The return of the Ally Pally bike show and Paul, Frank and I headed down there with two wheels each as the weather was cool but not cool enough to wuss out and take the car.
Due to rather poor navigational skills on my part, I took the wrong exit at a roundabout on the A10 so had to play catch up with them for a few miles, which is surprisingly easy on a FZ6. On a nice straight bit of road where you could see for miles, and there were no other cars (but their bikes in the distance) I opened it up and the speedo tripped over into 3 digits for the first time ever. :-)
I then realised I wasn't in top gear so changed up. Twice!!!! Chuff me, it does a ton in 4th and still has two gears languishing in the comfy chairs smoking pipes and drinking Port.
We made good time all the way down to London until the google map directions suggested we turn down a one way street, so we passed on that and made our own way up to the house on the hill. Cracking views over London from up there and you can easily see Canary Wharf and the Gherkin.
Coffee (and a Danish Pastry for the fat git.... guilty as charged) saw us refreshed and ready for a wander round the halls. The stands were much more spread out than the Excel show earlier this year and there were far more stalls selling tools and bits n bobs (rather than whole bikes which my wallet doesn't stretch to). A break for lunch in the on site pub refreshed us and we went off for round 2 picking up some bits n bobs.
The ride home was more eventful in that there was a traffic jam for what seemed like several miles trying to get onto the North Circular. Paul and I (novices that we are) followed Frank (the elder) in filtering past all the traffic. I used my standard assumption that cars will suddenly turn right across your path randomly here, which they did, so made sure I could "make progress" quickly past each car so I was never in their blind spot. We saved loads of time doing this as the cars were pretty much stationary.
The route out of London saw us all split up due to random traffic lights catching us out and Frank and Paul headed off into the distance. Eventually, just before home, I looked in my wing mirrors, and did a double take as Paul appeared in them. They had stopped at a garage thinking I was mile behind, and apparently I whizzed by pretty much straight away.
All home safely, cups of tea, and possibly a biscuit or two, are the order of the day.
100 miles down. Many more to go this summer hopefully :)
Brum Brum.
Saturday 28 February 2009
Wednesday 25 February 2009
But now I'm dribbling
Tuesday I decided to get the bike out and start riding it into work to get some more miles under my belt. The round trip is 25 miles so I can easily get 100 miles a week in even if I wuss out when the weather turns.
The ride is a few twisties out of the village, a bit of a blast down the straight road into Cambridge where I can have a bit of a grin with the acceleration of the bike, and a bit of sitting in traffic at the far end (which when I get more confident about filtering I'll be able to breeze past).
The ride went fine but when I parked the bike in the garage that night, I went out an hour later to find this.
That blue coloured puddle is scottoil :(
And that slight blue tinge? You guessed it :(
It transpired that the exceedingly small under seat storage area meant that my disc lock slid forward and just slightly dislodged the joint where the lube tube attaches to the scottoiler resulting in half a tube of the stuff running out, down the frame, along the swing arm, and forming a couple of puddles. Bah humbug.
Mopping everything up it didn't leak overnight, nor again all today in the car park at work, so I'm hoping it was just teething troubles.
On a more positive note I'm managing to "make progress" better each day ...... Officer ;-)
The ride is a few twisties out of the village, a bit of a blast down the straight road into Cambridge where I can have a bit of a grin with the acceleration of the bike, and a bit of sitting in traffic at the far end (which when I get more confident about filtering I'll be able to breeze past).
The ride went fine but when I parked the bike in the garage that night, I went out an hour later to find this.
That blue coloured puddle is scottoil :(
And that slight blue tinge? You guessed it :(
It transpired that the exceedingly small under seat storage area meant that my disc lock slid forward and just slightly dislodged the joint where the lube tube attaches to the scottoiler resulting in half a tube of the stuff running out, down the frame, along the swing arm, and forming a couple of puddles. Bah humbug.
Mopping everything up it didn't leak overnight, nor again all today in the car park at work, so I'm hoping it was just teething troubles.
On a more positive note I'm managing to "make progress" better each day ...... Officer ;-)
Saturday 21 February 2009
Two wheels.. I won't be needing one of those says Dave
Feb 21st... a momentous day in that the bike came out of the garage for the first time since it was put into hibernation for the winter. And oh what fun we had :)
This was the first ride out since all the modifications had been made to the bike so was my first chance to see what difference braided hoses, pazzo levers etc made to the ride. To start with we did a quick 5 miles to check the scottoilers were adjusted correctly, which, when pulled over in a lay by, we discovered they weren't. Back to base to fettle the FZ6 and Dave's bandit, and off we went again for a 30 mile ride and back again.
This time Dave's rather thirsty bandit needed fueling and at this point we noticed that there was a small pool of scottoil on the floor under his bike, up the frame, and smoking merrily off the exhaust pipe. Back to base for more cups of tea, and checking for leaks the problem looked to be sorted so off we headed for more jollity on 2 wheels on a 20 mile circuit.
Dave took my FZ6 for a spin as I wasn't sure if my tyres were up to scratch (first big bike and all, and they are 5 years old). His grin on returning suggested that actually the tires were fine, and the bike likes to use only one wheel if you try to "make progress" too vigorously :)
Back at base once more, Dave's scottoiler was peeing oil still so looks to be faulty. So we had another brew to celebrate its demise cooked up on the unleaded stove in the garden.... because... well.... it involved lighting fires :p
As for the mods:-
Pazzo levers. Gear changes are much smoother now than using the stock Yamaha ones. And they look smashing!
Braided hoses. Braking into roundabouts is much more positive and you don't appear to need to apply much pressure at all. Vast improvement!
Scottoiler. One working well. Once MIA.
May this be the first of many days out on the bike now the weather has turned.
This was the first ride out since all the modifications had been made to the bike so was my first chance to see what difference braided hoses, pazzo levers etc made to the ride. To start with we did a quick 5 miles to check the scottoilers were adjusted correctly, which, when pulled over in a lay by, we discovered they weren't. Back to base to fettle the FZ6 and Dave's bandit, and off we went again for a 30 mile ride and back again.
This time Dave's rather thirsty bandit needed fueling and at this point we noticed that there was a small pool of scottoil on the floor under his bike, up the frame, and smoking merrily off the exhaust pipe. Back to base for more cups of tea, and checking for leaks the problem looked to be sorted so off we headed for more jollity on 2 wheels on a 20 mile circuit.
Dave took my FZ6 for a spin as I wasn't sure if my tyres were up to scratch (first big bike and all, and they are 5 years old). His grin on returning suggested that actually the tires were fine, and the bike likes to use only one wheel if you try to "make progress" too vigorously :)
Back at base once more, Dave's scottoiler was peeing oil still so looks to be faulty. So we had another brew to celebrate its demise cooked up on the unleaded stove in the garden.... because... well.... it involved lighting fires :p
As for the mods:-
Pazzo levers. Gear changes are much smoother now than using the stock Yamaha ones. And they look smashing!
Braided hoses. Braking into roundabouts is much more positive and you don't appear to need to apply much pressure at all. Vast improvement!
Scottoiler. One working well. Once MIA.
May this be the first of many days out on the bike now the weather has turned.
Sunday 15 February 2009
Give me a lever, oil me up, and I'm happy
The Pazzo levers arrived this week shipped over from the good old US of A. I couldn't find a company in the UK that did the lever colour I wanted (dark blue), but Tim of Pashnit took my order on the Sunday for my own choice of lever and adjuster, shipped them out to be made and engraved (yes engraved) on the Monday and they arrived in my greasy little mitts the following Monday. And they're cheaper than in the UK :)
The stock (boring) ones looked like this.
The new improved ones look like this.
Brake:-
Clutch:-
You can see the clutch is engraved with my blogsite :-)
Total time for fitting these is about 10 mins as each one just has a single bolt dropped through them. The only tricky bit is making sure you press the switches on the clutch and brake back in as you offer up the levers and they slip straight in.
Next on the list was the fitting of Scottoilers to my Fazer and do-it-daves Bandit. Removing the seat and fairing shows how much space is available on an FZ6 (none) and a Bandit (enough for sandwiches, flask of coffee, and a trestle table to sit down at).
Fazer:-
Daves Bandit:-
After some smurfing the interweb on the FZ6 forum I found someone had fitted one in such a way that it doesn't take up half of the under seat area by sliding it forward into a small Scottoiler sized space. Like this...
You can just make it out in the gap between the fairing and the frame with the pipe leading down on its way to the back wheel.
And here it is again looking from the back of the bike so you can see where it gets slid into place. The lube tube gives and extra reservoir of 3000 miles or so, so means you can go touring and now worry about oiling the chain :) This is flexible so is coiled around the outer edge of the seat area leaving room in the middle for the toolkit and disc lock.
This shows the routing of the tube itself coming from the reservoir, down through a small piece of rigid tube cable tied to the plate behind the clutch pedal where it transitions into the narrow tube that feeds the applicator itself. The smaller tube is cable tied to the bottom of the swing arm (there are silver cable-ties in the kit along with numerous other bits you may or may not need depending on your bike).
Finally, the dual applicator itself which drips oil onto both edges of the chain.
Oh, and the other part which drives the whole thing is a vacuum feed. The Scottoiler website suggests cutting into a pipe and inserting a t-piece for this. However I found another set of instructions that suggest just removing the bung in the end of one of the vacuum tubes and sticking it up there, so I did. Like this (circled in yellow so you can see which pipe I mean).
This took several hours where much tea was consumed, many fairings were removed, stared at, put back in place again. A great deal of chin scratching was also called for trying to work out the best way on both bikes to route everything so it looks neat as there are almost an infinite number of ways to do this. Your friend here is the box of sacrificial cable ties that you can use to fettle things into place, before cutting them off and trying something else.
On the plus side, this does mean I don't have to lube the chain up every time I get home as it will be lubed on route ... which is nice.
To round the day off Dave broke out his brand spanking new MSR stove that handily runs on unleaded and we had a cup of tea made with water boiled on it while we wondered how long it's going to take for our eyebrows to grow back. This can then go in Dave's under seat area (next to the trestle table) so we can have a brew on longer rides.
Not a bad Sundays work all on all, and that's now all the mods I can think of to do on the FZ6. Now for a summers riding... whoo hoooooo!!!!!!!
The stock (boring) ones looked like this.
The new improved ones look like this.
Brake:-
Clutch:-
You can see the clutch is engraved with my blogsite :-)
Total time for fitting these is about 10 mins as each one just has a single bolt dropped through them. The only tricky bit is making sure you press the switches on the clutch and brake back in as you offer up the levers and they slip straight in.
Next on the list was the fitting of Scottoilers to my Fazer and do-it-daves Bandit. Removing the seat and fairing shows how much space is available on an FZ6 (none) and a Bandit (enough for sandwiches, flask of coffee, and a trestle table to sit down at).
Fazer:-
Daves Bandit:-
After some smurfing the interweb on the FZ6 forum I found someone had fitted one in such a way that it doesn't take up half of the under seat area by sliding it forward into a small Scottoiler sized space. Like this...
You can just make it out in the gap between the fairing and the frame with the pipe leading down on its way to the back wheel.
And here it is again looking from the back of the bike so you can see where it gets slid into place. The lube tube gives and extra reservoir of 3000 miles or so, so means you can go touring and now worry about oiling the chain :) This is flexible so is coiled around the outer edge of the seat area leaving room in the middle for the toolkit and disc lock.
This shows the routing of the tube itself coming from the reservoir, down through a small piece of rigid tube cable tied to the plate behind the clutch pedal where it transitions into the narrow tube that feeds the applicator itself. The smaller tube is cable tied to the bottom of the swing arm (there are silver cable-ties in the kit along with numerous other bits you may or may not need depending on your bike).
Finally, the dual applicator itself which drips oil onto both edges of the chain.
Oh, and the other part which drives the whole thing is a vacuum feed. The Scottoiler website suggests cutting into a pipe and inserting a t-piece for this. However I found another set of instructions that suggest just removing the bung in the end of one of the vacuum tubes and sticking it up there, so I did. Like this (circled in yellow so you can see which pipe I mean).
This took several hours where much tea was consumed, many fairings were removed, stared at, put back in place again. A great deal of chin scratching was also called for trying to work out the best way on both bikes to route everything so it looks neat as there are almost an infinite number of ways to do this. Your friend here is the box of sacrificial cable ties that you can use to fettle things into place, before cutting them off and trying something else.
On the plus side, this does mean I don't have to lube the chain up every time I get home as it will be lubed on route ... which is nice.
To round the day off Dave broke out his brand spanking new MSR stove that handily runs on unleaded and we had a cup of tea made with water boiled on it while we wondered how long it's going to take for our eyebrows to grow back. This can then go in Dave's under seat area (next to the trestle table) so we can have a brew on longer rides.
Not a bad Sundays work all on all, and that's now all the mods I can think of to do on the FZ6. Now for a summers riding... whoo hoooooo!!!!!!!
Saturday 7 February 2009
But I've still......got the blues..... for my bike
Demon-tweeks did the business and got the bits I ordered to me in time for a saturday afternoon in the garage with wooly hat and Planet Rock turned up to 11.
The brake lines have now been secured to the front forks with some anodised P-clips replacing the black one one one side, and nothing on the other.
This second one needed a 20 mile round trip to B&Q for some nylock nuts as the hole it attached to wasn't threaded, something I neglected to check in my haste to get the bike back together.
A hose separator brings the two lines together under the horn. It's not overly neat but the p-clips on each side are at different heights meaning the brakes lines don't come together symetrically. I've got another hose separator spare in case I work out a better way of doing this but it'll do for the moment.
The observant amongst you will notice that the horn bolt has also been replaced with a snazzy blue number. I had to remove the horn to get the lines routed and tied down, and the bolts come in packs of 5 so ... well .... pimp my ride baby!
Doing my bit for mother earth I recycled the old connector hole that the stock brake line came down through but of course used something with a bit more bling. Not obvious with the fairings all in place, but I know it's there and that's what counts :p
And last, but not least, I tidied up something that had been bugging me for ages. The power socket was just connected onto the battery, threaded through the fairing, and cable-tied to the handlebars on that little rectangular brackety thing (to give it it's technical name). For under two of your english pounds I picked up a couple of metres of braided polyester sleeving on eBay and threaded the wires through this, resoldering the ends neatly it now looks much better. Removing the inline fuse meant I could do all the soldering without worrying about shorting the battery out and more importantly removing the battery bolts which are complete bar-stewards to get back in.
Next week my Pazzo levers should arrive from America where somehow they are cheaper than the UK, shipping is free, and I get them engraved with the letters of my choice into the bargain. Sweet!!!
The brake lines have now been secured to the front forks with some anodised P-clips replacing the black one one one side, and nothing on the other.
This second one needed a 20 mile round trip to B&Q for some nylock nuts as the hole it attached to wasn't threaded, something I neglected to check in my haste to get the bike back together.
A hose separator brings the two lines together under the horn. It's not overly neat but the p-clips on each side are at different heights meaning the brakes lines don't come together symetrically. I've got another hose separator spare in case I work out a better way of doing this but it'll do for the moment.
The observant amongst you will notice that the horn bolt has also been replaced with a snazzy blue number. I had to remove the horn to get the lines routed and tied down, and the bolts come in packs of 5 so ... well .... pimp my ride baby!
Doing my bit for mother earth I recycled the old connector hole that the stock brake line came down through but of course used something with a bit more bling. Not obvious with the fairings all in place, but I know it's there and that's what counts :p
And last, but not least, I tidied up something that had been bugging me for ages. The power socket was just connected onto the battery, threaded through the fairing, and cable-tied to the handlebars on that little rectangular brackety thing (to give it it's technical name). For under two of your english pounds I picked up a couple of metres of braided polyester sleeving on eBay and threaded the wires through this, resoldering the ends neatly it now looks much better. Removing the inline fuse meant I could do all the soldering without worrying about shorting the battery out and more importantly removing the battery bolts which are complete bar-stewards to get back in.
Next week my Pazzo levers should arrive from America where somehow they are cheaper than the UK, shipping is free, and I get them engraved with the letters of my choice into the bargain. Sweet!!!
Sunday 1 February 2009
Taxing times
After a trip to the MCN bike show yesterday my cunning plan to put the bike back together today fell at the first hurdle when all the bits I needed weren't actually at the show so I had to order them from demon-tweeks website when I got home.
Luckily I managed to pick up one bit of bling for the bike that I could fit today which should improve the performance of the bike no end. A blue anodised tax disc holder ;-)
The original one is
The new one has a blue anodised faceplate, a carbon fibre look-a-like backplate, and allen key headed screws with nylock nuts on the back which should prevent the casual tea-leaf from getting the tax disc out.
The small flaw in the plan currently is that the whole thing is attached to the bike with a standard phillips head screw but I'm sure I can find something an Allen headed version to replace it with.
Next weekend hopefully the rest of the bits should turn up so I can get the bike back on the road.
The other purchase at the show was a scottoiler (Dave and I picked up a brace of them as the price was too good to pass up). This will be slotted in another weekend and then the bike is almost done, apart from the Pazzo's which I'm ordering this afternoon :)
Luckily I managed to pick up one bit of bling for the bike that I could fit today which should improve the performance of the bike no end. A blue anodised tax disc holder ;-)
The original one is
- Very plain
- Very easy for someone to pinch the tax disc out of as only a rubber gasket stands between the disc and freedom.
The new one has a blue anodised faceplate, a carbon fibre look-a-like backplate, and allen key headed screws with nylock nuts on the back which should prevent the casual tea-leaf from getting the tax disc out.
The small flaw in the plan currently is that the whole thing is attached to the bike with a standard phillips head screw but I'm sure I can find something an Allen headed version to replace it with.
Next weekend hopefully the rest of the bits should turn up so I can get the bike back on the road.
The other purchase at the show was a scottoiler (Dave and I picked up a brace of them as the price was too good to pass up). This will be slotted in another weekend and then the bike is almost done, apart from the Pazzo's which I'm ordering this afternoon :)
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