Motorcycling

Big Brother?

/ masher / 3 Comments

During the week, I received my Google Timeline update.

I get one each month. This is because I have Location Services turned on. and am quite happy to share my location data.

I have nothing to hide.

It’s sometimes interesting to look back over the month and year to see where I have been.

Google knows exactly where I’ve been.

It also knows how long I spent there.

And it gives a breakdown of how many miles I have walked and how many miles I have driven.

Further to that, it even knows whether I have travelled there by car on my motorbike.

I kid ye not: it knows whether I drove or rode somewhere.

And it is spookily accurate.

Me, Son and a couple of mates took a short ride out today. Not too far as it’s way too hot.  Basically, we took a ride out to the nearest place to get a full English breakfast.

And Google knows.

How? How can it know? How can it know that I was on my bike and not in the car?

Next time, I might go there in the car, but wear my crash helmet.

Let’s see it’s little AI algorithm work that one out!

Lé Weekend

/ masher / 5 Comments

We went to the pixtures on Saturday evening, to see Fast & Ludicrous 64.

It was this: ridiculous.

I think I enjoyed the first F&F film, way back when, but they have gone from outrageous stunt to even-more-outrageous-and-unbelievable stunt as the franchise has progressed.  I’m sure they came up with a whole load of crazy car-driving stunts first and then wrote a storyline around them.

I really wasn’t keen on going to see it, but was cajoled by  a nagging family and the promise of a Nando’s beforehand.

Anyway, once in the cinema and seated in front of the Supersize Screen, I stuffed my face with popcorn and sort of enjoyed it.

What I enjoyed more, was the trailer for the forthcoming Mission Impossible 7 film.  That’s a defo.

Then, on Sunday morning, I went with a friend up to our local, nerdy, radio rally and I took some stuff with me, to get rid of.  I didn’t want any money for it, so put it on the club’s trestle table to help with their funds.

Mrs. Masher was most pleased to see me taking some stuff out of the loft at long last.

She probably won’t be so happy when she finds out that most of it is now in the garage, because I had to bring it back!

I couldn’t sell it. Some of it I couldn’t even give away for free! People just didn’t want it.

I was most surprised – and saddened – to see that all my lovely gear wasn’t snapped up by like-minded nerdy buyers.

It seems that Mrs. M was right after all: it’s just junk.

Sunday afternoon, Son and I went for a bike ride – some father/son bonding time.

I had to smile when he had the audacity to overtake me on the A505, as we rode up to Royston. Crouched over the tank of his little Yamaha YBR 125 and with his jacket flapping in the wind, he slowly – oh, so slowly – passed me, with a big grin on his face.  With ten times less cubic capacity and eight times less BHP than me, I let him have his moment before I opened the throttle and used my three remaining gears to watch him quickly reduce to a speck in my mirrors.

But, it was a most enjoyable ride – we’ve never really ridden together before – and I was pleased to see that he is a competent and safe rider.

At least for now.

Easyrider

/ masher / 5 Comments

Yesterday, myself, Son and a mate went down to that London, to visit the MCN Motorbike Show at the ExCel.

There were lots of nice motorcycles to look at and drool over and plenty of clothing and accessories to help you part with your hard-earned.

I didn’t buy anything. It wasn’t for want of trying though.

I quite fancied a new leather jacket. I don’t need one… just fancied a new one.  I saw a perfect one on a stall selling jackets, trousers, gloves and all sorts of motorcycling apparel.  I say the jacket was perfect, and it was, except… it didn’t fit. It was a Large and it didn’t fit.  So I tried an XL and then an XXL with no joy.  The owner of the stall found me an XXXL in another style and that fitted OK, but I didn’t like the style.

So instead, I decided to get some earplugs. The foam ones that I currently use are a bit rubbish. There was a stall at the show that was making custom made earplugs from silicone rubber. I’d heard of these before and they are supposed to be very good, if a little pricey. In fact, I baulked somewhat when the guy told ne they were going to be ninety-four quid for the pair, but he offered me a  “Show Price” – effectively 10% off –  and I went for it.

Using one of those things that the doctor uses to look into your ears, he checked both mine then declared that he was unable to make a mould of my ears as both had wax in them, which would need to be removed first. Bugger. Not sure how I’m supposed to do that… with the current pressures on the NHS, it doesn’t feel right making an appointment just to get my ears syringed.

But overall, it was an enjoyable day out. Though not as big as the NEC show in Birmingham, it was still a fair sized show, and we managed to get round and see everything in about four hours or so.

My one complaint, would be about the parking.  It was easy to find and there were plenty of spaces available but, there was only one option for length of stay: 24 hours… which cost £25.00.  We only wanted four or five hours, but had to pay for a full day.  Bit of a rip off, ExCel.

Ace

/ masher / 8 Comments

In order to celebrate Mrs. Queen’s birthday… or Jubilee – whichever one it was we were celebrating yesterday – I went down to the Ace Cafe in that there London, to have a celebratory nosh-up.

As one of our band doesn’t yet have a full licence, we had to avoid the motorway and take the much slower route out through Snorbans and along the A41, skirting round Watford, through Elstree and Mill Hill to pick up the North Circ.  But, it was a really nice ride… until we got into London and all the the traffic and roadworks that goes with it.

But, it was worth it.  As ever, the Ace laid on a fantastic breakfast (just where do they get their sausages, they are the BEST!) but they also put on some entertainment in the form of a band in the car park playing rock & roll from the fifties and a barbecue. And some other stuff.

The German chapter of the Warlocks Motorcycle Club put in an appearance and stood around drinking beer and looking like ZZ Top. I tried to have a quick chat with one of them, but his English was worse than my German – and that’s saying something!

Whilst there were plenty of bikes there,  for some reason there was also quite a gathering of Audi Quattros.  I have no idea why or what the significance  would have been to Mrs. Queen and her birthday / Jubilee.

But, it was a great atmosphere and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves – especially those that had dressed in fifties dancing gear and were twisting the day away to the music in the car park.

A great time… tempered only by the even worse traffic and roadworks on the way home.

Embarrassing

/ masher / 4 Comments

For a long time now, Son has been wanting to get a motorbike, but I have said no: they’re dangerous, noisy smelly things that shouldn’t be allowed on the road.

Which – as I have alluded to before – makes me a bit of a hypocrite.

But, he has pestered me and pestered me and many of his mates have one, so I have finally capitulated and on Saturday, we borrowed a van and drove to Billericay to buy a 2009 Yamaha YBR125… with only 120 miles on the clock.

For a bike with such low mileage, the bodywork isn’t as good as one would expect, with a couple of tiny dinks in the tank and what looks like paint thinners spilt onto some of the plastic bits, where it has probably spent years tucked away in the corner of a garage, with all sorts of crap piled upon it.

But overall, it’s in good nick and the engine runs as sweet as a nut – hell, it still needs running in!

He is searching around for insurance at the minute (extortionate), so the bike is just sitting in the garage.

Last night, we changed the oil in it, as I believe it still had the original oil from 2009 in it and then I took it for a bit of a ride around the garden.  It’s so light, compared to my bike, and I was dicking around on it – standing up on the pegs like a trial rider – when the road tyres decided they didn’t like the slightly damp grass and over I went.  My first motorcycle accident in thirty years or more! Luckily, I was wearing proper motorcycle safety gear: thin dog-walking trousers; short-sleeve t-shirt and slippers.

To add insult to injury (I grazed my shin), when I was riding around, I noticed some dog shit. “Must pick that up, later”, I thought.  You guessed it: landed straight in it… a nice runny one, all up my arm!

Whilst the family laughed at me and Son showed concern for any damage to his bike – just some mud embedded in the foot peg – I tried to turn it into a lesson by example for him:

“If someone with 43 years of motorcycling experience, can fall off that easily, at 5mph…”

But I’m sure it’s something that I won’t be able to live down, for a long time.

Oops, I did it again.

/ masher / 4 Comments

I have a birthday coming up in roughly a month’s time.

It’s one of those milestone birthdays (after 30, milestone birthdays really shouldn’t be celebrated IMHO).

For my last milestone birthday, ten years ago, I bought myself a new motorcycle.

Similarly, for the milestone before that, I treated myself to a new motorcycle.

There seems to be a pattern emerging.

Now, ain’t that a thing of beauty!

OK, i got her a little early, but: “couldn’t wait, wouldn’t wait”.

Of course, since I picked it up a week ago, the weather has been bloody freezing and consequently far too cold for me to go out riding.

Not to worry though, I have plenty of time to clock some miles up on her.

Well, at least ten years.

Back On The Road

/ masher / 6 Comments

It was a lovely, sunny day, yesterday and so a few of us went for our first rideout of the year.

Having the battery on the Optimate over Winter meant that the bike started first time… not even a cough or splutter after sitting there for three months.

We took a pleasant ride around the lanes and ended up at the Gliding Club for breakfast (or second breakfast in my case).

One Full English, Tea and Toast later, and we were back out in the lanes again. To be honest, I had no idea where we were going, but fortunately, Danny knows these like the back of his hand and took us down some excellent biking roads.

Despite the bright sunshine, it was pretty chilly, but I’d dressed for it so it wasn’t too bad. It was also a chance to try out my fancy new electric gloves which, even on the lowest setting, kept my hands toasty toasty.

So, with Spring in the air and longer days already upon us, it looks like we may get some decent rides in, this year.

And with Covid on the decline (currently) the Ham Radio events calendar is looking pretty healthy again.

It could be a good year… if Putin doesn’t blow us all sky high.

Heyyy!

/ masher / 11 Comments

The High School Prom is another Americanism that has made it to these shores in recent years, along with Trick Or Treat and S’mores… and many others, of course.

Whilst I have a strong dislike of the latter two, I’ve always felt pretty ambivalent about the prom.  I suppose I like the idea of  some kind of a celebration at the end of many years of schooling, but at the same time I’ve felt that it’s not something that would work or catch on, with our awkward Britishness.

However, raised on American TV programmes, British kids today seem to be far more outgoing than I remember us being.

Or maybe that was just me.

Anyway, Son’s end of year prom was supposed to have been back in July.  He and some of his mates decided to club together and hire a stretch limo. They wanted to look cool and make a bit of an entrance, but when they realised the cost, they ditched that idea.

Still wanting to make an impression though, he asked if I could give him a lift to the prom on my bike.  Arriving on a big, shiny, noisy motorcycle, would certainly make more of an entrance than being dropped off in a Ford Focus!

“Sure”, I said, “I’ll take you… weather permitting, of course”.

But, due to Covid, the prom got pushed back from July, into August.

And then into September. It was finally confirmed for the 22nd October.

Yesterday.

“Still wanna go on the bike?”, I asked, “It’ll be a bit chilly, just wearing your new suit.”   He said he was fine with the cold and so, at six o’clock, as the sun was low in the sky, we arrived at the front of the school.

There was already a crowd and several cars parked on the side of the road were dropping off more kids. Everyone turned toward us as I turned the bike into the parking lot and pulled up next to the crowd, giving a couple of quick flicks on the throttle for extra noise effect.  I could see them all puzzling over who this might be.

Son smoothly climbed off the bike and removed his helmet: there wasn’t a hair out of place on his head.

I heard a couple of girls shout “Oh look, it’s H!   HI H!!”

He nodded toward them, pushed his helmet onto the pillion backrest and then straightened his tie… reminiscent of Pierce Brosnan’s signature move as James Bond.

“Thanks. You can go now.” he said to me, quietly, and then strode into his group of grinning mates.

I smiled to myself as I gunned the bike out of the car park – yep, the kid’s got  cool alright.

Let there be light… after a short while

/ masher / 9 Comments

A few weeks back, half a dozen of us took a ride up to a café, on the A10, near Royston.

It’s a popular haunt for biker’s and – on a sunny Sunday morning – it was pretty busy, even with the Covid restrictions meaning that we all had to eat outside on the limited number of benches available.

But we did.  And it was good.  And then we left.

Except that we didn’t. Because my bike refused to start.

CLICK, it went. CLICK.

I had to suffer the ignomy of being pushed, in order to do a bump start, in front of dozens of fellow bikers.

This is only the second time this has happened in the nine years I have owned the bike, but even still…

Doing some research into this problem, I learned that it’s a well-known (not to me it wasn’t!) issue, within the Triumph Bonneville community, which is generally referred to as “The Dreaded Click”.

One suggestion I found, was to fit a switch on the headlights to save on current draw when starting (I think many modern bikes aren’t fitted with an on/off switch nowadays, as having the headlight on permanently is seen as a safety feature, so they have removed the ability to turn it off). I saw several examples where people had fitted a switch onto the headlight housing.  There was no way, I was going to ruin my beautifully chromed headlight housing, by drilling a hole in it. There is a headlight cut-out relay fitted to most bikes nowadays, for this very reason, but it seems they don’t always work.

So, instead, I made a small timer board. That’s it in the picture at the top of this post. Wrapped in self-amalgamating tape to keep it dry and also to prevent any shorts against the metalwork, this fits easily inside the headlight housing and keeps the headlights off for about fifteen seconds from when the ignition is switched on.

The circuit is simple and I built it onto a small scrap of stripboard that I had lying around. The rest of the components were from my bits box, apart from the relay. I decided to by an automotive relay as they are water-resistant – a fiver from my local auto parts store. Also, they can handle higher current than the piddly little relays I have to hand – I measured the headlight current draw at 4A.

The positive connection to the headlight main beam was cut and put in series with the normally closed contacts on the relay. I decided to do it that way, so that the headlight would have power, should the circuit fail for any reason.

Power for the circuit was taken from the sidelight, using a couple of Scotchlok connectors to tap into the wiring.

Total cost?  Well, I had most of the parts, but I reckon about six quid.

On a ride up to Jack’s Hill last Sunday, it worked perfectly.

I thought I’d post the idea here for anyone else having the same issue.

Of course, I can’t be held responsible if you bodge it and blow all the fuses on your bike!