Off to see Inspector Morse

In preparation for the epic France fest planned much further down this blog, I've taken this week off to get some miles in on the bike on longer trips, and also play with loading it up with luggage, riding with extra weight on the back.

Today's ride out started at the crack of just after 8am with my light luggage pack of backpack with cereal bars, extra t-shirts in case it got cold, paper map and garmin GPS in case I got lost. My target for the day was Oxford which is about 80 miles away and all was well until I hit Bedford where the roadworks started and it was 30 mph for about 10 miles which slowed me down somewhat. Bah Humbug.

Eventually I made it to Milton Keynes where they appear to have no signs on any of the roundabout exits. I guess if there were any everyone in Milton Keynes would leave ;-). A quick stop in a Walmarts car park and my GPS was fitted and ready to get me out of there. In no time I was whizzing through Buckingham, speeding down the M40 which my GPS thought would be fun for a single junction, and somehow into the centre of Oxford itself. More by luck than judgement I found myself riding along that wide street that Morse/Lewis always drive down. Following random signs for parking, I found myself at a car park just next to the bus station and after parting with all my change (£2.30) I had an hour to wander around and stretch my legs.

Obligatory picture of an old college-y thing (All Souls apparently)



Another old building that appears quite a lot in Morse (outside all souls)



After my legs had a good stretch, and my bladder had a wee break, I jumped back on the bike again and plotted a route to Bicester, then across to Aylesbury, then home which would avoid Milton Keynes and also the roadworks that plagued me on the way down.

The GPS got me to Bicester easily but I hadn't plotted the next point and missed the turning for Aylesbury so after pootling around lost for a while admitted defeat, pulled over, and used the GPS. This took me back to Bicester for the second time along roads now looking somewhat familiar and then off to Aylesbury where I got lost once more and the GPS battery went flat.

Luckily, I'd planned for this and out came the cigarette adaptor for the GPS.



You can see the mobile phone holder that came clipped onto my tesco value backpack cunningly recycled to hold all the spare cable letting out just enough to reach the cigarette lighter socket on one side and the GPS on the other. It has Velcro on the back so even clamps on the bars.

However, and this is the one thing you don't notice till you ride with the charger in place, the observant will note the bars are cranked right over to the left. The speedo is easily visible. You can see what's coming next can't you? I didn't.


Yep. The charger completely blocks the line of site to the speedo so you only know how fast you're going on tight left hand bends. D'oh. Well that's my excuse... officer.

A bit more route entering and got me over to Luton to pick up the A6 which you could go too fast on quite easily if the GPS didn't keep flashing red "mobile speed camera location" warnings, which is probably a good thing. Right turn at Bedford saw me on the road for home, and just in time as my arse was starting to complain after so long on the bike.

As I pulled into the garage the trip meter was a couple of miles under 200 which is not bad for a days riding (and the longest I've done so far).

So lessons learned from the first long trip.

2 hours is pretty much as long as you want to sit in the saddle.
Your right wrist aches a lot when you're "making progress" all day.
A cereal bar in the pocket to nibble on is a handy thing to have so you can eat something while you try and work out where the hell you are.
GPS. A good thing. It just is.
Make sure the mods on your bike actually work and don't obstruct anything important, like your speedo.
Plan your route before you set off. It would make things much easier.

Tomorrow... well let's see what the weather brings :)

Hunstanton by the sea.

A cracking day forecast for Saturday so we left sunny Cambridge at the crack of 10am (no sense rushing up of a weekend is there) and headed off for the seaside. The route is straight up the A10 to Kings Lynn, and then the A149 to Hunstanton itself. Dave and Grandad took off at a fair old rate of knots, boy racers that they are, and were soon nowhere to be seen. I followed with Paul and BikerBabe Joan riding pillion trying to catch them up but it was a vain attempt.

The A10 has some nice straight bits and some curvy bits so nice variety (apart from the appalling surfacing in a couple of spots which almost jars you out of the seat just after Littleport). After being stuck behind some traffic I decided it was time to {cough} make progress {cough} and coming off a roundabout I popped it in 3rd gear and floored it past the cars in front. Looking down at the speedo I then realised that my previous "ton up" excursion was in a gear higher than it needed to be :o.

We made good time to Hunstanton and parked in the reserved bike park which is right on the sea front. Only a quid per bike and if we were any closer to the sea our tyres would be wet.


And..... relax. Dave, Grandad Frank, Paul (looking the wrong way) and BikerBabe Joan letting it all hang out.


Dave, Bikerhux, Joan, and Paul (right way round this time).


Do-it-dave replete with pristine knee sliders and his Bandit.


BikerHux and his FZ6


Bike Porn showing how close to the sea you are. Bikes all along this stretch!

After catching our breath we had the obligatory fish n chip supper while topping up our tans. The chippy is under that building you can see behind the bikes and well recommended. The more adventurous amongst us went for a plodge in the sea, while I took it easy watching the world go by (and a few people whose sunburn would hurt in the morning).

A quick loo break to cut down on excess weight on the journey back, and we scooted off the way we'd come down the A10 to Cambridge. Do-it-dave's throttle appeared to be stuck open as he took off at warp factor 10 while the rest of us took things at a more sedate pace.

A grand day out and has whetted our appetite for weekend rides and food cooked in lard.

As a bonus, when I filled my bike up this week I calculated the mileage and was pleasantly surprised. Normally I get 40-45 mpg, but with this ride out, where progress was most definitely made, oh yes, I got 55 mpg. So the next time you get pulled by the filth for speeding, just say you have to go fast to save the planet ;-)

MCN article

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Screens 1 - Engines 0.

After fitting the new double bubble screen I rode it in to work on Tuesday and the wind now pops either over my helmet when I'm tucked down, or onto the helmet if I'm not (which isn't as annoying as it sounds). Vast improvement on the stock screen so money well spent.. and it looks pretty sharp into the bargain :)

Leaving work in the evening however I got as far as the first right turn (stationary at lights) and noticed no indicators on the dashboard or the lights themselves. I cancelled them, reapplied, tried left and right but nothing. With a straight road all the way home I figured I could just ride it home not overtaking anything and fix it there. I made the turn, got on to the slip road to join the main road, got it up to about 70mph to join the traffic, and the engine cut out, all the lights on the dash went out, and I had engine braking to get me into traffic. Luckily my bowels held out and a hand signal got me into the margin of the slip road safely out of the traffic. After checking side stand (down-up-down-up... yes it's definitely up), engine cutoff (yep.. not that), I looked at the ignition key which was in the OFF position. All I can guess is that if you turn the key to ON (but it's not quite locked in place) it can move back to OFF, in this case at the worst place it could have.

Once I'd calmed down and managed to stop saying a word that rhymes with duck, I turned the key to the much better position of ON, fired up at the first attempt, and spanked the arse off the bike to get up to speed on the remaining 100 yards of the slip road before joining the main drag.

One to watch out for in future, but at least no harm came of it this time, other than to people with delicate sensibilities who may have been within earshot of me at the time.

Double Bubble action

I've been noticing that on the way to work, as I'm "making progress" the wind tends to hit me in the Adams apple which is annoying to say the least. To remedy this, and also pimp my ride a little more, I purchased a Puig Double Bubble screen from those lovely people at eBay. This is slightly taller than the stock screen so should divert the breeze over the top of my head if all goes to plan.

The stock screen looks like this.


It's a screen and.. well.. that's all there is to it.

The new screen looks like this.



You can see it is a little taller than the stock one, with the bubble in the middle (of double bubble fame). It's also got a Puig and FZ6 logo on the front... which is nice :)

This is it in place.



The changing is simple as the screen is only held on by two screws under each of the rubber boots on the wing mirror stalks, and one under the lights where the screen curves under. The only tricky part is the edging which is a plastic beading that you need to feed onto the edge of the screen. Swapping screens was 5 mins and the next 20 mins was fitting the beading, then taking it off to adjust it. If you're doing this then feed the first edge down far enough so it disappears under the rubber boot as that seems to look neatest. The excess is then trimmed with scissors.

Tomorrow should see this taking for its maiden voyage to work to see if it was money well spent, or just vanity on my part :p

You can never have too much lubrication

After reading a couple of articles on the FZ6 forum I invested in a cable lubrication do-hickey (to give it it's technical name) courtesy of those lovely people at eBay. Sunday morning was bright and sunny so I decided to do a before and after run to see if there really was any effect.

A quick trip the the local shop for sunday paper and a tank full of petrol gave me the reference point before I started to fettle with anything. Next was the tricky bit of getting the end of the clutch cable out along with the sheathing. Luckily I'd invested in a Haynes manual which explains how to do this and after a quick look at the pictures I set to on it.

First step was to take a picture of the cable adjuster before I did anything so I could put the cable back again exactly as it was to start with.



There's a cut out along one edge of this adjuster (and the large disc) which locks it in position against the tab you can see touching the top of the large disc. As long as I ended up with the same 5 threads visible when it was locked I knew I was back where I started. To get the cable out you must spin the adjuster so it goes tight into the handlebar bracket (moves to the right in this pic) and with the slot down one side facing forward lining up with the one in the bracket. By then wiggling the rigid cable sheath it pops out of the adjuster and the cable itself then can be fed out of the slot in the front. The small cylinder that locks it in the clutch lever then drops straight down and you have one free cable.

Next is the attachement of the magic cable luber which looks like this.


The inner cable feeds through the centre of the rubber bung and the bottom of the rigid sheath goes into the bottom of this. The clamp is then closed which seals against the bottom of the sheath allowing the top of the cable to poke out (you can see the cylinder on the end which locks it in the clutch cable). A can of WD40 squirted into the hole in the side then can't go out the top and must go down the gap between the clutch cable and sheath lubricating it. A couple of squirts, a couple of pulls on the cable to let the lube go down, and it all felt much looser.

After wiping everything up (lube near tires... not a good idea) I fired the bike up again and went out for a quick spin.

The clutch felt much smoother than it was to start with so it looks like the WD40 has done the trick. It also appears the bike can knock on the door of 80mph in 2nd ...... which is nice for overtaking coming off roundabouts as I found out on the way back :-)

GPS... mark II

The handlebar mount, after being lost by the postie for 2 weeks, finally turned up today to allow me to mount the Garmin Nuvi on my handlebars.



In this position it doesn't appear to be blocking my field of view of the speedo so I just need to take it for a test drive to make sure it looks OK and we're sorted.

I also took the extra safe option of securing it with a quick release strap to the handlebars in case the mount comes loose.


The Nuvi itself has a pad of velcro securing it tightly to the holder, then a cable tie provides me with a loop to hold on to the cradle. The quick release strap, after I trim it down to make it neater, holds this to the handlebar so if the mount goes, or the ball joint that the Nuvi holder clicks onto goes, I should still have it dangling an inch below the bars rather than bouncing off down the motorway.

Grand total of £4 for the mount, £2 for the quick release and velcro, leaving me with £394 saved from the price of a Garmin Zumo that would do the same thing.

So really I could buy that GoPro Hero wide camera and I'd still have saved money ;-)