Word of Warning

A quick word of warning for anyone who has fitted a Motobatt gel battery. Each battery has two multi-position terminals that you fit to suit the bike it is to be placed in, which is a great idea. However, it seems that the bolts supplied with the battery are prone to working their way loose and, as the terminals are themselves threaded you don’t have lock-nuts fitted.

I was coming home last week and the Tiger kept stuttering and losing power, although never actually stopping, and the speedo/rev-counter were going wild. I nursed the bike back home and did a quick online search fearing the worst, ie. something expensive had gone wrong. First site I checked suggested that I check the battery connections, another couple seemed to think that this was a common problem for anyone running this make of gel battery.

So, this morning I took the seat off and started the bike up. Seemed to be running fine until I jiggled the battery a bit and the engine cut out. Did the same thing again and once again it cut out. On closer inspection it turned out that bolts on both terminals were slightly loose. When I jiggled the leads, or when I hit a bump when out on the road, the battery was being disconnected, if only for a fraction of a second leading to the poor running and the wonky clocks.

I tightened everything up and it seemed to run just fine, so I went for a long run today and everything went smoothly.

The answer would seem to be longer bolts and a couple of lock-nuts. If you've got one fitted I'd give it a quick once over just to be on the safe side. Don’t say that you haven’t been warned.

The Road

(Via: scrambler)

Townie vs The World

The recent BMF Show was a bit of an eye-opener when it came to the adventure bike market. The folk who have actually ridden around the world on their own seem to have invariably done so on small, unsuitable bikes with the minimum of specialist equipment. A number of them were at the show with their Honda C90s and 250 trail bikes plugging their book/video/holiday company.

 

However, alongside the people who had actually done it were all the big supply companies, like Touratech, who insist that in order to do it ‘properly’ you have to do it on a big capacity bike, preferably a BMW 1200GS, and buy all of their hi-tech, and very expensive, equipment so that you don't die while riding to the shops and back.

And then there was this guy. He had been given the stand for nothing to try and help him raise some funds when someone else pulled out at the last minute, his bike was seriously un-cool and the equipment he had was just pitiful. However, he is planning on doing what a lot of people can only dream of. Read about his story, and follow his journey here. The best of luck to him.

Planeta

IZH Planeta Sport 350

Over The Sea to Ireland

Last weekend saw me make my annual jaunt to Northern Ireland for the MZ Riders Club rally at Garrison in Co. Fermanagh. This year I met up with Gareth & Terry at Troon and we caught the ferry and travelled together.

Terry & Gareth in Ballymoney

As neither had been to see the memorial garden for the Dunlop brothers, Joey and Robert, we detoured to Ballymoney where we had a bit of a wander around before heading on. 

Joey Dunlop memorial

There are some more photos of the gardens taken on a previous trip here if you're interested.

Belleek on the Irish border. Note the Euro/Sterling fuel pumps

Mick arriving on 'The Snail', a modern Jawa 250

Peter's Vincent Comet 500

Unlike in previous years, we'd booked a holiday villa for the weekend. Proper beds, no camping or shared bunkhouse accommodation on this trip, and the bikes were under cover in a barn onsite. It made for a nice relaxed change of pace and we're already in negotiations to book the place again for next year.

Lovely BMW K750

Sean's MZ TS250/1

Royal blue and rust

Three MZs, old & new

The rest of the weekend panned out much as expected, and in the evenings we all repaired to the local pub where guitars were produced and a few of the lads kept everyone entertained.

I’ll be going back to Ireland, the Republic this time, in August for more of the same.

Waiting on the ferry