Monday, July 24, 2017

Damn you E-Bay!

Yes, we interrupt the current lull in blogging to bring news of the arrival of farkles...well, the first of possibly more than one...

On Saturday the nice courier man brought me a package with yet another farkle for the Tenere.  This time it was a small spoiler for the windshield.


I liked the setup on the V-strom - it made for a nice, reasonably quiet ride along with some reasonable weather protection.


With the standard screen on the Tenere not being quite as protective and some turbulence causing vibration of the peak on my helmet I thought it was worth a crack - being of cheap Chinese manufacture also means I haven't wasted the dogs inheritance either.


As you can see, it simply clamps on the top and there is some vertical adjustment as well as the angle.  Initially I slapped it on, set it up about half way up in it's vertical adjustment and with a similar angle to the stock shield.

Then of course, it was time to test her out.  The weather on Sunday was actually quite mild - there was very little wind and it was around 14 degrees according to the bike.  I found that riding at open road speeds I could easily handle riding with my visor fully raised - nice!  The ride was also reasonably quiet but with very little wind it was hard to say whether it had positively (or negatively) affected the turbulence over the peak of my helmet.

I stopped briefly and adjusted the spoiler some more - a 10 second job.  This time I lowered it to its lowest position but angled it so it was more vertical (similar to how the spoiler was on the Vee) and took off to try it again.


Once again I was able to ride with the visor up but didn't really notice any difference - I possibly need to wait until we get some bad weather again (shouldn't take long).  Anyway, so far it's not been a complete waste of $45.

But that wasn't all...

Today another package arrived...


I've had a Suzuki filter tool for a while but unfortunately it doesn't fit the Connie.  So after 142,000kms worth of oil changes with a dodgy Super Cheap filter tool I finally found one that fits the Connie...and it even fits the Tenere!  Score!  (BTW: the Suzuki one also fits my Mitsi so I'm totally sorted now).

And so it appears that there is never an end to farkling...

8 comments:

  1. Looks like a good addition. I'll be interested to hear about after you hit some weather as well.

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    1. I don't mind if it takes a while...

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  2. Strange place for a oil filter. On the fuel filler. Oh well, things really are upside down there. (Depending on your perspective!)

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  3. Never ending farkles isn't a bad thing. Glad the windscreen extender is working. I have been noticing turbulence from the stock screen on the Versys too.

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  4. Nice stuff Andrew! I've bought a few things from China via eBay and with one exception which the supplier reimbursed me for immediately, they have all been of excellent quality. Have bought several iridium "knock off" visors for my old Shoei and they've lasted really well without scratching. Just recently bought some external solar sensor lights and a couple of high powered LED torches and all of them are brilliant, at exceptionally low prices. A couple of the items were free delivery.

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    1. Yeah, I have shopped Ali-express a few times too with some good results. And I always look at the free shipping options first.

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