dashmoto

I'm spoiling the narrative a bit here since there's still a few bits of the build to be documented, but I'm quite excited (and relieved), so what the hell - a couple of hours ago, I rode the Tenere for the first time in two months, to the local MOT test centre, and returned with a pass certificate.

Of course, given I've not ridden for a while, the bike's been rebuilt from a bare frame, there's brand new brake pads, tyres, and various other bits that need bedding in, and it's now something like two and a half inches taller than a standard Tenere, I was glad that I had a nice warm Spring morning to ease myself back into it.

Ahem...

Still, I managed to make the journey there and back with no great drama, and for possibly the first time in my entire vehicle owning history passed an MOT test without even a single advisory.  In an amusing twist, I actually participated in the test myself, as the tester decided he wasn't tall enough to sit on it for the brake test.

The MOT certificate also reveals that I've done a mere 7,615 miles since the first of March last year, which is a bit disappointing, although unsurprising given the amount of time I've spent preparing it for the rallies last year, and lately for the US trip.  I expect the next twelve months (and indeed the twelve weeks that I'm in the US) to cover significantly more distance.

I'm now hoping the weather clears up a bit so I can put a decent shakedown mileage on it before, a mere three weeks from yesterday, it gets dropped off with the shipping agents to be boxed up and flown across the Atlantic.