Topic: 23 Rides in 2023, Frank's New Years resolution that we can all enjoy.

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, when I see an old British bike without an oil pan underneath it, I assume that it’s empty…..

[budman]

Ride #15, 74 miles.

Beautiful day with a high temp of 77.  A big storm blew through yesterday evening.  The worst thunder soaker I've experienced since moving to the Hill Country.  Been a busy week of work so it was great to get out for a couple of hours.  No new roads this time out.  The ground has been really dry so it soaked up all the rain.  The creeks were all muddy though.  Most of them are usually crystal clear.  On my way back, just a few miles from home I came across this bunch having an afternoon snack, so I pulled over for a few photos.  I hadn't seen them before.

Bluebonnet season looks like it's coming to an end.  I saw only a few small patches.  Still lots of other wildflowers all over the place.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a repeat.  I'm going to try to get out again for another ride and maybe go find some tacos somewhere.  Supposed to rain frequently next week and I may be heading out of town for a few days.  Gotta get it while the gettin' is good.

[PeWe]

#3:rd documented ride 2023
355 km long ride today in perfect weather, over 21C (70F) !
Bike runs really well, nothing to adjust.
Started home in Västerås, rode smaller windling roads over Skultuna, Ramnäs to  Skinnskatteberg and further

The last part before Skinnskatteberg very straight so perfect for plug check, cyl 1,4.
6000-7000rpm on 5th gear for at least 10 km.

Killed engine and stopped at a parking beside the road.
Plugs looked good, coffee/greyish.
 (I tested 1 step smaller main jets yesterday, too lean. High frequency pinging from 7000 rpm and unexpected hesitations when passing cars.)
 I'm happy that my hearing is good in the higher frequencies.

Plug stop with nice surroundings.






Next stop at Malingsbo. Known for nature, camping and trout lakes.




I had thoughts about swimming. I'm sure water will be very refreshing even in the warmest part of summer!!



Continued on windling roads thru a beautiful landscape to Söderbärke.

From here more straight roads over Smedjebacken to Ludvika where I visited a Honda bike shop.  Looked at some bikes.


Back to Smedjebacken where I had a burger outdoors. Sunshine and blue skies,  much better than a grey dark and cold era we call winter, 5 months of total waste except for garage time and work, making money.


From Smedjebacken windling roads to Hedemora and further to Norberg and Avesta where I stopped at Shell for refueling. 249 km done.

Continued home the longer way over windling country roads partly thru dense forests, mostly spruce. Adult versions of X-mas trees
106 km more to home over my usual riding roads.

[budman]

#3:rd documented ride 2023

Looks like a great ride.  Beautiful lake.  The water looks like glass.

[RAFster122s]

Are undocumented rides illegal?
Undocumented aliens are illegal aliens, so didn't know if rides would be too?

Nursing a migraine, so no ride for me today. They say it is earth day...

[Terry in Australia]

Great pics Per, and a good long ride. Well yesterday it was quite cool and overcast, but promised to be a nice Autumn day. Spotty had told me that there was a British Bike rally that he was going to on Friday, and then all the bikes were heading to a little town called Maldon on Saturday, so I thought I'd ride up for a look. Maldon is around 90 miles from my storage container where I park my running bikes, I could have ridden straight up the freeway but that's no fun, so I took the "Back way" thru Wallan, Romsey, Woodend, then a short blip up the freeway to the turn off thru Castlemaine (the hot rod capital of Oz, according to the sign...) and just before the turnoff to Wallan, we all slowed right down as there was an old English bike being loaded on to a tow truck. Must have been a crash as there were police and ambulances in attendance. The bike was lying down on the truck, I hope it wasn't winched up on it's side as well?

Anyway, I continued on the 10 mile goat track that is the road between Castlemaine and Maldon, it was a good test for my recently re-tuned back as I bounced over the bumps, it's weird, there were no potholes or divots created by overloaded semi trailers, it's almost as if they just poured 10 miles of tar over a lumpy dirt road. Anyway, I got to Maldon around 12 and immediately found Spotty, his camo V Max sticks out like a dog's proverbials. He's the rather large gentleman in this pic.

Rocket iii Saturday 22 April 2023 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I didn't hang around long, but saw some great bikes, some CB750's, some Z1's, lots of Harleys or course, and some interesting British bikes. I quite like this special, I hope my little BSA C11 looks like this when I get around to it.

Rocket iii Saturday 22 April 2023 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I took off again, and on the way back stopped at the ruins of an old bluestone school. I'd passed the turnoff to the ruins many times over the years and wondered what it was all about, but was a bit disappoined yesterday, wasn't much to look at.

Rocket iii Saturday 22 April 2023 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Of course, I took the mandatory pic of the Triumph.

Rocket iii Saturday 22 April 2023 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I got back on the freeway and realised that some of the 120 MPH blasts had reduced my fuel consumption somewhat, so rode off the freeway to a gas station and filled up. Actually, after 220 Km (137 miles) it took only 14 litres (3.8 gallons) so 36 MPG wasn't that bad, really. I stopped long enough to scoff down a couple of dim sims and an iced coffee milk, before I took off again. By now my back was really sore (not so much down low where I'd had the work done, but my mid and upper back was aching) and I was keen to get home and bake my loaf of sourdough that I'd been working on all week with a sourdough starter that I'd started last weekend. I stayed off the freeway as much as I could for the ride back, and returned via Carlsruhe, Lancefield, Romsey, and Wallan. All up for ride #15 I did 198 miles, which was a little further than I've ridden for awhile. I parked the bike and drove home, and baked my bread. Apart from the parchment paper sticking to it, it was a magnificent loaf, and I'm enjoying a slice as I type this.

Rocket iii Saturday 22 April 2023 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr     

[RAFster122s]

Your parchment paper is apparently only coated on one side...look for the glossy side and it is the side for contact with your baked goods...

[PeWe]

Nice and interesting ride Terry.
I like to see how it look like in other countries. The very common normal is very special for others living elsewhere.

Old historical objects, bikes as well as the house ruin.
Terry,  you can be part of the objects for display
Old typical biker from the 70's that never quit, just going on with bikes!  

The photo of your Triumph look very inviting. Sit on a comfortable fast going sofa with a thrilling hip joint pain torque.

Yes, I prefer to add at least one story telling photo from each ride. Especially on this thread.
I skipped to upload the plug photos
I have the best photos in my mind, could not stop everywhere or take photos zooming in interesting people

More....
You can bake too Terry.
Look good, not a smoker
Recipe?

Time to make my own bread after price rallye. I have money, just the principle. If they increase prices up by 30-50%, forget to sell.

Bread baking thread?
About milage.
The K6 took only 5.4L/100km (43.16 MPG) . Mostly 80-100kmh.
A few 140-160kmh + a +180kmh for stability check
If riding as the road signs say 70-100, mostly 70-80kmh, hopefully 5.0L/100km (47MPG).
My almost stock K2 can hardly do better than 40MPG.

I'll see if I manage to make a >200km ride follow the signs
Can be next task and reason for a ride, follow the signs for max milage instead of max acceleration and speed.

[Terry in Australia]

Your parchment paper is apparently only coated on one side...look for the glossy side and it is the side for contact with your baked goods...

No, it's very common with proper sourdough David, it's a very wet dough, so they recommend spraying cooking spray on the parchment paper, or even use a silicone mat. I'm tempted not to use either, just oil my dutch oven and pray it doesn't stick.

[RAFster122s]

Glad the loaf turned out well. Haven’t enjoyed a good sourdough in a long time.
Glad you enjoy bread making…a fattening thing if you eat it too often. Granted you aren’t going to be eating a ton of it at once.  Nothing like warm buttered bread fresh from oven, cooled enough to not burn but still easily melting the butter. Some honey or a good jam or some strawberries that have had time for some sugar to meld with them…

It was a good ride to the British show for you and Spotty.
Glad the low back work has done its job. Now it is much improved you body will tell you of other areas that couldn’t be heard over the low back being so intense. Normal for it to do that. That’s why auto accident injuries don’t all make themselves know initially, might take a couple days before the initial injuries to calm so you can know full list of what got injured.

David
David

[Terry in Australia]

Nice and interesting ride Terry.
I like to see how it look like in other countries. The very common normal is very special for others living elsewhere.

Old historical objects, bikes as well as the house ruin.
Terry,  you can be part of the objects for display
Old typical biker from the 70's that never quit, just going on with bikes!  

The photo of your Triumph look very inviting. Sit on a comfortable fast going sofa with a thrilling hip joint pain torque.

Yes, I prefer to add at least one story telling photo from each ride. Especially on this thread.
I skipped to upload the plug photos
I have the best photos in my mind, could not stop everywhere or take photos zooming in interesting people

More....
You can bake too Terry.
Look good, not a smoker
Recipe?

Time to make my own bread after price rallye. I have money, just the principle. If they increase prices up by 30-50%, forget to sell.

Bread baking thread?
About milage.
The K6 took only 5.4L/100km (43.16 MPG) . Mostly 80-100kmh.
A few 140-160kmh + a +180kmh for stability check
If riding as the road signs say 70-100, mostly 70-80kmh, hopefully 5.0L/100km (47MPG).
My almost stock K2 can hardly do better than 40MPG.

I'll see if I manage to make a >200km ride follow the signs
Can be next task and reason for a ride, follow the signs for max milage instead of max acceleration and speed.

Thanks Per, the Rocket III is my comfiest bike, so was a no brainer to ride a couple hundred miles to a British bike show. Yep, baking bread is my new favourite thing, as well as crumpets. The sourdough loaf is magnificent, but is also a pain in the butt to make. You need to start with a sourdough starter, basically you mix flour and water in a jar and put a lid on it. Every day you add a little more flour and a little more water and the natural yeasts should start fermentation and make it bubble up (but if it doesn't, you can add a little yeast to kick it along) and after a week, you add the starter to more flour and more water, a little salt, and a little oil, to make a "shaggy" wet dough. It'll be too wet and sticky to knead like normal bread dough, so you need to pull and stretch it, every hour on the hour, for say, 6 hours.

Then you pull it out of the bowl, stretch and shape it into a loaf, (making sure you don't push the air out of the dough) and place the loaf into a floured cloth in a Banneton, an oval shaped basket. Cover it, and put it in the refrigerator overnight (or longer, the longer you leave it, the better the fermentation) covered. When you're ready to bake, heat your dutch oven in your conventional oven @ 500 degrees for an hour. (if you have a heavy cast iron dutch oven like mine, less if you have another type) When the dutch oven is ready, carefully tip the bread out of the baneton and score the top of the loaf deeply with a bread lam (razor blade) before putting it into the dutch oven, with the lid closed. Bake for 25 minutes, then quickly remove the lid, so as not to lose the heat in the oven, and bake it for another 20-30 minutes, until it's got a nice crisp crust, and when you tap the loaf, it sounds hollow.

My bread has a nice crisp crust, and a nice "aged" taste and aroma, unlike your usual shop bought bread. I don't bake it to save money, I've wasted way too much money on buying special dough and equipment like the dutch oven etc, but I love fresh bread, especially sourdough, and it's a great way to fill in time when I'm "working from home"...... I've got tomorrow and Tuesday off (surgeon's review tomorrow and ANZAC Day Tuesday) so I'm doing some more work on Dion's engine tomorrow, and hopefully ride #16 on Tuesday. The speedo on the Sportster was sticking last ride, so I better take it for another ride, to see if it's sorted itself out. I find that quite often, if I ignore my bike's pleas for help, they give up, and fix themselves.......    

[PeWe]

Not buing from greedy handlers that have increased prices way more they blame on fuel, electrical and other crisis is a good reason for home made bread.

You'll save a part of the dough for next baking session or give to friends?

[Terry in Australia]

Yesterday was ANZAC Day, when we commemorate our fallen servicemen from all wars. The ANZAC legend stems from WW1 when Australian and New Zealand's Army Corps (ANZAC) fought together against the Turks and Germans. (and anyone else who pissed them off) My Great Grandfather, Grandfather and Great Uncle (a father and two sons) all fought in WW1, and miraculously, survived. Every year there's a Dawn service and a march in every city and town in Oz, and my 94 year old Ma loans Grandpops Cornet to the local returned Services League bugler, to play the Last Post. Grandpop carried his cornet right thru WW1, and he played the Last Post at the funerals of all his old veteran mates right up until he croaked, so it's a treasured family heirloom.

But I digress. I didn't attend any ANZAC Day activities, I have too many bad memories or wanton drunkenness (on my part) over the last 46 years that I've served, so instead I took my Sportster for ride #16. Someone posted this pic on FB as an insult to Harley riders, but I actually think it describes both my Rocket III and Sportster quite aptly.

Sportster ANZAC Day 2023 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyhoo, the speedo, which had a sticky needle on my last ride seems to have righted itself. I was a little disappointed, because up until now, nothing has ever gone wrong with this bike, even with only 3 oil changes in 29 years, whether it needed them or not. It was a bit sticky (would hover around a higher indicated speed than I was actually doing, and take a while to return down again) for the first few miles, but by the halfway mark of my 100 mile treck, it was as good as gold. I was keen to ride the "hidden valley" that I only found by chance a couple of weeks prior on the Rocket III, which is a lot more "ponderous" in fast corners than the Sporty, which was in it's element, and I had a ball in all the twisty stuff, and as it's so far off the beaten track I didn't see more than 3 or 4 cars, one of which was about to pull out of a side road when he probably heard me before he saw me (loud pipes save lives in thickly wooded country roads) and stopped just short of wearing me for a hood ornament. I pulled off the road for a smoke and a pee, and took some pics of the scenery there, which is truly magnificent.

Sportster ANZAC Day 2023 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Sportster ANZAC Day 2023 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I rode on to Kilmore. I'd been daydreaming about roast chicken and coleslaw from my favourite shop, but being a public holiday, it was closed. Fcuk! My oldies fought the hun so that people would be free to open their chicken shops whenever they fcuking want, and those government pansies who wouldn't know a grenade pin from a paperclip shut him down! Arseholes! Anyway, not to be deterred, I rode home and jumped on Uber (good German folks) and ordered a huge burger. I was so famished after scraping everything on the Sporty at "Go straight to jail" speeds that I forgot to take a pic until I was halfway thru it, but it wasn't bad. I burped and farted for several hours later, a casual passer by could well have wondered if I wasn't re-enacting the Battle of Hamel, which was one of the great Artillery battles of WW1. All in all, a great day.

Sportster ANZAC Day 2023 9 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr       

[PeWe]

Beautiful weather, perfect for a ride in a beatiful landscape
The burger look tasty too.

The sticky needle can be caused by your throttle hand!
I have to wait for next ride due to crappy weather.
Cold and wet. A combination that does not work.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Per, and yep, at our age we don’t need to risk hurting ourselves or our bikes like we did back in the day. I’m proud to be an old chicken as opposed to a dead hero.

[RAFster122s]

Good looking burger, glad I wasn’t around for that battle… haha. Would be fun to give chase on a ride.
Glad you had a good day doing a celebration of the holiday your way.

Thanks for the write up and the great photos.
David

[spotty]

just occurred to me while reading this that i've qualified for rides 2 and 3

as terry mentioned there was an English bike rally on the weekend, its called the AllBrit rally and in theory caters for only English bikes , so there were lots of examples of the oil leaking marques there and they're the only bikes allowed in the upper camp site, along with their owners and tents.
 
the lower campsite is for the lepers, like me and my mates who had the temerity to turn up on japanese, american, italian etc bikes along with cars, caravans, campervans, buses etc

as also mentioned by terry most of the roads out there are horrendous, the stinking pot holes that i hit on the vmax had me wearing my arsehole for a necklace by the time we got there, luckily there was medicinal beer available as soon as we parked ( why is it never a good idea to start drinking before you put the tent up ?)

there a ride out from the campsite of saturday to a local town for a huge park up and show sort of thing , probably 5 or 600 bikes there, said hi to terry and caught up with a few other old friends i haven't seen in a while then back to the campsite for more beer and coconut rum through to the early hours

by this stage out of the 7 bikes in our little camp we'd had only one fail, the 70s Harley shovel had blown a head gasket, so the 44 indian thought it should show some 'Murican solidarity and refuse to start, flat battery. the battery came out of the harley and that was ready to go . got about half way home and the vmax started banging and popping like it was running out of fuel, but no, the negative lead had come off the battery, did it up and off we go again. got nearly back to my mates where the bike was staying ( i'd taken the dog up to his place to sat for the weekend in the ute ) and the bastard vmax blew a fuse, replaced and got it back but it doesn't feel quite right

i'll probably go up this weekend and have a poke at it with a big stick and see what ts problem is

[Kelly E]

A forum buddy from V4 Muscle Bike is out here from Virginia. So Jonesy brought him over to check out the bikes. What he didn't know was we were going to put him on one of the bikes and go riding. He ended up riding the 94' ZG 1000 Concours and he had a great time. I rode the 77' KZ 1000LTD while Jonesy rode the 82' CB 900F and Paul rode the 84' VF 1000 Interceptor. We had a great ride and lunch.

[Terry in Australia]

That's a nice collection of bikes Kelly, I'll bet it was a great ride. Well today was a busy day. I got up earlier than usual for a Saturday morning, it was cold, but I was keen to get a cup of coffee before riding over to Jeff's shop so he could conduct another roadworthy inspection on the T500. As opposed to last time, it ran like a dream, but of course, smoked like freight train. It really needs a good run to burn all of the oil that's been dribbling into the crankcase over the year or so that it's been sitting, unloved, in my garage. Anyhoo, I rode over to Jeff's shop, and after explaining to him why the last 30 day certificate lapsed without me actually getting a plate for the bike, he was happy to do it again, make me a coffee, have a yack, and take some more money off me.

Sportster Saturday 29 April 2023 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I rode it back to my storage place as since I've traded my K2 with Dion for the H1's, I've got space for another bike. I had to take some pics to send my club red plate guy, and there's much more space there than at my place.

Sportster Saturday 29 April 2023 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Then I parked it. It's like the United Nations in there with a BMW, Ducati, Triumph, Harley, Honda (x 2) and the Suzy.

Sportster Saturday 29 April 2023 9 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I would have liked to have ridden the T500 further, but can't afford the fine for riding an unregistered bike, so instead jumped on the Sporty and hit the road. Once agin, I rode out to that "hidden valley" I found a few weeks ago, and admired the view.

Sportster Saturday 29 April 2023 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I rode on to Kilmore and was happy to see the chicken shop was open. Keeping in mind that I was planning to make a sourdough pizza for dinner, I just popped for chips and gravy, and a sarsaparilla. Yummmnn, gravy makes everything better......

Sportster Saturday 29 April 2023 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

All in all, ride #17 was great, sunny but cold. My fingers were in pain (arthritis) by the time I got back to the storage place, but I was happy, the Suzuki is now out of my "Winter workshop" so I can start assembling the '73 H1 in the vacant space, and I had a good ride. 6 to go!

Sportster Saturday 29 April 2023 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

 

   

[RAFster122s]

Another nice ride.. you going for 40 or 46 rides for the year?  As once we move towards winter in Northern Hemisphere you are going to warm up to summer again and get a bunch more rides if you stop riding for a few months...

Looks like you had a good day...
Did you make a sourdough pizza?

[Kelly E]

Thanks Terry, we had a great time, great food and riding is always more fun with friends.

[70CB750]

A forum buddy from V4 Muscle Bike is out here from Virginia. So Jonesy brought him over to check out the bikes. What he didn't know was we were going to put him on one of the bikes and go riding. He ended up riding the 94' ZG 1000 Concours and he had a great time. I rode the 77' KZ 1000LTD while Jonesy rode the 82' CB 900F and Paul rode the 84' VF 1000 Interceptor. We had a great ride and lunch.

I would take any of those bikes.  Pretty.

[Terry in Australia]

Another nice ride.. you going for 40 or 46 rides for the year?  As once we move towards winter in Northern Hemisphere you are going to warm up to summer again and get a bunch more rides if you stop riding for a few months...

Looks like you had a good day...
Did you make a sourdough pizza?

Thanks David, it was a great day, I managed to get the T500 inspected so I now have 30 days (well, 29 now) to get the paperwork done and get my classic plate. I'm happy to have it parked at the storage place now, where all of my "rideable" bikes live. Yep, made the sourdough pizza, was lovely, I left the dough in the fridge to ferment for a couple of days and it made a really nice crispy thin crust. I didn't think I'd overdone it with the mozzarella cheese, but it managed to spread right to the edges and dribble over, but that just added to the flavour.

Sourdough pizza by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

I'd never cooked a pizza in my little air fryer oven, but as it came with a pizza stone I thought I'd give it a try, and it worked really well. I couldn't work out how to turn the light on so it was a bit hard to see how well or otherwise it was cooking. I'd heated it up for the best part of an hour to get the stone nice and hot, but in hindsight it probably needed to be hotter. That's OK, I might make another one tonight and see if I can improve it a tad more.

Sourdough pizza 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[RAFster122s]

As my Dad used to say, That looks good enough to eat. Bet it was tasty!

It will be nice to get some rides in on the T500 before your cold weather requires ragging up too much. I called it quits this year as I wasn’t feeling well and our winter was colder than normal. I messed up and had left the park lights on not seeing I went too far on the switch. When I discovered it the battery wasn’t happy and my smart charger wouldn’t charge it. I just picked up a less intelligent charger that trickles at 0.75A so, it should bring the battery back. It was an AGM battery, so I know its life is reduced if it comes back. Otherwise I will put a Scorpion or MotoBatt in it this time. My original AGM battery didn’t survive the summer heat in the shed with temp inside the shed exceeding 140f. I have a vent that is one of those wind spinning dome types. It should keep temps more reasonable. It didn’t do the tires any favor either…
Live and learn, compromises of living in the desert. Balancing act between keeping something from being stolen as easily and it surviving the extreme temps we see.

Hope the next pizza comes out better. Pizza stones take a long time to heat but do a nice job when hot enough.

Once you finish the H1 you should get the Ducati into friendly ergonomics with a few changes so you can enjoy it too.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks David, yep the poor Ducati needs at least to be started once in awhile, it’s battery has gone flat so I’ll have to see what I need to remove it and as it’s a lithium battery, how to recharge it. Those smart chargers piss me off, the battery in my turbo Subaru went flat (parasitic loss due to the stupid alarm system that I’ll need to get an auto electrician to disconnect) so I tried to use my lithium jump starter to start the car but it just beeped at me, so I used my jumper leads from another car battery and it fired back up, and after driving it maybe 5 miles the cars battery had enough charge to start it again. I won’t be throwing out my old “dumb” charger any time soon as it’s the only charger I have that will get a fully discharged battery working again.

Gonna make another pizza tonight. I’ll heat the little oven up longer this time, as I want that delicious “char” on the pizza’s crust on both the top, and bottom. It’s sunny again today and I thought about doing another ride, but I really need to do some bike work, and I think I’ll swap out the Subaru’s battery and install the new one. I bought a battery desulphater a while ago, so I’ll see if it works on the Subaru’s old battery.