The Ongoing Bike Journey

It's been a while since I posted, mostly because I have not felt like it.  Just after thanksgiving, my wife and I ended up with COVID and here we are in mid March and still feeling the effects of the illness.  This mostly manifests itself in brain fog, fatigue and for some reason I am really feeling the cold this year!

Anyway, what matters most here is that the motorcycle journey is still ongoing.  I am really enjoying the BMW Urban GS but given that it is winter here the riding has been occasional.  Temperatures of -27C and a fair amount of snow will put a stop to riding.

But there have been days when we have been able to get out and ride, and for Christmas this year, my wife got me an Insta360 camera that I am slowly figuring out how to use.  I have also been thinking about the smaller bikes; the two Honda Navi and the Honda Trail 125.  I came to the conclusion that I did not need them anymore so I am going to sell them once the weather gets a little better.

Once I have them sold, I am going to look at buying a small to mid sized bike; something I can bop around town on but also something I could do some distance on if I want to.  The Trail 125 almost fits this role, but I am over 200lbs and that 125cc engine struggles to get above 55mph.  To keep up with the wife on her trike, I need to be able to cruise at 65.  Have I mentioned my wife also rides? I don't recall.

So with that in mind, I have been test riding a few bikes. In January I tried a few bikes: first was a couple of Hondas; the CRF300L and the SCL500 Scrambler.

Honda CRF300L

Honda SCL500 Scrambler

I liked both bikes but the suspension on the Honda is not that great, especially with my weight and the SCL500 is a nice road bike but you wouldn't want to take it off road.

I also tried the Royal Enfield Scram 411 which on paper is rubbish but in reality, to ride is a great bike, although heavy.  It felt very stable and planted on the test ride.

Scram 411

Then in February I had a test ride at my local Kawasaki dealer. The competition to the Honda CRF300L is the Kawasaki KLX300.  

I have to admit that I like the KLX more than the Honda. The suspension is much better, however the KLX does not have ABS where as the Honda does. 

So where does this leave me? I still have another couple of bikes to try. I want to give the new Royal Enfield Himalayan a try, as well as the Shotgun 650 and the Triumph 400x. Once I have ridden these I will make my decision. At the moment I am leaning in favor of the Scram 411 because it nice to ride, and the prices right now are just right. 

So ... to be continued.

My worse bike run ever

I was talking to my wife Cat the other day and we got onto the subject of worse bike rides ever.  My worse bike ride ever started with a nice ride from my old place in the UK to my parents place.  This takes place back in maybe 1994 or maybe 95, I am honestly not sure now.  The journey to my parents place is about a 3 hour ride.  At the time I was riding an FZR1000 Genesis.

I was taking the back roads and was probably about half way home, riding into the southwest of England and going past Glastonbury Tor when I noticed some vibration coming from the front wheel. I was concerned but couldn't see anything obvious so I kept going.

Busted Bearings

The vibration was getting worse the closer I got to my parents place.  Once I got home I mentioned it to my father who, luckily had been a mechanic and knew his way around a bike.  We dropped the front wheel off the bike and took a look at it and the front wheel bearings were toast.  My parents lived in North Devon so the possibility of getting a new bearing that weekend were slim to none.  So given that we could not get a bearings that weekend, we had to order a set, but it was going to be a week or two before they would arrive.  This left me with a problem; how do I get home again?

Getting Back Home

At the time my father was riding a Suzuki GS250T.  He used to to commute to work and back so no more than a few miles a day.  He said, take the Suzuki.  OK, it will be a little slower than the FZR but if the weather holds it will be a slow and fun ride back home along the backroads.

Suzuki GS250T

The weather did not hold.  I left my parents place on a gloomy Sunday afternoon and as I rode the Suzuki up onto Exmoor, it started to rain and the temperature started to drop.  It didn't take long for the rain to turn to sleet and then to snow and it just got colder.  The suzuki was so underpowered that getting up hills was a nightmare of 5th to 4th to 3rd just to crawl up, being passed by everything else on the road.

It's Freezing

Coming down the other side of Exmoor was better for the bike, but for me, the weather was getting colder. I was freezing.  I had the option of taking the motorway or backroads once I got off the moors, and I because of the poor performance from the Suzuki, I opted for the backroads.  What should have been a 3 hour ride home ended up being over 5 hours of snow and freezing conditions.

To keep warm I had put on every piece of clothing I had with me which was no where near enough, as I only had my warm weather gear and was just not equipped for snow.  By the time I got home, my extremities were so cold I could not feel them and I was shivering.  This was not good.

The best thing to do in this situation is run a warm bath, strip off all the cold layers and soak for a while to bring your body temperature back up to close to normal.  This is exactly what I did, and that warm bath felt so good.

And Finally

A couple of days later I took at look at the Suzuki to see why the performance was so poor. Well, i guess someone wasn't paying attention to his chain and sprockets because the rear sprocket was warn so badly I am honestly surprised that little bike made it up any of the hills at all, and the chain was also badly worn.

New sprockets and a new chain saw the bike up and running again, and a couple of weeks later, the new bearings for the FZR arrived and I was back up and running again on my bike.  But that dear reader is the worse trip that I have experienced on a bike so far.

I have leveled up!

I had always planned to upgrade from the Kawasaki Versys-x 300, but I was planning on that early next year.  However ... I feel like I have outgrown the Kawasaki.  The little 300cc engine is great around town but, I have done some longer trips recently and I have found having to rev it so hard to be tiring to ride.

I spent some time cogitating on what to get next. I wanted something bigger, sportier, and capable of long runs, but would be relaxing to ride, but also not a cruiser. I boiled it down to four bikes; The Indian FTR, The Triumph 1200 Scrambler XC, Moto Guzzi V85TT and the BMW RNineT Urban G/S.

I took all four out for test rides courtesy of my local dealers and honestly I loved all four of them, but I had to pick one.

Moto Guzzi V85TT

The Moto Guzzi is a great bike full of character and is plenty of bike for what I want. It would be great for a long run and fine for a little off road where necessary.  it also has luggage capacity for when I feel like a multi day trip.  However it is an 850cc V twin with about 80hp.  Next year it is (if the rumors are correct), a new version is coming out with a larger water cooled engine and I think I would rather wait for that one.

Indian FTR 1200

The Indian FTR was an absolute blast and definitely bought out the hooligan in me so that was a no go.  I also eliminated the FTR as I am not sure it's all that comfortable for a long run. 

BMW RnineT Urban GS

The BMW Urban GS has both modern and retro elements to its look and feel, and is a fantastic bike to ride. The only issue I had with it was the price tag because of all the option 719 add ones, however all the add ones ad to the look making it something very special.

THe last bike was the Triumph scrambler 1200xc.  I chose the XC version and not the xe as the XC has a lower seat height which fit me better.  I liked it but really wanted it in the green color and there was not one locally to be had, so I opted in the end and after an agonizing decision for the BMW.

... and here it is!

The bike is amazing. I had a 50+ mile ride home with it and it was a blast on both the highway and the backroads.  The chunky tires are going to be great on some of the hard packed dirt roads around here, but I have to admit that on the highway they don't handle as well as proper road tire would.  Still fun though.

I am looking forward to putting some miles on the BMW before winter, and I might see if I can get a few long rides on the bike just to see how comfortable it is.  It seems ok so far, but it does have quite the sporty seating position; not full on sport bike, but not upright either. I wonder how that will feel after a couple of hundred miles?  Only one way to find out!

Versys Tail bag

I want a bag for the Versys. It doesn't have to be complicated or large, just a bag that I can put a bottle of water in and rainwear.  It is for small things.  Given that I am fairly decent at sewing, I figured I would make it myself, but the cost of the materials would be more than the bag is worth, so I decided to modify a cheap bag from Amazon.

The bag I got was this one as it seemed about the right size: 

G4Free Tactical Sling Bag Backpack Military Rover Shoulder Sling Pack Molle EDC Small Crossbody Chest Pack

The Rack

Looking at the bag and the rack, I figured that the bag would be a pretty good fit to the rack, and I could use the tie downs on the side of the rack to hold the bag in place.  

Looks about right

So how do we move forward with this to make it fit.

Most of the strap just in lips but there is one part where it is part of the bag.  That we will need to cut, so:

Cut Here

Now get your mum's sewing machine and run some grossgrain ribbon over the cut area like so (see below)

Get your mum to help

The ribbon finishes the edge and will stop it from fraying.  It's a bit rough as I have not done this for a while. So now that we have the bag without its strap, we need to figure out some way to fix it to the rack.  It needs to stay in position firmly and there are a number of ways we can do this.

I am not interested in being able to remove the bag quickly so rather than use hook and loop (Velcro) I will use tri-glides.  These can be obtained from local craft shops or of course from Amazon and other online retailers. I am also going to use some 1" webbing for this next part, and this can also be obtained from almost anywhere.  

The bag came with MOLLE webbing on the side (unlikely to ever be used) and the D rings for connecting the strap, so I decided to repurpose those:

Webbing and the D Ring

By carefully cutting the stitching on the webbing I can create a short length of webbing that will hold a tri-glide instead of a D ring. This will allow me to secure my attachment straps at one end of the bag.  The other side has a strip of webbing bar tacked onto the bag, that passes through the rack loops and under the rack.  This can then be tightened with the tri-glides and the bag is secure.

The 1" webbing and tri-glide.

To prevent the back from sliding around too much, I made a belt that can be used to cinch it down tight to the rack.. The smaller straps will stop it from moving too much but it still lifts at speed and just feels a little unsteady.  The belt will hold it tight to the rack.

1.5" webbing with a 1.5" buckle

Wrapping the belt around the bag and tightening it down provides very solid contact to the rack.  I might play around with a few other ideas but for now this will work.

And here it is in all its glory

The bag is the right size for the rack and usually carries my rain jacket, and a bottle of water.  The belt that I made also cinches down the bag to the rack, with the two smaller straps going through the rack loops stopping the bag from moving around.  I have had this up to ~75mph and it seems to be very solid.

Modding the Navi - Part 4

In this post we are going to fix the helmet lock.  As it leaves the factory, the helmet lock is completely useless.  There is not enough gap between the lock assembly (a piece of bent steel) and the chassis to be able to get a helmet D ring in there.

So you need to open up the gap for the helmet lock to work.  I recommend a large flat bladed screwdriver and a towel.  Use the towel to protect the paint work

Fixed!

Just a gentle push is all it needs to move the metal a few millimeters.  This will allow your D ring to pass unhindered, and allow you to still lock the seat in place.

Close up!

And that is it, this is an easy mod.  You don't even need to do this if you don't use the helmet lock.

Kawasaki Versys-X Quad lock

One of the things I wanted to throw on the Versys was a Quad Lock for my phone.  I use my phone for Maps and Rever applications.  I use an Apple iPhone 14 Pro so I picked up the phone case and motorcycle mount.  I spent some time messing with the position, but this is what I settled on. 

Unobtrusive

I only have the standard motorcycle mount, but I might add the vibration dampener although the little 300 twin really doesn't make that much vibration.

A better view of the whole assembly

It works really well so far but then I have only put about 100 miles on the bike with it so far, so its early days at the moment but if anything interesting happens, you know I will post it here.

Modding the Navi - Part 3

In this third part of the series we are going to focus on the cosmetic changes.  There are a number of changes that can be made and I guess I need to decide what sort of look I am going for.  I could go with a sport look, or a cruiser but I think I want to make this street scrambler or adventure bike styled.

The Saddle Bags

Now I don't want to load this bike down that much, weight is an issue with an engine this small, so I went with token saddle bags.  There are a lot of options out there, but what I went with were these.

Sub Delivery?

I have not tested this hypothesis yet but I suspect a Jimmy Johns sub will fit in there nicely.  There is an argument to say that these are not needed given the storage box, but a little extra space might be handy.

The Screen

Based on the videos from Life of Burch, I chose the following screen from Amazon to put on the bike.

Looks good!

It should be pointed out that there is an issue with the kit in that being a universal kit, it does not have new mounting screws for the brackets and the Honda screws are not long enough to fit with the screen.  So off to the local hardware store for a pair of 25mm x M5 bolts, some washers and spacers to provide some rigidity to the attachment point.

Remove the front reflectors

The front reflectors are gaudy and in my opinion unnecessary, and in fact very easy to remove. Just two screws to undo and the whole reflector assembly will come off. 

Then put them back so you don't lose them.

Once I had the reflector assembly off, I put the screws back in the holes just so that I know where they are.  Amazon does have a little Navi badge that fits here so I might invest in one of those.

Add the Quad Lock

The last thing to add is the Quad Lock mount for my phone.  While I don't plan on running the Navi long distances so I won't need navigation, it is handy for music and just some place to put the phone.  The best place I have found for the phone is on the thin crossbar, so the mirror mount is the one to get.

It can obscure the instrument cluster

The only issue with this location is that it can obscure the instruments, mostly the indicator light for the flashers.  I wondered about putting the Quad Lock mount on the mirror stem and it does work. In fact I filmed some video with my camera mounted that way.

Anyway, that is enough for now, I will write other posts with more cosmetic changes as well as the performance changes.

Modding the Navi - Part 2

Now before I get to carried away with performance modifications, I need to figure out what difference the mods make to the Navi.  This means I need to baseline its performance.   

Baseline the performance

So what is baselining the performance?  This is where we figure out the basic performance parameters of the bike.  Manufacturers spend a lot of time and R&D effort on this sort of thing.  We don't have that sort of budget so we need to take a simple approach.

So how do we do this?

First we need to define what we are going to measure and how we are going to measure those parameters.  Now this is tricky because there is a bit of a chicken and egg problem here, but in essence I need to measure speed and acceleration.  But how?

Well there are now a number of apps that can measure speed based on GPS and I have a GPS enabled iPhone so I think we are in business.  The app I went with in the end was one called Car Test.  As you will see in the screen grabs from my phone it gives me all the basic information that I need for my baseline.

The next thing we need is a repeatable surface to run the bike on so that we are using the same road surface and road length each time.  I am lucky here in that the major road next to my subdivision is long, straight and flat and is not normally busy.

What results did we get?

So I played a little with the software to figure it out and then did a couple of runs.  These are the screen grabs from those runs.

Run 1

The top speed is a bit of a surprise at how low it is.  The Navi is supposed to get to 50 mph but then I weigh a little over 200lbs so I guess it's hauling a bit of weight, not to mention the drag. 

Run 2

Summary

The parameters that I am going to look at are the zero to 10, 20 30 and 40 along with top speed and quarter mile. As it stands right now a top speed of 45mph with a quarter mine of 26-27 seconds is our benchmark.

Modding the Navi - Part 1

The new Navis are great.  You may recall from my earlier post that we purchased two; one for my wife to learn to ride on and one for me to play with.  We got one in red and one in Grasshopper green.  I have taken the red one and my wife has named it 'Lunch Box" and she has taken the grasshopper green one and its name is apparently 'Navicado'.  I don't normally name my bikes but here we are.

This is what happens, it just does

Navicado

So currently both bikes are stock but I want to play with mine a little.  I plan on splitting my mods up into two parts; cosmetic and performance.

Cosmetic Changes

The cosmetic changes will reflect what I want the bike to look like and the possibilities here are endless. I am not going to go with a cruiser or sport bike look with it but I might turn it into a little cafe racer or maybe a little scrambler. 

Performance changes

There are some performance mods that are a must on the Navi; replacing the air box, modifying the CVT and tuning the carb.  I may also look for a big bore kit if such a thing exists. It would be interesting to see it with a 125cc motor instead of the 110cc.  Care must be taken here though as the brakes are only simple drum brakes, and these small tires may have a speed rating that limits performance.  

I also want to approach the mods from a somewhat scientific standpoint so I will baseline stock performance and then remeasure performance after each performance mod, so that we can see how much bang we get for our buck as it were.

Another Bike to add to the list.

One thing that I have not yet mentioned yet is that my wife also rides. She has just completed her Trike training course and now has her trike endorsement. But I am not going to write about the trike yet.  Her next step is to get her motorcycle endorsement so, she needs a bike.  After some consideration we decided to get her a Honda Navi.

The Honda Navi is a 110cc 'motorcycle' although in reality it is based on a scooter platform. It has a CVT transmission and drum brakes.  It is not sporty but it is one of those bikes that just makes you giggle.  The Navi is part of Honda's mini-moto line along with the Grom, Monkey and others.

The role of the Navi is to get her used to life on two wheels and so far she is loving it. What helps is that I actually bought two of them so that I can ride with her.

Special Delivery!

Because the Navi has a CVT transmission it means there is no clutch or gears to worry about.  This means that new riders can concentrate on the ride, and maneuvering rather than worrying about what gear to be in. That can come later.

Because I got two of them, I got them in different colors so that she can choose the color she likes. She went with the red, so I get the Grasshopper yellow.

The red one is known as 'Lunchbox'

The picture gives you an idea of how small these bikes are. I am 5'10 and about 210lbs in this picture and I look like a silverback on circus bike.  So far I have managed to put about 24 miles on mine, and they are an absolute giggle to ride, despite the 12" front wheel and 10" rear wheel.

In terms of performance, it is best described as lacking.  I can squeeze about 45mph out of it with the throttle pinned and it takes a while to get there!  But, still fun. 

So the wife is going to ride hers and train for the motorcycle test, and I am going to mod mine, a lot I think.  In fact I am going to run another project and will document that here in future posts.

My First Versys-X Mods

One of the nice things about motorcycles is how available customizations and accessories are. It is also the case that most motorcyclists will modify their bikes in one way or another, and I think this is much greater than the number of car drivers that modify.

So I have already started to modify my Versys. I have one modification and one accessory that I have already added to the bike.

My First Accessory

I need my phone with me when I ride for navigation and for music.  So after a dig through Instagram and the web, I decided on a Quad Lock case and mount and I have to say it was easy to fit and looks great.  Rather foolish of me but I did not take pics of the mount, but then I guess you have all seen a phone mount before.

My First Modification

I noticed that when I got the Versys over about 50mph, I started to get a lot of wind noise and buffeting around my helmet. Ducking down behind the screen cleared that up so clearly I needed a taller screen.  After some research I ordered a Puig screen from Revzilla.  The process of changing the screen out is very simple and hardly worth writing about.  The whole process took maybe 10-15 minutes as it is just 4 bolts.

The old screen

The new screen

After fitting the new screen I took the bike for a short ride where, after letting it get warmed up, I took it up to about 75-80mph and the wind noise and buffeting is now much more tolerable.  I need to take it out on the highway and give it run to see how tolerable highway riding will be but my first impression is that it will be just fine.

Versys-X Upgrades

Now that I have ridden the Versys-x 300 a few times, in my quest to get it run in, there are some changes I might like to make.  The Kawasaki Versys-X 300 is an adventure bike, meaning it is a road bike but can also be taken off road; at least to a limited extent.

Some of these changes are driven by the ride and some by what I want to do later in the year.

Road Riding

The first thing I should add is a taller screen. On my ride this evening (2023.05.21) I noticed considerable wind noise above ~45mph. Ducking down behind the small windshield reduced the noise considerably, so I guess I need to get a slightly larger screen.

Puig Touring Windscreen Kawasaki Versys 300

Frankly that is probably all I would change about the bike itself for road use, but I also want to do some basic adventure riding, and that means adding some more parts to the bike.

Off Road Riding

I am not planning anything fancy here but I do now own an Adventure bike so I should take myself on some off-road adventures.  Maybe some logging trails or some dirt/gravel roads.  There are a few around here and I should give them a try.  So what should I add to the bike for this?

Hand Guards

There are a variety of hand guards available but I think I will get the kawasaki hand guards.

Versys®-X 300 ABS Hand Guard Shell Set

Add a Skid Plate & Engine Bars

Some of the gravel roads might have bigger bits of gravel and we don’t want the exhaust to be damaged.

2017 - 2023 Kawasaki Versys-X 300 Skid Plate

Add a Tool kit.

I will need to carry a tool kit and at the moment all I can think that I will need are 8, 10 & 12 mm spanners and a screwdriver.  Might also need a spare spark plug, and maybe a tire changing/repair kit.

Replace the Tires?

The bike came with Trail Winner 100/90-19 M/C on the front and 130/80-17M/C on the back.  These are 70/30 on/off road tires so most likely perfect for what I need.  At this time I see no need to replace them. 

And I think that is all I need to do to the bike to improve my on road experience and help it survive some off road riding.  As I make these changes I will detail each change with a blog post.

Can I catch a break?

So my new Kawasaki still has only ~150 miles on it.  Now you would think that having a new bike, I would be riding it as much as is possible, and I am, but; the weather currently sucks.

Look at this shit!

The weather has been like this for the past few weeks, so my opportunities to ride have been very few.  What makes it even worse is this:

arghhhh

I work from 6am to 3pm.  This means I miss all the sunshine.  I finish work at about the time the storms start. And it has been like this for weeks.  My frustration level is sky high at the moment but what can you do.  I hope this weather breaks sometime over the next week or so, so that we can get back to the Colorado sunshine and some riding!

Up into the Mountains.

Today is memorial day so I get the day off.  After a ride out on the wife's trike for breakfast, I decided to go on a solo ride to add some miles to the Versys-X in order to get it broken in.  I live in northern Colorado and I had noticed some twisty roads near where I live so I figured I would explore them.

Now at the moment I do not have a mount for my phone (I have a Quad lock on order) so I figured out my route using Google maps and off I went.  Of course my memory failed me and I ended up going down roads I had no intention of going down, and missing the roads I was supposed to take.

This ended up with me heading up in elevation as I headed into the mountains, on my way to Nederland, which is sort of out there.  It got a bit cold up in the mountains; as I increased in elevation the temperature dropped. I felt it because I was wearing my summer jacket, which was certainly suitable for my starting location, but was a little breezy for the higher elevations.

The route I took, not the one I planned

Despite taking the wrong route, I had an excellent ride.  The Versys behaved very well, but being in its break in period I did not let the revs get any higher than about 7500rpm peak and 6000rpm continuous.  The bike seemed to be quite happy at these rpms. It really does have some pep when you give it some throttle so I am looking forward to getting out of the break in period.

The view

One advantage of taking the wrong road was of course the views.  Being so close to the mountains and seeing these views as I trundled along was amazing.  And the roads, despite the car traffic were still fun and twisty.  Because this is a new bike, a new bike to me and still in its break in period, I am still in that phase where I am getting to trust the bike. New tires and twisty roads had me a little nervous but after me and the tires got nicely warmed up, we were off to the races.

The overall ride was about an hour and a half and put me at about 55 miles, so the bike is now at about 150 miles.  Just another 450 to go!

Back in the Saddle - 4/4

Clutching my new motorcycle endorsement in my hand, it was time to go and purchase a bike.  But what to buy? There are so many choices! 

Over the past few months I have spent time in most of the local bike dealers in the Northern Colorado area, sitting on bikes and considering what to get.  I did briefly consider another sport bike as that is what I am most familiar with but having completed the bike training, I know my reactions and eyesight are not what they used to be, so lets leave the sport bikes in the past where they belong.

I did look at cruisers, especially the Kawasaki Vulcan 650 and the Indian Scouts.  I also took a look at some of the triumphs and BMWs. Very nice all of them.  But the conclusion I came to was this; in my first year of riding I will just be getting back into it, relearning and honing skills I had let atrophy.  Therefore the ideal solution seemed to be a mid capacity adventure bike.  

The choice for me came down to either the BMW G310GS or the Kawasaki Versys-x 300. Both excellent bikes and I was lucky enough to ride both almost back to back.  

And this is what I chose

So my choice was the Kawasaki Versys-X 300.  It is a 300cc twin but it's the right height for me, light, maneuverable and as you can see shiny and new.  At the time of writing I have owned it less than one week and so have put a grand total of 5 miles on it which is the distance from the local bike shop to home.

Yeah its all shiny!

I had fun riding it home, but since then, work and the weather have got in the way of riding, but this coming weekend looks like I might have some opportunity for saddle time. lets hope that works out. 

As a footnote, anyone who has owned a bike knows they tend to multiply after a while. I think next year a BMW R nine T is a possibility to add to the collection. Time will tell...

Back in the Saddle - 3/4

Part 3: Testing Time

The day soon approached for my motorcycle training and testing.  The MSF course is really quite comprehensive, covering a lot of slow speed maneuvering and general road safety.  

Sadly I was so busy learning and relearning how to ride a motorcycle that I did not get a single picture during the entire two days.

Pre Course Online Training

Prior to taking the training, I was required to complete the MSF online course.  As it turns out, this is a 5 hour online course, and gods it is so boring. But pay attention to it because there is a test at the end and the material in that course comes up time and again in the 2 day course. 

Day 1

The first day is mostly concerned with getting you used to the bike, and executing some slow speed maneuvers. If you can ride a push bike most of this should be fairly simple, except there was not a lot of time spent on getting you used to the bike controls.  It seems like there is an assumption that you can drive, and think this is perhaps a failing of the course.

The bike I got was a Honda Nighthawk 250. Not a bad bike but it had this feature where once it got warmed up, Neutral was nowhere to be found.  To get it into Neutral, one had to turn off the bike and then restart it, and it would pop right into neutral.  

Day 2

Day two saw more of the slow speed maneuvering but also we started to speed up a little. The morning and though lunch was training and some classroom sessions, but the afternoon was testing time.

The Test

The test comprised of 5 parts practical and a final written test.  The written test is easy, as it is multiple choice, and as long as you have been paying attention to the online course and classroom sessions, it will be quite straight forward. 

The practical test is based on the exercises that the instructors put you through over the past day or so, so again none of this will be a surprise.   From what I can remember, the test for me comprised the following 5 stages:

• Slalom in and out of the cones
• The U Turn 
• Emergency stop
• Swerve
• Sharp turn from stationary

In the end I passed, dropping a few points on the riding test and scoring 100% on the written test.  That got me a little card that I took to the DMV to get my motorcycle endorsement on my license. 

Now the next step is to go and buy a bike and start riding. 

My First Big Ride

Now that I have my Versys-X, what next? Do I just go out and enjoy it, or do I blog about it. Well you know I am going to blog about all my bike related activities.  So here goes.

After getting the bike, a few weeks ago, I have taken the odd short trip about town, but I decided it was time to take it for a bit of a run. Now given that the bike is brand new, it came out of the show room with one mile on the odometer, I need to break it in. According to Kawasaki I need to keep the revs below 4000rpm for the first 600 miles.  This is of course laughable because at 4000rpm even in 6th gear you might be doing 40mph and would in danger of being crushed by passing vehicles. 

For most of my short trips I have been keeping the revs no higher than about 6000rpm, and they get varied a lot as I navigate traffic and go up and down through the gears. 

However the long(ish) trip that I took, I did bring the revs up to about 7500rpm, and it seems just fine with that. I did not record the ride this time but I have ordered a quad lock for my phone and might get myself a camera and start to record some of my rides.   This ride was about an hour 20 minutes and covered about 55 miles, getting me almost to 100 miles on the clock!

Back in the Saddle - 2/4

Part 2: Shopping & The Testing Process

Now that I have made the decision to get a bike and become a fair weather local rider, I have to go about the task of getting my riding gear and my license.

I started by going to my local bike dealer for a mooch about.  We don't have that many bike dealers in town but my local dealer is a Kawasaki dealer with a good selection.  I walked out of there with an appreciation for Kawasaki adventure bikes, and I managed to get a helmet and gloves

The local bike shop (Elite Powersports of Longmont) pointed me in the direction of a local motorcycle school called ChainReaction.  After a brief email conversation I booked myself in for a two day training course.

As part of the training and because the training is put together by the MSF, I had to take the MSF online course, all 5 hours of it.  

I also paid a visit to the local Cycle Gear store for a jacket and some boots.

This is my gear list:

• Shoei RF1400 Helmet
• Read Tasker Waterproof Boots
• Alpinestars C-1 V2 Windstopper Gloves
• Street & Steel Mission Moto Shirt

I consider this the bare minimum and as the year goes on I will add a better jacket, maybe another pair of boots and more gloves. I may even get another helmet as it never hurts to have a spare helmet.

Back in the Saddle - 1/4

Part 1: Where do I start?

This is my journey to get me riding a bike again.

I love bikes and the time I spent on a bike is one of my favorite memories. It is very hard to ignore the passion and desire for a bike. I could wax lyrical about the feeling of freedom etc, but that is not what this series of posts is about.  Rather this series of posts is about mental health and friendship. Riding a bike again might also have mental health benefits, as I miss the camaraderie and community associated with group activities like riding, bike meets, and other group events.

I last rode over 20 years ago and I know my strength and reflexes are not what they used to be. I used to ride sports bikes but I think now I should ride something a little more sedate. My days of doing 100+mph are definitely best left in the past. 

Here I am sometime in the mid 90s

When I moved from the UK to the US to live, I had to take a driving test in order to get a US drivers license.  What I didn't do, was also take my bike test, (I should have done that) so I do need to take my test.  Many people have told me I can purchase a bike without a license but what you can't do it take a test ride without one!

So what do I need to do in order to get back on a bike?

• buy my riding gear; helmet, boots, gloves and a jacket
• take my bike test
• chose and purchase a bike.

So what are my requirements for a bike?

I do not want to spend too much money, but at the same time I don't want a piece of junk, and as previously mentioned, not a sport bike. A good compromise for me would be a dual sport or adventure bike, probably with a mid size motor as I don't plan on riding long distance, this is more for running about town and short trips.

So the first thing I need to do is arrange my motorcycle training and testing, and to accomplish this I have opted to go with a two day rider training course.

The Bike Build (Part 6)

And now we are in the home stretch.  The final assembly stage and test rides, the debug and the final joy of having a bike.

And here is where we left off. Most of the major components have been bolted to the frame, the electrics mostly tested, but still more to go.

Because this was the early 90s, I suspect some of you have figured that these are scans of actual photographs, No digital camera when this was done and as a poor engineer I did not really take too many pics of the build, so you go from the picture above to the one below.  Now don't be fooled, this is not the completed bike, this is a test fitting of the panels, tank and set just to make sure it all hangs together, and apparently it did with little adjustment required.

This picture is amusing as this is a picture of yours truly, when I was much younger, doing something extremely complicate and clever no doubt. 

With this as the final product; not too shabby if I say so myself. I was very happy with the way it had come out but it had not run yet.  It needed to be transported back to my flat to do the final small bits and bobs, tax it and get it running. 

So onto Dad's trailer it went and we ran that thing the 150 miles to my flat.

At this point, we got it off the trailer, finished the last pieces, put fresh petrol in the petrol tank, oil in the oil tank (it's a 2 stroke engine with a separate oil tank, rather than running on pre-mix), and fired it up. Eventually it ran.

In all its glory!

There were two main bugs that needed resolving to get it to run right.  I had done a few local trips with the bike, but it was never a bike I expected to go any distance on. However I did decide to travel from Swindon to Maidenhead on it one day, and that did not end well. I got a few miles out of Swindon when I felt my leg getting hot and wet. Apparently the thermostat had stuck and eventually the thermostat housing  seal bust, spraying my leg with hot water.  I disassembled it on the side of the road and threw out the thermostat. That solved the immediate issue but I had to head home because the thermostat housing now leaked.

The second issue was harder to solve and frankly never really got solved.  This was a TZR125 engine and it had a power valve. What is a power valve, I hear you ask?  It is an assembly on the exhaust outlet of the cylinder that changes the effective size of the exhaust port.  This allows what is essentially a puny little engine to produce more torque at lower revs, and more horsepower at higher revs, just by changing the aperture size of the port.  Mine did not work.  The valve itself rotated, driven by an actuator.  The actuator worked just fine until it was connected to the controller. The controller was connected to the throttle and it seemed to work fine, but all connected together, it completely failed to function.

I tinkered with this for months, and eventually settled on pegging the damn valve about half open to give me the best performance I could get with a static port. I tried replacing the actuator, the controller, everything I could think of but I never could get it to work right. 

And that is it. I used the bike regularly, passed my bike test on it, and eventually sold it on, but it was a fixture of my life for a while and I loved it. This was the only bike build I have done so far in my life, but it was a fun learning experience, I do not regret it. I did sort of wreck the carpet in my little flat, but its just the price you pay for the fun and experience. :)