Despite having done only one major trip on Herretur2023, I have accumulated 6.200km on the Triumph this year, my second best in history.I started early in March going to Torino for the 32.000km service and ended the season just this week, as it's now too dark for riding a motorcycle for pleasure. I must have done the 370km roundtrip to Torino ten times this year, and have really enjoyed myself
02.10.2022
There aren't a lot of nice wide dual lane roads in Liguria to enjoy on your motorbike, so yesterday I took a trip in the mountains to explore some of the smaller single lane roads. With 150km in mostly second and third gear and just 32km/h on average, you see what I mean. The roads go from appealing to appalling often in a matter of meters, but it is beautiful terrain with lots to see, and the weather was nice (23C on the coast, 13C in the mountains)
17.06.2022
In 2002 a group of friends in Denmark decided on a motorcycle holiday. This became known as Herreturen (The Gentleman's Tour) and has been a reoccurring event for the last 20 years. I have missed a few since we moved, but this year I was able to join the gang - still with a few of the original members - for part of the event. I had a great 6 hour solo ride through southern France there and back, and a wonderful day out with the boys, plus a couple of nights of catching up, eating and drinking
30.08.2021
Unfortunately, Alma (Bibi's mom) fell in her kitchen and broke her left leg and arm on Tuesday, so of course Bibi has gone to Mallorca to support. Left home alone, I decided to take a motorbike trip on Saturday: along the coast to Albenga then up in the mountains to Garessio where there are some lovely roads. On Sunday I did an eBike trip down to the water and then up in the hills to Pietrabruna
02.06.2021
I'm still waiting for the paperwork for the BSA, although the Automotoclub Storico Italiano (ACI) tells me they are making progress. Meanwhile I have cleaned the rust from the tank of the Norton and Royal Enfield and got both started for the first time in almost a decade. Here are videos of them idling: 1967 BSA A65L Lightning, 1974 Norton Commando 850 MK IIA and 1955 Royal Enfield 500 Twin
20.09.2021
I had an absolute mega trip on the motorbike to Provence. Saturday over to Castellane via Nice and Grasse, and then a 3 hour detour into Verdun for some of my favourite roads before arriving in Sisteron for the night. Sunday was another 8h/400km in the stunning landscape north and west of Sisteron on roads where I had never been, some so deserted and enchanted you wouldn't be too surprised if a troll waltzed across the road (none did). Two long days and I'm a little tired, but very good experience
05.03.2021
September 2019 - that's when I last rode my Triumph Explorer. Because of covid and a broken arm, I did zero km in 2020 - the first year in 20 years I haven't used any my motorbikes. The Triumph has accumulated just 25.650km over six seasons (with 7.500km in the first 2015 season alone), and I aim to do better in 2021 (fingers crossed). I just did an oil and filter service, and installed a new battery. Sunday it was warm enough to go out for the first ride, so I took advantage of the very light traffic and had a lovely ride along the coast to Diano Marina, where my parents met for the first time almost 60years ago ... 20km from where we now live would you believe it? I also did an oil and filter sevice on the Beverly scooter, that we have used relatively often although we have only added 1.800km in 3 seasons due to the short journeys we make
07.02.2021
My lovely BSA Lightning was fully restored to concourse condition 15 years ago. Unfortunately, the bike has spent much of the last six years in storage and has suffered. I was rushed packing the bikes in England and forgot to rustproof the fuel tanks inside, as a consequence they rusted. Many rubber parts have perished and the BSA fenders were never of good quality and started rusting from day1. Now I'm almost done with the re-fresh. Here is a little video of the bike running (sound on!)
16.09.2020
The auto jumble in Imperia was a fun event with lots of stuff for sale, not all automotive related, although not many classic cars actually turned up. We also had an uninvited visitor this week, as a small Green Whip snake found its way into the house. The stupid cats alerted me to its presence; they were both trying to stick their noses in the hissing venomous snake! Bibi was in Denmark for her birthday, but I went to Acquetico to buy a rose wine she likes direct from the producer
12.11.2018
I went to the motorcycle show in Milano on my own again this year, as Bibi was in Denmark for Aksel's first birthday. I went on Friday - but it was just as crowded as Saturday last year - so Thursday next year! There were several world premiers and lots of really nice bikes, including several of this year's MotoGP bikes, but for me two of the highlights (weirdly enough) were Royal Enfield's Concept KX (hope they take it to production) and a wonderful 1980 Honda NR750 (worth over 80.000 euro)
04.09.2018
After testing that electrical assist will (just) get you the ~220 height-meters up to our house in Costrarainera on two rental bikes, we bought an electric bike for Bibi. She wanted a classical step-through design, so after looking at options we decided on an Italian made Cobran Retro. 250w electric motor is the legal max limit, and 6 speed Shimano is standard in the "affordable" segment, but besides the design, this bike stood out for it's large 13,5Ah 36volt Li-ion battery (most have 8-10Ah)
23.07.2018
After talking about it for years we finally managed to get together with our good friends Lars & Helle for a motorcycle holiday. They had a long trek from Denmark to our meeting place in Bormio, but then we took it easy over multiple alpine passes through Italy and Switzerland into France. Like us, Lars & Helle likes a bit of exercise, so we went hiking and swimming when opportunity arose, but of course also enjoyed the local food and drink
12.11.2017
While Bibi went to Denmark to see our new grandson (congrats to Sofie and Nicolaj!), I went to Milan for the motorcycle show. There were lots of new bikes, but I was particularly interested in the Triumph Explorer (I have one), the Honda Goldwing (I want one) and the new 650cc Royal Enfield twin (I have an old 500twin). There are always lots of "exotic" bikes and lycra-clad women in Milan, se if you're interested in either here are some 100+ pictures
02.04.2017
It's difficult to get around in Liguria by car in the summertime, so we have done like the locals and bought a scooter. We got a 2016 Piaggio Beverly 350 ABS, because it was the best compromise for our requirements, and found a 2nd hand with just 4.750km, which saved us more than 1.500 euro over list price. On Friday I rode it all the way to Costarainera, avoiding the boring motorway
31.01.2017
After two years almost to the date, it was finally time to take all our stuff out of storage. For me it was a big day, because I got to see my four classic motorbikes again. But it was also nice to get all our garden tools, furniture and ornaments, not to mention all the other tools and parts that I had decided I could not part with when we left the UK. It is going to take a few weekends to get it all sotred out though.
10.07.2016
I always wanted to go over Col Agnel because it's the closest you can get to Monte Viso, which you can see from our house. On the way I passed Castello di Racconigi and was surprised to see close to 20 storks on the roof. I then went over Colle dell'Izoard, where I've been before (but never in 21C). Col du Galibier was closed for a bicycle race (sigh), so I had to detour almost up to Grenoble, which took me down new roads and past the beautiful Lac de Grand Maison.
16.05.2016
While Bibi visited Alma in Mallorca I went on a motorcycle trip: down to our house in Costarainera, across to France and up part of the Route de Grand Alpes from Menton to Briancon, and from there over Sestriere home to Torino. With an overnight stay in Valberg the 650km roundtrip was enough for a weekend in the saddle. Note how many different colors of rock there are in the pictures!
14.07.2015
Our friends Helle and Lars are on vacation with their motorbike and invited us to join them for a few days. We met at Gran San Bernardo on Saturday, and had a lovely ride over Piccolo San Bernardo, DIsere, Telegraphe and Galibier on Sunday before arriving in Torino on Monday. We always have a great time together, and shared many laughs (and drinks)
13.06.2015
Now that this years Herretur is over, I can finally reveal that I bought a brand new Triumph Explorer Explorer 1200 XC SE in March 2015. Lars German insisted that I kept it secret, so I could be "This Years Unpleasant Surprise". I am really with the Triumph and have already added 4.000km on a weekend trip to the mountains north of Lake Garda (when Bibi was in Denmark) and to the MotoGP at Mugello (with Bibi ridding pillion)
02.02.2014 
he Norton is once again roadworthy after a refresh. I don't want to renovate the bike and loose it's beautiful classic look and feel, but it obviously needs to be safe and comfortable to ride. The two things requiring attention were suspension front and back and the rusty wheels.
Here is a little bonus video of the Norton
07.12.2013
Almost all the parts for the Norton are now ready, so hopefully I can start the assembly in the Christmas holiday. Central Wheel Components have built new chrome rims and polished the wheel hubs. On the back, I have two new shock absorbers from Hagon, and at the front I have upgraded to a damper kit from Lansdowne Engineering. Footrests, gear shifter and rear brake pedal has been re-chromed, and the front forks and the instrument housing polished.
11.10.2013
I have started the recommissioning of my Norton. It as never my intention to restore the bike. After 40 years, it has a lovely patina, and it would be a pity to erase that. But, the front forks are leaking oil and need renovation, and I have to get some much needed rear shock absorbers and other minor items. The chrome on my wheels is rusted away, so I will have Central Whell Components replace them, but my tires and stainless steel spokes can be reused
28.04.2013
The BSA has now been MOT'ed and registered on an age-related plate, so today I took it out on the first (official) ride since we moved to the UK. The bike hase done just
over 2,000 miles since I restored it in 2005
1967 BSA A65L Lightning - More pictures
I bought my 1967 BSA A65L Lightning from a Danish enthusiast called Vagn Jensen back in September 1995. Since then Vagn have gone on to become the importer of Triumph motorcycles in Denmark (www.vagn-jensen.dk) and have build a large business, but back then he imported and sold English motorcycles out of his garage at home.
My A65L was imported from USA and was in operational - but far from perfect - condition, but my intention was to fully restore it. I took the bike apart in the winter 95/96 and started the restoration. Unfortunately progress was slower than I had expected. First I build a workshop inside my nice 56 m² garage to have a decent place to work. Then in January 1997 I bought a Honda CBR600 and then I had no time or money to work on the BSA.
So the restoration made very slow progress from year to year. One winter I got the frame, swing arm etc. painted. The next year I send the engine to SRM (www.srm-engineering.com) in the UK for a complete restoration, but overall progress was slow to say the least. My friend Lars kept making fun of me for not finishing the project, and my colleagues at work had little faith in me every putting the bike back together.
Then in the winter of 2004, I realized that come 2005 it would be 10 years since I bought and stripped the bike, and since I had some money left from re-mortgaging my house, I decided to finish the BSA. To be fair I enlisted the help of Vagn Jensen, since I still don't have much time and frankly wasn't sure I could even remember how the assemble many of the parts.
The bike was finally finished in January 2005 and passed it's MOT without remarks. I'm very pleased with the final result. The bike looks just as good as I always knew it would, and it sounds even better than I could remember. It's almost in standard condition with a few invisible modifications: SRM Needle-roller bearing conversion, dynamically balanced crank, hardened steel exhaust valve seats (for unleaded petrol) and electronic ignition.
Unfortunately the (Japanese) chain broke when I released the clutch for the first time, smashed into the engine case, and broke off a bolt that tensions the gear shafts! First ride was a total of 5 cm long! The engine had to be removed from the bike, taken part, welded, reassembled and put back in the bike again.
I have now had the pleasure of the BSA for a couple of years, in which I have taken the total mileage up to around 2,500 miles. Overall, it has been a joy and my trust in the machine has grown so much that I now go anywhere without fear of the bike breaking down. However, there have been some minor problems. The first season the speedometer under- read by 40%, which made me think I was going very slowly until I realized that the speedo was incorrect, and I was in fact going faster than intended!
In the second season, I was stranded twice by malfunctioning spark plugs. Changing the spark plugs cured the problem. Besides that, I have only had minor issues like blown light bulbs, bolts vibrating loose, licence plate cracked from vibrations etc. - things you come to expect when riding a classic English motorcycle.
1955 Royal Enfield 500 Twin - More pictures
I bought my 1955 Royal Enfield 500 Twin from a guy at an autojumble in Fredericia, Denmark in February 2007. It is an original British Royal Enfield made in Redditch, UK not one of the "new" Royal Enfield's made in India. The 500 Twin was introduced in 1949 and remained in production until 1957, but was never as popular as the 350/500 Bullet models (which are still made in India today), or the later and more powerful 700 Constellation and Interceptor models. The 500cc engine produces 25 bhp at 5,250 rpm, which is about the same as a "modern" Royal Enfield today! The bike weighs 185 kg and has a top speed of 85 mph.
There is a 1951 Royal Enfield 500 Twin on exhibit at the National Motorcycle Museum. The sign on the bike reads:
In 1949 Royal Enfield joined the parallel twin trend set by Triumph's 1938 Speed Twin. The Redditch factory's two-cylinder offering, simply called the 500 Twin, has several features that set it apart from its contemporaries. On is the frame with swinging arm rear suspension, first used by Enfield on 1948 factory trials singles and only adopted by BSA, Norton and Triumph several years later. The engine differed from British twins already launched in having aluminium cylinder heads, which, along with the iron cylinder barrels, are discrete castings. The one-piece crankshaft is of resilient iron alloy and the chain-driven camshafts can be changed without dismantling the crankcase. Another accessibility bonus for riders doing their own maintenance is the simple single bolt fixing for the alloy primary drive cover. Engine oil is stored in a crankcase compartment rather than a remote tank and, as usual for Enfield, the Albion gearbox carries a small second lever for instantly selecting neutral at standstill.
My bike, with frame number 4209, had allegedly been "fully restored" over a number of years buy an older gentleman who had gone blind (maybe that's why it's a non-standard color, he-he), and sold the bike to the guy I bought it from. The seller had only little knowledge of the bike, but I found it in such a nice condition that I had to have it, and since his price seemed fair at 5,000 euro a deal was made. The odometer reads just short of 18,000 miles - but there is no way of knowing if this is accurate. You can tell mine is 1955 model as it has a dual seat, die-cast cylinder heads, external oil feed to rockers, oval air-filter box magdyno and double-sided front brake.
The Royal Enfield 500 Twin has been with me for a good couple of years now, and it's really grown on me. I love this little machine, it so easy to live with, starts with very little effort (a child could kick it over), runs nicely and is (just) powerful enough for modern traffic. I'm so pleased with the bike I ended up using it for my 45min commute to work in Denmark for several weeks during the summer of 2008. A number of small issues have come up, and now we have moved to the UK and the bike will need a MOT and UK registration, I've decided to sort them out. The front suspension had a hard time keeping the front wheel on the road, and balancing the wheel had made little difference, so I took the wheel to Central Wheel Components, who is now only half an hour away, and they trued it for me (cost £16). The previous owner fitted three 2 volt batteries in series to provide 6 volt for the bike. These non-standard batteries were not powerful enough, and even though the bike will run with a flat battery, the lights don't work, so I replaced the battery with a new original unit from Hitchcock Motorcycles (46 pound). The speedo was always a bit erratic in operation and ceased working completely towards the end of the 2008 season. I had local man John Heywood (heywood@airengcons.freeserve.co.uk) repair and overhaul the speedo as it is an original Smiths instrument (cost 50 pound). To be fair it could probably do with a new carburettor, but Amal 276 pre-Monoblocks are hard to find these days (and 290 pound new!), so that will have to wait.
1974 Norton Commando 850 Roadster MKIIa
- More pictures
The 1974 Norton Commando 850 Roadster MKIIa is the latest bike in my collection. I bought it in July 2007 over the Internet unseen. You really shouldn't do that, but I liked the bike from the photos and I bought it from Carl Rossner, Triumph a reputable dealership in south London.
I always wanted a Commando and this in my opinion is the best of Commando's. It's a Roadster so it has the small fuel tank (Interstate has big fuel tank). It's a late model 850 so it benefits from the development work done without being too modern (i.e. no electric start or left side gear pedal, like on the MKIII). Best of all its Candy Apple Red (not Black like most Commandos).
The bike seems very original as it still has the standard disc and calliper - which most people replace with something more powerful. The standard intake air silencer kit is also fitted, which is quite rare. The only noticeable modifications are Lucas Rita electronic ignition and peashooter exhausts. The last owner had the bike for almost 20 years so I hope he took good care of it.
I picked the bike up from Carl Rosner on August 13th 2007 and took it for a business trip around the UK before returning to Denmark by ferry later in the week. The 500 km trip went very well and the bike rode nicely. It's quite powerful and you can really feel the torque from the 828 cc engine. It's really hard to kick-start as the compression ratio is quite high, as since it doesn't idle that well I had a few sweaty moments at intersections where the engine cut out and I needed to kick it over.
The dealership had promised to look the bike over and they had given it a new battery, but the indicators didn't work, the bar end mirror was swivelling loose and gear shift pedal had excessive play - but hey what did you expect?
I'm really pleased with the bike. It's un-restored and in no way concurs, but it's in nice original condition. The aluminium is a little dull, but that will polish right up and there is some corrosion on the wheel rims, but British chrome was rather thick so that may polish out as well. The suspension is knackered, the rear shock absorbers need replacement and the front needs new fork seal (they leak all over) and an oil change.
1971 Honda CB750Four K1
- More pictures
My first bike was a Honda CB400 Four, which I bought in 1985. At the time, I couldn't afford a CB750 Four. The CB750 was the first "superbike" with a four-cylinder in-line SOHC engine, electric starter and disc brake - it pretty much killed off the British motorcycle industry! My BSA looks decidedly dated by comparison.
The CB750 was introduced in 1969 and the 69-70, known as the K0, is now very much in demand, i.e. too expensive for me. I wanted an early model and it had to be the wonderful gold colour that I remember so well. The bikes I could find in Denmark were either in a very poor state or ridiculously expensive, so I started looking aboard. In Germany (and Italy), the CB750 community is already flourishing and there are lots of bikes and parts to be found.
I bought my Honda CB750 Four K1 in July 2005. It was advertised on a Norwegian homepage by a Swedish guy living in California - strange world isn't it? It's a 1971-model, i.e. a K1. This particular bike was brought to the USA by a soldier stationed in Germany, so it is a European model, has km/h clocks, and just less than 25,800 km on it.
It arrived in my driveway on 10th October 2005 in a big wooden box. Opening it up was just like Christmas back when you were a kid! It had suffered slightly from the long trip by boat. Many of the nuts and bolts had corroded from exposure to salty air. Otherwise, it was in pretty good and original condition.
I have since (2007) had the wheels rebuild with new spokes, rims and tires as the rims were badly corroded on the inside, which I noticed when I took the Chinese tires off - which was first on my agenda, I'm not riding substandard tires!
The electrics on this bike are about average condition for its age - which means not that well sorted. I bought a new fuse box, because the rubber on the old one had deteriorated, a new blinker relay because the original blew the fuses and a complete new headlight (it's one unit so you can't just change to bulb) because the parking light didn't work. Unfortunately, I also had to replace the original round taillight because that has a yellow glass and that meant sourcing some frame mounted rear blinkers to replace the rear light mounted ones.
The bike suffered a left hand low speed spill at some time so I replaced the cosmetically damaged generator cover and exhaust shields. I have also replaced many of the smaller fasteners with new stainless steel hex head bolts.
At first it was very reluctant to start. The first problem turned out to be stale petrol in the tank. After that was sorted, it still didn't fire on the outer left cylinder. That proved more difficult to trace, but eventually I found that the spark plug insulator had cracked allowing the spark to jump at different locations above the electrode.