Category: Random

1. The Road To Cardiff Champions League Final

   Posted on 12:00pm Wednesday 26th Apr 2017

   On Saturday June 3rd, the UEFA Champions League Final will be held at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, the Welsh capital city and two-time European Capital of Sport. For bikers around the UK and beyond this means only one thing: it's road trip time! 

   If ever we needed an excuse to get on our motorcycles, then this is it. The Champions League is a football match of the highest calibre, an international sporting event held right on our doorstep. It would be rude not to get involved.

   And here's the way to get involved, whether you are a fan of the beautiful game or not. Get on the blower to your friends, get on your motorcycle, and take a planned route down to Cardiff to see what the fuss is all about.

   If you are riding from London, the fastest and most direct route is to take the M4 through Reading and Swindon, and carry on straight through to newport and Cardiff. This ride is about 150 miles and won't take long if you put your foot down.

   But we're not always about the most direct route. As you all know, the pleasure is in the ride itself, not just in arriving at the destination. Consider heading towards Oxford, either using the M40 or by taking smaller roads if you prefer, and then jump on the A40 to enjoy the AONB the Cotswolds. Take a further detour and go around the River Seven at Gloucester. From here, you can drive through the stunning Wye Valley before arriving in Cardiff.

   A road trip from the North of the UK also offers equally promising opportunities for scenery and the freedom of the road. The most direct route is to take the M6 to Birmingham and then the M5 to Ross on Wye before joining the M4 to Cardiff, but this is not the route that we recommend. There are much more attractive options.   

   Instead, take the A55 at Chester along the north coast of Wales towards Bangor. This is great road for thrills and ocean views. From Bangor, you can either continue around the whole of the Welsh coastline until you hit Cardiff in the south, or you can cut through Snowdonia National Park to take to the lonely mountain roads and then head on through Brecon Beacons. Both are stunning options. 

   Once you reach Cardiff you will need somewhere to stay, and even if you plan on staying at a campsite or a B&B that is far out of the city you should consider booking long in advance to secure accommodation. There are plenty of options available both indoors and outdoors. If you prefer a quieter location away from the football crowds (to get the best of both worlds), then consider a stay at nearby Newport, or venture further into the countryside and stay at the Afan Forest Park or Brecon Beacons.

   Tickets for the Champions League Final are no longer available through UEFA, but some will be available to the public and sold by the semi-final winners.

   You don't have to have a ticket to enjoy the final. The atmosphere around Cardiff is set to be electric, and there will be plenty of pubs and venues to enjoy the game. You could also consider taking a bet on the outcome to increase the adrenaline. Real Madrid and Juventus are currently joint favorites to win the competition, though Atletico Madrid and Monaco are both worthy competitors.

   There are four excellent teams left in the competition this year, and a great UK city to host the game. Motorcycle enthusiasts – it's time to start planning the road to the Cardiff Champions League Final! 

2. Norman Reedus (Daryll from Walking Dead) Triumph Tiger obsession

   Posted on 8:00am Thursday 20th Apr 2017

   Walking Dead actor, artist and photographer Norman Reedus leads a hectic work schedule, so you might expect his downtime to be a chilled out affair. You’d be wrong.

   Instead The Walking Dead star is in an excitable and talkative mood for two reasons. One, he’s just taken delivery of his new, personalised Triumph Tiger 800 XCA and two, his other AMC show “Ride with Norman Reedus” has just been given the green light for Season Two.

   “Yeah, I feel great about this. In the first season of Ride everything was new, we were constantly tuning it, figuring out what the show really was and I think we got it to a really good place. For Season Two we already have that short-cut and I’m only fine-tuning the rides, the places and the people. I’m excited for what we will do this season.”

   

   Bucket list moments

   Season One of “Ride” saw Norman tackle some the most popular biking routes such as the Pacific Coast Highway and the Blue Ridge Parkway, joined by variety of guest riders including Mr Easy Rider himself, Peter Fonda.

   “I definitely had some bucket list moments in the first season – Peter Fonda! It’s hard to beat Peter Fonda. We’ll continue with some of the best parts from Season One and try to make it a little more personal. Not just custom bike shops, but incorporate people and experiences that follow the same culture, like Hot Rods, Rock n Roll and different parts of the world.”

   "I rode the hell out of my first Tiger"

   The blacked-out Tiger 800 XCA Norman rode in Season One of Ride has 33,000 miles on it. Now relocated to his Upstate New York home, he needed another bike for Season Two and his choice was a 2017 Tiger 800 XCA with some added accessories and personal touches, including his “Big Bald Head” logo and a totally blacked-out theme.

   He says: “I just rode the hell out of my first Tiger. I love them. I’ll take it on trails, ride to work on it. It does everything. I rode it all the way to Nashville. In the rain. That was one of my best rides. For Season Two I’m planning on using my new Tiger in every single episode, like a cowboy always rides the same horse! It’s an awesome bike, I love the blacked out Darth Vader look with my logo on it. It’s so cool.”

   Despite being better known for his role of Daryl Dixon in The Walking Dead, Norman is taking great pleasure in the positive feedback he’s gathering from Season One of Ride… and is inspiring people to get on two wheels.

   He says: “One of the biggest joys from Season One is having people say to me: ‘I saw your bike show and want to get into motorcycles, I want to do the ride you did, explore the world, so I bought a bike’.  I get that from young girls through to retired guys all over the place.
   
   “It’s cool to have people watch the show and feel like they are on the ride with us. Travelling on a motorcycle is different to travelling in a car. Like Peter Fonda said “Those people are in cages”. You feel and smell a town when you go through it on a bike. You see all of it. It’s exploration. We will do more of that in Season Two, and in very different parts of the world. We have a lot of hopes and dreams with Season Two.”

   
   I texted Robert Redford…
   

   Clearly a true hardcore rider, Norman enjoys the chance to share his ambition to get out and ride some of America’s best roads. With North America having such diverse routes and geology, Norman has some bold ideas of the rides he wants to make and is clearly inspired by classic movies.

   “I’d love to do Baja, but there’s one ride through Utah that I want to do. I’m a big fan of the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. We did an Episode of The Walking Dead when Daryl and Rick had a real Butch Cassidy moment. We watched the movie right before we started filming to get into it so I texted Robert Redford to say ‘We’re doing a Butch Cassidy thing’,” he says: “I’d love to do an episode of Ride where I go to all their hideouts, relive some of those film moments. Maybe I can steal a hat from Robert and pretend I’m him. If I could grow a moustache, that would be perfect!”

    

    

   Norman is not only influenced by classic and cult movies, but carefully considers the right soundtrack to complement his riding and feature in Ride. When crushing a long trip, music becomes a key element to enhancing the riding experience.

   Zone out

   He explains: “During Season One I became friends with a music label called Easy Rider Records. A lot of their bands are perfect for motorcycle rides. Their band The Well did our opening soundtrack so I started to research other bands that I could use for my show. Bands like Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats or The Black Ryders are ones I Iisten to a lot. But sometimes you’ll just want to zone out and enjoy the ride.”
   
   His Walking Dead character uses motorcycles as his preferred mode of Zombie-killing transport. Whilst not originally part of the narrative of his character, Norman didn’t miss an opportunity to make motorcycles a central aspect of his role.

   He laughs: “That was something I pushed for. There was an episode coming up where they were going to put me on a horse and I was like ‘Man! I’m terrified of horses, I suck at riding a horse. With their big eyeballs, they can smell your fear’. There was this Chopper on set, a gnarly looking thing with stickers all over it. I was like ‘Whose bike is that?’ and they said that’s going to be your brother Merle’s, played by Michael Rooker.

   “So I said ‘Well if my brother rides a bike, it makes sense that I ride a bike too and maybe I could do this episode on the bike instead of the horse?’ It was basically me being a chicken to avoid getting on a horse!”

   
   With motorcycles being a huge part of Norman’s make-up and his enthusiasm for motorcycle culture, it’s no surprise that he’s influenced his fellow cast members into bikes.

   “I got Steven Yeun, who plays Glen, into bikes. I talked him into it forever and by Season Three he finally got a Triumph Bonneville T100. But Geoffrey Dean Morgan, who plays Negan, has always ridden a bike. When he first came down to Georgia for filming he asked me which bike he should I bring. ‘All of them!’ I told him. We go riding all the time in Georgia. You can ride for hours and only see cows and horses.”

   Fun and work

   Despite his continual cycle of filming, promoting and creating art exhibitions, Norman continues to drive himself forward with a relentless passion and enthusiasm, as well as running a thriving restaurant business.

   “I just don’t sleep, ever,” he says: “I’ll work on set and relax on set, but when I’m not filming I’m doing art shows, scheduling art shows or creating stuff for art shows, and I’m working on another book. With the motorcycle show it’s a weird combination of fun and work, because it’s a lot more work than I thought it would be. When you watch the show you think it looks easy, like a piece of cake, but it’s really hard to keep up your energy and not look like you want to take a nap because you’re exhausted. Sometimes I have to do things in fifth gear and some things only in second gear just so it balances out.”

   He adds: “I also have a restaurant in Senoia, Georgia, called Nic & Normans. It’s all about gourmet burgers, pasta, fish, chicken, real southern feel-good food. It started off as just being a Dive Bar, somewhere that the crew can hang out after work, but somehow it turned into a restaurant. I don’t know much about restaurants, but I know it’s doing really well. We may open another in Atlanta – that’s the plan at the minute.”

   Ride with Norman Reedus Season 2 is currently in production and aired on the AMC Network.

   Article from FOR THE RIDE - Triumph

   Links

   AMC – Ride with Norman Reedus
   Big Bald Head Production Company by Norman Reedus
   Nic & Norman’s Restaurant

   See more from FOR THE RIDE Trimph here - www.fortheride.com

3. What Car? reveals taxing times ahead

   Posted on 9:00am Thursday 6th Apr 2017

   This year on 1st April, new rates of Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) will be introduced … and they could have quite an effect on the tax you pay for your vehicle … 

   What Car? had revealed the biggest car tax rises ahead of the new rules. So who will be most affected, and will you be paying more?

   • Some models will command almost 25 times more tax than before
   • Even greener hybrids are hit but still qualify for government grants of up to £2,500
   • Six out of 10 top sellers incur eye-watering tax increases

   Imminent changes to Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) mean consumers have just a few days to secure a deal on a new car before tax rates soar by up to 2475%.

   Analysis by What Car? has shown that the cost of taxing a car purchased after 1 April 2017 could be up to 25 times more, with even some of the most environmentally friendly plug-in hybrids commanding sharp tax increases.

   It’s conventional hybrids such as the Lexus GS300h and RX450h that will be hit hardest, however. These have traditionally been an attractive option for those seeking a luxury car with small-car emissions, because under the outgoing legislation, the GS300h and RX450h cost owners as little as £40 to tax over three years. But under the new rules, that increases to £1,030.

   Under the new legislation, only zero-emissions cars costing less than £40,000 will be free to tax, but buyers still have a few days to make significant savings by purchasing before the 1 April deadline, using the new What Car? New Car Buyer Marketplace, which lets people compare discounts from dealers in their area.

   In the case of the GS300h hybrid, the near-£1000 hike in the three-year tax bill is made up of a £150 first-year rate based on its CO₂ emissions, followed by two subsequent payments of the new hybrid flat rate of £130 per year, which applies to all vehicles with emissions above 0g/km CO₂.

   In addition, all vehicles that cost more than £40,000 are subject to a further £310 a year charge between years two and six. As a result, three-year tax bills on the Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid, Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV and Volvo XC90 T8 and Audi Q7 E-tron will also jump from zero to as much as £1,000.

   On the up side, the Audi, Mitsubishi and Volvo remain eligible for a government grant of £2,500 thanks to their low CO₂ emissions of less than 75g/km, and if buyers order before the tax hike they could save almost half as much again.

   Motorists who flocked to buy one of Britain’s top sellers in the first months of 2017 are also likely to have avoided a hefty tax premium and could still do so if they move quickly. Six of 2017’s top 10 sellers are among the highest risers. Certain derivatives of the Vauxhall Astra, Ford Focus, Nissan Qashqai, Mercedes C-Class, Audi A3 and BMW 3-Series will command an extra tax bill of between £400 and £1,000 over three years.

   What Car? editor Steve Huntingford said: “The new tax laws are designed to increase the advantage of running a zero emissions car, but they make things much more complicated and push up the price of many ‘bread and butter’ models. Fortunately, there are still opportunities to get a great deal.

   “Buyers still have a small window to snap up a bargain before 1 April, and there are a number of grants for plug-in hybrids at their disposal. Tax aside, valuable savings can be made by using the What Car? New Car Marketplace to get the best possible price.”

   The latest deals can be found at www.whatcar.com/new-car-deals
   
   Read more here 

4. New Touratech skid plates

   Posted on 12:00pm Tuesday 4th Apr 2017

   Field-Tested in the Harshest Conditions: New Touratech Skid Plates

   Products that cope with tough racing and off-road conditions are certainly fit for everyday use. This is the reason why Touratech tends to test new products in rally and enduro events before putting them on the market. 
   
   Good examples for field-tested accessories are the new “Rallye” and “Rally Extreme” skid plates which combine modern production techniques with a unique design for the best possible protection of the entire engine area. In the toughest test conditions, the “Rally Extreme” version demonstrated its qualities on the Touratech Africa Twin RR, the winning bike in the 2016 Hellas Rallye in Greece.
   
   The unique design of the 4 mm thick aluminium part guarantees effective protection and high stability and gives the bike a sporty, modern look. Thanks to a new deep-draw manufacturing process, there are no disturbing welds, which are often considered to be a vulnerable point. The recesses on the underside provide the shock absorbing and lightweight aluminium with a robust stiffness. And as well as that, the two parallel recesses allow the bike to almost glide over obstacles. This way, the energy of the impact is effectively dissipated, preventing jamming or snagging.

   
   The “Rallye” skid plate is available in anodized black and bare aluminum finishes for the Honda Africa Twin CRF 1000L and soon also for the BMW R 1200 GS (LC) / Adventure (LC) and the KTM models 1050 Adventure, 1190 Adventure / R und 1290 Super Adventure.
   For the Africa Twin Touratech has two sizes; the standard size also works with DCT or standard bikes with crash bars installed while the larger Extreme version for manual transmission bikes has increased coverage area eliminating the need for lower crash bars. It is designed to withstand really tough use with the lowest possible weight.

    

5. Poole Dream Machines Full Season Saved for 2017

   Posted on 12:00pm Monday 3rd Apr 2017

   Poole’s premier weekly motorcycle event Dream Machines has been saved for the full 26 week April-end of September season and will start on 4 April 2017 thanks to support from Poole Quay businesses.

   Following the announcement that the event would be limited to 18 weeks from May-end August because not enough people had come forward as Volunteer Marshals, Poole Quay businesses including The Lord Nelson, Poole Quay Fish & Chips Kiosk and Quayside Emporium have rallied a new group of volunteers to help support the event.

   The new Volunteer Marshals will be providing support particularly in April and September, the two months the event was due to lose. 

   With Poole Tourism providing paid Marshals from May to end of August, the support of the new Volunteer Marshals will ensure the event can now run safely for a full season in 2017.

   Graham Richardson, Poole Tourism Manager, said; “Huge thanks go to the Poole Quay businesses for working to make this happen. With them providing support through their volunteers to cover for the months of April and September it means that riders will now be able to enjoy the full 26 weeks of Dream Machines as usual.The event could not happen without them and we hope that riders will come out and show their thanks and support for Volunteer Marshals, the Quay businesses and the event.”

   The aim is that with the help of the new volunteers, Poole Dream Machines will again have a passionate and committed group of Volunteer Marshals who are willing and able to support the event in future years. 

   Leigh Whittall, owner of the Fish and Chips Kiosk, said; “Dream Machines is a really important event for Poole Quay and the businesses operating there. It is part of Poole’s heritage and is vital to keep businesses and facilities open for everyone to use.  It is fantastic that people are now showing their support but we are on the look out for more, as with a bigger pool of volunteers it makes it more manageable for people to be involved.”

   Graham Richardson,said; “Whilst it’s great that the event will now take place for 2017, it’s really important that more volunteers, especially riders who enjoy the event, get involved and make the effort to support it.  If people don’t we could be in be in this position again next year or in danger of losing it altogether.”

   Anyone who would like to volunteer can contact The Lord Nelson , the Fish and Chip Kiosk and Quayside Emporium or email: [email protected]
   

   Season armbands are on sale now costing £8, at the same price, now for the 26 week season and are available from Poole Tourist Information Centre, based in Poole Museum or from The Lord Nelson, the Fish and Chip Kiosk and Quayside Emporium.