A few months ago, I wrote about an approach from the Viking Group, a Californian motorcycle apparel/accessory business that offered to send me riding gear in exchange for reviews.

Well, it wasn’t a complete surprise if I am honest … that nothing ever happened. Despite some promises, the company didn’t end up sending me anything to review, and so that was that. Unreliable lot those Vikings.

On the biking front though, much is new to report. At the end of June, I bought a 2008 Honda CBF1000 GT. The CBF was my first foray into four cylinders and my first Honda too. My decision to get an alternative bike was driven by my desire to expand my skills and experiences by riding a machine with different behaviour and handling characteristics.  I had test driven a CBF and had decided that it was the next bike for me - the extra ‘go’ and smooth four-pot power delivery won me over.

For a few weeks before my Yamaha TDM 900 went to its new home, I had two bikes in the garage. The TDM had served me well, been utterly reliable and, over the 5,000 miles I had ridden it, the Yamaha had become a mechanical friend to me. When I sold it, I was genuinely sad to see it go, but at least it went to a good home.

The Honda and I are getting along well enough now; though the bike is newer and has a lot less mileage than the TDM, teething troubles marred the start of our relationship, and for a while I regretted my decision to upgrade.

It was like changing an old girlfriend for a younger, sexier model and then finding out that age, performance and looks aren’t as important as shared beliefs, values, attitudes and history.

Though the honeymoon period with the Honda was all too brief, the challenges are now largely in the past, and my plan is to keep this machine for the longer term.

Since acquiring it, I have added over a thousand miles to the odometer, that’s more miles in less than four months than the bike had done in its previous four years.
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I took part in Rugby Bikefest on 26th September. On the bright Sunday morning, I joined the ride-in from the truck stop on the A5. It was good fun, hundreds and hundreds of bikes riding in convoy, two abreast with a police escort into and around the town centre.

​Next to me for the ride-in was the chap on a Harley (see left). A distinguished gentleman rider if ever I have seen one. Burgundy velvet jacket, open face helmet and a pipe for gawd's sake. The velvet did look rather cool, but it wouldn’t do to fall off in it, and you certainly wouldn’t want to ride in the crappy weather either.

He did look dapper though in his shades and bike-colour-coded smoking-room attire. And the pipe just cracked me up. His machine was nice and noisy too, so he wasn’t struggling to get noticed. The MC in the town centre targeted him specifically for an interview.

Unfortunately, having picked up a slow puncture, I had to contend with a deflating rear tyre  – my tyre was literally screwed. It’s not much fun riding with a flat. In the gallery photo (below far left), you may be able to see that my rear tyre isn't at its correct pressure.

People lined the streets through rugby to watch the parade thunder by, and the town centre was packed full of people, motorbikes and concessions. It was the busiest I have seen anywhere in more than eighteen months. So busy, it was rather disconcerting. Not many face masks in evidence.

​My final biking related update is that I have got myself booked on to a Biker Down course organised by Northamptonshire Fire Service. In November, I am going to find out how to help fellow motorcyclists that end up in trouble. I am sure it will be an eye-opener for me.

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I saw a TV advert earlier in the week for Marmite beer and decided that I had to get some. The ale, brewed by Camden Town Brewery in conjunction with Marmite, is limited edition and limited in terms of availability – for example sold by Tesco but only from the Extra stores; available at Sainsbury but not at Asda.

As a Marmite fan who sought out Marmite chocolate, rushed out to buy Dynamite chilli Marmite, loves Marmite peanut butter and even has Marmite shower gel in the bathroom, I had high hopes that the beer would be something special.

I went out on my motorbike on Saturday determined to find some and scored a hit at Sainsbury in Sixfields, Northampton.

At £1.80 per 330ml can, it’s not cheap in Sainsbury though.  I later went to Tesco’s large store in Hunsbury, Northampton and you could buy a four pack for £5 with a Clubcard. I paid £9 for five cans and felt that I had badly been ripped off. If you want to try some of this stuff too, I wholeheartedly recommend you seek it out at Tesco.   

Yesterday evening the first can was cracked open and the tasting could begin.

Here’s my review. The beer is dark in colour and nice enough; it isn’t devoid of flavour, but there just isn’t enough Marmite about it in my opinion. It could smell better, and it could taste more authentic too. I think that Camden/Marmite missed a trick – they played it too safe. If it didn’t say Marmite on the can, or I had blind taste tested it, I would have had no idea it had anything to do with Marmite at all.

If you like a flavoursome ale, Adnams Broadside is an excellent brew and it totally outclasses Marmite beer. Guinness Export is also terrific for flavour.

The positioning for Marmite is love it or hate it – in this instance, and in my opinion, neither label applies. Marmite beer is okay, but that’s all it is. If you drink lager, you might hate it, but I can’t see a real ale or a Guinness drinker stating that they love it.

All in all, I was a bit disappointed, which is a shame.
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I have a collection of Seiko automatic watches from the seventies, one of them is even featured in my ‘stuff’ gallery. The collecting bug started back in 2008 and a number of watches came and went over the next five years or more.

One watch I always wanted and could never really find at the right price was a 6105-8110 diver. This particular dive watch was immortalized in Apocalypse Now because Captain Willard, played by Martin Sheen, wore one. As a result, folk will often refer to the style of watch as the “Willard”.

The Vietnam era Seiko always did, and still does, command a high price. As such I never had a 6105, but I did have a 1979 6309-7040 diver, affectionately known as the “turtle”.
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I recently found out that Seiko had issued a 55th anniversary edition of the iconic time piece and a wider range of reissued Prospex models with different coloured dials - black, blue, green, grey. 

I’ll be honest, my first thought was “I want one”. But, and the but was big, the new watches ranged from £1000 to £1250.

https://www.seikowatches.com/uk-en/products/prospex/spb183j1
https://www.seikowatches.com/uk-en/products/prospex/spb151j1
https://www.seikowatches.com/uk-en/products/prospex/spb153j1
https://www.seikowatches.com/uk-en/products/prospex/spb237j1

​A grand for a Seiko feels very steep to me. The brand is not exactly a prestige one and yet the price tag would suggest it thinks it is.  Would you pay Mercedes money for a Toyota?

​I got in touch with my watch repairer friend, Rich, also a fan of the Seiko brand and he advised me that the watch forums had been abuzz with dialogue about the re-issues … and that the consensus of opinion was aligned to my thinking on price.

But he went on to state, “If you want a 6105 without the £1200 price tag, have a look at the Steeldive SD1970. Their 6105 'homage' is just £109, powered by a Seiko NH35 movement and comes with both a solid link stainless bracelet and a rubber strap.”

What’s more, Rich had already bought two watches from the Steeldive range and was mightily impressed with them; his comment “the quality of the watches is unbelievable for the money.”

I had never heard of Steeldive, and replicas are not normally my thing, but a recommendation from a friend whose opinion I respect was the game-changer for me. And a Seiko homage powered by a Seiko derived automatic movement felt rather acceptable.

Steeldive has a website, this is it - https://www.steeldiveuk.com/ - and off I went to visit.

Impressed by what I saw, I set about acquiring myself an SD1970 … and a few days later was very pleased with my purchase. The watch has been worn constantly since and not only does it look great, the timekeeping is spot on. And, like Rich, I am already contemplating my next buy.

It’s a word-of-mouth thing; thanks to Rich, I went from a complete lack of awareness to advocacy within days, avoiding the scepticism I would have entertained otherwise. I am now sharing my opinions to spread the ‘word’ a bit further.
 
The story doesn’t end here though. I got in touch with Steeldive UK and spent an hour chatting with director, Matthew Burgin.

The Steeldive website tells some of the story about the business, but here’s what else I gleaned from Matthew.

He’s a serial entrepreneur (he runs a number of businesses) and a watch enthusiast. He became the UK distributor and stockist for Steeldive some eighteen months ago and is quietly building himself a nice little business in Cardiff. The desire to get involved with Steeldive came from owning one, genuinely appreciating the quality/aesthetics of the watches in the range, realising that there was a business opportunity to establish the brand in the UK and a chance to make some money whilst doing something he was interested in.

Lockdown meant that Matthew had a little more time (no pun intended) on his hands than normal and that gave him the scope to deal with the legal stuff, the Chinese, the importing and the statutory reporting.

Matthew likes a Seiko (we both own Pogues for example – named after Nasa astronaut Colonel William Pogue who took one to the moon - his blue dialled, mine yellow); his choice of watch from his own range is also the SD1970; we both like classic cars; and it turns out that we are almost the same age.

Chatting to Matthew was easy and I could have whiled away more time, except that I started to feel guilty for distracting him. I had literally called out of the blue and he was good enough to engage with me; I didn’t even buy anything else.
  
I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and came away thinking that Matthew is a decent chap and that not only could I/you buy a good watch at a good price, I/you could buy one from someone likeable as well. Next time I buy a Steeldive, and there will be a next time, I am going to phone my order in and hope to get another chat while I am at it.
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If you like diver style watches, I’d recommend that you check out Steeldive. My friend Rich was effusive in his praise and so am I.

The Steeldive SD1970 isn’t presenting itself as a Seiko, it isn’t claiming to be something that it’s not. It’s not a ‘fake’, it is instead an homage and respectful to the original. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea I accept; I wasn’t even sure it would be mine … but I am now wearing my watch with satisfaction and with pride. And, if I end up duffing it up a little in the course of living, it won't be the end of the world.

The SD1970 is a cracking piece; the quality is great and the price makes one accessible to any fan like me that always fancied a Willard but couldn’t afford one. The Seiko Prospex re-issues are ten times as expensive and justifying the price difference is tough. For those that are into detail, the case on the Steeldive is even more faithful to 6105 than the latest Seiko re-issue.

To be brutally honest, the SD1970 feels every bit as good in terms of weight, finish and time keeping as my branded Seikos and, as a Seiko fan, that is difficult to comes to terms with.  Probably not good for Seiko either.
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But nothing is ever clear cut; I have read that customers have bought Steeldives and then, having liked them so much, they have gone and bought the original watch that the homage was based upon. I have also heard that customers have bought Steeldives because they own the original watches already, but don’t like to wear them in case they get damaged.

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