Post by doc on May 23, 2005 19:43:51 GMT 1
Well I'm back with my new bus, and quite an epic it was too.
I drove over to Geneva for my flight to Liverpool Wednesday morning, and had a pleasant journey there, even seeing Joderal Bank from the Plane as we came in to land.
Then it was a bus to Lime Street station, a Train to Chesterfield and a taxi to Ian's and there was my bike waiting for me in the sunshine.
I was amazed as it swallowed my 20 kilos of gear including my tent and sleeping bag, and then it was maiden voyage time.
To be honest taking a bike of this size over the penines to Lancaster fully loaded was a bit daunting, but she behaved herself OK with just some popping when I closed off the throttle. The radio wasn't working but did come on briefly over bumps. I found latter that this was my gear pushing a bare speaker wire onto an earth.
Out onto the motorway and she showed the comfort I had been seeking. On with the cruise and relax.
Coming into Lancaster the gears started to give me trouble changing down.
I had trouble for the rest of the week (still potentially there) as the leaver spine and the gear spline are not perfectly in line. This causes the fork of the kliktronic to jam on the lever due to the lever being curved. I've shimmed the the footpeg in-line with some washers, but still had to do some alteration on the way home yesterday.
I'll either fabricate a straight lever or junk the linkages entirely and pick it up straight from the spline.
She took me to the rally fine (past Joderal Bank on the ground this time) with my mates son on the back too [Cheers Gasket, second time out on a new big bike and you add your Son to the load].
After a trip off site Saturday I dropped her in the grass when I pulled up on my return...oops!
Leaving the rally Sunday she shed the cir-clip from the gear lever, and the trip back to Gaskets was made with the aid of a jubilee clip.
A new clip was bought and some adjustments were made Monday and she went well until the gears wouldn't change down half way down to Dorset to my Parents house.
As I had no tools I had to stop the bike, switch off and change down by hand each time I stopped for a junction, which was thankfully few with her huge torque coming into its own in the 30mph stretches.
With the bike at my parents it did a few little fixes, got the radio working, took out a blown bulb, turned her on to look for more and then she caught fire...well almost.
Whoever fitted the spot lights had connected them onto the left side of the fuse block, so they just had live feed. With the push in bulb out the two terminals had squeezed together and caused the wiring to melt down when I turned on the ignition.
Some new wiring and fettling sorted that out, but its a bit of a mess in there with wires twisted together so I'll be completely tidying that area up before I ride her too much more.
Leaving my Parents Saturday night to catch the ferry I noticed the battery light was on. She was showing charge on the meter, and the lights were brightening so I carried on to catch the boat at Portsmouth in time..no problem.
I think this might be the sensor wire???
After a nights sleep on the ferry it was off at Le Harve for Paris and home.
Just after Paris the gear problem returned, and with the help of a Motorway service man in the rest stop I got her onto the centre stand fully loaded and put another shim in.
No problems until a couple of hours from home she just stopped with a pop as I changed up. The radio was still running, but everything else electrical was dead. "Ah" I thinks "main fuse"
Pulling up on the hard shoulder I put her on the side stand and as I get off just catch her with my foot...oops again, she comes down on the Armco. No damage but too heavy to pick up loaded.
I pull all the gear out of the bags and try again. I'm almost there when my left foot caught in some weed and my right foot starts to slip in the soft earth.
Gathering myself for another try I see a guy walking back down the hard shoulder to help (thanks mate).
We get her up and onto the centre stand.
Off with the central cover and theres the burnt out main fuse (I think lights, radio, and cruise all at once just overloaded it with the kliktronic).
No spare so I bypass it and leave the cruise and radio off.
Of we go no more problems until the heavens open.
The full fairing is doing a great job of keeping the worst off, but the rain really starts chucking it down with standing water on the road.
Fully loaded the back end gives an exciting little skip, so I bring it down from 120KPH to 90KPH. A bit further on she aquaplanes again, so I have to stop at the services and let it pass (along with 10 other bikes).
So I get her home, another 1200 miles on the clock, sore from trying to lift her up, and with socks I could wring the water out of, but happy.
So much less knacked then when I made a similar trip last year on a Suzuki VZ800 Marauder.
GREAT BIKE!
But then I don't have to tell you that ;D
I drove over to Geneva for my flight to Liverpool Wednesday morning, and had a pleasant journey there, even seeing Joderal Bank from the Plane as we came in to land.
Then it was a bus to Lime Street station, a Train to Chesterfield and a taxi to Ian's and there was my bike waiting for me in the sunshine.
I was amazed as it swallowed my 20 kilos of gear including my tent and sleeping bag, and then it was maiden voyage time.
To be honest taking a bike of this size over the penines to Lancaster fully loaded was a bit daunting, but she behaved herself OK with just some popping when I closed off the throttle. The radio wasn't working but did come on briefly over bumps. I found latter that this was my gear pushing a bare speaker wire onto an earth.
Out onto the motorway and she showed the comfort I had been seeking. On with the cruise and relax.
Coming into Lancaster the gears started to give me trouble changing down.
I had trouble for the rest of the week (still potentially there) as the leaver spine and the gear spline are not perfectly in line. This causes the fork of the kliktronic to jam on the lever due to the lever being curved. I've shimmed the the footpeg in-line with some washers, but still had to do some alteration on the way home yesterday.
I'll either fabricate a straight lever or junk the linkages entirely and pick it up straight from the spline.
She took me to the rally fine (past Joderal Bank on the ground this time) with my mates son on the back too [Cheers Gasket, second time out on a new big bike and you add your Son to the load].
After a trip off site Saturday I dropped her in the grass when I pulled up on my return...oops!
Leaving the rally Sunday she shed the cir-clip from the gear lever, and the trip back to Gaskets was made with the aid of a jubilee clip.
A new clip was bought and some adjustments were made Monday and she went well until the gears wouldn't change down half way down to Dorset to my Parents house.
As I had no tools I had to stop the bike, switch off and change down by hand each time I stopped for a junction, which was thankfully few with her huge torque coming into its own in the 30mph stretches.
With the bike at my parents it did a few little fixes, got the radio working, took out a blown bulb, turned her on to look for more and then she caught fire...well almost.
Whoever fitted the spot lights had connected them onto the left side of the fuse block, so they just had live feed. With the push in bulb out the two terminals had squeezed together and caused the wiring to melt down when I turned on the ignition.
Some new wiring and fettling sorted that out, but its a bit of a mess in there with wires twisted together so I'll be completely tidying that area up before I ride her too much more.
Leaving my Parents Saturday night to catch the ferry I noticed the battery light was on. She was showing charge on the meter, and the lights were brightening so I carried on to catch the boat at Portsmouth in time..no problem.
I think this might be the sensor wire???
After a nights sleep on the ferry it was off at Le Harve for Paris and home.
Just after Paris the gear problem returned, and with the help of a Motorway service man in the rest stop I got her onto the centre stand fully loaded and put another shim in.
No problems until a couple of hours from home she just stopped with a pop as I changed up. The radio was still running, but everything else electrical was dead. "Ah" I thinks "main fuse"
Pulling up on the hard shoulder I put her on the side stand and as I get off just catch her with my foot...oops again, she comes down on the Armco. No damage but too heavy to pick up loaded.
I pull all the gear out of the bags and try again. I'm almost there when my left foot caught in some weed and my right foot starts to slip in the soft earth.
Gathering myself for another try I see a guy walking back down the hard shoulder to help (thanks mate).
We get her up and onto the centre stand.
Off with the central cover and theres the burnt out main fuse (I think lights, radio, and cruise all at once just overloaded it with the kliktronic).
No spare so I bypass it and leave the cruise and radio off.
Of we go no more problems until the heavens open.
The full fairing is doing a great job of keeping the worst off, but the rain really starts chucking it down with standing water on the road.
Fully loaded the back end gives an exciting little skip, so I bring it down from 120KPH to 90KPH. A bit further on she aquaplanes again, so I have to stop at the services and let it pass (along with 10 other bikes).
So I get her home, another 1200 miles on the clock, sore from trying to lift her up, and with socks I could wring the water out of, but happy.
So much less knacked then when I made a similar trip last year on a Suzuki VZ800 Marauder.
GREAT BIKE!
But then I don't have to tell you that ;D
.