Archive for category Motorcycling

Re-discovering my love for motorcycling

Posted by David Hurst in Motorcycling, Motoring on November 18th, 2009

For a long time I was completely nuts about bikes, but following the sale of my beloved Exup (which I just couldn’t ride any more due to pain in my knees), a rotten experience buying a new Honda (something I will blog about another day), and a completely useless summer, my enthusiasm for motorcycling had waned somewhat.

At the end of July this year I rode my Suzuki TL1000S up to Bristol and got caught in a typical British summer monsoon. The rain did the bike no favours and it was a truly miserable experience, made even worse when the rear damper failed leaving me with a very springy back end for the 40 mile ride home. I shoved the TL into a corner of my garage in disgust and there it remained until a few weeks ago. I finally got a replacement damper unit and with the help of a friend who is a mechanic, got the old one out and a new one in. I washed the bike and set off for a quick spin and duly came back a couple of hours later with a massive grin on my face and a re-ignited passion for motorcycling.

Why should the TL1000S be the igniter of such passion, when it is a bike widely regarded as being deficient. It has something of a (probably well earned) reputation for being a “widow maker”, and it can be a complete swine to ride. Let’s analyze the bike for a few moments…

Looks
The way a bike looks is a huge factor in how much you enjoy a machine. I had a SV650S as my first bike, which was a fabulous ride, but it looked horrible and I could never get past that. The TL is not quite so ugly as its newer little brother, but it’s no Ducati 1098! So, it’s probably not the look of the machine that excites, though mine is the rarer green colour, has the fairing lowers, beautiful gold and silver wheels and blue titanium cans, all of which adds up to a good looking bike.

Costs & Reliability
The TL is a complete pain in the wallet. It’ll barely scrape 100 miles on a full tank, and due to the savage torque, it munches through rear tyres and drive chains for a pastime. I have had the thing apart more times than I care to remember, but oddly I think this has a lot to do with it. When you have sweated over the machine like I have, you and it become entwined in a strange human - machine love affair.

Handling
The handling is woeful. The heavy steering damper (retro-fitted by Suzuki after a large number of TL riders complained about how dead they were after nasty tank slappers) makes the steering feel anything but nimble, and the 190 section rear tyre doesn’t help. It certainly doesn’t handle anything like as good as my Exup did, but for me this is half the fun! Where’s the challenge in riding a bike that just goes where you point it? If there’s no challenge, then there’s no sense of reward. My Honda CB1300 is eminently capable, but I don’t get off it feeling invigorated at all. With the TL, you have to hang your arse over the side of the bike and wrestle it around tight bends, and that is huge fun!

Engine
Here’s the main attraction. Never has Suzuki built a more exciting engine. This is a snarling beast with savage acceleration and ludicrous amounts of torque. Breathing through some aftermarket cans as my TL does, the noise is a fairly close approximation of the commencement of Armageddon. A good twist of throttle in any gear sees you heading for the horizon as though your life depended upon it. No other bike I have owned or ridden has the same instant response. There’s no hanging about for 4 cylinder wind up to peak power, just an immediate kick up the backside. In fact, despite the power figures of the 90 degree v-twin seeming rather modest in comparison to modern sports bikes, the reality is that it’s all about the way the power is delivered. The Suzuki TL delivers its power much like a girder swung in the face, and I’m not convinced there’s many bikes that could match it on the road.

Conclusion
There’s nothing like the feeling of imminent death to keep a ride exciting, but whilst the TL delivers that feeling in spades, you also know that it is a competent machine and providing you stick within sensible limits, you’ll be going home in one piece every time.

Basically, this is a flawed bike. It always was, and Suzuki knew that, but in building something with flaws they inadvertently bestowed something else upon the bike: soul and character. The TL feels like a living, breathing thing. It’s not perfect and it doesn’t always work the way it should. It’s a complete git to ride in slow moving traffic and it’s pretty damn uncomfortable, but all this can be forgiven it, because when you open that throttle and slingshot towards the vanishing point in a melee of noise and vibration, you will be smiling from ear to ear, feeling truly alive.

That’s why the TL1000S is the perfect bike to re-discover your love for motorcycling.

No Comments

Community Speedwatch - local heroes or misguided do-gooders?

Posted by David Hurst in Motorcycling, Motoring, Rants on September 20th, 2009

The sky is blue, the sun is shining and England’s fine green land beckons the motorist. What’s not to love? Leafy lanes, hedgerows thick with ripe brambles, a picturesque village complete with thatched pub and high-vis jacket clad residents wobbling a handheld radar gun in your general direction. Welcome to modern England, where it is apparently acceptable for one’s peers to stand in judgement of one’s actions without any crime having been committed or indeed any charges brought.

According to the Community Speedwatch website: “Community Speed Watch is a scheme to help people reduce speeding traffic though their community. The scheme enables volunteers to work within their community to raise awareness of the dangers of speeding and to help control the problem locally.

The use of the radar devices will not lead to prosecution - drivers will get a letter from the police instead - but will help to underline the community’s commitment to reducing speed.”

I’ve never found myself in receipt of any Community Speedwatch letters, though I think if I were to receive one I would be more likely to consign it immediately to the recycling box than allow it to have any impact on my driving. I am a safe driver thanks to skills that I have honed over the past 14 years and the more than a quarter of a million miles I’ve covered in all types of vehicles, in this country and abroad. No doubt such a stance will get right up the nose of the kind of busybody that feels it is their community duty to spy on others, but it is based on cold simple facts.

The aforementioned website has the title “Speed or Safety: Slow Down for Life”. This makes no sense whatsoever in the real world and is typical of Government propaganda and boolean logic that has no place in sensible policies. Bizarrely though, despite knowing that the Government and many of the members of Parliament are corrupt liars (as is frequently exposed in the media), some people insist on believing all the spun statistics they’re fed, rather than actually doing some research and reading some real impartial and proper statistical reports on excessive speed and road safety. But why let the facts get in the way of an opportunity for jumped up self-importance?

Here are 12 things off the top of my head that a radar gun manhandled by a volunteer cannot do:

  1. Identify a vehicle being driven at speeds inappropriate for the road, weather or traffic conditions, when said speeds are below a prescribed limit.
  2. Identify prolific speeders (who slow down for speed traps and then speed up again immediately after).
  3. Identify a stolen car.
  4. Identify a driver that is drunk.
  5. Identify a driver that is high on drugs.
  6. Identify a driver that does not have a license.
  7. Identify a driver that has no insurance.
  8. Identify a vehicle that has no current road fund license.
  9. Identify a vehicle that has no current MoT certificate.
  10. Identify a vehicle in an unfit condition for use on public roads.
  11. Identify a driver failing to concentrate on the road (e.g. using a mobile phone).
  12. Identify a vehicle that has been used in a crime.

Here is 1 thing that it can do, assuming that it has been correctly calibrated and that the individual using the radar gun has received sufficient training in its use:

  1. Determine the speed of an oncoming vehicle within a given error margin.

Frankly, the same can be said of any automated speed trap also - especially speed cameras. These kind of traps only seem to catch drivers who have a lapse in concentration. A prolific speeder would be most unlikely to be caught out by speed traps, particularly when most sat nav units feature speed camera and trap locations. Regular speeders will most likely have a Snooper installed as well.

Road deaths which were in decline until the introduction of the speed camera policy in the UK, are now on the increase. Any perceived safety benefits are usually negated by the Government’s spin doctors’ deliberate omission of standard statistical considerations such as annual deviation and regression to the mean.

Clearly, a toothless standard warning letter from the police is always going to be preferable to a fixed penalty notice issued by your local scamera partnership. Heck, we pay enough tax for our cars already, without having to donate to the Chief Constable’s pension plan every time we choose to watch the road instead of driving along with our eyes glued to our speedometers. Still, I object to the whole idea of people (usually retirees with too much time on their hands and probably less driving experience than half the people they point their radar at) waving their radar gun at me, and more unbelievably, their camcorders! I haven’t found anything on the Community Speedwatch that says a video camera should be used. This is nothing more than voyeurism.  These volunteers most certainly do not have a right to spy upon my family or I as we go about our private business.

The value these people bring to the community and the public in general is negligable. We need real, properly trained police offers to solve our road safety issues. Let’s not forget that only a tiny proportion of road accidents are actually attributed to excessive speed, despite what the pro-speed camera lobby would have you believe. Go and read the actual accident data people and WAKE UP!

If you want drivers to be more safe on the roads, make the driving test more difficult and introduce a scheme of regular re-testing to maintain standards. And, if you are someone with too much time on your hands, remember that there are so many great volunteer programmes that bring true benefit to communities - why not invest your time in a more worthy cause?

2 Comments

Yamaha FZ6 Fazer S2 dual headlight mod (have both headlights on)

Posted by David Hurst in Motorcycling on June 1st, 2009

One of the most annoying things about my FZ6 Fazer S2 is the way only the left side headlight comes on for dipped beam, despite there being a dual filament bulb in the right side headlight. I trawled around the forums and came across a chap in Canada who makes a wiring harness that fixes the problem. The forum in question is fz6-forum.com and the username of said genius is BD43. Now, if you drop him a line via the forum, and send him some ca$h via Paypal, he will send you a very professionally made harness in the post, with a sheet of instructions.

Basically, the Fazer already has the dual filament bulb and it has space on the back of the bulb connector for a wire to operate the low-beam filament. It also has the correct wire on running into one side of a connector in the frame and space on the opposite side of the connector for the wire from the bulb connector. So, basically, we are talking about plugging a wire into the bulb connector, running it around the fairing and through the frame, then connecting it to the factory installed low beam wire. Sounds simple enough.

Even though BD43’s instructions and photos are excellent, the connector is buried in the frame behind the battery, necessitating removal of battery, battery box and the air box in order to access it. The instructions I had didn’t really cover this step in detail, and it was pretty daunting to say the least. So, I thought I would explain the process here in the hope it might help others to overcome their fear of dismantling their pride and joy. Alas, there are no photos as I didn’t think to take any as I did it, but I think I can explain it clearly enough without. Just read carefully.

These instructions are for a 2008 model UK bike, but should be good for any FZ6 Fazer from 2006 on, and perhaps further back too.

Step 1 - Preparation
Prepare your tools. Having the right tools to do a job makes it sooooo much easier. You’ll need a couple of large-ish Philips Head screwdrivers, a pair of pliers, some hex keys / hex driver and a mini socket. I bought a tool kit from Halfords that had all this stuff in at reasonable quality for not very much money. Zip ties will be useful too.

Yamaha in their infinite wisdom provided no means of propping up the fuel tank, so you will need to figure out how to strap it up. I got a shoulder strap from a laptop bag and looped this around the pillion grab rail. I hooked a small bungee at each end on the holes at the front of the tank, and then connected the strap to the bungee with the hook clasp on the strap. Then you just adjust the strap to suit, remembering to protect the woefully thin paint finish with a rag of some sort. Don’t even start until you’ve figured out how to hold the tank up.

Step 2 - Removal of Cowling
On each side of the fairing, near the fuel tank, are two hex bolts. Remove all of these (4 total) taking care not to lose the plastic washers. Have a tray handy for all your bolts.

Once these bolts are removed, you can slide out the two black pieces of cowling on the top that wrap around the fuel tank. These slip straight out.

We also will want to remove the cowling around the clocks to make it easy to route our wire and access the bulb connector. There are four more hex bolts: one either side of the clocks, and one on each side near the top of the screen. These bolts are different to the others you removed, but keep them separate all the same.

You can now easily remove the cowling.

Step 3 - Lifting the Tank
Time to lift up the petrol tank! Remove the two hex bolts at the front of the fuel tank and carefully lift the tank up. It’s hinged at the back. There are two things to be careful of here: firstly, watch the lower edges of the tank where Yamaha’s woeful painting will have created a very thin layer of paint on a metal seam - if you’re not careful, the paint will flake off; secondly, don’t lift the tank up so far that you pull off the rubber fuel hoses at the back - that will be messy and potentially dangerous!

You will need to attach your strap now, and you may benefit from a second pair of hands. Make sure that whatever you use to hold up the tank is secure and won’t break.

Step 4 - Removing the Air Filter
Once you have lifted the tank, you will see a domed plastic box with foam padding on the top. This is the airbox, which contains the air filter and allows the engine to breathe. There are six black screws holding the top of the box on. Carefully unscrew these and put them safely on your tray.

Once the screws are removed, you can lift off the top of the air box. This needs a bit of pressure, but once you have it moving it will come off smoothly. The air filter should come away with the lid. Put this safely to one side.

Step 5 - Remove the Battery
The battery is in front of the air box. Let’s disconnect it.

Move the red positive terminal cover to one side and unscrew the terminal using a screw driver. Then do the same with the negative terminal on the other side. Take care with these screws not to let them fall down into the frame. Once removed, put them on the tray.

Now, you will see there are four bolts holding the battery cover and box in place. Remove the two frontmost bolts first - one on each side - using a socket driver. They are done up quite tightly. Again be careful not to lose these bolts in the frame. These two are different to the next two you will remove, so again, keep them separate and safe.

Now you can remove the back two bolts. As you stand facing the front of the bike, the right hand bolt will also be holding a bracket with a wire connector. You can leave these wires connected and the bracket will hang off them. Just remove the bolt. On the left hand side, if your bike is equipped with ABS, you will have a bracket holding the ABS fuse box.

Once these bolts are removed and safely stored, you can lift the top off of the battery box. Just push it out of the way - there’s no need to disconnect it as we can work around it.

Next, you can lift the battery out. This is probably heavier than you expect so use both hands to avoid dropping it.

Step 6 - Remove the Air Box
The two rear bolts on the battery box were also holding the air box in place, so this can now be removed. You will have to gently prise it up off the four metal engine air intakes. You won’t be able to move it far as there are hoses connected to it. These need to be removed.

On the right hand side of the box, is the first one. Squeeze the spring clip with your pliers and gently pull the air box backwards and slide the hose off the connector. On the back of the air box are three more hoses which need the same treatment, only this time, pull the box upwards instead of backwards. Lastly, remove the green sensor by gently pulling it out of the box.

Put the box somewhere safe and take care not to allow foreign objects to drop into the engine. There are butterfly valves which will be shut, stopping objects falling all the way down, but double check when you re-assemble the box.

Step 7 - Access the Connector
Now, pull the battery box up and back, and you will find a soft plastic sleeve covering a connector. Pull the sleeve back and un-clip the two halves of the connector. On the female side will be a green wire that has no corresponding pin on the male side. This is where you will connect one end of the harness. BD43’s harness has the correct connector to just clip straight in, but don’t do it yet.

Look at the front of the frame on the left hand side and you will see a hole with wires fed through. We want to run our wire through this hole.

Step 8 - Run the Wire
Pull the bulb connector off the right-hand headlight and snap up the plastic cover on the back. Insert the correct end of the harness into the available slot here. If you are making your own lead, make sure you solder on the correct metal connecting piece. Snap the cover back and plug the bulb connector back onto the headlight.

Now run the wire around the fairing to the left hand side. Use the existing clips on this side of the fairing to retain the wire, and use zip ties on the other side for a tidy install.

Feed the other end of the wire through the hole in the frame and click it into the correct slot on the male connector.

Reconnect the two halves of the connector and cover with the plastic sleeve again.

Step 9 - Re-connect it all!
Follow the steps in reverse. Push the battery box forward and down and slide the battery in. Reconnect the air box. This can be tricky. First of all, slide the rear hoses on part way (using your pliers on the spring clips - the hoses are lubricated so they will slide on easily), then slide the right hand hose on fully. Now line up the ports and press down firmly until the inner join between air box and engine is flush. This takes a bit of pressure from both sides. Finally, push the hoses on fully at the back and re-insert the green sensor.

Re-connect the earth (left side) terminal to the battery and then the red live connector. Put the lid back on and screw in the front two bolts. Then, taking care to re-install the brackets, screw in the back two bolts and check the battery box and air box are firmly seated and properly connected.

Slide the top of the air box back on, by lining up the air filter in the top with the grooves in the bottom. Screw in the six black screws and make sure it is shut tight.

Carefully remove your tank strap and drop the tank back down, then screw in the two hex bolts.

Now install the cowling around the clocks, using the four little hex bolts, making sure it is properly snapped into place.

Finally, slide the two side pieces of cowling back into place, and screw it all tight with the remaining four hex bolts, remembering the nylon washers.

THE JOB IS DONE!

Now you can turn on the engine and admire your twin headlights.

You may find that your right hand headlight is not properly levelled, and this may give some trouble come MOT time, but you can always slip the connector off the back of the headlight for the test, and re-install afterward.

Huge thanks go to fz6-forum.com and most of all to BD43. All comments, suggestions and modifications greatly appreciated - submit yours below.

5 Comments

TCX Synergy Motorcycle Boots

Posted by David Hurst in Motorcycling on May 28th, 2009

I bought myself a pair of TCX Synergy boots last year, and have been very pleased with them. They took a few hundred miles to wear in properly, but once they had, they have been very comfortable, warm and waterproof. I like the discreet styling that allows you to wear them anywhere without looking like you’ve just come off-piste.

Unfortunately, the stitching on the left boot started to come away. I was pretty annoyed about it, because I had stupidly discarded the store receipt, so the store refused to change them. I took a photo of the boot and emailed it to TCX in Italy. Within an hour, I had a response saying that my email had been forwarded on to the UK distributer. Sure enough, I got an email from them half an hour later asking for my address so they could send me a new pair. Just like that!

On Saturday a nice man from DHL turned up with my brand new boots.

We live in the Internet age, where companies can grow up overnight and become huge without actually having to invest any hard work in developing customer relationships (eBay, Google, Facebook, Paypal etc.), and as such seem to completely forget that it is the customers that make them what they are. Instead, customers of these companies are treated with utter contempt. So, how refreshing it is to find a company that cares about its customers and stands by its products no matter what.

It is because of this stellar customer service that I shall now only ever be wearing motorcycle boots with “TCX” printed on the label.

Other companies take note! This may have cost TCX a pair of boots, but it gains them positive publicity in the form of this blog post, and they have gained a loyal customer, who will likely be buying boots every 18 months or so from them.

So, if you are looking for a new pair of motorcycle boots, can I suggest you check out what’s on offer from TCX. Their customer service isn’t just brilliant, their products are good and they stand by the quality. The TCX Infinity boot is ranked best motorcycle boot by RiDE magazine too, so it’s not just me singing their praises.

No Comments

Loose chippings - the curse of the English summer

Posted by David Hurst in Motorcycling, Motoring, Personal, Rants on May 21st, 2009

In this country, you know that summer is here not when the sun comes out (which of course it doesn’t, much), but instead when you see tribes of road “workers” covering our roads with loose chippings. This method of road re-surfacing really does smack of “we can’t be arsed to do the job properly”. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to the local councils that covering the roads with loose chippings is for motorcyclists what driving on ice is for car drivers. Would the council liberally spray the roads with water in the middle of winter?

Last week, I was riding home from work along the old A303 from South Petherton to Ilminster, only to round a bend and come face to face with a freshly gravelled road. I stopped and turned around to take another route home. I’m not going to ride, or drive my car on this crap. Apart from the dangers to a motorcycle, I object to the damage caused by the flying chips. Even if you drive slowly and carefully, you can pretty much guarantee some twat coming the other way in a truck will not be, and I have no desire to see any of my vehicles pebble dashed by inconsiderate pricks. Even worse is the tar that sprays all over your tyres and paintwork and is next to impossible to clean off.

Only the British could come up with such a slap dash method of re-surfacing a road. In Europe, the motorist is faced with great ribbons of immaculate smooth tarmac leading them to their destination. Here, a bunch of lazy arse road work teams splodge a load of tar all over the place, lob some gravel on top, and give it a quick run over with the roller. This once over is never enough to properly finish the surface of the road, which is what is supposed to happen. Then the road should be swept clear of hazardous loose chippings. But no, instead they just can’t be bothered, leaving the rolling in to the passing vehicles and the sweeping to the elements.

I cannot believe in modern Britain that councils can get away with this, particularly given the outrageous amounts of tax we are forced to pay them.

If you have been forced to drive over such a surface, I strongly suggest that you immediately get out of your car and check for damage. Photograph the chips in your paintwork and then get a quote for repair. Send it to your local council who have third party insurance for such claims and therefore should foot the bill for the repairs. If we all start doing this, then perhaps they will see sense and lay some proper tarmac, or at least do the job properly.

Loose chippings not only damage paintwork, they damage tyres. And once stuck in your tyres, they will then damage your driveway or garage floor too. If you get chippings stuck in your motorcycle tyres they can result in a potentially fatal loss of grip. How come the Health & Safety risk assessment malarkey does not apply to road re-surfacing?

No Comments