FAST SUPER BIKES

 During April Col and I managed to get out for most of the Sunday mornings covering slightly bigger distances than in March due to better temperatures even though it was still cooler than we'd like.
Jon still has the Gixer locked away in the garage and Rich needs to wait for mid May before he can make it due to other commitments.
 We made our first trip of the year to Dom's cafe in Leominster and was greeted by old Sam the farm dog who came from the cafe area to the bike park to see us. His getting on a bit now but always manages to muster enough energy to come for a bit of sandwich and a stroke.


    Col when getting used to his new Fireblade decided the setup wasn't right. After searching online he found a site that recommended some numbers, so one Saturday afternoon I went round to help and we set about changing the suspension settings, they still seemed a little on the soft side so we added a couple of turns to stiffen up the rear and slow the front rebound. He finds it a lot better, getting some impressive leans going through the corners.
    The weekend after the weather forecast was reasonably warm and promised to stay dry, so we did our first ride along the B4364 a local favourite of ours that goes from Bridgnorth to Ludlow the back way over  the Clee Hills. Theres a corner at the top of the hill just outside the villiage of Burwarton and since last year has a bump that gives the bike a real thump as you go over it at above 50 mph. It was cold up on the top and my mind kept turning to the inner gloves in my pocket, eventually I had to give in and put them back on before heading back to Bewdley for a warming coffee.
 We are looking forward to May to get some sunshine and hopefully all 4 of us out together.

 Holiday season was upon us so the bike had to spend a few weeks on its own in the garage. Once I was back Col and me took advantage of the warmer weather and headed off to Doms for a coffee and to see Sam his dog.
 The route took us from Bewdley along the B4194 a road we call the switch back to the far side of Stourport, this road climbs over a few hills runs along the side of the river Severn twists around the fields and leaves you with a smile on your face.

Neen Savage layby

 We turned left at the end of the road heading along the A451 to Great Whitley and then on another twisty B road the B4203 towards Bromyard. We joined the A44 and followed it to Doms. We could hardly beleive our eyes when we got on the bike park it was almost full. Even Doms water boiler couldn't cope with the demand for coffee's and tea's!
Sam the dog still managed to get around to all the tables getting a bit of sausage or bacon if he starred at the customers long enough!

Full House at Doms

  Dom's has always been an interesting place, its a caravan by a wooden shed with picnic tables scattered around, stuck behind what looks like the remains of an old garden centre.
  Over the last 12 months he has been adding features such as a toilets, now instead of the men using a cubicle in the ladies toilet we have our own new mens room, at present its still a little continental in style!
Edit:- there is now a toilet cubical!


 We headed back along one of  Jons favourite roads, the A456, unfortunately Jon had stayed home and Rich was on holiday so missed it.
  We are planning a few more rides before we start loosing the better weather. We want to ride over the mountain to Bala, visit the coast and get another ride down the A483. This might be the last ride on the A483 as it is, only the Newtown council have agreed to run a by-pass around the town unfortunately tarmacing over some of my favourite bit of the 483 :(  Work looks due to start in Spring 2014.
Look out for a future post about it.

 Carl headed to Cadwell park an has done some excellent photo's see some below, I ll try to get a link to them all.

Josh Brookes and James Ellison inflight. There must be a photo somewhere of Carl and the back of these bikes judging from the amount of cameras the spectators have.

For over a decade the BBC have had the rights to show every round of MotoGP. Myself and biker friends regularly watch the BBC's splendid free coverage of the build up to the races followed by the races and laugh at the comments from Steve Parish and Charlie Cox. Granted its appeal dropped slightly when Suzi Perry left, but that aside the coverage is very good.

 Col bought a post on Crash.net to my attention on Saturday that says Dorna the governing body of MotoGP have decided to move from the BBC coverage to BT.
 Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta said, “The BBC has been very good for us. The UK is a mature market and now with the possibilities we have in our TV production, BT Sport can give to us what I think the British fans and everybody needs.”
   Until reading this post on Crash.net I didn't even know that BT Sport existed, let alone had the potential to come and ruin the top class in bike racing, but unfortunately it has.
 You may say all is not lost, just watch it on the new BT channel. But this is where the problem for many of us Motogp fans lies. Apparently BT are giving the sport channel free to customers of its mediocre broadband service. I dont know anyone into bike racing who is a BT broadband customer. To get this channel we have to pay £15 a month. Looking into the content on offer on this channel, it looks like the channel will be mostly filled with Football, Rugby or Tennis, which I don't follow so some months I would pay £15 to watch 1 race on that channel, that's not good value at all. BBC is broadcast all over the country and with 65 million people in the UK thats the potential for a lot of  fans. Advertisers who pay a lot of money to put their products on the bikes and track surroundings wont get seen. BT or British telecom a telephone company is the total opposite having only thousands of subscribers.

Summing up, Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta thinks BT sports can give us what the fans want, that looks to me as though its a bill for £120 for the 8 months of the racing season to watch our sport.

  Fair play to BT for taking on the BBC and winning the battle, but in doing so they have cost many of the fans of MotoGP the chance of watching the the races, I for sure wont be using their service for £15 a month.

Galloway





 For 2014 we decided to re visit Galloway as we had unfinished business on the Dalvine pass (A702).
When we were there in 2012, we had 4 rain filled days somewhat spoiling the twisty roads promised by magazines and internet site, so we planned to return. To save some money we only did a 3 night trip which gave us 2 full days in Galloway.
 We set off on a hot sunny afternoon, but an hour late as Col had an issue getting his pants into his luggage bag, we had arranged to meet Rich up on Junction 38 of the motorway by the lake district and we made good time reaching him. We refueled at the next services on the motorway, heading off Scotland bound. After about 40 minutes I realized I still had 1 more gear to go and had been running in 5th gear since the last fill up. We had to stop once more for fuel and that had cost me £1 more than Col on the same bike.
 We arrived at The Buccleuch Arms in Moffat and was met by John who showed us to the bike garages. We unloaded checked in and enjoyed our first taste of Innis and Gunn beer (Recommended).

  The following day we got up to a dry sunny day, the sky had a few big dark grey clouds lingering around but it looked mostly dry. Waterproofs strapped to the back seats just incase we set off straight to the Dalvine Pass. We decided "lets just do what we came for while its dry!".
 The road out of Moffat (A701) is a good warm up with plenty of twists to get you started. We then turned onto the pass which starts under a motorway bridge. We stopped under the bridge, reving the bikes making them sound sporty as the noise echoed and bounced off the bridges walls while we cam'ed up.
 We pulled out into sunshine, and headed for the hills. The scenery here is beautiful, but the road didn't give you time to see much as the ribbon of tarmac was smooth, dry and twisty. Col and Jon passed me as the road became damp and the pace was a little more careful.

 We head west and down the valley eventually joining the A76 and turned right up to the next road that took us back towards Abington. This road was similar to the pass through the lake district, with a Welshmans fantasy having lots of sheep on every corner. They were even waiting for a bus!

Locals waiting for the bus!

 We got to Abington and decide its was coffee time, so found a truck stop for a brew. Rich is not big on road signs and this became obvious when stopped here.

We set off in the direction of New Cummnock and joined the B741, definately the worse road of the trip. On the map it looked nice and twisty and scenic in reality its a patchwork of poorly filled pot holes, we were pleased to see the end of that section of road at Dalmellington and joined the A713, which was a little bit better but still had poor tarmac. We stopped for a chat along side Loch Much and noticed that we were in Ayr, the Tarmac for Galloway started only a few metres away and it was perfect.


We crossed the boarder, hungry so found a place for dinner in a village called Carsphairn. We set off and as about a dozen guys on BMW touring style bikes went past so tagged onto the back of them. 10 minutes later i cornered to find one of them had come off around a bend and was in the ditch at the side of the road. Two of his mates had pulled in just infront of him so we stopped to check all was ok. His bike seemed to be mostly covered in dirt and the guy was a bit dazed but no serious injuries were obvious so we carried on on way.
 We headed back along tha A712 to Dumfries and then back to Moffat. We had been lucky with the weather only encountering a few damp roads and dodged the rain all day.

 The following day we decided to visit Caerlaverock Castle after seeing it in a magazine in the hotel. We headed off via the Dalveen pass and hit some heavy rain so stopped to shelter under the motorway bridge. The sky was blue over the pass so as soon as the rain cloud had passed we set off riding through some prettys damp conditions but fun was still had. We rode down through Dumfries and down alongside the river Nith eventually arriving at the castle bathed in hot sunshine. We stopped for a coffee before having a look around and then using the castle which made a stunning backdrop for some photo's.

 We headed back the way we had came, the weather now was with us, we turned onto the A702, stopped at the bottom and prepared for a dry run.
 I had the camera on the bike, so sent Jon 1st, then Col, Rich and me at the back hoping to get some good footage of the bikes leaning one after the other into the corners.

 We got to the best bit just at the bottom of the climb over the mountain, I saw Col pull out to pass Jon and thought I am going too. I knocked it into 2nd and opened the throttle, my bike kicked into action and 170 horses all sprang into life, Col was now passing Jon.  I quickly passed Rich and caught Jon at the next bend, out of the bend I could hear the GSXR's exhaust wailing as he tried to keep infront but my Fireblade was in a gear lower giving me the run on him, the next corner approached and I followed him around opening the throttle slightly earlier and got past. Col was now 50 metres ahead, I hung onto the gears catching a metre here and there until the unwelcome damp roads stopped our fun about three quarters of the way up. We slowed to a more suitable pace for the conditions stopping at the bridge with big grins and heroic stories.
  We decided we had still time to go to St. Marys Loch, for a coffee and another great photo opportunity. The wet weather was catching us, so we split up. Col wanted to go back to the hotel, the rest of us wanter to pass the Beeftub along the A701 another cracking bit of road. Col left us and we carried on. The A701 was fun the corners are all open and easy to read we were getting some good lean angles along there until we caught up with some traffic. Jon was at the front but passed the Beeftub layby so Rich and me pulled in for a look. After a few minutes we carried on back towards the hotel and the rain started. I absolutely hammered it down. I dont think I have ridden in rain that hard since the first trip to Germany. It lasted all of 5 minutes but the water was dripping inside your boots and i could feel my toes getting wet.
 We arrived at the hotel, it was hot and had missed the rain so we put the bikes away, hung the leathers in the shed and went to find our evenings entertainment.

 Jon told us the next day he needed to get moving early as he was doing a night shift at work when we got back!
 9am the bikes were loaded and ready to roll, Col sat on his bike but the rear tyre was flat, but not totally so we went to the petrol station filled up with air and fuel and set off to the motorway and the 1st services. Cols tyre was holding up, loosing 5lb pressure here and there but we got back just in time for a last 10 minute soaking. Cols tyre had started to degrade having lots of tiny splits around the centre for about half the circumfrence. Rich's front tyre is now done and needs replacing. Jon's and My bikes both went good.

 Fuel wise.
 Rich's ZX6R was cheapest to take
My Fireblade was next (apart from the 1 section of motorway where it was in 5th gear)
Jon was next
Col seemed to be putting a minimum of 50p - a maximum £1 more than me on most fill ups.

 All in all it was a good few days, I wouldn't have been the same without you guys, thanks and see you next time : )

 Easter Friday promised to be a dry and sunny day, so we arranged a ride out to Bala. Col arrived 1st at the usual layby in Stourton followed by Me, Matt a new rider to come with us and finally Rich. We decided to go for a breakfast sandwich at a favourite roadside cafe in the layby just out side Wenlock on the A458.

 Refueled we headed on through Shrewsbury and got split up along the A5 for a short while, I was leading followed by Matt on his awesome sounding ZX10r. I slowed down to give Col and Rich time to catch back up. Col came past 1st and Rich not far behind so I pulled out into the right hand lane and we had some fun on the 3 roundabouts. Out of the last roundabout I pulled past Col followed by Matt and passed a convoy of trucks before turning off towards Knockin. Matt was right behind me, but there was no sign of Col or Rich anywhere. The convoy of trucks continued past the turning and still no sign of the others. Matt said shall we go and look for them. My mobile phone rang before I could answer Matt and saw Rich was trying to get hold of me. I answered and he told me Col has broken down.

 Matt and I headed back toward Shrewbury and Rich flagged us down from the end of a lane on the right. Cols bike was parked in the gateway to a field with the seat off and Col was wandering around, phone in hand. I thought that don't look promising.
  I asked "whats up?"
Col said " the lights went out, dash went off, and engine cut out."
 It had all the hallmarks of a Stator problem I had had 6 months earlier on the R1, so the RAC was called.

Oh dear, there goes the no claims discount!

 The RAC turned up some 30 minutes later only to find it was not fixable so he charged the battery a little to give it some power to make it to a petrol station a couple of miles up the road.
At least we could get a coffee there.



Some 90 minutes later the wrecker truck arrived, loaded the black Fireblade and took it and Col away  along the scenic route to Col's repair shop of choice.








    I suggested to the others the ride need not be a total loss if we did a couple of good roads that I knew which were close to where we were and could be on the way back home from there if we so wanted.
 I introduced Rich and Matt to the Hope Valley run.
 Hope Valley is a twisty tree covered few miles, winding up a hill, it opens onto a flatter green fielded section across its highest point and slowly drops down under some more trees to wards Lydham on the Bishops Castle road. We met a few too many cars on the climb up the valley and passed them over the top giving us a fairly clear run down into Lydham. I turned off onto the A489 towards Craven Arms a favourite road of mine in either direction, but I like this way better. I held a good pace along there, not too fast to leave the others but fast enough to realize I was having fun and that this new bike of mine feels just right.
  Two days before I had fitted a new exhaust, a Scorpion Red Power system, it gives a nice amount of noise and sounds sporty like it means business when the throttle opens. This pace had the exhaust sounding sporty as I came out of each of the tight corners. This had been the first time I had really noticed as up until now the sound of Matt's bike could have been heard over mine as he had always been so close but he was somewhere behind Rich along here.
  I arrived at the end of the road followed by Rich and then Matt followed up shortly after.


 We headed off then over the Clee and stopped to talk bikes and all agreed that part of the ride had been good. Matt had told me that his front forks had been fitted incorrectly and had been back to the shop to have this remedied earlier in the week, he was not happy with the settings on the roads leading to here so adjusted them slightly before we left for home. He says the bike felt a lot better from that point.

  I enjoyed the day with you guys lets do it again but finish with all of the ones who started next time!

 Jon still hasn't been out on his bike this year, his GSXR needs the rear brake repairing and a wash as it still has last years road trips dirt on it from Germany.

February is not a favourite month of ours. The temperatures range from minus figures into double figures from one weekend to the next, but some how we've done lots of bike related stuff.

Clean Machines.  Blue sky and 10 degrees in February!

  Luckily we managed to get out for a ride be it a problem one. We decided to make our first stop a fuel stop which was only 5 minutes away from home.
We both brimmed the fuel tanks and went into pay, after waiting in line for 5 minutes for a lady who was doing her weeks shopping in the petrol station, grrrr! we came out to find Col's new bike stood in a damp patch of petrol. Thinking he had over filled it he moved it to the far side of the forecourt and waited for me to ride over. As I arrived I could see the fuel dripping out from underneath the fairing. We checked inside the tank nothing seemed wrong there but noticed the problem stopped as soon as the bike was up straight. He didn't really want to ride any distance with the fuel dripping as bad as it was so suggested we went to the shop where he bought it and got them to fix it, so we did. I left a good distance between us, just in case Col and  the Fireblade turned into Coal and a fireball after all I didn't want to melt my bikes plastic fairing!
 Luckily the guys at the shop found the problem and had him back on the road in about 30 minutes. A breather pipe had somehow been left unattached when it was last serviced. 
  Something interesting came to light when this problem arrived, the Honda Fireblade of 2004 has a dummy tank. The painted part that you see is just a plastic cover and the main petrol tank is a hinged smaller metal tank that hides underneath, which can be tilted back towards the seat to gain access to the rear of the engine below, we thought this a neat idea.

 The R1 didn't get away with out any problems on that same ride. I noticed that when it started it couldn't tick over without stalling, so the following weekend I lifted the tank to discover the bar that controls the air intakes had seized. I squirted some WD40 around all the contact areas and free'd it up and the problem seemed better. I am not entirely convinced the problem is gone completely however the bike will start and run without my help. Also I noticed during that sunny ride out my chain was clonking and on closer inspection I found some of the links had seized up, so it needed replacing. I decided that a gold and black chain would look nice and D.I.D. made just what I was after so the following weekend our bike mechanic mate Mark fitted it for me, and it looks great cheers Mark!

 So what is the life expectancy of a Motorbike chain?

 The owners manual doesn't give a specific mileage, it says, Check the drive chain for slack and rear wheel alignment and re oil after every 1000km or after washing or rain. (Thats a lot of checking when you live in the UK it rains a lot)
 Owners clubs seem to suggest 15000km-25000km or around 17000 miles but mine the original D.I.D fitted by Yamaha had done exactly 30000 miles so it has lasted very well.

Honda Fireblade under seat exhaust replacement (2004).

  During a cold February Sunday morning, Col asked if I would help change his standard exhaust for a new Scorpion system.
 After opening the box and reading the instructions we guessed it was going to take a while.

 This is Col's 2004 Honda 1000RR Fireblade.
  He bought it in 2013 with 11000 miles on the clock from a local bike shop after spotting it on Ebay. We called into the shop one Sunday morning in January and as soon as we saw it Col decided it was the one.
 The snow fell and stopped him from collecting it for 2 long weeks, but eventually it arrived and he turned up on it the next fine Sunday morning. 
  
Controls
  The Instrument display has a rev counter and a digital read out of the current speed. The select button scrolls through 2 trip counters,the Odometer and displays the time. The brake lever has an adjustable postion, The bike has twin headlights of which only the one side illuminates when the engine is running and cannot be turned off, the other side comes on when man beam is selected. The rear section of the seat lifts off to reveal a compartment big enough for the tool kit, a rag and a bottle of visor cleaner, but don't think of putting any thing to eat in there as it will get very warm having the exhaust silencer right below it.




  Riding it
  
  The seat is nicely positioned, but is firm, and  the reach to the bars is comfortable. The foot pegs are quite high and back giving it an agressive feel. On longer journeys or sitting in traffic can cause wrist and shoulder/neck ache. Out on the road the bike has a lot of punch when you open the throttle, turns quickly, yet feels stable at the same time. When I have ridden it, i thought it felt as though 70mph was its happy speed, where the engine picked up instantly.  The default suspension setting are a little soft so we adjusted them to a few clicks stiffer.
 Since Col has owned this bike we have noticed it uses more fuel than the R1 and GSXR however its not a massive difference.

  Stats

• Engine size  -  998 cc
• Top Speed  -  178mph
• Power  -  172 bhp
• Weight  -  176kg
• Fuel tank capacity  -  18ltrs
• Av MPG  -  35mpg
• Tank Ramge  -  135 miles
• Ins group -  17
• Tyres  -  F 120/70/17   R 190/55/17
• Suspension  -  Fully adjustable

The Original Exhaust

The New Exhaust

 Talking about motorcycle suspension to your biking mates is a bit like speaking in a foreign language that you both only know the odd word of.
 Everyone knows you need suspension to make the ride more comfortable on bumpy roads and it makes the bike handle better when its done right, but what the adjusters actually do and the words actually mean normally brings on vacant stares.

At the bottom of this page are the setups we use on our bikes. 

 Heres a basic guide to setting up your bike 

Tyres

Your motorbikes handling will improve quite noticeably just by having the tyres blown up. Col likes his tyres set to the manufacturers recommended pressures as it makes the bike feel light and quick to respond in the corners, where as I like my front tyre 5 psi down and the rear 2 down from the recommended pressures. This way I think the front grips and give more confidence in the corners and the back rolls from side to side better as it gives a larger contact spot. Jon always seems to have a flat middle section and rarely does anything to his tyres and Rich has not got any preference as of yet.

 Suspension Settings

Before you start do this:- Get a pen and paper and write down the settings you are currently using so at least if you like how your bike feels you can go back to that setup if your adjustments or messing's don't go to plan.
 The front adjustments are done on the front forks and the rear adjustments done at the rear shock.

 The Suspension has 3 adjustable parts:-
 Compression -
This is when the suspension first moves, such as when braking,accelerating or going over bumpy surfaces
 Rebound -
This is the movement when the spring has peaked and is returning to its usual position
 Preload -
This is how much the spring needs to be loaded before it can compress.

Preload (gold bit with hex head) rebound (flat screw part in middle of gold bit)  Compression is a screw head at the bottom of each fork leg.

Rear Shock Preload (Threaded collar above spring), Compression screw head at top of picture, Rebound (screw head below the spring at the bottom of the shock)

    During July we did our EDSBK Road trip which you can read about in the section below. In short we have decided next time we go into Europe we will take the bikes over in a van and ride the bikes when over there. This way if anyone has a problem we have our own back up service as RAC and such like don't offer the service that you think your getting. However they are going to re pay my charges.

 The 1st weekend of June was the best of the year at the time, so the 4 of us arranged to meet at the usual layby with pre filled fuel tanks, to make it to Newtown.
 Rich arrived 1st followed by the rest of us a few minutes later. 3 of the 4 bikes were gleaming in the bright morning sunshine, unfortunately the GSXR needed a coat of polish but at least it was there!
 We decided to try a new route to get to Newtown, so headed to Clun through Craven Arms. The route was to follow along the B4368 through the village of Newcastle until it gets to the A489 by Kerry.
 I left Clun first followed by Col, and the others. The road to start with wasn't much fun having high banks either side, limited vision and having loose gravel patches here and there. I checked my mirror and noticed the gap to Col was getting bigger until I lost sight of him completely. Eventually I passed a farmer who had some sheep waiting to cross the road I saw him open the gate so pulled in to wait for the others. Jon then Col then Rich arrived a few minutes later and we set off again. The recently resurfaced road now got very good as it made its way up over the hill which had some nice corners thrown in to make it more interesting. This lasted for a few minutes before dropping back down the hill around some challenging bends eventually arriving at the A489. Me, Jon and Rich really enjoyed the road, but Col says there was too much gravel for his liking and couldnt wait to get to the end of it where it rejoined the usual road to Newtown.
 Eventually we arrived at Newtown and started the ride along the A483 to the cafe, there was alot of motorbikes along there, some were being ridden quite badly. I followed 3 guys on commuter style bikes, the 1st guy passed the car in front of him but his 2 mates couldn't get passed. Half an agitated mile later, the 2nd guy went for the pass closely followed by the last guy with a poorly timed manourvre pulling strait out into the path of an oncoming motorbike, which got him the raised middle finger gesture from the bike behind. Sometimes riders need to look at the road ahead and plan their overtake rather than just go for it because their mate has, most bikes can make an easy pass of a car travelling at 60mph.
 As usual the ride back is just as good as the ride there, so we stopped for 5 minutes to look at the view from the top of the Clee towards Malvern.



 The following 2 weeks I fell ill, eventually it was diagnosed as septicemia so was too ill to ride and was told ''no beer for 2 weeks'', which was a shame as the one weekend was the hottest of the year (not that I noticed).

 Carl and Penny went to Oulton Park in May and Carl took some excellent photos from the races.