Motorbikes

In November 2005 I took the plunge and bought a motorbike on eBay. Since then I have taken part in training, and generally made a few comments.

Ninth or Tenth Ride To Advanced

alistairl

I’ve checked back and I’m not sure which week this is, so here goes anyway.

The preparation for my IAM Advanced Motorcycle Test with EDAM started up again today with the clock change. Between work and recent illness I haven’t been out on the R1100RS that much, so today was reassuring in that I appeared to be at a similar level as I was in November. Same weak areas, others have held steady or have become more of my standard ride which is a good thing. I need to look as far as possible, observing what is going on and using the information. My slow maneuvering is also a bit ropey, as it was before.

I was out with Bob and Steve today, Steve having his test pass and planning to train up as an Observer. We did a mix of A/B, town and dual carriageway.

It was good to get out with my same Observer, there are limitations to practice and what can develop, but with the lighter evenings I might be able to get out and practice slow stuff. MOT is on Saturday, hopefully there won’t be any frights in that area.

Second Opinion on the BMW R1100RS

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Collected the R1100RS on Wednesday night, after a feat of logistics planning between Livingston and South Queensferry. I’m the only driver in the house, so I had good fun with the round trip involving driving the car, riding the motorbike, catching a bus and catching a train.

Having checked the bike over, I’m going to avoid second guessing the examiner and put it through its MOT test, and see what he thinks. The lower shock mounting has been tightened up, the brakes have been freed off, and the pads in both calipers replaced as they were badly corroded on the backs and not sitting on the pistons correctly. The discs have been left alone, as have the handlebars – they are mounted on two large rubber bushes and are supposed to move. The chap working on it gave it a good test ride and it handles and goes fine for him.

Just over £80 so far – we’ll see how the MOT goes in a week’s time.

BMW goes in for a second opinion

alistairl

Took the R1100RS to South Queensferry this evening for a second opinion on the items that “condemned” the bike, to quote the chap tonight.

His opinion? Floating discs are meant to move, the bolt at the bottom of the front shock might be worn, he has seen a lot worse when it comes to front discs. Yes, the calipers need freed up, but if I don’t ride the bike enough …..

Some people in the motortrade can’t tell you straight when they don’t want to work on a bike, so they frighten you off …

Bloomin vehicles

alistairl

I changed cars last year, when the finance deal on the last one ran its course, so my current Passat is on a variable servicing schedule. For some folks it means longer intervals between visits to the garage. With me it means that the service indicator has just kicked in and is now pointing out I have 1800 miles to my next service. I think this gives me about 9 weeks.

And its MOT time for the bike. With cars over the last few years they have been serviced at the same place as do the MOT, so it is pretty straightforward to book it in and they fix whatever is needed for the MOT, which is not usually very much with a relatively new car.

With the bike it is slightly different, my BMW is over 10 years old and isn’t in daily use, so things come up with it. Last year I put the bike in at a local motorcycle mechanic in the next village to get a once over in anticipation of the MOT, and right enough he made a couple of tweaks and it passed. This time I decided to do the same as he is BMW trained, but got a different chap. And it comes back with a shortish but expensive list:

  • Play in the bush in the bottom of the front suspension strut (combined shock absorber / coil spring unit), which apparently you can’t buy seperately and therefore need a new strut.
  • Front brakes seized, and with two calipers working on the two discs, so a couple of kits to replace the four pistons and their seal kits for each caliper.
  • Front discs looking scabby, so two new discs, and they are rattling a bit, so new brake bobbins.
  • Too much movement in the rubber mounts for the handlebars, so two new rubber mounts there.

And a fair chunk of labour to pull things apart, clean them, fit the new parts in and reassemble. It was a bit of a shock hearing that worse case scenario was about £700 ish, for a bike I bought for £1995. Don’t get me wrong, safety stuff like brakes is not to be messed with, but the bike passed its MOT with the discs about 4000 miles ago (tops) and I don’t think they look that different.

So I’ve arranged to have the chap in South Queensferry look at it, and give me his verdict. He had to strip down the calipers last year, and I tried to follow the advice of washing the salt off, but they have seized up again after the season. It could be that replacing the pistons and seals would do the job, but he can tell me what he thinks. I am really hoping I don’t need to spend three figures getting them sorted. In the meantime I have to put the restart of the Advanced Motorcycling on hold, as the bike isn’t rideable. I’ll push it a little taking it over to get fixed, but I’m not going any further.

I’m going to hold on the particular lesson learned, but perhaps it does well to stick to have the same person looking after the bike, despite the minor inconvenience of public transport between Livingston and South Queensferry.

Tenth Anniversary, The Scottish Motorcycle Show

alistairl

The Scottish Motorcycle Show falls within the week of our Wedding Anniversary each year, so I usually work to combine both by going to the show during the day then going out for a family meal in the evening.

Being as it is our tenth this year, I booked a few days away for myself and Mrs AlistairL. Believe it or not we honeymooned all those years ago in Glasgow, so we returned again, albeit to a different hotel. I booked up a Junior Suite at a hotel about 50 yards from Sauchiehall Street and had a great few days. We popped out to see Ghost Rider at the cinema across the road on Wednesday night, using the 2 for 1 Orange Wednesday promotion. That was a cool film.

Thursday was out on the Underground and up to Byres Road, the Botanic Gardens and headed down to have a nice lunch at the Kelvingrove Cafe. The KG Cafe is an interesting blend of restaurant and cafe, and comes recommended from me. Afterwards I popped upstairs and checked to see where my name was on the donor wall – you can see my name up there with the rest of the restoration donors! I even persuaded Mrs AlistairL to let me look around the transport museum and look at the old bikes. It is just across the road from Kelvingrove, and was on the way back to the Underground station. We headed back and went to see Epic Movie, which was rubbish – I reckon I’m too old for that stuff.

Friday was a good wander down Buchanan Street, popping in to Borders, Frasers and a wee look up and down Argyll Street. We had a show booked up for the evening at the Royal Concert Hall. Two folks called Jacqui Dankworth and Todd Gordon were doing a wee tour featuring Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra songs. At pains to point out it wasn’t a tribute show, they just sang and they had a three piece band with them and some good jazz was played. This time I felt a bit young, looking around at the mean age of the audience. It was good to dress up, and I switched from black jeans, T-shirt, and North Face Jacket to… Black suit, Black Tie, Black 3/4 length coat. I lightened up during the interval for the show and removed my tie. The show has been touring on and off for a while, was at the Edinburgh festival, and round a few smaller venues in Scotland.

We headed back home to check that the kids and the cat were still alive, and they were! And there was even some pizza still left. We all went out for an Italian meal at our traditional venue, chilled out, and enjoyed our company.

Sunday was off to the bike show at Ingliston again, which is still much the same as it has been since MCN took over many years ago. I was a bit disappointed that Honda wasn’t present, and the big manufacturer stands were a bit tame compared to yesteryear. As befits a current BMW owner, I poured over the BMW stand and there was a really nice R1200S in black. As I’ve mentioned in previous years, the format of the show is beginning to go stale for me and I could spend the ticket and food money on a nicer day out, or add a few quid more and do a run with my local rospa diploma advanced riding trainer. That would be a better spend. I even noticed that Joe from LMTS had passed up having a stand this year, though I spotted him at the show. I popped over to take a look at the IAM stand, but didn’t know anyone there.

Random Purchases

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Apart from a whole pile of books, I have purchased:

And all of them, apart from the headphones, are bike related!

The art of motorcycle maintenance

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I’m signed up for a spannering course for motorbikes, having monitored Learn Direct Scotland for the last year, and narrowly missing one course which was cancelled due to lack of interest.

I start the “Know Your Motorcycle” course at Borders College in, wait for it, Galashiels, on Monday. It runs for 10 weeks and the finish will coincide quite nicely with the advanced riding lessons coming in again. It is a bit far away, but is the typically excellent price provided by such establishments.

I’ve also made enquiries about first aid courses, and the local St Andrews Ambulance seem to do quite a few in the local area. I think I’ll wait on that though, want to keep time for MCP exams.

Where is the advanced riding?

alistairl

Ah well, it came to a bit of an abrupt end. When I joined up towards the end of the season there was a risk that I’d miss the window of opportunity this year. As it was, the runs stopped at the beginning of November. As I’ve read elsewhere, the advanced biking training tends to run with BST. The weather gets unpredictable from October onwards and the risks to the Observers themselves tips the balance.

I’m a bit disappointed I didn’t get the test in this year, next year is a bit trickier to organise, but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve learned and plan to get on with it. All being well I’ll have it done before the summer, with enough of BST in 2007 to go.

In the meantime I’ve found myself watching my observations and what I notice when I travel in other cars and buses, so I’m still learning.

Bike Serviced this week

alistairl

My first year of ownership of the R1100RS comes to an end, and I’ve got the old machine serviced again by George in Queensferry. Turned out my sticky brake caliper was nothing of the sort, and was actually a sticky brake lever pivot. The way to check? Spin the wheel and move the lever!

Unfortunately the allen bolt head has been mangled in a previous attempt, and the casting can be at risk if you give the bolt removal a good shot, so the miracle WD40 has done the job, and I have my instructions for where to spray a liberal supply to keep it unstuck.