Here are my ramblings from July 2003 - November 04

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In my experience people are fascinated by engine blow ups so here are a couple of photos showing you why you should use top quality two stroke oil in your scooter and not the cheap 'chain saw' oil that you have found in your dads shed. To understand why you need to consider that inside you engine at nine thousand rpm your piston is traveling up and down your barrel 150 times every second. That's a lot of energy to get rid of when your piston suddenly locks into the barrel when the oil can't cope with the temperature any more, the crank keeps trying to turn but the piston aint' moving, summats got to give. In this case it was the con rod big end eye that gave up the struggle and failed destroying the piston and barrel in the process. Owwch!!  BIG BILL TIME!!!

I have just had to do one of the things I have been avoiding for years! I have had to put up notices in the shop asking people not to sit on the machines without a member of staff present! The reason you might ask? Well since I have been here we have had several instances of 'kick damage', this is the sort of   thing that occurs when someone gets on to a bike and catches the tail unit with the sole of their boot, and scratches it, not a big problem you might think! Well since I've been here we have had an exhaust can on a brand new R1 extensively damaged by what must have been a steel heel tap (£447), a seat cowl for a brand new Ducati 999 damaged (£ lots) and in the last couple of days someone has managed to scratch the fairing of a brand new Suzuki SV1000, I haven't looked the price up yet I'm too depressed, but I bet it's not cheap!!!

This site is now getting about 100 visitors a day thank you very much and I know from the statistics that my ISP provides me with that these pages are one of the more popular parts of the site, but what surprises me is that they generate only a very small amount of comment from you out there. Despite some very contentious issues being discussed here. I really would like some more correspondence from you out there. This will, I hope, make these pages a bit more readable and allow you to have an input into them. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

It was in 1977 that I had my first real involvement with a motorcycle. It was a 1971 Puch VZ 50, that had a weird three speed combined twist clutch come gear change mechanism. My friend Kev had spotted it in the local auction house and in a moment of madness had spent his entire life savings on, the massive sum of £13. He was 15 but rapidly approaching the magical age of sixteen when you could legally ride a mo-ped, I was 14. We pushed it to his house full of wild visions of a few minutes work putting it back on the road, and riding off into the sunset.

But these dreams rapidly faded when we really started to look at what he had bought, it had experienced six very hard years at the hands of a real butcher. Every thing was seized or worn out, or both. However, undaunted by the astronomical odds against, two completely inexperienced teenagers ever getting this ageing wreck running again, we rolled up our sleeves and set to work. I shudder now to think of some of the horrendous bodges we did owing to a complete lack of spare parts, not that we had any money left for them. The rear brake shoes were totally worn out, so much so that the brake cam would turn to 90 degrees and jam the brake on. So to combat this we made the cam bigger by bending some scrap steel around it! It worked surprisingly well, we must have been very lucky, to think of the possible consequences of that piece of metal falling off and locking the rear wheel in the middle of a corner, makes me feel sick to the stomach now. But we were young and didnt know enough to be scared.  The engine had, of course, seized solid and required the excessive use of a Birmingham screwdriver to even get the piston out of the barrel, we also broke several fins off the air-cooled barrel, not good if you dont want your engine to seize when it gets hot, in the process. That proved to be the end of the line for several weeks as it happened. The piston, rings, barrel and big end were all shot. Disaster as I said before we had no Puch dealer in my town so new spares were out of the question even if we had got the money for them.

Several weeks went by while we tried desperately to find a source of spares, then a miracle occurred, in the very same auction house, another VZ50 appeared but at first sight it looked far worse than the first one. Being partially dismantled, with parts like the headlight, exhaust pipe and petrol tank obviously missing. But, we were wiser now and knew enough to check to see if the engine turned over, it did and miracle of miracles actually fired when Kev kicked it over, we had to have it! On the day of the auction we got there early and waited nervously while the other lots went under the hammer, eventually our lot came up, we had scraped together another £11 pounds if it went over that we were knackered. Luckily after some early interest from some other hopeful youngsters, they dropped out after £9 we got the second, hand painted nightmare for a tenner and celebrated with sausage and chips on the way home. God we must have been keen it was about 5 miles from the auction yard to Kevs house and it was a baking hot August day I can still remember how dry my throat was, following the salty chips, when we eventually got it back to his house.

Nothing now could stop us, we got started as soon as we had gulped several pints of squash down. With both bikes safely in Kevs dads garage along with a stack of ancient furniture, Kevs Dad was a school history teacher, who restored and sold antique furniture on the side,  we managed to swap the engines by about 9.30pm. We then fitted a pea-shooter expansion chamber with absolutely no silencer, that was meant to go on a FS1E, god this was going to be so fast!!! I remember those first intoxicating smells encountered when draining the petrol from his dads lawnmower, to see if we could get it to run. I think that was the moment I became hooked. It quickly became apparent that although it would fire occasionally the engine was far from a runner!! When you kicked it, it would cough and splutter, fire occasionally, but never quite catch, hellishly frustrating for us. Until Kev had the bright idea of giving it a push&!!!

We wheeled it out into the deathly orange sodium vapour glow outside Kevs house, he lived on a main road, not perhaps the most sensible place for the first bump start we had ever tried, but back then we didnt think to much about the larger picture. Anyway, Kev, suitably attired in a bright blue metal flake Paddy Hopkirk Agordo crash helmet popular at the time (they were cheap and Halfords sold them), stood beside the bike ready to push, jump on board and attempt to drop it into gear with the clutch twist gear change thing, in the fashion of a certain Mr Sheene who was a bit of a hero of ours way back then, and zoom off into the distance. It didnt go quite that way though. What happened was that when the bike was dropped (I dont think that is quite the right word for the awful clutch control thing that involved twisting your right wrist backward while trying to drop the clutch with the same hand movement) the bike lurched coughed a couple of times and screamed up into a massive wheelie, dragging Kev alongside. Sparks cascaded from the rear mudguard as it met the road stopping the bikes upward movement and throwing the bike and the unfortunate Kev hard over to the right and the centre of the road where they both landed in a heap. As the grinding sliding crashing noise subsided the entire street was treated to the sound of a Puch mo-ped revving to infinity, at a pitch that I swear should have been enough to break windows! Until Kev managed to reach the key and switch it off causing it to die suddenly, the silence was deafening, Kev got to his feet shaken, bruised and winded, as we both waited for lights to come on and windows to be opened. But nothing happened!!! To this day I dont know why it had sounded like a jet crashing in the street but no one even twitched a curtain!!

God I hadn't realised that it had been so long since I added anything to this part of the site. But I suppose that means that we have been busy, which can't be all bad. So here I am sitting in the post Xmas lull waiting for everything to start happening again. This normally means about Easter time, when half the world seems to suddenly remember that they has a bike sitting in the garage! Personally I choose not to own a car which means that I am either out on my bike or at home, one of a dying breed? I can certainly understand why people would avoid those days when the elements are conspiring to throw you into a ditch and then drown you in it. But with the current trend toward a warmer climate and advances in winter clothing there have been loads of really good riding days recently. So providing you remember to warm your engine and tyres up there is lots of fun to be had. So I have been out there enjoying the quiet roads virtually to myself. And yes I know its a pain cleaning your bike but personally I would far sooner ride it than watch it get old in a garage, and a bucket of hot soapy water at the end of the day gets most of the salt off. But anyway that's all I've got time for at the moment. But I would just like to say thanks for all the support from you lot out there (a business is nothing without customers!) and we look forward to seeing all our friends and customers in the 2004 all the best Paul.

Well as normal the first cold snap of this winter has produced one or two problems with starting bikes, especially if they have been left standing for any length of time. I refer you to my cold starting guide which, coincidently, I wrote a year ago yesterday,  it just goes to show that this sort of thing crops up every year. Another great way of ensuring that your machine is ready to go is the Optimate battery conditioner. I don't often mention the goods we sell on these pages but several people have asked me to do some sort of product reviews, so if it annoys anyone let me know and I will re-consider. As many of you will know I choose not to own a car, it stops me making excuses to myself when it is cold or wet!! so I ride my bike (a 1994 Kawasaki Zephyr 1100) nearly every day come rain or shine, and here on the North Wales coast that means a fair amount of rain!!! But it does give me a chance to test some of the gear we sell, for example the Richa Carbon Winter Glove. I have had a pair of these since September 2002 and they have been the best pair of winter gloves I have ever ridden with they are warm and dry, initially they were 100% waterproof but I have noticed recently that in the worst weather (and I mean p*ssing down) that my hands are starting to get a but damp, but in fairness they are now 16 months old and have been used a lot in this period. They aren't the cheapest glove we sell but at only £34.99 they are some way from the most expensive ones as well and I feel they are excellent value. I also use the Richa Aqua Boot these were just £69.99 and have so far been 100% waterproof despite being out in the same (unfit for dogs, cats or ducks come to that) weather as the gloves. 

Winter weather

Those of you that have read my recent review of some of the clothing we sell, may like to see this picture of me turning up for work last Thursday, when I say I ride in most weathers I am not joking. Thanks to Ian Drwg of http://www.iandrwg.com for the photo.

Workshop Thoughts 

Some of you out there , not all  you by a long way, but a significant few fail to understand just what a difficult job diagnosing a problem with a machine in a workshop can be. Sure all of are mechanics are qualified and have attended many training courses but the unexpected crops up, some of you will remember birds nests! But recently a new problem cropped up that took more than a while to find and I wonder how many of you out there would have ever fixed this... An oldish 250 cc twin that we have done some work on in the past was presented to us running really roughly, after a check of all the normal things like plugs, coils and CDI box. A strip of the carbs revealed them to be in very poor condition, now carbs are extremely complicated devices with many tiny parts that are prone to rough user handling and even smaller holes prone to blocking with tiny bits of dirt. A problem with any one of which can have a dramatic effect on how the machine runs. Also the cost of these precision parts can be understandably high, so replacement can often run into hundreds of pounds. Any way to cut a long story, we agreed to find a set of sh carbs from a breakers yard for him, to minimise costs. These arrived and were stripped and cleaned before fitting to the bike and on the press of the button the bike fired up and sounded the best it had since we became involved with it. Problem solved warm the bike up, a quick balance of the carbs and back to a grateful owner!! But, sadly, this wasn't to be. As the bike got warm it started to stutter and eventually died, and refused to start again!! Ok, so maybe the fresh petrol going through the carbs had flushed out some dirt and blocked a jet, so off with the carbs strip and clean these again, nothing obvious but... Put them back on again and hey presto the bike runs again..... only to cut out again when it starts to get hot!!! Knowing we had eliminated the carbs we started to look in other areas, coils off and check those, OK , CDI box, OK plugs...new set. By this time we had spent half a day chasing after this mysterious fault to no avail. After the bike had cooled down it of course started again warmed up for a few mins and cut out. This would tend to point towards an electrical component failing as it gets hot and either some internal component fails. However, unless you can isolate which component it is very difficult to fix. So in an attempt to find which part is failing the mechanic started to blow compressed air over things like coils and CDI box trying to cool them and isolate the errant part. No such luck, but by accident, between coils and CDI box he pointed the air line down the air box and was rewarded with a burst of fresh life from the engine??? This of course lead him to re-examine the carbs to no avail, all seemed well with them??? Much head scratching resulted, what heat related problem could be causing this? We finally located the problem of course, but only after we had wasted most of a day on what should have been a hour and a half's work. I wonder how many of you would have thought of this one? The old carbs had leaked petrol into the cylinders which had drained down past the rings and filled the crankcases with a mix of petrol and oil. So what was happening was that as the engine got hot the petrol was boiling out of this mixture and passing up the crankcase breather as petrol vapour, the breather is connected to the air box by a hose to re-cycle emissions back through the engine, so essentially as the engine got hotter it became richer and richer until it wouldn't run at all, then as it cooled down the problem vanished!!!! A simple oil and filter change and the bike was running perfectly again. But the point I was trying to make is who picks up the bill? obviously the customer would have been in for a shock if we had asked for the six and a half hours we had spent on the bike, but the mechanic still needs paying! ??? The joys of running a shop!!!

Well you all know I am a committed (perhaps I should be !!?) motorcyclist and enjoy mucking around with bikes to get them to go a bit better. Well, my eldest son has just bought a 10 year old Suzuki GS500E, not the most exciting bike in the world I grant you but a good first machine after passing your test (which he has yet to do...). Any way I rode it home for him and the first thing that struck me was the incredibly high gearing, this thing was geared to do 140mph at the red line in top!!! But, there is obviously no way that a bike with only 52 bhp on tap is ever going to pull this. So I assume Suzuki has kept the ratio high to give the bike usable (soft) power delivery for learners and ladies. This obviously must be changed (lowered) for better top speed (at the moment about 90mph) and better acceleration, it doesn't accelerate, it just gathers speed. So using a handy little program I found on the web i calculated that by changing the front sprocket from the standard 16T to 13T the bike should have a top speed of about 110mph at top rpm and substantially better acceleration. The program is called "Top speed" by KAMware I can't remember now where I got it, but it was as far as I can remember freeware, so here is a download link for it. It is 1.6 mb so will take a while but I think it is worth it. It is a self-extracting zip file and I have run it with no problems but obviously I can't guarantee that it will work on you system so on your own head be it!!! topspeed.exe. First reports from my son are that it transforms the bike. But he didn't have too much time with it as the standard exhaust has blown two large holes around the collector so it seems dad is going to have to try and weld it up. More next time. 

Well here we are again and thanks to Andy, who let me use his MIG welder and workshop one evening the GS500 is back on the road and isn't too noisy anymore. As I said before my son said the changes in gearing had transformed the machine, well I have had a chance to ride it now and God!! what a difference!! What was a pedestrian plodder is now a little screamer that rushes up to max revs (11000) in every gear with a little over 113mph (almost exactly as predicted by the Top Speed software) showing on the speedo flat out in top. This would be fantastic for a tight twisty road where, with a reasonable pilot, I suspect that it would take a lot of beating. But, unfortunately he is planning to use it to and from work (40 miles away down a duel carriage way) so this gearing is going to A) cost a lot in fuel and B) destroy the engine, lots of rpm for a long time!! So, back to the software and it looks like the next gearing will be 14T on the front and one less than standard on the back for a slightly less frantic ride. 

I have had a chance to do some research on the web on this model and have come up with several one model sites that seem ok. A couple of these also list a few performance mods to try including a DIY timing advancer (apparently Vance and Hines make a real one but I figure its more fun to do it yourself)

GS500 Now fitted with 14T on the front and if any thing it is slightly faster and certainly nicer to ride. Haven't got round to sorting the timing advancer yet but watch this space. While trawling the web however, I came across a bike in the states with half a GSX-R 1000 cylinder head fitted, I wonder........