Lateralus

Putting to one side the minor debate about how I'll navigate it, I've spent a fruitful long lunchbreak sketching out what could be my first full day of riding: 420km from my first night's accommodation to Argeles-Gazost - probably won't work on a mobile if it opens in the Google Maps app. Lots of scenic roads, and leaves me well placed to head up the Col du Tourmalet and more epic mountain passes the following day.

You joke, but most of our friends won't park directly outside of our house, and the neighbour's van sometimes rolls gently into the tree he parks uphill from!

I just move the car and clean it on the driveway - worked well with the old bike, and loads of room.

That is the most sensible option really - I'm just trying to be sensible with money too, for wider household PR purposes! Trouble with this is that my driveway is clean - push - clean - fall down a hill. [mention]Baloo[/mention] Wasn't being serious, even before seeing how awkward your bikes are to access! Sounds like they'll be safe though!

I have the same one and use it for the Daytona, but I've never had to lift the Tiger with it as I have a centre stand. I'm not sure I'd want to TBH as you need to hold the rear of the bike upright with one hand, while you push the handle of the paddock stand down with the other. Once you've got downward pressure on both paddock stand wheels the bike won't fall, but up to that point the Tiger is a tall and heavy bike to be holding upright, from the rear, with one hand. So what you're saying is I should practice with yours instead then?

Appears the abba stand won't work with the Tiger Sport. That roller thing looks interesting, but I imagine it would be much easier with the bike vertical.

I have a Scala G4 which I picked up second hand for £50, and have now bought a second for the wife too. I believe you can set it to be voice controlled for answering calls, but it's definitely got a single button press to answer too. Voice quality is apparently fine on calls, and I've no problems with the sound at my end.

So, centre stands are rather too expensive for me just now, but I do need to be able to clean and lube the chain properly. What's TMBF's verdict on paddock stands like this one? https://www.amazon.co.uk/ConStands-Paddock-Triumph-Single-adaptor/dp/B00KJ6E35I

Hmmm. Meatloaf then?

[mention]rennie[/mention]

Picked up a cheeky tag at Cadwell on my way past.

Had a nice little wander around earlier. Lots of patch vests around, but didn't see a Sons of Anarchy stall anywhere to buy one of my own. Only took a few pictures: I've always thought bikes needed a better power to weight ratio. An actual bike cup holder, in the wild!

Any recommendations for schools in/near Coventry for CBT and DAS? Was chatting to someone last night who's keen to start learning, and thought I'd try to find and suggestions for her. May have been quite drunk, it might have been 1am, and I possibly got overexcited when she asked me for advice and so talked at her enthusiastically for quite some period of time.

I've been using one since January, and so far am very pleased with it. Heat-proof area has no problems going straight on a hot exhaust, although I did once misalign it and melt a little of the taped seam on my old bike. Also, the long bit of the strap is the wrong side for me needing to do it up from the right hand side. So, both user-related issues on my part! Bike seems very happy underneath it, in all weathers, and the large one fits over a Tiger and top box quite happily (albeit not down to the ground).

Hah, well, I'll be out with the wife for her birthday during the day, so can't make it too early! Done well to be able to come at all, to be honest!

What sort of time are people arriving on the Friday night? You know, for those of us who are bothering to go.

Congrats! Take it nice and easy, but make sure you get out on the bike. With practice and miles under your belt you'll find that you continue to improve noticeably for a good while yet. Nothing to stop you asking for further lessons too if you want, but get out yourself for a while and see how you get on. And enjoy it!

Hmmm. Advantage Team Satnav.

Yeah, I like music on long slogs too, so would be erring towards the Garmin, but the extra cost is actually just another tick for the phone! My headset can only connect to one Bluetooth device at a time, but the phone is easily controlled by voice commands. ....yeah, phone is winning this one! Will put the saved money towards a centre stand!

The petrol station round the corner from my house has a free powered air pump, maybe look for something like that near you? We have a 12v one in the car, but it's loud, slow and feeble.

Wouldn't be much of a town planner if I couldn't read maps! Something that always bugs me when I fly somewhere too - have to get my bearings as soon as I can after landing. For budget reasons as much as anything I'll look to book some accommodation, but with plenty of flexibility for what I do in-between. May even build in time for some tourism off the bike! Although that may just end up being the random exploration of eateries as I pass them!

I do now have a surplus Note 4 which I was going to sell, but perhaps keeping it for this purpose would be a good idea. Means I'd still have my actual phone if needed, and I wouldn't be quite so precious about the one being used for navigation. Hmmm.

Tried the free demo of co-pilot on a run out today, and have to say the spoken directions were better than Google's - was a bit more refined in how and when they were given, and I like that it's possible to tweak the settings for how they're provided too. Keen to see what it's like when on the bars with the additional visual information too, but in my pocket it worked pretty well. I liked that I could keep Google's familiar voice as the one directing me too! I'm led to believe it has an audible warning if you were to exceed a speed limit, which could, in theory, be useful. Not very often I accidentally speed though.

I have a pretty good head for directions, and since the whole purpose of the trip is exploring, I'll be fairly relaxed about it all when out there! Will post in the sat-nav thread rather than here, but tired co-pilot today with the phone in my pocket and it worked fine, so there's always that option if I don't want it on the bars. Need to sort a power supply and case to test it properly though.