Life with my Triumph Speed 400: Observations post first service

Now that the bike has had its first service, I felt more confident about going faster.

BHPian davelok recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I took my bike to the Thol bird sanctuary yesterday, this time solo. I tied a tripod (video head mounted) with a strap and a bungee cord to the luggage rack. I later discovered that I had lost the 3/8-16 screw on the quick release plate somewhere on the road due to vibrations, and was cross at myself for not putting it in my backpack first. Anyway I have some spare screws, and usually use the 1/4-20 screw and socket for mounting my camera, so I was good.

Now that the bike has had its first service, I felt more confident about going faster. I’m amazed at how much it pulls even above 90kmph (the speedo being off by around 10%, I’m never sure of how fast I’m going unless I use the GPS Speedo app on my phone). However it thrums in the chest quite a bit. I guess I’m not used to riding fast, that’s all. The road to the sanctuary has a lot of speed bumps, but there are some stretches where you can go fast without hurdles if you’re lucky (i.e. no quadrupedal strays or bipedal interlopers).

Another thing that I did was to sit a lot closer to the tank instead of pushing my bum nearly to the pillion seat. This way, there was much less pressure on my palms and I could sit upright when I wanted, but now some mild stress got transferred to shoulder blades when I leaned into the wind.

The Carbon Racing pullback risers I’ve ordered are in transit. I’ll get to find out how they help in riding in both the city and out on the highway once I get them installed. However, one thing that I realised while riding standing up on Thol’s broken dirt road inside the sanctuary was that the pullback risers might bring the handlebar too close to my legs.

I rode all the way from the inside parking lot to the gate of the sanctuary standing on the footpegs (got some applause from some kids too). It was easy to do in 2nd and 3rd gear, and I didn’t have to bend too much but the insides of my thighs started to feel it by the end of the 1km run. I did have a heavy camera backpack on my back. I need some abduction/adduction exercise and learn how to grip the tank properly with my knees. I think the bike also needs slightly longer footpegs for doing this. A helmet lock might be another useful accessory.

All in all, it was an enjoyable trip. I saw the season’s first Greater Spotted Eagles, and a couple of seagulls. I need to examine the photos of the gulls closely to determine if they were Brown-headed or Black-headed, but either way they’re rare to be seen at Thol.

Oh, and lest I forget, there still seems to be a fueling problem with my bike. It stalled again in 2nd gear with the clutch depressed. I also need to twist the throttle sharply to get it to start up at times at signals or when parked.

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