Topic: 26 Rides in 2026. Frank's New Years Resolution that we can all enjoy.

[BenelliSEI]

Terry….. still buried in Winter here and it is SO GOOD to see the K0 out and being used. It looks fantastic. Thanks for the incentive to get out to the shop and get the bikes ready for the coming season! Stay safe.

[PeWe]

Terry, have you checked if the HT wire is not completely seated?
I have had issues with Dynatek coils and HT wires that glided out of the connection. Auto style, push in only.

The softer wires are flimsy and have not much own support. I changed to harder type and strapped 1 and 4 to frame.  Those are longer and will glide out when spray water during cleaning or the wind/whipping while riding.
An opened 3-4cm piece of fuel hose around wire as extra isolation where it is strapped around frame.

I guess you have Dynatek graphite wires.
I bought those with my first Dyna ignition. One wire had intermittent  dysfunction from the very beginning. It tricked me to be carb issues until it got worse  and revealed itself.
Dyna grey graphite wires.

Changed to normal copper wires, 1, 4 strapped to frame. No issues after that.

The Dyna 2000, however must have anti disturbance wires, right?
Maybe resistor plugs and copper wires can work?
Stiffer cables that make them to sit better.

Here where #4 wire is strapped to frame, green arrow. Fuel hose with a black zip tie.
#1 is strapped in the same way on other side.
2-3 not strapped.

[jgger]

10 to go, once you hit your 26 I hope you plan to continue to post your rides. Keep them comming.

[BallAquatics]

Way-to-go Terry! It's nice to have the time to just jump on the bike when ever the urge strikes isn't it!

Warmest day of the year yesterday. Perfect day for ride #8. Went out to the shed to get the Yamaha running and enjoy the warm temperatures. She's been sitting since August of last year and being a hard starter naturally, I knew it would be a chore to get it going...



When I open the garage door, I find that my son-in-law has the garage packed to the top with stuff. It takes maybe 45 minutes to even get a path to get any of the bikes out. I bring them all out into the warm sunshine thinking it will be easier to get them going, and anyway there is no way to work on anything in the garage.

Long story short, nothing wants to run! I usually keep them on battery tenders, but since I haven't been around I thought better to leave well enough alone. I hook up the Yamaha to the tender, and use my jump pack to get the CBR going. I take it on this 40 mile loop just to stretch her legs, and it runs like a top.

When I get back, I give the Yamaha a try, no dice. Moving on to the NC700X, one of the bolts that hold the cover for the battery and air filter just wants to spin. After a short flurry of activity devoted to that, the bike starts right up with the aid of the jump pack. It's early afternoon so I ride it back to the house and have some lunch. It's about 50 miles round trip out to the shed and the bike runs great.

When I get back, I try the Yamaha again. This time with a taste of carb cleaner. She teases me with a couple of false starts and the battery goes flat.  It's takes the removal of quite a bit of body work to get to the battery on the Yamaha, so she goes back into the garage still on the tender. I'm hoping to get back out there on Sunday to finally get it going.



Blue and I take the long way home and the three bike total comes to 120+ miles for the day. Was hoping to see my favorite red cattle, but they are grazing close to the barn behind the farm house as we've had flood warning amounts of rain the last few days.



Lots of wide-open spaces. The sun felt great and naturally the rides were all fantastic!

[newday777]

Keep em coming guys to give us hope that still have 16" of snow on the ground and a fresh coating of ice overnight and salted roads will come to an end eventually up in the frozen north country.
Lots of frost heaves up here this winter so the road crews will have to repair and repave roads that didn't get it done last year.
It's maple syrup season now to take my mind off of the no riding PMS.
A couple of low 60s days forecasted Monday and Tuesday to help melt the snow and make mud season begin...

[Terry in Australia]

Yay, it’s fixed! Yesterday I took way too many tools across to the storage unit. I had a fully charged car battery and jumper leads, so the first thing I tried was jump starting it just in case the ignition wasn’t getting enough volts to give the coils enough voltage while the starter motor was hogging the power. Nope, it fired on #2 and 3, but not #1 and 4. I pulled the plugs and checked for spark, but got none.

I drained the gas tank and removed it, and checked the connections between the Dyna 2000’s black box and all appeared to be in order. I did a coil test with my cool little electrical multi function probe, and they both checked out. Fcuk. I moved the main wiring harness slightly, and saw that the signal wire to the coil had broken off! Woohoo! These wires are very fine gauge, and must have just vibrated off its connector, which was still attached to the coil.

I’d brought over some cool heat shrink terminals and my little DeWalt battery heat gun, so put on a new ring terminal and attached it to the coil. I checked for spark and got a nice spark, so put everything back together, noting that one fuel hose needs replacing because it’s crimped, and gave the throttle cable a lube. I turned the ignition on and hit the button, and… nothing. WTF? I don’t know why, but I turned the kill switch off and back on again, hit the button, and it fired right up. Weird.

Anyway the process took a bit longer than my tapping this into my iPhone, so I didn’t have time for a long ride, plus I wasn’t happy with that fuel line (I could have driven to the auto parts store but I like to use clear fuel line so I can see that fuel is going to the carbs) but I thought I would just go for a quick lap of the road outside the storage place. The throttle was still way too stiff, so I couldn’t just ease the throttle on smoothly, it really pissed me off, either almost stalling it, or over-revving it.

It was only until I was riding with no other vehicles around on the 1/4 mile back to the storage place that I could crank it on, and Fark! This thing is a weapon! I’d forgotten how quick it is, I reckon it’s as quick as the ZZR1100 and VMax! I’m in love again. I went home and ordered some more fuel line and a new throttle cable that should arrive this week, and I’m hoping that it’ll be more pleasant to ride at normal (legal) speeds. Anyway I’m glad it wasn’t a major problem. Once I get the throttle sorted, I’ll see what it’s like around town again, and if I’m happy with it, I’ll get it road legal and start doing some rides on it.

[lash]

FINALLY!! Ride no.1! Yesterday was so foggy I couldnt see my mailbox that is less than 200 ft. from the house. Today it was clear and +4c so the KLR got its first ride down to the dam. The rain last couple of days has washed the salt and sand off the roads but my gravel road is still pretty wet and muddy. Be a while before the CB’s come out.

[Terry in Australia]

Well done Lash! Those KLR’s are great bikes, I’ve been thinking about getting a 650 for a while now. It’s still nice and warm here this week so I hope to get some more rides in.

[lash]

Klr is not pretty, but it just keeps on going. Easy to work on and I can go where I would never think of taking my other bikes? Hope to get out again tomorrow, supposed to be +10 !

[Terry in Australia]

I've been looking at big single cylinder bikes, and I might have found one, but more on that later. Anyway, today was another beautiful warm day (86 Deg F) so I needed some wind therapy. The new tail lights for the VMax arrived from Britain last week to replace the sketchy one I installed to replace the original round ones that melted the lenses due to me wiring the brake and tail light arse backwards, due to there not being any wiring diagram from Exactrep, and their wiring being backwards from what seems logical. Gotta love English electrics..

VMax Monday 9 March 2026 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyway, I installed them, and lengthened the wiring (as Exactrep's wiring supplied was also too short to connect to the OEM harness) and everything works.

VMax Monday 9 March 2026 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Today is a public holiday in Victoria (which of course I've forgotten about since retiring) and when I hit the Hume Highway ("Doom Dieway", as one old bike journo used to refer to it, because it's hundreds of miles of boredom) the incoming traffic was enormous, as all the holiday makers were returning home. When it's busy like this I use a parallel secondary road, but it was really busy too, so I decided to "Head for the hills" away from any freeways, and rode up to Kinglake. I wasn't hungry, and had promised to make the wife my delicious home made burgers, so I didn't stop for food, but did stop for a stretch (back pain) and a smoke, and of course took some pics.

VMax Monday 9 March 2026 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

If you can enlarge this pic enough, you can see the city of Melbourne in the distance, many miles away. The ride back was fun, the road from Kinglake to St Andrews is like "The tail of the dragon" on meth. Lots of 10-15 MPH corners, and if you're not paying attention, and end up running wide, there's a good 100+ feet drop that you probably won't survive. I'm used to it, and like to scare myself trying to blast from corner to corner, and so far, I haven't done an "Evel Kneivel". Anyway, it was a great 100-odd mile ride. #17 down, 9 to go!

VMax Monday 9 March 2026 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

[Kevin D]

Terry, yes, I can see Melbourne in the distance, how many souls live in greater Melbourne?
I see the power lines in the foreground, do you know the voltage that they operate at? I spent a lot of time working in the stations at either end of the lines, mostly when they were off thank goodness.

I’m getting ready with a clean leaderboard and virtual badges for 2026. I learned from wiki that US 26 runs from Scottsbluff, Nebraska through Wyoming and Togwotee Pass through Ofreenland, Idaho and Oregon to the Pacific at Astoria. Sounds like a terrific ride.

[PeWe]

Minus 17 on me.
I have Terry as a reference

[Kevin D]

Per, your name will surely be there. I’m hoping to be there as well.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, no idea about the electricity Kevin, but I remember a tech telling me about a friend of his that was able to steal the radiated electricity by installing a transformer (I think) on his back fence and feeding it into his house’s power box. Too technical for me, but I can’t see what the fuss is about as he didn’t tap into the power line, he just made use of the radiated electricity in the area directly under the power lines?

Anyway I think I’ll take a spanner and a cotter pin over to the storage unit today and adjust the chain on the K0, and take it for a ride. Life could be a lot worse..

[spotty]

Terry, yes, I can see Melbourne in the distance, how many souls live in greater Melbourne?
I see the power lines in the foreground, do you know the voltage that they operate at? I spent a lot of time working in the stations at either end of the lines, mostly when they were off thank goodness.

I’m getting ready with a clean leaderboard and virtual badges for 2026. I learned from wiki that US 26 runs from Scottsbluff, Nebraska through Wyoming and Togwotee Pass through Ofreenland, Idaho and Oregon to the Pacific at Astoria. Sounds like a terrific ride.

theres about 5.5 million people here in about 950sq miles, which is about the same as LA or twice the size of NY

[BallAquatics]

03/09/2026 Ride #9, another 100+ mile day! Well after spending the best part of the weekend on the tender, the Yamaha Turbo fired right up.

I gassed up Blue and took enough tools to remove the required body-work on the Yamaha if need be. Lots of blue sky and sun shine, temps in the mid 50's on the way out.

Took the Yamaha off the tender and thought I'd give it a go before removing anything to access the battery and I'm glad I did. No hesitation at all, she pop right off. Left it to run as I put Blue in the shed in her place and got things buttoned up.



Was a bit over 20 miles out on Blue and then a leisurely 90+ miles on the Turbo coming home. After about 60 miles the computer on the Yamaha decided that the battery was fine and stopped warning me that we had a problem. For me the only thing wrong with the 1982 XJ650LJ Seca Turbo is the gadgets they put on the bike. It checks the headlight, taillight, battery, and a couple other things and if it thinks there's a problem, it flashes a red warning light. You can over-ride the warning, but every time you you have to stop at an intersection it starts in again. The little probe that test the battery electrolyte is unobtanium, but I might be able to come up with some simple electric circuitry to make it happy feeding it from the positive side of the battery.

I wanted badly to get a photo of this massive field of winter wheat that was coming up, just to show Jim. It was emerald green and lush, but with all the recent rain there wasn't any place to pull over and get a photo. It would have looked like I was in Ireland if I had got the photo. 

Tomorrow is forecast to be much the same as today, so I changed the oil in the Yamaha in the hope of another ride tomorrow...

[lash]

Managed no.2 yesterday, beautiful day with +17 and clear skies but windy. Today and tomorrow will be rain, thunderstorms and freezing rain forecast so no riding for a while!

[lash]

Beat the rain today for ride 3 on the KLR. Roads still to muddy for my Hondas..

[BallAquatics]

03-10-2026 Ride #10, 51.3 miles.  When I checked the weather this morning it said near record high temperatures.  Well hell, that means a "no windshield" day in early March, not a common occurrence in Ohio.



It's been quite a while since I've got in a good ride on the SL-175.  I've got the side covers off as I purchased a 3d printer around the first of the year with the intention of making motorbike parts.  It's been an adventure learning CAD, and the ins and outs of creating parts with a 3d printer.

At any rate, while it was overcast it was very warm here today. The thermometer said 73F, but after being much colder for so long, it felt warmer than that. No gear other than a light pair of summer gloves, I wondered the local back roads.



Three days after lots of rain, the river is back to normal levels, but the rain returns tonight and tomorrow.



Just before getting back to the house, the bike clicked over to 7000 miles. Pretty good for a 56 year old motorbike!



There will probably be a break in my riding as the forecast is calling for normal temperatures to return for the next 10 days or so. Looking back at last year, I'm at about the same place for this time of the year so I guess even with the weeks of cold weather, we are close to fairly normal weather conditions.

[Alan F.]

Everyone is doing so well, congratulations everyone!

We hit 73°F here this afternoon and the snow melt is progressing very nicely. Hopefully there will be some rain this week to finish washing away the remaining salt and sand.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, great rides. I love those old SL/CL Honda's, a mate (RIP) had a 350 when I was a kid, and I was very jealous. Yesterday was in the high 80's, but I needed some wind therapy. I drove over to the storage unit with a big spanner and some degreaser, so I could adjust the chain on the K0, and clean some crap off the engine. I bought the chain around 6 months after I built the K0 as the cheapie I bought from Kruizinimage was rubbish, and replace it with a DID or RK (don't remember) and I only had to move the wheel back maybe 6mm, to take most of the slack out of it. I like to have about an inch of slop in the chain to account for the soft rear shocks and my 220 pounds, and I was happy with it not slapping the "shorty" chainguard over bumps when backing off the throttle. I also degreased everything, including the exhausts, which were looking a bit grubby.

K0 Tuesday 10 March 2026 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The traffic was a lot more pleasant after Monday (long weekend) and so I cruised up the freeway to Wallan, then headed west to Romsey, Lancefield, "The valley of the rocks" near Pyalong, where I stopped for a stretch and a smoke, then took a couple of pics.

K0 Tuesday 10 March 2026 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Then another 20 odd miles to Kilmore. I'd had a big breakfast and it was pretty hot, so I opted for Gelato instead. There's always room for Gelato... Anyway, 18 down, and 8 to go.

K0 Tuesday 10 March 2026 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

It's my birthday today, so as hinted a post or two ago, I bid on, and won (after a small bidding war) a 2007 Yamaha XT660X. Yamaha built these and called them "Supermoto" which are very popular in Europe, but apparently didn't make it to the US? It has some nice features, 17" wide rims, Paioli forks, Brembo brakes, and a few other nice bits. I rode it over to the storage unit, and bumped into my son who'd just come back from a ride on his Royal Enfield GT650. The big Yamaha is much too quiet for a big single, so I'll buy something nicer, plus a freer flowing air filter and a power commander to give it another 20% performance over the standard 48 BHP. I need to get a Roadworthy Inspection done, and get it registered, and then it'll feature in this thread. Should be a fun bike...

Terry’s new toy. by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[newday777]

Happy birthday Terry and congrats on the win.

[PeWe]

Interesting  bike on your birthday, old man!!
I look forward to reading about the rides.

[Alan F.]

Happy birthday Terry.

[Kelly E]

Nice XT Terry, back in the early 80's some of my friends used to build big cc barely street legal single cylinder enduros and put sticky street tires on them. There were several 500 Macio two strokes, Honda XR's and Yamaha XT's. They raced them on a couple of different roads that were full of tight turns, potholes and bumps.
That XT reminds me of those guys, they were having big fun on their enduros and I don't remember any of them getting caught by the cops.

Oh, and Happy Birthday.