Waiting a year seems sensible. Can't be arsed with aggro, too old and knackered for that caper.

Probably not Meldrew. My Vespa GTS suits me fine at the moment.

Ah but, Meldrew - these days I only ride when the weather is good. If I'm on a bike rather than a scooter I've still got the "proper" gear - leather jacket, leather jeans and trusty Altberg boots (all of which still fit!!!). My trouble is I really like the light weight of the Vespa, coupled with the convenience of t&g transmission and clean shoes. I still look at bikes like the new RE twin with a pang of remorse though. I've always thought that 650cc is the ultimate capacity for a bike engine, and twin cylinders the ideal configuration. I really liked the W650, R65 and 650 Burgman from my younger days.

Aye, and the reason why I still ponder those old BSA Rockets, golden flashes etc. in classic dealers.
And looking at the new bikes from BMW, KTM and many others more and more manufacturers are thinking that a parallel twin IS the ideal configuration, seeing how many are now producing them.

I think that on balance (see what I did there?) I prefer a flat twin. I like horizontally opposed engines in general - many years back I had a Subaru 1.6 that had a lovely flat four engine. Old Beetles and Citroens were good too.

Funilly enough Ive just got back from a holiday in Goa, I always hire a bullet when over there, but the 1st day the Bullet had 'technical problems' so we went out on a Bajaj avenger 125, it was big, comfy and rode very well for a 125, the next morning the bullet arrived (350 carb own market model), which I was glad as we were going to do about 130 miles that day. After about 30 miles me and the wife agreed the bullet was a mistake, the Bajaj was a better all round bike!!


click on image to enlarge

Funnily enough the best selling two wheeler in Goa/India is the Honda activa, they are everywhere, thousands of them, a 125 scoot similar looking front end to the new vision. I was suprised to see it is also metal bodied and no tuppaware.

I have decided to keep the Deauville, was thinking of something new as I will be doing my touring on the Silverwing this year.
Could not face trading it in and finding out I made a big mistake.
Thanks all for your comments about Enfields.

Yes agree regret selling my deauville

Dave Weller wrote:I have decided to keep the Deauville, was thinking of something new as I will be doing my touring on the Silverwing this year.
Could not face trading it in and finding out I made a big mistake.
Thanks all for your comments about Enfields.

Dave, if you like Honda twins as much as that, don't even THINK about an Enfield single. You'll think you're sitting on a road drill!