Topic: 24 Rides in 2024, Frank's New Years resolution that we can all enjoy.

[jgger]

Good on ya Bud! Looks like you haven't missed the bloom, it's just getting ready to start here and should also be a good one. That longhorn is definitely a wide spread, it would be pretty hard to trailer that one for sure.

[budman]

Good on ya Bud! Looks like you haven't missed the bloom, it's just getting ready to start here and should also be a good one. That longhorn is definitely a wide spread, it would be pretty hard to trailed that one for sure.

For sure.  Might have to pack him in sideways.  I bet he has a hard time making his way through the trees. 

[Terry in Australia]

Beautiful pics Bud, how's that fairing going? I just ordered the complete "Rex's Speed shop" 12V conversion for the DT250 with a complete new ignition system, plus new 12V bulbs, horn, flasher can, etc. Probably a good thing, the 35/35 6V headlight is kinda dim, like me......... Anyway, the DT's not going anywhere until that arrives from England, and like here in Oz they're having a long weekend off for Easter, so I probably won't see it for a couple of weeks.

I drove over to the storage facility, and changed bikes around so that Spotty and I can load the BMW onto the trailer and take it over to his place to do some refurbishment after almost 10 years of being parked, neglected and unloved. I'd never intended to leave it for so long, and have kept paying the annual permit fee and insurance, so once Spotty and I get it going again I can just ride it, with it's brand new (10 year old) Pirelli tyres, which I noticed, are still holding air. Interestingly the battery hasn't seen a charger in 10 years, but it's still holding a volt or two, as the digital clock is still faintly working. I'm really looking forward to riding it again soon.

Rocket III Friday 29 March 2024 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyhoo, I haven't ridden my only (after getting rid of the other two) Triumph Rocket III, since January. I was expecting to have to jump start the 9 year old battery, that's never seen a charger either, but no, it started right up, and settled into a happy idle while I donned my old "Marlon Branflakes" jacket I bought 33 years ago, and my helmet and gloves. The fuel gauge showed that it had half a tankful, so I ignored the local gas stations that had all increased their gas prices and headed up the freeway.

I didn't get far, the Hume Highway (Doom Dieway) was slowed down to a crawl with all the tourists and their trailers, boats, caravans, etc, heading north, so I decided that it was time to take a different route entirely. I took the nearest exit, turned around and headed back the way I'd just come and rode to the Calder Freeway, filled up at a slightly cheaper BP station, then just cruised along to a for a few miles to a little town called Gisborne, that I haven't been thru in years.

Rocket III Friday 29 March 2024 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I bought a couple of dim sims. (not sure if there's any meat in them, so I was fairly sure that God wouldn't strike me down with lightning, being "Good Friday") I wandered over to the gardens and sat at a picnic table to have lunch. A little crow or whatever he was wandered up to me and looked like he needed a dim sim, so I gave him one. He loved it.

Rocket III Friday 29 March 2024 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr   

I hate freeway riding, it's boring and I'm always looking out for unmarked cop cars, and mobile speed camera cars. I rode through Gisborne and saw the "Kilmore Road", so followed that for a few miles, and somehow ended up going thru Sunbury (the site of the "Pop Festival" in 1974 where "Queen" were booed off stage) and out the back of the airport, but enjoyed riding along watching the 'planes taking off and landing.

Some arsehole insect had crawled/flown up my jacket sleeve and bit me right under the armpit, which hurt like hell, so all I could do was punch myself in the general direction in the hope that I killed the little pr1ck. It still hurts now, and I've taken enough painkillers to knock out an elephant. I did stop when I saw this vista:

Rocket III Friday 29 March 2024 9c by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyway it was getting hot (85 degrees, pretty warm here for this time of year) so I kept on riding home. I got back to the storage unit and a truck was parked in front of my unit, but the owner got the message when I rode between the truck and the unit, and he moved his truck. I parked the trumpy, got in my little truck and trundled home. Ride # 13 down, and looking forwards to the next one.  

[PeWe]

Beautiful ride photos guys!
I have to wait another 2 weeks I guess.
The Blue Bonnet flowers almost 2 months ahead!
We get them in different colors, blue most common.

[budman]

Beautiful pics Bud, how's that fairing going?

I reinstalled the super short OEM windshield.  It seems the best.  Awhile back I discovered that the wind noise I was experiencing was all the helmets I've been wearing.  Remove the visors and the db's drop dramatically.  I've been riding with riding glasses as of late.  I'm still wearing earplugs, but everything is much quieter without the visors.  I need to get some googles that fit over my glasses so I can see my speedo.  Too many bugs in the face with just glasses.

Getting stung on a ride is the worst.  Been stung in the neck numerous times and one time on the wrist.  Hornet got under my watchband.

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah, I took the cheapo windscreen extension off mine Bud, it was horrible. While it did block some wind blast I had to look around it instead of being able to see through it and it vibrated a bit which was really distracting especially on a sunny day with the light bouncing all over my field of vision.

I don’t usually take the Rocket out on really warm days as that huge engine produces a lot of heat and my right inner thigh was copping a bit of heat. Not as bad as the black Rocket was when I first bought it with the (ridiculously expensive) Zard exhaust which stuck out further due to the equal length headers, but it was still getting a little uncomfortable. Fantastic on cold days when the extra warmth is appreciated, but not a great summer’s day bike.

I hope to get ride #14 in this long weekend, I might have to fire up the old T500 and give it a run. I’m picking up two more bikes on Monday. One is a job and the other is payment for the work. Both bikes are kind of interesting, but I won’t be keeping the “payment” bike, as I’m determined to reduce the herd between now and when I retire at the end of next year. I’d love to have a barn big enough to keep them all, but unless I win the lottery, I’ll need to get rid of 3/4 of my motley “collection”.

[lash]

First day in weeks for decent weather. +4C but sunny and hardly any wind so I managed to get out twice today. 100+ km on the wing and about 50 on the shadow 500. Love that bike, even though it’s my wife’s.
Also managed to borrow a tank and side covers off one of my other bikes to get the rescue bike up and running. Just a short ride up and down the road but it shifts like it’s supposed to and everything works. Next is registration, safety and insurance hopefully next week!

[BenelliSEI]

First day in weeks for decent weather. +4C but sunny and hardly any wind so I managed to get out twice today. 100+ km on the wing and about 50 on the shadow 500. Love that bike, even though it’s my wife’s.
Also managed to borrow a tank and side covers off one of my other bikes to get the rescue bike up and running. Just a short ride up and down the road but it shifts like it’s supposed to and everything works. Next is registration, safety and insurance hopefully next week!

Looks great! Did you solve the leaky caliper?

[willbird]

#4, 70 miles, just wandered around in a rectangle with home in the middle of it :-). It was/is 55 but it was threatening to rain, did not, glad I got out and about :-).

[BallAquatics]

70+ mile ride #14 on the CBX today.  Was a beautiful 70+ degree day, but the wind was howling.  Jumped on the CBX a week ago for a ride and it had developed an ignition problem.  Seems the #1 coil had had enough and completely died.  Resistance on the primary side was within spec, but was open on the secondary side.

So this was sort of a test ride with the ignition repair.  Bike starts and runs, but it still has a miss.  Not sure the source, could be one of the other coils, the 30+ year old spark plugs, or a carb issue.  With the way the wind was beating me around today, it wasn't a good day to try and get a handle on it.  I'll probably tune it up and check the other two coils then take it for a ride to see how it does.

Forecast is calling for rain off and on the next four days with dropping temperatures.  Sounds like a bit of shop time before getting the bike out again.

[jgger]

Terry, Jose Cuervo ( Joe crow in English) looks pretty happy with your generosity.  The Tri-umph looks ready to devour the next horizon too, let 'er rip!

Lash,  you're the MAN! Just under 40° f  and clocking the miles, that Goldwing must be pretty warm. That rescue bike looks really good, it shouldn't have any problems with the inspection. Then when the weather gets better we can see it featured in some of your 24 rides.

Willbird, keep chipping away at that ride count, you're doing good. It's always nice when you beat the rain!

Raining here for the next few days, so I can't even work on my maintenance because I have to do it outside, oh well guess I'll be playing catch up.

[jgger]

Right on Dennis, 14 rides done!  Looks like retirement has made you a new man. Hopefully that bad coil just caused one of your " almost new" spark plugs to foul. After all we were both still working at 40!

[lash]

John, so far so good. The caliper looks like it’s going to stay dry, but we’ll see after a ride or two. Found one in my stash that looked like hell but I refinished it and it’s turned out to be the best one of the three.

[newday777]

I finally got around to finishing the K4 I've been working on for a friend over the winter last night and as it was going to warm up to 53°F here in NH today I was hoping to get a start on my entry.....well it decided it didn't want to idle after warming up. Good mid and WOT but not down low so back to the shop after 25 miles to remove and do a quick cleaning of the jets and ports with spray. Well wouldn't you know it, I was out of spray carb cleaner, so I had to go on my wing to town and get some more. That was another 10 miles.
Back together just an hour before sunset so I only put on 20 more miles to see how it behaved. Much better now, The Windjammer made it a pleasant ride tonight down to about 45° when I got back home. So technically I did get 50 miles in today, but in 3 rides and on 2 bikes. I won't put it in the books for today.
I'll ride it to church in the morning and then head over to have dinner with my mom and sisters a bit over an hour away but will take the long way there as it will be a late dinner,  yippy!!!......

Until tomorrow.....suppose to be 55° tomorrow. I think I'll take along my chaps for the ride home tomorrow evening.

A mixed bag of precipitation coming in Tuesday through Thursday this week so I guess we'll be off of riding for a while until it rains again to wash the salt off the roads.

[Terry in Australia]

Another beautiful day today and the wife was going over to visit her mum, so an excellent excuse to go for another ride. I drove over to the storage place and rolled the old T500 into the sunshine. A guy struck up a conversation about my bikes and said that (being Easter Sunday) it was pretty quiet today, and I explained that it was about to get loud, then gave the ol' girl a kick, and it fired right up, and he literally jumped, those exhausts are as loud as they look! I filled out the logbook while it "Rat-tat-tatted" away and put on my helmet and jacket. He gave me the "thumbs up", and I rode off.

The freeway was much quieter than on Friday, but I got off as soon as I could, and rode through Beveridge (ironic, in that the only building is an ancient bluestone pub) and took this pic where I've taken pics of most of my bikes over the years. I used to clear the rail line then hammer my bikes for the 2 mile straight to see how fast they'd go, but sadly "Urban sprawl" has spread this way and my speed testing road is now a 35/50MPH limit, so I'm lucky that I have some other roads where I can ride like a maniac without risking hurting anyone else but me.

T500-250 Sunday 31 March 2024 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I continued through Eden Park, Whittlesea, and the big loop that I used to do years ago, staying off the freeway (yawn) and enjoying the "B" roads I much prefer. The bike was running great, it's weird, it has so much torque I don't need to change down from 5th gear when going up steep hills, but discovered today that with the cylinder porting and race heads it definitely has a "power band" between 4K RPM and around 6K, at one stage I had a car tailgating me, so I dropped it back a gear and hit it, and was really impressed that it picked up it's skirts and took off like a race bike. Saw 90 MPH in 4th, and it had more to go, but I was happy that the car driver had gotten the message and stayed well back.

I was hoping to do a couple of laps, but suddenly it dropped #1 cylinder. Fcuk. I pulled the plug cap and held it a few mm from the plug, but no fire, so I'm assuming that the ignition has #$%* itself again. I'd only replaced the points and condensor with NOS Suzuki items last(?) year, so not happy, but as I didn't have a spare plug or anything to clean a plug with in the OEM tool kit (I will have next time) it was a case of nursing it home as a 250 single, which surprisingly, wasn't that horrible, although, staying off the freeway as I got back in the burbs, I managed to cop every red light, and with a slightly dragging clutch, I was worried about stalling it, but no, I got back to the storage place and parked the old blue beast. I still love it, and was happy that I'd done 83 Km (51.4 miles) and managed to get ride #14 in the books.

Tomorrow I'm picking up two more bikes, then Spotty and I are going to drag my BMW K100RS back to his place to get it running again, and it'll be good to do some of my "24 rides" on the old Bavarian Murder Weapon.......

T500-250 Sunday 31 March 2024 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr       

[PeWe]

That T500 looks very good Terry.
The pipes are an aesthetic good match, not only a power upgrade.
I like the color too, very easy to like that blue.

You will hopefully upgrade the ignition to a never failing unit. 

I'll look forward to our spring with clean roads, add my ride pics with for me tasty food

[jgger]

Wow Terry, only 10 more to go! Too bad that little Suzi took a dump on you, it looks like a perfect day for some miles. Maybe you need a step hotter plug and turn down the oil pump if it's adjustable. What oil are you burning?

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, I didn’t bother pulling the plug as it was hot and I couldn’t be bothered. Hopefully I don’t have a hole in a piston. I can’t remember what oil I put in it, it’s red, as opposed to the blue outboard oil I’ve got in the DT250 Jim. Not pissed off, it still got me home, but I imagine it’s gonna smoke like hell when I fire it up again on that cylinder with 20Km worth of two stroke going through that pipe and not firing. No biggie, have plenty of other bikes to ride.

[BallAquatics]

That's one good looking bike Terry.  Hope the new ignition gets it sorted.

The weatherman sure missed the mark for today.  Yesterday they were call for rain and cooler temperatures today.  With that in mind, I was planning on doing yard work in between the showers today.  Every thing was going along fine and it just kept getting warmer & warmer.  A little while later, the clouds cleared out and the sun was shining bright.  About that time I heard a commotion over by the brook that runs on the north side of my lot.  I look over and this massive tree, probably close to 100 footer, starts popping and cracking and down she comes.  And here I was thinking I was getting ahead of the yard work.  I said, "F this!" and went for a quick 54 mile loop.

So, ride #15 in the books.  Took the turbo as it needed some fuel and had a wonderful ride.  Temps in the low 60's with just a light breeze.  Nothing like the howling wind from yesterday.

[lash]

Was snowing this morning but it warmed up to +5c so ride #13 is in the books! Pics are in a tiny town called Glen Allan on the Upper Grand River. Be glad when the brown turns to green…

[Terry in Australia]

Well done guys, I’d love to get another ride in today but Spotty and I are picking up a couple of bikes (one to fix for a friend and the other as payment for the work he needs done on the other one) then we’re going to haul my neglected BMW over to his place to replace the fuel pump after we’ve cleaned out the fuel tank, replace the battery and rebuild the front brake MC. Busy day so no riding.

[newday777]

Ride #1 was accomplished today on a 1974 CB750 K4 that I needed to do a test ride on it before turning it back to my friend this week.
Left at 9:30 this morning to go to church, a sunny and balmy 48° F to start off for this Easter, then after church and a couple errands headed over to my sister's about 1.25 hours away. I did have to go back to the shop and dig out my converted office chair memory foam pad to get me up higher in the worn out original seat so my back would make it through the day.
Thankfully it was not as windy today like yesterday was here in southern NH. It warmed up to around 56° this afternoon.
I left after dinner as the sun was going down and got back home around 8:15 tonight. 49° to finish. 152 miles today. This 750 has 56,000 miles on it and going strong, part of the ride was on the 4 lane slab so I took it up to 80 to be sure it was going to be safe for my friend Pete who is still the original owner from 1974. (I did stop at an old hilltop dairy, now converted into a winery/eatery for a couple of pictures about 1/2 way there.)
Before I get it back to him, I need to fix the funky starter safety, it'll only start with the clutch lever released(I already put a new clutch lever switch on)

[Terry in Australia]

Well done Stu, nice to see a nice “survivor”. Spotty and I drove over to collect 2 bikes today. The one I’m keeping is a ‘78 model with only 14000(?) miles on the odometer and original apart from an aftermarket exhaust, a US import, with original everything else including nice paint. Took it to my storage unit and collected my BMW and took it to his place, then brought the other bike home as it needs an engine rebuild. Managed to somehow lose the ignition key for my bike which pisses me off mightily, but luckily there’s a spare. It started raining on the way back to the storage unit so didn’t get a chance to take pics, but will go over tomorrow to look for the key and take a pic or two when I get there.

[jgger]

Welcome aboard Stu, sounds like a win all the way around, bike runs good, saw the family,, got some miles, and made it home safe.

lash, it's almost " green time" and I'm betting that you'll have some great pics to share. Although those look pretty nice in brown, cold, but beautiful.

Dennis, good thing that tree didn't smack you on the noggin. I would definitely say F-it, let's ride too. And you thought that retirement was going to give you more play time. Well it will after you deal with the tree! Just throw some cushions on it and call it a bench...............eazy peazy!

Terry, if my hair thinned like your bike collection thins, I would still have a ponytail half way down my back like in my youth! Instead of this shiny spot that can blind an airplane pilot when the sun hits it just right!!

You guys are going to make it hard for me to catch up, so keep it up, great job.

[BallAquatics]

Terry, if my hair thinned like your bike collection thins, I would still have a ponytail half way down my back like in my youth!

LOL  I've noticed that too!  Seems like every time Terry talks about thinning the heard, the message ends up with him bringing more bikes home. LOL
I can sympathize with you mate.  I wouldn't get in too big of a hurry to get rid of my bikes.

What we need is a universal license plate, and single insurance that covers all our bikes.  You can only ride one at a time!  So at any given time road use is the same and any insurance claim would be for a single bike.  Just my 2 cents...