Saturday test ride Bimble

[Sir Fallsalot]

Today i had a few things to test out on the XR, one was to see if i fixed a small oil leak on the rocker shafts and the other was the gearing, i wasn't happy with the gearing on my ride last weekend, on a few lanes i was giving my new clutch more abuse than i liked as the gearing was too high. So before my ride today i needed to change the rear sprocket from the 40 tooth i have fitted to the standard 45 tooth. First sprocket bolt i tried to remove i rounded the Allen key head of the bolt because i got carried away with the lock tight when fitting them last time, i had it all up the shaft as well as the threads  Anyhow after trying to bang a torx bit into the bolt head and failing i remembered the easy out set i have and it worked a treat all i needed it to do was to hold the bolt and undo the nut the other side

 

After fitting the 45 tooth sprocket i found the chain was too short so i got pissed off and ended up fitting the off road wheel instead which has a 42 tooth sprocket fitted, after heading up over my mountain i decided the gearing was far better and will be fitting this sprocket to the road wheel and getting a larger one for this wheel.
The lane up over to the wylie was nice i hadn't really noticed until today how green everything is and it is bloody hot as well.

The woodland over the wall on the right is a carpet of Bluebells.  The familiar smells of dope and cow shit as you ride through the countryside are replaced this time of the year with flowers and blossom 

Considering how hot it is this lane was still quite slippery as were others with a lot of water on some.

I have passed this old mill hundreds of times and didn't realised until today it has a bit of fame attached to it 

When i took this photo i noticed the plaque above the door 

When i had a closer look it said this 

this is his story if you want to be edumacated 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artie_Moore

On the way to the next lane you have the wonderful smell of freshly baked bread as you pass the Braces Bread Bakery in Oakdale 

It's getting hot so i stop to take the chin piece off my helmet to go open face from here and these guys come over to see what i'm up to 

Poor buggers were covered with fly's

Glad i went down the next lane from manmoel as the storms has washed it out a bit and had me in a bit of a sweat will have to revisit on the X trainer i think

 

There was a nice stream to cool of in at the bottom, it's all slippery rock in there and a horrible crossing

After i took this photo someone dropped out of the woods on the left a bit further down on a bike took me by surprise, we had a little chat and went on our way he was living not far from me and was on his way home from work now thats a ride home from work LOL

I wanted to have a look in the old railway tunnel from here to see how it's getting on but there's a tree down blocking the entrance so i just headed home via a couple more lanes. When i got in i ordered front and rear sprockets and a new rear tyre for the road wheel. I also ordered new sprocket bolts which cost £8 for the bolts washers and nuts on line, from Honda they would cost £120  Couldn't see no oil misting on the rocker cover so hoping my fix has worked hopefully.

 

 

 

[XTreme]

Great shots there Fred!

Aren't you finding some of the harder offroad stuff getting more difficult as you get older?

[Sir Fallsalot]

4 minutes ago, XTreme said:

Great shots there Fred!

Aren't you finding some of the harder offroad stuff getting more difficult as you get older?

I don't find it more difficult as such, i'm a lot slower and just plod along now enjoying the countryside instead of zooming through it, i also find the tall seat height on the XR makes things seem more intimidating than it used to be plus i'm not as bike fit as i was due to lack of saddle time. The washed out lane i'll be back to ride on the X trainer as it gives you so much confidence i think it takes 20 years off your age when you ride it as i'm willing to attempt things i used to be comfortable doing many years ago 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

34 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

Today i had a few things to test out on the XR, one was to see if i fixed a small oil leak on the rocker shafts and the other was the gearing, i wasn't happy with the gearing on my ride last weekend, on a few lanes i was giving my new clutch more abuse than i liked as the gearing was too high. So before my ride today i needed to change the rear sprocket from the 40 tooth i have fitted to the standard 45 tooth. First sprocket bolt i tried to remove i rounded the Allen key head of the bolt because i got carried away with the lock tight when fitting them last time, i had it all up the shaft as well as the threads  Anyhow after trying to bang a torx bit into the bolt head and failing i remembered the easy out set i have and it worked a treat all i needed it to do was to hold the bolt and undo the nut the other side

 

After fitting the 45 tooth sprocket i found the chain was too short so i got pissed off and ended up fitting the off road wheel instead which has a 42 tooth sprocket fitted, after heading up over my mountain i decided the gearing was far better and will be fitting this sprocket to the road wheel and getting a larger one for this wheel.
The lane up over to the wylie was nice i hadn't really noticed until today how green everything is and it is bloody hot as well.

The woodland over the wall on the right is a carpet of Bluebells.  The familiar smells of dope and cow shit as you ride through the countryside are replaced this time of the year with flowers and blossom 

Considering how hot it is this lane was still quite slippery as were others with a lot of water on some.

I have passed this old mill hundreds of times and didn't realised until today it has a bit of fame attached to it 

When i took this photo i noticed the plaque above the door 

When i had a closer look it said this 

this is his story if you want to be edumacated 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artie_Moore

On the way to the next lane you have the wonderful smell of freshly baked bread as you pass the Braces Bread Bakery in Oakdale 

It's getting hot so i stop to take the chin piece off my helmet to go open face from here and these guys come over to see what i'm up to 

Poor buggers were covered with fly's

Glad i went down the next lane from manmoel as the storms has washed it out a bit and had me in a bit of a sweat will have to revisit on the X trainer i think

 

There was a nice stream to cool of in at the bottom, it's all slippery rock in there and a horrible crossing

After i took this photo someone dropped out of the woods on the left a bit further down on a bike took me by surprise, we had a little chat and went on our way he was living not far from me and was on his way home from work now thats a ride home from work LOL

I wanted to have a look in the old railway tunnel from here to see how it's getting on but there's a tree down blocking the entrance so i just headed home via a couple more lanes. When i got in i ordered front and rear sprockets and a new rear tyre for the road wheel. I also ordered new sprocket bolts which cost £8 for the bolts washers and nuts on line, from Honda they would cost £120  Couldn't see no oil misting on the rocker cover so hoping my fix has worked hopefully.

 

 

 

I half expect you to carry a chainsaw in a rucksack, nothings gonna get in your way

[Sir Fallsalot]

15 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

I half expect you to carry a chainsaw in a rucksack, nothings gonna get in your way

I do carry a folding saw but this was no good for these trees LOL. i will return to the tunnel with a chainsaw in the near future though 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

2 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

I do carry a folding saw but this was no good for these trees LOL. i will return to the tunnel with a chainsaw in the near future though 

A man with a plan. Excellent. 

[Sir Fallsalot]

Just now, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

A man with a plan. Excellent. 

Enough about me how did your ride go today 

[Sir Fallsalot]

Just been reading up on Artie Moore and i'm quite impressed, he built a radio transmitter/receiver that picked up the Titanic's distress call 3000 miles away from the attic of the Mill in my photos when he told the police they didn't believe him and it was two days later when the official word confirmed his story, that was over 110 years ago when i had my CB radio in my 4x4 to talk to my mate in his it only worked line of sight for about quarter mile and that was only about 20 years ago  

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

1 hour ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

Enough about me how did your ride go today 

Crap. Down the pan. Kaput. 

Ready to roll and the low rider said.. nooooooo

Not sure what's going on with it. So annoyed I don't care. 

But out of solidarity I didn't ride off

Tomoz though I will take a different tact...

pick a bike, any bike and I'll see you there, whether I get there before you or after depends on what you choose

[XTreme]

8 hours ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

Ready to roll and the low rider said.. nooooooo

Harley knackered?

[Sir Fallsalot]

1 hour ago, XTreme said:

Harley knackered?

You know Slowly and batteries don't get on so was buying a bike that runs solely on batteries wise 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

2 hours ago, XTreme said:

Harley knackered?

It's not happy. 

And it doesn't sound like the battery. 

Heyho. 

I'm going out today regardless!

[Pedro]

Very cool time of the year, and great bit of history too.

[Sir Fallsalot]

51 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

It's not happy. 

And it doesn't sound like the battery. 

Heyho. 

I'm going out today regardless!

That's the spirit and while your in the mood don't forget your camera

 

[boboneleg]

Nice one Fred, that lane at Manmoel looks a challange now

 

Do you heat up the sprocket bolts before you try to loosen them ?

 

[Sir Fallsalot]

11 minutes ago, boboneleg said:

Nice one Fred, that lane at Manmoel looks a challange now

 

Do you heat up the sprocket bolts before you try to loosen them ?

 

No i just undo the nuts on the back the first, i was an impatient twat and used the impact gun on it after slackening the nut off totally fucking it up, all the others were fine after taking the nuts off first and using an allen key