Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Oh yeah - welcome to club 2 stroke!

Yep, almost the first thing I did was snap the throttle and pop three or four mini nooners. Didn’t fancy looping it so went back to basics after getting the buzz!

I actually upset some neighbour by practicing those wheelies and some tight figure-8’s on the public grass land round the back of the houses. It was barely above idle, just putputputting away and they came ans stared at me through the fence.

Doubt I’ll be practicing there much. I tried to speak to them as they curtain twitched, and they ran inside and slammed the door.

Spent a good hour or so in total this evening just static balancing, no handed and so on. Even tried some bar turns one side to the other.

Would be a lot more fun to be trying all this with the engine on, but skills are skills.

You're blasting through two wheeled knowledge mate. Could do with learning some shindigs from you one day. Really want to learn some 'shitfromthebutt' riding skills. Wondering if the Tiger on some mild knobbies can cut it on dried summer clay in wales at some point.

Where are you taking the angry 2 stroke off to?

I’ll have to learn some things myself first!!

Not sure where yet, hoping to get the MOT and road-legal stuff sorted next week or so. If it gets through without any issue then I’ll roll down the road to some green lanes.

There are a few climbs and dodgy sections that I don’t feel confident to tackle on the DR. I’d like to get them sussed for sure.

Niiiice, well done for making it yours. Looking forward to future updates on the bike and what adventures follow.

My mate gave me a free, new set of trail wings for the XR650R so I could go on an adventure ride with him later this month. Oh my giddy friggin aunt, it’s hilarious. It was fun on knobblies but you couldn’t stop and I was always a cheap arse about wearing them out (which it would do in a spirited half an hour...)

The trail wings grip, then slide, then wheelie and sometimes all at the same time. I can stop in a straight line and generally be a total twat without wearing them out in a hot minute.

At 42 I am still not responsible enough for a dirt bike with street rubber...sooo much fun.

Trailwings.... not-so-affectionately known as Deathwings.

I think you know why now!

The trail wings grip, then slide, then wheelie and sometimes all at the same time.

@Jung I found a photo of you on insta

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Ha! They’re really not bad at all on tarmac. I can imagine they might be very average in the dirt...

Have you been out on the Sherco today?

No Sherco action yet. Possibly when it cools down a bit later.

I went and chatted to the neighbours that were peering between the fence yesterday, they are totally okay with it if it’s just an occasional bit of noise.

Fitted a different throttle to the DR and tested this morning in traffic. Hated it. Something isn’t right with it. So back to OEM with possibly a bit of whittling. Trying to get full WOT with the pumper, which new throttle does (after significant dremel to the tube’s stops), but feels wrong.

Then, down to Bath and back on the XJ, as I had to go run an errand to the camera shop.

So definitely a lot of bike action already!

Bloody hell this is difficult! Ha!

I had a 45 minute play in the field near the house. Managed not to upset anyone (to my knowledge). Freshly cut grass, soaked in overnight drizzle.

First proper go on the bike, short of static balance and rolling it in from the car park.

Started with a bit of messing around between the trees to get used to riding. Slow speed, slow as possible, straight line and between cones, figure-8’s.

Slalom of varying difficulty.

Rear brake practice, straight line, tapping at each cone.

More dead slow barely above idle crawling.

There’s a small hole in the ground near the cones. Had a few blips getting the front to clear it and seeing about not dumping the rear. All good for a few practices, small wheelies.

Then I try a cracked open wheelie and it felt crazy powerful. Big grin.

Of course, then I try another……. Front up and bam, get taken for a ride right toward the hedge as I try tap the rear brake! Rear skids an amazing skid and fishtails. I get my ass as low and practically sit on the bike, sliding to a stop on the wet grass.

Needless to say I went back to a little bit of slow speed slalom before I called it a (successful first) day.

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They look actually nice, seen so many aftermarket led indicators that just scream "ebay pos", but they are nice!

Nice, I reckon it’ll help you master any other bike like a pro in the future as well.

Cheers, back is aluminium instead of plastic which does help. Also adds some weight to it.

That’s a weapon! I had a go on my mates little TL125 trials bike today up at Rowher Canyon. We pissed around on some rocks - I could get up the rocks but not do any of the static hopping stuff they do to get turned around. Much more tricky than it looks.

Gave the CR a good thrap, finally with the new steering damper. Amazing transformation - feels so much more than planted.

@MementoMori @Jung it really is a weapon!

Another hour or so (including breaks, and talking to neighbours and fussing dogs) near the house. Lots of dead-slow practice, longer slalom, focusing on turning in a small dip. Covering the rear brake, get used to tapping it, that’s been a big focus; I can keep rolling slow as you like once I have my balance, but tap the brake and the jolt throws my concentration and balance.

So, boring as this is, it seems to be working. I am learning how the bike feels to stop dead, and trying to get used to pulling that clutch in all the way, and slip it slowly again. All those fundamentals that are laborious now but make for smooth riding later.

But it’s a weapon. See that tiny dip? 1/4 throttle on the way up and it wheelies for yards!

After maybe a dozen wheelie practices in between slaloms, I managed to actually do a nice controlled roll off and rear brake combo. There’s also a chance one of the earlier practices I got a few inches of air whether I wanted it or not!

One thing is for sure, this isn’t a learner bike!

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Bike in for its MOT, literally on the way to the MOT maybe gave it too much and finally blew out the remains of the exhaust gasket (manifold to mid pipe area), so obviously became an MOT fail, they also spotted I'd lost a bolt off a rotor, not an issue immediately but if I was to loose another then maybe the rotor might make a break for it.

Unfortunately bike is ancient and BMW + Aprilia (Who actually make the thing) are fresh out, have been for 10 years.

Its a graphite joining ring type, dimensions 35mm OD, 30mm ID and 20 or 25mm length (can shave down the larger if needed).

Closest I could get locally was from Honda for a similar age africa twin, 35mm OD, 28mm ID and 25mm length. But despite being super careful on the lathe the boring bar dug in and exploded it. Due to the way they are made really not possible to change its OD or ID, only part off its length.

Anyone come across this material and found a place that has loads of them in various sizes?

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Now I know ideally you want the real thing and do it properly………. But you could get through with a bit of Macguyvering.

The simplest and easiest would be to get a Holts exhaust bandage.

I managed to use pepsi/beer cans wrapped tightly with some gun gum, to completely fill the mismatched gap on the XJ exhaust when I needed to get by before fitting new end cans.

You could comfortably wrap enough cans with some gun gum, to make a solid seal, and then if you were worried, the exhaust repair bandage on top.

So long as it’s solid and doesn’t leak.

Or, you know…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/XFC-MTC-Exhaust-Silencer-Connector-Accessories/dp/B08CN88S7M

Well spotted, found them earlier, but China and amazon together.
Motorworks (indy bmw specialist) are getting some made for them currently and just waiting on them clearing uk customs, so at some point this year.
Will have a go with some strip alloy and "seal all the things" type paste

One of the manifold gaskets was to totally disappeared as well and can't really bodge that, will turn up in the post at some point

Exhaust studs came out nicely though, previous owner "rebuilt" engine which was always dubious over but I've put a lot on that thing, 45 to 60k of mostly city courier type abuse and engine internals have been solid.

Sat on a honda crf300, can't really tell the difference from the older 250 road bike, but would defo go a 300 rally if i was going to do the TET. Think the rally version is still less than a crf450, but both are still prety much £9k which is mental when they are barely $9k in usd

10 year old adventure still go for big money. Not as bad as the GS thankfully. Even going back to a 950 doesn't help much, if anything worse!

All used bike prices are up a bit, especially anything thats still current. Saw a 900 tracer GT in a dealer the other day (not a yamaha dealer), 2 old so still the current model, 18k, needs a rear tyre and a hell of a clean (its been actually used!) and they wanted £9500 for it, £10500 new in that exact spec, but guess there is a waiting list for new hence why such a high price. IF it was around £7/7.5k I'd have maybe thought about it.

Yeah thats bad. Spain was worse than UK for retaining value but its narrowed. But 40k mi 950 is around £4000 gbp. I won't spend that!

Is it not cheaper to just lease something at this point?

No, I want to own for a long time and don't want to deal with hassle. Plus I sold superduke for a little more than I paid. So net ownership was almost zero.