Vera's New Boots - First Impressions

First impressions.

Once fitted I had this incredibly stupid idea of killing time before the football to go to the Ace Café on the North Circular and get a coffee and maybe see if there were any bikes there.

TomTom decided to take me on some tortuous route that included going the wrong way on the A3 and then "make a u-turn" back past FWR!  As a result of mostly walking pace traffic and some even stopped dead traffic I aborted and decided to go straight to the parking at Brentford.

I set the "Yamaha My Ride" app on most rides and this was no exception. I managed to cover 21.3 miles in 1h 13m. An average of 17mph!!!

So no real data from that part of the ride. The front had become a little skittish and that was gone.  

After the game the real test of rubbing the glaze off  came about.  Rather than slog through London I opted for a roundabout route that would involve motorway almost all the way. The M4 is right alongside the ground and an on ramp close by.  The first few miles on the elevated section are 40mph and then it is everyone for themselves. Road works on the M4, on the M25 in several places with lanes closed down to one in places.

With the TomTom for extra speed guidance I was pretty good and averaged 61mph for the trip home, 1h 38m for 101.5 miles.

On the concrete sections of the M25 around Heathrow it felt a little strange as though the road way was excessively "rain grooved" and there was slight undulating movement in the bars.  Once on the smoother tarmac sections it was very controlled.

Of course it was dry and the air temperature gauge on Vera showed 14C falling to 12C by the time I got to Kent and near home. 

A more challenging ride will see what an improvement they bring.