The Always On Motorcycle, or: to scramble or not to scramble, that is the question!

Time to put the bike away, right?  Not so much... 
it's 10°C and sunny out today!

I was all proud of myself for pushing into late November on two wheels this year.  When they finally laid down salt and sand after the first real snowfall I put the Concours away and stripped it down for winter maintenance.  I like having a twenty year old motorbike, but it isn't a hop on and go kind of machine, it needs TLC.

A bigger mistake was putting away the KLX even before that.  A newer machine with no need for heavy maintenance, it would have made sense to keep it handy just in case.  The past week I could have ridden in to work several times, but I'm finding myself bike-blocked by too early hibernation habits and a single purpose motorbike.

Riding into the frost line is a good time!
Next year I'm going to keep an iron horse
saddled just in case.

I coulda been riding in this!

I wouldn't be going on any long rides, just commuting, but that means 2-up with my son to drop him off at school.  I got the Concours because it does this job well while still letting me fly when I want to.  The KLX just manages the job of carrying me (it struggles to run at speed on the road with my 250lbs), but with storage and a second passenger?  I think it would be fairly miserable.  Perhaps that's what's stopping me from hauling it out of the shed again.

It's away too soon!  Too soon!

The Concours isn't going anywhere, but the KLX, while a good introduction to off road riding isn't the Swiss Army knife of a bike I was looking for.  Come spring I'm going to liquidate some biking assets and go looking for a more multi-functional alternative.

I think I'll clear $1000 on the XS1100 I'm currently fixing up, and I think I'll be able to get what I bought the KLX for ($2000).  Getting the $600 back I spent on the little Yamaha should also be possible.  With $3600 on hand I have some interesting choices when it comes to a Swiss-Army knife bike I can keep handy for multi-surface riding while also being able to ride 2 up while commuting.  The 650cc dual sport class of bikes has three contenders worth considering...

$1700  sitting in Kingston.  an '01 with 55K, well maintained,
KLRs are cheap and plentiful.  It'd also be more generally
usable than the KLX.

I'm thinking once again about a Kawasaki KLR650.  A tank of a bike.  Not fast, but fast enough, able to carry two up, and rugged.  If looked after it'd hammer along for a long time.  The KLR is the darling of the cheap adventure rider and has an awful lot of after market accessory clobber as a result.

$3400 over in Waterloo.  Top of the price range, but it's an  '05
in immaculate condition with 24k on it.  Nice photography too!

Honda makes an equivalent bike, the XR650.  It looks more off road focused, and it'd be my first Honda.  Other XR650s hover around $3000 with low kilometres.  They seem a bit more expensive than either the KLR or the Suzuki, but Hondas are famous for holding value like that.

An '05 with 33k out in Brockville going for $3200...

I looked at a DR600 last year, but shied away from such an old bike (this was an '89 in poor condition).  The DR600 evolved into the DR650 which is still in production today.



All three of these 650cc dualsports have enjoyed strangely long production runs with minimal changes.  That gives them a deep and well supported parts availability though.


I could creep into the adventure bike genre proper for about twice what I've got.  At under ten grand I'd consider the current crop of mid-sized adventure touring bikes, especially the ones with some off-road capability.  The Honda NC750x rolls out for just under $10k.  Suzuki's V-Strom 650 is five hundred bucks cheaper, and the Kawasaki Versys 650 is a grand under that, though it isn't much of an off-road machine.  The Honda CB500x rolls out for seven grand, making it an even cheaper option.  These bikes tend to put on the airs of an adventure bike without delivering any real off-road abilities.  Being new they'd all handle the job of an always-on/Swiss army knife bike better than the venerable Connie though.

Triumph's new Bonneville
Scrambler is a pretty thing.

Yep, we look good on that!

At just over ten grand I'm into Triumph Scrambler territory.  This would scratch both the classic itch as well as the multi-surface riding itch.  I'm not interested in MX riding.  My off roading would be dirt roads and light trail riding.  Staying away from the brightly coloured, long shocked dirt bikes would be OK with me, especially if I were on a classic looking Scrambler.

My kind of off-roading... very civilized!

The Scrambler genre has picked up as of late, with Ducati and BMW both entering the fray.  Yamaha is also doing it (though overseas), and Scramblers have long been a favourite of the custom crowd.  But unless I can make more space, a home made custom isn't the dependable always on machine I'm looking for... though that hasn't stopped me before.

Rather than just jumping into another dual sport that puts function before everything, maybe I should just start working toward the Scrambler I'd rather have.

However, the adventure bike rabbit hole goes all the way to the 1%er land.  On the way to Silly-Rich World you've got some multi-faceted mid-level adventure machines that are both stylish and capable.

With much disposable income I could go with the new Triumph Tiger 800cc XCx (about $16k).  With more cash on hand I'd be onto the new Triumph Tiger Explorer (north of $20k) or perhaps Honda's newly re-released Africa Twin (maybe $17k?).  In this territory you can get a stylish, long-distance able, off road capable machine.

Once you get into the high end adventure market things get silly quickly.  Suddenly you're thinking about Ducati Multistradas and superbike fast KTM Super Adventures.  Bikes with more computers than a moonshot.  Every time I read an article about these bikes they are described as fantastic, followed by a long list of all the things that broke on them but were covered under warranty.  I guess that's an adventure of a sort.

These kinds of bikes wander into more than just disposable income.  If I'm buying a bike like that I'd better be at my leisure.  Dropping upwards of $30k on a motorcycle that can handle dirt roads (but needs expensive TLC every time you do) should mean you've also got a stable of a dozen other bikes and lots of time to ride them.

Back in the real world I'm motivated to expand my riding season and have a machine on hand that can do more than one thing if the Connie is feeling her age.  Come spring I'll be considering options to scramble or dual sport, but it'll be scrambling unless I can afford an actual adventure bike.  If I'm going to look for a multi-purpose always on bike, I'd also like to get one that tickles an aesthetic itch.

Parts on Order Makes me Stop & Consider

Over the Easter long weekend I've rebuilt four carbs and put them back together again.  Unfortunately they won't go back on nicely thanks to two decade old rubber boots, so they're on order.  It's nice to have a forced day off.

If you're ever rebuilding carbs on a ZG1000, and the airbox on it is more than ten years old, it's a good idea to get some airbox ducts (that connect the airbox to the carbs).  Supple, soft rubber is important when connecting these up.  I tried for a frustrating couple of hours to get them to join properly.  This is especially difficult when the inner boots are rock hard, even when warmed up.  Steve suggests new carb boots to cut down on swearing, he ain't kidding:

Sixty bucks and should be here by
Wednesday.

I contacted my local dealer and they can have boots here by Wednesday.  They're charging less than they are going for on ebay or online retailers.  Score one for my local.  Sixty bucks means less swearing and an easy install.  Wayne, the Yoda-like parts guy at Two Wheel, says you're lucky to get two decades out of a set as they harden over time and eventually split.

With the weather going sideways again, there won't be much of a chance to ride any time soon.  Hopefully this means I can get this odyssey finished and the bike back on the road by the time the weather clears again.

The airbox ducts/boots that need replacing - the old ones are not only beaten up, but they've gone hard.
Even putting heat on them doesn't soften them up.  Note the flat spots up by the airbox that show you which
way to turn the boots.

Heating up the airbox boots - but they're too old!

A big empty where the airbox and carbs usually go

This ordeal has me rethinking things.  My wife suggested I unload everything except the old XS1100 and buy a regular motorbike that is more dependable.  When I started riding I got a dependable bike that just needed some cosmetic work.  It was so dependable it was tedious.  Since then I've gone back in time and enjoyed the world of carburetion and two decade old rubber, perhaps a bit more than I wanted to.

I genuinely enjoy mechanics, but never when there is a time demand on it.  I've already missed three riding opportunities because of the stuttering Concours, and this irks me.  The idea of wiping the slate clean and moving forward appeals.  I started riding late and moving through a number of bikes seems like a way to catch up on my lack of experience.  Maybe it is time to put sentiment down and move on.  I didn't start riding to watch the few lovely days we have in a too-short riding season pass me by.

A Tiger?  In my garage?

The little Yamaha and the KLX are gone now, netting me about $3000.  As it happens, a 2003 Triumph Tiger is available just over an hour away for about that much.  Come the end of the week I might be able to say, "a tiger?  In my garage?  Must have escaped from a zoo!"

Rivers to Roads

Yesterday I took the KLX out for a stretch, today the Concours.  I'm trying to get her up over thirty thousand miles this season.  Thanks to today's run I'm a hundred miles closer.

I first aimed at Marsville to have another look at the XS1100, this time in daylight.  It's $500, the motor isn't seized (!), and it's seen better days.  I left a message on the number attached to it, we'll see what comes back.

That it's covered in cobwebs and has spent the last who knows how long in the back of a barn somewhere only makes me want to take it home and take it apart more.  It's a good candidate for a tear down - especially if I can get the price down.











After looking at ye old Yamaha, I struck north, aiming for Horning's Mills and River Road.  Nothing works out the kinks like bending the big Kawi down some winding roads.  It was busy up there, with lots of bikes looking for the twisties.  The weather was hot (in the thirties Celsius) and sunny.

River Road gives you some very un-Southern Ontario like bends, it was nice to give the edges of my tires some work.  With all the traffic on the road I had to keep timing my corners so I wouldn't run into nice old couple in minivans out for a lovely drive.  A guy coming the other way on an R1 showed how it's done, executing a smooth, quick pass to get around the moving chicanes.

Just when you get past the twistier bits you come across the Terra Nova Public House, a tavern in the old style, with raftered ceilings and great local beers on tap.  After a break in the shade and a cool drink, I took the Concours back down River Road the other way and headed back via Grand Valley and Belwood, to Elora.

Three hours in the baking sun had me a little sun-stunned by the end of it, but what a lovely day for a ride.  The memory will keep me warm in the coming darkness!

Busy Winter Garage & Kawasaki Industrial Art

I never intended to become hooked on Kawasakis.  The motorcycle fixation of my younger self was always Hondas, but when I finally got into motorcycling it was Kawasakis that kept appearing in the right place at the right time, and they've generally been good to me.  To date I've owned three Kawasakis, two Yamahas and a Triumph; not a Honda in sight.

After selling the Yamaha XS1100 custom project bike last summer I decided to double down on the wounded Concours which, in spite of a lot of work and money spent, wasn't sellable.  When I can ride I ride but when the snow flies I tend to get busy in the garage, and this winter is no different.

The winter garage is a busy garage.  The Tiger's having a rest while I work on the Concours custom.  Before the spring season begins the Tiger'll have new fork oil, spark plugs and a coolant flush.

The Concours is in an unprecedented state of undress.  With the rear end removed and the plastics off it looks like a completely different machine.  Yesterday I removed the coolant reservoir located under the oil cooler behind the front wheel.  It's going to get relocated to the back of the battery box so it's out of the way of rocks being kicked up from the road.  There are a lot of after market options for a coolant reservoir, so finding an alternative that fits well in the new location shouldn't be hard.

The 7 inch round headlight with built in LED indicators showed up from Amazon but I'm still waiting on the tail light.  I'd initially thought of doing some kind of front fairing but now I'm going bare bones with only metal framing to mount the light and minimal instruments.  

I purchased some stainless steel framing and I've been cutting it into muffler mounts and the rear light fairing bracket.  That rear fairing piece is going to be as minimal as possible as well.  Perhaps even a box for the rear light in bare frame.  Visible girder frame pieces are going to become a part of what this will look like when it's finished.

I took the instrument cluster apart to see if any of it was salvageable (it wasn't), but the insides look like something out of the DaVinci Code!

Some 90° brackets on the upper fork clamps has me ready to try some headlight mounting ideas.

Fireblade Fountains

I finally got the carbs sorted on the Fireblade project (sense of achievement!) and when I fired it up they felt very responsive... but then a giant geyser of oily water spewed out of the valve cover exhaust pipe and hit the ceiling (!).  Never seen that before.

Rather than repeat the fountain, I put a pipe on it, ran it into a container and videoed the weirdness...

(it's a 360 video, you can move the mouse to look around - like at the oily water dripping off the ceiling)

So the fountain happened both times I ran it, and the stuff that came out looked like watery oil rather than oil with some water in it.  Next step:  drain the oil...

... which looks like water.  That's not good, and it's something I've never seen before.  Why on earth would anyone ever put water or coolant in an engine like that?

I've done head gaskets on cars before and I'm pretty familiar with the consequences of oil mixing with coolant.  It usually goes both ways (oil gets in the coolant, coolant gets in the oil, but the coolant looks brand new and the level is good.  When running there is no bubbling in the coolant overflow (usually a running engine will force gas and oil back into the coolant reservoir if there is a blown head gasket).  As amazing as this sounds, I think the idiot who owned this before me filled the engine with coolant instead of oil, but I really can't understand why.  It's either gross incompetence or he sold me a bike with a known blown engine, which is a pretty shitty thing to do.  Incompetent or nasty, not a great set of choices there.

Next up is actually putting oil in the engine and running it again.  I've got some used stuff out of the Tiger which is the right weight.  If it works, then the guy who owned this thing before me might be the dumbest human in history.  Once I've run the old synthetic out of the Tiger and confirmed everything works, I'll drain it and put some new stuff in.

My first sports bike has been a bit more baffling than the XS1100 (air cooled, nothing weird there other than the ownership) and the Concours sports tourer which had been through hell, but was owned by a guy who knew what he was doing.

The muppet who owned this bike before me will have me going top to bottom on it before I get it out on the road - I can't trust anything that was done to it.

Follow up:  the engine was full of gasoline because the petcock that portions fuel out of the gas tank had failed, causing the gasoline to run into the carbs, fill up the bowls and then dribble down the intake manifold into the cylinders, where it ran down into the engine.  This is evidently not uncommon on motorcycles because of the way they carry their fuel above the engine.  A new petcock, a carb rebuild and a couple of engine flushes and the 'Blade rides again.  Point to remember: check for leaking petcocks on older bikes!

Affidavits & Broken Ownerships

The XS1100 is finally mine.  After buying it off a clueless millennial who had managed to lose all useful paperwork associated with the bike, I've been able to re-establish ownership.  Here's how you do it:

In order to reconnect continuity of ownership you need to get a signed affidavit from a legal notary.  Your local town government will have a notary on hand that can sign, stamp and date your declaration of ownership (they'll offer this as a service).  I stopped in at the Centre Wellington Town Offices in Elora and explained the situation (clueless kid was previous owner, etc).  I showed them the ownership history the MTO had printed out for me (all six pages of it!), and the letter of sale from the previous owner.  I also said I'd made repeated attempts to find the last legal owner (I suspect he's deceased).

The county clerk (who is a notary) signed, dated and stamped the affidavit I provided (that's it above), and I took it back to the MTO office the next day.  In just a couple of minutes I paid the taxes on the sale price and the bike was attached to my name and a new ownership was printed out.  They keep all the relevant paperwork, including the affidavit.

It's a bit of a pain in the neck to reestablish ownership, but it's not particularly expensive (twenty bucks to get it signed) and just takes a bit of leg work by the new owner.  I'd argue a hundred bucks off the price for your time and costs to get the bike sorted - more if the previous owner is a tool (which they probably are if they lost all their paperwork).

Mechanical Sympathy

I've always had an over abundance of mechanical sympathy.  That sympathy often spills over into full on empathy for machines.  While I derive a great deal of joy from interacting with machines, the satisfaction I get out of fixing them is amplified by this natural inclination.

My first bike was a mechanically bullet proof 2007 Kawasaki Ninja 650r.  It had been dropped and scuffed, but it didn't need open heart surgery.  I was happy to clean it up and send it on its way, and while I got attached to it, it never felt like a two way relationship.

The Concours I have now is a whole new level of commitment.  Not only did I find it sitting in a field, buried in grass, but it took me a winter of rebuilding to get it on the road again.  In my first season riding it I've put on more miles than I ever did on the Ninja (it's a much more comfortable long distance tool).

Call me nostalgic (or perverse), but getting the four carburetors on the Concours running smoothly was very satisfying.  Even though I teach computer tech, I still find the clockwork nature of mechanical parts to have a grace that digital technology is lacking.  Listening to the Connie fire up at the touch of the starter on a cold morning and clear its throat is much more satisfying than listening to the clinical hum of a fuel injector making everything perfect.

I was out on the Concours again today - if the weather's dry I'm out on it.  I'm always astonished at how responsive such a heavy machine can feel.  It fits me well, needed me to save it, and then responded to that saving with thousands of miles of riding.  There may come a time when the Connie is more trouble than it's worth, but at the moment it's what I was looking for all along.

It's getting kind of crowded in there...

The Yamaha XS1100 sitting in the back of the garage will be my first go at a restoration, but as an owned bike it isn't really what I'm looking for.  It'll be my first go at a bike purchased for restoration rather than riding.  I'm curious to see how that process goes.




In the meantime, and completely off topic, here is some nice motorbike art I saw at Blue Mountain last weekend:

Vehicle Branding

I sold the Yamaha XS1100 yesterday.  With the Concours on life support I haven't had the wrenching time to work on the Yam, so I put it up for sale to make room in an otherwise overcrowded garage full of old Japanese bikes that aren't running.

The Mid-Night Edition Yamaha came to me in rough shape both physically and legally.  With only a hand written note I had to figure out how to get continuity of ownership restored.  It was a relatively simple process, but you need to be lucky (I was) and figure out how to get an affidavit worked out (I did).

Where I got lucky was that the Yamaha didn't have a brand on it.  Had it been a write off at any point previously (and it had a long and storied eleven page history - so it was entirely possible), I'd have been up a creek.  That legal ownership near miss got me thinking about more complex ownership issues, especially when I saw this Versys pop up on Kijiji with a sad history:

A lost Versys

A bit of research has shown that this bike's 'irreparable Ontario title' means it'll never ride on the road again, it can only be used for parts.  For a bike that appears to have relatively minor damage, this seems a shame.  Others have had frustrating experiences with insurance companies writing off bikes rather than letting them buy them back and repair them (people get emotionally attached to bikes).  It's a matter of mathematics for the insurance company though.  A bike may be repairable, but the cost of those repairs outweigh the value of the bike, so it's deemed irreparable.



 So what would you do with this otherwise lovely Versys?  You would need to pick up another Versys frame with a working title (no damage, no history of crashes) and then graft the better parts from this Versys (not the front wheel) to that valid frame.  You'd have a low mileage bike with relatively new parts, but it would cost you two bikes and a lot of time and talent to make it happen.  I've never seen even an older Versys for sale for any less than twenty-five hundred bucks, so you're looking at $5000 plus a lot of work to have a modern, road-worthy Versys 650.

If you had a high mileage, older Versys sitting in the garage, it might make sense, but things change over time (especially mounting brackets and other niggly bits), so you might find that your expensive donor parts don't actually fit.  No matter how you frame it (!), it's more trouble than it's worth.

If this were a limited edition or classic bike, it might make a good parts bike, but a relatively anonymous, recent Japanese bike?  You can buy an immaculate, year older bike with half the kilometres and no crashes for less than five grand.

The moral of all this?  I've found two.  Firstly, you're taking a big risk buying a bike without the ownership on hand.  I got lucky with the Yamaha, but I could have as easily gone in and found that it was scraped and what I'd bought could never legally ride on the road again.  Secondly, if you see a bike with anything other than a working title in Ontario, stay away unless you're looking for a parts bike, in which case price it accordingly.


Links & Information on Motorcycle Branding in Ontario
(and generally in North America)

https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/020376/v1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_title_branding
http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/vehicles/vehicle-branding-program.shtml
http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/vehicles/vehicle-branding-program-faq.shtml
http://www.gtamotorcycle.com/vbforum/archive/index.php/t-141734.html?s=73a91a4860714e30a183b20b315ff3d5
"In Ontario there is no "rebuilt" for motorcycles. They are either clear title, or scrap. If it's ever been 'branded', then it can never be licensed for the road. You need to have a clean, unbranded frame in order to license a motorcycle for on-road use."

http://ontariorodders.activeboard.com/t52382265/salvage-title/
http://www.kijiji.ca/b-motorcycle-parts-accessories/gta-greater-toronto-area/frames-with-titles/k0c309l1700272
http://www.gtamotorcycle.com/vbforum/archive/index.php/t-177188.html
http://www.gtamotorcycle.com/archives/archive/index.php/t-54857.html
http://www.gtamotorcycle.com/archives/archive/index.php/t-131215.html

Q9: Can I legally drive an "Irreparable" or "Salvage" vehicle on Ontario roads?

No. Vehicles branded as "Irreparable" can never be driven on Ontario roads. They can only be used for parts or scrap.

Vehicles branded as "Salvage" can't be driven on the road, but they can be towed for the purposes of repair or receiving a Safety Standards Certificate. If you want to drive a "Salvage" vehicle, it must be upgraded to "Rebuilt." This can only be done if it has passed a structural inspection and safety inspection to be registered for on-road use.

Q10: How can I change the brand on my vehicle from "Salvage" to "Rebuilt"?

To make sure your vehicle meets minimum safety standards, it must pass an inspection and be issued a Structural Inspection Certificate (SIC). You must submit the SIC and registration permit to a Ministry of Transportation licensing office. Once accepted and approved, the "Salvage" brand will be changed to "Rebuilt."

Once the "Rebuilt" brand is placed on the vehicle registration file, you must obtain a Safety Standards Certificate from any Motor Vehicle Inspection Station so the vehicle can be declared "fit." The vehicle may then be plated and legally operated (once it has been provided with a Drive Clean certificate, if required).