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!