Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

You give bikers a bad name, do some wheelies too.

New Tyres on it now so no riding on the 'Mac until the day of the race. Probably for the best - I'm waiting for a countershaft oil seal to arrive to fix a little leak too.

Hugo7 - the new triumphs are pretty bulletproof though the finish can be a bit iffy. They're F'ing heavy though...the new gen are even more barge like than the old ones. I've not ridden an MT07 but I bet it would be more fun to ride on sheer weight difference alone...

Sigh....I want a street triple now. They look fun...

Some nice new bikes at EICMA. A Ducati scrambler you could actually scramble on, a new and hopefully affordable little cutie in the Fantic Caballero and the new Yam 700 adv concept were probably
My faves. Like the new Husqvarna Vitpilen thing too.

Two months ago when I got my cbr600rr I checked all the things and the coolant reservoir level was one inch above the max, I removed the excess and until now I did around 800 miles. Today I checked and the water level was again 1 inch up?

Does anyone ever heard of an increasing of water? Any idea?

Global warming.

when you initially put the coolant in was the engine hot or cold? when you just checked was the engine hot or cold?

Always cold, and I didn't put any coolant.. I just removed the excess initially.

Very weird.
Is something leaking into the coolant?

I'd drain it and radiator and check seals.
See what drained coolant looks like.

Yeah, it's very weird.

I don't think something is leaking into the coolant, if not when hot the coolant would leak out somewhere... and if coolant hits oil it became white... sort of cream...

Now, in order, I will first remove the excess again and see what happen. I hope nothing!

All I can think is a malfunction between the main cooling chambers and the reservoir box, in which case removing from the reservoir will result in removing from the main...

Sigh....I want a street triple now. They look fun...

they are amazing fun - I chopped mine in against the bigger Speed a few months ago which is also a lot of fun, but misses the Street's aggressive torque and nutter revs

Check the radiator cap is sealing properly if not, it can puke out coolant into the overflow when hot and not draw it back in when it cools.

Tomorrow I will check from the radiator cap if the radiator is full.... And yes that it could be.

Highly likely this, check level in radiator before using it again, when cold. Should be full (on most bikes right?)
Rad caps are magic things, they have three functions on a bike, one is the level control vs. overflow tank.

OK - Got a GPS (Garmin 64S) and by christ is it complicated. I am terrible with electronic devices but this thing is a new level of impenetrable. I've managed to download and install a new, non-routing map of CA and NV. Apparently on the day of the race start, they give you a GPS track to download and follow, I think I need to try and download one beforehand to try and figure how you follow them.

Kriega Hydro-Pack has arrived, just waiting on some tools (8.5" 6 day Tyre Levers, bead-mate and spare tubes) and a countershaft oil seal. Hopefully I'll be able to get out and give the bike a proper shakedown off road this weekend...I've got zero dirt miles on it so far!

Anxiety is beginning to settle in - we've got to get up at 4am on Friday 25th, drive to Palmdale, pass scrutineering, get our rollcharts set up and download the GPS track before we can set off. Likely to be zero C or lower at the start, could get up into the mid 30s during the ride.

Anxiety is beginning to settle in

I cannot even image myself in that... last minute install the GPS track it's a race by itself...

How many miles of dirt you have and in how long you count to do it?

It's usually a bit over 500 miles, probably 50 or so Tarmac in there, they vary the route every year. They have easy and hard routes though the whole thing is not easy...
It runs over 2 days with a stop in Barstow overnight.

Sand is my biggest worry and there's rather a lot of it in the desert!

Take it easy and try to enjoy it, it's your first time and there's clearly a lot to learn beside the riding, you'll know the score next time. If you're not super competitive/stressed there will probably be some experienced people around who can help a bit. Bikers are generally a friendly bunch. :)

Yeah - I'm pretty relaxed really, though do hope it rains a little the days before. Wet sand is all sorts of awesome.

I'm going to have to go pretty slow anyways as my mate that I'm doing it with is a real dirt novice. Much steeper learning curve for him.

I would have liked a bit more time to practice navigating with a roll chart and GPS but we'll just start slow and go from there! Will be awesome, I'm sure.

Sounds like it will. Hope you get some rain, you're welcome to take some of our freezing cold rain any time.

Just for the record, the radiator is full and the cap seems good, original Honda opening and closing at the supposed pressure.. So, I just removed the excess of coolant from the reserve box again, rode for three hours and for now it's all good. In the future if it's producing coolant I will just box it a sell it on eBay.

Next chapter should be braided front lines, Galfer seems the best? I must resist for now, but I will love the bleeding... and of course the hardened...

:-D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_GJqHHbNM8

Husky is registering considerable fail these last few days. New countershaft oil seal leaked worse than the old on so ended up rummaging round the bin for the old one to put it back together. Semi-solved.

Went out for some desert testing today and got a rear flat in 4 miles. Had to ride back with a flat at 5 mph through deep sand. Then the pet cock seal went and pissed fuel everywhere. F$king thing does not inspire confidence for a 10 minute ride to the shops, let along a 2 day ride through the desert.

All the meantime - all Japanese bikes continue to remain oil tight and functioning perfectly, despite leading far harder lives.

Hmm.

It can be just a bad day, plus you just got it second hand... and thats why you're testing...