smallfrowne

Ah yes that was fun

I've put it on eBay. But I've ridden it to donington, not for a track day though. They've some other noisy event on.

Somebody should definitely buy that and make a review for me. Cheers.

Ah but the weight will disappear on the move.

Eeeee yes interesting journeys I do enjoy. My eyes have always been wide open with the orange stuff though, so a little 3 month wait at the roadside for some back ordered part is built in to my adventures. It's a very fun bike though, but a shame they don't just buy in their engines from Rotax . They (my eyes) have popped out ever so slightly more just lately having seen the extent of valve train failures on them. I did just check mine though and there is no wear, so got to be safe for another half a tank full at least. And just like that the postman has delivered me a new starter solenoid to wrap up the recommissioning of the big Vif. This was the original, modified, to the horror of a passing Frenchman, by me: Dirty Garage Man has recently done a video on fuse rot, I think that is what this thing was suffering from. Could have been a 30 year old fuse for all we know.

Well I feel slightly bad for Tinkicker because I have decided to get the VFR out of the very back of beyond. It was looking sorry for itself, well what you could see of it under all the strewn debris. Just needed to source a battery from something, it's own having gone with the DR I sold last year. Choke on, starter button on... and rest... and on... and rest... "[half a zumph zumph]" Rest... "[zumph zumph... vrweeeeeeeeeee]" Ahh lovely. I haven't used it for at least a year. Can't have used it since sometime before I sold the DR650 because it hasn't even had a battery, so maybe two years because I sold that in Feb 23 and I won't have used the Viffer in the winter of 22. Anyway it seems I was bit luckier than you Tinkicker. This bike has the same carbs as yours too. Just to gloat. Ner ner. I've fitted the new Wez brake lines I've had sat on the shelf for a while, just as well because the rear one had a right kink in it. It was steel braided too. Dunno how that happened. I even fixed the get-me-going-again-wiring-fix which I'd made at the bottom of some French mountain. Amazon gets some well placed hate, but you can't knock their logistics - it was the only apparent way to get the required butt connectors next day. Nice non-insulated ones too, not those horrid bright plasticcy things that the very sight of fills me with dread. New Yuasa battery from Tayna too, a little treat which also arrived next day which saved me faffing with the undersized battery I'd been playing with. And MOT this morning, flying colours. Do I stick it on ebay or take it to Germany in September?

I have one suggestion. Can she please put a green L plate on it when she passes. Edit: Especially if there's going to be a picture of it under the sign for Morocco.

Well bloody ell

Get one which says Hoosier on the sidewall, always like them.

Edit: double post

My tyre man has replaced the two 90s on mine, one of which was original and leaking. I even drew arrows for the correct directions. But after a few hours they went completely flat. I can move the valves with a prod of the finger. On breaking the bead of the tyre to have a look he's put the nut on upside down and because you can't get a socket on it that way in the recess of the rim finished the job off with a chisel and hammer. I could maybe live with that if it was actually tight. There is some blame in the product itself mind, the actual bit of rubber gasket doesn't fully fit inside the diameter of the hole, maybe that's why he had to turn the nut upside down to reach some thread. Argh. Shit job anyway. I'm going to try myself with some Bridgeport branded 90s instead of the ones I got off eBay. This is why I've never liked anyone working on my stuff, apart from tyres, til now.

Stand up and hope the rear seat is firmly attached or at least tethered on. I did wonder if the tether on the nc30 was worth it for the amount of times I had to undo the bolt to take the fairing off. It was worth it for that one time I wanted to test the new suspension and it pinged right off. Edit: you don't have to fully Charlie Boreman Stand Up, just ride it like a jockey hovering over the seat like taking a bicycle off a curb.

Heh heh. Yes I may have mentioned it when the conversation started to get a bit quiet. Cruel really.

I once went out for a ride with my uncle and his pals, I was hanging at the very back of the group. We were leaving a village and the front of the pack saw the magic "no speed limit" sign and gunned it, then the rest of the pack tried to keep up. The guy in front of me on some huge Kawasaki tourer thing did not see the sleeping pillow and flew right over it, panniers and everything, what a lump. It handled it well at a definitely not 20/30mph speed. Later at the social club watching the GP he never did mention it.

Yeah I would. Of course you can do it by feel once you've calibrated yourself but f**k it, it's not a lot of money compared to say getting a dealer to do it for you, or having a bit of a roadside moment. And proper tools are just nice and you can parade around with your chin up all smug forever more with that fuzzy glow. Edit: over the years I have acquired all 3 sizes of Halfords brand (Norbar) torque wrenches, the last of which is the ickle tiny one for pathetic screws, but I managed to get it as a quite-rare-these-days misspelled eBay listing bargain. And it's quite satisfying.

I stuff it all under the sofa.

Sometime after that incident I put a set of '97 carbs on my '91 and had to promptly change the o rings on the plastic fuel pipes into the carbs, something to think about if you're going in there anyway. The carb I bought might've been sat for years though, totally unknown, but the o rings where gash and it pissed fuel out at all angles.

Ah to have the luxuries of a shed to be sorting it out in. Wun I wer a lad I 'ad to do it int campsite carpark fifteen hundred miles from 'om'. Same problem though, front right cylinder filling up wi' repsol's finest.

I took it to Cadwell on Tuesday. Had a bit of a mare getting it ready because it needed buttoning back up after checking the valve clearances. I changed the oil. Changed the plugs. Changed the coolant - I had changed all the hoses, there was a smidge of a leak in the middle of the V. The hoses needed cutting down to size though which was annoying. Maybe I should've got real Samco hoses for thrice the price. But what a lovely shade they are. After that it still leaked, this time from the union into the cylinder. With the time I had all I could do was take it out, clean it up as much as possible and cosset the o ring, for which I did not have a spare. It turns out it's a funny size, 3.2mm cross section, 17.8mm ID - googling that returns only a few results, all pointing to the special Suzuki part. I got lucky and it didn't leak. Next I thought I'd treat the genny cover to a proper gasket since it was weeping despite the gobs of silicone lathered on. Nice little job, oh but wait it's missing a dowel pin. Ahhh having half an engine that the previous owner probably just wanted disposing of came in handy there. You've probably seen worse, but there seemed to be quite a lot of goo inside and outside. Then I tidied up the wiring, new plug covers which weren't mullered and falling to bits, stuff like that. Oh, securing the tilt sensor properly to the bike - no longer just dangling about. I didn't even realise what it was to start with but when I did it became clear it wasn't a good idea to have it flapping about. Then allsorts of other faffy bits. Faff faff faff. Work work work. Align chain. Hmm test taughtiness without the shock in. I can't exactly go by the book since it has no side stand and the gearing is definitely not standard, and it's only two easily accessible bolts to whip it out. Ahh shit oil all over the shock. Well that was a panic which made me get the slightly broken daytona out to change the tyres and maybe consider taking that instead; I couldn't not go to the ball - it's paid for! Fix the bent rearset bolt. Bah. Attach a new clip on. Check the SV shock again... no more oil appearing after being cleaned up. God knows where the oil came originally from but it wasn't coming back and felt "alright". OK SV it is then, but at least the Daytona saw a brief glimpse of hope. What a machine. It's going to cost me in knee sliders this thing. Since it was with no limits you can collar an instructor for free, so I did. Apparently he enjoyed following me round and bumped me up to Advanced group, which was nice. Also gave me a map with lots of red writing on it indicating (lots of) room for improvement. He did say I gapped him coming out of Charlies 2 though and he was on a faster bike, "which is embarrassing". Oh I'll take that. Since I had too many chips - very dangerous drug are chips - I couldn't stomach going out 20 mins earlier than otherwise allocated for inters, so I chickened out of the swap. Ended up having some nice "battles" with various types of bikes anyway so it was a very good laugh - you get to feel like a racer even though you definitely are not, but that doesn't matter at the time. It's generally all in good fun. In the background you can see some mid range naked bikes being snapped during dinner for I think Fast Bikes. Brand new KTM Duke and I dunno, some other bikes I suppose. The SV has rewarded my efforts by dripping fluid out of the water pump weep vent, which apparently means it needs a few seals and the (other) side casing to come off. Ah well, fair enough little SV, I'll sort you out.

I spunked the money (£43) for the Shure headphones because I've also got a screaming baby to reckon with, which is much worse than wind noise

Exactly that. Love me some foamy bits in my ears usually. These earphones though I mentioned at least don't fall out when you put your hat on without really thinking about it. But, with other types it usually can be done you just need the knack, splay the straps out as wide as you can for the best chance. Stop and adjust. Faff about.

https://youtu.be/TUHgGK-tImY?si=FrO9v-uq4MCkhi7g

I've got a couple of rok straps, very nice. I don't like the idea of open hooks, mine are the ones with loops in the end. I also use a bit of rope tied in a Ray Mears number #3 knot. I suppose people have used bungees since forever so whatever but anything heavy I'd like a rock strap on it or a taught bit of rope, and being a climber surely you are set on that front. Just have a go ahead of time so you can get the faffing out of the way if aren't sure how it might all fit. You can use bits of steel or ally bought from DIY shops to fashion outriggers to keep soft bags off of exhausts if needs be. Otherwise panniers and luggage items tend to be quite bike specific and expensive. But then there's also used options on Facebook groups and eBay. I've got alpkit dry bags which aren't exactly thick and super heavy duty, but they have worked very well and haven't exactly worn through anywhere. Suppose I only tour with them about once a year though

I'm having a think about that this week. I've just got some Shure SE215 earphones to try. They come with foam and silicone bud tips. They claim a decent "up to" 37db snr attenuation, guessing with the foam tips, where the classic yellow and pink Howard Leights do 35db . The wires are replaceable - they clip to the earbud - and you can get basically Bluetooth wires for them. They are used by musicians as in ear monitors. Initial trial is that they don't seem to isolate as well as plain classic foam earplugs, despite the claim, but better than the more standard Sony earphones I've got. For the helmet fit they seem better than other earphones I've got too. They poke out of the ear canal at an angle where the standard ones are straight. They come out at an angle and seem to hold flat to the ear opening. Anyway they are untested in anger as I only kept the helmet on for a few minutes. The wires go up and over the ear which made is fairly faff free getting the helmet on without a dislodgement. I'll have to actually go out on the bike for a few hours to see for sure (Shure?). And a proper test would be a day's riding, at which point the standard Sony ones are just painful, but I find even foam plugs give me grief at that point, albeit not on the same level. Brief pain is better than more ringing though. They are expensive but you can get them second hand (school girl voice: errrrrrr) or even new but opened packet (I'm very trusting) on eBay for half price. So err yeah, going to try these out when I get a chance. Or I could wear my helmet all day during work just for research purposes, but how would I drink the tea?

Do they do travel size ones?