Tim’s Motorcycle Diaries – Page 22

Bike History, Ancient Rubber & COVID-proof Supply Chains

Ontario gets you to buy a vehicle history when you transfer ownership. The main reason is to make sure you’re not buying something with an existing debt on it, but I like it for the history lesson; you get a good sense of a bike’s life from that list of dates and owners. I’m the third owner of the Tiger. The first one owned it for most of its life. The guy I bought it from owned it for a short time (I think it was his first bike) before passing it along to me.

The Fireblade’s history also tells a tale. In July of 1996 it was sold to a guy in West Hill, Ontario (part of Scarborough in the east end of Toronto). He sold it to McBride Cycle in Toronto (Percy’s name is still down as the owner on bikes they brought in then) less than a year later in May of 1997. McBride Cycle moved it on to a guy in Mississauga two months later in July of 1997. The previous owner to me bought it in April of 1998 and owned it up until his divorce when he gave it to his ex as part of their separation. It then sat with her through the divorce until her new boyfriend dropped it off for me last September, 2019. Timeline wise, the owners of this bike have lasted:

10 months
2 months (dealer)
10 months
and 21 years, though it looks like it was unused for most of the last decade of those.

I’m the 5th owner of the bike, and if I hold on to it for more than ten months I’ll be the second longest owner it has had. This 23 year old Japanese super model only has twenty-five thousand kilometres on her and sat unused for long enough that the petcock that metres fuel out of the tank failed and flooded the engine, then it sat broken in a garage.

This Honda is a ‘supersport’ bike with ‘hypersport’ tires, meaning they’re soft, grippy and don’t last long. I once heard a story of a guy who used to drive his supersport bike to twisty roads in his van, ride it hard for a couple of days, and then open up his van and change to new tires using the tire mounting equipment he kept mounted in there. Heavy handed riders can burn through a set of these types of tires after a single track day.

Lloyd at Mostly Ironheads measured the depth and determined that the ‘Blade needed new tires to meet safety requirements. I’ve got the ‘Blade raised up in the garage at the moment and had a good look at the tires today, and found these:

But the numbers didn’t make sense to me because I’ve never had a bike with tires made before 2000. Tires after the year 2000 have a four digit code printed on them showing the date of manufacture, so you know if they’re getting stale (rubber goes off over time). If you see a 3507 stamped on your tire after the DOT designation it means they were manufactured on the 35th week of 2007. But the ‘Blade’s tires show a 038 on the rear and a 395 on the front.

Pre-2000 tires only had a 3 digit code on them. The first two are the week and the last one is the year, but you get to guess the decade, which is why they updated it in 2000. If I’m reading the Fireblade’s tires right, the rear was made in the 3rd week of 1998 and the front was made in the 39th week of 1995. The tire model is a Bridgestone Battlax BT56F, and they were kicking around in the 90s. It appears the “Blade’s tires are well over 20 years old.

Sorting out tires during a pandemic should have been a real headache, but it was another COVID19 supply line success story. I fired out requests to Two Wheel Motorsports, my local dealer, but they couldn’t be bothered to respond. I also tried to reach out to all the local tire stores and not one had the tech to do motorcycle tires. I tried other local bike shops, but once again, radio silence. It’s like some people just don’t want to make money during this situation. Perhaps getting handouts from the government is all they need.

The only reply I got was from John at REVCO.CA, an online tire company out near Ottawa. He was straight up with me, saying that they can usually turn around an order in a matter of hours, but it might take up to a week right now. What convinced me to spend nearly four hundred bucks with him was his responsiveness and openness, so I ordered the tires. REVCO outdid themselves, delivering the tires within 48 hours. Fortunately Lloyd at Mostly Ironheads can install tires, but not balance newer rims (he focuses on heavy metal from the 20th Century with spoked rims, not racing alloy rims). It wasn’t a worry though because Revco also had Counteract balancing beads, which I’m a bid fan of. I removed the old fashioned balancing weights, installed the beads on the new tires that Lloyd installed on Saturday morning, and the ‘Blade feels like it’s walking on air, wearing her first new pair of shoes in over two decades.

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Waiting for it to Heat Up

It was a 6° morning, so I waited for an hour or so until the sun warmed it up to double digits. The goal was to enjoy some curves on the last weekend before it’s back to work.

I pushed north to Grand Valley and got a quick coffee at Brewed Awakenings before pushing on up past Shelburne and onto River Road out of Horning’s Mills. Finally, here were the twisty roads I’d been looking for. South Western Ontario is a patchwork of tediously straight roads. The exception is the Niagara Escarpment and this is one of the closest pieces of it.

Playing with vanishing point electrical lines

South out of Terra Nova Public House after a quick (and fantastic) bowl of hand made fish soup, I pushed south down the spine of the escarpment into Mono Cliffs and Hockley Valley.

By this point it was early afternoon and a warm, 22° late summer day. Leaving the escarpment I pushed back across the barren desert of straight roads.

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Winter Is Coming

My first season in the saddle is rapidly coming to an end. I’m sad. I’ve been OD’ing on magazines and media in the past couple of weeks but I’m also doing more concrete things to keep the dream alive over a cold, dark Canadian winter.

This weekend I’m finishing the garage (insulation & ply-board) which should make it more inhabitable for stage 2 of Tim’s cunning winter motorbike plans.

With the garage organized (a tire rack for the car’s off season tires, new workbench, shelving, etc), there should be a lot more room! The Ninja will find a nice corner to spend the winter (while I strip the fairings off and refinish the frame). In all that empty space I feel a strong urge to project bike!

One of my earliest motorbike urges was driving by an old Honda on the side of the road over and over again. That bike was selling for $450. If I can find an old bike that needs some TLC I’m going to get it home and give it a place in the garage. I’ll spend the winter stripping carbs and breaking it down to nuts and bolts. The best way to understand is to lay hands on. Having a rebuild project would be the perfect way to keep myself immersed in two wheel thinking.

Come spring I might be kick starting an old beasty that hasn’t rolled on roads in years. My recent infatuation with Cafe Racer culture might inform this process a bit.

The Mood I’m in When I Return from a Ride

BIKE magazine had a travel piece where the writer paraphrased a French pilot talking about how flying takes him away from the minutia of life. I’ve flown planes but I find riding a motorcycle much more what I thought flying would be like. The check listed and tedious process of operating an aircraft along with the strictly regulated flight paths don’t lend themselves to a sense of freedom. You’re much more likely to slip the surly bonds of earth and touch the face of god on a Hayabusa than you ever are in a Cessna.

I was reflecting on my mood when I returned from a ride with my son Max on the weekend. It wasn’t a big trip but I came home relaxed, as I always do from a ride. Riding a bike involves you. You can get lost in the complexity of operating it. Even once you get familiar with the controls the subtlety of working them all together harmoniously becomes a never ending aspiration. You can always ride better.

I started writing this in October when we went for our ride, but it’s the beginning of the new year now and it’s been weeks since I’ve ridden. At this point I’m reduced to driving a damned car which offers nothing like the sensory thrill you get from riding a bike. While everyone else wrings their hands about how dangerous being out in the wind is, I’m addicted to it. Riding a bike makes even the most tedious commute an adventure.

Coming back from that ride all those weeks ago, I was blown clean by the wind. I’d been in the world in a way that seems foreign to me now, encapsulated in winter. About the only redeeming feature of having a long off season is the growing anticipation of getting back out there again.

I sometimes wonder how my son Max feels about riding. I’m always worried that with his autism he finds the sensory overload overwhelming, but he loves going for rides. Even on very long trips he’s a trooper who is always ready to hop back on the bike. He isn’t generally interested in being cool, but I don’t think the cool factor is lost on him. I don’t get many images of him on the bike behind me, but I love seeing him doing his wings in these images.

It’s been snowing for days. We’re buried in the stuff. The thought of jumping on the bike and going for a ride is still months away. Sigh.

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Throttle Control Sensor System on 2003 Triumph Tiger 955i

The issue: The Tiger stalls occasionally on idle. Sometimes it seems to hold regular idle around 1000rpm, other times it drops down to 3-400 RPM on the verge of stalling and if I give it gas it cuts out. It always restarts.

What I’ve done so far: replaced the fuel filter and spark plugs.

Next target: The idle stepper motor:

MOTOR, STEPPER, ISCV T1240888 $123.61
O-RING T3600037 $1.37
HOUSING,ISCV,3 CYL T1241064 $42.79
GROMMET, ISCV T1241063 $3.84
TUBE,CORRUGATED,200MM T1242502
2000MM $18.45
TUBE,CORRUGATED,145MM T1242501
145MM LONG $18.45

$208.51US = $281.34CAD
From Bikebandit’s online parts diagrams: https://www.bikebandit.com/oem-parts/2003-triumph-tiger-955i/o/m121594#sch565827

Visual inspection: Gasket (#4 on diagram) is partially squashed, may not be sealing. One of the pipes was loose going into the back of the unit.

Next step: remove the gas tank (again) and remove the entire throttle control/idling system, including pipes, and inspect for breaks. Replace pipes if damaged. If no pipe damage evident, look into getting a new stepper motor from Inglis Cycle.

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Refining Motorbike Fashion

Getting the Ninja had me going all in on the sport bike look. The full helmet and ballistic nylon riding gear makes me look like I came out of the future. When I’m all out on the Ninja it suits. But a sport bike was never the goal. I like the vintage look and as the bike evolves so will the gear.

I’ve watched It’s Better in the Wind a couple of times now and dig the vibe. Cafe racers, old Triumphs, all customized.

A couple of other things are making me rethink the gear. At the training course they talked about how the helmet doesn’t seriously mitigate the chance of injury. If you think that a helmet will make riding safe you’re not understanding the physics. Helmets help to minimize one kind of injury. If you can’t handle this truth then you shouldn’t be riding, helmets don’t make riding safe.

The fighter style open face helmet
is a modern take on the old open
faced helmet

They also said, during the same training session, that you should wear a full face helmet and full armored everything all the time. I get being as safe as you can be, but if the safety equipment gets in the way of the experience, or worse, makes you uncomfortable, it prevents you from doing the deed in the first place.

The Bell is a classic, though it made
me head look HUGE! It’d be nice
to get my Mondo Enduro on though

In Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Persig says he doesn’t like to wear a full face helmet because he finds it claustrophobic. If the point of riding is to experience that expansive sense of speed and openness then I think I want to try out an open faced helmet. This isn’t an expensive proposition, though the helmet might lead to a classic bike, which might be.

A variation on the classic by Bell,
the Pit Boss is a bit less
bulbous

Open faced helmets are popular and tend to focus on a specific style. The fighter jet style half helmet is a modern take on the classic open faced helmet, but you can still get vintage styled helmets. I’m partial to the Bell classic but it did make my head look huge.

The Bell pitboss had a nice look to it, but they didn’t have one in my size to try on, though I think I’d go with the over the ears cover for protection and wind reduction.

I’m helmet inspired by a couple of things. The family history sure plays a part in it, but so do movies. Picking up something that I can plaster a rebel alliance sticker on would be cool.

Here are a couple of other eye catching open face helmets I’ve been thinking about:

Bell Hurricane ~$100

ZR1 Royale Air Ace ~$127

Nolan Outlaw N20 ~$205

Thanks to http://www.canadasmotorcycle.ca and http://www.motorcycle-superstore.ca for letting me window shop.

The other day someone parked their original Thruxton next to the Ninja and I got the itch for that old bike once again.

What a lovely old machine, beautifully cared for…

Motorcycle Photography & Art

I usually toss anything graphically motorbike related that I find onto pinterest. Here is some motorbike bike art recently found mostly as is (but some photoshopped):

The photography in Performance Bike Magazine’s recent article on the Kawasaki H2 on the Isle of Mann was fantastic. After a bit of photoshop it became my current background wallpaper.

The new Triumph Bonneville with a Scrambler kit

The bonkers new Honda RC213R – the $140k Motogp 1%er collector bike

Riding in South East Asia with Adventure Bike Rider Magazine

H2 on the Isle of Mann

H2 wheelies in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th…

Adventure riding in Oman with ABR

Adventure Riding into the Himalayas with ABR

XS1100: Steps Toward Resuscitation

Snow last night, the XS got some mechanical
attention today as a result.

After looking over some internet advice (sic) on how to start a long dormant motorcycle engine (and ignoring never ending discussions on it), I got the XS1100 to the point where it would crank over (with spark plugs removed). The plugs look brand new, but sooty. Cleaning them up and regapping should be all that’s needed. It’s nice to know it isn’t seized, the electrics aren’t pooched and the starter motor sounded solid.

I also have the airbox off and the carbs cleaned (though they look pretty clean before I did them).

The gas tank is a rusty mess, it was left outside and empty for a length of time. I’m thinking about doing some instructables chemistry on it, just to try it. Failing that, I think I’m going to try Evapo-Rust.

Here’s what it looked like today:

Makes you wonder how many motorcycle tires don’t get worn out before they need a change.

With the airbox removed, the wall-o-carbs is easy to get at.

Carb internals look to be in good shape. Only the throttle cable is suspect.

The air box has cleaned up nicely

Lyndon Poskitt and an inside look into the 2018 Dakar Rally

If you’re new to the Dakar Rally and you love motorbikes, I’ve got a way in for you.
Lyndon Poskitt has raced in the rally a couple of times now but this year he has raised the degree of inside media coverage to a new level. If you follow his site you should get daily inside looks into what it’s like to ride in the toughest class (Malle Moto is only the rider with no support crew doing everything from maintenance to navigation to riding over thousands of kilometres for almost two weeks, alone). Riding a motorcycle in Dakar is the hardest thing you can do. Some bike riders retire onto four wheels as they get older, but the bikers are the hardest of the hard core.

Lyndon’s media crew made an hour long documentary that reviews his race from last year. It introduces you to both the sheer physical exertion, luck and talent, both technical and riding, that is needed to get through the race as a malle moto rider. After watching this it’ll seem nearly impossible, but Lyndon’s back at it again this year.

You get a bit of background on Lyndon from the video. This isn’t a rich guy playing at racing. Lyndon’s magic power is being a mechanical engineer. His mechanical sympathy and technical talent allow him to prepare his bike as well as any mechanic would. For the past couple of years, since a near death experience, he has been riding around the world participating in races and rallies as he goes. He has sourced all his own support for this.

The Dakar is the mother of long distance rallies. It used to run from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal in Northern Africa back in the Twentieth Century. The BBC made a great documentary about it called Madness in the Desert, if you’re interested in a detailed look at how the Dakar started.

Political instability in Saharan Africa moved the rally to South America in 2009 after decades of running from Europe through the desert to Dakar. The move didn’t make things any easier.

If you enjoy motorsport and watching people pushed to the limits of endurance and skill there is little that approaches it. While there are many factory riders and teams on their fully funded rides, the Dakar always has a healthy bunch of privateers racing, so it doesn’t seem like the millionaire’s club that a lot of motorsports do. There is something very genuine about the Dakar.

If you’re interested in other forms of motor racing beyond bikes there is everything from quads to cars to massive trucks. None of it is easy and all of it challenges competitors with thousands of miles of racing through every conceivable ecosystem, from jungles to Altiplano to desert dunes. This year it’s running from January 6th to 20th.

LINKS

Follow the Dakar on Twitter. On Facebook. On YouTube. Carlton Kirby on Twitter (my favourite announcer on the race if you can find him on Eurosport)

Countdown to Dakar.

Dream Racer: another great documentary on privateering in the Dakar.

Last year’s Dakar: A Dakar with teeth!

Ever wanted to get old knowing you did something exceptional while you still could? Dakar Dreams…

n00b’s guide to Dakar.

The deadly Dakar.

Rally Raid Network: Countdown to Dakar

If you’re interested in helping out Lyndon’s efforts, you can do so here:
http://ift.tt/2Ca00Fq

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The Third Way

I was at Skills Canada’s National Competition in New Brunswick last weekend and had a rainy Sunday morning in Moncton to listen to Michael Enright on the Sunday Edition on CBC radio. His piece on bicycles versus cars stressed the enormous gap between coddled, cocky cagers and the noble, spiritually empowered bicyclist.

As someone who doesn’t live only a bicycle ride away from everything I need (because I live in the country), I felt somewhat excluded from this urban (urbane?) discussion. As someone who stays out of cars whenever possible and doesn’t ride a bicycle, how can I possible survive? I’ve found a third way ignored by both cagers and the messianic bicyclist.

What is this magical third way? It’s the motorcycle of course. You enjoy that feeling of flying that the bicyclist on the radio refers to, but you do it without forcing a third lane of traffic everywhere you’re going. Motorcycles actually reduce congestion and improve traffic flow and do so without demanding bike lanes in already overcrowded urban centres. You don’t see motorcyclists riding into opening car doors like you see bicyclists. Though they thrive in that environment, motorbikes aren’t only suitable for urban use. People in suburbs and rural areas can still use them to cover useful distances quickly. You don’t produce the spontaneous righteous indignation that bicyclists seem to be able to generate at will, but you also don’t show up to work smelling like sweat and spandex.

For less than the price of an economy car
you can buy a Yamaha R1 that accelerates
faster than anything you’re ever likely to
meet and still gets better than 40 mpg.
Cutting edge Italian style can be yours in a
Vespa that costs about what a fancy road
bicycle does but can run at highway speeds
while getting 100 miles to the gallon.

You aren’t suffering for choice when it comes to two-wheeled motorized transportation. Want to buy a Canadian built, Canadian owned company’s bike? The Can-Am Spyder offers older riders a stable, efficient platform to enjoy being out in the world. Love Italian exotica? Italy has more than a dozen current manufacturers of motorcycles producing everything from race ready Ducatis to stylish Vespas. The Japanese produce an astounding range of bikes from the ground-breaking super-charged Kawasaki H2r to the futuristic Honda NV4 which manages to look like the off-spring of the batmobile and a stealth fighter while still getting better than 60mpg.

If you like the traditional look you can find modernized classic Triumphs and evolutionary Harley Davidsons that all use fuel injection, have anti-lock brakes and are both dependable and efficient ways of getting there in style. There is a motorbike for every taste from subtle to gross.

The third way means you are paying road taxes to help build and maintain the roads you’re using (bicyclists don’t), and you’re not asking for your own lanes because you have no trouble flowing with normal traffic. You never see a motorcyclist take to the sidewalk and abuse pedestrian space like you will with bicyclists because motorcyclists consider themselves road going vehicles all the time and not just when it suits them. That kind of responsibility happens when you’re paying for the infrastructure you’re using.

The police officer redirecting traffic just told me to pull into
the full parking lot – you can fit bikes in without needing new
infrastructure to fit them. All those unused triangles suddenly
have a function.

The third way means that, like bicyclists, you have to share the road with distracted, idiotic cagers who barely pay attention to what happens beyond the air conditioned box they find themselves in, all while they burn copious amounts of gasoline moving themselves, four empty seats and a couple of tonnes of vehicle around with them. It’s a dangerous business sharing space with these vain-glorious, self obsessed tools.

What do you get in return for that vulnerability? You are present in the places you pass through, alive in the world. You smell every smell, feel the sun on your back and arrive feeling like to you travelled through the world to get there instead of feeling isolated, superior and more than a little clueless. The first time you lean into a series of corners and feel like you and your bike are one is a magical experience. You can’t take on the spandex righteousness of bicyclists, but you can take comfort in knowing that you’re using way less of everything to get where the cars are going, and you’re doing it with a much bigger smile on your face.

The kind of defensive riding you learn on a motorbike (who is at fault doesn’t matter, you need to be responsible for the ineptitude of those around you) can’t help but make you a better car driver. I’ve been unable to squeeze the statistics out of the Ontario MoT, but I’ll bet you a coffee and donut that if you compare any age group with G class car licenses and G and M (car+motorcycle) licenses, you’ll see a significant drop in collisions when they drive four wheelers. You can’t help but internalize that kind of defensive mindset if you’re going to ride motorbikes for any length of time. Bicycling isn’t a parallel to driving a car because you aren’t held firm by the same traffic flow and right of way issues, so bicyclist paranoia doesn’t translate to driving like motorcycle paranoia does.

For most who can’t afford the excess
that is the automobile, the motorcycle
offers real mobility.

You’d be hard pressed to find a more democratic vehicle than the motorcycle. As a means of economic, efficient transportation, there is nothing better. If you don’t believe me, look at any developing country. The motorcycle is what allows many people who can’t luxuriate in the first world isolationism of the automobile a chance at mobility in the modern sense.

While urban cyclists find god and battle the soulless commuting automobilists on The Sunday Edition, I’ll enjoy my third way. I only wish it was a consideration in the misery that is most urban commutes. Rather than chasing utopian dreams of bicycle lanes in a car free city, why not consider a compromise that lets us immediately reduce gridlock? Ontario could start by following the examples of more motorcycle friendly jurisdictions by allowing filtering, reducing insurance, offering more parking (easily done in unused areas of parking lots designed for three ton SUVs) and easing access into motorized two wheeling by supporting and encouraging training. We’d see an immediate uptick in the efficiency of the roads we have now.

LINKS
Commuting by Motorbike is Better for Everyone
Mega-Mileage Scooters