Shadowfax-ST Blog

Hit by Chips Tractors performing hedge-trimming duties have featured on our commute quite a bit of late. I've even noted how they can hog the whole roadway on a blind bend quite legally because they have a flashing yellow beacon on them, which gives licence for them to do ANYTHING they freaking well want. I love how they can spill their debris across the carriageway and how that debris has lots of sharp bits you couldn't walk barefooted over so must be dangerous to the flesh and maybe even the tyres? But it's okay; they have the yellow beacon licence to do what they want, of course. A twist then, rounding a corner past the Privet junctions I saw a yellow winky-poty through the hedges and slowed expecting a licenced obstruction in my path but was relieved to see it was trimming the hedge from the side of the field. Excellent, throttle on, I thought. Then I got hit by the shrapnel of trimming from an unprotected blade set at just the right angle to spray me with 7.62mm bore h...

No licence While slipping Shadowfax's wet and heavy cover off there was a moment of resistance. I tugged harder and the snag came free, accompanied by the plunk of the licence plate dropping to the floor. The sticky pads are just not up to the job in this weather (each covered in fine grit and wet grime) so I'll have to work out where to drill the plate without spoiling the custom effect I paid for. In the meantime, I re-drilled (or, carved) the rear fender's fixing holes and old plate to a wider diameter with a screw-driver blade and I helped the environment by recycling a couple of packaging bolts from Phut-Phut's crate (the Sanya 125 came as a kit, you may recall?) It looks crass but it'll not be falling off too easily.

Manic Moment "Hi, It's Pat; the white ST. You called a while ago?" "Yes" , replied our fella from Motorcycle Mechanic, " I've read your blog..." (Shit! I thought. What did I write? I thought it had been quite positive and forward looking; now I was worried if I had offended.) "...and I just thought you might like to know I've still got the tyre if you want it." Now, if that doesn't endear me to the business I don't know what will - except a night out with some lush lap dancers,a couple of pints of local-brewed real ale, and a pre-paid taxi. (Or is that just pushing it a bit? ;) Gregg thinks I should repair it and flog it and Ka doesn't think I should make a clock out of it. More on that later, I'm sure.

Taste of Winter After another thorough muddying on the way in to work I put in a long day and left work again at 8pm. Obviously it was dark and as I made my way from the office to the bike I felt the characteristic nip of 4-degrees in the air; I pride myself on sniffing out the potential for snow. As Shadowfax was ignited, his temperature gauge showed 3-degrees. It was going to be cold as the Meon Valley has proven a rule of being at least 2-degrees colder than at either end of the commute. My glasses misted up first and I had to put my gloves on by touch. As we commenced the ride the glasses cleared by the length of the car park so I lowered the visor part way. It misted up. Hmm. One of "those" nights again. I took it really steady - the weather had had a jump of 3-hours on me without any warmth of the Sun so the chance of ice was quite high and the tarmac was greasy slick with damp in any case. By the Bently by-pass the temperature read 2-degrees. A fine misty rain became a...

Badger Pooh Showers We've never felt so dirty! It wasn't torrential rain; just some light soaking type stuff that lay across the mud left on the road at EVERY field's gate and spray from an artic', which kept us too out of the play to see far enough to overtake. My dirty helmet The visor became opaque at the close of the A32 and I was grateful for some heavier rain to cleanse it a little for the latter part of the A331. The damage was done though as I'd had to ride with the visor up for a patch and I knew I had road detritus all across my nose. And that was just on the way up. The way home was worse. Filthy badgers This is an element of Winter I've experienced before but been able to wipe-free by the squirt of window wash so I hadn't figured just how awful it could be on the bike; not really. At least I've kept his lights clean Even NIkki's gift wiping finger was useless against the muddy spray. I'm looking at putting a water bottle with spray at...

The 2nd Rear Michelin Road Pilot 2 Punctures really are shit! Not to be caught out again I'm going to recce the area for someone that can swap tyres on demand. In the meantime, I'm stung for a new tyre where the punctured one wasn't even out of its diapers yet. Bonus was to find a more local mechanic for when Droxford is too long a haul. I was up against time and I had to make a decision. I read loads of tyre info on the Web to be sure I should repair the puncture and called Motorcycle Mechanic in Fareham to see if he'd take a look at the problem. Sure, he agreed. Far left corner...but the tea was to the foreground I re-inflated the rear from 15psi to 42psi and made my way with caution to the Kiln Acre Industrial Park on Wickham road and rode along to the workshop tucked away in the far left-hand corner. Our fella came out, looked, and sucked teeth. I was convinced a cheap repair was possible while he was uncertain of how "centre line" the nail needed to be ...

Hole in our rubber It's devastating news; Shadowfax is lamed out by a freaking miss-placed nail in his rear £140-Michelin Road-Pilot 2 tyre. I pumped up the tyres and noted (as I had on Tuesday, if I'm honest), that the pump's pressure gauge was a little erratic inflating the rear. On the road I was convinced by Thursday that the rear was low but I was locked out of the Lanny and couldn't access the pump. By home-time on Friday I was feeling cautious, but no more so than when we've chanced riding at 34psi, which is 8psi lower than the best-guess if the tyres are similar to the BT020s (42psi each); +/-6psi is the outer limit of being an idiot. The £?? nail Feeling Flat Interesting - 15psi and the puncture stabilised and we rode in an acceptable attitude. Not bad in support of the tyre's safety and all-roundedness, but poor form when you account for the internal damage water can cause when injected through a puncture by riding in the wet - and it's been very w...

"Did you see my wheelie, Dad?" Yes. I saw my Son wheelie; twice in 3-seconds, each time a little closer to taking out 3 prams' worth of minors and a handful of otherwise unsuspecting spectators while Dave had his arm near wrenched from its socket trying to hold on to the sissy strap. My Son had been a little shocked when fellow Newbie Brandon had taken off on his smart new KX-65 and wheelied much of the length of the playground training area. We'd talked throttle, fuel and air mixing together in incresing quantities to make more explosions to drive the bike faster: all that. "Control", I had warned. Off he went toward the crowd. Still, he's looking smarter and everyone appreciated the bike's Spring clean. Looks the part... His Sister is now looking forward to her "first bike" in March next year! "I'll be doing really BIG wheelies, Daddy," she claimed. "No, you won't, and nor will you be marrying Ben, Young Lady; ...

Lessons Learned; Filtering on a motorway at night There are some excellent sites on the Internet to help get you by with your riding. Many of them have helped me really think about cornering safely, wet and windy weather riding, preparing for a journey, and on how to filter. There are debates, [ LINK ] , and lessons, [ Excellent LINK ] but until you are faced with motorway traffic in crisis you just can't imagine how dangerous things can get. This week I was tired (from being poorly earlier. Ahhhhh). So, I thought it'd be easier and safer to nip down the M3 than to tip-toe through the dark countryside and it's give me an opportunity to plasma-rise London's finest overnight escapologists. Things started badly; there was a snarl up getting onto the M3 from the A331; some shopping incident involving the WI a few miles on, apparently. Anyway, I was already struggling with resisting the urge to aggressively nip down the inside, and I can't struggle for long when I'm...

Night Trials - HID Lamp Okay, so it'd be an exaggeration to claim the HID lamp to be a second Sun, but it's sure is bright - if white is bright. As only one of the two reflector cells is full of HID light the road image cannot really be expected to be "normal" but brighter, can it? Well, it's not normal; it's a lovely wide area in front of the bike that stretches left to right about 3m each side (with any definition) and about 20m to the front - so within the MOT limit on that last one, which calls for a 25m dip to avoid dazzle. It's fuzzy; but that's the focus bit I'll play with later. The light is white; there's no doubt. The image of the two lenses shows the difference at the lamp, but on the road this is a great strength. All the hype of it making vision easier on the eye is right. Looking down through the forks I can see yellow and dimpsy halogen splash on the left and bright moon-blue-white on the right, which is noticeably brighter. (I...

Shedding Light on the Situation Risers in place; came Sunday morning and some sunshine to warm through an otherwise dank day. Fresh with success and eager to prove the spanners and sockets are good for more than hammering into rounded-out bolts, and that I have sufficient finesse in matters mechanical when put to the fore, I looked at Shadowfax and promised not to hurt him; if I could help it. We'd rehearsed the cowling (fairing, to we Brits) removal including the taking out the bottom cowl (belly pan), mirrors (mirrors), and inner cowl (little bit inside the big bit under the handlebars) but nothing could have prepared me for the ease with which everything came off and piled on the front lawn like some posh Steptoe's yard. An organised workshop area - Steptoe's Yard! Fitting Then the tricky bit. I created a cradle out of zip/cable-ties in which I formed a "bomb" out of the shiny ballast, 23,000 Volts box, and big connecting plug and socket, which fitted within th...

Bike-Quip Handlebar Risers It was Saturday and there was not much time to be "Farkling" about with cables and plasma bombs, so I opted to have a bash at installing the Bike-Quip handlebar risers, which arrived very promptly this week. I mean; a couple of bolts - just like junior meccano, which I can usually just about handle (with the help of a responsible adult). So, tools. I dug out a socket and limited spanner set, some hex keys from ancient history and other bits and pieces you might recognise from the British Science Museum. The instructions, wryly written by Bike-Quip's Keith Munro, called for plenty of towels, plastic bags, and hot water. This was quite a baby we were expecting! I wrapped the handlebars in small towels and bags and lay a larger (United Nations) towel over Shadowfax's tank to give some protection from spanner-rash by proxy and arranged the tools around the area I was required to work in (driveway). Following the instructions I bore down on the 6...

ST Community Site While researching the purchasing and fitting required of the Bike-Quip and HID lamp I came across the ST-Owners forum again - and registered. I'm not rightly in to community sites and I struggle to keep up with Facebook where I have many valued friends and a few "Friends" who may only be collecting as part of a "total number of friends race" for all the actual contact they have made. I find it all daunting - not as an age thing, but I really do value my friends but lament never quite having the time I feel I should have to invest in their routine maintenance: thus, I fall in and out of contact as easily as the talibanees seem to. However, here's a community of not-all " hairy-arsed " enthusiasts who facilitate and engage newbies - and that's quite rare of any similar site I've lurked over. Already, I've been welcomed. Given that here were some 30-odd new members over the few days either side of my joining the group I...

If Carlsburg made buffs... I recently bothered to put my hand in my trouser pocket and find it empty of cash so I asked Ka to pay for an Anti-FREEZE neck warmer ("Body-Shield" in addition to the balaclava bought before and which I just can't get on with (tunnel vision)). We were in Trevor Pope's when we bought my Son his gear for the Tigers a couple of weeks back. Now I've had the item a while I can consider it entirely tested and I'm actually madly impressed with its performance in the keeping holistically warm stakes except one small flaw; it doesn't always seal beneath the helmet. Overall, it really is a "must-have" piece of kit for the winter - it has more wind-proof coverage than the balaclava and, stopping short at the helmet borders around the nape of the swede it hasn't any of the drawbacks of the vision inhibiting and space eating (head compressing) of the full-face garment. It's hem line is a little thick; is all. It gets rucked...

Out on a Limb It's Friday night - I have two sets of instructions out; one for fitting the HID lamp and one for fitting the Bike-Quip risers that arrived this morning after only 2-days thinking about them. The risers are there because Ka is simply at wit's end with my whinging about how, by Wednesday, my back is in tatters from the 300-miles ridden already and how the next 200-miles will have me crippled come sun-rise Saturday morning. Friday night and I'm certainly not feeling subtle, Darling. (Get down off the top of the wardrobe!) Last night I even made two PowerPoint presentations to print with the fairing removal instructions. I'm reading them and rehearsing in my mind what on Earth, "14-foot-pounds" could possibly mean. I've only recently got a grips with x-lbs p.s.i! Should I phone Gregg and ask for supervised time in his warm garage; or should I stick with it and go solo? My Sister-In-Law, Nicky arrives tomorrow. "Where's Pat?" She as...

Well HID There's a lot going on at the moment and I'm not getting any day-light to play with my new HID light, which arrived of Ebay late last week. I've now read and re-read the instruction and I'm a little nervous about its fitting: I need to remove much of the fairing (or, cowling if we get technical) and I have to fit the bulb in the tightest of spaces. It's all the unknown - this is serious mechanicals in the spirit of Farkles. There's an offer to use the garage at the back of our family mechanic's home (thanks, Gregg), which Ka is pushing me to take up but she fails to read the hormonal undertones in this challenge. I'm a bloke and I need to do this stuff without support to be have any chance of riding with my head still held high. She doesn't understand and even chats to the 18-month old next door on the off-chance she might be able to lend me a hand with the dangerous art of swinging a spanner. (Cow. (Ka, not the 18-month old next year, to my...

Bloody Week It all started on Wednesday; not the week, of course because that started on the Monday as weeks traditionally do, but the difficult and noteworthy week all came about from the middle day of the week. I had a gentile start to the commute but made a single aggressive launch onto the Fareham end of the Gosport stretch of the A32 to avoid a hap-hazard red light: I just made it and didn't upset anyone. Along we progressed and onto the urban dual carriageway. A slow filter into the centre and a crawl along the early-morning dazed commuters; eyes open to jittery attempts to swap lanes and blind lurches to do the same. No trouble; a set of typically well-behaved and bike-savvy road colleagues let us through unhurried but, then... She made good eye contact in the mirror but the car had already caught my eye from 3-lengths back. I was (thank God) approaching with high caution. I changed lanes behind her from left to right and gave a hesitation to allow her to do the same but she...

Floods The weather was very British tonight; wet, with a wild squall. By the time I arrived on the A32 and commenced re-entry for the 50mph limit at East Meon the traffic train slowed and red lights and headlights went pretty crazy up front. The nearer we approached the more detail I could make out of strange shadows erupting from the road surface in the glare of the lights; ah ha, water. Lots of it. Deep-looking water sploshing up over car bonnets! As soon as I recognised the hazard, and already plodding at about walking pace, we entered the 300m long lake and crossed the multitude of bow waves being washed out from the traffic in it. Being dark with headlamps and tail lamps dancing around reflections off the verge and hedgerows it soon became a little disorientating and I became concerned I could feel the wash over my boots! The cars in front were down to above their sills already. All we could do was to keep moving and hope nothing untoward would go wrong right now. Artist impressio...

Kn's KX60 Kn popped along to his first meet of the Tigers Motorcycle Display Team wearing his new helmet, etc, and arrived in style on the back of Shadowfax. He'd held on well but I felt his grip on my jacket a little vague to give him a treat of Shadowfax's urban acceleration. Later I found he'd been holding on to two belt loops on my jacket: a recipe for disaster if he had been thrown back so I thanked my sense of awe at having my Son on the back and care not to leave him behind at the roundabout. On arrival we knuckeld down to talking about a KX60 advertised on Ebay and, by luck, found one within the club going for about the same money but with the advantage of a "Club History". Saving 130-miles round trip, and without consulting the business misses, we plumeted for the bike. Kn had a great time learning to use the gears and just zapping around in circles shifting 1st to 2nd gear. His trainer, Dave, is a most patient bloke and quick to praise success. ...

Kitting Out the Prodigy Kn is serious about this joining the Tigers Motorcycle Display Team and, to show his commitment (an ideology borne of one of those Father-Son talks that backfires, he has fronted his Birthday Money and latent savings toward purchasing his protective apparel. Today, we spent a jolly hour with a family shopping trip to Trevor Pope Motorcycles picking up; Boots (Alpinestars Tech 4S (Youth) at £40.00) Helmet (Lazer MX6 X-ray at £79.00) Gloves (RST MX at £14.99) Goggles (PG 3200 at £22.99) None of this is cheap but we seem to have faired reasonably well: Trevor doubtless has some potatoes on his table with which to feed his family but we seem to have paid less than a quick squint across the Internet could supply. There was a helmet advertised as a 2003 model at £49, but I am a strong believer in helmets having a limited shelf life, which this seems to have omitted. The helmet also sized Kn at "Small"; the same size both I and Ka fit. It seems his head would...