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

[newday777]

Congratulations Terry.
Now if I can heal up from the bronchitis and sinus infection I've been hacking through this past week, I will get started here. I missed a couple of warmer days this past week. It's supposed to hit the 60s again later this week.

[PeWe]

Congratulations. Terry! The final on a good looking and running CB750

I'll hopefully get my first ride for 2026 this coming weekend.
Unless the weather apps change their minds and give us sh!t as they did this extended Easter weekend.

[Kevin D]

Well done Terry
Here is the first of your virtual awards
I will add the stage1 “First In” kit ASAP

[Kevin D]

There you go Mate
Congratulations and also Congratulations on your retirement
Leaderboard very soon

[BenelliSEI]

Well done Terry! 4” of snow here overnight so not likely to catch up any time soon!

[Kevin D]

…..and a Leaderboard to be filled with your names

[BallAquatics]

Congratulations Terry!  Hope you get your back sorted and are back on the bikes quickly.

[newday777]

Well it looks like it will be another week before I get to ride my 1st ride of 2026. Will have to wait for rain to clean the salt off the roads again.....

[Kevin D]

I rolled my CB from cold storage into its seasonal parking spot yesterday. I was going to try and start it and ride around the block a few times but while I was having lunch the sunny and temperate day turned to snow and sleet kaboshing my plans. Last night I was diverted to watch the UM basketball team complete their fine season and I hope and expect their academic record matches their athletic record.
 This morning I put my battery tester (thanks Per) on my 5 yr old AGM. The battery has sat quietly since the bike was run last November. Is 189CCA, 12.42v, 62% enough for the first start of 2026? I don’t know…. will find out later. I’ll not be riding today and although it’s nice and sunny the thermometer is at 26f, brrrr, and maybe it needs an overnight on the trickle.
Today is 4/7 and I need to get after my 1040.
My recent pursuits pictured below.

[PeWe]

Kevin,
I should give that battery a charge,  a day or 2.

I check my bikes  batteries and car battery with that tester.
My car with short drives and alarm need a charge once a month.

My bikes  with new AGM  batteries 2026 more seldom, max every 2nd month. Maybe 3 months.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, the K0 is running really well this year, and I thought it should be the bike to do ride #26 on. The weather yesterday was atrocious, so I sorted out some parts to take to the swap meet on Sunday and looked through the tub of parts that I’d brought home for my 1969 Kawasaki Mach III, but sadly there were only a couple of parts that will fit (Mach III’s are like K0’s, many differences between them and later models) but discovered some nice H1 parts that I’d forgotten about, that I’ll take to the swap meet.

I was slightly pissed off that a pair of headlight ears that I probably paid too much for weren’t Mach III’s items at all, and also discovered that one of the fork springs are missing, but found a minty H1 tail light assembly that will probably pay for the missing Mach III’s parts.

The sun has come back out again so I hope to do ride #27 today, on the XT660X. I’ll take my “26 Rides” tag over to the storage unit and put it on the K0, to add to the other 3 from previous years. Should be a good day.

[Kevin D]

Kevin,
I should give that battery a charge,  a day or 2.

Yes, Per, the battery was on my charger overnight.
I tried to start it without charging, but was unsuccessful: the motor turned a few times at speed (but slowing) but did not fire. I will try again later today.
 It’s still cold and the 20w-50 is thick. My new Toyota uses 0w-16.

[PeWe]

Kevin,
I should give that battery a charge,  a day or 2.

Yes, Per, the battery was on my charger overnight.
I tried to start it without charging, but was unsuccessful: the motor turned a few times at speed (but slowing) but did not fire. I will try again later today.
 It’s still cold and the 20w-50 is thick. My new Toyota uses 0w-16.

You did not test battery after the start attempt?
 If the health and charge has decreased much.

[Kevin D]

Kevin,
I should give that battery a charge,  a day or 2.

Yes, Per, the battery was on my charger overnight.
I tried to start it without charging, but was unsuccessful: the motor turned a few times at speed (but slowing) but did not fire. I will try again later today.
 It’s still cold and the 20w-50 is thick. My new Toyota uses 0w-16.

You did not test battery after the start attempt?
 If the health and charge has decreased much.

No Per, I didn’t put the meter on the battery afterwards. It failed to crank after a few spins. I went for the charger and it has been on for 20+ hrs. When I take the charger off I will let it rest for ?? Half hour?? and retest. I may yet circle the neighborhood today, temp is up to 53f.

[BallAquatics]

04/08/2026 ride #15, 50+ miles on the Honda NC700X.  Had a doctors appointment and decided it was warm enough to go on the bike.  Blue sky's with temps in the mid 50'sF, just a light wind and plenty of sunshine.

Filled up on the way home and the bike's getting 76.64 mpg. The two cylinder half of a 1.5 liter Honda Fit engine just purrs along at 3000rpm running 60mph.

[Terry in Australia]

Kevin,
I should give that battery a charge,  a day or 2.

Yes, Per, the battery was on my charger overnight.
I tried to start it without charging, but was unsuccessful: the motor turned a few times at speed (but slowing) but did not fire. I will try again later today.
 It’s still cold and the 20w-50 is thick. My new Toyota uses 0w-16.

You did not test battery after the start attempt?
 If the health and charge has decreased much.

No Per, I didn’t put the meter on the battery afterwards. It failed to crank after a few spins. I went for the charger and it has been on for 20+ hrs. When I take the charger off I will let it rest for ?? Half hour?? and retest. I may yet circle the neighborhood today, temp is up to 53f.

G’day Kevin, I have had batteries that, after charging read over 12 volts, but will either only crank an engine slowly, or won’t at all. Recently I saw a “cool tool” that not only measures the voltage, but also the cranking amps. Basically, you just input the CCA printed on your battery and the little gauge will tell you what cranking amps the battery is holding. I checked 4 batteries and two of them (fully charged) were holding way less than the rated CCA, so I threw them out. They’re a fantastic diagnostic tool, and mine cost less than $30 USD on Amazon.

[newday777]

Kevin,
I should give that battery a charge,  a day or 2.

Yes, Per, the battery was on my charger overnight.
I tried to start it without charging, but was unsuccessful: the motor turned a few times at speed (but slowing) but did not fire. I will try again later today.
 It’s still cold and the 20w-50 is thick. My new Toyota uses 0w-16.

You did not test battery after the start attempt?
 If the health and charge has decreased much.

No Per, I didn’t put the meter on the battery afterwards. It failed to crank after a few spins. I went for the charger and it has been on for 20+ hrs. When I take the charger off I will let it rest for ?? Half hour?? and retest. I may yet circle the neighborhood today, temp is up to 53f.

G’day Kevin, I have had batteries that, after charging read over 12 volts, but will either only crank an engine slowly, or won’t at all. Recently I saw a “cool tool” that not only measures the voltage, but also the cranking amps. Basically, you just input the CCA printed on your battery and the little gauge will tell you what cranking amps the battery is holding. I checked 4 batteries and two of them (fully charged) were holding way less than the rated CCA, so I threw them out. They’re a fantastic diagnostic tool, and mine cost less than $30 USD on Amazon.

I bought a similar tester last July that works great. Best $30 tool.

[Kevin D]

Terry, that looks very similar to what I have, and yes, I have found it useful. I had hoped that the battery would rest all winter without charging and start my CB, it has done that before, but not this time at 5 years old.
 Today’s proceedings went much better after the battery was charged overnight.
First meter test was done immediately after removing the charger.
Second meter test 20 minutes later.
 Time for a load test: petcock open, key on, choke full, kill switch on, press starter button, and va-roooom on the first turn of the crank it fired! I eased the choke to 75%, turned the idle screw in a bit…..
I should have left the kill switch off to give the battery a workout and let the oil pump do its job…. But noooo, it’s running, first start of 2026, choke to 50%, idle to 1800rpm, get my jacket helmet gloves, and push it off the stand, woohoo it’s happening! I roll down the drive 1st gear, clutch in check rear brake roll again check front brake, neighbor waves, I’m grinning ear to ear, 2nd 3rd 25mph, stop sign at 6 mile, traffic clears and I’m off for real, 45 mph, stop at Farmington, right turn and a little more urgency through the gears oooh yeaaah,
Back through the sub, and roll into the garage, hit the kill switch still grinning, key off petcock off, put it on the center stand with a mighty pull/lift open the seat and take the third meter test.
5 miles… doesn’t count for ride #1… but it counts plenty

[Terry in Australia]

Terry, that looks very similar to what I have, and yes, I have found it useful. I had hoped that the battery would rest all winter without charging and start my CB, it has done that before, but not this time at 5 years old.
 Today’s proceedings went much better after the battery was charged overnight.
First meter test was done immediately after removing the charger.
Second meter test 20 minutes later.
 Time for a load test: petcock open, key on, choke full, kill switch on, press starter button, and va-roooom on the first turn of the crank it fired! I eased the choke to 75%, turned the idle screw in a bit…..
I should have left the kill switch off to give the battery a workout and let the oil pump do its job…. But noooo, it’s running, first start of 2026, choke to 50%, idle to 1800rpm, get my jacket helmet gloves, and push it off the stand, woohoo it’s happening! I roll down the drive 1st gear, clutch in check rear brake roll again check front brake, neighbor waves, I’m grinning ear to ear, 2nd 3rd 25mph, stop sign at 6 mile, traffic clears and I’m off for real, 45 mph, stop at Farmington, right turn and a little more urgency through the gears oooh yeaaah,
Back through the sub, and roll into the garage, hit the kill switch still grinning, key off petcock off, put it on the center stand with a mighty pull/lift open the seat and take the third meter test.
5 miles… doesn’t count for ride #1… but it counts plenty

Excellent! Yeah I was surprised that after sitting for several months before my first ride in 2026 the 5(?) year old battery that hasn’t been near a battery charger fired the K0 up with no issues. I did give it about 10 kicks with the ignition off and fuel and choke on before I hit the starter button, but it fired right up and settled into a happy idle, while I put on my jacket, helmet and gloves, and rode it to fill it with fresh fuel, on my first ride for the year. They truly are wonderful old bikes!

I’m glad that I didn’t go for a ride today. The new seat cover for the XT660X was delivered today so I spent an hour or so removing the 2 seat covers from the spare seat, then I actually read the instructions on how to fit it, so stretched the cover over the seat and put it on the roof of the wife’s old Hyundai to soften the vinyl before stapling it in place.

I then remembered that my electric staple gun is pretty useless on bike seats so debated about taking it to the upholstery shop and getting them to fit it, but remembered how much I paid to have the VMax and “Venture Royale” seat recovered, looked at Amazon and found a Bosch upholstery stapler with 1000 staples (which should be enough..) for about $60 USD, and will wait until it’s delivered tomorrow, before I proceed any further.

I did go for ride #27 yesterday and thought about taking the VMax for a ride today but got sidetracked finding more bike parts to take to the swap meet on Sunday, and by the time I finished, the weather had turned for the worst, and it’s now raining again. I don’t really mind, this retirement gig is pretty good, if I have a crappy day today, there’s always tomorrow..

[Alan F.]

Congrats on #26 Terry.

[Kelly E]

We picked up this pneumatic stapler for recovering seats for $30 at Harbour Freight. It uses T-50 staples and we've done several seats with it already.

[BallAquatics]

04/10/2026 ride #16, 50+ miles on Honda NC700X.  Early morning ride today to meet up with friends for breakfast.  Was a bright sunny morning with temps in the low 50'sF.  A bit of a breeze, but nothing terrible.



It's been awhile since we got together so lot's to catch up on.  Our goal is to hit every Mom & Pop establishment in this area of Ohio.  Today we were at a place called Holly's.  Fantastic food and service!  Great prices too.



After breakfast I meandered around some less traveled back roads.  Lot's of work in the fields as the ground is warming up and has dried enough to allow equipment into the fields.



Bike was running great.  The NC770X isn't fast or flashy, but it does work very well when carving up a twisty back road.  With a 270 crank it's got lot's of low rpm torque and let's you be lazy with shifts.



Probably my second favorite bike behind Blue.  The great gas mileage is a big plus when wandering with no particular destination in mind...

[Terry in Australia]

We picked up this pneumatic stapler for recovering seats for $30 at Harbour Freight. It uses T-50 staples and we've done several seats with it already.

That looks like a good one Kelly. I looked at a couple of pneumatic ones on Amazon (no Harbour Freight here) but I thought I might staple the new cover on inside my warm house, (starting to get cooler here sadly) so electric was a better option for me. Here's a pic of the spare seat that I bought with the speedo and a heap of other parts a couple of weeks ago. It actually had 2 seat covers on it, the PO had just stapled another seat cover over the old one.

XT660X seat re-cover by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I unpicked the staples, which took about an hour as there were so many.

XT660X seat re-cover 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The new stapler arrived yesterday, so I stapled the new seat cover on. In the instructions it said to use 6mm staples, but the kit only came with 10mm staples, so I used them, and for the most part they were fine, but there's an area where the seat base is pretty thin, and when I ran my hand over the outside of the cover, I could feel the sharp ends of the staples trying to push through the outside of the cover. I had a dig around my garage and found some 8mm staples, and replaced the 10mm staples in that area, but even 8mm staples were too long, so I ordered a pack of 6mm staples, and I'll re-do that section tonight, after I come back from Spotty's place. It does look pretty good now though, and is the correct colour scheme for my bike.

XT660X seat re-cover 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'm looking forwards to swapping the seats out, as the loose cover on the seat on my bike pisses me off.

Anyway, on Wednesday I took the XT for a quick 60 mile ride (#27) but didn't stop for food or anything as I had some errands to run when I got back. I did stop for a quick pic though.

XT660X Wednesday 8 April 2026 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The weather has done a back flip over the last week or so, from being in the high 70's, to 51.8 as I type this, at 0920 today, with a high of 59. Today Spotty and I are loading up his van with parts for the swap meet tomorrow, so no riding for a couple of days, but that's OK, it'll be good if I can sell another pile of parts and slowly clean out my garage. Hopefully I'll get at least one ride in next week, but I think I'll have to rug up for the next few months.

 

[newday777]

Wahoo! #1 is on the books!
The doctor put in a prescription to blow out my lungs of the sludge from the bronchitis I've been hackin through the past week and a half with some wind therapy today 4/10/26
Started off at 12:30 70°F temperature. 6 miles to my favorite lunch stop Papa Joe's, had the Friday Fish and Chips then headed south up over Federal Hill Rd(tar to dirt back country road to Hollis, stopped by where it was apple orchards for 40 years......but now another farm is leasing the land for veggies. Then in the center of town at right turn to head west north of the border over the old Mason Rd. When I got to Mason I remembered that a friend posted on fb asking for peeps to toot their bike horns as they ride by, he's on his last days of 1-3 months given in January. His wife says he can't respond but hears everything, and his eyes light up when he hears the bikes go by. I got to say hi and see you later brother when we meet again.
I stopped by Uncle Sam's house which is just up the road from Kevin's, then stopped for a shot of the hills and another orchard as seen from the top of the hill.
I continued west on 124 to stop in Jaffrey at the Kimbal Farms, I was all watered up for an ice cream, but found they haven't opened yet for the season.....bummed.
So I took the back roads east through Temple to Wilton and in to Milford to stop at the market for some food for the fridge. Back home at 4:30 and 73°F. 86 miles.

[BallAquatics]

Way to go Stu.  Sounds like a great day out on the bike.