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!

First Ride of the 2022 Season: Scratching That Itch

Imagine having an itch you can't scratch for 112 days.  Riding a motorcycle in Canada is an ongoing act of stoicism.

It was a long one this Canadian winter.  I'm usually able to get out for a cheeky February ride, but not this year in Ontario. Winter started later but when it came it clamped down on us like an angry professional wrestler and didn't offer any breaks from Polar Vortexes and snow.  My last ride was mid-November, it's now March.

T'was -22°C on Friday and tonight we've got freezing rain and snow into tomorrow, but it was a balmy 6 today so off I went.

The C14 started on the first touch and was bullet proof on a 30km ride up and down the Grand River:

The bisons were out at Black Powder.

It was mennonite o'clock as I shook the cobwebs out of the Connie.

The Tiger took a bit more convincing but that wasn't its fault, I'd had the whole fuel injection system out for a cleaning and it needed to get represussurized.  Once it had fuel it took off like a rocket!

Leaning into a corner, finally!

The zipper replacement on the jacket is working like a charm!

The roads were thick with sand and salt so after a cleanup everyone is back under a blanket waiting for the next break.  I'd be a year rounder if I still lived in Norfolk (UK).

On the upside, the 750cc cylinder head for the 71 Bonnie project came in so I've got other things to do!

On bike photos were taken with a Ricoh Theta camera attached to the windshield and auto-shooting every 8 seconds.  If you're curious, here's a bit on how to make awesome on-bike 360 photos.  Here's another published on Adventure Bike Rider Magazine in the UK:  How to capture 360-degree photos while riding your motorbike.

Looking forward to leaning into more corners in less than another 112 days!

Like finally being able to take a breath after four months of holding it...

Last ride:  Nov 30th, 2020.  First ride:  March 9th, 2021.  That's 99 days off two-wheels!  This is the face you make when you're sidelined for that long over an interminable COVID-winter:

Took the Fireblade down the still partially frozen Grand River a ways.  It's as fiery and bladey as it was before it hibernated for the winter.

When I got back I was frozen solid but wanted to see if the Tiger was operational:

It started well and ran more smoothly than usual suggesting that my fuel injector deep cleaning has made things work better.  The brakes still need some TLC though  The fronts are coming on but the rears are completely flat, so some more bleeding is in my future.

Pre-Flight Tests: winter motorcycle maintenance

Ignore the giant pile of snow outside!  It's actually supposed to go above zero this week.  One way or another I'll be on two wheels in the next five days!  Next week there's 30cms of snow coming, but there is an opening in the never-ending Canadian winter of COVID and I intend to take it!

With everything back in place, the Tiger came off the bike stand for the first time since December and the wheels didn't fall off, so that's a win.  I'd hoped to start it and test how everything went back together but the new battery is taking a while to charge.

Last summer I purchased a new battery for the Tiger but it didn't come for the better part of 3 months and I didn't want to activate it when the bike was about to be parked for four months, so it's been sitting in the front hall in the box.  I put the acid in it today and got it charging.

The acid installation is pretty straightforward.  They give you the liquid in a series of attached sealed plastic tubes and you simply 'inject' them into the top of the battery and let them drain over 20 minutes.  You then use the provided caps to seal the battery.

Tomorrow will be motor tests on both bikes and then a short ride with each (I hope) to shake down any issues.  The Tiger was down to its nuts and bolts this winter so I want to make sure everything is tight and together before I put any serious mileage on it.

The Honda has been cleaned and covered since its last ride in November, so it should be ready to go.  The battery's been on the trickle charger inside all winter.  One way or another I'll be out on a bike this week.  It feels like finally being able to take a breath after four months of holding it.

TIGER WINTER MAINTENANCE:

• New indicators that suit the bike better (tougher metal construction too)
• Chassis taken down to nuts and bolts for a complete service
• New HEL brake lines
• Flushed brakes
• New Michelins installed (myself!)
• Fuel Injectors cleaned
• Fork oil changed
• Cosmetic repairs

FIREBLADE WINTER MAINTENANCE:

• oil change
• everything cleaned
• deep carb cleaning (with disassembly)
• battery tending inside over the winter
• throw a blanket on it

Out On Me Mota!

The Connie at the covered bridge in West Montrose

Finally got out for an hour today.  Only about 5°C, but sunny.  With a sweater and my swish new jacket I was comfortable behind the Concours' fairing.  At speed on back roads you only get a bit of wind around the head.  Your hands are protected by the wing mirrors and the rest of you is behind fairing.  The Connie is comfy in the cold.

The bike feels very light once it's in motion, very flickable.  I'm coming off a Ninja 650r, so I'm riding 350 more ccs, two more cylinders and one hundred more pounds of bike, but the Concours feels quick.  It doesn't spring forward with a banshee's wail in the upper rev range in the startling way that the NInja did, but it's not nearly so peaky either.  It also has suspension more than up the task of dealing with Canadian roads.  Where the Ninja used to rattle my teeth over a pothole, the Connie manages to swallow the worst of it while still feeling very connected to the pavement.

The Concours pulls with urgency off idle, but that urgency becomes an avalanche of torque as the revs rise.  I gave it the mustard off one stop light and was shocked with how quickly 100km/h appeared.  Both bikes are quick, but I always assumed the bullet shaped, lighter, sportier Ninja would have been the quicker of the two, that stop light torque avalanche made me doubt that.  I ended up looking up the stats on both bikes.

The bikes are coming out of hibernation in Canada - like this
little jewel of a Honda with not a spot of rust on it.

The Ninja 650r does a 12.06s quarter mile at 108.79mph, the Connie edges it the quarter with a 12 flat at 109mph!

While almost identical, how they do it isn't.  The Ninja needs a lot of throttle and a glib clutch to hook it up in the top half of the rev range, and then judicious gear changes to keep you in the top four thousand RPM through many gears.  It's a thrilling, high tension rush up through the gears.  With the Concours you drop the clutch at about four thousand RPM and the motor just picks up the bike with no wallow and storms to the redline.  A single gear change gets you up to legal limits.  Where the Ninja had that intoxicating banshee wail, the Concours has a baritone bark that becomes a godlike roll of thunder.  I used to think the Concours inline four wasn't as happy a creature as the Ninja's parallel twin, but after hearing the big-four warm and in voice today I'm starting to think she just sings a different tune, but it's no less happy.

The ride was only about an hour, but I went from constantly comparing the experience to my dear, departed Ninja to wondering just what the Concours is capable of.  As a shakedown after a long winter of maintenance, it has begun the process of rebuilding my confidence in this new machine.