ADV Proves Itself - the scooter and I ramble!

[roadster]

Had a longer ride out today visiting the Army Helicopter Museum at Middle Wallop, mainly for the cake and hot chocolate! I chose the ADV over the Forza because of the terrible condition of our roads, and the proof of the pudding is in the eating! I hit a large hole which was disguised because there are still some puddles around. This was a big one and practically wrenched the bars out of my hands with what felt like a lock to lock speed wobble. Once on solid ground the scooter got flicked back into line and as soon as I could find a safe place to stop I had a thorough look over front and rear wheels etc. The only thing I could see was a bruise on the back tyre as if it had rolled over the rim at some point. So I went on cautiously at first until my confidence returned.

It was fifty miles or so before I got home and checked tyre pressures. Rear was OK but the front was down to about half of what it should have been ( ...and it was checked last week). Amazingly I hadn't really noticed this on the road ( stiff tyres!) although with hindsight it might have been running a bit wide sometimes.

Only 200 plus miles on the clock so no high speed but it is perfectly happy at 60 mph. Handling is very enjoyable and it can be chucked around bends as well as any bike. I wanted to be able to use less effort on the front brake so I've fitted some EBC sintered pads but they haven't had the desired effect yet. Maybe not bedded in. Fuel consumption around 90 mpg and the instruments predicted a 200 mile range when I brimmed it.

Finally a complaint, but not about the Honda. There seems to be a huge outbreak of temporary traffic lights all over Hampshire. Often they are not digging or repairing the road but laying lines along the pavements. Apparently this now means they have to completely cone off the carriageway. I tried different routes to and from home but that was pointless, each route had three separate sets of lights within a four mile radius. I stopped at one road closed barrier and had a friendly word with a workman about the "diversion ends" sign. Apparently they haven't got enough of the correct signs so they put up anything they can find and in this case "diversion ends" was it was the only one left at the start of the diversion! Pity they haven't run out of traffic lights!