Four in a row: and getting ready for sunshine and warm roads

This summer seems to have had so many similarities to the summer of 2023 – not enough sunshine and way too much rain.

You may recall that last year I had planned, and booked, a couple of weeks in Ireland and Scotland.

Such was the awfulness of the weather I cancelled that trip and made alternative plans to head off for the sunshine and warm roads of Spain and Portugal in the October.

You can find plenty of information about that October trip at this link.

Heading that way again

I’ve biked in Spain a few times now on various bikes. Those bikes have included a GSX-R 1000, Kawasaki Z1000SX, BMW RnineT, Kawasaki Vulcan S and most recently (last year) a BMW F900 XR.  I’ll soon be heading that way again. And it’s the F900 that I will be using again when I head down through Portugal and onto the warm roads of southern Spain.

Getting the bike ready

Apart from the routine checks of generally getting the bike ready for the long trip, I also needed a new pair of tyres.

The front tyre would definitely not make the trip as it was almost on the wear limit.  Although the rear tyre had some mileage in it there wasn’t really a realistic or safe prospect of that being good enough for the trip either.

 

With that in mind I called in to MW Motorcycles to book my bike in for new tyres, which in turn would make the fourth visit of the four in a row series.

The last time I bought new tyres was a couple of years ago in July 2022 and that was for the BMW F800R that I used to own.

At the time I bought those tyres, the F800 had the stock Metzelers fitted but on Chris’s recommendation I opted for the Bridgestone T32 sport touring tyres.

I found them to be superb, so much so that I decided to have T32s put on the F900 in advance of my trip down to Spain and Portugal. There’s more info’ about ‘visit four’ further on in this post.

Always an opportunity for pictures

I have written in the past about MW Motorcycles. If you’re looking for a glossy, polished and sanitised motorcycle environment then to be honest you’re in the wrong place.

But if you are looking for a motorcycle workshop that is professional, helpful, knowledgeable, reliable and friendly – then this is the place.

It’s also a place where I like to snap a few pictures and there’s a reasonable selection of pictures in this blog post that illustrate this classic motorcycle environment.

I’ll be absolutely gutted is we ever get to a time when places like this don’t exist.

Why four in a row?

Although four in a row may seem an odd title for a blog post there was another occasion earlier this year in Manchester when ‘four in a row’ was mentioned. At that time it was widely celebrated by many folk up and down the land. I wrote about that over on the rainycity blog, and I just couldn’t resist another mention here.

This latest post was pulled together after my fourth visit of the year to see Alan and Chris at MW Motorcycles.

 

The first visit of the year was in early Spring when my Moto Guzzi was in for it’s annual MoT at the end of April.

 

 

The second visit followed soon after and it was for another MoT, this time on my BMW RnineT also in April

 

 

The third visit of the year was for a routine annual service on my BMW F900 XR. The pictures in Picture Set 1 are from that visit including some from the 25 minute walk from home to the MW premises. More often than not there’s something of interest in the workshop to look at.

On this occasion there was a nice Indian bobber in. It was loaded with plenty of carbon aftermarket parts, as well as some tidy Ackropovic cans.

Actually I once looked at and briefly considered an Indian Scout.  It’s a bike that I sort of like, and wouldn’t rule out having one in the garage but I’m not so sure it’s a bike that I’d use a lot or that is good enough/different enough to replace what I already have.

Picture Set 1

Clicking any image will open a picture gallery from the third visit. Pictures can be clicked or scrolled through

My fourth and most recent visit was a visit of two parts.

The first was when I called in to book my bike in for replacement tyres and the second when I took it in a few days later for the tyres to be fitted.

Picture Set 2 and Picture Set 3 are from those two visits respectively.

I said earlier in this post that more often than not there was something of interest to look at, and these visits were no different. Check out the Yamaha FSIE and the Moto Morini.

Picture Set 2

Clicking on any image will open a picture gallery that can be clicked or scrolled through.

 

Sterling service and Your Arsenal

As ever it was sterling service from Chris who seemed to be making the most of his time whilst working on his own (Alan wasn’t working that day).

As I arrived I could hear music being piped across the workshop and Chris was enthusiastically ‘throwing’ what I think are described as ‘shapes’

Not a medical issue

Initially when I saw Chris’s movements I thought it was some sort of medical issue but then realised he was just enjoying the moment. It took me a short while to work out what the music was. It turned out to be tracks from Morrissey’s classic third studio album  ‘Your Arsenal’, quite a change from a visit there last year when that classic Elvis Costello track I don’t want to go to Chelsea blared out across the workshop.

I couldn’t help but think the floor moves might have been more at home (and perhaps safer) at some sort of 1990s reunion.

Picture Set 3 and last words

The pictures in this third and final set are from when I called to have the T32s fitted at MW.

Bottom line on this post is that the bike is ready for the trip and if you need a good job doing Chris and Alan at MW Motorcycles are the ones to do it.

 

e