boboneleg

I've been there a few times, it's a great day out. I have a Sammy Miller story as well. I was a travelling marshall in a trial some years back and was riding around on a hillside in Gloucestershire showing riders where the sections were. This rider approached me and even with his heImet on I was thinking 'I know that guy' . The rider then asked where the first section is and immediately I recognised him as Sammy Miller due to his lovely 'Nothern Irish/ New Forest mix' accent. I wanted to ask him for his autograph on my running sheet but thought it was a bit inappropriate. He then rode off across the slippy hillside like he was out for a sunday stroll

You da man Tym

Le cretin , I suspect ?

It won't be a resto job Bruce, I shall leave it with it's present 'patina' but sort the mechanicals if I can.

It certainly is Ian, i've got a great photo of him on it somewhere. I'll see if I can dig it out.

I hope to get it running again Pedro but it will definitely depend on what's gone wrong in the engine. It's already covered 104,000 miles so I'm not prepared to just chuck money at it willy nilly.

So last week I got a message from I guy I know saying that his old Zebra bike was now residing in Somerset and the new owner was giving it away for free I made contact with the guy and sure enough he he was willing to pass it on , the catch was that it wouldn't start and there was a strange noise coming from the engine. So this morning my boss and me set off in his van for the 45 minute journey across the Mendips to Wedmore. The owner (Dominic) was a very cool guy , ageing surfer an ex French Paratrooper After removing the screen and mirrors we managed to fit it in the van......... Once we got it back to the workshop we started to try and find out what the problem was . It wouldn't turn over so we put it into top gear and rocked it see if there was any resistance, then we tried to start it on the button but just got a loud clunk. We wheeled it inside and I started to strip off the fairing panels, seat and then the tank . For a 30 year old bike it didn't put up too much of a fight, so then I took off the rocker covers on the rear cylinder. From that we found that the valves were moving freely so no problem there. My boss also put a scope with a camera to see if there was anything untoward.... Next I removed the carbs to give me access to the front cylinder and then removed the rocker covers on that cylinder as well. There was no movement on the valves when we rocked it in gear. Next I drained the coolant out and removed the two rads and the front coils to get the valve cover off to see if the cam chain was ok........ The cam chain was fine so we're now suspecting something a bit more terminal. That's as far as I got today, next it will be engine out and see what else we can find.

Most manufacturers overbuild stuff like that now Chris, that's why I like my DR650 so much, easy to fix most anything on there. I fear my Tenere is going to be a lot like your Tigger.

Nice one Chris, did you swear at the tyre fitters in French or English ?

Nice work Fred, you've done a grand job there. Loving the exhaust extractor as well

Absolutely, how the hell do you get your helmet on when you're wearing that

and me ?

Nice work there Fred, I've never worked on anything more than a twin , I don't really like multi cylinder engines. I'm slightly confused about one thing, you say that the oil hasn't been changed from new (28 years) , so does the tensioner run in a seperate oil bath to the engine ?

Just bring Twoesme back, you'll have enough material for at least another 5 years ?

Hello ?

I'm just going to agree with what glitch_oz is saying because it's exactly right. If you do a lot of motorway (freeway) riding get the DL, but if you like the backroads and gravel trails go for the DR. I've owned four DR650's now so I'm a bit biased but for me it's the best go anwhere dual-sport bike there is . 1996 UK model behind modded for overland riding and 2012 Standard model in front , that one is from Perth originally and still has some Aussie red dust on it

This is Ryknild Street, a roman road in Gloucestershire. That's a KTM990 Adventure courtesy bike that the dealer loaned me for the day when my 950 was in for a recall issue. That track is not hard to ride but the 990 made it hard work as the fuelling was sooooooooooo jerky. When I took it back they asked if I would like to upgrade to the 990, I politely declined

Touche

It's age restricted Eric, most of us are over 60 so we're not allowed to view it ?

Can't say that I disagree Bruce. Good work with the spring Fred, Taking carbs apart and overhauling them is very satisfying like Bruce says but fitting them back in usually involves skinned knuckles and a few expletives.

Quite possibly, I had to look that up ?

It's just gone up about 2c here as I have just farted with gusto ?

I only have one bike left with a carb, the others are both injected. Seems strange to me but it's the way of the world now.

Definitely by better people, I mean................ he drives buses and rides a feckin Harley, how much worse can it get ?