the UK does. Even in the most remote villages of Serbia people wore masks everywhere. You need a mask in every hotel/shop etc you enter.
Thanks for sharing Adrien, looks like an amazing trip!
That looks AMAZING Adrian
Michelin Pilot road 5 trails on the Tiger. Replaced Avon Trail Riders. Each tyre change over the last 9 years has been an incremental improvement. There really is no comparison with tyres of say even 10 years ago.
Looks great Adrian!
Nice little write up!
Ah yes, that's the bit we saw as well.
But at least the lad has the sticker on his top box!
Brilliant journey; well done!
I did a similar trip in 2008 from St Albans down to Fethie in Turkey. We were all on a mix of BMW GS's too. We used the old Autocom comms equipment which was frankly useless.
Which of the Sena units did you use, where they all the same?
Excuse for a gratuitous pic of me just outside of Split Croatia......
All the Sena units were different! Mine is the SC10u, another was a rebranded AGV (Sena) unit, and the other another rebranded Sena by X-Lite. They all had different controls, but the group intercom function just works. Riders can drop in/out and it seemed reliable throughout. Apparently, it works even better with the new Mesh function - but that requires the latest versions.I did a similar trip in 2008 from St Albans down to Fethie in Turkey. We were all on a mix of BMW GS's too. We used the old Autocom comms equipment which was frankly useless.
Which of the Sena units did you use, where they all the same?
Excuse for a gratuitous pic of me just outside of Split Croatia......
What a great adventure - puts my ride down to the Sussex coast to shame
It was hot on the coast:
My trip tomorrow is sorted
What he said,stick with proper gripping road tyres my favourite are Bridgestone BT03s I know exactly what they can do they last around 5,000 miles and give confidence in all weather.Tony you're not going to put dual purpose tyres on the R9T are you?! Stay away from Bike Shed and Instagram
I rode the forgotten world highway with a full laden bike using them and rode other appalling gravel strewn roads in NZ this year.
The formula is simple gravel or poor road slow down,slow down a lot,dual tyres won’t save you.
Having ridden with my new Bell Custom 500 open face yesterday, I can confirm that the hipster thing is definitely a young man's game.Hmmm... maybe those hipsters are getting to me after all
The way the helmet gathers several chins that I was only vaguely aware of and boldly presents them to the world is astonishing and depressing in equal measure.
A full face helmet would make me 20kg younger.
That's one weird kink you've got there,Tony.
hipsters ride bikes to look good (well their opinion of good) , i guess it comes down to whether you want to conform to a certain style or actual have the bike perform as it was intended (there is nothing wrong with either, each person has their own reasons for riding)
each to there own but open face helmets make me shudder every time i see one , you mayaswell wear a colander for all the protection they provide.
Great looking helmet...perfect for a warm day.
I had something similar in my teens, can't remember the make though.
Thought I was the cats whiskers with my Foster Grants.
Cruising through town one sunny afternoon, I looked back over my shoulder, the wind snatched the sunnies off my face.
I stopped and watched in horror as they got run over.
Broadly I agree (I'm doing everything broadly at the moment). The vast majority of the time I'm wearing a rather pricey Arai full face because I want the protection.
Having the bikes garaged in more than one location sometimes results in me having bikes but no helmet, so having a spare lid may reduce that occurrence. Though yesterday was an exception, usually my meanderings in Wiltshire (where the Bell will be) are on the Triumph and at speeds barely in excess of the speeds I reach on my pushbike wearing a relatively very flimsy cycle helmet.
Rest assured that for longer or faster trips the full face Arai will be the helmet of choice!
I'd be somewhat disappointed if my Oakleys got run over, but they are a very snug fit within the helmet so I don't think they are going anywhere in a hurry
Note - I have a range of lenses that I interchange to suit the lighting conditions from perfectly clear (winter day and at night), light tint (winter day, spring, autumn), dark tint and bolder colours (summer); all lenses are original Oakley or Revant Optics because of their impact testing. I wouldn't want to use glass or fragile plastic lenses.
I had a pair of Halcyon goggles on my Davida, lifted them off at about 40 mph To put on the front of the helmet, woosh straight off. Stopped within 100m , not before the ONLY car behind me turned them into a mass of crushed rubber and plastic.
I bought a second pair, hardly use them, I wonder why!
https://www.urbanrider.co.uk/dmd-goggle-retainer.html
hth
Have you got the big waxed beard yet?Hmmm... maybe those hipsters are getting to me after all
The only time I've worn an open face helmet was when I did the 2 week Vietnam tour with my lad. Too hot to wear full face. Too hot to wear much PPE at all to be honest. I'm not proud of it but I was riding in shorts & t-shirts (+ lid, gloves & boots) all the time it wasn't p1ssing down with rain.
Last edited by andy tims; 22nd July 2020 at 10:26.
Andy
Wanted - Damasko DC57
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