300kms in Two Days

It was a long winter this year, made particularly difficult by grinding through a second year of COVID19.  I find a great deal of satisfaction in spannering my own bikes, but that isn't an end in itself for me, riding is.  With a few days off work and the weather finally breaking, I got over 300kms while I could.  Both the nineteen year old Triumph Tiger and the twelve year old Kawasaki GTR1400 worked like a charm.

Guelph Lake is still frozen...

All photos taken with a Ricoh Theta 360 camera mounted on a flexible tripod and set to shoot automatically every 10 seconds.  I select the good'uns and sort them out using the Ricoh 360 camera software and Adobe Photoshop.  If you want a how-to, here's one:  https://www.adventurebikerider.com/how-to-capture-360-photos-while-riding-a-motorbike/  Here're others!

That many-things-my-eyes-have-seen face!

Tiger Testing After A Winter of Deep Maintenance

Road testing the Tiger on a cold (-3°C) day after a winter of deep maintenance.

The Good Stuff:

• the swingarm maintenance has transformed the rear suspension!  Unseized bearings mean the back end is supple and responsive now
• the front forks and steering feel brand new thanks to fork servicing and pulling the steering apart and re-greasing everything
• the new tires are spectacular! The old Michelins still looked ok but they were badly squared off and made the bike hesitant to turn - it drops into turns like a gymnast now!
• the deep cleaning on the fuel injection system has worked a charm.  It idles well and the fueling is excellent.
• the cosmetic touch-ups make the bike look much younger than it's 18 years and over 80k kms
• the new indicators suit the bike way better and work perfectly
• new horn is loud and works well

The Bad Stuff:

• I've bled the front brakes and they're tight now, but after repeatedly bleeding the rears they're still not what they were, though they do now produce some stopping power.  I need to check for any leaks and bleed again.
• The speedo doesn't show speed!  This has never been a problem before.  I'm going to check the connection to the gauge because I was knocking it around and might have knocked it loose
• speedo step two will be to raise the front end, remove the front tire and check how I installed the speedo unit - it only goes on one way so I'm not sure how that could be wrong but if the gauge check doesn't do anything that's the next step
• The engine light is on!  Though the engine feels fantastic, sounds great and the fuel injection which was problematic last year idles steady and fuels very smoothly.  The simple computer in the bike sometimes needs a few runnings to clear an error after a long time unpowered (like the 99 day Canadian winter break we had this long, cold, COVID-winter)
• engine light step two if it doesn't go off by itself is to connect the TuneBoy engine management system I've got and see what errors it's throwing up.

The bike goes and works better than it did in many regards before the winter-maintenance.  A couple of details and it seems ready to take on another short Canadian riding season.  I'm still hoping to hit 100k the year the bike turns 20 years old (2023).

Photos are all taken with a Ricoh ThetaV 360 camera wrapped around the wing mirror with a flexible tripod.  The camera is set to take a photo every four seconds then I just go for a ride and see what I caught when I get back.  Photos were edited in the Ricoh software and then touched up in Adobe Lightroom.

2019's First Ride

I've been able to steal a ride from winter the past couple of years, but not this one.  It's been dangerously cold and snowy throughout.  I was finally able to steal one at the end of March Break for half an hour up and down next to the Grand River (which was full of ice chunks and very swollen).

The Tiger was resplendent with its new engine guard and fired up at the touch of the button after its long winter hibernation.  The last time it was out was mid-November, so this year was actually a 4+ month hibernation.  Newly lubed cables and well sorted details meant it felt smooth and responsive after so long in the garage.  Do I ever miss the power to weight ratio of a bike when I can't ride.  Slicing through air barely above freezing was bracing, and as I crossed to the north side of the river I came upon a bison farm.

Any exposed skin would have been feeling double digit frostbite, and even mummified it cut like a knife.  I didn't complete my usual loop over the covered bridge, but even half an hour out on two wheels cleared away a lot of cobwebs.

It's still snowing as much as it is anything else, but temperatures are climbing over zero with more regularity.  With any luck rides will soon become commonplace.

#winterwintergoaway

360° on-bike photos are back!

Frostbite has never made me so happy - the look on my face after the first ride of the year, no matter what the temperature.

Crazy like a fox!

Spring riding in Canada... next to a six foot tall snowbank.

Wait a minute, those aren't cows!

I turned around and went back for some closer shots.   Bisons!  In Ontario!