Saturday night was a bit sleepless due to a little, ok a lot, excited about taking Nikki out on the bike on Sunday.
I found, a week or so ago, that I couldn't adjust the preload on the rear suspension. The C clamp tool that came with the bike, great as it is for the job, has a handle only a few inches long. For leverage, this is, to put it bluntly, bollocks! At least I assumed it was a leverage problem and not that it had seized due to never having been used!
A trip was paid to the father in law to be's who always has a tool for any kind of job and thankfully found, that with an extended bard with a 16mm socket on the end to fit over the handle, the suspension preload selector moved surprisingly easily.
Revelation: The bike comes with the preload set on the number 3 setting. As a cautious move, I notched it up to 5 and took the bike for a very quick spin round a block of houses. To my horror, I found that I've probably been riding the bike with my preload too soft as number 5 felt perfect for me!
Panic set in after this revelation as if a number 5 setting was perfect for me, this would be an indicator that a 6 probably wouldn't be ok for me + another! Up it went to a number 7!
Now usually I'm a believer of all of the gear all of the time but to test the suspension, Nikki was a little self concious of getting on the bike on the street where she'd grown up clad in all her new clothing. I wasn't too fussed as I knew we'd only be doing a max of 10mph and had fallen off plenty of times much faster on my push bike. So helmets on and onto the bike she hopped worrying about the amount of "wobble" she had caused to the bike! I reassured her that this was fine (now wasn't the time to tell her about my first time as a pillion and falling backwards after trying to hike up onto the peg!), checked she was ready to move and off we went down the road!
After a very short distance, turning around and back to the house, I was confident that the bike was setup well enough and we left for home shortly after.
With the sun shining as we arrived back to the house, I suggested that we went out on the bike seeing as it was now fully set up and we had all the gear which was met with some reservation but responded to positively.
Now for those that do ride bikes, think back to the first time you put all your clothing on... took a little while didn't it? For those that don't ride, I think the only way I can put it is try and put another 5 layers of clothes on top of what you're wearing and you'll get the same kind of manouverability that you experience when you've got all the motorbike gear on!
After about 20mins of getting ourselves together, we made off without a clue where we were going and only with the knowledge that again, after missing breakfast and lunch, we needed to eat soon!
Pulling away initially, the bike felt a lot more stable once up to 30mph. The first roundabout came and we made it round perfectly! I knew from there onwards that everything would be fine.
The first time we stopped after riding for about 10 minutes incorporating national speed limits I heard a voice from behind me "I know you can't see this, but I've got a massive grin on my face!". I don't think I could have heard more reassuring words and at the next set of lights, we done our first bit of filtering. As I approached the front of the queue though, the lights changed earlier than I expected. Accelerating harder than I had done previously from 1st gear, the front wheel lifted but no more than a foot! It was at this point that I felt I would feel one of my pre arranged signals - hit my shoulders repeatedly if you're worried - but to my surprise it never came! A swift change to 2nd and back on the power ensured a smooth landing for the front wheel and off we went down my usual roads to Portsmouth.
From then onwards, every time I had a chance to speak, the signs were good from Nikki letting me know at one point that "this is amazing!". I think as a biker, we forget sometimes that feeling and exhilaration of being on powered two wheels for the first time.
The bike was flowing nicely through the country lanes, the fresh, cool, crisp air funneling smells of freshly cut grass through the helmet was fantastic and the sunshine infront warming our faces through the visors was perfect. I couldn't have hoped for a better day to have brought Nikki out on her first ride. We even spotted Lama's in a field that we had driven past so many times before!
The rest of the day was spent riding around Hampshire enjoying the country roads and visiting places that we used to live in which was a nice trip down memory lane too. All in all, a perfect day out.
Now, the downside is that as the suspnsion preload is a the top setting, it may not be able to cope with the panniers and the top box too which will add another 35Kgs. For the moment though, I'm not going to worry about this but have it in the back of my mind that a suspension upgrade may be in order!
I'm hoping that the next post will finally reveal all the places that we are going to be visiting in Ireland!
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
Monday, 7 March 2011
Saturdays, made for driving around and shopping!
So, again, it's been a while since I last posted up on here. I'm still going through that Ireland book and am now up to 2 pages of A4 worth of places to visit with still another 300 pages to go! I will complete it one day!
Anyway, back to the here and now!
Payday was just over a week ago and I'm sure as many others do, that money was just itching to be spent. With the forthcoming trip to Ireland in just over 2 months time and the weather becoming warmer (ever so slightly) and the days getting longer it was high time that we started looking for some motorbike clothing for Nikki.
After much looking online, we found a shop in Poole that seemed to have the right clothing selection so on Saturday we drove down. The plan was to leave nice and early, miss the traffic, get the clothes and spend the day by the beach. As it worked out, we left at 11am, got stuck in traffic between Bournemouth and Poole and had to make an unscheduled shop when the car overheated due to a lack of coolant!
We arrived at the shop which seemed to be in the middle of a virtually desolate street, parked up and walked in. Greeted by a friendly shop assistant, Nikki tried on a few items and eventually we found what we were after. Jacket, trousers and gloves for £250! With this being such a bargain, I thought I would treat myself and as any good Indian would do, haggled a pair of Goretex Alpinestars down to £50! Unfortunately, none of the boots were a great fit so we had to give them a miss.
At this point, we realised that not only had we missed breakfast, but had effectively missed lunchtime too and were both starving so a quick trip to Bournemouth for lunch was done. After refuelling ourselves it was back home again with a quick stop at home to pick up my boots in the hope that the local Hein Gericke shop still had them in stock. Unfortunately, they had discontinued my boot but had another that was a good fit for Nikki so within 5 minutes a decision was made to make the purchase! Who said women took an age to shop?!?
After an exhausting day trekking around the south coast, I was fully excited about the prospect of going out on the bike the next day and fulfilling a 2 year dream of getting Nikki in the saddle too!
Anyway, back to the here and now!
Payday was just over a week ago and I'm sure as many others do, that money was just itching to be spent. With the forthcoming trip to Ireland in just over 2 months time and the weather becoming warmer (ever so slightly) and the days getting longer it was high time that we started looking for some motorbike clothing for Nikki.
After much looking online, we found a shop in Poole that seemed to have the right clothing selection so on Saturday we drove down. The plan was to leave nice and early, miss the traffic, get the clothes and spend the day by the beach. As it worked out, we left at 11am, got stuck in traffic between Bournemouth and Poole and had to make an unscheduled shop when the car overheated due to a lack of coolant!
We arrived at the shop which seemed to be in the middle of a virtually desolate street, parked up and walked in. Greeted by a friendly shop assistant, Nikki tried on a few items and eventually we found what we were after. Jacket, trousers and gloves for £250! With this being such a bargain, I thought I would treat myself and as any good Indian would do, haggled a pair of Goretex Alpinestars down to £50! Unfortunately, none of the boots were a great fit so we had to give them a miss.
At this point, we realised that not only had we missed breakfast, but had effectively missed lunchtime too and were both starving so a quick trip to Bournemouth for lunch was done. After refuelling ourselves it was back home again with a quick stop at home to pick up my boots in the hope that the local Hein Gericke shop still had them in stock. Unfortunately, they had discontinued my boot but had another that was a good fit for Nikki so within 5 minutes a decision was made to make the purchase! Who said women took an age to shop?!?
After an exhausting day trekking around the south coast, I was fully excited about the prospect of going out on the bike the next day and fulfilling a 2 year dream of getting Nikki in the saddle too!
Friday, 11 February 2011
All is becoming clear!
So, not much has happened in the last couple of weeks. I've been reading up more on the lonely planet guide to Ireland more so the week before last than the week just past. This is mainly due to having left the book in the car and not being bothered to get it out!
I've now decided, more by default than choice, that the Garmin 550 will be the sat nav of choice. It turns out that the others don't include eastern Europe (Croatia and Hungary most importantly). I've also heard about other features as being able to upload routes from your computer to the device rather than choosing predetermined routes which is perfect. I'd also imagine setting up the routes on a computer would be easier than punching everything in to a tiny screen!
After much browsing through the internet for hard luggage for the bike, and becoming well and truly confused by the amount of different options available for hard luggage I paid a trip to the Suzuki motorcycle shop in Bordon today. Before I continue though, as I intended this to be a kind of guide for others planning the same thing here's a couple of little tips:
So this changes things slightly. Why would we want a 55 litre top box when I can't fill it up with luggage? I think the answer is that we don't so maybe it's time to start looking at smaller boxes. As long as it can hold the helmets and boots if we want to stop somewhere on our travels I think that will be good enough.
So, on a completely different note, on the way to the motorbike shop this morning, I had a moment of clarification. As I mentioned in my previous post, I crapped myself getting back on the bike for the first time since last year and although after my ride to scrub in the front tyre seemed to eliminate my fears, it was still annoying me why I felt like that. Today, I understood why! The bike seems to be turning more freely and where my limited technical knowledge lets me down I am certain the change of wheel bearings has made this better. In other words, I got used to riding my bike in a sub standard condition! Worryingly, I think this means that all last year, my bike was, putting it bluntly, fucked! At least I know now that if I experience the same problems I will be able to correctly diagnose the fault.
I'm not sure if I had mentioned before but Nikki has never been on the bike, moving or stationary and a big worry for her is how the bike balances. Now, we don't have all the gear for her yet but I think seeing as the ball is rolling now, that it would be best to instill some confidence so tomorrow, Nikki will be having her first sit on the bike. I think I'm more excited at the moment than she!
I'm hoping to have completed the lonely planet guide on Ireland soon so be prepared, the next post may be longer than this!
I've now decided, more by default than choice, that the Garmin 550 will be the sat nav of choice. It turns out that the others don't include eastern Europe (Croatia and Hungary most importantly). I've also heard about other features as being able to upload routes from your computer to the device rather than choosing predetermined routes which is perfect. I'd also imagine setting up the routes on a computer would be easier than punching everything in to a tiny screen!
After much browsing through the internet for hard luggage for the bike, and becoming well and truly confused by the amount of different options available for hard luggage I paid a trip to the Suzuki motorcycle shop in Bordon today. Before I continue though, as I intended this to be a kind of guide for others planning the same thing here's a couple of little tips:
- Get Monokey hard luggage, it's been speed tested! I can only imagine that if you're willing to get the Monolock version, you don't care about your luggage flying off down the Autobahn as you're testing out your top speed!
- All hard luggage I've seen seems to have a maximum weight capacity of 10Kg (panniers and top box).
- The weight of the top box is included in the overall weight capacity given ie. If you're top box weight capacity is 10Kg and it weighs 5Kg, your allowance for actual luggage will only be 5Kg!
- Some bike manufacturers don't recommend using top box and panniers simultaneously. Check your owners manual for advice (I've yet to do this...).
So this changes things slightly. Why would we want a 55 litre top box when I can't fill it up with luggage? I think the answer is that we don't so maybe it's time to start looking at smaller boxes. As long as it can hold the helmets and boots if we want to stop somewhere on our travels I think that will be good enough.
So, on a completely different note, on the way to the motorbike shop this morning, I had a moment of clarification. As I mentioned in my previous post, I crapped myself getting back on the bike for the first time since last year and although after my ride to scrub in the front tyre seemed to eliminate my fears, it was still annoying me why I felt like that. Today, I understood why! The bike seems to be turning more freely and where my limited technical knowledge lets me down I am certain the change of wheel bearings has made this better. In other words, I got used to riding my bike in a sub standard condition! Worryingly, I think this means that all last year, my bike was, putting it bluntly, fucked! At least I know now that if I experience the same problems I will be able to correctly diagnose the fault.
I'm not sure if I had mentioned before but Nikki has never been on the bike, moving or stationary and a big worry for her is how the bike balances. Now, we don't have all the gear for her yet but I think seeing as the ball is rolling now, that it would be best to instill some confidence so tomorrow, Nikki will be having her first sit on the bike. I think I'm more excited at the moment than she!
I'm hoping to have completed the lonely planet guide on Ireland soon so be prepared, the next post may be longer than this!
Sunday, 30 January 2011
The bike is fixed!
A couple of weeks have passed since I wrote the first post although only just posted it up.
After much faffing, I decided my mechanical knowledge wasn't quite up to it and put the bike in the local garage. New brake pads and a front wheel bearings plus a new front tyre and the bike is running fine.
Shock, I picked up the bike yesterday and crapped myself on the half mile journey going home? Have I forgotten how to ride my bike?!?
I've also lost my neck tube so off to the shop this morning to buy another one and headed out for the first ride of the year. Riding nervously towards the dual carriageway, I couldn't resist.... Using the slip road as a drag strip is too much fun! I forgot how fast the bike accelerates and before I'm even thinking of leaving the slip road I'm close to breaking the speed limit! The grin turns into a manic laugh as I thunder down the road remembering every reason why I love biking! The fresh air, the sun shining through my visor warming my face through the cold winter air! I put 100 miles on the clock and regain my confidence in the bike and myself.
We've also been looking at the sat navs and intercoms and the Scala Q2 looks good but is expensive considering that we're on the same bike. The sat nav will most likely now be the Garmin 550. It appears that Tom Tom do not do maps to cover eastern Europe...
With the accessories decided on, the next step will be to figure out the hard luggage options for the bike and to start looking properly at where we may go in Ireland!
After much faffing, I decided my mechanical knowledge wasn't quite up to it and put the bike in the local garage. New brake pads and a front wheel bearings plus a new front tyre and the bike is running fine.
Shock, I picked up the bike yesterday and crapped myself on the half mile journey going home? Have I forgotten how to ride my bike?!?
I've also lost my neck tube so off to the shop this morning to buy another one and headed out for the first ride of the year. Riding nervously towards the dual carriageway, I couldn't resist.... Using the slip road as a drag strip is too much fun! I forgot how fast the bike accelerates and before I'm even thinking of leaving the slip road I'm close to breaking the speed limit! The grin turns into a manic laugh as I thunder down the road remembering every reason why I love biking! The fresh air, the sun shining through my visor warming my face through the cold winter air! I put 100 miles on the clock and regain my confidence in the bike and myself.
We've also been looking at the sat navs and intercoms and the Scala Q2 looks good but is expensive considering that we're on the same bike. The sat nav will most likely now be the Garmin 550. It appears that Tom Tom do not do maps to cover eastern Europe...
With the accessories decided on, the next step will be to figure out the hard luggage options for the bike and to start looking properly at where we may go in Ireland!
The start of a whole new journey!
So the journey began last August having taken a trip to Wales alone with the bike having gone away for a couple of days riding round some of the best roads I have ever come across even though it rained, hard, for a solid 24 hours.
I knew that I always wanted to go away on the motorbike but couldn't have left my other half behind. This was the first time we'd spent the night apart in over 5 years through choice rather than not having any option and it felt odd.
When I got back home though, to my surprise, Nikki my long suffering girlfriend, had decided that she did want to go away on the bike as a pillion and the cogs started whirring!
A couple of weeks later and it was holiday renewal time at work. 1 week in May for our anniversary, another week in July (going away in June has always brought about trouble for us!) and 4 weeks starting at the end of August all approved by my manager. The time was booked off for our first second and third motorbike trips!
It didn't take long to decide roughly where we were going. It was decided that we would visit Ireland first as we'd always wanted to visit but hadn't been, Scotland second, our 6 month anniversary was spent in Edinburgh and we'd always wanted to go back but hadn't got round to it and then 4 weeks round Europe.
Roll forward to 2 weeks ago and we'd not done any planning on where exactly we wanted to go, not thought about what luggage we needed for the bike, not thought about riding gear, intercoms and sat navs and most importantly, the bike was off the road due to not having brakes and something wrong with the steering...
Time to start planning!
I knew that I always wanted to go away on the motorbike but couldn't have left my other half behind. This was the first time we'd spent the night apart in over 5 years through choice rather than not having any option and it felt odd.
When I got back home though, to my surprise, Nikki my long suffering girlfriend, had decided that she did want to go away on the bike as a pillion and the cogs started whirring!
A couple of weeks later and it was holiday renewal time at work. 1 week in May for our anniversary, another week in July (going away in June has always brought about trouble for us!) and 4 weeks starting at the end of August all approved by my manager. The time was booked off for our first second and third motorbike trips!
It didn't take long to decide roughly where we were going. It was decided that we would visit Ireland first as we'd always wanted to visit but hadn't been, Scotland second, our 6 month anniversary was spent in Edinburgh and we'd always wanted to go back but hadn't got round to it and then 4 weeks round Europe.
Roll forward to 2 weeks ago and we'd not done any planning on where exactly we wanted to go, not thought about what luggage we needed for the bike, not thought about riding gear, intercoms and sat navs and most importantly, the bike was off the road due to not having brakes and something wrong with the steering...
Time to start planning!
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