Home  Rides  Events Tech Links

BLOG

 


Got the  new tyre back after 2/12 weeks, christ things move slow here, Damo gave me a hand to put it on, they're a bit of a mission, big heavy bloody things, as we're doing it I notice I need new brake pads....another backorder locally , but only a few days this time, so we got it all back together last week...Needed to rethink the saddle bag mounting...when I put them on originally I used the short steel brackets that came with the original bags ..and they weren't supporting the back section of the new bags, and with all the shit I carry one  bag was starting to hang down and looked like it might start causing a problem.

So off to the local steel shop and bought some 40mm x 5mm flat bar to try and do it properly this time...

Chopping up the steel..

I measured the inside of the bag and cut two bits of steel for each at 500mm long..

 

 

Then using the original steels marked the mounting holes and drilled those, for the 2 different sized bolts used on the bike.

 

For the right hand side I welded two vertical pieces along the back steel to stop the bag leaning in toward the wheel when there's some weight in it.

I didnt need to do this for the left side, as I'd built a support when i first put them on, as that one hang into the wheel badly.

worlds shittiest welding here !

I put a bolt through the rear end of the steels where there isn't a support on the bike, to hold the bags rigid throughout their length

 

Then it was just a matter of bolting them on, which sounds easy but was a real pita , trying to hold the weight of the bag and get the bolts to start. the guard can move a bit and obscure the holes so some gentle easing of the ends of the bolts on the grinder helped them locate themselves better. I ended up having to get longer bolts by about 25mm as the steel plates made a bit of difference....

 

All back on and ready for a short 6 hr ride in two weeks...

 

 


 

Queensland Ride

5/2 Left home at about 1pm on the Friday, for the 240 odd km to Mendooran to meet Spud coming up from Melbourne.

stopped at what looks like the only inhabited building in the area...the pub!

 

Alcohol free zone..no drinking on the footpath...in case a kangaroo sees? no cant anywhere to be seen...

 

mmmm beer good

 

Spud turned up on his Challenger , christ they're a good bike I want one ! and off we trotted towards Narrabri , about another 250km....long straight roads in reasonable nick eventually, and it got warmer and warmer..till we got there about 7pm, and Met spuds mate Grump who'd ridden down from Bribie Island , about 8 hrs away to meet us..

 

Spuds bike in Narrabri...hiding another later model Rocket behind it..

The heat hit me when we stopped, and I was straight into a shower and on with the AC, so quick, I forgot to turn off the ignition didn't I..

Someone knocked on my door a couple of hours later and said the lights were on, so turned it off then...but the damage was done...

7am the next morning..push the starter..just a click. To cut a long story short, after having to borrow jumper cables twice...as I needed gas...we finally got underway and did the 90 odd kms to Moree where we stopped for breakfast, by which time the battery was fine again..

We trundled off toward Queensland an hour or so away, stopping dutifully just south of the border to remove out colours lest the Queensland populace be collectively sent into some sort of apoplectic fit leading to mass murder and mayhem. What a fucked country we live in.

Anyway after about 6 hrs arrived at the swish pad in western Brisbane....and partied on for a while ..

 

One of the boys' Muscles..

Coupla likely lads..

 

 

Up at 5.30 the next morning for the 970km trek home. Gods were smiling on us just a bit of rain in the Ballina hills as usual,  back in NSW ,then a brilliant , hot , ride back.

 

Needed a beer in Buladelah...

Then the last 300km run back home through the outskirts of Sydney. Where we ran into a 20km tailback due to an earlier accident. FFS...a few miles of splitting lanes and I spied an exit to the Old Pacific Highway , and took it !

 

Tyre was looking a little worse for wear when I got home..I swear it was ok before that last 1800km!


 

 

26/1 Off for a ride on Friday, go about half way to Queensland , then the rest on Saturday...have put the new shocks on ( Ikons) and had a couple of short jaunts , reckon I'll be ok backwise , they seem to have softened things up a bit. Had them on a medium setting, but ended up taking them back to the lowest seems to have worked....easily adjustable so Ill take the tool for the bottom adjustment , and can do the top adjustment by hand...if they need any more tweaking..

 


 

Is it just me or do the fucks that make and enforce these bullshit laws against colours , tattoos etc all need fucking shooting? Australia really needs a bill of rights...spending some time this morning reading Queensland Human Rights Bill I'd say there's  number of areas Queenslands draconian anti MC laws could be challenged... but of course its all a matter of money...

 


 

Heaven and hell ride.

Took off from home about 9am, not hot but quite pleasant, heading to Albury, about 5-6 hrs down through Bathurst, Cowra , Young etc...

Weather turned great outside of Bathurst...had to stop and take  a pic...

 

Took off again and meandered down into Blaney, then through Cowra , which was stinking hot and sitting between semis in the main street wasn't a lot of fun...

Out through Cowra and towards Young. The roads hadn't been too bad, the odd pot hole , but nothing major...

Then I hit the road deformation from hell... one of those bits of bitumen that are pushed up vertically, this one close to a foot Id say.

Front wheel hit it first and send me sideways a small amount then the back wheel hit and it was like a sledgehammer up my spine.. Fortunately the bike stayed up and on the right side of the road so I just kept going and breathed deeply as the pain slowly subsided...

Pulled into Young to gas up and got off the bike and hobbled in to pay and buy some lunch. Nowhere to sit so I put my sandwich in my jacket and took off to find a park bench in the shade to eat. But there weren't any, and trying to avoid the traffic through the middle of town, in mid 30's heat, opted for the truck route out. However there was only the one signpost and no indicators of how to get back to the main road.... so effectively lost I just kept heading generally south...Stopped and ate my sandwhich in the shade under a tree, then kept going..

I eventually hit Burly Griffin Way and had to pull out my phone for the maps to see whether I went left or right..right it was so down to Wallendbeen,  Cootamundra then across to Gundagai to get onto the Hume.

Got into Albury about 5pm, still stinking hot, but a good room with AC had me cooled down again before long.

 

Ordered a nice vindaloo from menu log , had a couple of beers and settled in for the night. Back was a bit sore but nothing major...

Woke up in the middle of the night and that had all changed. Agony if I moved...finally managed to sit up and get some nurophen and bromelaine I had with me...and went back to sleep again.

Woke up at 7 and back still the same but the painkillers had taken the edge off a bit...hummed and haaed about going home again, but once I was up and moving around it was more bearable so decided to keep going to Jamieson, the destination in Victoria.

Took off about 9 to do the 250 odd km ride, down the Hume for an hour and then turn off  for 120 odd kms to Jamieson. Bloody nice ride, lake on the left at one point before pulling into Mansfield that was a bustling little town.  Gassed up for the 37kms to Jamieson as I was at about 260kms on that tank. Have done 305, but better not to push my luck..

Pulled into Jamieson and the pub we were to stay at was still closed so parked at the take away next door and had an early lunch...

 

and yakked to the locals, one of whom turned up on her horse...great folks..

 

Boys for Melbourne and Sydney and Central Coast turned up and it was into the pub for a few ales.

Wandered off to bed sometime and had the same result with my back when I lay down...I have a compressed vertebrae from an accident 22 years ago, and the pain was worse than that.. I wondered how in the hell I was gonna ride back home in the morning... Somehow made it through the night again, and as the day before found once I was vertical it was bearable. Went down to the bikes and the pissing rain. Oh the joys.

 

but anyway off we went , hoping it might clear up...

 

Pan America demonstrator my mate had borrowed for the weekend..

 

But it didn't really all day, till near Sydney, but it wasn't cold so reasonably enjoyable still. I'd decided to go the long way home an extra 200km up the Hume then over the Blue Mountains to Portland to avoid the slightly shittier roads I'd gone down and hopefully not aggravate the back any more, so about 900km all up for the day.

So pretty warmed up and dry again  I was just on the outskirts of Portland and  it came down in torrents. Only about 5km to my place , but it drenched me to the bone..I managed to catch the edge of the storm that hit Lithgow with a mini tornado ffs... the wind was so strong I had to slow right down and could barely see, fortunately it was only about 10 minutes of it.

 

New set of shocks coming for the bike...my mate noted the stock ones have about 2" of travel if that..so a custom set of  Ikons are coming, more travel and suited to my weight...

 

Hospital the next day with my back, but CT scan showed no more damage, fortunately, so it'll get better slowly...

 

 

 


 

Chaos in the shed.

Well almost...Damo putting my bike back together after kindly doing a fork seal...Bloody thing been leaking for some time and it wasn't helping the front brakes...which have been a bit of a bane for the 8 years I've nearly had the bike. Ok for a while , then no feel and the lever coming right back to the bar...tried a few different ways to fix them, bleeding backwards , pushing the pads back  into the caliper etc, but nothing lasted..so anyway this time we put this back together with new pads, and it actually feels ok...but we'll see how long it lasts...I just read on a forum how Triumph changed the piston caliper size to a larger one eventually , and that seems to have helped  lot...so if the brakes end up crap again I'll have to try that...

 

 

Really good mechanic young Damo , for 15, or any age actually.... if only he'd tidy up occasionally!

 

 

 

 

 

Moree Ride

Went up to Moree on the weekend a month or so ago, good ride about 550kms each way....only bugbear was having to strap a bag onto the carrier as there wasn't enough room in the saddlebags to put one.. so had a search on ebay when I got back and ordered these.

Came from the states in about 2 weeks, which wasn't too bad. Cost about $300 with GST , but seem good value, even came with lockable buckles and a couple of padlocks..

There was amounting system on the bike already for the smaller bags so was just a matter of unbolting the old ones, using the chrome plate inside them as a template for the new holes, and bolting them on...had to move them as far back as possible so a passenger can get a foot on the footpegs, but don't stick out past  the taillight fortunately..Just need a ride now to try em out...

Here's some pics of the weekend away..

Leaving my place

 

Mudgee

smoky riding up to Mudgee..could hardly see Lake Windemere off to the right...

Pub in Coonabarabran

We'd ordered our food and then the manager bleats about the colours...said we wouldn't be long and he was ok...

Left here for the longest straightest stretch of road I remember, between Coonabarabran, Narrabri then Moree.Where it wasnt bush,it was parched dry and as flat as far as the eye could see almost ,getting near Moree..

 

Parked up at the motel for a couple of nights then back home Sunday

 

Stopped in Mudgee at a friendly( for a change ) pub just off the Castlereagh highway for a couple , where it started hosing down, so the last 100kms was wet as , but not cold...

Some old b'stard kept following me :-P

 

Back


 

Bit of a blast down the Hume

Was about 10 degrees and drizzling Friday 11am, but it cant last forever I told myself as me and Damo got our gear on.. planned to sneak down to Melbourne to a mates party on Saturday night, stopping in Albury for Friday night. So up early and got as much work done as I could before 11am. I'd been watching the weather all week, and while Sydney had been copping some rain and still was, away from the coast the forecast was pretty good with maybe some rain Sunday in Melbourne..

Anyway we took off about 11.45 , gassed up at the local, and headed up over Sunny Corner Road , somewhat tentatively as it was a bit wet and slippery still.... Out onto the great western towards Bathurst, and the drizzle stopped and the sun came out...  So a bit more pleasant than expected . still not hot , but beat being in the rain..

Its a nice ride south of Bathurst, the country is beautiful, if still pretty dry, the road is good for the area generally, and there's not a lot of traffic...so we ambled along at the 100km speed limit , as i still have a month or so to go on my good behavior bond for too many points..

Hit some roadworks out of Cowra which held us up a bit, but generally a good , if a little slow,  run, it breaks the monotony slowing for the little towns , but some of them are a bit painful, when you have to ride through the town center and wait for idiots to back into angle parks..Young..pita!

 

Anyway after about 4 hrs we emerged onto the Hume and were able to turn the speed up to 120 ish for the blast to Albury. Got there on dusk , as the temperature dropped noticeably, so was glad it wasn't any further..

 

Damo unloading the bike after I'd run (well nearly) upstairs for an emptying..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not quite dead..

 

Gawd a town of more than 2000 with a choice in takeaways, what a treat! Ribs and pizza and JW it was..

 

Damo on the phone for a change

Next morning it was up and at it again and out about 8.30..and it was still not hot. So after crossing the border into Victoria, took the turnoff to Glenrowan for warming coffee, old Ned still pretty much supporting this town, memorabilia everywhere..

 

 

Next stop a few hours south was the state Motorcycle complex at Broadford, which is a mix of a road racing track and MX tracks from what we saw, had a cruise around but didn't get off to take any pics...

Continued down the Hume and into the sprawling metropolis of Melbourne. I hadn't ridden in from the north since 1988 , and only one other time since, and I'd forgotten how big it is or its got a helluva lot bigger! Quite an amazing freeway system, which unkindly swallowed me up and spit me out in the middle of the city, which wasn't the plan at all...but I got to ride over the Westgate bridge , which is quite an engineering marvel, and the views from it , where could take my eyes off the traffic, are phenomenal...

However plonked in the city was a PITA , you really need a GPS, took me 40 minutes to find my way out again, the signposting is abysmal...I was getting a sweat up which I don't like at all..

Strangely going back over the Westgate and heading North, there were at least 3 signs to the suburb I needed to go to, but there'd been bugger all coming the other way..

So we found our new motel, shed a few layers of clothing then took off to my mates place not far away..

A few bikes..

So a good party , then back to the motel for a crash , then up at 7.30 for the trip home.

 

 

Refused to get lost going out, so got a  GPS ...

 

Warm enough in Melbourne, 12 or so, but as we headed North it got  progressively colder, so pulled into Broadford again for breakfast and a warm up..

 

 

Back on the road after half an hour or so, after putting on a warmer glove..I'd given Damo the mittens , ( unbelievably warm, but you look like Sooty..) and we'd somehow lost one of the other pairs of gloves with us, I'd been wearing riggers gloves but they weren't up to the cold..but had one warm one for the throttle hand at least..

So we blasted north on the Hume till the turnoff to  shitsville, I mean Cootamundra,  the town that time forgot, and they forgot the road too, crap it was ..up past there after gassing up at the only building built since 1900 by the look of it , then into Young again, and through to Cowra on some really long fast straights , with invisible bumps that send Damo onto the rear carrier at 120km/hr...

Saw a Highway Patrol coming into Cowra and had seen one on the other side of the Hume earlier in the day, but that was it for the whole weekend...which was pleasant .

Somehow we did the  just under 900km in 9 1/2 hrs , getting home just after 5 , and as it was a fresh 8 degrees , it was on with the AC and hot shower..

 

 


 

 

 

April 2019 :A new motorcycle rally is planned in Dubbo in a couple of weeks, and it looked interesting, but there on their FB page, this crap:

"Identified Outlaw Motor Cycle Gangs (1%ers) will be turned away if they are wearing colours, tags or patches. NSW Police from Strike Force Raptor and the Orana Police District will be present throughout the event to enforce any relevant offence relating to the above. All other "Non Identified" OMCG 1% groups will be welcomed in their various patches and colours. It is the aim of the organisers to deliver an event that will appeal to all motor cycling enthusiasts irrespective of age, gender, background or bike preference. We hope to see you in Dubbo in 2019"

 

So the clothing police will be out in force , to see if anyone is brave enough to wear a supporter badge or T-shirt, or if they were brave hearted enough ..colours! So basically you could be ku klux klan, in full robes , ISIS , or in an outfit straight from the Sydney Mardi Gras, and that's ok , but by god  The NSW Police  wont allow any groups with their club name on their backs!

 

 As it happens, there are no laws restricting what we wear in NSW as yet, so you aren't committing any offences by wearing colours, badges or club paraphernalia in public, it just they'd like you to think you are..

When will the NSW public realise that there own little gestapo is not what's needed or wanted here.

 

Any other prejudicial and bigoted  actions towards minority groups is actively discouraged ,and can be prosecuted under law , but here we have blatant discrimination  enforced by the state.

 

Think about this is you are planning on going and supporting this.

 

In the nearly 30 years we ran our show we never saw fit to ban anyone, and we were never asked to. The organizers of this need to take a long hard look at themselves.

 

And all those that think Craptor wont hassle you...did you not see the poker run fiasco in nth NSW last year last year? Good luck.

 

 

 

 

28/01/19

Long hot ride on the weekend...and a few problems with the bike and heat.... First was the headers. Ok when ya moving fast , but in hot 40 plus degrees, as soon as ya slowed down it was  diabolical, literally burnt my leg over the two days...Not to be beaten on the third day I taped a thong(sandal/Jandal) to my calf for the ride back, which helped, but then as it got hotter and hotter , like 45 degrees,  I noticed a huge amount of heat coming of the back of the engine between the tank and the seat, that was cooking me from below, also the tank was too hot to touch here , so I don't know how safe that is ! And my thigh was burning now as well... So gotta do something, ordered more heat wrap for the headers , and looking at some sort or heat shield material for the top /back of the engine ...and maybe also a heat shield for the headers....apart from that tho, it never missed a beat...still pulls like a train...

 

A year later,ffs..!

Nother show over with ...being its Easter and all I got the obligatory speeding ticket on the way, didn't slow down for no road works enough...but at least it was expensive :-P

 

Made it there and back without any more fortunately.... and got to get the bike on the Dyno after an hour in sun and 35degrees... 163hp...so happy with that

Then it was selling raffle tickets and taking a few pics , bike pics here

 

 

legs for miles !

Me and Damo

 

 

 

 

18/4

They call me lucky...

Wow been a long time between posts here...mainly cos I haven't been doing a lot I guess.. though I've had a few changes the last few months......I wouldn't normally post my medical health details, but it might help someone else here if they have all this info,,,

Late last year the doc sent me for blood tests and in particular my PSA levels came back raised, at 7.5 instead of less than 4 ideally...This meant I was likely to have prostate cancer , or just an enlarged prostate if yr lucky , that all men will get at some time . So he referred me to a urologist , who after the dreaded digital exam , (fortunately he wasn't a Russian with hands like a bear), sent me for some CT and MRI scans , however due to my accident in 99 , from which I got a steel plate in my pelvis, none of these were clear enough for a diagnosis.

So it was off for the dreaded biopsy... that I'd been hoping to avoid like the plague... 3 hr drive to Sydney where I then  had  the device inserted that shot out 13 little needles through the wall of my back passage into the prostate to collect samples, all without any anesthetic.  And its not as pleasant as it sounds... The icing on the cake is the sponge they stuff up there afterwards so you don't bleed on the carpet on the way out. Never again!

Subsequently I was told they had found a couple of samples contained what they termed an aggressive type of cancer and I should have surgery fairly quickly.....except that the urologist , who is the surgeon said he couldn't operate, as he only does it keyhole, and he didn't think it was possible due to my previous injuries and the scarring around...

So he sent me to a radiology professor , who said a bit the same about radiology... because of the steel plate , they might not be able to do the full job, as its normally done from many different angles, and the plate would block it. But they still wanted me to try , and the next step was another biopsy style procedure where the insert 3 bits of gold so it can be located on scans.

Well fuck that. Not happening!  If I did elect for the radiology that might not work anyway , it would be every day for maybe 6 weeks at a hospital 1 1/4 hrs away, making it probably   a 5 hr round trip every day...  I politely declined...

I got on the net well before this and looked up all I could on this. The fact is a lot of men will die with prostate cancer, but not from it, as it is generally a very slow growing type. The doc said if I did nothing I'd have 5-10 years probably , but I don't intend to do nothing. Here's a few things that can help, most of which I'm doing....

Vitamin B17..found in apricot kernels....unfortunately they taste like crap..slowed down taking these...

Cannabis oil

Cayenne pepper

Bromelain...which I'm taking 1500mg a day for my aches and pains for , and may  help the other also....brilliant on the aches and pains...pineapple extract.

Tumeric and black pepper. Slowed down on this due to the taste...should do more..

Baking soda....anything to help alkalize your blood... a teaspoon in a glass of water isn't too foul...and with maple syrup is supposed to work well.

Cottage cheese and flaxseed oil ...tastes like crap also...

Tomatoes! the surgeon while not confident in any homeopathic remedies told me he had a patient whose wife gave him copious amounts of tomatoes and it drastically reduced his PSA levels.

 

So anyway I'm putting my money where my mouth is , or if you prefer my arse on the line here , and trying to keep this under control my way...the consequences of prostate removal or radiology are worse to my mind that the disease. A great likelihood of incontinence, impotence and even bowel problems... so fuck that.

 

However I will go for more PSA tests to see how things go, and if it looks like my efforts aren't working apparently a hormone treatment can help...where they stop yr testosterone production I think it is...I had one more test since Christmas, and it had raised slightly, but the doc didn't seem worried so so far all good....

 

Further on the bright side of things , the wife up and left me 2 weeks ago. Still not really sure why...fairly devastated , but at least I still see the kids regularly as she does shift work and they need looking after. So the farmer needs a root ,oops  I mean wife... :-)

So no short rope and a long drop as yet... I've been hitting the dating apps and sites as a distraction , and once you get past all the scam sites there's one or two ok ones...but that's another story...not met anything yet...I might need a new head .

 

Good ride to the show the other day , after a 4 degree start , the ride home the next day not so good.....a bit seedy... bad traffic over the blue mountains, up the left hand side for about 20kms...but the weather was great, so all good ...

 

On the bromelain again,  I've never moved so well, or not got sore on the bike since I've been taking it...great stuff...I recommend it..

 

 


 

30/8 .I've never heard so much shit in my life the last couple of days coming out of Queensland... reasons we can't have bikes running around and why  they must have their colours banned and not be allowed to use clubhouses:

 

1. They intimidate people riding around in big groups with their colours on. Fuck  me different people are intimidated by : dogs, cats, old people, children, babies , fat people,  skinny people, priests ,policemen ,  the dark! etc ... when will the idiocy stop??....

2.They cant have their clubhouses back , so they cant plan illegal activities.  Yes because we know illegal activities must only be planned in clubhouses and nowhere else !! Since the clubhouses in Queensland haven't been available,  criminal activity in the state has completely stopped!!!

 

This from a government who sailed to victory promising they'd repeal the fascist VLAD laws  but are obviously afraid of looking soft on crime, when the fact is there's an insignificant amount of crime , like less that 1% , to be concerned with.

 

I must say it'd really help the overall situation in Queensland for everybody though if some fuckheads would pull said fuckheads in and not be in the news for stupid shit crimes every few days...

 

 


NBN nearly here and I'll still have a shit service...

I've been paying up to $650 a month for my internet ,( for 75 odd gb)  due to the fact we cant get ADSL and can only get wireless broadband . I found out last night NBN satellite was now available , but the most I can get is 70gb peak , 80gb off peak ( between 1am and 7am) for $205 a month.. So it'll still be relatively expensive, and I'll still have to watch my usage...So much for NBN bringing us into the 21st century...what a joke..


 

6/4 Well Queensland politicians have decided not to break the mould of lying bastards that we all believe them to be, and not get rid of the VLAD laws as they promised. Obviously cow towing to the police for some reason ...they are meant to be their superiors..

So we cant have a clubhouse...for fucks sake.... completely ignoring basic human rights of free association, but no-one will care till its extended to league or soccer clubs... Needless to say I wont be going near Queensland till its a cold day in hell..

I used to say , and it sadly remains true, beautiful place, but full of fucking Queenslanders..

 


 

6/3 B busy with work still so finding time for this gets a bit hard sometimes.. had a few boys over for lunch a few weeks ago...

 

]

Then a couple of weeks ago rode down to Sydney for the arvo too see an old mate from 40 years ago

 

Good ride over Bells Line, M7 , Harbour tunnel.... that was horrible, hot and dead slow.. 2hrs for the 150 kms though and f all traffic lights ..

 

and still the sun is shining here!

 

 


 

17/1 Out for a blast this morning, nice and cool , up over Sunny Corner Road to Sunny Corner , then saw a sign to god knows where. 17kms...thought I'd have a look...Ok for 10 kms, then it turns to dirt...kept going for another 10kms or so then it says "river crossing unsuitable for small vehicles 15kms.."  it must go to Turon gates , the road on the other side of , I did in the truck a couple of months ago, and it was crap, so I turned around and went back...

 

Looked ok to start with..

 

Back on the tarmac to Sunny Corner, real good fast road through to the Great Western Highway..

Good ride from here, back down toward Lithgow, then up the Castlereagh Highway to Cullen Bullen and home

 


 

 

2/12 Finally got the brake lines back from Pirtek..thought they'd lost em but they tuned up...only $330.00 !no not solid gold !... they had to renew all 3 lines as apparently they couldn't guarantee the others wouldn't leak after unsoldering the one that needed extending.... So put them on last night , and after a couple of goes at bleeding then taking off the calipers and pushing the pistons back in , finally got a good feel to the lever... Went for a spin, bars felt  ok, but the back much the same.. :-/

 

 

22/11 Not dead just hibernating ! Out for a short blast today, and after another one a couple of weeks ago where it felt like every muscle in my back went into spasm, I decided I had to change the bars. I started this a few months ago but after finding I was gonna need a new front brake line, the top part any way , decided I didn't want the bike off the road as long as it took to find someone to make one , so put it back together again. However last month I rang round to find out where I might get the brake line done and lo and behold thers a Pirtek 12kms down the road...they dont do it there but send it to Sydney , only takes a few days, so Ill trot down there tomorrow.. Looking at the bango's I reckon I could probably use custom Harley lines, the bango's look the same size, but the line diameter on the Rocket looks smaller, but I dont think that would make any difference, however as those lines are like gold to buy I think the Pirtek route will be the most economical.. I would have looked at doing just the top line , Ive got some bits lying around still, but everything seems to be swaged into the T junction...

Annoying move shot..

I bought  a set of cheap 12" apes a year or so ago , so put them on, which involved rerouting the clutch and throttle cables , but they should work out ok.. Pain in the arse to work on with the fairing tho, tighten the bars up , try fairing making sure it all clears, repeat.... Only 4 bolts on the fairing tho, pretty quick and easy to remove..the brackets tho were another story!

 

Eventually all back together , but need new grips as no bar ends anymore...I never knew what these were for , but just read its anti vibration so maybe Ill get some more, I don't think I can reuse the originals....but I suppose I should have a better look...might try it as it is and see....

Sitting on the bike it feels more like what I'm used to with the old Harley I had for 19 years. sitting slightly back instead of forward over the bars....will be interesting to try them out when the brake lines done..

 


13/9 Gawd its been a while, but with snow and frost in these parts for the last 3 months.... But summer made an appearance this weekend, so it was a few chores around the place... and if yr on my  FB dont bother reading, you've seen it...

My joy for the day was plumbing my small shed so Im not running 100m of hose every time I do a brew. It only took 3 months and 6 trips to Bunning's ( I looked stunning at Bunnings my hair was just right ..:-p )and others to get all the stuff I needed to connect up the spare rainwater  tank that's sitting there...bought a cheap pump off ebay and connected it all up and nothing.  ..

As I suspected might happen,... seeing the pump outlets weren't labeled or shown in the instructions ,it was , naturally, back to front...ffs how hard would it be to mark "inlet"....

And piping it wrong means yet another fitting to finish half properly...

another 40km trip...I will fix it !

 

 

I should mention how much help the staff were. Asked the senior member to turn the water off while I change over the pipes, and then as its buggered off, due to lack of interest in the 45 seconds it took to do the task, have to walk out and turn it back on myself. Still nothing. Got me stuffed now....finally pull a pipe from the pump and no b water coming through...go out to the tank, and the so called help has turned off two taps ...not just one...its a struggle!

Managed to get in a 45 minute ride around the block, where the local roads did their best to undo my latest steroid injection in the back.... be interesting to see how it is tomorrow...

 


 

3/5 Well that was a bit annoying...there was a localish Brass Balls Rally down the road at Rydal, which I thought I'd go and have a look at. Wasn't that cold, 15C , but drizzling on and off, so I wrapped up and went and had a look...Easy ride though from Wallerawang through to the Great Western, though  the windy road is to be taken with caution, 100km/hr area , but some corners I was down to 70, and no signposting on any of em...  but that's the country. Anyway I get to Rydal, ..and the signs point me up a pretty steep hill, that's not sealed cept for the first 50m , and is 250m of mud...I thought about whether or not to do it , not being the worlds steadiest man, and having come to grief at my mates farm in mud on the old dyna,  but in for a penny etc...

So up I go, and apart from a bit of a slip wasn't too bad. Pay my entrance fee, and head to the bar... Good set up , its at the Rydal Showgrounds, mostly corrugated iron clad buildings  everywhere with a big field in the middle of everything.

So I have a couple of beers , and then decide to head home, as my old mum is coming up to see us today.. Take a few pics then brave the slippery slope again...

Get home, and then this is where the annoying part is...reviewing the 3 pics I took on the phone, and start deleting a crap one, and it wont delete, do it again, and again, and then realise when looking for them, that its deleted the pics forward of the one I'm trying to delete..bugger..

So I investigate ways of getting them back, and it seems there is software out there that will do it, so I download Wondershare Dr.Fone for iOS. You can run it in trial version, which I've done, and the interesting thing is, it seems to have brought up every crap deleted pic from the last 4 years on my phone except yesterdays..so I guess the phone must've just had a bad glitch...but its worth remembering if I can get my pics back, well most...so can others..

Road doesn't look too bad when its dry..

 

 

 


 

Ready to go at 6:45 still a bit dark...

Another show over for the year, not a bad crowd considering the wet weather...not that it rained all day, but I didn't see the sun from memory either....I was up at 5am, ready to go after a good breakfast at 6:45 am, when it was almost daylight for  the 100 mile ride over the mountains to Sydney. Cool but not cold, it was a reasonable ride the 20kms to Lithgow, and then it started turning to crap a little.... Got foggy..and wet...and slow... Road works for miles on the twisty slow wet road was not a great ride, especially stuck behind a couple of semis for some time with no overtaking possible...As I got higher toward Katoomba the fog got worse, and the traffic got slower, but once at Katoomba , not that I could see it in the fog, the road improves to mostly 4 lane, so the rest of the ride was a breeze when I was down out of the fog and rain. God it was nice to hit the M4 and be able to open it up a bit...

Spent the day doing the usual, answering 400 questions on how to put a Peoples Choice vote in the Peoples choice labeled barrel, and selling raffle ticket so some lucky b could ride home on a new Harley.

Decided I'd head home about 5pm to get over the newly crowned road from hell before it was dark , so put on the long dryasbone, best thing I've ever bought, and wandered off into the drizzle. Not a bad ride , till up past Katoomba again, where the rain was a bit heavier and the clouds were around my head... Stopped to put gloves on near Blackheath somewhere, the fairing does a good job of keeping the wind off, but the right hand was starting to freeze. Dropped one, so turn off the bike get off, walk around to pick it up, get back on again, and feeling a bit stiff and sore...Having trouble raising the left foot to put the old girl in gear ffs! Finally managed to select first and ventured off again , down the slow winding slippery road that fortunately had b all traffic, so I could go at my own slow pace...got home without incident, a bit wet below the knee but otherwise fine, except for the aches and pain of encroaching old age!

Like the V-rods..

 

 


22/3 Mentioned last time how my front brakes just wouldn't bleed up so I could get a good feel on the lever, and how the pushing the pistons back into the caliper worked well, then this week , put new Brembo pads in, and even more improvement, feels like it should now!

Out for a blat up to Bathurst yesterday to the brew shop for some essences for the ethanol, wrapped up as it was about 15C here , but by the time I got to Bathurst it was about 27... 50 odd k's and its a completely different climate, just due to the elevation I guess....Could see it coming back, a huge line of cloud bank over the Portland Lithgow area... I'm enjoying it too, haven't had a day over 31 , and I can handle that ok, still need the ac in the house for a few hours in the late arvo, but nothing like the heat in Sydney.

Old age is fun tho... backs stuffed, arthritis, pain , steroid shots , pretty wobbly after getting off the bike for a while, the potholes having done a good job of pounding the lower spine for an hour..and I don't find the roads round here too bad...

 


 

25/2  Decided I had to do something about the back brakes given the front still felt like crap . Id added a linkage to the foot lever a while ago, that worked by me lifting it up with my toes, but I couldnt really get enough pressure on it.

 

 

So thought about it for awhile and it finally came to me how to fix it.

started by pulling the lever off and cutting most of it off the support , then welding a bar to that vertically

Welded another bar to the original lever, bolted that with a bolt with a nyloc to the support bar , and put another bar between them...also secured with nylocs so the nuts wont come off, but they have some movement..

Not particularly pretty but functional...

 

after all that , last night I read on Triumph Rat forum that pushing the pistons back into the caliper can help get rid o the soft front brake syndrome, and lo and behold I did it yesterday, and it seems to have worked...

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

10/1 Well bleeding the front brakes proved to be a real pain in the ass...put a whole bottle of fluid through the LHS caliper and still air was coming out, while the other side was perfect. Decided I'd try the syringe method and after both sucking down and pushing back up to the caliper finally got a reasonable feel on the lever, but I'm still not sure its as good as it was. I'll see how it goes for a while and maybe change for brand new fluid again...

I'm enjoying the roads where I live now, probably most importantly they're pretty well surfaced, with a few exceptions, such as when you hit Portland, half of the lane is completely fucked , and in a car you want to drive over the center line to avoid it, and down the road coming out of Wallerawang its a bit rugged also...but generally they're pretty good.. And there's f all traffic...out on the Great Western Highway between Lithgow and Bathurst you might get a few cars, but after Sydney its deserted!

 

The pic on the front page is from a road I took coming back from Bathurst in the car on Tuesday, and it was so good I took the bike out on it the next day, great views, no traffic, good weather and a good surface makes for better riding that I've been used to for a while. I've been up the Castlereagh highway to Mudgee a bit also, but the first few miles from here , as an exception to the rule now, is a bit of a kidney buster, so I didn't go too far.....I've done it in the car tho and it does improve, so I'll go a bit further next time.. not far up this road is the worlds widest canyon, Capertee , and its pretty spectacular, so I'd like to get a few pics, tho as usual it's not easy to find somewhere safe to stop and do it...

 


 

28/12 Well that was a mistake..decided I'd change the bars on the bike while I had some spare time...took the 4 screws out of the fairing and laid it down somewhere safe, then loosened off the hand controls , the clutch side being nice and easy to remove, the throttle side which as usual isn't, as the cables are too short to allow the throttle handle to slide that far to the right, so removed the instrument cluster, then the top clamp on the bars...and let the throttle and brake hang down..

Got the new bars, that I'd got off ebay from China 6 months ago for $50, 12 inch apes, and started unwrapping them. As I did I notice bits of chrome everywhere.... and after they were unwrapped saw that about a 2sq inch area had lost the chrome completely, on the bend on the throttle side. Hmm, oh well , may not be noticeable or I can paint em black.

 

Fit the bars and stick the bolts in the top clamp loosely after sliding on the throttle...However the throttle cables which come around the front of the fork leg and the brake lines are too short to allow me to put the bars centered on the clamp. The brake line is at least 50mm short and similar with the throttle. Take the bolt off the union of the twin disc lines and that gives me enough brake line temporarily, pull the throttle to bits and re route them behind the forks and they're still too short , and so are  the brake lines when I try to move the bars upright...

Fairing off fun begins

Bugger..! I'd put the new bars next to the original ones and it looked as though the hand position was going to be almost identical, and I was only changing them for a slightly better wrist angle, but unless I want to be off the road for a couple of weeks and shell out for new cables this wasn't gonna happen. On top of this the bars look stupid with the fairing as the hand grips will be too high...

Take the new bars off and put it all back together. That's a  few hours I''ll never get back. I do manage to adjust the existing bars back and down a bit though I realised when the fairing is back on, they feel fine so it might be a slight improvement. I friggin hope so, as to adjust em again, its fairing and instrument cluster off to access the bloody bolts!

Then today I go to move the bike back to the shed near the house and the front brake fells crap. Probably  hanging it upside down has let some air in. Bled the brakes the old way, without a plastic tube, loosen off nipple , assistant pulls in lever, tighten nipple , till no air comes out. Only seemed to be air on one side, did it all twice, and it still feels shit... I remember with the HD front brakes, they needed 100 or more pumps to come right sometimes, but I've done that and still coming back a bit too far it feels...

I looked online and saw they can be a prick, but I think I need the plastic hose (which I've misplaced somewhere in the recent  move) and to pump em both sides a bit more to be sure all the airs out...so I'll try and find the hose and do it again tomorrow... :-/

Back together, Greens sign now at tip!

 


 

24/12 Well not much motorcycling going on, though I did get out and try the road round here for half an hour or so, bugger all traffic is great, and generally better roads than where I was living before. Spent most of last Saturday getting the youngest daughters 49cc quad going, which we brought a couple of month ago and she rode once....Assembled it back then, which took an hour or so, then it took half an hour to start, b 2 strokes..then it ran for a while, but the kill buttons didn't work for some reason and we couldn't shut it off...then when we did it didn't start again. So I pulled it to bits...which on these little pos aint easy, as the frame is in the way of everything...but I stripped and cleaned the carb, blocked jet, the only jet...pulled out the reed valve to have a look, unwired the kill buttons, it has 2 , one you would attach to yr wrist or close to shut it off if you fell off, adjusted the gap to the coil from the flywheel,  all the while with an electric drill on the flywheel nut trying to start it. This didn't work at all , and I think just succeeded in flooding it badly , cos when I  finally gave up trying to start it , put the starter pull mechanism back on and left it for the night, it started first pull the next day...  Still a prick of a thing to get going properly but the boy's had a few rides on it , as the daughter still isn't very interested!

Aah buying a house...almost as much fun with this one as the last one I bought on the Central Coast 10 odd years ago, before I made the mistake of going back renting...

Did our final inspection on the Saturday before settlement and knew it was going to turn to shit somewhat...The owner was meant to have all his crap out of the big shed, but hadn't moved f all, and by his crap I mean about 6  cars and bodies and associated bits and pieces... Also the whole 5.4 acres that has been nicely mown when we decided to but was now overgrown with grass up to 1m high... So the agent got a bit of an earful , but said but said it would all be right for the Wednesday for settlement . I knew it would take a few men quite a few days to shift all the shit so I wasn't convinced. Then on Tuesday we hear that the owner hasn't fixed up his land tax and cant settle tomorrow....WTF!  ...removalist is booked, we've given notice, we have to move..! Fortunately the house had been cleared out fine and there wasn't any reason we couldn't move our furniture in so I  asked if that would be ok anyway, and kept plans as is...

I went and dropped a trailer of my stuff at the place on Wednesday as I'd originally planned and they were still cleaning out the shed, but I'd decided to live with it if it wasn't finished for m to put my stuff in on the Thursday.

Thursday came , and settlement was meant to happen that afternoon, but we still didn't have permission to move in before the 3pm, but kept the removalist on track, and it wasn't till half way here that we found out we could move in, so it was all getting a little stressful. When we arrived they were still cleaning out the shed, so I dropped my trailer , an waited till they left for the day before unloading it. They never came back to finish of course and left a pile of shit near one of the doors, and didn't leave the remote or garage keys which we still haven't seen...

The next few days was nothing but storms, and we found the "sunrooms " , extensions to the main house, leaked like a sieve ...yesterday I found one of the causes was blocked gutters, so it was up an extension ladder for an hour or so..

The septic maintenance man popped round to see if I wanted him to keep servicing the property, and sold me a $300 pump as the old owner had apparently swapped in a crap one that didnt work before he left.

The dishwasher was crap and didn't work. New one.

The AC doesn't work on cold, stuck reversing valve, $1000 to fix it , so I'm trying a few things with that myself. As it happens it doesn't seem to get too hot here, much cooler than Sydney so it may not be a huge issue if I'm lucky...

No  free to air TV. None of the house aerial outlets work, we have foxtel , but want the other as well. I think it maybe the masthead amp needs a power supply, which is usually at an aerial outlet, and possible the tenants took it with them...new one coming..

Aah well , holiday time , so I can keep busy round here for a while, but all in all , it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth and a feeling of being conned somewhat..whatever happened to honesty and honour ? , house buying seems to be one area where these just disappear.... Merry Christmas!

 


9/12 Been shifting house, for nearly a week , finished actually shifting shit , but it'll be a while before the new place is straight, what a nightmare.. 6  105km trips over Bells Line of almost a road, most of them with a thunderstorm or two on the way , with all the stuff from my garage, which is now in a number of piles in the good sized shed ... The ride over here was the best, frigging bucketed down at I hit the windy bits on the way up to Kurrajong Heights , so bad I had to pull over and sit in the rain at the side of the road for 1/2 hour till it eased a bit...at least it wasn't cold....god knows while I'm smiling must be losing it !


 

So up this morning and down to the parts shop for a couple of 3" hose clamps for the heat wrap...wound it all on as a trial to make sure I had enough, then soaked in it water in a bucket ...

 

 

And on it went, a bit tricky on the changing diameter but came out ok...

                   

New muffler...mmm shiny...too shiny!

 

and not shiny...sounds ok not too quiet but quiet enough..

 

the wrap job, will matt black it after a few miles...but it always burns off again eventually I found

 

 

 


 

Well so much for the ceramic coating path at this stage, trot off down to Penrith (30km) with the family in tow yesterday at 5pm, as we were going down there anyway to meet my mum for dinner, 81, and going strong, and we hit the wall of traffic....and this is 70km west of the city by the way, f me sat in it for 30 minutes till it was too late to drop off the headers, (they were gonna hang round till 5:45), went down at 7:45 when we finished , but of course all shut up....and I cant be bothered going down there again, so I'll look at wrapping it , seeing its off the bike now anyway...

 


10/11 After a trip to the city last week, where I  was constantly looking down to see if my pants were actually on fire, I decided I'd better do something about it. So I enquired about the ceramic coating you can get done and for $240 , they reckon it will cut the heat by 30%...which I reckon should be enough... I'd wrap it but its an awkward shape so this might be easier , tho a bit dearer :-/

The little so called muffler got to me too, between that and the induction noise from the K&N's its not terribly pleasant,  so I've ordered a muffler  from CES, to match the pipe, now just waiting for the f ing useless courier company to bother to drive out here and deliver it...5 days its been in Sydney so far...

 


 

21/9 Met my mate Moose down at South Windsor yesterday , at his mates Adam's shop,  APL Performance Bikes, he's on FB so check it out, great setup with one of the best dyno's in Australia. They have the capabilities of tuning each cylinder for the best performance, as well as engineering facilities or contacts to build performance monsters. Some good pics on  his FB page of his setup, when I decide whether I'm gonna keep the current muffler I'll be booking in for his tune...

Here's a good example of his work , a 200hp supercharged Road King , a winner at Bankstown Custom Motorcycle Show.

 

Immaculate shop as you can see...

 Mooses V-rod

 

Anyway after a couple of hours of a big learning curve for me on the technicalities of proper performance mods, ,  we hit the road for the trip to Maitland to join the Gladiators MC poker run. Over the Putty Road again.  Good 220 km ride, and after a quick stop at the clubhouse to find out where the run may be now,  it was back across town to catch up with the large group at the

Kearsley Hotel , where we grabbed a beer and ordered a steak, almost exactly as the 5 minute call rang out....

 

I managed to rush out and get one pic before returning to my beer while the  large pack roared off...

Ate our steaks, drank the beer , then back on the bike for a roar down the freeway to Sydney...I must've been enjoying the ride, as I missed my turnoff on the M7 ( sun in my eyes) and did an extra 50k's out through Penrith to get home!

The muffler and pipe seems to work well.  Pulls like , well you know...Sounds fine out on the open road but a touch loud in built up areas..I can see myself getting a ticket...Strange thing at 120+ k's if I give it a handful in 5th it really screams and I'm looking for another gear , but its only doing 3000 rpm...It'd be interesting to get it dyno tuned  with two different mufflers to see which actually performs best...or whether the tuning can make the engine with any/either muffler perform much the same ...

 


 

15/9 After stuffing around on the weekend trying to muffle an exhaust tip I bought , the real muffler turns up today...altho muffler may be guilding it a bit...f all muffling going on, but hopefully enough to allow me to not get any tickets.... Just took it for a ride, and to be honest it sounds like a big un muffled 4 cylinder jap bike pretty much , but I quite like it.... I was wearing some old pants that ride up my leg a bit , and the exposed part came back pretty red so I think a heat shield may be in order, that I'll extend back to also cover the master cylinder...the top of which was also a bit hot for my liking, and that's after I spaced it out so there's a good 20mm gap...so something else to do... :-/

 

This was the tip, but as its almost identical to the actual muffler this pic will do...I've spun the clamp round so ya cant see it...

 

 


 

29/8 Well I've generally been doing f all, as its been raining and cold for a few weeks now, but to keep life interesting, and instill the odd modicum of fun, I finally succumbed to temptation and ordered a CES Racing ( in Qld) header pipe for the bike...with a tune and their muffler they show 169hp on a dyno chart they sent me,  so somewhere in that region will be good... I've opted for a little shorty muffler off Ebay, below,  and will matt black the pipes that I'm buying raw, to save a few bucks, myself. Just waiting for the mailman now ....!

I also opted for the double baffle in the tiny muffler, for an extra $15 ,but if its too restrictive/quiet it may get the big steel rod up it...

 

This will look better matt black...

$100 ebay muffler (inc shipping from US)

 

Its worked out a bit of a bargain at $1320 all up , and CES Racing were very easy to deal with , and accommodated all my requests, such as raw, no oxygen sensor welded in , no muffler, when other systems start at around $2k,.

 


 

16/7 I managed a ride around the block on Sunday,  cool too....doesnt look quite as good a day as Jim and Monique had in Queensland, in the middle of winter!

 

Blat up th coast road yesterday for lunch at quaint lil Maryborough pub we frequent time to time... :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Well Friday was fun, I finally found someone to give me a mortgage , so was off over the Blue Mountains to Portland, all of 105km's to look at a house. Had to be there at 9am, so off at 7.30am , ...cos the Bells Line of Road is slooow... It has to be school holidays tho ,  so its the 5 of us...Ok for first 50km's then I notice the truck seems to be losing power a bit , struggling on slight hills, and of course there's a semi up my arse...Limp into Lithgow and pull the bonnet, check the gas cap isn't not venting, no real difference, but struggle on and make it to see the house. Leave and have another look under the bonnet, but it not being a loose lead there aint much you can do these days with fuel injection systems on the side of the road...Decided to keep going, but opt to go back over the great Western highway so if it karks it completely we're not too far from civilisation... We make it back up to Mt Victoria without too much bother and to save time I decide to shoot back across from there to Bells line of road, as its mostly downhill the 60 odd kms home. So running down the hill ok, and then we hit a road block...Power lines are down some guy is walking up the line of traffic telling everyone and its gonna be a 2hr wait...but he also adds , go back up the road 6km's and take this road....which I'd never heard of...it comes out down on Comleroy Rd, which isn't far from home.. nows it either this or backtrack 20 kms, mostly uphill... and back across to Mt Vic and the long way home...

He neglects to add that its the road from hell....  thanks pal...

It starts off fine, reasonable bitumen, then goes to dirt, but still reasonable, and then deteriorates somewhat...single lane width, potholes. We meet a car on a bend, I reverse , but then there's 3 cars behind me.. the other guy pulls over a bit and we squeeze past with the family holding their collective breaths while looking down the 300 odd foot drop..and I kid you not !

This death trap of a road continues for about 40km's , widens out here and there, but snakes it way around some extremely steep hills, with some phenomenal views ,and scary dropoffs...

We eventually reach the bottom of a valley where there's a ford built, with about 4 inches of water running over it... "Dont do it !!" my 8 yr old boy yells from the back seat...poor bugger's been crapping himself for 40 minutes by the sound of it! We sail across tho , but those behind us may have thought otherwise as we loose our tail...the truck struggles up the hill from the river to the main road, the road slowly improving as we go. A big hurrah ! as we hit bitumen again, and make our way home...

Throw the laptop with the OBD2 software on the truck and fine multiple random misfires mainly in the fault codes, apparently could be a fuel filter or MAF sensor...ordered a filter, cleaned the sensor, we'll see how it goes..truck still running, just down on power on hills...

 


 

8/6 Jees all I do is go out on the Putty the last few weeks...and  a prick of a ride is was yesterday, left home, up onto Kurmond Rd, and follow a horse trailer doing 50km tops in the 80km zone for 5 km's...couldn't overtake because of the traffic coming the other way, ( and the double lines...) Then when I turn left on to the Putty just out of Windsor and head towards Wilberforce, nothing but cops....was about to squirt past some cars a couple of times but thought better of it, and first  there's a HP bike, of some sort, not seen one before, coming towards me, and then 5 minutes later a car , so seeing it was going to be like that,  I thought no fun to be had here and headed home again, to finish the brew I had going, and put the Peewee away till the gas lines turn up.

Brewing in the garage means firing up the still and when its running waiting and watch  7-10 hrs for it to do its thing, once its been producing spirit and I've turned it over to vapour management you can basically walk away now and then, and just check the ABV occasionally, but with kids running around who might do go knows what , like turning off the hose , or knocking something it pays not to go too far...

 

Peewee in bits, little shock absorber on the end of the crank had disintegrated internally and locked everything up. $25 online for a new one..

Peewee together, took another hour or so to get the frame back on it

Not running yet because  as I've had a perennial problem with the fuel lines on this , since the originals rotted away years ago, I decided to get a full set from online and fix it once and for all....Yamaha in their wisdom uses 2 different sizes between the tank and the carb, and I can never seem to get the right size when I'm stuffing around trying to put a inline filter on...So I'll forgo a filter and just try and keep the fuel clean...

 

Wife walks in with a broom. Where are you off to? I ask.

Apparently "do not resuscitate" will be on any future charts.

 


 

Aint been up to much last week or so, managed to get out for a coolish ride yesterday tho, out to the Putty, up  a bit then back to Kurrajong along Blaxlands Ridge Rd, thought I was about to sit down and relax but no, the boys 110cc Atomik he roars around on has a flat back tyre. Pull the wheel off, find my 1 tyre iron and a spanner and get the tyre off, and pull out the tube. I hadn't seen this before, the valve stem was ripped off the tube, apparently its quite common. Down to the local shop MRD , for a new one, and back to put it in. Get it in, struggling somewhat to get the valve stem back in the hole for some reason, pump it up and theres a hole in it...I must've pinched the tube putting it in..so pull it all to bits again...Fortunately found a repair kit and fixed the holes, 2 off them... Put wheel back on bike after checking it's ok this time. B rear wheel its nearly a 3 man job to get the axel in while holding the spacers and brake plate in the right place, but finally done and he's roaring around again...

 


 

Find the shop at 320 Pacific Highway Hornsby. Ph 0490 137 656

 

My mate Rob, who has the new Indian the lucky b. invited me to the New Vic Tri Indian shop that was opening at Hornsby yesterday. I wasn't sure I'd have the energy after the show, but a beautiful day, an 80km ride, bbq, motorcycles...how could ya resist...

John Black formerly of Hunter Motorcycles is embarking on a new path opening up these new service and performance centers , the first being in Hornsby in Northern Sydney.

I met Rob a few other guys  on the f ing horrible Pennant Hills Road that was three lanes of almost gridlock about 11am and wound our way excruciatingly slowly the last few km's to Hornsby in I'd say pretty near record heat for an Easter Weekend...

 The new Shop

 

Nice and cool in the shops complex though, and with John being imminently hospitable, and a bbq and a t-shirt thrown in, it was a good afternoon...

Robs Indian and a nice Victory

 

 Pinched pic...

 

Good looking Victory on a stand...

Good looking girl on a bike..(another pinched pic!)

Neat old custom in the shop foyer..

 

Damn these look good...

 

 

They make some nice looking bikes Victory...

 

Victory Custom, maybe an Arlen Ness?

Good looking Victories everywhere...

 

Best of luck to John in his new venture...good to see people getting out there and giving it a go...

 

 

 

 


After two weeks of hobbling around due to my back, and a few days of prescribed valium , which helped a lot,  I felt like it might handle a bit of riding, so off around the local goat tracks I went..being careful to avoid the sections with the worst potholes..out to the Putty Rd and up a few km's to Blaxlands ridge  and back to Kurrajong, then back home, only about 45 minutes, but blew the cobwebs out...

Earlier took the young fella down to MCA's at Penrith for some MX clothes so he'd stop wrecking everything else by getting it covered in mud , which he seems to love...they had a bit of a sale so $75 for pants and top as a bit of a bargain, christ some of that stuffs dear...

 

 


9/3 The good old peewee shit itself again some months ago, just all locked up, but as the boy was now riding the bigger bike, wasn't in too much of a hurry to pull it to bits.

But seeing today was watching the brew , might as well kill two birds etc...

 

You cant get the left hand case off without pulling the engine from the frame as far as I could see..so thats what we had to do...

 

Get the boy on the tools, he loves it...

The nut holding the gear on the main-shaft had come off, letting the gear  drift aimlessly and stuff its internal shock...and lock things up,

but 5 minutes on ebay and a new part ordered for $25...

 

 

Back to the important stuff now, brewing :-)

 

 

 


 

28/2 Christ its fun getting older, my poor old body has been suffering this month, friggin pain month its been. First I get this face pain that turns out to be trigeminal neuralgia, which they call the suicide disease cos it hurts that much, but fortunately it only lasted a week or so, then working on the boys bike, it basically jumps into gear while I'm next to it and drags me along for a couple of meters, I fall on it , and must have cracked a couple of ribs..hurts like hell. Then to top it off, after a ride last weekend my back goes out on Monday and I've been in agony with that all week... however I'll come right hopefully, and get back out there riding again soon. Here's a few pics from last week...We went to the Gladiators in Maitland, it was one of their members 5oth anniversary in the club.. what a feat ! Congratulations to him ! as usual the Glads were eminently hospitable, provided us with a big tent for the night , and a great time was had by all.

                                        Waiting on the Freeway as usual...

 

 

 

Gas stop                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         At    MAitland

The new fairing works well, my head is well over the top, but it does keep the wind off my chest so I aint hanging on for grim death , we got a couple of short downpours coming home on Sunday, but my top half stayed pretty dry...

Not to my taste , but well done...

 

 


 

 

22/2 The Corbin fairing arrived yesterday , so I knocked off work a bit early and went out to put it on. What a prick of a job... just pulling the horn cover off to get at the bolts that hold the front indicator brackets to the triple tree took forever, little 8mm bolts tucked in beside the fork leg that are a real bugger to get to...Finally got them off and the bracket bolts out and found Corbin had shipped the wrong bolts for the bottom brackets..they need to have a thread the whole length but these had shoulders, so I had to rush down the local supplier before 5 to get some more...that done they went on fine , but nothings quick and easy in under those headlights...The top bracket fits under the handlebar clamps and that was reasonably easy except the holes were a bit small in the supplied bracket and needed reaming out a bit...I had to move the bars down and back a touch but then the brackets all lined up perfectly and I fitted the 4 bolts to hold it on...

The horn cover had a broken bracket so I araldited it back together and left it overnight to set.

 

brackets on..

 

Finished off this morning

 

Test ride soon...

 

and then get rid of the montrous box and all the packing :-/

Up to the Gladiators at Maitland later so we'll see how it goes, I hope I like it!


 

 

19/2 Haven't been up to much on my bike, but my 8yr old son has been keeping me busy...We bought him a 110ccc pit bike last year, and he just wouldn't ride it to get the hang of the clutch and stayed with the peewee 50, till he finally killed that  by stuffing the clutch( I think) and I've yet to get round to pulling it to bits. So when that broke he was more inspired to get on the 110cc one, and eventually he did , and now we cant keep him off it...and its not been without its incidents...it has an electric start that didn't work when we bought it, no battery, and as at the time he couldn't kick it over easily, I bought a battery and fixed the wiring so it worked. But the battery holder is pretty minimalist and the f ing thing can fall out side ways, its under the tank at the front of the bike, so when it comes out it lands on the hot engine....and we were lucky it didn't burn right through the case...I'd put a strap around it to prevent this, but of course it had come off. Then he's riding it the other day and the clutch cable somehow gets in under the tank and onto the positive battery terminal, that has a cover..but before the battery falls out again it welds the inner cable to the outer sheath. I managed to free it up enough to use it again, and off he went again, with the battery even more securely held, and the clutch cable run around the outside of the tank well away from the battery. 

The in the field his mother hears him yelling yesterday and there's smoke and flames coming off the bike in the battery area. The friggin clutch cable was jammed in under the tank and cooking the damn thing again...She ran out and threw water on it and stopped the fire getting worse, saving the day somewhat as the tank , plastic, was nearly burnt through by the red hot cable....

So the battery is nearly red hot, and the clutch cable is completely stuffed. I disconnected the battery, pulled it out , cut the clutch cable off, and miraculously the bike still runs ok....but he has to wait for a new clutch cable to arrive by mail. The battery is staying off ! he can kick start it fine now, and its just a bloody danger with it on.....bad positioning to put it mildly..

 

Previous to this carry on yesterday, we were getting sick of the noise of the thing, its bloody loud when he canes it, and I can see the neighbours getting jack of it, so I thought I'd try and ameliorate the noise somewhat. I cut the end off a spray can, drilled 3 x 1/4" holes in the other end, filled it up with stainless pot scrubbers I had left over from my still tower and bolted it on the end of his alloy muffler. Success! quieted it down substantially to the stage I cant even hear it out the back anymore, and its still running fine...

Muffler muffler!

Keeping the boy happy and me busy

 

 

 


 

27/1  From what I've found so far, there 3 ways of altering the maps for your ECU on the Rockets. Tuneboy, which I have no experience with , and Power Commander and Tune ECU.

Power Commander has the advantage of being a recognised method with dyno tune guys apparently, ( along with Tuneboy, but not so much I hear.) If you want a custom tune to suit your particular motor and its modifications, that is exactly tailored for your bike . Tune ECU is a free program where you can upload custom maps , and if you know what your doing, alter them if necessary, and the only cost is the interface cable , which cost me $25 from England, that connects to the OBD2 type diagnostic plug on the bike.

I used Tune ECU yesterday to upload a map I hoped was close to my bikes current configuration with the triple K&N's, secondaries removed, and the Staintune pipes and no catalytic converter. A test ride found no problems, though I did get one carb backfire when slowing down, which I was getting on the last map also, through PC, so whether anything has actually changed much its a bit hard to tell...I guess at some stage I'll spring for a proper dyno tune with an expert , but will wait till I've done all I think I'll do with the bike first...there is the Reband exhaust I'm thinking of !

I did put on a set of Pussy Grips ( great name ..not ! ) handgrips off ebay for $20, as the originals are pretty worn and slippery, and I my hands were actually sweating on them, which I've never had before... They are supposed to slip on over the originals easily after soaping everything up, but I had a hell of a job getting the first one on and was about to chuck them at one stage...Persevered using a pair of long nose pliers gently to help ease one on...and then with the second one soaped everything  a bit more and it went on a bit easier than the first one...and I only ripped it a little bit... :-/  Felt better on a test ride yesterday , hopefully might prevent the tingles I was getting on the throttle ...

 

After battling with Telstra about my crap adsl connection for the last few weeks and finally been awarded $200 in compensation, this morning , after leaving the PC for an hour and returning, no internet at all... Couldn't get it working again, but through the Telstra Online Toolkit I've installed, got a reference number and a different phone number to call for help. Unbelievably I got a tech who actually knew something, and he reckons part of the problem could be my now old fashioned method of connecting through an adsl modem and then to the wireless and Ethernet router.

Apparently the newer modem/routers are far superior, so I've ordered one and will se how it goes... I noted this morning my router is 7 years old...We've had really poor speeds here, due to a congested line I'm told, and as NBN will be here in the next 100 years, Telstra doesn't  plan to upgrade any lines such as mine...so its suffer or try and help myself a bit...

 


12/1  Boys had organised a flat track training day at the Bankstown Paceway, where we have our yearly show, and my son Damian wanted to come, so now that he's legally old enough to be a pillion, (ffs) it was dig out a helmet and take him for a test ride around the block after putting the sissy bar back on...

 

He went fine , so we trotted off... doing the 80 odd kms in an hour or so...

 

Video by my mate Rob

 

Good turnout of riders wanting some coaching from some professionals...

'king hot ride home, traffic jam on M5 , had to split the lanes for about 10km in 35degrees !

 

 


11/1 The insanity in Queensland, or New Salem, as it should probably be called, could be opening the door for an entrepreneurial spirit...There's one thing Newmaniac and his merry band of jesters on crack haven't instituted yet, ...dunking poles! If you were to jump in quick and put a plan together that could guarantee supply for the next 100 years, I don't see why every village , town and city could have one at every suitable body of water..! One day a month, say the last Sunday, could be dunking day, where the townsfolk would drag suspected  bikies/or "new witches" (for the slow ones)  from their homes , lash them to the pole, dunk em till they drown,  and really find out if they were dangerous drug dealing , police station attacking, granny bashing, Jesus crucifying, child molesting, treasonous,  murdering thugs that everyone in a brain fried s(S)tate suspects them to be. Families could be made to remove the corpses from the poles, carry them through the streets to a pre built pyre, (all part of the supply process, for more profit!) ..where they would be tied to a stake and burnt! I see great profit (prophet?) here ...Think its too outrageous? Look what's happened already ! I must talk to my bank manager...

 


 

8/1 Claw cut down, didn't fluck it up completely fortunately...! Chopping of the rear bracket was probably the dumbest bit ! welded back on... Hard to get a decent pic, a bit dull today...

 

 

 

 

 


 

7/1 Couldnt help myself , and decided to put the K&N's on...Once I pulled out the plenum with the MAP sensor and the temp sensor and saw that was all there was to relocate it wasn't too bad...    The Air temp sensor needs to be in the same airflow as the throttle bodies, and needed a pod filter , mainly to protect it, so after extending the 2 wires to it I mounted it below the right hand throttle body, only $18.95 for a Redline filter... The MAP sensor just needed securing up off the top of the engine and then it was put in a suitable tune via the power commander. There's only one online that I can find, from PC themselves that has the K&N's so I used that one. On the test ride the engine  stumbled a bit low down , but seemed to come right....

I agonised over the bear-claw...I didn't want to cut it down, but  the coolant bottle is an ugly little item and needs covering...so for now I've painted it black and put it back on...

PITA they are too...I had it all back together and realised I had left the slightly short fuel pump cable disconnected , so it was off with the seat , lift up the tank, fix the cable, but then the bear claw wont go back down over the filters, so its loosen it all off again...

Finally got it back together again and went for a ride....Seems a lot more responsive, and there's a bit more intake noise, and a little chirping as I've heard it described , but overall good...

I want to uncover the filters so I'm looking for a solution that doesn't mean cutting the bear claw...the online carbon fibre ones seem a bit dear to me , so it might have to wait a while...

 


 

5/1 Had a bit of a ride locally yesterday morning before it got too hot, jees went the wong way, the local crap roads were trying to relocate my kidneys again... then thought I'd look at fitting the 3 K&N air filters I got as part of the lot last week. Eventually decided against it.

There's a couple of sensors to relocate, the radiator overflow /filler bottle to relocate, the bear claw to lose or cut down...aah too hard! I sort of learnt my lesson with the HD , don't change too much or it never stops!

I did see a useful modification however on r3owners.net , where the throttle bodies have two butterflys, and if you remove the outside, the secondary set, it apparently makes the engine a lot more responsive in the lower 3 gears , as the ecu controls these butterflys to only open partially , or slower, as a form of power limiting, for basically safety purposes...Might not get to that till next week however...

........got to it sooner than expected...and it does make a difference, a bit more intake noise and quite a bit quicker from a seat of the pants perspective! Will probably do the K&N's when I've found out what to do with the sensors...

 

secondaries in place,                                                                              secondaries removed

 

 


 

Well that was a New Year I wont forget in a hurry, all for the wrong reasons! NYE was ok, few drinks on the balcony ,till the 40oz bourbon was gone, at about 10pm, and it was collapse till morning . Off we trot about 9 in the truck , heading towards Maitland to pick up a load of R3 parts I scored on Ebay including a Metcruze seat...on the way home.

All good till we turn off the Pacific Highway before Raymond Terrace and wind through the bush back-roads towards our destination...until I need a bog... not a gas station or rest stop anywhere so its look for an unsuspecting tree to rush behind. Pull off the road on the wrong side so I can exit quickly behind a nice large candidate that should hide most of me from passing traffic and the family!  Down I squat , and somehow I fall backwards slipping on the undergrowth and down on my back between this tree and the fence. The fence I discover on my way down is 5 lines of barbed wire, and I've now got my left arm and side somewhat impaled on it. Sort of double ouch....I felt my side being ripped a bit and my palm and forearm are bleeding a bit as I tried to grab the fence to stop the fall...and now I'm almost on my back and cant move....Cant roll to the right cos off the big arse tree and cant sit up with my fucked back... Yell for help!

The wife come out and tries to help pull me up, but its really a 2 man job! She grabs some towels to put on the fence so I can try and pull myself up from there as well and eventually after about 10 minutes of careful extraction I'm unplucked. Without going into too much detail though, it ain't exactly a clean getaway....Fortunately there's wipes in the truck and water and after a while and a change of clothes I'm fit to get back in the truck... So blood seeping through my clean shirt we go and pick up the gear...Fortunately I really only suffered a few deep scratches, and didn't need any stitches....

Fitted the new seat when we got home:

Fits well, but it exposed a big dent on the mudguard  under the original one , so its on with a bag to cover it. Lowers me a bit , so that'll be good, when it cools down a bit I'll go for a ride...

 

 


 

Home Aus Biker News Bike News Rides Other Stuff Events Tech Links