What did you do to your bike today?

[S-Westerly]

20 minutes ago, Ian Frog said:

I have a suspicion it's to aid the passing if emission regs.

But you are right most modern exhausts are fookin ugly and usually huge.

Cheers Ian 

True but the replacement I've got meets emission standards including noise and looks a zillion times better.This vs this clonker:

[peepae]

thoughts on 2k miles with these tyres, fine or pushing it?

Edited September 8, 2024 by peepae

[husoi]

They look good.

Maybe less motorway to stop them going square

[Ian Frog]

Agreed I have used a lot worse then that !

Cheers

Ian

[bonio]

They'll be fine @peepae. 

[Bianco2564]

Got the RGV back on its wheels.

The top yoke is very tatty with chipped paint /anodise. Just trying to find out from the gurus on the RGV forum what colour it’s supposed to be.

 

[Tinkicker]

An eye on the rapidly deteriorating weather..  The VFR is getting SORNed before the end of the month.  Three months road tax is better in my pocket than the guvermints.  Of course, both DTs are tax exempt, so no point in SORN with them.  Just keep the "tax" in place.  It costs nothing to do so.

 

With heavy heart I have ordered 5l of alkylate fuel ready mixed with synthetic two stroke oil at 50:1.  This year, I am going to drain the fuel tanks, run the carbs dry, fill with the 5ltrs of mixed fuel, give it a good shake in the tank,  fill the fuel pump and carbs with it, then drain it out again.  Then start it and run the carbs dry again.

Idea is the bit of oil in the fuel will lightly coat everything, prevent internal fuel system corrosion and help stop carb seals drying out over winter.

 

Start with the VFR, then treat the other two.  Hopefully there should be enough left after draining the alkylate fuel back out to repeat next year.  I have no love for stripping and cleaning those VFR carbs.

 

Also got an oil filter arriving for the VFR.  It is getting an oil change before the winter layup.  Then just got to remove the battery, spray everything with silicone spray, put her blanket over her, and lock the shed door till next spring.  No pissing about firing her up once a month this year and worrying about stale fuel.  Far better for her in the long run.

 

Grief it has come around very quickly this year.  I am going to miss them.  

 

 

Edited September 8, 2024 by Tinkicker

[RideWithStyles]

5 hours ago, peepae said:

thoughts on 2k miles with these tyres, fine or pushing it?

Have you actually measured the tread the whole tread depth all across the width of the tyre? .

They look fine, good enough for at least another few thousand miles.

If I was being very picky, might want to asses the rebound and preload? 

[peepae]

11 hours ago, RideWithStyles said:

Have you actually measured the tread the whole tread depth all across the width of the tyre? .

They look fine, good enough for at least another few thousand miles.

If I was being very picky, might want to asses the rebound and preload? 

The dealer did it when I bought it, it's 3.3mm at it's "worst" point in the middle, I'm probably gonna go to a BMW dealer in Italy if it looks too close to comfort.

[bonio]

37 minutes ago, peepae said:

The dealer did it when I bought it, it's 3.3mm at it's "worst" point in the middle, I'm probably gonna go to a BMW dealer in Italy if it looks too close to comfort.

The rear starts at 5.5mm, so you're 2.2 mm down from new. Another 2.2mm will see it down to 1.1mm, which is just above the legal limit. So it's about half way through its life.

[peepae]

3 minutes ago, bonio said:

The rear starts at 5.5mm, so you're 2.2 mm down from new. Another 2.2mm will see it down to 1.1mm, which is just above the legal limit. So it's about half way through its life.

If only I knew at what mileage they were installed 

[bonio]

4 minutes ago, peepae said:

If only I knew at what mileage they were installed 

Oh yeah... didn't think of that

If it's any help, riders report that it's a hard-wearing tyre, getting 10k miles+ out of a pair.

Edited September 9, 2024 by bonio

[peepae]

2 minutes ago, bonio said:

Oh yeah... didn't think of that

If it's any help, riders report that it's a hard-wearing tyre, getting 10k miles+ out of a pair.

I've lined up a BMW dealer in Italy & in Netherlands just in case and seems there's plenty of websites with 24hr shipping in both too so see where we end up - tyres are cheaper there too.. 50 GBP cheaper for a set of Road 6s

 

BMW dealer is gonna install my second hand blackwidow headers on Thursday... will go into Europe with some ear deafening sounds...

[RideWithStyles]

Dealer in Italy? Wow theyll see a flush foreigner coming.

 

well you could work it out inline to the mot date and mileage logged?

so say it was fitted around two years ago between the two mots logs at 10 thousand miles just after a mot, your now at 14 thou so you’ve used half the life of the tyre in 4thou so you’ve got 4 more roughly speaking….

If you dont know when the tyre was take the rough details with the manufacturer date stamp on the tyre and minus at least 6months of its age.

with those Bridgestones you should expect between 4and 8thousand miles - 10if your really lucky.

Edited September 9, 2024 by RideWithStyles

[peepae]

4 minutes ago, RideWithStyles said:

Dealer in Italy? Wow theyll see a flush foreigner coming.

 

well you could work it out inline to the mot date and mileage logged?

so say it was fitted around two years ago between the two mots logs at 10 thousand miles just after a mot, your now at 14 thou so you’ve used half the life of the tyre in 4thou so you’ve got 4 more roughly speaking….

If you dont know when the tyre was take the rough details with the manufacturer date stamp on the tyre and minus at least 6months of its age.

with those Bridgestones you should expect between 4and 8thousand miles - 10if your really lucky.

 

Good thing I speak Italian 

 

I have absolutely no idea when they were fitted as there's no receipt for them. Will check the age - as point of reference

[RideWithStyles]

Tyre say made 19th week of 2021. So let’s say very late 21 or early 2022? 

Also Might be lucky to be logged on as advisory at a mot time? 

id just look at the mots mileage logs late 2021 and 22 and go from around their to what you are now.

Edited September 9, 2024 by RideWithStyles

[Tinkicker]

Not to the bike per se, but involving the bike.  I am in the process of making up an over winter, solar powered battery monitor and charger.

 

Had a 40w solar panel.on the boat.  Run off utility battery when staying on the boat, keeping the starter battery off. Leave boat, and during the week, the solar panel and charge controller tops off the battery, ready for the next weekend.

 

Sold the boat, so solar system became responsible for running garden lights.  All the gubbins is in the shed.  It hss proven to be an extremely robust system.  Probably first rigged in 2008/9 on the boat and has only needed the storage battery replacing a couple of years ago. 

 

Got rid of garden lights and now I am repurposing the system to keep my bike battery healthy during the winter layup.

 

Max amps from panel is 2.5a regulated at 14.5v.  Max continuous charge sensed at battery terminals before completely switching off the charging is 13.5v and this voltage is held steady.

 

So currently in the process of repurposing the box I made, containing the garage door opener receiver that was used to remotely switch the lights on and off from within the house.  It did contain a led voltmeter in any case, so we could easily monitor the battery condition.

 

So I have thrown the door opener in the bin, along with the wiring and am wiring up a balanced charger...

 

So from load output terminals from solar charger, we enter the box.  We go through a 5a fuse, a 10a diode, a 6a rated toggle switch,  + side of the voltmeter connected into circuit after the switch and negative into negative side of the circuit.  We then have the charging lead with two croc clips for battery.

 

The charge current, once through the diode can never flow backwards, so voltmeter always reads charge of bike battery almost completely independently of main storage battery. The bike battery can be at a higher voltage than the storage battery, but can never be appreciably lower.

If a fault develops in the main storage battery, or the solar charger blows, again the bike battery will not discharge.  The voltmeter is easily read through the shed window, so easy to monitor.

So the balanced charging bit.

If after a long period of poor weather, as the bike battery slowly discharges through the bike clock, and the tiny current the voltmeter uses (less than 20ma) the diode will allow current to pass from the main 70ah storage battery, so the bike battery is not depleted.  Both batteries remain at a balanced voltage and both batteries are used to carry the tiny current.  In effect we have 80ah carrying the load instead of 10ah. Typically, when the sun appears, the main storage battery ( and hence the bike battery) is fully charged in around 1 hour after a good couple of weeks of dark and dingy weather.  That was with the door opener rigged, essentially a radio receiver.  I expect less draw on the battery now.

 

Of course, if the bike battery when being charged, is able to a hold a slightly higher resting current than the storage battery, this current is held within the bike battery, until both battery voltages balance again, allowing the diode to pass current to the bike battery.

 

So we have one voltmeter on the solar charger monitoring the state of charge of the storage battery and the other monitoring the state of charge of the bike battery.

 

I see no reason why it should not work, but Im no electrickery expert, so if someone sees a fire developing, please sing out how.

 

Just waiting for the 10A / 50v diode to arrive and solder in to the circuit.  It is the only thing I needed to buy, everything was just lying around.

Edited September 11, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Mickly]

15 minutes ago, Tinkicker said:

Not to the bike per se, but involving the bike.  I am in the process of making up an over winter, solar powered battery monitor and charger.

 

Had a 40w solar panel.on the boat.  Run off utility battery when staying off the boat, keeping the starter battery off. Leave boat, and during the week, the solar panel and charge controller tops off the battery, ready for the next weekend.

 

Sold the boat, so solar system became responsible for running garden lights.  All the gubbins is in the shed.

 

Got rid of garden lights and now I am repurposing the system to keep my bike battery healthy during the winter layup.

 

Max amps from panel is 2.5a regulated at 14.5v.  Max continuous charge sensed at battery terminals before completely switching off the charging is 13.5v and this voltage is held steady.

 

So currently in the process of repurposing the box I made, containing the garage door opener receiver that was used to remotely switch the lights on and off from within the house.  It did contain a led voltmeter in any case, so we could easily monitor the battery condition.

 

So I have thrown the door opener in the bin, along with the wiring and am wiring up a balanced charger...

 

So from load output terminals from solar charger, we enter the box.  We go through a 5a fuse, a 10a diode, a 6a rated toggle switch,  + side of the voltmeter connected into circuit after the switch and negative into negative side of the circuit.  We then have the charging lead with two croc clips for battery.

 

The charge current, once through the diode can never flow backwards, so voltmeter always reads charge of bike battery completely independently of main storage battery.  If a fault develops in the main storage battery, or the solar charger blows, again the bike battery will not discharge.  The voltmeter is easily read through the shed window, so easy to monitor.

So the balanced charging bit.

If after a long period of poor weather,  the bike battery slowly discharges through the bike clock, and the tiny current the voltmeter uses (less than 20ma) the diode will allow current to pass from the main 70ah storage battery, so the bike battery is not depleted.  Both batteries remain at a balanced voltage and both batteries are used to carry the tiny current.  In effect we have 80ah carrying the load instead of 10ah. Typically, when the sun appears, the main storage battery is fully charged in around 1 hour after a good couple of weeks of dark and dingy weather.

 

Of course, if the bike battery when being charged, is able to a hold a slightly higher resting current than the storage battery, this current is held within the bike battery, until both battery voltages balance again, allowing the diode to pass current to the bike battery.

 

So we have one voltmeter on the solar charger monitoring the state of charge of the storage battery and the other monitoring the state of charge of the bike battery.

 

I see no reason why it should not work, but Im no electrickery expert, so if someone sees a fire developing, please sing out how.

 

Just waiting for the 10A / 50v diode to arrive and solder in to the circuit.

There ‘ain’t ‘arf been some clever bleeders

[Tinkicker]

34 minutes ago, Mickly said:

There ‘ain’t ‘arf been some clever bleeders

 

 

Not so clever when you consider that I could have just bought a solar battery charger for £20 and stuck it in the shed window...  But that is not the TK way.  My way involves much soldering and sniffing harmful flux fumes...and  muttering.  An awful lot of downright narky muttering

[Simon Davey]

43 minutes ago, Tinkicker said:

 

 

Not so clever when you consider that I could have just bought a solar battery charger for £20 and stuck it in the shed window...  But that is not the TK way.  My way involves much soldering and sniffing harmful flux fumes...and  muttering.  An awful lot of downright narky muttering

 

The satisfaction though, much more satisfying than buying something. 

[Tinkicker]

Diode arrived and I got it finished.  Current draw of the voltmeter is just less than 10ma, so nothing too onerous on the batteries overnight.  It would take over a month to drain the bike battery alone.

 

Switched the charge controller back on and during a sudden hailstorm and dark sky, it was putting 0.7amp into the storage battery and 0.2a into the bike battery.

 

 

At the same time, the bike battery observed voltage was rising from 12.8v to 13.2v.

 

 

And set up in shed.  Lots of pretty lights. All displays can be easily seen through the shed window, so easy to monitor.

 

 

I will monitor what happens once the solar panel stops charging tonight. Once I am happy everything is OK I will batten down the cables and button everything back up properly

 

Edited September 11, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Fiddlesticks]

Rode to work in the rain.

Some guy in a digger unearthed what looked like a WW2 bomb.

Rode home in the rain.

Obligatory snow foam and dry.

Turns out it was all a false alarm.

Ah well, at least I had the satisfaction of being able to filter past a hundred cars all trying to evacuate the site.

 

 

[RideWithStyles]

Took the bike to work so I could drop it off at the mechanic i use for its mot and other Shiite as and when he can fit it in. it rained many times during the morning and early afternoon . only to find out he had a personal appointment so shut up shop early after my work shift ended when I tried to drop it off . Friday it will have to be now….

[Tinkicker]

Indicated battery voltages this morning after a night without any charge put in the batteries.  Shed inside temp 9 degrees from an indicated 20 yesterday.

 

 

Resting Voltages.

 

Storage battery at 12.4 volts or about 75% charged. 

Dropped from 12.6 yesterday evening when solar panel indicated it was no longer supplying a charge current.  I expect it to charge fully today now the solar charger is switched back on and its old load (LED patio area nightlights) switched over to a plug in power supply. I suppose I should have fully charged it with the conventional charger first to observe how much voltage it retains with no load, when the temp falls overnight.

 

Bike battery at 12.6v. Perfect.   

Happy that it is not discharging its higher state of charge back into the system.  The bike battery with its smaller capacity will always reach full charge quicker than the storage battery.  Last thing a bike battery needs during winter storage is a high cyclic load.

 

So far so good.  No big surprises.

 

Just need to establish some nominal baseline figures for monitoring purposes.  In full sun today, I am expecting to see the float charge voltages hit 14.5v and then taper off as the charger cuts the current to charge maintenance only level.  Typically the charge current will cycle between 0.0A and 0.1A every few seconds.

Edited September 12, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

Check at 0930.  Sun is at an angle of approx 75 degrees to the panel, a long way from optimal.  It gets better until 3pm when the panel goes into shade.

 

Charge current from panel at 1.6A.  It is putting pretty much everything it has into the storage battery.  Storage battery is taking pretty much everything the panel has for bulk charging, hence terminal voltage is 13.4v. As the battery tops off and the battery demands less than the output of the panel, the volts will rise to 14.5v.  I would estimate if connected to a plug in smart charger, at 75 - 80% charge, the battery would be pulling 4 - 5 amps at 14.5v.  Far more than the solar panel can supply.  Theoretically in ideal conditions the panel can supply around 3 amps.  Most I saw was 2.5A

 

 

 

Bike battery is only receiving 100ma from the charger, but voltage is back up to 13.2v which is exactly where it was yesterday before panel output fell to zero. So the small parasitic drain of the bike clock and  voltmeter has already been replenished.  Again, voltage will quickly rise to 14.5v as the supply battery demands less charge from the panel and more charge is sent to the bike battery.  Both voltages should eventually balance.

 

 

Edited September 12, 2024 by Tinkicker