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All go

2010-07-13T20:50:00+01:00

Just back from a wet weekend of trail and road riding in the Lake District on the Tenere with people from the xt660.com forums. On Sunday I'll be riding a four hour Hare and Hounds in Cambridgeshire with TBEC. Then next Friday Sarah and I will be crossing the channel for a two week jaunt through France and Spain, taking in the Horizons Unlimited Mountain Madness event in the middle of the first week.

I'll sleep when I'm dead.

This one time on Adventure Commuter Camp....

2010-06-17T21:36:00+01:00

It all started with Tom as a bit of a joke, about riding so-called 'adventure bikes', while doing most of one's mileage to and from work. Then a message dropped into my PM inbox on pbmagforum.co.uk which began "I am writing to tell you of the inaugural Adventure Commuter camp..."

Last Saturday saw me heading for the southern end of the Welsh borders, to meet up with Tom and some other similarly minded Adventure Commuters. After a quick run down the A48, the last part of the trip took me along a lane with a rather amusing sign at the start.

Sign reads "SatNav - Hope you can reverse". This indicates an ideal Adventure Commuting road. Yes I did say 'at the start', I took this photo on the way home.

I was the last to arrive at the campsite, so as soon as I had pitched my tent (and resolved a sticky issue involving an exploding can of cider in my topbox), it was time to saddle up again and head off.

Tintern Abbey. Bikes from L-R: Adrian's Tiger, Steve's F650, Robin's F800GS, mine and Tom's Tenere's

Our route for the day was to comprise about 120 miles or so of the narrowest lanes and trails Tom had managed to find.

We opted not to try and ride through this ford, after poking it with a stick and noting that the only tyre tracks in and out were from tractors

There was some debate over the route

Not quite as impressive as the last ford, but slightly more suitable for riding through.

More debate over the route

Chilling on the Sugarloaf

Some Adventure Bikes, and a great big pile of logs

Back at the campsite

We headed back to the campsite for an evening of food, drink, fire, and chat, before heading our separate ways on Sunday morning. Top stuff.

"Bug Splatting Time...."

2010-05-17T20:39:00+01:00

(to be sung in the style of The Clash's 'Drug Stabbing Time'. At least, that's what I was doing on my way home, but then my mind wanders in mysterious ways sometimes)

It's felt like a long cold winter, but there's signs of summertime in the air - quite literally if like me your commute involves a lot of country lanes close to rivers.

These photos were taken near Weston-on-Trent, on an unsealed minor road leading down towards the River Trent.

Before it gets there, it also crosses the Trent & Mersey Canal, by what I presume would once have been a lock-keeper's house. Looked like a nice place to live.

And then there were five...

2010-05-17T21:26:00+01:00

Until the start of April, I'd never managed to sell or otherwise rid myself of a motorcycle in 8 years of riding. Well, I sold the CG125 to Sarah, but that doesn't really count, since I moved in with her shortly afterwards. But with seven bikes occupying the garage at wildchildHQ, things were getting a bit silly, and apparently innocuous tasks became marathons of climbing over bikes, swearing, dropping bits under bikes, and swearing a bit more.

That all changed when at the start of April I managed to sell the GS400 to a fellow inmate of the Performance Bikes magazine forum. It departed, impressively, in the back of a Vauxhall Corsa, to begin a new life in County Durham. Then this weekend it was the turn of the DR800, or rather the collection of parts which used to be the DR800, which I loaded into the van and deposited in a shed in South Wales, belonging to my Tenere-riding chum Tom. It's future will be interesting to observe, but that story is for Tom to tell.

Of course since I was taking the van, and was otherwise unoccupied on Saturday, it would have been silly not to stick the supermoto wheels on the DR-Z400 and throw that in the back of the van as well. And thus it was that I spent several hours pursuing Tom around the Welsh countryside, taking in miles and miles of single tracks, humpback bridges, cattle grids, fords, byways, and other such things befitting of supermotos and 'adventure commuters'. We also managed on our travels to intercept a gathering of XT500's. Thumpertastic.

Humpback hooliganism:

Enjoying the view:

Llanthony Priory:

And a gaggle of Yamaha thumpers:

Tom has some more photos here, and I might try and get a few more of mine up on Flickr in the next couple of days.

New boots

2010-04-30T20:51:00+01:00

The Ten' got its 6000 mile service at the start of last week, and at the end of the week, the OE Metzeler Tourances came off and were replaced with a shiny new pair of Mitas E-09s.

The Tourances were OK while they lasted, but only as a road tyre. Despite the heavily-treaded looks, I could get about as far off-tarmac with the Dunlop 209GP's that are currently fitted to the ZXR400. And after 6144 miles, with the rear squared off and down to the legal minimum, it was time to experiment. I'd been hearing good things about the Czech tyres as a cheaper alternative to the ubiquitous Continental TKC80s, and since I will need something off-road capable for the HUMM in July, I ordered a pair from Trellesport, then had them fitted by Rob at Racing Lines in Derby. I'm not expecting this pair to last until the HUMM - they're a 'research pair' to see if they are any good, and whether they will last a two and a half thousand mile road trip with an off-road event in the middle, saving me from having to change tyres down there.

So far, it's looking pretty good. The performance on tarmac is acceptable, and they're certainly better on the loose stuff, although I did still manage to have a little lie down while testing them out on some Nottinghamshire byways earlier. That had more to do with getting caught in an awkward rut than any lack of grip though.

Ready to Race?

2010-03-13T20:30:00+01:00

Shortly after 10:30 tomorrow morning I will line up to start my first motorcycle race - a four hour Hare & Hounds Enduro run by the Trail Bike Enduro Club (TBEC).

Going racing is probably a thought which crosses the minds of a significant proportion of people who ever swing a leg over a bike - certainly those who ride sports bikes. For most it remains a thought, and it did for me for quite a while - filed in the indefinite future when I might be able to find the cash for a season of short-circuit racing.

Then I went to the HUMM last year, and got the bug for off-road riding on the miles of trails in the Lot Valley of France and the Spanish Pyrenees. Returning to the UK I found it was a little bit harder to find trails to ride on.

Eventually, the obvious solution presented itself - why not combine the two? Enduro seemed to be a lot more affordable than short-circuit racing, and for your money you get several hours of thrashing round trails without having to navigate, dodge ramblers, or ride dozens of miles of tarmac to stitch together a few miles of green lane.

So over the course of last Autumn, I identified TBEC as a good looking club for me to take the plunge with, then bought a van and a 2001 DR-Z400E - the latter after much deliberation and mental flirting with more exotic European machinery, but in the end I went with cheap(ish) and dependable.

At the start of 2010, I became a member of TBEC, and an ACU licence holder, and started trying to figure out how to get the bike ready to race. In February, I attended the first round of the season as a marshall, and a couple of weekends ago I took the bike down to my parents' place for a quick shakedown run around the fields. Today, I polished off what I hope was the last few tasks...

The only questions which now remain are: What have I forgotten to pack, and am I up to it?

Jewellery for Engineers

2010-03-12T21:38:00+01:00

This is really rather cool. In my geeky engineer's mind anyway.

Made by Kinekt Design and spotted on driverchris' blog.

Happy Birthday to the Ten'!

2010-05-17T16:45:00+01:00

Today, my Yamaha XT660Z Ténéré (to give it it's full name) is one year old.

It was registered to it's first keeper on the 1st of March 2009 by Fowler's of Bristol. I know very little about this chap, apart from inferring that he didn't really get on with it, as he sold it on after only two months to another chap who threw most of the Yamaha accessories catalogue (engine bars, sump guard, Akrapovic exhaust system, top box and panniers) at it, plus a set of Oxford heated grips for good measure.

Then on the 23rd of January this year, 5 weeks and two days ago, I became the third owner. The bike had led a pretty sheltered existance, covering 2,863 miles between March and September, and then sitting in a garage in South Wales for the rest of the year. Today, it has just shy of 4,500 miles on it - meaning that in my short period of ownership I've already done well over a third of its mileage. I covered 1000 miles in the first 15 days, including the Dragon Rally.

I picked the bike up on a Saturday morning. The seller had carefully washed it that morning to get rid of the dust of a few months sitting in his mother's garage. As we chatted he mentioned something about "they're nice touring bikes, but you wouldn't really want to take one off-road". I laughed on the inside as I maneuvered the bike out of his drive and rode away.

A couple of hours and 30 miles later I was chasing Tom and his white 08 model down single tracks and green lanes. My internal laughter of earlier had turned into actual, out-loud giggling inside my helmet by this point - remember this was by far the newest and most expensive bike I've ever bought, yet it felt so right to be using it as it was meant to be and getting it covered in mud.

A pair of Ténérés

The next day I did 130 miles of motorway to get back home, and the day after I used the bike to commute from wildchildHQ in Derby to my work in Nottingham. So is it the 'do everything' bike I'd hoped?

Thoughts so far.

Basically yes. I'm not about to write a full-on road test, because, well, I'm not. You either 'get' big thumpers or you don't, and if you do, then not much I can say would come as a surprise. It's 45ish bhp is perfectly adequate to propel it to about 110mph (on closed roads) or sit on the (closed) motorway all day at 80-90mph. Actually, I take my earlier comment back - I was surprised to find the 'natural' cruising speed was this high. The vibrations aren't offensive, and the screen does its job for me, although some have complained about buffeting. There are aftermarket screens around, and a variety of homebrew fixes - see xt660.com for these. Doing these speeds with a full set of luggage on the back, as I did for the Dragon Rally weekend, does make the front end a bit vague, but nothing alarming.

On the subject of luggage, it occurred to me the other day that I don't think I've ridden a single mile without the Yamaha top box fitted, it's that indispensable a means of carting around the detritus of my day to day life. The panniers have had less use, although they will get a weekly outing now I've resumed playing five-a-side on Wednesday nights. All the boxes themselves are good, although the locks are a bit stiff and the keys are a bit bendy - not a good combination. I've heard that Yamaha have been replacing locks under warranty, which I shall be enquiring about.

Motorway riding and luggage, erm, lugging, are one thing, but where the bike ought to be at home is on the back lanes and trails. And it is, at least on the former count - big single torque and wide bars can't be beaten for stomping out of tight corners and charging between the hedges. The latter part needs a bit of 'perfecting' to make a true off-road capable bike.

The biggest issue is the tyres - while the OE Metzeler Tourances are capable on tarmac, unsurprisingly, they're not much use when the going gets really muddy, as unlike proper knobblies, the tread doesn't shed the mud and so becomes clogged up. I suspect on dry dirt and gravel they'd be fine, but 'dry' is in short supply around the trails of the East Midlands at this time of year. I shall be investing in something a bit more aggressive and polishing up my tyre changing skills for those occasions where I need the extra grip. For everything else the Tourances will be staying until they are worn out, most likely to be replaced by the Michelin Anakees from the deceased DR800, because they're in the garage and the same size (and nearly new).

Also a problem in the mud is the low front mudguard - while pretty good at keeping road muck off the engine, it is also pretty good at collecting all the mud that sticks to the front tyre. On one trail ride through heavy clay I wasn't incredibly surprised when the front wheel stopped rotating entirely (fortunately at low speed) through the build up. I've offered up an Acerbis universal supermoto front mudguard which was lying around the garage, and it goes almost straight on, sandwiched between the bottom yoke and the towing loop. Looks spot on and clears the radiator by about 5mm. Could have been made for it. I'll chuck it on and remove the standard low front guard for any future playing in the mud.

The bike comes as standard with rubber pads on the footpegs, which offer absolutely no grip if you have wet or muddy boots. They lasted a couple of days before being unscrewed to reveal the bare metal peg beneath, which is a great improvement.

Finally, while the ergonomics work fine for me on the road, the bars aren't high enough for my 6'4" frame standing up on the pegs off-road.

What's next?

Mostly, I shall be continuing to pile on the miles and enjoying the fact it just plain works, and does almost everything I need in a road bike - and because it just works, hopefully I'll find the time to put the ZXR400 back together to fill in the small gap that's left - trackdays and summer scratching. But that can wait until it warms up - now the Ten' is all I need.

By far the biggest event on the radar is a two week, 2000+ mile trip to Spain and back, taking in the HUMM during the first bit, and some road based touring back up through France in the second. There's a few things it will need to accomplish this - proper off-road tyres, which it will have to carry down there to be changed in Spain; high mudguard - in case the rain in Spain falls mainly on the trails; higher bars for better control standing up; and some sort of map-holding device.

That should be all it needs, although of course all bikes can dream...

Jenny Morgan's Heroes-Legends Rally Ténéré. Details of this bike here.

Back on two wheels

2010-01-28T21:57:00+01:00

Up until last Saturday, I hadn't ridden a bike since some time in mid-December. Despite the plethora of machines in the garage, I've ended up using the van to commute in for a month or so - which has given me plenty of time stuck in traffic to contemplate how much I'd rather be on the bike.

This was taken on Saturday afternoon a couple of hours and about 40 miles after buying the black bike in the picture. It's a 2009 Yamaha XT660Z Ténéré. The white one in the foreground is my mate Tom's 2008 model, which he bought new this time last year, and has been having all sorts of fun on, some of which you can find here.

Change of Tack

Even ignoring the demise of the DR800, 2009 was a bit of a frustrating year of running round trying to get whichever bike I needed next to work properly - last spring was spent trying to rebuild the ZXR400 in time for the Performance Bikes Forum's Anglesey trackday in May. Then I fell off it and had more work to do before I went to Cadwell in June with the Morini Rider's Club, where I popped the fork seal that I ended up replacing in a hurry to get to the HUMM after the DR800 let me down. The GPZ500 failed it's MOT in March and with everything else I didn't get time to sort it out, so it sat in the garage for the rest of the year. I did manage to get the CG125 back together for the first time in about three and a half years, then it got stolen the night before it was booked in for an MOT, and now needs a lot of work. By October, I was still commuting on the ZXR, complete with slippery-when-wet Dunlop D209GPs and sounding desperately in need of a top end service, and by the end of the year, I was stuck with commuting in the van, and starting to get seriously stressed with the task of having a bike ready for the Dragon Rally.

Something needed to change - my principle that if I had a load of bikes, at least one of them would work at any one time was being stretched to the limit, and while I love having projects on the go, I wasn't actually achieving any of the things I wanted to change, because I was being hard pushed to keep them going as they were. So I came to the conclusion that what I really needed was one newish bike to do all the day-to-day stuff, and allow me to treat the project bikes as projects, rather than necessary transport.

The DR800, for all its sins, brought about a big change in how I approached road riding, and got me hooked on big Dakar-styled thumpers. I loved the look, the torque, and the fact it kept making me ignore frozen hands and feet to take the long way home, down mud-strewn single track lanes in the depths of last winter. But it was a shonker to start with, and now it was looking like a very marginal prospect to rebuild. So with that big trailie shaped hole in my life, it was hardly surprising that I started gazing longingly at the Yamaha. First at the bike show, where I sat on a rather tasty blue and yellow model, and noted the big '3 years 0% finance' sticker on the screen. I came quite close to my first ever brand new bike, but it wasn't to be - I wasn't ready to seriously think about it before Christmas, when Yamaha withdrew the finance offer. To further move the goalposts they increased the price of the bike from £5,600 to £6,400 for 2010, which was a bit steep for my tastes. At the time I started seriously looking a few weeks ago I could still have got an 09 bike at the 09 price, but it would have had to be a cash deal, which was so close to the limit of my finances that I'd have ended up with a new bike which I couldn't afford to insure or possibly even put fuel in.

So I started having a look around at 'nearly new' examples, for significantly less money, and at this point Tom stepped in and mentioned he knew of someone, via the XT660 Owners Forum, who was selling one not far from where he lives in South Wales. To cut a long story short, I ended up picking it up on Saturday morning, then heading up the road to Tom's for an excellent afternoon of blasting around the local lanes and trails, followed by an evening of food, drink and banter, before heading for home on Sunday Morning, new bike suitably christened with a layer of Welsh mud.

It's good to be back.

DR800: Desert Racer? Dakar Replica? Dragon Rallyist? Deceased and Replaced?

2010-01-25T21:35:00+01:00

For the next (and long overdue) fleet update, I'm going to jump from the first and smallest capacity bike to what was, until the start of December, the most recent arrival at wildchildHQ, and remains the largest capacity bike in the garage - the 1993 Suzuki DR800S "DR BIG".

This wouldn't be the last time the bike ended up lying in the road. A month later I had my first real (ie more than walking pace) bike crash, locking up the front while filtering up the A52 into Nottingham, which led to me smashing the wing mirror off one car, then bouncing off the front wing of the one in front before landing in an ungainly heap in the road. I escaped with a couple of bruises, and the bike with a couple more scratches in the tank plastics - the biggest damage by far has been to my insurance premiums since, due to the third party claims.

Undeterred, and inspired by the DR Zeta works Dakar bikes of the late eighties and early nineties, I set about tweaking the DR to look and function a bit better, and to try and trim a bit off the 215kg wet weight. The work I did is detailed in the following posts:

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

And then it let me down - on the way to work, a week and a half before I was due to depart for a 1500 mile round trip to the HUMM, it developed a slipping clutch, along with some nice clonking and graunching noises, and considerable difficulty in changing gear. My initial guess was that a clutch plate had disintegrated, but when I pulled the cover off they were all intact and in pretty good condition. Worryingly though, I could get hold of the clutch basket and rock it. Even more worryingly it wasn't the clutch rocking on the shaft, but the shaft rocking in the cases. I made a tentative diagnosis that the gearbox input shaft left hand bearing had collapsed, and threw the bike into a corner of the garage - I had just over a week to figure out how I was going to get to the South of France.

A hasty fork rebuild on the ZXR400 saw it pick up the slack admirably, albeit slightly less comfortably, taking me to the South of France and back, then doing the commute for the following months while I tried to wind myself up to fix the DR. I eventually (with the approach of the Dragon Rally looming in my mind) managed to take the bike apart and start to strip the engine down, but my heart wasn't really in it - I was looking at the best part or £100 for a gasket set, the input shaft bearing, probably a new clutch basket, and anything else which might have been damaged in the process, and at the end of it I'd still have a 35,000 mile engine. To do a proper refresh while it was apart would be considerably more money, but would probably be the only way I'd ever trust it a long way from home.

I started thinking about taking one of the other bikes to the Dragon, but in the end, I had a bit of a rethink of my approach to these things, the result of which being that I bought another bike last weekend which should prove to be everything that the DR800 should have been (and then some). So it's time for the 'king of thumpers' to go, an ignominious end in a pile of parts.

Or is it? There may be a reprieve from the scrapheap on the cards, albeit not in my hands. If it happens, the next chapter of the story will be for its saviour to tell, not me.

driverchris

2009-08-06T18:56:00+01:00

Graphic designer, bike and car nut, and vague acquaintance through the PB forum. I enjoy dipping into his blog from time to time, and this is a particularly cool post - classy interpretations of motorsport paint schemes, applied via the medium of Photoshop to a Fender Strat. Can you guess them all?
http://driverchris.blogspot.com/2009/07/strip-for-strat.html

Lois on the loose

2009-03-30T22:15:00+01:00

Stumbled across the name Lois Pryce via the ADVrider forums. Have just finished reading her first book, detailing her ride from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego on an XT225 Serow.
http://loisontheloose.com/

sideburn magazine blog

2009-03-18T21:31:00+01:00

Go fast. Turn left. Simples.

http://sideburnmag.blogspot.com/

Old man on a bike

2009-02-13T13:43:00+01:00

The print version of this got dropped on my desk at work by a colleague. 73 year old man rides from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego on a CG125. Hooray for daft adventures.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/jan/10/south-america-road-trips-bike?page=all

motogpmatters.com

2009-01-26T22:04:00+01:00

Daily reading for MotoGP (and now WSBK) results, reports, and opinion - http://www.motogpmatters.com