For those who have been paying attention, you may remember that I had some issues with the alarm on my Triumph while trying to catch the ferry back from Zeebrugge recently. If not, then the post is here. And this was by no means the first time that the alarm had caused me grief.
From everything that I’ve read about them, the only folk who think a bike alarm is a good idea are those who are making and selling them and your insurance company. I’ve lost count of how many forums I’ve been on, for all manner and make of of bikes, all recommending that you take the bloody thing off and throw it away. So that’s what I decided to do.
the cause of so much grief
As electrics are not my bag I had asked Norman and Terry to came over and give me a hand. Between the three of us, and using some useful instructions we found on the interweb here, we removed the alarm and sorted out the remaining wiring.
Actually, because the alarm was fitted to a Triumph, removal was surprisingly straightforward and nowhere as difficult as we had imagined. Triumph have designed their wiring looms so that a Datatool alarm plugs directly in via a connector block. Remove the block, re-connect a couple of wires and you're back in business. So, no hacking into the wiring loom, thank goodness.
This would seem to sum up the frustration of most people who have had one of these things fitted to their bikes.
This week’s bike is a 1974 350cc two-stroke triple from French manufacturer Motobecane / Motoconfort. The bikes were apparently badged as both marques, although there appears to only have been limited numbers produced due to the high purchase price when new.
The two yellow machines above were spotted at Coupes Moto Legende last month. The nearest one is a Motobecane, the other a Motoconfort.
There's a brief history of the manufacturer on wiki, and some more details about this particular machine here.
This
looks like it might be a good event. I was handed a flyer at this year’s Coupes
Moto Legende. See their websitefor some info and lots of pictures from last
year.
I
got my annual postcard from the Isle of Man TT races this morning. My mate Dave
is a big race fan and goes to all the major road racing events on the Island
as well as those in Ireland like the Northwest 200, and he never forgets to
send me a postcard telling me how much fun he's having.
However,
it sounds like this year wasn't as much fun as it usually was.
