2001

Not a great deal of news from the first half of the year at this site. I took the BMF rally off this year, I think I've suffered enough! Then I fell over in Sainsburies car park on some diesel and broke five ribs, but it was at walking pace and there was so little damage to the Voyager that it doesn't show in pictures. Well, it broke a mirror, reminding me what a bad deal on price and delivery you get from the motorcycle industry compared with, say, Millards (as advertised in 'suppliers').

First outing after the ribs had glued up was to Beaulieu's 'Motorcycle World' show. No ecomobiles this year, in fact just Graham Robb and myself got invited. After a day staring into space Graham insisted we row ourselves onto the back of one of the motorcycle clubs demo run on the same circuit as last year. Here's Graham blasting up the inside at the end of the straight. (88KB jpg)

And here I am on 002 doing the same thing, politely leaving a big space for the other guy... Graham and I are both running the Goldilocks drive 8-33 CWP, getting second gear on the 'straight' and the collection of motorcycles, scooters and a mini-bike proved to be a lot easier to pass than the FF's I got to play with last year. Untill you actually run with them it's difficult to believe how slow motorcycles are in corners. They brake much earlier, for far longer, then seem to pause for an eternity before actually turning into the corner. A couple of times I found myself waiting for an instant for one of them to turn in before giving up and slipping through the huge gap up the inside. Paul Blezard, the journalist who once owned the Banana, was one of the more difficult to pass on a test Piaggio X9 - 500cc scooter which turns in well, but nothing could match the combination of power, brakes and agility of the Voyagers. (85KB jpg)

Here's Graham accelerating at full speed up the straight. You can see he's really trying by the way he's leaning forwards, slightly. No tyre smoke, no wheelies, no drama. Just fast, comfortable and economical. Not what motorcyclists want at all! (185KB jpg)

Thanks to Phillipa Robb for the photos!

History The Banana Early Prototypes Voyagers 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

Last update 25th August 2001. comments etc to ingrid oesten

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