Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

So long as it’s not Sainsbury’s Local, you’re fine.

Classic chip shop displacement !

I am planning on taking my TransAlp out tonight, dash to Southend and have chips on the seawall.

Most of the A roads have been sandbagged to 50mph, so will have to find a creative route, using backroads and the like.

Nice night for it. Had a spin on my R80 Monday, forgot it takes a bit more time to turn than the Brompton so there were a few mid corner adjustments followed by some sweating.

Bit of a mare with the Sherco. It works, but seems like way too much white smoke as I drove the two miles down the road. Didn’t wanna kickstart warm. Got a bit lumpy too. And finally, by the time I got home, it was pissing fuel all over my boots and the driveway where the carb’s bowl bolt had vibrated loose and dumped contents as I drove along. Getting a little unhappy.

Edit: The shop’s gonna come collect it on Friday and check it over for me.

It’s premix I assume? Could be a fiddly one, they usually run lighter oil / fuel ratios than for other off road riding as the engines are extremely understressed. If you change the mix for more prolonged high RPM, it will smoke more and tend to load up and foul plugs when you’re pottering around.

Yea exactly. The manual says 1:50, they say 1:80, online says as low as 1:100. I thought I had it around the 1:70 maybe a bit richer. Probably it’s too rich.

So about five miles in total on the road, and a couple hours above idle in a car park so far today. But the leaking carb and other issues, (oil leak I noticed last week…. Again could have been out the carb) I just want them to check it over and be sure nothing is wrong.

You get oil everywhere with two strokes, from the carb but mostly black spooge from the exhaust. You're likely going to need to come up with some kind of compromise. The 50:1 in the manual will apply to the oil specified, for trials use. I.e, no steady state, high rpm. For that, you'll want more oil - the problem being, you'll need to give the bike a good rev every now and again when you're puttering, to stop the plug fouling. Worth doing this anyway as two strokes don't like to just sit ticking over for ever. What oil does it recommend?

For flowing open trails, I run 32-35:1 on my CR250 - it oozes black spooge like crazy when I get stuck in slower stuff though. For the little kart track bike, I run 30:1 because it's WOT a lot of the time and it doesn't ooze much at all (the oil gets burnt.)

For the little kart track bike

Go on..

Ha - that little git is in pieces at the moment. It's a big bore CR80 engine in a Honda RS125 frame....hilarious fun but ate 6th gear. Waiting on parts to put it back together.

1 Attachment

I really really want a grom and to put some sporty fairings on it for some hilarious around town cruising

Oh my - those look hilarious. Do it!

I will say, despite only going twice so far, the little bike / kart track action is insanely cheap thrills.

The trials was my plan of actually improving my riding. The alternative was a pocket rocket for go karting track/post office runs that would surely scrape leathers.

Talking of which, I was scraping the toe slider on the XJ600 the other day and got confused at the sensation. I was leaning a little more than I thought!

Dash to the coast was hot.

1 Attachment

And wet on the way back I'm guessing?

How were the chips?

Switched polarity of one of the running lights and it’s all working fine now. The H11 all in one LED bulb which came in today was a bit bulkier so I couldn’t fit the original head light back cover. Decided to sacrifice it and cut it open. I’ll have to decide if I’m happy to leave it open or whether I’ll want to make a modified one with polyester ie.

Only thing halogen now is the bright light but that’s okay with me for now.

Double bubble screen and new license plate holder should arrive either tomorrow or the day after. The original screen is pretty worthless as it it’s too low and the original plate holder was showing some rust together with lights only working at 50%.

If that all arrives, I can install my new indicators and I’m done with my initial changes.

Little touches like this are so enjoyable when you've got a new shiny bike, enjoy.

100%, I love this shit haha.

Windscreen and plate holder just showed up, very impressive (especially by Italian standards) as I literally ordered it yesterday afternoon.

Stuck in the office though so it'll be for the evening shift again ;)

Italy, land of six-week waits for items one town away. How have you managed such expeditious receipt?!

I went ahead and had another coffee. :D

This is my second order from CNC racing, they're not cheap but make nice products and offer excellent service. Even got a free keychain in this one - does that justify yet another coffee?

First order was wrongly delivered by the courier and upon my mail explaining what happened, they were very fast to reply and had it sorted within 48 hours which I greatly appreciated as dealing with couriers (around the globe probably) is a freaking nightmare.

That’s amazing. Congrats

Smoke double bubble and black bolts to hold the screen in place. So much better.

1 Attachment

That is pretty.