Winter work on Ethel

Ethel has been treated to a new Odyssey maintenance
free battery. So far this does what it says on the tin. It has sat there untrickled through all that minus degree weather and really does spin up the motor much quicker than before. I also fitted Goodridge braided hoses,new pads and fluid.As a disc brake novice I was inundated with horror stories of bleeding out air bubbles. I bought a Mnotrax Little Bleeder one way valve kit - it took 15 minutes each side, job done !
Ethel went straight through her MOT with an advisory that the exhaust clamp has deteriorated. Bit of a mystery this as it appeared to be all there but the end can did wobble - it always has ! Solved by the Flying Brick Forum. There is a mica sleeve insert that slips over the manifold and the can goes over that. Got one next day delivery from the very efficient Motorwerks and now have a very quiet Ethel with less whistling sound and no pops on the over run.
Ethel seems as ready to go as I am and is running sweeter than ever. I'll do an oil change before we go to Europe and hopefully that will be it.
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Winter over at last ?

In the words of the old Cream song " You thought the leaden winter would bring you down forever, so you rode upon a steamer to the glad lands of the sun "
Well the fast cat to Caen may not exactly be that but it's a start. At the end of April we are off to Europe again - at last.
Trigger for the trip is the Gabfesters forum taking a 4 day dash to France and back so we'll start off with them. At the end of that we'll go South with a member of British Bikers France and then off on our own in the direction of Carcassonne - equipped for camping !
After that it's up the East side of France and over to the Eifel to join The Flying Brick forum for their weekend meet.
Cannot wait to get going.
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Duxford Remembrance Day 8th Nov 09

Took the swoopy non motorway route to arrive just before the NAM brigade. This year was disappointing in that no historic aircraft flew but this was made up for with a free museum pass. Just shows how much has been added since I last went and everything was in an old hangar. Now there are sparkling glass halls with B17,B52,Blackbird, Typhoon,Liberator and loads more in the US hall plus a land warefare hall complete with a Normandy Experience. Best was an ordinary hangar with the doors open with a Hurricane and F109E in working order just standing there.
Not good news was that one of the NAM observers who taught me a lot was recently nerfed off his K1300GTSE on a local roundabout in a classic SMDNSY incident. He has bruises but the bike has cosmetic damage which on a £12k+ bike can be staggering to fix.
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IAM bike test pass !

After a year's training on Sundays, with a bit of a gap this summer, I
applied to take The Test a few weeks ago. The examiner contacted me
and requested a selection of dates and today was the one chosen.
I had done a series of Mock Tests, some results were declared as
nearly there, others with very nearly there, one not there at all but
all had the usual positive NAM critique and suggestions on
improvements. So after every Sunday the week's riding has been an
extended practice period to try and bring all the required elements in
to play.Every now and then at the end of a ride I have reckoned that
that was the one. Too bad no examiner saw it.
Well, today was the day to stand up and be counted. I had wished for a
cold, dull day and preferably raining. Reason ? Less traffic, speeds
are lower and expectations of adding " sparkle " to the ride are
lower. Someone must have been listening because just as we met up the
dull grey skies opened and down came the rain. Great.
After a briefing on what was expected off we went. Ethel closely
followed by the examiner's Blackbird.The route went through towns,
shopping areas, villages, open countryside and dual carriageway stuff
with hazards galore on the slippery roads. Having flunked the last
Mock Test when I completely missed the 30 signs in a village and
whizzed straight through at 60 I had decided that today dull would
have to do and stuck rigidly to the indicated speeds even though I
know from the satnav that they are 10% optimistic.
No matter how many times you go out observed it is still an unnerving
experience to be aware that someone is closely watching what you are
doing. I am quite used to being in very close, 1 metre, company with
another bike ( just so long as a qualified IAM rider is aboard ) but
somehow it plays on your mind.
So today was a super legal soggy trundle around for an hour ending up
with a bunch of Grade 1 scores and all the rest at Grade 2 ( scores go
down from 1 to 5 ). Job done !
Thank you everybody at NAM for showing me so much that I never knew
and never letting me forget that, in the words of today's examiner,
when you stop learning you are dead.

Subaru unimpressions

Hired an 08 plate Subaru Legacy Estate petrol auto for a West Country business trip this week. Entry to the car is backwards then sling your legs in as it is very low slung. Raising the seat and lowering the steering wheel height makes the indicator warning lights invisible to the driver. Fitting a twin socket into the 12v outlet is only possible with the auto stick in neutral - it fouls in the P position. The heater controls are tucked away low by the same lever so are not in the drivers line of sight or colour coded for hot/cold and the hazards are scattered away over on the passenger side. So much for lousy driver ergonomics. Almost. If you get in the car and do not start it straightaway the immobiliser prevents it starting until you blip the key off and on. Just as well I had asked if there were any pointlessly goofy design ideas I should know about and was duly tipped off. Off we go at last. The engine is a revver. Kick it down flat and it wangs round to the red as it changes up, the all wheel drive makes roundabouts fun. Floor it from standstill, wang round to the exit with the throttle flat and ping out of the exit with the car flat to the road and stable. There is no surplus of power but it holds 80 on cruise control up hill and down dale. Whilst driving the poor ergonomics again let it down. A great big handbrake lever juts out above your left leg, the flower pot sized twin drinks holders are placed behind your left elbow where you cannot reach and the mirror controls are lurking in a dark and gloomy door recess. The centre console is very groovy in brushed alloy but has fiddly little cd controls.
This car is what happens when a non driving fashion nerd designer is let loose on a nice piece of engineering.
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But Ks grab the attention

Of all the bikes parked up at the test day it was the 3 Ks that drew plenty of attention. A stunning maroon K1100LT outshone both Ethel and an e bay K100RT 500 quidder !
I'm no longer surprised when owners of gleaming new Beemers come up to say " I had one of those - smoothest bike I ever rode "

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Another Balderstons test ride day

Today was another Balderstons test ride day so I took the chance of another go on the K1300GT. This time I trundled round playing with all the toys. Top goodie is the heated seat, just the right level of heat which combined with the 2 stage heated grips keeps you warm and alert. The heated grips seem to be thermostat controlled but the result is that you end up with cold grips - I'd rather control them myself. Electric screen let's you have more or less noise and windblast. The adjustable suspension switch makes the bike feel firmer on sport setting compared to the plush standard setting. A stunning super rocketship of a bike.
Next I rode the new naked 800R. Wow ! BMW have built a Buell. At last an 800 I like - no fuelling glitches and no twitchy handling ( 800ST and 650 thingy respectfully ). The motor rips around the dial, the exhaust snarls and the induction growls. Free of shaft drive you can smack down the gears, chuck the bike into a bend and wallop the power hard on with no dramas - just a huge grin ! Big wide bars , low seat and low flickable weight would make this a stoating town bike.
Now, how can I get a go on a Triumph Street Triple as the 800 is vibey through the bars ?
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