What Have You Being Doing With Your Non-triumph Today?

That dog is wonderful, @Mrs Visor! Glad you understand about leaving one's dog for the day. It's great that we can sometimes enlist our dog sitter for a day job here and there. Ellie absolutely loves our dog sitter. We call her "Auntie Marilyn" and Ellie knows that name. If I say "Auntie Marilyn is coming!" (even with a very flat tone just to test), Ellie understands and runs to the window to look out at the cul-de-sac to see if she's arrived yet!

 

About 52 miles for Helmut and I on the Ducatis today (the heated grips and hand guards mean it has become my chilly weather bike!!) just to Shobdon for lunch. He has the luxury of a long break from work this Christmas and it's my last rest day from work today so we thought we'd get out. That will have been my last ride of 2025, it's been a great biking year .

 

Glad you and Helmut got out on your bikes, @Mrs Visor, even if chilly! And that you had a lovely long break. My last ride of the year was probably yesterday as we've got rain predicted for the next few days here in the desert. My last day of break before I go back to my job is Monday so I'll have to figure out what to do with myself if it's rainy! I agree with you about it having been a great biking year! We are so blessed.

 

You wouldn't have liked the temperature I am sure, it is about 39F . Helmut has had a lovely long break and continues to do so , I have just had my usual rest days, I am back on the early shift tomorrow - I work 6 on, 4 off which is rolling earlies / lates / nights / off so it's just luck as to when those rest days might fall - always nice when we can both have time off together though.

We are indeed blessed .

 

So today was a Kove day for me with the usual on and off road routes.
Emley Moor TV mast


And signposts like this are just an invite in my mind. I'd just completed the lane here and I've certainly been on worse routes.


Castle Hill, Huddersfield, is above the screen.

Holme Moss mast in the background


The bike is actually turned around at this point as I was going in the upward direction, so now pointing the wrong way. Zero grip, wet rock, failing light and wisdom decided it would be best left for another day for when with others.

 

My route included a stop at "The Carding Shed" so I was hopeful of a cup of tea but unfortunately they were shut.
On the steep downhill approach with bends, the back end suddenly felt like a puncture



But this wasn't just your normal thorn or nail

 

Look at this for a trophy?



The spark plug is just for scale and my finger points to the end which entered the tyre. The knobblies are 12mm tall plus the carcase thickness so probably 15mm+ overall and the piece of metal had no problem getting to the tube.
So despite the cafe being shut, I noticed a guy cleaning his motorhome around the back.

Shy bairns get nowt and all that so here goes....

Excuse me, I have tools and a spare tube but I just wondered if you had an air compressor I could use?

Yes, no problem.

Any chance of a trolley jack to create a sort of paddock stand?

Yep, here use that one.



Soon all sorted and I'm on my way.
Oxford heated grips worked well for my hands and sealskinz socks, despite big puddles and wet boots, kept my feet comfortable.
100 miles all in and back home.

Obvious maybe to some, the spare tube I carry is a front (21") and so a quick jetwash once home, then into doing the tyre thing all again to refit a brand new 18" out of my stock

 

https://www.thecardingshed.com/

 

The last 2 pins are being taken out late afternoon on New Year's Eve, another week for swelling to go down, and boots on hopefully, just need some warmer weather, it is forecast to have low temperatures for a while yet though. Four decades of winter mountaineering and ice climbing on front points have taken their toll on my poor toes. Would I do it all again, Hell Yes I definitely would. Summiting Mont Blanc a while ago, an unusual break in the weather gave fantastic views. This was the start of winter, and there were only a few other climbers to reach the summit that day. The previous few days saw absolutely appalling conditions.
.

 

Beautiful! Except the first picture

 

Wow, @Iceman, I can absolutely see why you'd do it again. Spectacular! Thanks for sharing those photos. So...how did the pin removal go??

 

Thanks Sandi. It went well thank you, all straightforward. Can't wait to get back out riding again, the weather where you are looks fantastic, oh what it would be like here in the UK if we had that sunny hot climate.

 

So glad all went well with your foot procedure, @Iceman! Hopefully you will get some decent weather so you can get on in your bike when you feel up to it. And never fear, soon it will be summertime and you will have lovely temperatures. Meanwhile I'll be back to riding on what feels like the face of the sun.

 

Changed the main jet on the 175 Yamaha and took it for a little run to do a plug chop.

 

I think you look safely rich enough there, are you running autolube or premix?

 

I’m running a 40:1 premix with Silkolene comp 2. I was at 32:1 but it was recommended that I reduce it.

 

Yes we run the kmx 125 on 40:1 likewise for that bit more protection without hopefully overdoing it.
My block paving is taking some hits from the odd spoodge dropping.

 

I delved into the ATAC set up on the NS400 this morning. The bike has been stood since October and whilst it was running OK last year, it was choking up around the 7500 rpm mark, which I was told, is when the ATAC set up comes into play and so it was first port of call for my investigations. The ATAC assembly is basically a butterfly valve in each exhaust, which is actuated by a solenoid at the aforementioned 7500 ish rpm. On removal of the ATAC inspection covers, one side butterfly was lagging behind the other and so there was excess play in the linkage. I should say at this point that Honda, in their wisdom, only fitted the ATAC valves to the front two cylinders, the rear cylinder doesn't have it. The two butterflies are connected by an articulated rod and it was the rod linkage that was the problem. Once I got it off it was a fairly straightforward fix and its now back in situ. The bike started up ok afterwards, but I won't be giving it a test ride in this miserable weather, but at least that's one less job come Spring. Time for a cuppa.

Sorry I should have said; ATAC stands for ~ Automatic Torque Amplification Chamber.

Good old 80's stuff, they loved all that Bullshit! Lol

 

I took my Ducati for its MOT yesterday - only a very short trip but it was wonderful to be on a bike, I have ridden less this January than any others but the weather has been wild!!

 

Outex tubeless conversion on Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 with Bridgestone BattlAx BT-46.