The (New) Adventures of Dick Sprocket

Donington Pics

2008-03-25T04:41:00.001-07:00

Finally got round to ordering some pictures from the Donington trackday, here are a couple of the good ones.

Nice shot at Coppice:

And at the Melbourne Loop:

Farewell

2008-03-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

The XL should be going home tomorrow, so I thought I'd better take some pics (as previously promised), before it goes.

There are already plans afoot to fill the space it will leave in the garage, but thats another story....

Donington

2008-02-21T00:40:00.000-08:00

Did a Focused Events track day last Saturday, at Donington.
I've done quite a few laps around Donno in cars and a handful on a bike (RH race school).
That said I was a bit scared, havening previously only done track days at Mallory.

To be honest I didn't really enjoy it, it was just to cold for me.
Track leathers are designed to keep you cool not keep you warm.
By the time I got to the circuit (about a 20 mile ride) wearing every jumper, fleece and piece of waterproof clothing I own, I was so cold I wanted to cry.

The first track session was okay, took it very steady and avoided the ice on the Hanger Straight (which was right where I was braking for the Foggy Esses (EEK!)).

Started to get more confident and a little faster in the second session, putting together some nice lines through Redgate and Coppice, and even some knee scraping though the Melbourne loop.
A big front end "moment" (well it felt big to me) at Gerrards put paid to my confidence and I wobbled round for the rest of the session even slower than normal.

I quick feel of the front tyre after the session revealed it to be stone cold.
A decrease of a few PSI's at both ends and things where looking and feeling a bit better, until another front end scare at Coppice, which once again reduced me to bimmbling round at snails pace.

By the forth session I was so paranoid about losing the front and binning it I was just all over the place. Went home in a sulk with two sessions still to go.

XL - ent

2008-02-10T13:37:00.000-08:00

I'm currently looking after my brother's 1979 XL250.
Ian (being the car masochist he is) has bought an old Hillman Imp which is taking up all garage space whilst he constantly and repeatedly has to mend it.
So his bikes have been fostered out.
Mum gets the Hornet, Rob gets the CCM flat tracker and I get the XL.

I've had it for a few months now, I went for a ride on it as soon as he dropped it off.
I've ridden it a few times before (Hill climbs, Enduros etc) and I always assumed that it handled like that because it was on dirt. Nope, it just handles like that !!.

So it went in the garage under a sheet until yesterday.
The MOT had expired so I said I would take it to get tested.
It failed.
After a trip to MTS to get the back tyre put on the right way (I think Ian had done this deliberately to even up the wear on the trials tyres) it passed.

Once I got used to the "features" of the old girl (knackered transmission, dodgy handling, crap brakes etc) I rather started to enjoy riding it.

I even washed it today as a congratulation for passing its MOT.
I'm even a little bit sad at the thought of it going home soon.

I'll post some pics tomorrow if I remember.

A quick round up.......

2008-02-10T13:21:00.000-08:00

.....of the last 9 or so months since I last posted on here (shame on me).

Sadly I haven't actually done that much biking, hence the lack of posts. (thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it!).

So in summary:

Moved house.
Sold the Hongdou, chap rode it back to Swindon or somewhere, brave man on a 50 mile tank range !
Bought a new car.
Ordered some new Hyperpro suspension for the SV.
Got a bollocking at work for swearing at Demon Tweeks over the phone after they delivered the wrong part after a two month wait, and then refused to give me a full refund.
Ordered some new Hyperpro suspension for the SV. (Sold the stuff the DT sent me on eBay).
Fitted suspension to SV.

Which pretty much brings us up to date.

Trackday

2007-05-14T05:22:00.000-07:00

Did a Focused Events "Chequered Flag Day" on Saturday at Mallory Park.
In the morning you go out as a group of 4 or 5 with an instructor, with a debrief after each session.
The afternoon is normal ability sessioned trackday.
This is my third excursion onto the track and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.

I think I'm also perhaps ready for a sportsbike now.
The SV is great but I don't think I can ride it much faster without things getting a bit scary.

You are supposed to pass on the brakes and leave at least 6 feet. A couple of times I was following sportsbikes and carrying much more mid corner speed but couldn't get past because I was having to brake 50ft earlier on the entry

One of the instructors looked at my bike and after checking the suspension commented "I'm surprised you're going as fast as you are on this bike"

Despite my boingy suspension I think I was still one of the fastest in the slow group.
Got some cracking pictures on CD from the professional photographer too.

Just need to do the next one at a track with more left handers so I can scuff my left slider up to match the right one !

Sunday Ride

2007-04-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

Had a lttle blast out to Cadwell Park on Sunday.
A friend was marshaling and had some free tickets.

I was going to go in the car as the weather forecast looked shite. Plus the fact the poor old car hasn't turned a wheel for some time now.
Anyway the sun was trying to break through the clouds as I looked out of the window first thing, so I thought I'd take a chance an go on me bike. It would be such a shame to waste all those lovely roads between here and Cadwell (sorry car).

Unfortunately all the good roads where clogged up with cars, vans, horseboxes and horses (not in boxes, with people on them). Every time I picked my through the traffic so I had a clear road ahead, the road was 12 miles of straight dual carriageway :-(

I cheered up slightly just as I entered Wragby. For a second I thought I was seeing double.
Out of a side road at some traffic lights pulled two identical R1s. With riders wearing identical gear, boots, helmets leathers, the lot.

I followed my identical chums through Wragby expecting then to disappear off into the distance.
They didn't, obviously didn't want their shiny new kit to get all splattered with flies and crap, they pootled along 59 mph. Fair play, every one has the right to ride how they want, so I whipped by them with a little wave.

Joy of joys ! the best bit of road on the journey and not a another vehicle in sight.
The two R1s now two tiny identical specs in my mirrors.
So I proceed to ride it as poorly as I can. Bollocks :-(
Maybe it was the frustration of all the traffic.

Never mind. I still had an afternoon of (free) historic racing. Cars rather than bikes but still some cracking racing.

A quick chat with Rob at lunchtime and a thoroughly entertaining afternoons racing.

The ride home was much better. The road to Wragby was empty again and this time I made a much better job of it.
Not mega fast (I am cautious road rider at the best of times) just nice and relaxed, concentrating on my steering inputs and my lines. Super.

As a bonus the road from Southwell to Burton Joyce was also (apart from one easily dispatched horse box) beautifully clear too.

Dealers

2007-04-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

I wonder sometimes how some dealers ever manage to sell a bike.
I popped up to my local Honda dealer to have a look at the new CBR 600 RR.

The RR has had some cracking write ups, especially in the is months TWO, who rate it as the best 600 for both road and track.

The salesman was less than enthusiastic (to say the least). Contrast this to the chap at the Yamaha dealer earlier (where I had taken my SV for its MOT) who was itching to sell me an R6 or even the second hand CBR he had in the showroom.

Shame I don't really want an R6, although out of all the supersport 600s the R6 is easily the looker of the bunch. The new Honda on the other hand leaves me a bit cold in the looks department.

In the new bike stakes the Gixxer (600 or 750) is still a firm favorite. I shall have to see how much money I have left after SprocketTowers has been upgraded.

The SV650 passed by the way.

Red Marley Hillclimb

2007-04-10T11:45:00.000-07:00

Cracking day out on Easter Monday.
Lots of nutters blasting up a dirty great hill on some fantastic old scramblers.

I'm rather proud of these pictures as normally I'm an absolutely rubbish photographer.
Normally at motorsport events I end up with a lot of pictures of gravel traps, marshall's posts, arnco etc.

If I'm really lucky, I might get one bike, out of focus and in the corner of the shot. So like I said rather proud of these.

Donnington Park

2007-04-02T00:50:00.000-07:00

I am sporting the Donnington "tan" (pink cheeks and nose) this morning.
The remarkable thing about the Donnington "tan" is that you pretty much get it whatever the weather.

The tan is obtained in either the traditional sense from the sunshine, or from being lashed with wind and rain for four hours.
Yesterday was a combination of wind and sun I think.

Reasonably enjoyable day watching the World Superbikes, although you are so far away from the track it is sometimes difficult to work out who is who. A few more video screens please Mr Gillett.

A good result in race 1 for Toseland but a shame to see Bayliss in the gravel and then in hospital with a busted hand (and out of race 2).
I would have much rather seen James and Troy battle it out for 23 laps and then JT to nick it on the last corner.

Alessandro Polita had a massive off right in front of me at the Old Hairpin. I hope he is ok as he didn't look in very good shape as the stretchered him off.

Good result for race 2 as well. With Nori Haga pinching it from Biaggi on the last corner after a race long battle with Corser joining in the fun too.

Choking

2007-03-30T00:51:00.000-07:00

The SV has been playing up the last few days.
The revs have been surging at tickover and at about 1/8th throttle.
This has been making things a little difficult at junctions and roundabouts, so far I have been able to ride around the problem, but it was getting annoying.

I did a search on the forum at www.sv650.org (an absolutely splendid site by the way) and found that one or two people had had the same problem, the culprit being a sticking choke.

I gave the lever on mine a damn good waggling and it seems to have done the trick (short term anyway).

I did take it to bits the other night with intention of checking/lubricating the mechanism on the carbs. In the end all I did was spray some lube down the cables as I couldn't really see anything obvious.

I haven't actually ridden it since so I don't know if I've done any good or buggered it up completely.

I did my first commute (my company has reallocated to some new (old) offices, which are further away) on the Hongdou today.

I actually got here (writing this at work) quicker than on the SV. I've noticed I ride (and especially filter) a little more aggressively on the Hongdou than on the SV.

Drool

2007-03-19T01:12:00.000-07:00

Had a ride out to my local Suzuki dealer (which actually isn't that local) on Saturday.
It felt so good to get out on a dry open road again and actually open the throttle and have some fun.

I seemed to have succumbed to the lure of the sportsbike as the object of my trip (apart from just have a good blast across Leicestershire) was to drool over the K7 GSX-R 750 and have a sit on it.

The K7 really is a smart looking bike and looks especially mean an menacing in black. The 600 this year is also available in red (hang on a minute, I'm starting to sound like a Suzuki brochure ! ;-) ) which also looks really smart. Shame they don't do the 750 in red as well.

Anyway I resisted the urge to ask for a test ride. I will wait until I have the funds in place first.

Counting

2007-03-09T01:10:00.000-08:00

Just about to leave work yesterday and I spotted the mileage on the SV.
Sorry for the crappy phone pic.

Made me smile anyway.

So Slow

2007-03-06T11:20:00.000-08:00

Had a first proper run on the Hongdou since fitting the new sprocket today.
On the whole its a much more pleasant machine to ride than before as your not constantly changing gear.

However acceleration has suffered slightly. Today, coming off an island I got smoked by a Peugeot 106 ! a 106 ! Hopefully this will improve as the engine loosens up a bit more. (It fecking well better as this is embarrassing.)

The weather looks good tomorrow so I might go to work on the SV (yes I know I'm a tart for not wanting to get it dirty).

More Sprockets

2007-03-01T06:31:00.000-08:00

My 50 tooth sprocket has finally arrived from M&P and has now been fitted.

It was a bit of a bugger to do as the rear wheel of the Hongdou is a really snug fit in the swingarm and thus a real bastard to re fit on your own. You have to hold the left hand spacer in place and push the spindle in with your left hand whilst holding the brake caliper bracket in place with your right, supporting the wheel on your foot and positioning it so the holes line up with your face.

Next time I'm just going to lay the thing over on its side.

Haven't had chance to have a proper test ride yet (f$%^king work) but an initial blast up the loop road shown the speedo needle reaching the dizzy heights of 70 mph !!

Super Retard

2007-02-25T12:27:00.000-08:00

Or should that me super motard ? Well not really just fitted some Avon Distanzia tyres.
They look pretty cool don't they ?

Not Happy

2007-02-20T00:50:00.000-08:00

The Tiddly-X is not in favour at the moment.
It was very reluctant to start this morning, I also noticed (as I was walking back to the garage to find a large hammer to punish it for not starting) the brake light was on. Further investigation revealed my Meccano brake light mod had failed (not the fault of the bike I know). I think it must of fallen off on Saturday during the marathon 40 mile round trip to Jim's house.

So back in the garage it went and out came my beautiful pristine SV650 (which is now less pristine, heading towards grubby).

The way it's going the Hongdou is not going to get its Avon Distanzia tyres and new sprocket (on order from M&P) unless it starts behaving itself.

Good Day

2007-02-11T12:25:00.000-08:00

Its been a good day today, fitted some new brake pads to the SV and even managed to get a new brake lever for the Hongdou (although its not an exact fit, I had to engineer a little in order for it to work the brake light switch (with a bit of Meccano)).

I even gave it a clean as an apology for crashing it.

My brother came round just after lunch as he had been out for a blast on his new CCM.
Now its not like he doesn't know better, he's had a CCM before.

I'd seen pictures of the flat tracker and to be honest wasn't that sure about it, it looks ace in the metal though. He got it for a great price, it only had seven miles on the clock too !

Sprockets

2007-02-09T12:20:00.000-08:00

I have been trying for some time now to purchase a new sprocket for the Hongdou to gear it up a bit. I purchased a 45 tooth one off eBay. It arrived, it didn't have 45 teeth, I sent it back.

Today I recieved a replacement, it has 45# on it, however I think someone in the Chinese sprocket factory has some counting issues.

My Kingdom For a Bike

2007-02-05T13:47:00.000-08:00

Number of motorcycles owned - 2
Number of motorcycles serviceable - 0

I was hoping to get the Hongdou back on the road today. I got a package from M&P in the post this morning containing new grips and levers.
The grips where spot on as they are identical to the ones already on the bike (i.e. I only have to change one). This was particularly impressive as there was no picture on the website, just the description "Moto-X grips, black".

The levers where another story, I took a chance and ordered some levers for a Honda XLR125 as I am buggered if I'm going to pay £12 for the "proper" (monkey metal) ones off eBay.
Plus my past experiences of eBay Chinese bike importers has shown them to be less than reliable.

On first inspection they didn't look too bad (apart from them being silver when the description on the packet said "front brake lever black"). Not the end of the world I thought, silver levers will look quite cool. The profile of the part of the lever that depressed the master cylinder was only slightly different to the original. So after five minutes of judicious filing it working like a charm.
Unfortunately it had completely escaped my attention that the part of the lever that operates the brake light switch, was nothing like (D'OH!).

So I have relented and called the guy who I bought the bike off.
"Ok, no problem, send me an email". I shan't hold my breath.

I've also managed to bugger the SV up as well. Noticed the brakes where binding a little bit when I wheeled it out of the garage on Saturday, so I whipped the calipers off and gave them a cleanup and applied a dob of grease where needed.

The backs where about shot so I nipped into town to Hein Gericke and bought some new ones (and some fangled HH sintered ones at that !).
I was struggling to push the pistons back far enough to get the caliper back on the disc and bent the back plate of one of the pads, cracking the friction material. The sintered pads seem to have copper back plates (weight saving ?) which are rather soft. D'OH! (again).

Cars

2007-01-31T14:14:00.000-08:00

With the Tiddly-X temporarily incapacitated and the roads being far to dirty and horrible to take the SV out (It's a Suzuki it'll go all fury and dissolve) I have had to resort to using the car to get to work.

Now don't get me wrong I really like my car. It looks pretty smart (as you can see), its got a heater (and aircon when its hot), it doesn't even fall over when you let go of it. All in all it's generally much harder to hurt yourself with than a bike.

So driving to work this week I've been warm, comfortable, dry, relatively safe and BORED STIFF !

Ouch !

2007-01-30T01:13:00.000-08:00

Decided to crash test the Tiddly-X this morning.
Lost the front end on a right hander (where the road bends right, heading into town, behind the Notts County ground if you know Nottingham).
I reckon there must have been some diesel (although there was no obvious sigh of a spill) as I was going pretty steadily.

The Hondgdou stood up pretty well. There is a scuff on both the front and rear footpegs, front brake lever snapped and I managed to take a chunk out of the right side handlebar grip.
(I later found the missing chunk of rubber wedged behind the toe slider on my right boot.)

Apart from that it seems ok. After a cursory road side inspection at the scene I rode it the rest of the way to work ok (Very slowly as the back brake isn't that great !).

I seem to be reasonably damage free, bit of a bruise on my right hip but that seems to be about it.

Thanks to the lady in the green Mondeo for stopping to see if I was ok.

Hangover

2007-01-27T05:24:00.000-08:00

I've been on call for work all week so motorcycle activity has been limited as I cant hear/feel my pager when I'm on the bike.

So normally after a week on call, come Saturday I'm up early and out for a blast.

The Tiddly-X is out on the drive all ready to go. It will probably even start thanks to its recently fitted super new Varta battery. The original one discharged so quickly I gave up trying to start it with button (bypassed the kick start) and just went straight to the bump start option, as this is easiest method of provoking the thing into life.

However its now 1:30 pm and it hasn't turned a wheel.
This is because I feel shit, really shit.

I strongly suspect that the 3 litres of Kronenberg and 4 tonnes of Bombay Mix I consumed
last might have something to do with it, but I cant be sure.

New Lid

2007-01-19T09:35:00.000-08:00

Sent the RSX back. My local Honda dealer have an offer on Sharks at the moment (30% off) so managed to get an RSR2 for less than I would have payed for the RSX off the internet.

Very happy with this indeed.

Last Year

2007-01-16T12:41:00.000-08:00

The weather is crap and I'm pissed off, so I've decided to post some pics (and remind myself) of my best biking bits of last year to cheer myself up.

Me pretending to be a Supersport 600 star at the Ron Raslam race school:

Scotland, Easter weekend:

On Ian's XL competing in the Midland Classic MCC Enduro:

Chimay and Ieper (Ypres) in the summer:

Track day at Mallory:

I feel much better now !

Sunday

2007-01-14T11:39:00.000-08:00

Been an interesting day today, I've ridden three different bikes.
As it was such a nice day I thought I'd take the SV out for a run, after riding the Hongdou for three weeks it felt like a MotoGP bike. Also the novelty of being able to go faster than 60mph and having a back brake that actually works was quite nice too.

I had a bimble up to J&S at Kimberly to look for a new lid but there was nothing I fancied. I have actually purchased a new Shark RSX Intense of the internet. It look great in the pictures but not so good in the flesh . I shall have to give them a ring tomorrow and see if I can return it.

When I got back I decided to adjust the preload a little on the Hongdou, as the back end was rather stiff, this coupled with the soft forks made for quite an interesting ride.
However the Hongdou didn't seem to want to be adjusted. I couldn't really get any purchase on it with the C-spanner as access was a little restricted, so I decided to whip the shock out and do it on the bench. The bolt on the dog bone and on the bottom of the shock are metric and presented no problem. Unfortunately the bolt on the top of the shock is no spanner size that I possess (Chinese cycle thread No. 5 ?)

Strong language, violence and scenes of an adult nature followed.
The preload was adjusted.

I had a quick blast round the block and jumped it over a few speed bumps as a test.

As I was clearing up the post preload adjustment carnage (putting my big hammer away and filing the end of my biggest screwdriver flat again) my recent new neighbour pulled up on his SV1000S (red with lowers) which was previously stored elsewhere.

Anyway he insisted I took it for a blast. What a hoot ! A lot more grunt than I was expecting and the steering felt quicker than on mine. I would definitely get into trouble with one of these, I think I'll stick with the 650 for a while.

Happy New Year

2007-01-02T03:09:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year.
I have (obviously) decided to resurrect my blog.
I gave up trials riding, as I didn't really enjoy it (and I was crap).
I could always do a lot better (and have more fun) riding the sections after the trial had finished.
So the Fantic has been sold and I'm pretty sure she went to a good home, I hope her new owner has more success than I did.

With the Fantic gone the garage seemed a bit empty, so I bought this:

A Hongdou GY200, the build quality isn't great and the engine's a bit rough, but what do you want for £600 !

It comes likes this:

And a little assembly is required:

But after a few hours of assembly you've got yourself a cheap (and rather smart) winter hack.