2019 Coast to Coast

Saturday was this year's running of the Coast to Coast ride which raises money for our local rescue helicopter.

The one photo I took this year...

I've missed very few of these over the years and have mentioned in the past that it is a ride that I both enjoy and hate.  I enjoy doing it as it raises money for a very worthy cause but, I hate it due to the antics of some of the riders that show up - the gap in my badge collection is due to me passing on the ride after two riders were killed on one running of the event.

Anyway, enough moaning, I went for a ride...

The ride out to Himatangi introduced me to the fresh wee breeze that was going to hang around for at least as long as I was out and about.  The forecast even promised some rain but I ignored it and rode out with all the vents open on my jacket, pants and helmet.

While waiting I spoke to a few guys I know, including one H2 rider who was riding something with about 25% of the power of his H2...

Eventually we set off through to Sanson and Feilding with the wind perhaps even stronger than the ride out to the beach.  I sat pretty close to the front and just puttered along enjoying the ride.

The trip over the Saddle was pretty slow but at least we didn't get stuck behind a heap of cars and then we formed up just on the outskirts of Woodville to wait for our slot in their Xmas parade.

The parade was very slow with plenty of us wobbling our way along with cooling fans roaring away and clutches being being given a workout - not exactly fun but the kids always love the bikes.

Parking up, it was time for lunch and that's when I ran into Colin W.  It had been quite some time since I'd seen him and it was nice to catch up and check out his new to him Tiger Sport.  Glad to see that he is still getting out there and enjoying his riding.

After lunch I flagged the trip out to the coast again (it seems like I'm out there every other weekend on the Tenere) and just pootled through to Pahiatua before having some sport on the Pahiatua Track.

Sorry about the lack of pics, here's an extra one from 2013 ;)

Shake down tag

So after all the farkles were fitted, on Sunday I had to take the little WR for a short ride to test them out.

I didn't bother strapping the bags on but I did put an incredible 10L of fuel in the new tank before scooting off to nab the latest tag.

Well, that didn't take long...best have a little explore...

I decided that I at least needed a little taste of gravel so I went for a wander up Kahuterara Road to find the gravel of Greens Road.

Last time through here I was on the V-Strom and I was very naughty, sneaking only the walking/biking track back through to Turitea but this time around I behaved myself and turned around to retrace my steps and grab some photos.

There's some pretty nice views up there and it's less than 10 minutes from town.

After this short gravel diversion I ended up just heading home, trying to keep ahead of cars in the 100km/h zone - no  problem for the little blue powerhouse!

Oh, and at some stage I may have even chosen the new tag:

Farkle Season Part 4

Yeah, I decided to spin this one out a little ;)

Now for that smaller box...

Well, now that I had another endurance ride capable, long distance touring weapon, I needed someway to cart some gear.  I while ago I bought some cheap throw-over bags (more on them later) but to fit them to the bike and keep them off the exhaust/out of the rear wheel, I needed some sort of racks.

Enter the cheapest ones I could find on E-bay - some Tusk pannier racks.  Cheap (relatively), they may have been, but these things are really good quality and look strong as.

In the picture above you can see an inner frame sitting inside the pannier frame.  These are actually fittings to attach to panniers (Tusk or other) and allow easy on and off fitting of the panniers.  These have been removed and live back in the box with some other unneeded WR bits.

One of the first jobs was to fit a small mount (visible in the plastic bag above) underneath the sub-frame of the bike.  I guess over the years Yamaha may have changed a few things on the WR.  This did not fit up nicely with the plastic rear light carrier - the clean thing in the picture below...

The mount actually sits on top of this with the bolt holes for the pannier frames hanging down below it but the plastic is too wide.  Enter a sharp blade...

I actually had to take out even more...

We'll find out if I've taken out too much strength or not one day...

And that was just about the hardest part of the install.  The instructions were excellent (better than the Safari tank ones).  I only grabbed the wrong bolt twice and the instructions even had a suggested bolt-tightening process.  Piece of cake!

Rear brace is a good idea and even holds the relocated helmet lock now (not pictured)

Add caption

I did need to re-run the wire to the rego-plate light.  That's it before I moved it.

The it was time to button everything up and take the after pics.

Gotta show off that tank!

And as for those $99 throw-over bags?  Well, here they are in non-expanded mode, empty on the bike.

They are still pretty big not expanded and will take some tying down to hold them in place.  May not quite be the ideal solution, we'll see...

Farkle Season Part 3

When will it end?

Box collecting expert...

So the WR was supposed to be some cheap fun.  But unfortunately they even make farkles for little bikes.  And Colin and I are taking the little bikes on a wee trip shortly...

With some reasonable distances planned, the bike needs to become a long distance touring weapon.  And this means it needs fuel capacity - the standard tank is a miserable 7.6 litres.

Luckily Safari make one a wee bit bigger.

Yes, it looks massive sitting next to the original.  It's actually only 13.8L but I'm guessing I should get somewhere near 350km from it...

The install wasn't too tricky, although I really took it carefully as I wanted to get it right first time with absolutely no leaks.

One of the first jobs was to remove the fuel pump from the old tank and after fitting a wee baffle plate and hooking the lines from the lower parts of the tank to the pump pickup area.  Believe it or not, this is achieved with cable-ties...I should have taken more pics...

Another thing I should have done (read about it later on) was to shift the level sensor on the tank down a bit lower as there is plenty of fuel below the fuel pump.  When I filled the tank up, I first used the fuel from the old tank and the fuel light came on.  I then added 10L at petrol station, so there was around 3L in it already - 3 litres get you a long way.  And because the light was on straight away I still don't know how much fuel is left when the light first comes on - I guess I'll just have to go riding and find out...

New tank, old pump...

The lines suck the fuel up via vacuum.  In the above photo you can see the little plastic tee that has to be spliced into a vacuum line on the bike.  This was a bit tricky as there's not a lot of hose and squeezing the plastic fitting into the hose wasn't that easy.

Here's those plugged into the vacuum system in the tank.

With the Safari tank you lose the plastic side fairing/shrouds up front as they're replaced by the tanks "wings".  Safari also give you a little plastic fitting to fit on the LHS to cover the bits and bobs sitting there.

Bye-bye nice blue shrouds

New plastic cover in place

Radiator just hides behind the RHS wing

Then it was time to bolt the big plastic tank down.

Sexy breather tube and ultra-secure cap

Then came one of the trickier bits.  Included is a brace that goes across the front of the tank and also slots onto the frame down-tube.  It is supposed to support things when the tank is chocker with go-juice.  This was a mongrel to fit 'cause it didn't exactly line up nicely - I had to loosen off the tank and really jiggle things around.

Awkwardnessness...

Then it was time to chuck some fuel in and see what would happen...

Dig that mighty roar...

Looks good too (more pics in a later post)

Now, what's in that other box?

Just run in eh?

I'm slowly getting there at 159,000km...