A conversation with Claude

(and putting him right).

In the previous episode of this oft ignored blog, I mentioned that the rear of the T7 was getting a wee bit out of control in a slightly exciting way.  Here's a pic of the old E-07 compared with a the new replacement - an E-07+ (first time on T7 but ok on Super Ten).

So, where does Claude come in?  Well, Claude is an AI that I play around in every now and again and I had a question for him.  I'd seen someone suggesting putting the tube (slightly inflated) into the tyre before fitting the first side of the tyre to the rim and I thought this was a stupid idea that was just asking for a pinched tube.  Turns out Claude agreed.  But, he (pretty sure Claude is a bloke's name) wasn't to clear with some of his suggestions/instructions and I had to put him right - more later.

Anyway, last night I pulled the old tyre off in expectation of a tyre delivery today (my guess on delivery was correct).  Less than fifteen minutes had the wheel off the bike and tyre off - only one tool required to remove the rear unlike the Tiger which requires all of the tools...

Ok, I needed the mallet as well as socket and bar...that's two tools...

Bead-breaker has been a good investment

I must investigate a tubeless solution (I say this every time)

Easy peasy.  So tonight was the slightly trickier job of getting the new tyre on and wheel refitted to the bike.  It appears that I am getting a little better at the job and didn't have too much trouble getting the tyre on.  I did muck around a bit fitting the wheel - I had a little trouble lining up the brake calliper carrier which meant pulling the wheel out again and giving it another shot.  But she's on!

Mmmmmm, rubber

Gotta have a little bit of blood involved but no tears...

Anyway, after the event, I decided to go back and fill in Claude on some of my other tips and it was interesting to see him agree with me (not unusual, AI's are great at agreeing when you give them the learn and sometimes apologise if they get it wrong).  Claude even suggested I write up my own how-to guide so that's almost what this is...

Here's the conversation with Claude: Claude doesn't know it all

Next maintenance item might be rear pads as the bike eats them - there's still plenty there but maybe another 5k to got, best I keep an eye on them.  Might even check the front ones...

That tyre dilemma...

 ...before a trip.

Has that tyre got 5,000kms in it?

Things to consider:

• How many km's has it done?  9,244.
• How long did the last rear last?  11,503.
• Does it still look good?  Yes.
• Have you used the same tyre before?  No.
• Is the Tiger hard on rears?  Nope.
• Where are you going?  South Island (coarse chip eats tyres).
• Are you expecting wet weather?  See above.
• How many kms are you doing again?  5,000+
• Feel like living dangerously?  Nope.

Very impressed with the Anakee Road

So, Colin and I are doing 2 x TT2,000's this time around.  There's no time for tyre problems or trying to find a tyre in the middle of the ride.

So out with the crazy amount of tools required to remove the rear wheel.  Yep, it's not a Japanese bike.

And on with the new Anakee:

Seven more days at work...

Dealt to

Finally, after 11,500km, the rear tyre on the Tiger was toast.  The original (subject to a do not ride recall that I was unaware of until I got the bike serviced!) has lasted longer than any rear tyre that I've had in a long time.  Maybe it was actually a good tyre (apart from that whole recall thing) or maybe it's the smoothness of the triple?  Anyway, I was pretty happy but I'd already bought an Anakee Road to pair up with the front which I replaced at around 9k.

On with the job.  The first step was to remove the rear wheel and to do this I needed to work out how to do it.  I was looking at the rear end and thinking that I'd have to remove the hugger thingee but after closer examination this looked like a major job with one bolt completely inaccessible (removing the wheel would make it easy).  So it was off to the interweb and the first video I stumbled on was gold.

So, back to the shed I went.  And promptly discovered I needed a new 36mm, 12 point socket...Off to town I went.  I then found out exactly how many tools I needed - a lot!  It might not be the hardest job in the world but you certainly use a few of ya tools just to get a wheel off.

Missing is the hex tool for the RHS of the axle - and the actual tyre changing stuff...

Like I said, it was actually not that hard (although some of the bolts were insanely tight) and everything goes together really well - I quite like the way bracket for the brake caliper locks into that other triangular piece and of course being a shaftee, the wheel will sit there nicely while you line everything up properly before replacing the axle - nice!

Swapping the tyres was pretty easy too.  One benefit of "road bike" tyres are that they don't have that massively stiff sidewall that the adventure tyres have and are a lot easier to both remove and fit.

The job probably took this amateur just under an hour (not counting my trip into town) and pretty painless.  No to scrub that sucker in and see how long it takes to wear out...

The loaner and a Xmas present

It's been a while since one of my bikes has been in to a shop for a service but with the Tiger still under warranty I dropped it in to Courtesy Motorcycles in town last week for its second service (first service was done in the Hutt by TSS).

And I needed a ride to work...

Apparently both the usual loaners were out so Phil had to dig something out for me.  Firstly he had to shift a full dresser Harley (careful of the oil Phil) which he suggested I'd look good on...I quickly put him right!

So he gave me this:

Yeah, it's a pretty little thing and it fired up just fine, warming up while I sorted out my gear.  

Riding up the road, it took me a little while to get to used to its tiny size and low weight and I also was surprised that it needed to be prodded a bit to get moving - I think I was expecting a bit more from a 650 twin, having ridden a few from the land of the rising sun.  I was kinda expecting a low revving, but reasonably torquey thing.

Heading across town in rush hour traffic, it was an easy little bike to ride but getting off the line needed about 3,500rpm and careful use of a clutch that seemed to only take up in the last little bit of travel.  Changing up required another 1,000 revs or so to keep up with the cars - definitely not a pocket rocket but it did sound pretty sweet (lovely at idle and low revs).

Anyway, it got me to work just fine and a few of the guys thought it looked ok (so at least I was probably right about that) and then when I rode it back to the shop in the afternoon I actually found myself enjoying it...a little bit 😉

After returning the keys I went to pay the bill and then got a bit of a surprise.  Apparently there is a recall on the rear tyre for the Tiger and Triumph are wanting to give me a new one!  I wish all manufacturers would give you new tyres when they're worn out...

Toothless

Well, it seems that I don't only procrastinate on blogging...

On its last outing Geoff noticed a wee issue with the RMX.

This is it after the ride.  I bet it wasn't quite as bad earlier in the ride but would have been wearing pretty fast.  I could have kicked myself - I checked the chain tension before loading the bike up and failed to look at the sprocket.

Anyway, I made it back to the ute ok and got a couple of sprockets and a chain ordered.  Then it was time to spanner.

The front sprocket was actually pretty easy (especially compared to the drama I had with the T7) as it is just a circlip holding it on.  I should get some circlip pliers at some stage though...

Getting the chain off was pretty easy too.  I got to finally use my $7 Aliexpress chain breaker too and it worked a treat.

Chain off, it was then time to whip the wheel out and change the rear sprocket.  Once again this was pretty easy and the wheel was soon back on the new chain fed over the shiny new sprockets.

I quick ride up the road to check things out and the job was done.  Nice to have got rid of the traction control system...

Anyone want some lightly used sprockets and chain?

Cat feet

Or perhaps just cat foot...

Strangely enough, if you ride motorcycles, they tend to destroy tyres and the the Tiger appears to be no exception.  Over the last few rides the front had definitely been starting to look a wee bit sad and a trip to Raglan and back on slippery and sometimes frosty roads finally toasted the tyre.  In fact, I've probably never ridden on a tyre in worse condition which is definitely not my style.

Try not to look at those lines showing beneath the rubber...

This is why it felt a little weird...

Anyway, i'm still getting over a cold so no riding today, but I did manage to muster up the energy to swap the front out for a new Michelin Anakee Road - I would have gone for a normal old Road 4 or 6 but apparently not for a Tiger rim.

Oh look, the fat one looks just like the skinny one!

The job went pretty easily.  To get the front wheel off only required dropping one caliper off and then the wheel shimmied right out.

Even the tyre swop went reasonably quickly - I'm finally starting to get the knack I guess.  No blood either!  The trickiest bit was seating the bead but plenty of soapy water, sitting on the tyre and no valve in the stem soon sorted it.

The rear is still looking pretty good, I thinking at least 2-3k so could even do the October NI800 if I don't ride the bike too much in between...

9k isn't too bad I 'spose

Anyone want these?

Spoiling the little one

 This post completed without AI...

Somehow there are two WR's living in my shed and every now and again I visit them to fire them up for a while as they haven't been getting in too many outings these days.  Last time I went out to do this a tragedy occurred - more poor wee bike wouldn't start and all things pointed to a very old and much abused (no tender and nowhere near enough riding) battery.

But, the battery had lasted well.  It's definitely been in the bike since I've had it and I have a sneaking suspicion that may have been the original - so potentially in the bike since 2011!

Deciding on a replacement was pretty easy.  The Poweroad Li-ion one in Colin's bike always fires his one up (after being ignored for months) and I also have one in the RMX which so far seems to be just as reliable.  And look at the size difference!  It weighs probably less than a quarter of the other one too!

Fitting the battery, I had to pack it out with the stick on foam rubber that comes with the battery so it would fit more snuggly in the battery box and not rattle itself to death when being a passenger on our usual death-defying WR rides...

And then it was time to see if the new battery would breath life into the mighty beast.  Damn straight!  And then Colin's one needed to be checked as well.

After fitting the battery, I then got very extravagant and dropped the oil out of the WR and gave it some fresh stuff along with a new filter.  Heck, I even pumped up the tyres to make pushing it around the shed easier...

And added an appropriate mascot...

Shedding a little light

After a not so nice trip in the dark (and before a big trip) on the Super Ten I decided that she needed some more watts pointing up road.  Previously I had a set of expensive Denali D4's on the Super Ten but I've moved them over to the T7 as I was supposed to be selling the S10...(The selling bit hasn't happened yet and the bike performed as flawlessly as ever on a very quick 3,000 odd kms down South last week).

Anyway, back to the lights.  I'd been browsing on Supercheaps website (as ya do) and noticed a set that looked like they might work on the bike and for $89 I thought, let's give it a go...

They are Ridge Ryder branded lights with each unit holding 6 x 5 watt leds.  They even came with a flash harry harness which I didn't need as I already had one on the bike with some junk chinese leds.  In about ten minutes the junk ones were gone and the new ones installed.

The Allen bolts allow adjustment of lights

Well, they work in the shed...

Once fitted, I had to wait a while for it to get dark so I could do a little road test.  one of the things I liked about the Denalis is that each housing had two spots and two floods giving both a long range peek while also lighting up quite a wide swathe immediately in front of the bike.  The Ridge Ryder units were all spots.

I needn't have worried...

Not bad at all and about 1/7th of the cost of the Denalis...and I just got a credit as they put the lights on sale this weekend...

I can also confirm that they were perfect for running the Buller Gorge at 5:30am last week...

Now sporting a nice bug collection...

Tyre changing

 Mr Birch not only makes offroad riding look easy...

Shed time

Yeah, I know, I've been lazy with my posting.  Maybe after I get this wee one done...

Yesterday was maintenance/farkle time for the T7.  I started off by absolutely spoiling the bike by cleaning it (leaving clumps of mud all over the place where said washing took place) and then swapping out the oil and filter.  Easy stuff.

Next up was a wee upgrade.  Glen (and quite a few guys) had recently upped his front sprocket by a tooth to drop the rpms a tad when cruising.  He reported that the bike was still fine with the slightly higher gearing and after riding with him a few weekends ago I decided to give it a whirl too.

I new that it'd be interesting getting the sprocket nut off after changing one on the WR and needing to borrow an impact driver.  This time around I had to borrow a 30mm socket from Ken who lives just up the road.  I then proceeded to try to loosen the nut myself.

Yeah, that wasn't going to work.  I couldn't hold enough rear brake on and lean hard on the bar to loosen the nut.  Using a tie down to hold the brake on didn't work either - I didn't have enough weight on the bike and the brake wasn't on enough to stop the wheel from turning.  Luckily Ken was just up the road...

With Ken holding the bike and standing on the brake I was still not getting anywhere.  Time to get serious...

Yeah, it's nearly as long as the bike...

Eventually, the super bar extension finally cracked the nut and we were in business.

Out with the old and in with the new.

A bit of loctite and some peening on the nut dohickey and hopefully it's not going anywhere.  Then everything was back together and the chain adjusted to suit,

For the oil change I had to remove the standard skid pad but couldn't find it in me to stick the same one back on so slapped on a new plastic Acerbis one.

It's quite a bit bigger and offers a bit more protection to  some of the critical bits and bobs and is designed to try to help keep crap off the shock which could damage that too.  Looks good too - Colin and Andy never noticed it today...