I'm with you Kelly, I probably still have 20 bikes after selling another one on Saturday, and definitely don't have enough days in the year to do 24 rides on each. Once I'm retired at the end of next year, well, with luck I won't have any more than half a dozen or so by then, so that might be different.
My son Tim's Royal Enfield 650 has been gathering dust out in the patio probably since the last time I "borrowed" it, last year. Tim works in the TV and movie industry, and has been busy making lots of money, but told me I can ride it whenever I want to. Yesterday I wanted to, but first it needed a wash.
RE Sunday 25 February 2024 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
It looked much nicer afterwards, but I do need to polish the chrome, as eventually, I'm going to "inherit" it, so need to keep it in "as new" condition.
RE Sunday 25 February 2024 1 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I also pumped the tyres up again. I was a bit surprised at how quickly they lost pressure from the last time I rode it, maybe those gas station pumps aren't as accurate as I'd thought? Both tyres had around 20 psi, down a fair bit from 32/36 psi that I was sure I pumped them up to last ride. While I was washing it, I noticed (for the first time) that the right side cover had a lock on it. Curious as to why I opened it, and it appears to have a pretty good tool kit, as opposed to the factory tool kit for my Ducati 916's, that have a spark plug spanner and a screwdriver....... Now I'd done all this without actually starting it, and was a bit worried that the battery would be dead, but no, months (and months) after my last ride, I turned the key and hit the button, and it fired up like I'd ridden it yesterday.
I only had my black "Badass" open face helmet and a pair of winter gloves here, so used my compressed air to blow the spiders out before donning them and riding over to the storage unit to grab my "Joe Rocket" ventilated jacket (temps in the 80's again yesterday) and ventilated gloves, and my Shark helmet. I'd stopped on the way and filled it with 98 RON fuel to add a bit of pep to the 12 (?) month old fuel in the tank. It doesn't need it, but as it turned out it loves it, and just felt a little quicker. What I did notice though, is that the front brake appeared to be dragging quite badly. The "ByBre" ("By Brembo", their budget brand) front 2 piston caliper looks simple, but the bike has ABS, so I wasn't sure if it was just a blocked return port in the MC, or something more sinister. By the time I got to the storage unit, the front brake was almost locked on, the disc was blue, and so I popped open the caliper bleed valve, and the brake caliper and fluid was as hot as hell. At least by popping the bleeder the brake pads released.
I didn't want to turn around and go home, so relied on engine braking (very strong on the big twin) and the rear brake, which isn't ideal, but in 2022 I rode that BMW R1100RT 1300 miles home from Hervey Bay in Queensland with just the rear brake, and in 2009 rode my BMW K1100LT to Sydney and back (1000+ miles) with the rear brake only, both times due to the internal rubber lines crumbling and filling the front calipers with rubber sludge. The Royal Enfield has braided lines, so it shouldn't be the case, I'll pop the cap off the MC and poke a fine wire into the return hole and I reckon that will sort it, then we'll get the bike serviced, for the first time after the initial service in 2019. (only 2000 miles ago)
Of course I still wanged it out to 100 MPH on some nice quiet country roads devoid of traffic and (hopefully) cows and Kangaroos, not really thinking too hard about the consequences of having to slow down with only 30% of the bike's braking abilities. Having said that, I did a little "off roading" to take one pic and unconsciously used the front brake and it still worked fine, I just had to wait for a minute or two for it to release before I could "go my own way". I rode first to Wallan, and saw a huge traffic jam on the other side of the freeway, and made a mental note to stay off the freeway on my way back. I rode on to Kilmore, but as I'd seen an interesting kebab shop in Broadford last time I rode thru, I rode on, only to find out once I got there that the place was closed, hopefully, not permanently.........
RE Sunday 25 February 2024 5 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
No biggie, I took the backroad (not the freeway) to Eden Park, for a pic in one of my favourite spots.
RE Sunday 25 February 2024 7 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I'm so used to riding my bikes back to the storage unit that I was trying to work out a route to bypass the previously mentioned traffic snarl on the freeway when I remembered that I was riding home and didn't need to go near the freeway. Excellent. Got back early-ish after around 130 miles of fun on the Enfield. The wife wasn't home, so I jumped in my little truck and drove over to my local Returned Services Club for a couple of drinks, before coming home to make a pizza for dinner. #9 down, and a near perfect day.
RE Sunday 25 February 2024 3 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
