Featured Touring Off For A Ride, Back In A Bit....

So yesterday was an experience with me guiding these two around.
One lane has two water crossings which given the recent rains after such a dry spell, were a little unpredictable but didn't prove an issue in the end, sort of





Looks a lovely idyllic place to breakdown

 

Crossing the water first, I spot a woman leading x2 horses up the track.
All safely across the water and onto the flat I pulled up and said we'd give the woman a few minutes to disappear.
Engines fired back up and away we go...... nope, turn around and go see what's happened.
The Honda decided it doesn't want to play anymore

 

Now between us we have quite a few tools but electrically we are very limited.
The engine starts and sounds good, but only runs for 10 seconds. It fires back up straighaway but again only for 10 seconds.
What's the plan?
Ironically I'd put a good length of cord in my stuff that morning in case we needed a tow rope. With a water crossing behind and in front I didn't fancy towing through the submerged rocks.
All bags off, side panels, seat and tank..... now what?

 

I had a feeling it was fuel related, despite just going through the water, so wanted to inspect the ecu and fuel pump relay.

Last year Nireen had a crash, which although now repaired, it had damaged the left hand side of the bike.

Checking things over carefully and I spotted a crack/gap in that black plastic thing

But what is it?



Water had obviously entered it and once we realised it was the tilt sensor it sounded like the potential culprit. Now it was a case of how best to bypass it.
Leave it unplugged, fire it up if it will, and see what it does, eml light expected.

Voila, problem resolved.

 

A group of new big bikes like KTM 1090, BMW 900, Tenere etc had came through and not one person offered tools or support.
Shame on you!
Hopefully our paths will cross again in the future as I'm a firm believer in karma.

All rebuilt and back up and running, then onto some further lanes before calling for dinner at How Stean Gorge.





Lovely Ciabatta sandwiches with side salad and crisps. Mine was a prawn and Chipotle, they had a belly pork version.

 

We obviously broke down at the right time as the misty rain had now closed in, but our spirits were high, our bellies full and so let the adventure continue.

Note, I have actually done this lane on the 900 street twin

 

After a few more routes we called it a day as time was moving on and we had a special dinner to have .... plus another tyre to change

My wife had cooked a lovely venison casserole with dumplings and vegetables for the first night, which had gone down really well

Nireen asked, if we would like and if she could borrow our kitchen, then she would cook a traditional meal for us on the second night.

Oh yes, definitely

She suggested a pork dish that translates as " pork bone tea" ( tea as in a kind of soup)
If you say it how this is written then apparently it's correct....

Buck-koot-tay

(Bak kut teh)

 

Birds eye chilli's in a soy sauce added some potency.... yum yum.





With a side dish of cabbage and beansprouts here we go.



Deeelicious

I bet we were the envy of the whole street, the house had this lovely aroma of spices and sauces about it.

 

A bit of late night bike prep and more wine.



Eventually getting into bed around 01.30.


A busy day and so to

 

Despite breaking down yesterday, the Honda crf300 did really well and is certainly no longer a spring chicken.
Yes this is kilometres but even so....

 

And today, sadly, we had to bid our new friends farewell.
Their journey now takes them to Nottingham as they are going to meet up with some friends including the guy who had all his bike and personal belongings stolen recently, as noted on FB etc. Apparently, a bike shop has stepped in and are loaning him a bike to complete his round the world tour.

 

This was an interesting gadget that Haren mentioned he carried.

I used it on the second tyre change and said I was impressed. Haren insisted I kept it as a thank you

 

An oddball feature on the ktm were the footpegs.
Haren had chosen these so that he had heel support for jumps etc but also so that, in an emergency I.e. the Honda breaks down he could take her on the back and it sort of looked legal.... sort of

 

The stand was also a nice touch.
It is a product made by a company called Swiftkicker.

On the shortest setting on a flat floor it's probably about 30mm short but it can grow by quite a bit. Even on uneven ground, the bikes angle can be adjusted to be correct, which is especially important when fully loaded up of course.