Britain in lock-down? Well, until they say I can't go out on me bike . . .
Couple of short trips today, adds up to about 35 miles mebbe. The first run, headed for the the B6400. I love that little road because over a distance of about seven miles, it manages to have nearly every type of bend.
Being a B road, it's a fairly narrow country lane. But wide enough for two cars to pass though. There's a few straights, the odd kink, uphill bends, downhill, off camber, some longer ones where you're leaned for a while and just about every combination - esses where you can see all the way through, faster bends leading into slower ones, slow bends opening out into faster ones, bends on hill crests where you can't see the road till you're on it.
And it's quiet. Mostly empty except for the odd farmer's wife in a hurry in the Volvo. Or a tractor with a huge trailer. Or a large aggregate lorry - you always meet them coming towards you, on a bend, using all the road.
So I suppose this was about assessing the Orange Peril's handling. For me, that's not about trying to break some fastest time. It's more about riding a road I know at a nice steady pace that feels, uhm, comfortable. If a bike keeps making me feel uncomfortable, so I have to back off even further, that gets my attention. So today I rode the B6400 at a comfortable pace and the good news is that the XS behaved itself.
Because the gearing is lower than the Kawasaki W800, I was probably travelling slower. I didn't ever feel the tyres were scrabbling for grip. I didn't feel the bike might do something unexpected. In a couple of places where on the W800 I would have to go down to 2nd, the XS was perfectly happy in 3rd gear.
Mrs assesses a bike on the width of my grin when I get home. 'You enjoyed that, didn't you?'