Friday bike

I'd featured the current model Indian Scout as a Friday bike, and Indian have announced a smaller, cheaper 1000cc version called the Scout 60 for 2016.

Indian Scout 60

The name 60 derives from the 1000cc engine being 60 cubic inches. The engine produced 68 bhp and the saddle height is a very low 642mm. More importantly, the price in the UK is a very attractive £8999 ( = 12,770 Euros = $US 13,500).

To tie in with the launch, Indian arranged to have some flat trackers built in conjunction with Roland Sands Design, and showed them at the recent Superprestigio of the Americas event in Las Vegas. Whether this is the start of an ongoing championship or a one-off event I'm not sure, but the bikes look great!

Just look at that exhaust!

As I said when I featured the Scout before, this isn't really my kind of bike, but I really like it because it's so well done. I love how they have managed to marry a modern design with classic styling, and judging by the only Scout I've seen, the finish and build quality are very high.

More reading: one, two.

UK website.

Go on, Mike - you know you want one!

Mary Barbour memorial

A monument to locally born social reformer, Mary Barbour, was unveiled here in Kilbarchan yesterday.

Mary is most famous for her part in organising rent strikes in Glasgow during WW1, when landlords exploited servicemen's wives by greatly increasing their rents.

Later she became a councillor in Glasgow and helped drive through a number of social reforms.

Part of an article from the Herald newspaper:

Born in 1885 in Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, Mary devoted her life to improving the welfare of Glasgow's "working poor" after settling in Govan. While thousands of men were fighting in the First World War, opportunist landlords seized the opportunity to drive up rents. Evictions for arrears as little as £1 were common.

Mrs Barbour, along with others involved in the so-called Red Clydeside Movement, rallied other local women to defy sheriff's officers and resist evictions.

Women would bang metal bin lids to warn the street the sheriff officers were coming, then block the close doors. At a time where most people don't know who lives next door, such a show of neighbourly solidarity seems incredible.

The unrest culminated in one of the largest demonstrations ever seen in Glasgow, on November 17, 1915. Thousands of women, nicknamed "Mrs Barbour's Army" accompanied by shipyard and engineering workers, converged on the sheriff courts in the centre of Glasgow. The action resulted in Lloyd-George's Government quickly pushing through the Rent Restrictions Act of 1915.

Five years later, at the age of 35, she was elected Glasgow's first female Labour councillor. Women had only recently been given the vote, and only those over 30.

She campaigned for the introduction of municipal banks, wash-houses, laundries and baths, free milk for schoolchildren, child welfare centres, home helps and pensions for mothers. She had two children herself and also pioneered the city's first family planning centre and organised trips to the seaside for impoverished children before her death in 1958 at the age of 83. Despite her achievements, there is little reference to her in Glasgow's historical records and her legacy forms no part of the school curriculum. 

Accident rates in Britain

Found a website that breaks down road accident rates and traffic progress (ie average speeds) by Parliamentary constituencies in Scotland, England and Wales. A quick look at mine, Paisley and Renfrewshire South, shows that we have a lower than average accident rate and a higher than average progress rate!

If you to the Website, click on 'Constituency Dashboard', it will open the page for Boston and Skegness. Click on 'Boston and Skegness' and it will open a page with results for Bishop Auckland. Click on the black box with 'Bishop Auckland' on it and it will open a pull down menu from which you can select your constituency. Once that is opened, you can filter the results by a number of pull down menus.

Suzuki SV 650 videos

Found a collection of videos on YouTube detailing various service jobs on the Suzuki SV 650. These are aimed more at the novice motorcyclists, but could be of value to anyone with an SV.
Just to show that 'every day's a school day', I learned that fitting a tennis player's sweat band over your master cylinder is (apparently) to stop UV from degrading the fluid and not just done because racebikes had them (which in turn I though was done in case the cap vibrated loose during a race and the fluid leaked).

Lots more videos here.

I'd like to thank Tamsen for taking the time to make and post these videos as they will no doubt be of great help to other riders. 

Rare vehicle

Was in the nearby town of Johnstone this morning and saw a rare vehicle - a Scottish built Stonefield P5000.

I had a look on the Web and found some details here.

I could find no record of how many were built, but I can't remember ever seeing one before other than on television reports. I found a Website with pictures of Stonefields in use as fire engines etc, but I don't know if any were used by the military, their intended market.
The one in the photos was outside a garage and has their name on its number plates, so they could be restoring it (the spotlights aren't wired.)

Friday bike

Suzuki VanVan 200

Suzuki have announced that next year we'll be able to get the 200cc version of the VanVan here in the UK, in addition to the 125cc version we've had for a few years.

One of those bikes that makes no logical sense, but with its low saddle (770mm), big fat tyres and funky styling, I bet it's a lot of fun to ride!

Friday bike update

Found this video about the new Triumphs. A T120 will be mine (once I've won a lottery!)