my "little" bike

cant be bothered with more uploads, its taking ages, but anyway you get the idea, we drove down in 4 days via autobahn and autostrada and returned in 7 days via only backroads, i will be doing a similar trip next year, only on a more suited bike, the vf is a short distance sprint bike with a plastic seat a stupid gear ratio and really uncomfortable, i just bought myself a bmw r100gs paris dakar edition which i will use for tours.
anyway little info about the pics, top pic is in kristiansand, ready to board the ferry at 6am i had ridden 6 hours nonstop at that point, then that church is madonna della corona, the most mind blowing place i have ever been to its build high up into the side of the cliff, there are no signs to it and it is still used as a church to this day. next pic is me in germany (kasell i beleive) drying our stuff after we rode in what was essentially just a swimming pool of rain for several hours, i burnt out the hairdryer before i finished. next pic (on this post) is a really cool gun in a castle bell tower in malcesine in lago de garda (where we stayed) no idea how they got that gun up all those stairs! last pic is of a town called borghetto, its built on the only river that comes out of the garda lake, fascinating place indeed. i have thousands more pics but its taking forever to upload them. ive done a lot in my absence!

 

total weight of bike fully loaded with full tank and both of us was a little under 450KG... oops!

 

Nice to see the old girls still got her legs for a descent trip What the road handling like with the nobbly tyres?

 

He's Back
Nice to see you again.

 

the road handling was alright really, saved my ass a few times having knobblies, there was one point where we were high up in the alps in austria, and there was a road closure, so we went up a little backroad that was stupid steep, andway, it was single track and had some crazy blind corners, we met a car and i stopped, then the bike started skidding backwards, on both tyres, my wife jumped off and grabbed the back and pushed, then i gave it some gas and shot up to the next corner, an inexperienced rider would have fallen down the side of the mountain! crazy stuff

 

ive taken it a few times down gravel roads and in some mud, its fun but really scary, off road bikes should have a max of 50hp, over that and you just spin the tyre in every gear!

 

not quite sure, but might hardtail it and drop the rear end by a few inches. any input??? 28 degree rake standard, trail is 96mm rear suspension travel is 120mm

 

das motorrad.

 

update, fitted my new starter relay, need to charge the battery before it will start

 

im going to get norways first ASBO if i keep riding the VF, what a beast it is, i forget after riding the BMW for a while. i can get the back wheel spinning in 2nd gear on the vf...

 

so because the pipes are made of filler and totally fucked, i made some megaphones.... essentially all the silencing part is cut off. the exhaust ends just below the footpeg now. i need to clean the fuel tank and carbs (again) and do a service, not sure i serviced it since i came back from italy. need to finish the paint job by may (fury road release date) first job is to unstick the damn seat, the lock is fucked so im gonna drill it out i guess... will get on with the BSA project first, can finish the VF in a weekend i think

 

still stuck with the damn seat... no idea how to get it off

 

the seat continues to be damn stuck! the mech is all rusted stuck or something, i can sort of twist the seat until i can see the lock mech and i cant even release it with a screwdriver! its a damn big screwdriver too, looks like i will be getting the pry bar in there and busting the little loop thing off the seat base.....

 

got the seat off!!!!! yes!!!!! wwoooooooooohhhoooooooo!!!!!! i used a hammer, a big screwdriver, brute force, lots of swearing, and ignorance..... the lock is trash (i didnt actually break the lock!) its all worn out and the key doesnt fit (its always been shit!) now its just a hole and a little pull thing (if you have taken the seat catch of a vespa you will know what i mean)
gave the carbs a quick spray with carb cleaner, and the air filter is getting a service (i have an air filter service kit, bet nobody else here owns that!)
the deadline for my painjob is may 15th.. but money is tight right now! might sell some spares that i have kicking around.....

 

the face you pull when painting..... herrr hererrrrrrrr

 

so what do you guys think? its nearly done, just waiting for the front panel to dry.... would like a red seat cover, but thats not happening just yet....

 

more pics to come soon, i really need to change the cahin and front sprocket, i can feel it clonking on my left leg when i accelrate hard... other than that, im happy. its noisy, rattly, ugly and fast, fits right in with the theme!

"see you on the road skag!"

 

couple of pics from my shakedown test. need the front sprocket and chain changing, and also possibly a wheel bearing on the back left....

 

few pics from a few days ago.
riding a rigid is hard work!