There and back, twice!

 I was up early and had the R1250 out of the garage before eight o'clock this morning.

The reason for this early start was not a run out to the coast, or any other such pleasurable outing. I needed to get it over to the Motorrad dealership in Cheltenham for them to take a look at the gear change issue. 

It was a boring thirty mile run in rush hour traffic, and most of it was on the motorway. Having dropped off the bike and given yet another run through of the erratic gearbox problem. I headed back home on their courtesy bike. It was a little G 310 R and I can safely say that the M5 was not its natural habitat.  It is a low powered, single cylinder bike more at home whizzing around town with a yoof on board.

Anyway, having soundly thrashed the little 310 R, I arrived back home and spent a frustrating few hours fitting the last of the security bars to the back window of the workshop. Basically the bars were slightly oversized and I was not able to fit them to the exterior of the building.  I did manage to get them installed on the inside of the window, but extra fixing holes were needed in the bars, and I will to install an extra stud in the wall at some point in the future.

We also had on-site entertainment this afternoon as 30% had arranged for a mobile tow bar fitter to come and fit one to the X3.* 

The BMW dealership rang midway through the afternoon and advised that my bike was ready for collection.  They could find no problems with the gearbox and advised that it is as expected for a bike with such a low mileage.  It seems that they think that it will smooth out with a couple of thousand miles on the odometer ... I bloody hope so!

This meant that I had to endure another thirty miles on the little 310 R. It may be small and nimble, but it is bloody noisy and woefully underpowered after riding the 1250 R.**

I didn't hang around at the dealership and was soon back on the M5 for the fourth time today.*** By the time I came off the motorway at the Worcester junction I was heartily fed up with the route. As an alternative I came home via Pershore and Evesham just to add some variation to the journey.

And that pretty much sums up my day. Up and down the bloody motorway ... Twice!

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* We have had no towing capability since the departure of the Defender at the end of March.

** The 310 produces about 34 BHP. The 1250 R delivers 134 BHP once it has been run in.

*** Remember I did this round trip last Tuesday with the car.