First Service

 

So, with just 12 miles left to hit the magic 300, we set off in the sun on the 50ish mile journey back to the dealers in Stafford for her first service. 

After 12 miles, the 40 mph restriction was gone and I can now run the engine up to the heady heights of 50mph! But that 10pm makes all the difference, meaning you can ride the bike much more normally and naturally (albeit still not going into the higher areas of the rev range) whereas up to this point it has felt like most of the focus was on managing speed. A lovely run along a very similar route to the journey to Rob’s a couple of weeks ago. 

They wanted the bike there overnight so that the engine would be stone cold when they adjusted the tappets so lent me a loan car overnight and I continued on down to see Rob for the night then made my way back the next morning. 

The loan car was a well used Mini Countryman and what a perfect contrast between Royal Enfield getting the retro thing exactly right with the Classic 350 compared to BMW creating a cartoon comedy version of the Mini, that actually had (to me) no particular redeeming features. The dash reminded me of a cheap Amstrad hi-fi from the 80s! Nasty thing - I was very glad to give it back.

The return journey was equally as pleasant, though a bit less sunny. I can’t say that she felt radically different after the service, but I think I would actually be somewhat disappointed if things had deteriorated so much as to be noticeable after only 300 miles!

Running in

We did the first 54 miles on the delivery day while the sun was out, taking in my favourite roads around Wirral - Puddington, Burton, Neston and stopped at Parkgate and West Kirby for a couple of rests for the new tight engine. She lived up to my hopes and exceeded them significantly. Can't wait to get more miles on her as the weather improves.

A few days later, I needed to call in to see Andy before he moved up to start his new job in the Lake District, so we were out for another 40 or so miles, again around Wirral. Everything feels nice and I'm settling in to the slow plod of 40mph!

Just about 21 or 22 years separate these photos :-)

The weather deteriorated then for a week or so, but I was itching to get out for a longer run so on the first nice day I did a run to Tamworth and back to show Ella off to Rob. I used the Calimoto app to plot a quiet route along the twisties, so it took a while but she is in her element on the country lanes and I wasn't often holding other traffic up.

We stopped at Wrenbury Mill lift bridge to let a canal boat by and it seemed like we'd been transported back in time!

A couple of hours break in Tamworth and then I headed for home. By this time we were approaching 200 miles and I started to just let her have a little more freedom as we worked through the gearbox - everything is feeling very smooth and restrained! 

I was in the saddle for over 5 hours altogether and felt pretty fresh at the end of it, which bodes well for our journey to Spa in a month or so. By the time we got back we were within spitting distance of completing the first 300 miles, so she is booked in to go back down to Stafford next week for her first service. It will be nice to have the freedom to go wild at 50 for the next thousand miles as we do part 2 of the running in!