RUST magazine: RUST #44

LONG TERMER
w
IT’S PROBABLY NOT A GOOD IDEA TO
OVERLY RELY ON THE TRACTION CONTROL
TO SAVE YOUR ASS IN EVERY SITUATION
BONDING
It was a six-hour blast to the
Heysham dock for the 2pm ferry to
the Isle of Man. That meant a 5.30am
wake up given I live just about the
other end of the country. It was
a cool morning, too, so I had the
thermal lining in my Scott Dualraid
suit, and I had the 1290’s heated grips
set to max. The wee screen was in
the up position (it’s a simple manual
adjustment) and with that 23-litre
tank brimmed I was only going to
need the one refuel over the 350-
mile journey. A 1290 is a comfortable
place to be on such a long road trip,
certainly more commodious and
relaxing than a 650-single.
That said, there were stops. First at
Thurrock services (exiting Kent), to
link up with mate July on his 1190
Adventure R (the 1290’s predecessor).
Then another stop at KTM
(Silverstone) for July to swap to the
KTM 790 Adventure R – his choice of
ride for the weekend. Then another
stop at Keele services for a spot of tea
and cake, before arriving dockside
with a good hour in hand before the
scheduled sailing. The 1290 simply
stormed the journey, sitting on 85-
90mph for long distances, returning
about 55mpg, shrinking time and
distance. That big tank with its 250-
mile range is a damn useful thing to
have.
Equally, there’s space aplenty on
the 1290, so I had the huge Canon
SLR 1DX camera and lenses in the
tank bag; clothes, shoes and few
odds and ends in the Giant Loop
saddle bags; and tent, sleeping bag,
mat and waterproofs etc in the
Ortlieb bag on the rack. On the 1290,
even with all that lot it looked like I’d
packed light.
As my iPhone is now over two
years old and is going the way all
iPhones are programmed to do –
playing up, losing battery life, not
connecting etc – I wasn’t using the
Bluetooth KTM My Ride navigation
system (which works ace – when
the iPhone complies) but instead a
Tom Tom Rider 550. The Tom Tom
does a great job of suggesting the
best route and alerting in real time
to likely hold-ups (if only the iPhone
would connect…). I thought I knew a
better option on the last back roads
into Silverstone, but it turns out I was
wrong and the Tom Tom right – got
to trust to technology, eh?
FAST LAPS?
No, not fast laps. You have to respect
that outside of the TT and Manx GP
weeks the Island locals probably
aren’t anticipating bike nuts to be
trying to emulate John McGuiness
on the otherwise plain old hereto-there
Manx roads, and while
yes there were a few moments (as
described earlier) we kept these to
a minimum. And actually, riding
slower seems to speed up circuit
learning – with countless trips made
to the Island I’m always trying to
memorise the course, but yeah, I
learn slowly.
So come Saturday morning we set
out, now with roadbooks mounted
and ICO Apps up and running on
our phones (for once the iPhone
complying), and started discovering
the full length and breadth of
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