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...
Last Sunday I felt the need to listen to a T-plane triple and also wanted to try out some different settings on the new DJI camera. Initially I'd planned a bit longer ride over the Gentle Annie to finally finish off the rear tyre but with the weather being a little bit funny I decided on a shorter trip through to Pongaroa and then home. I also really enjoy the Makuri Gorge and thought it was worth videoing again...
Riding over the track there were a few spits and some damp roads and this pretty much continued all the way through to Pahiatua and the quarry just before the Makuri Gorge.
It was here that I turned the camera on. The result is whatever Youtube did to my original 50fps, 4K video. I also tried out the noise suppression on the camera at maximum, this was a big mistake as everytime the "noise" changed, it would take a while for the camera to sort it out and the result wasn't that great. Enter some crappy Youtube tracks...
At least you can see that the ride was fun!
In Pongaroa, I only stopped briefly to turn the camera off and grab another Fire Station pic.
Next up was the bumpy little stretch of Route 52 to Weber and then a left turn to take be back through towards Dannevirke. Lots of road works on the Weber Road.
Back on SH2, I got off it as soon as possible and took backroads towards Woodville before scooting over the Saddle and home in time for lunch. A nice little run and it looks like the last Tigger ride of the year.
I went for a ride yesterday, so I thought I should blog the one from a couple of weeks ago...
I was due to pop into the olds for Sunday dinner and with it being a decent sort of the day, I figured that there were some stones that needed flipping and a T7 in need of a little run.
I decided to make my way out Pohangina Road and through to Apiti before turning back onto Ridge Road for a bit until I found a likely looking road across toward Feilding.
Pohangina Road was its normal magic self with just a bit of more freshly spread gravel towards the Northern end. Ridge Road was more of the same, except there was the odd spit and with plenty of time on my hands, the opportunity for some pics.
Turning off onto Londons Ford Road (a little early), I was disappointed to be back on seal so soon and once I got home, disappointed to see that I rode right past Londons Ford and the reserve there. When I saw a sign pointing towards Bartletts Ford I didn't make the same mistake and turned off to go sight-seeing somewhere I'd never been before.
There was quite a nice little reserve at Bartletts Ford and there were some guys packing up their fishing gear and another carload of campers just leaving when I got there. They hadn't even met me yet...
Londons Ford Road spat me back out onto the Apiti Loop and after charging up the hill towards Kimbolton, I turned right instead of left to pick up some more gravel on Junction Road. I even stopped to turn on the camera to capture me wobbling along on some pretty fresh gravel...
Junction Road led to McBeth Road and at the end of that I made a blue and went left instead of right. Right would have got me onto some more gravel and allowed me to cross over to Beaconsfield before cruising into Feilding whereas my left turn got me back into Kimbolton and a sealed route to Cheltenham where it was past time for a cold coke and a piccy of the Fire Station for Advrider.
From Cheltenham, I avoided the long straight of Feilding by taking a roundabout route to the folks place. I may have missed the odd turn, but it was still a nice way to get to Feilding...
Seeing that it is December, it's probably past time to write-up the last ride of November...
Way back last month I loaded the RMX onto the ute and joined Colin, Graeme, Geoff and Geoff's son Liam on a quad ride in the Maungatuks. And it went fairly well with just a few little hiccups.
Number one hiccup was the battery on the RMX. It's a wee lithium jobbie which lately hasn't been living up to their normally good reputation for holding a charge. Last time I rode it the bike needed to be kick started for the first start of the day but then quickly came back to life for the subsequent starts.
Loading the bike up (I idle it up my ramps, walking beside it to load) definitely required a kick and then so did the initial start in the carpark which wasn't unexpected. Unfortunately, I also need to kick it all day which did present some issues later in the ride...
Leaving the carpark we started our way up the hill and it was a little exciting in places as they'd had some recent rain, and the clay down there is of the slippery when wet variety. This is where the application of torque must be undertaken a wee bit carefully.
At our first stop the gang split into two with Colin and Graeme wanting to do some more tricky stuff (stuff I've done before on the 450 but didn't really want to given that recent rain) while I joined Geoff and Liam on a more "scenic" route. Along the way we stopped so that Liam could have a bit of a blast around and we could check out the views.
Once Geoff managed to get the quad back we carried on dropping down the hill before entering the pine forest to splash our way closer to the Orange Hut. I led but actually took it pretty quietly as there were a few slippery bits on the decent. I even managed a styley stall just before a large puddle along the way...
I also took the opportunity for a quick cool off...
We ended up beating the other two to the hut, there were some excuses like "big puddle", "winching" and "upside down" but we still haven't seen any pictures...
After a munch and a bit of rest we carried on up the road with a 450 breathing down Colins neck and the odd bit of excitement along the way.
Next up came this bit:
Yeah, come to think about it again, I hate this bit!
Yeah, I hate it.
This crossing is reasonably long and happens to contain some reasonably large, slippery rocks. I often take a couple of bites at it but this time I started off reasonably confident - and then I stalled the bike. And had to kick it over in the river.
I then ended up a bit too far left in some deeper water and the front hit a decent rock. Normally I'd just put my foot on the bottom and hold the bike up but you can't do this when your foot goes out from under you on a slippery rock. What happens next sucks!
Pushing the bike out of the river sucks too! My boots were full of water and the bike weighs about five tonnes when being pushed over slippery rocks. Basically, it sucked.
Graeme not getting wet feet supervising...
Geoff not getting wet feet either...
Yeah, thanks Geoff...
Next up was seeing how much trouble I was in. We started with removing the air filter and mopping out the airbox (it can hold at least a cupful of water) and then we tipped her to see if any water had got up the exhaust. We then quietly operated the kick starter to turn the motor over. Luckily, it turned over (slowly does it) nicely with no evidence of hydrolock. But would she go?
After kicking it over too many times, I discovered that kicking didn't work. In another piece of luck, Graeme had some jumper leads (I like Graeme) so after removing the seat, we hooked these up and the bike fired up pretty quickly and sounded ok - phew!
With that excitement behind me (and only a dead battery to deal with occasionally), it was back into some great riding on the awesome trails (see super-long video at the end) and no more over-excitement.
So, perhaps a bit more eventful than I'd planned but everyone got home safe with smiles on their faces, and there's a new battery waiting to go in the yellow bike...
And now for that video, but first some comments on the DJI Osmo Action 5 after its first decent day out:
It went every time I pushed the go buttons and stopped every time I tried to stop it - unlike my GoPro
I could even hear it starting/stopping with helmet on and RMX making a ruckus
I only recorded at 1080p but got at least 1 hour, 20 minutes of video with 58% battery life remaining
The sound recording is pretty good - I am going to play with the noise suppression setting when I try it out on one of the "quicker" bikes. Will be great if it can catch bike noise without all the wind noise.
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