Topic: 25 Rides in 2025, Frank's New Years resolution that we can all enjoy.

[Terry in Australia]

I love those Hindle pipes, I have a new one in my garage, that will go on my K1 hotrod, when I build it. Okay, #28 and #29. Spotty and I have been working feverishly on the GPZ1100, I had new Stinko 712 tyres installed on Saturday morning, then took them over to Spotty's place, and we installed the wheel's, then stripped, cleaned and reinstalled the brake calipers and bled them.

On Sunday I took the VMax for it's first ride since re-programming the new Ignitech ignition. It's running really well now, so I'm a happy camper. This bike brings out the hooligan in me, and I have to be careful that I don't get too carried away, because it's easy to fall into license losing mode when the adrenaline starts to flow. The weather was great, a real early spring day, and I did around 90 miles.

VMax Sunday 10 August 2025 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Spotty had Monday off, so we installed the new Delkevic pipe to the GPZ. It looks much nicer now, but the carbs are proving troublesome. It was only running on cylinders 2 and 3, so we assumed it was the coil, but when we pulled the plugs they had a reasonably good spark. We pulled the carbs, and removed the floats (that I wasn't able to remove when I cleaned them a few weeks ago) and cleaned the fuel circuits, while cleaning the needles and seats in his little ultrasonic cleaner. We fired it up again, but no bueno, so on Saturday I'll take a set of Mikuni 33mm smoothbore carbs over, and see how they go. We also checked the compression in 1 and 4, and it was happily pumping out 150 psi, so no issues there.

GPZ1100 Monday 11 August 2025 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

GPZ1100 Monday 11 August 2025 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Yesterday I had to collect my son's Royal Enfield 650 from the stealer after having a major service and the front brakes fixed. It was lightly raining, but I wanted to take it for a decent ride, and ended up doing around 100 miles or so. It's a lovely thing to ride, has adequate power (but will eventually get a big power improvement when I "inherit" it from him, in exchange for my Harley Sportster) and handles really well. The brakes are good too.

I came across this burned out car when I was lost in the middle of nowhere. Looks like a V8 diesel, but that's only a guess, it's hard to believe that this mess was once a car, there's virtually nothing left apart from the engine and transmission.

RE Tuesday 12 August 2025 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

RE Tuesday 12 August 2025 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyway, I got lost, riding on dirt roads for an hour or so and watching the fuel gauge dropping down to almost empty. I eventually found my way back to a road that I know well, and rode into Wallan and straight to a BP station. I was a bit pissed off though, that from virtually "empty" (according to the gauge) that it took a shade less than 8 litres? Stupid fuel gauge.... Anyway, was a great ride otherwise, and I'll have to think of another excuse to take it for a ride again soon. 29 rides down, 4.5 months to go, will I make 50? I hope so!

RE Tuesday 12 August 2025 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr   

[PeWe]

Nice rides and bikes, Terry!
Your "winter" is over, spring is coming, right?

Maybe 2 months of riding left for me.

Today ride #23  104km
Svanå- Västerfärnebo- Salbohed-Skultuna. 22-23C when I started after work around 4 pm. A few hours later 25*C ! Warm winds arrived.

Earlier this summer extra strong and hot  sunshine.

I wonder how much radiation and gamma the sun flares have given us this season? Solar fire....

Ended up at a bikers club after a  relaxing countryside cruising on my blue K6 with a nice sounding Hindle 4-2-1 pipe
 Legal speeds during the entire ride!! No need to test anything

Stopped at a cornfield. We had more of then first half of the 80's.

A burger at the bikers club. Burger with cheese and bread. Everything else is filled by myself. Extra of everything!
It was not many there when I arrived. More bikers arrived later on.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Per, I'm really enjoying riding my different bikes this year, and I have Spotty to thanks for this, if it wasn't for his interest and his garage, I wouldn't have been able to get so many of my bikes up and running over the last few months. I really need to clean out my garage so I can use it to work on my bikes out of the weather. Your pics look great, and good to see so many bikes out, I only see a few out on the roads here during winter, and no classic bikes, just new Harleys and Adventure bikes. It's another beautiful day here today, might get to 18 deg C, so perfect for a lively ride. Hopefully the GPZ1100 will be road legal and ready to go after this coming weekend.

[lash]

#73 today, 445 km. After over a week of 30c or hotter and high humidity we finally got a day in the 20’s and rain. Rode to Cornerbrook in the rain and it felt great! My wife posted comments on facebook about our stop there.

[Terry in Australia]

#30 yesterday, woohoo! The weather has been pretty crap this week, but yesterday was fantastic, 18 deg C, sunny, and hardly any wind. I spent half an hour installing a combined clock/thermometer/volt meter on the VMax. It worked fine, and I was happy for the first 2 miles, before the display broke up, and didn't work. Poop.

VMax Thursday 14 August 2025 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Oh well, the bike is still running great with the new Ignitech ignition, so I headed up the freeway at "Go straight to jail" speeds, then turned off for Broadford, and stopped at the Motorcycle race track (not my favourite, Phillip Island is much better for racing and for spectating) and snapped a pic.

VMax Thursday 14 August 2025 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I continued on for a few miles, and stopped again for a photo op at one of my favourite spots.

VMax Thursday 14 August 2025 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I stayed on the backroads and had a fantastic ride as there were very few cars on the road, and I was playing my "How long can I hold it on 100 MPH before I chicken out" game, only hindered by the occasional car coming the other way, or a slow moving car or truck in front of me. I did around 110 trouble free (if you don't count the sh1tty gauge) miles, and was happy that when I got home, I had a letter from Kevin, with my ride tag. As I've done a lot of my rides on the VMax, I immediately zip tied it in a prominent place.

VMax Thursday 14 August 2025 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I didn't stop for food, but I keep thinking about Kevin's hoagie, so I jumped on Uber Eats and ordered a Roast Beef roll, with gravy, cheese, olives, onions, avocado and a side order of pork crackling. It was magnificent, I could only eat this half, but I'll have the rest for lunch today. All in all #30 was a great ride, and hopefully I'll get out for another ride as soon as I get another nice day.

VMax Thursday 14 August 2025 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[Kevin D]

Excellent Terry, Looks like a great day for a nice ride, a ton run, a proper meal, and your award waiting in the mail. Happy to see your weather is much improved.

I always take a deep breath when I drop your award in the mail. Only 14 days this year to go halfway around the globe with an international stamp, and a butterfly stamp for non-machinable. And now I can exhale.

[Kevin D]

Lash 445 km in the rain! With your missus! And dry gloves to boot.

Lash do you have the Newfoundland roads to yourself?

[newday777]

Terry that is a gorgeous spot and no wonder it's one of your favorites.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, sadly the weather has turned back to winter, cold, overcast and rainy. No matter, I've dug out a set of Mikuni 33mm smoothbore carbs and K&N pods to install on the GPZ tomorrow with Spotty, and all going well, we'll be riding it between downpours. We're going to a swapmeet on Sunday (leaving at 5am, so we find all the "bargains"....) and with luck I'll find something worth getting up so early. Thanks again for the award Kevin and Bud, the tags look fantastic. Hopefully the sun will make another appearance in the next few days so I can put the rubber to the road again.

[lash]

Lash 445 km in the rain! With your missus! And dry gloves to boot.

Lash do you have the Newfoundland roads to yourself?

Riding in the rain after all that heat was wonderful! Not much traffic at the best of times. We had to buy her a new tablet as hers quit dead and no amount of beating, heating or button pushing would bring it back. Cornerbrook is the nearest town with any stores of that type.

[Kevin D]

Thanks guys, sadly the weather has turned back to winter, cold, overcast and rainy. No matter, I've dug out a set of Mikuni 33mm smoothbore carbs and K&N pods to install on the GPZ tomorrow with Spotty, and all going well, we'll be riding it between downpours. We're going to a swapmeet on Sunday (leaving at 5am, so we find all the "bargains"....) and with luck I'll find something worth getting up so early. Thanks again for the award Kevin and Bud, the tags look fantastic. Hopefully the sun will make another appearance in the next few days so I can put the rubber to the road again

It’s 9860 miles 15868km from Michigan to Victoria.
And 1454 miles 2340km from Texas to Michigan
And 1250 miles 2000km minimum on your motorcycles. VMax CB750K0 Enfield KZ750 Rocket Ducati
OOOhhhh, That’s a long way Terry

[Kevin D]

Lash 445 km in the rain! With your missus! And dry gloves to boot.

Lash do you have the Newfoundland roads to yourself?

Riding in the rain after all that heat was wonderful! Not much traffic at the best of times. We had to buy her a new tablet as hers quit dead and no amount of beating, heating or button pushing would bring it back. Cornerbrook is the nearest town with any stores of that type.

Yes, commerce brings traffic. I seek only empty roads, not much but horses trees corn a lake a river along my way, but waterfalls mountains islands boats oceans vistas always a welcome sight

[Alan F.]

Ride #10 for me tonight, 56.5 miles.
We had dinner with friends at their lake house in southeastern New Hampshire and since I'm on call I took my bike in case I had to leave early.
I took the long way in on NH121, 111 and 125 then took the long way home looping east into Massachusetts on 107.  Then I rode through Merrimack, Massachusetts where the cops will follow you through town looking for any excuse to pull you over, and yes I picked one up, and yes he followed me completely across town following much too closely. I hope 22mph really pissed him off. Once safely into the next town I shook off the creepy vibe I was left with and noticed that terrible itch in my right ear that had been with me for the past half hour had passed, bonus. I hopped on 108 westbound back to NH125 south back home.
The last 2 miles are always the worst, one car ran a stop sigh and cut me off by about 30 feet, then about 300 feet later a tall pickup ran a stop sign from the left and nearly hit him. The car took the next left and I continued behind the pickup who almost sideswiped a line of parked cars... I took the next right and took a parallel street home from there. It's always like that, drivers in this town are the worst I've ever seen.

[newday777]

#16 yesterday, 238 mile day was a spur of the moment at 7am when I got a return message from a guy in Maine (not too far from the Poland Spring Water bottling company location) who had a 2007 Aspen Classic popup camper listed cheap on Marketplace, so I got motivated and ready to leave by 8:30 on the wing for the 2.5 hr ride up there to check it out. I also got a message from my sis wondering if I was going to be out if I could stop by for a visit with mom as she'd be alone most of the day into the evening as Jeanne was headed up to the Applilation Trail to serve the hikers hot meals so I said yes I would stop by in the afternoon (I thought I would be back there by 2 at the latest....).
It was 68°F to start off and a forecast for a much cooler 83°F, (it was 89° on Thursday before the front passed) so it was a welcome relief of the past weeks of 90s+ to have a very comfortable ride. The ride up wasn't too bad other than a couple of jerks, one doing a fast cut in front of me to get into a gas station and a girl later coming up behind me after I had past her(a Massachusetts plate) tailgating me and then passing me on a double yellow line cutting back in closely.....where's the laser button when you need it......
Anyhow it was a beautiful morning for the ride up there in Maine taking the secondary routes of 4/202, avoiding the toll road turnpike I-95.
I arrived there at 11am and we had to unload the trailer from an enclosed tilting snowmobile trailer where he'd been storing it out of the weather.  It was advertised as being kept out of the weather when not in use and it was in pristine condition other than being dusty on the outside of the very rare accessory lift off hard top lid he ordered with the camper new in 2008, the ABS lid had a couple of holes in it in opposite corners that he said happened the first trip as the lid was built too snug to fit over the pole hinges of the tent(I may leave the lid home and just use the still new original soft travel scover that came with it). The tent fabric looked in fairly new condition still as he had taken care of it and only used the camper a couple times a year for 5 years to go to New York to Americade, and it sat from 2015 on in storage. The price was more than reasonable so I handed over the cash without haggling on it(he could have listed it at least a grand more easily). Then he went looking for the old registration but couldn't find it. OK do you have the title? "No, here in Maine(with his deep Maine accent) this small of a trailer doesn't need a title". He went in the house to see if he still had the manufacturer statement of origin in with his bike titles.....nope......hmmmm now what. So I said how about calling the town clerk to see about getting a copy of the registration. He got the number off the website and got a recording, it was noontime by then and the website says the hours were M-F 9-5. So we tried calling the state motor vehicle department and got put on hold and while waiting he says let's just ride over the 15 miles to the town clerk. So off we go across the 5 miles of dirt road the way I came in, got there to an empty parking lot  and the door sign doesn't have Friday hours listed....argh
So I said let's go over to the picnic table and call the state DMV again,  this time we got a person! And she was helpful looking for the registration on the computer, but couldn't find it in the system, apparently they changed operating systems since it was last registered in 2014.....so now what do we need to get for paperwork so I can register it in NH, she said go to his new town clerk (he'd moved last year) and re-register it, the cost would be @$30 including tax, then sign it over to me, and if NH says they need more paperwork to call her next week and she will send an official Maine statement of ownership that it doesn't require a title for trailers under 3000 lbs GVW.(it's rated at 800 lbs). So we headed back over to the town clerk who was open near his house. We were out of there in 10 minutes with a new registration and plate, and headed back to his house and I hooked it up after putting the plate on the trailer and getting the bill of sale written out, 2 hours later than planned, but it's all good.
I rode back to my mom's getting there @4:15 and spent an hour with her before heading home as my oldest sis came to take her for dinner, I wanted to get home before dark as the wiring was not the same on the trailer as my bike. Got home without any problems thankfully. The trailer pulled great even at 85-90 mph on the 4 lane highway.
I did stop for some fish tacos before getting home(sorry, I was famished and tired so no pictures). I got back to the barn at 7:30pm, just after sunset.

I'll open it up today and take pictures of it. 

[lash]

#74 yesterday for me to Fluer de Lys for lunch, 90 km.
Thats quite the trailer Newday! Where do you put the luggage?

[newday777]

Here it is opened up. This thing is pristine for being a 2007 model.
The storage under the bed is accessible under the mattress and also when closed up in travel mode from the side of the trailer as you can unhook a couple catches and lift the whole tent/bed frame up.

[denward17]

That's pretty awesome Stu.

Can the camper also be pulled by a car hitch, or is it a special hitch setup for a motorcycle?

[newday777]

Yes it can be pulled with a car with a 1 7/8" ball.

[PeWe]

There are for cars too.
https://combi-camp.com/trailer-tents/

I have seen older models from the 70"s. Maybe a german brand.

Motorcycle.I guess not for a lightweight CB750

[newday777]

I guess not for a lightweight CB750

Well your billet block might do okay with one

[PeWe]

I guess not for a lightweight CB750

Well your billet block might do okay with one

Yes, power will be fine. The bike need some weight I guess.

[PeWe]

#24 85km rides in the countryside. A stop at Tidö, near rhe castle. An annual tour around lake Mälaren  wirh start in Stockholm where lots of bikers start their  rides. Probably thousands.
I visited one of the stop points only. Many have left and others still coming.

Asian spicy food when back in town.

[newday777]

#17 today, 63 miles, and finally out on my K5 and it's dialed well now.
This morning I got back to the leaking floats from 2 nights ago when I was working on the sync. This morning went much better after getting the overflow to stop.
So this afternoon I said well girl, it's about time for you to get a good flogging for being so cranky all summer(she didn't like having someone else's carbs on her....so this week I squeaked enough time out to fine wire out the internal ports). No more farting and popping now.
We had some one on one fun going on my favorite back road loop. I didn't stop and take pictures, just rode the heck out.

[Alan F.]

That's great news Stu, maybe we can plan a ride somewhere?

#11 for me this evening, 58.6 miles, not very curvy but I got out in the wind for a few hours. Just due north to the traffic circle in Lee, NH where 125 meets Rt4.
I stopped for a drink and a snack then headed south again. Traffic was OK and nobody did anything dangerous.

[newday777]

Yes we can do that Alan, maybe Andy might get away for a bit too.
I was through the circle yesterday on my way back from Maine and stopping by my mom's.