Being as daft as a post has its advantages.

I turned up to work this morning only to find the university closed (it’s a public holiday) and that I had no classes to teach today. Result! Now, you’d think that was damn stupid of me (which it was), but it meant that I did get up out of bed at a saintly time, got to ride across town on empty roads on a beautiful, sunny winter’s morning, and I was home in time for the kids just being dressed with a whole, free day in front of me. Empty roads, a crisp, sunny morn, and did I ever say that the bike’s a little beast? No? Well, the bike’s a little beast. I’m totally in love with life.

0km done

I haven’t had the cover off the bike yet. I’ve been too busy being lazy around the house. I’m back to work on Friday and I’m running on reserve, so I should fill it up. I should also check the tyre pressure. I’ll do it tomorrow.

Well, the holidays weren’t wasted. I recharged my batteries big time (not the bike’s battery), and I’m all warmed up for the next holidays which start on February 2nd. Then there’ll be some riding done for sure.

Oh aye, and a Happy New Year to everyone and safe riding. I hope you all get the motorcycles of your dreams in 2012!

Holidays f&*k yeah!

I had my last classes today, and I threw the cover over the bike when I got home, but not for long I hope. It has got damn cold, but it was in December-January when I did my lessons, snow and all, and my first rides into Gifu were in the snow and hail. Back then I was riding in pretty primitive riding gear, whereas now I’m kitted out quite well. I’ll give it until after Christmas Day and then I’ll make my excuses one day and disappear with a hot flask of coffee and my camera into the crisp morning air.

Nuthin’ tu’ report

Well, nothing much. I’ve settled right into the commute, and the bike is running like a dream. It’s funny how I still get the new-bike-smell when the rain evaporates of the engine. It’s nice. No leisure rides though. I’ve simply been too busy.

I was sitting a set of lights recently having slipped past a couple of cars that were sitting stationary before I arrived at the junction. It’s a very familiar piece of road to me. After the junction there’s a straight stretch of 50 km/h road, running for a few hundred metres with no roads joining, hedged on both sides by, you guessed it, hedges. The guy behind/beside started that silliness of being annoyed at having a bike nose ahead at a red light. He started edging forward to the left to stop me from getting off first. Now usually I’d let those boys go on ahead, but I fancied a free run on this lovely stretch of road so when the right changed I let rip, more so than I’ve done to date. I suppose the weeks spent on the bike have settled me right into it, so I opened the throttle with much élan.

Well, it lifted like a small aircraft. I’m not going to tell you what speed I ended up at, but the pull on my arms in 2nd and 3rd was so exhilarating I just had to keep going .  It was a short burst because I crossed the next junction at a very sensible speed, but my heart was racing from the rush. A straight road, no side roads, no oncoming traffic, dry and bright with no sun glare. It’s gotta be done once in a blue moon

金玉暖かくなりたい。

I’ve been wearing a pair of Komine PK-705 Full Year Riding Pants Ⅱ for the last year and a half, but the zip on the lower left leg has weakened and is about to bust. I wouldn’t mind so much in the summer, but with winter on us I’d be getting an awful blast of freezing wind up my left leg, and that’s just not cricket, what, what!

So I’ve ordered a new pair of pants for the winter. It was a rush decision tonight when my wife said that she can’t fix the zip. I’ve gone for Komine again, this time I’m going for full-on winter pants with removable inner thermal leggings. They’re the PK-817 Winter Pants MERCURIO, and I’ve picked them up for around ￥10,000 on Rakuten. Hopefully I’ll have them for the weekend when I might slip out early on Sunday morn for a wee run into the chilly regions.

PK-817 Winter Pants MERCURIO

 

Baffled

The fuel gauge dropped to the last bar today with only 195km on the trip. Doesn’t make sense. It’s true that the gauge  is very easily effected by the gradient of the road, but I really didn’t expect such a wildly different mileage reading from the last time, especially a lower one, seeing that I’ve been riding so much more slowly. I’m intrigued to see what the milage is when it hits reserve.

Winter Jacket from tomorrow.

Riding in winter around here is great. We don’t see a lot of snow at all, and it’s as if every day is sunny with clear skies. It gets damn cold, but no worse than back home. Now it’s got to the point where my Komine summer mesh jacket, even with its windproof inner-lining, cannot keep me warm in the morning, and it seems that from this week, local top temperatures will be in the mid-teens, meaning the morning ride is going to be damn nippy.

That means that my Honda winter jacket will be brought out tonight and the armour will be swapped from the Komine jacket to the Honda jacket. The Komine armour is far superior to the armour that came with the Honda jacket. I can transfer everything over except the back armour, which is a pity. The Komine back armour has moulded plastic arches all down the length of it, whereas the Honda back armour is simply hard moulded foam, but the Komine back armour won’t fit the Honda jacket. However, the chest guard, and the elbow and shoulder guards fit nicely.

I also bought a thin cotton balaclava from a local home centre. I like having a head covering to protect the helmet inner from the sweat and grease that comes from my scalp, and a balaclava provides that, as well as being an extra layer around my neck to keep it nice and toasty on the bitterly cold mornings. I also have a wind-breaker for my neck which covers from my chin down to my chest, but the extra layer provided by the balaclava will be more than welcome. I’ll also be looking at grip covers to maximise the heat coming off the heated grips, and maybe a new pair of pants, waterproof, with an inner layer for extra heat.

 

Capping it at 6,000 rpm

This fuel efficiency/ safe speed notion has really kicked in. Over these last few days I’ve  capped each gear change at a max of 6,000 rpm, but that’s only on big roads. On standard 50 kmph roads, it’s 5,000 rpm. This is after filling up the tank to the max 18 litres including 4 litres reserve. The digital fuel gauge on the CB400 Super Four has six bars covering the 14 litres over the reserve.

The first bar dropped this morning with around 54km on the trip. 14 / 6 = 2.33, so that’s about 2.33 litres for around 54km. If this is correct I should get around 324km by the time I hit the reserve. If this is the case, then that would be a major improvement on the 254km I got on the last reading. It could be the case however that the first bar reads more than that when the tank is filled to the base of the neck. I’ll check to see what’s on the trip when the second bar drops.

As far as I know, the vtec technology in the engine kicks in at around 6,250 rpm. Vtec is a simple enough technology in which oil pressure builds to a point whereby a small pin in a reservoir to the piston chamber is released allowing more fuel to enter the chamber via the reservoir to spark more combustion and, therefore, more power. If I’m riding below the vtec trigger point then of course I’ll not be burning up that extra fuel for that rush of power. It’s worth experimenting just to see what the result is.

More crazy people!

I was sitting at lights while on my way to work this morning when I was passed by a guy on a 50cc scooter at high speed. He must have been lane splitting at 40-50kmph. He passed me just as the light turned green. I caught up a little bit further down the road and I was sitting just a short distance behind him as we approached a line of traffic waiting at the next lights. I noticed that he was drinking from a small, dark brown bottle, one of those pick-me-up caffeine-loaded drinks I reckon. Suddenly, with his left hand he flung the bottle off to the left, it hit a privet hedge alongside the road and bounced back, smashing just in front of me and going under my front tyre. Tosser. Thankfully, no spill and no flat.

So, he proceeds to run the next red, and the next like some sort of lunatic. On top of that, I keep catching up and I’m not breaking reds or riding at high speed. After a while he cut off to the right, running another red, of course. Insane riding. If the police don’t that boy, natural selection will.

10,000 views!

Just hit the 10,000 views benchmark. Lot’s of people are hitting the blog via google searches on bike stuff. Cool.