2007 April blog

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An absolutely gorgeous day today! England is very pretty this time of year! Did a lazy ride down to Milton Keynes and Suzuki GB HQ to soak in the feeling of Spring. I even spent some more time than usual behind the lorries because it was so beautiful all around through the Peak district today. So, how was the Bandit 1250 S? I don't know because the bike was not ready when I arrived at Suzuki. There has been some people off work at the workshop lately and they are very busy. Whilst admiring the two first pre-production models of the forthcoming B-king that now stands in the Suzuki GB lobby, Suzuki prepared a K7 GSX-R 1000 for me in stead. That's what I call fair trade people! I was mentally prepared for the new liquid cooled 1250 Bandit, but had to recalibrate my brain for the fastest thing on two wheels in stead. the K7 GSX-R1000 has got three modes: The slow mode is selection C: In C mode the K7 engine produces something around 110-120bhp. That's the same as an early/mid nineties superbike. In medium slow mode, selection B you don't get more than around 150bhp (until the upper rev range where it's free speed) which is the same as the then groundbreaking 1998 Yamaha R1. And then you have selection A, Automatic mode where all 185bhp (190 with ram-air...) is readily available from the word go. That's a 2007 superbike for the road. It just feels like the power band is never ending on the road. The K7 just accelerates and accelerates and bloody cars come in the way each time. Need to get out one day when there's no cars around, to go to the German Autobahn of course... The K7 is light (172kg claimed) and supremely balanced. Tomorrow morning, leathers on, new knee-sliders on and the world is mine, all mine on the GSX-R1000! TS

It's been a day of motorcycle maintenance today for me. I stripped off the fuel pump on the Raptor again. Emptied the fuel tank first and once again I found dirty fuel at the bottom of the corroding fuel pump. The fuel pump is the same pump that you'll find on a Suzuki TL1000, but the fuel tank itself (Acerbis) is different and this somehow allows for water to enter occasionally. Scrubbed with a toothbrush that I cleaned in petrol and assembled the fuel pump and tank again. Then I washed and now everything is ready for me to go down to Milton Keynes and pick up the 07 Suzuki  Bandit 1250S tomorrow. In a month and  a half I will head over to the US again for the Victory Vision world launch. Now I know where too, in Minneapolis and Spirit Lake, Iowa. Apparently it is very beautiful there, only 7 registered sex offenders and 10% of the people are Norwegian descendants! This is the beauty of the Internet as opposed to what I spoke about in my last blog entry. Not that I was particularly interested in that trivia, but at least informative. I am now contemplating whether I should stay longer in the US than usually. Perhaps do some touring, invite a lady to come with me or something. Tour the great lakes, grab a pizza and hit a jazz club in Chicago. Nahh, that sounds too nice actually. It'll probably be the usual in and out gig, after all copy has to be in on deadline. I hope that I don't have to remind you that it's Ducati Hypermotard time in Sardinia next week too. 1100cc of air-cooled V-twin fun coming up!

What sort of society are we living in today? Reading Tom Rayners article on MCN.com today sickened me. That North Wales Sheriff Richard Brunstrom wants society to go back hundreds of years when the Police would put criminals severed heads on sticks by the town gates to warn other innocents not to do the same crime. Is Brunstrom one of those sickos that trawl the internet for snuff ranging from Jihad decapitations, rape-porn, murder and images of dead traffic accident victims? Is he aware that his own children might go ahead and google for images of decapitated people after reading about his scare monger? This is not exactly images of tar infested chests from smoking cigarettes we are talking about. These are the unlucky few that get killed in traffic accidents and it's bound to look ugly regardless of what caused the accident to happen! It might not be as graphic when people are killed in car accidents, but whether you suffer for days in a hospital with terminal internal bleedings from a car accident or from loosing your limbs doesn't make a difference. You still die. And how can Brunstrom decide what kind of accident this was? A lot of serious accidents are in fact suicides and how can that be used in a draconian cause against speeding? If you are a parent reading this, make sure to put filters in place on all the computers that your children can access. Some of these images are so ugly that it can scar them for life. On the internet things are real, it's not Saw 2 we are talking about here. I have seen many things that I didn't want to see on the internet. Most of that footage comes from the Police departments in different countries. Shame on you for exposing normal sane people and children to your shitty jobs! You are there to protect and serve, where's the protection in all this I ask myself. Even the media have the decency to protect the general public from such horrors. All the Police I have met on UK roads (a few by now) have been either fair, friendly or even helpful. But then I don't go to North Wales very often. TS

On a recent launch in Spain I lost one of the locks tightening my visor on the Suomy Vandal 155. I had been doing a few night rides before the launch and had changed from clear to tinted visor quite a few times. Since the helmet and locking mechanism is different from the Spec 1R's I managed to wear the lock out a bit by tightening in a wrong way probably. It was awkward riding home from the airport one-handed since I had to hold the visor in place on the motorway. So today I received a repair kit from Suomy and I replaced the locking mechanism and got a new lock in place. Easy! Thanks Suomy. Look at my kit here. TS

Ouch, must have been painful being Danish and read my blog from Aarhus. I agree, so have moderated a bit so that only the really bad ones have been mentioned. I did anger a few people so must give something too. The gents at Buell and Harley-Davidson have received some pretty good international coverage during the last year. But it is important to me that you know that even though I get the flights and hotels usually, I need to keep my integrity. So I will criticise when I see it fit. I might turn into a foe, but really I'm a friend. The bottom line is that I had a great time in Denmark with Craig Jones (you can see that from the pix I think...), but I am sticking to my Shakespeare still. Spent the whole Sunday making those three videos by the way and today I received the pictures from my time with stunt man extraordinaire Craig Jones. I think you can tell from the pictures alone that I got some very decent tuition. My personal favourite is when Craig is holding me back at the wheelie bar. I only wanted to burn as fast as possible you see, whilst Craig wanted to slow me down to do doughnuts. I shall soon practise my new skills on Bandits and Hypermotards... You ain't seen nothing yet! To Bill: Merci!

Flew back to London today after arguing with the stupid people at Aarhus airport over a reference number for the booking made for me. Incredibly I was told first that this lady had got my boarding pass! A lady called something boarding as Tor Sagen. There is something rotten about the state of Denmark... (Shakespeare for illiterates) I think the lady at the airport understood how stupid what she had just told me sounded so got my reference number and boarding card. Rode home to Manchester in gorgeous sunshine. TS

Started to ride just after 2AM for my early morning flight from London to Aarhus in Denmark. All I had been told was that my flights had been booked from Stansted to Aarhus. Only Ryanair flies to Aarhus directly from the UK so I knew that much, but that was my own research. Arrived in Aarhus not even knowing where exactly I was going. Expected someone to meet me at the airport and take me to the location in Aarhus. A quick phone call revealed that I had to arrange transport myself from the airport to somewhere called Cats in Aarhus that apparently everyone in Aarhus knew where was. The real name of the Harley-Davidson dealer was Caps and I only found out because I jumped on a bus and passed the place. Jumped off at the next stop after I saw the dealer and barely managed to get the rude Danish buss driver to help me get to my luggage filled with riding gear. He told me I should have brought my luggage (big bag...) into the buss since I was not going all the way into Aarhus city centre. Mate, I didn't know where the hell I was going until we just passed the place, I told him. Grabbed my bag and walked to Caps, the Harley dealer down the road. I didn't really sleep last night due to the ride down to London, but slept on the short flight from take-off to landing. But I was grumpy for the awkward arrangements and thought I had lost valuable time on the stunt bikes. But Craig and Wing was still rigging up. Spoke to Craig again and we agreed to start at 13:00 in stead. So by this time I had about two hours to kill and I was hungry so grabbed the keys for a Bobber and rode into town (thanks for the bobber Caps). Had to stop and fill it up with petrol off course as there was nothing in it! Parked up and walked around Aarhus, it's a pretty town but all I cared for was to get some lunch-and not McDonalds! Found this Pizza joint called Mackie's that looked decent and ordered a small pizza that turned out to be gigantic and good! There is something Rotten in the state of Denmark, Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet. But the brilliant H-D press office in Oxford sorted me out so that I could work, ride and do what I came to do! But no good day is really good without a good moan first! Craig Jones and I just had to organise our time ourselves and I got everything that I needed in the end with a photographer that captured some great shots. There'll be a separate piece on the real events today later when I receive the pictures early next week. All I can say is that riding Craig Jones Buell XB12S stunt bike made up for any hassle in abundance! So, after Craig and Wing (Craig's bonkers assistant) had sorted all the gear in the Craigjones.com mobile fun on wheels truck we pissed off into town to get something to eat. Since Craig wouldn't hand over Angelina Jolie's mobile number I made him pay for the meal and the Corona's. Craig's great fun going out with by the way, endless energy both on and off a bike. Those waitresses at Mackie's would make it worthwhile going back to Aarhus again sometime, never mind the pizza that they call Harley D... Craig and Wing then headed to the airport for a late flight back to London and I went to Hotel Royal to finally get some sleep. Something is Rotten in...zzz. Piccies coming.

Right now I am sitting in my office facing another one of those booring 3-4 hour night-rides down to London Stansted. There's direct flight from that damn airport to anywhere in Europe and hence one of the places I see a lot! This time I am flying to Aarhus in Denmark to meet Craig Jones, the man that holds the world record for the longest rolling stoppie. I spoke to Craig earlier today and he promised me to evolve my rolling stoppie skills whilst in Denmark. So I had to accept the invitation from Harley-Davidson to cover this event. It's just a quickie but I'll stay one night in Aarhus before flying home again on Saturday. Later this month I will finally pick up the new Suzuki Bandit 1250S for a UK test. I am also pestering Suzuki to get the 07 GSX-R1000TT with me to the Isle of Man for a test there. We will see how that goes. I might not have told you this yet, but the Yamaha XT660R that I rode in Norway tried to tie itself into knots when speeds exceeded 90mph. Yamaha called me yesterday to tell me it was due to the swingarm bolt being loose... I am glad I didn't know that when pulling all those wheelies! Triumph invited me to their annual press day this week too. The event takes place at the Hinckley factory in early May with the tour of the factory and ride outs on the 07 Triumph motorcycles. I'll take the Bandit 1250 down and enjoy the day since I have already ridden every Triumph in the line-up. I think I'll chose to spend some more time on the S3 and Daytona 675 to refresh my memory of how great those two bikes are. Perhaps get some fresh pictures too. I have to get my arse moving soon to do my Italian job and pick up the red Ducati 1098 soon too. Then it's Sardinia for the Hypamotard and somewhere else for the Aprilia SL750 Shiver. There's a gig with Derbi in Barcelona and Gilera in Italy in May too. In the middle of all this there will be another UK test of the new Honda CBR600RR too. Then we have one that I am really looking forward to, the Victory Vision Street and Tour launch in June. I asked for Joe Satriani on my sound system! Two biggies is on its way: Rocket III The story and CO2, Emissions and EURO 3 also The story. There is some heavy research going on right now to make these articles stand out... See you in Denmark! Tor

Friday the 13th is just a normal day like any other day. Still the number 13 seems to mean bad luck for certain people. Very often these people are just as superstitious today as people were during the dark ages. I noticed yesterday during my flight from Oslo to Manchester that there are no seat number 13. The air-liners have just elegantly skipped seat number 13, but if you like 12 or 14 it's no problem. It's a similar story for hotels. You'll struggle to find a number 13 anywhere! Just remember that room and seat number 14 really is 13... Returned the Rocket III Classic to its rightful owners down in Hinckley today in glorious sunshine. My Raptor had just been standing where I left it 3 months ago and started straight away. I brought an external starter just in case in my backpack, but it was chain lube and not power the Raptor really needed. So Dan at Triumph fetched some chain lube and off I went. In the sun on Friday the 13th with nothing but good luck! Tor

Flew back from Oslo to Manchester today. Great to see the Rocket III Classic again, just a shame it has to go back to Hinckley tomorrow-Friday the 13th.

Due to bad weather forecasts my sister Linn and I decided to leave the mountain today rather than tomorrow. It just started snowing and when it snows you don't want to be stuck 1000 metres above sea level on a motorcycle. I knew it would be a lot of traffic on the Norwegian  mountain roads today so removed the side panniers on the XT 660 R and loaded them into my sisters car so that I could filter past the endless queues of Easter tourists. We stopped on the way to do a little shoot on gravelled roads whilst still in the mountain. After arriving at my fathers house a couple of hours later it really started snowing heavy and news reports told about accidents on very slippery roads where I had been riding earlier. Due to the nice weather during Easter many Norwegians had swapped their winter tyres for summer tyres. I had swapped from 8mm ice studs to knobby tyres, but I'll still stay in tomorrow I think. Tor

Greetings from Pers hotel in Gol. I am staying on Golsfjellet with the family, but just down here now to check E-mail after a nice ride on the Yamaha XT 660 R. It was almost minus 10 yesterday, but gorgeous in the sun during the day. Ducati called me as well whilst I was on the mountain to invite me to the Hypermotard world launch in Sardinia early May. So in less than a month you will know how this great bike fares both on road and track. TS