Holiday missions

[krash]

Disclaimer: Long not so entertainign story... would recommend riding over reading :scooter:


Right...

Well on the eve of the new year at 11:30pm i was released from my Captivity of work.... so with 30mins till the countdown i was off to party :D so a late happy ny to all

then it begins, with a drive up north on the 3rd to pick up my bike, a 1995 Kawasaki ZXR 250c with bradied brake lines and a aftermarket pipe :D. After picking up my new helmet before xmas and wearing it around the house as often as possible (checking emails, KB and other unnecessary helmet wearing activitys) i was highy excited to finnally have a reason to wear it. So i rode the bike into the back of the van took off my helmet and headed back home.

Once back home i went out on my first ride on the new beast, with previous Dirt riding experence under my belt i kinda took back to being on a bike with ease (which was nice) it just took a bit to get used to the leaning and using the front brake but i just went back to my BHS course with Andrew at Roadsafe and all worrys were put to rest (If your in welly wanting to do the BHS go see him).

After a few days of missioning around getting new tyres for the bike (some nice BT092's) and sorting out the indercator issues i thought i should go get some leathers. So i got in contact with Quasi (i'm in hamilton) and the day after i was around at his house getting sized up and enlightened with all i need to know about riding gear. i must say this guys awsome he kitted me out with a new jacket gloves a back protector and pants so i was pretty stoked. Free Plug for www.quasimoto.co.nz Great gear and real nice guy i'm a happy customer.

So i'm all kitted out (apart from boots) so i figure lets go for a ride to auckland why not eh. with my old lady as a support car since its my first longish ride, i head off to auckland and just as i pass the bombays coming down the motorway it happens. i hear a clicking sound then a braking sound then theres no drive... i turn around and look and my chain has decided that it wants to ride pillion and not be on the sproket. Luckly i kept my head and managed to indercate and pull slowly off the ramarama offramp with no dramas. then as im pushing the bike onto the trailer the right side foot peg gets caught on the side of the ramp and snaps off %&^(*. On further inspection i find it has been broken on one of the supports before so i dont feel so bad now.

When i get to my desternation i had a look at trademe and there just so happens to be a foot peg assembly for sale so i bought it (saved me having to wait 3 weeks for one from japan). I got a new o-ring chain from mt eden so i was sorted. then when i was putting the new chain on i noticed that the rear tyre was outta line by about 2mm which was obviously enough to put to much stress on the old chain, (must have been the bike shop when they put my new tyres on). That pissed me off but meh.

So i ride back to hamilton and notice that the bike has a large flat spot (running rich i think) so i decide it needs a tune and a service its done 16000k's and i done know when the last one was done so i figure what the hell. but on a quote of between 700 - 900 to get the valves looked at and new plugs and a carb balance i thought that it would have to run rich for a little while longer.

Then i go on to looking at the things it needs for the next warrent which is now due, so i replace the Front brake leaver and microswitch for the brake lights and in doing so i F^(k it even more and now the brake light doesn't work at all :angry: so i recon its a fuse or some thing.... im not sure how the electrics work.

But when i try and unlock the seat i relise that the only key that i got when i bought the bike doesn't unlock the seat........:shutup: so off to the locksmith's tomorrow to hopefully sort that out. Then i decided that im not that useless so why not change my own oil................ got a new filter and 4l of motul 5100 and set about doing it myself.... NO guess not, some meathead before me has rounded off some of the fairng bolts so i can't get the left side off....Grrrr

So tomorrows mission is to drill out the bolt, somehow get the lock opened for the seat, get the Lights working and get a WOF.

STILL... i love riding and im not complaining about a thing.... hope by reading this i wasted some of your presious life moments

:done:
J

[gijoe1313]

Ahh the joys of motorbike ownership! Never mind, at least you have two wheels of freedom and nothing feels grander then when you've fixed up the gee-gaws, thingummies, whatchamacallits and doohickeys!

Sounds like an epic first outing to me! I'm laid up with a sore foot so I can't ride to my hearts content at the moment :no: - enjoyed your post! Looking forward to the others to come! :niceone:

[frogfeaturesFZR]

Great post, nothing like playing (working ) with your toys ! :yes:

[krash]

Cheers guys :innocent:

Well most of my Woe's are over, i managed to sort out my electrics and got everything working, the key DID work it just needed alot of CRC lovin :D, and all that i have to do to get back to being legal is change the fork seals and get the markings on the braided hoses replaced (looks like all the labels saying there legal have been taken off)

so im a happy camper at the mo, still the holidays are almost over and its time for me to endevour on the long haul from hamilton back to wellington. Ive been watching the "Buns of Steel" videos but i some how get the feeling that its not going to make a difference maybe i should attempt the workout rarther than watching from the couch. But im looking forward to the ride back :D

i'll see you on the road folks

J

[Macktheknife]

Congrats on the bike, especially on the can-do attitude. Ride safe and take care on the way home.

[N4CR]

keys should be identical. they are often quite sticky though anyway for the rear seat. was the previous chain a clip type instead of a punch down type? ain't heard of chains breaking much but 2mm out is a fair amount... i'll give you that. with the valve shims/tune/jetting it's probably cus previous owner slapped on the can without getting it tuned for it. i got my zxr250 tuned for a shell empty straight through race can, ran wonderfully.. get it all done same time jets/tune/valveshims and clearances cheaper and will make it run like hell. how many kms? btw if you want to de restrict top end speed just pass a voltimeter (measuring resistance) across the outside two wires (not middle ones) coming from speedo into ecu loom in by the front subframe, get resistance then substitute speedo resistance by unplugging for one feeding into ecu and wiring up the right reistance for it (ecu wire). that way it will not cut out 180kmh and keep going. it does not have a gear sensor apart from 1st.. which is dodgy as it is. middle wire is not needed to de-restrict it as far as i remember. get back to me on if that works as i just had the magic box to do it for me, never got around to doing a diy one.

and if you wanna wheelie it, even with stiff as shocks just get about 6-7krpm in 1st gear then push down yank up hard and twist same time it'll come up nicely :) enjoy. but get used to the bike first of course hahaha. i'll get **** for saying that no doubt.

edit: any q's search first, feel free to pm me though.. been through alot on the zxr250

[rookie]

Alright man...welcome to motorbike ownership.

I guess you've learnt one of the problems with buying a second hand motorbike. It's that you don’t really know what the previous owner did with the bike or what maintenance they didn’t do.

When i first got my bike, I learnt quite quickly some of the maintenance that hadn't been done. Most of it you don’t actually even know about until you ride another bike that’s in better condition.

So keep riding and go hard...after all, while you're learning to ride, a new bike doesn’t make much difference compared to one with a few km's on the clock.
After 2 months ownership, I had the carbs reconditioned as the top end was running rich...there was not a lot of difference...but I thought it was still worth doing.
Also had the cam chain tensioner replaced at 43,000k's...just for peace of mind.
6months after ownership(just before xmas), I had a new front tyre fitted, clutch reconditioned and the front brakes fixed up (calliper ceased and front discs were warped...bought it like it, but got sick of being violently shaken during braking for the last 6 months) - this was a lot of money but was fully worth it as it handled like a completely different bike.
Front tyre (BT014-insane amount of grip) greatly improved the turn in and the bikes ability to drop into corners.
Clutch...it was finally nice to be able to hit a bump under throttle without the clutch slipping.
Brakes...hmmm...enter corners shaken or unshaken??...yep improvement was obvious.

So yea obviously had to wear all of these improvements in...so...

23rd December...with the weather looking good over xmas i rode north to see the family in Dargaville. I had a workmate with me who was on an exchange from Denmark and riding a VTR1000. I was planning on showing him a few of the decent roads around the north. Journey began with us heading north from Auckland through 16, up old north road, back onto 16 through Wellsford and up highway 1 to the turn off at the Brynderwyns. Following the main highway towards Dargaville, we made a right at Paparoa onto some very nice back roads(bit of tight stuff, good condition surface, no traffic) and headed north towards Oakleigh and back onto highway 1. Headed north towards Whangarei then turned left at Portland and headed through back roads to Maungatapere, then finally to Dargaville along the main Whangarei-Dargaville highway. We arrived at the parents house, tired, but with huge grins on our faces with my Danish mate saying they were the best roads he had ever been on...little did he know of my plans for the following day.

24th December, another ride was on the cards which started with another workmate on a Ducati 1000DS stopping by in Dargaville where we all warmed up with a bit of Tourist Trophy. We headed off north around midday along the west coast up towards Waipoua Forest with my little 2-fiddy struggling to keep up along some of the more open roads. But we made it to Waipoua Forest which I was riding for the first time but knew it was going to be a blast. Which it was!!250 heaven - except for the caravans being a little hard to pass on the short infrequent straights between the frequent tight corners. After a short stop to show our Danish mate Tane Mahuta, we continued north through Omapere and crossed the Hokianga Harbour via car ferry at Rawene. We continued along the hokianga harbour then headed North West through Broadwood and Herekino to Ahipara where we stopped off for the spectacular view of 90mile beach that the extremely good weather had granted us. We set off again to Kaitaia where we stopped for a bite to eat(it was their 2nd, my fourth) before heading off down the main highway south towards home where we would be heading through the Mangamuka gorge...which i had heard good things about. The two 1000 v-twin riders swapped rides as we headed up the Mangamuka's with the 250 leading. I had to stop at the top of the Mangamuka's and wait for the "big thumpers" to catch up...obviously because neither was used to the ride they were currently on. They returned to their original rides before we set off for the next leg of the Mangamuka's...must've been the bite i had to eat in Kaitaia....but the 1000's were still struggling to keep with the 250, where usually their experience ensures I'm constantly given the hurry-up. Both dropped off a little although my Danish mate, being an ex-Danish moto-cross national champ, meant I remained within view. We continued home down the main highway where our Ducati companion turned off for home while we continued through Murray's road along back roads towards Dargaville. We joined the main Whangarei-Dargaville route at Tangowahine and cruised home still within daylight after a day of solid riding with a bit of sight-seeing to keep us relaxed.
We again arrived home...this time exhausted...again with a level of satisfaction that no other activity could provide. My Danish mate exclaimed that the ride far surpassed that of the previous day and that he would never be able to top such a ride, especially in Denmark.

So after a couple of decent rides, the improvements to the bike are truly 'worn in' with the front chicken strip already smaller than that of the previous tyre.

I think that I have found another possible reason why many people come to NZ - the many excellent, easily accessible roads we have available to riders. I'm sure it's not the reason why so many immigrate to NZ, but imagine the surge in numbers if such a fact was more widely known.

[rookie]

oh crap sorry guys...dam boring sat afternoons