valheru-rides

[valheru-rides]

The Starrs really aren't aligning here...

So a few days before writing it was announced that Harley Davidson would replace its departing CEO Zeitz with Artie Starr, formerly of *checks notes* Pizza Hutt and some golfing gig… It was kinda ironic that the incoming CEO mentioned the “community and rebellious spirit” in his statement, a pretty much sure sign that he must be thinking about a different Harley Davidson, or at least one that…

[valheru-rides]

So why am I silently raging on a Friday night?

Well, I saw this: Just….what….no…. Ride the NC500 in a weekend? Right I am going to ignore every piece of information I’ve been given about this route in regard to the traffic, changeable weather conditions, winding roads and speed limits here, I’m not debating the physical ability to just beast a distance, because with the right fuel management and appropriate wee stops you could easily figure…

[valheru-rides]

A day trip to Matlock (via Blackrocks)

So Sunday morning, for no apparent reason my body clock decided that 5 am was just the kind of time I needed to be awake for. After staring at the glare of my phone for some form of indication of the days weather I got up and decided that today, I was riding to Derbyshire. The time is of course heavily dependent on the A17, which is like being dependent on a borderline alcoholic to give the mini…

[valheru-rides]

He bangs, he bangs.

Well to be fair he pops, but let’s not split infinitives on a Sunday afternoon eh? Anyway the reason I’ve started with a strange reference is that I wanted to more closely look at the more obvious differences between my 2024 (reg 25) Meteor and his predecessor from 2021. The controls. Right I’m not saying the switches on the 2021 felt cheap, they were good enough in the way they didn’t feel…

[valheru-rides]

So I bought another Meteor...

For the vast majority of you here, you will no doubt be aware my bright blue Meteor was sadly written off following an RTA at the start of May. Following the general annoyance/insurmountable rage of the loss I had to sit down and evaluate what motorcycle to replace him with. Whatever I bought needed to be: Fairly small. Good fuel efficiency. Comfortable. Affordable. Tripper Options for all…

[valheru-rides]

REVIEW: Nick Sanders - Edge of Europe.

For anyone who’s ever followed or interacted with me over the last few years, you will have noted that I hardly comment on, or mention other motorcycle vloggers channels or trips. This is not out of some strange protectionist mentality, or a desire to appear segregated from the moto community. Its origins directly lie in how we all view, consume and appreciate different vlogging styles, and not…

[valheru-rides]

They won't like you anyway, fuck 'em.

I’ve been formulating this post in one way or another since June 2023 when I started noticing quite a bit more the behavior and general road habits of many of the other users that I cohabit the road with. I’d really like to be able to write one of those really deep, meaningful life lesson posts that sound like it was written by a guru about not sweating the small stuff while out riding. But…

[valheru-rides]

The 'jacket nesting' instinct.

Spending a good amount of time in my formulation years in the North East, the ownership of any form of coat or jacket had originally ranked only slightly higher than owning an umbrella (Ella). However, one of the strange afflictions which seems to have struck me since Motorcycle ownership is the unnatural attraction to jackets. The strange nesting urge to have multiple jacket styles and options…

[valheru-rides]

The folly of a 750.

The Royal Enfield 750cc Interceptor. Unless you’ve been living under a rock in the last few months you will have spotted a number of articles and spy shots floating around on the new 750cc ‘upgrades’ being issued to the Interceptor, Continental & the new Himalayan twin. The larger bore will enable the new 750cc to achieve additional BHP and Torque. So why am I calling folly? At 750cc this will…

[valheru-rides]

The Royal Enfield rumours for 2025.

Right folks, we’ve made it at last to the end of the year, and frankly not a moment too soon. This blog post will need to run slightly differently to the previous ones due to the sheer number of reveals that RE pushed out between Eicma and Motoverse, I spent a couple of evenings deleting whole sections of the previous post as they unveiled model after model. This time it will be pure rumours/spy…

[valheru-rides]

Don't have an ICE Vs EV argument.

I saw a post earlier today that really vexed me, I’d love to say it was a pure one off and I am massively overreacting over the whole situation, but I’ve seen several like it recently and it seems to be some form of fad. It’s the usual story of a motorcycle making some lovely brarp noises around some twisty bends, sounds great……then comes the annoying part: “Send this to someone who rides an EV…

[valheru-rides]

A post for the mid week.

My Meteor, looking clean for once. So I pulled onto the dual carriageway earlier, the traffic was fairly light, but not to the point that I had both lanes to myself. I wasn’t rushing anywhere and I knew the ongoing roadworks would be lasting until 2027 so I had nothing to prove by overtaking the lumbering SUV in front. We sat at 65mph on the dot (it’s a 70mph limit) on the inside lane, just…

[valheru-rides]

Holy cow! I missed that announcement!

Somehow I totally missed Honda sneaking out the GB350S over in the UK on November the 5th, something I’ve been saying they should do since the original H’ness. Honda for a long time seems not to have cared about the UK market, is this a change for the better? I’m about to jump on my Enfield for an hour, so frankly I have no time to check the social media reactions, which is probably just as well…

[valheru-rides]

Mid week quickie:

TVS Ronin festive edition.I was very on the fence when I originally heard about this, to the tune of, “another bloody special edition??? Really TVS???”I take it all back now I’ve actually seen it as it’s a great looking colour scheme. It’s a shame our licencing is so messed up in this corner of the world, or I could see this being a really popular small bike.

[valheru-rides]

The 450cc Cruiser hopes & dreams.

Last August Royal Enfield snuck out that they would also produce a 450cc power cruiser based on the new Sherpa engined platform. While we’ve heard practically nothing since then, but as we have now seen what can be accomplished in the production of the Guerrilla 450, I think we’re probably in a better position to speculate on what will be capable with the new platform. The original leaked design…

[valheru-rides]

Something that went "Grrr" in the night.

Obviously the best colour combo has blue in it. So it’s been a couple of days since the new Guerrilla 450 made it’s debut and I’ve had a good amount of time to sit and think about this bike. I’m not going to mention much about the actual reveal event itself, as I am well aware these can be divisive and frankly I am getting old, if it was up for me they would all be in the style of the recent…

[valheru-rides]

Leading other riders - my thoughts.

So as a lot of you have gathered from my inane jabbering, an absolute gent of a fellow biker visited the East on his way back to the Netherlands and I got the opportunity to ride for a day with someone who wasn’t my colleague. (Nothing wrong with you Sheepy!) Wells-Next-The-Sea After a coffee, cake and some satnav related shenanigans, and being the host after all (related to it being Norfolk) I…