How Many Bikes

 So, how many bikes is too many? In the cycling world the formula for the correct number of bikes is N+1 where N is the current number of bikes you own. The +1 bit is pretty self explanatory. I have this equation sorted and am somewhat stable with my bicycles.

 But what about motorcycles? If you run by the above formula you start to run out of shed space very quickly (well, if your shed is only 6x6 metres you do!)

Now, not all of the bikes are mine. Lucy owns two and Will has three so once they eventually leave home I will have more room but for the time being I spied a sliver of empty space between the DX and Will’s CBR500. 

Now for context, after the last track day where I rode Will’s Daytona and was blown away by how much fun it was, I decided I had better obtain a dedicated, more modern track bike and retire the R1 from that role. While driving home from that last track day Will spied a likely candidate on the Moore Track Toys FB page. As I was driving at the time I asked Will to message Ian and get him to hold the bike for me. I am glad I did because I beat several other potential purchasers by a mere twenty minutes.

I was away for a work trip but the following week I drove up to check it out and confirm that yes, indeed, I did want to buy it. After a few days thought, I gave Emily at Hawtt Decals a rough idea of the decal scheme I wanted (all included in the purchase price) then waited a week to see what turned up.

This is what turned up!

More bike than I need? CHECK! 

More bike than I can handle? ROGER!!

Moore Track Toys to the rescue.....

Here is the list of go fast bits installed.

The purchase price included a suspension setup session with Joe from Ride Dynamics. Joe did my Tuono as well as Will's Daytona and is a Gixxer man, so the right bloke to have look at my suspenders. He set me up for sag but as this bike had been someones wet training bike it is pretty softly sprung. This will necessitate a return visit soon to have that rectified and the shock valving upgraded. 

But first, off to the track we go!

As usual, Will and I went up the night before so as to be ready for the early start. Fuel is consistently 20 to 30 cents per litre cheaper in Warwick than in Brisbane......and they have to truck it 120km up here from the port.... #gettingshaftedonfuelpricesbrisbane

Scrutineering passed, setup and ready to go.

We have a pretty basic setup but it works (read just barely fits in the car)

We are trying to remember to limber up before and in between sessions. Climbing all over a hurtling bike takes some effort!

Will gave some tips to young Lachy who rode out from Brisbane on his KTM390 for the day.

Will is loving the track days and is bloody quick for a newby. Far faster than me in the corners and he is just managing to touch 200km/h down the short main straight. Not a bad effort on a 675.

I took it easy for the first few sessions. Not just because I was looking after the bike but because I was trying to re-wire my brain to change gears in the opposite direction to what I have done for the last ~ 35 years! Yep, GP or race shift pattern on this Gixxer and it did take some of my concentration budget not to fcuk it up. That said I did shift up a couple of times when meaning to shift down into a corner. I didn’t shift down (when at redline), meaning to shift up….thankfully. That would be fairly ugly.🫣

To say that the bike felt awesome would be an understatement!

Will followed me around for a few laps but soon got sick of my slow speed and blasted past.

He has much quicker corner speed than I do.  Something to work on as I get used to the bike. 

I gave the bike to Will for a session and was surprised at how different the GSXR felt from the Daytona. The Gixxer is very "sit in" and felt low and soft whereas the Triumph felt tall and "sit on" with quite stiff suspension.(the Gixxer is soft, which we will rectify)

Will looked good on the bike and was giggling like a school girl when he got off. 

Wrestling it back off him I finished the day with a big grin as well. 

Lachy's day didn't end so well, suffering a lowside that ground a hole in his engine case.

 Luckily he was ok and also luckily we had room on the trailer and so carted his bike back to Brisbane for him. A bent gear selector shaft might make for an expensive fix....

Anyway,  it was a great day out.  We had heaps of fun,  learnt a lot and can't wait for our next track day. 

Cheers.

SWM RS300R Oil And Filter Change

 While almost two years has passed since we bought the SWM RS300R, it doesn’t feel like we have done much riding with it. But with a ride day coming up next week and the “we have had this bike almost two years” in mind, I decided it was time to do an oil and filter change on her.

I took her for a quick spin along some power line easement near home to get her nicely warmed up (and to have some fun) before I dropped the oil. 

Pulling the sump plug saw the hot and very black slippery stuff dump into my catch pan. 

Hmmmm…..that is very dirty looking oil. How many kilometres has this bike actually done? Checking the odometer I was surprised to see exactly 1300km indicated!! We bought the bike with just 560km on the clock and I must say I was surprised to see so many kilometres. Thinking about it though, Will brought the bike down to Forbes last year when Dad passed away. At the time I thought it would be a way for him to stay in a good head space while dealing with such an upsetting situation. I know he rode it a lot at the time but never actually checked the odometer. It does hold a healthy (for a dirt bike) 1.8 litres of oil but if I had checked, I would have done this oil and filter change 12 months ago!

The bike has a couple of mesh filter screens on the left side of the engine. I carefully fished them out taking care not to damage or lose the O rings in the process. 

The screens looked completely clean but I washed them in petrol, hosed them off and dried them in the sun as per the manual.

Next came the cartridge oil filter. It was easily done but I was a bit dismayed at the colour of the filter that I removed!

Yes, these are actually the same size, just a bit of perspective error.

Draining the oil pan I was a bit concerned to see quite a few metal flakes in the bottom.

 Fcuk, not good! 🫤

Many of the shiny bits in the photo below are just the way the light is reflecting off the oil covered clutch/gasket particles but there are quite a few bits of metal in the top centre of the pan. I’d didn’t get a photo of the magnetic sump plug but it also had quite a bit of very fine metal filings stuck to it.

I have moved to Maxima synthetic oil as my go to these days which might be overkill this time around as I will give the bike another oil and filter change in the next five hours or so of operation to try cleaning this crud out of the system.

Clean and clear….. for now. Let see how it looks after Tuesday next week. 🫣

I did tip a little more oil in after this photo was taken to take it to the top mark.

While I was at it she got a precautionary air filter clean too. Not because it was dirty but because it had sat since last October or November and I didn't want to find out the hard way that the filter oil had dried out.

Now she really is ready to go again!

Cheers.

Another Dirt Scalpel

 I have been looking for another registered dirt bike so that we can get out in the state forests and national parks for some trail riding in the safety of numbers. A couple of weeks back I finally found another low kilometre SWM, similar to the RS300R that we bought in July 2022. I really wanted another 300 so that they would be interchangeable - and honestly as beginners, the kids and I would be well served by a pair of 300s rather than a bigger bike. 

However, there were no decent, low kilometre 300s to be had and nothing new either. Apparently dealers are waiting for a container to land from Italy. So, when an immaculate, super low kilometre RS500 came up I jumped on it.

Pick up time!

Why the SWM? These SWM appeal to me because they are based on the 2010 Husqvarna TE510 and 310 models. Both were cutting edge in 2010 so are still very well specced bikes today that retail for under $10 and $9K respectively. There is simply nothing in that price range that packs the performance of these bikes. KYB suspension. Brembo brakes. Whats not to like?

The 500 looks sexy in black and yellow.

What else is in the price range? A DRZ400? Not even close performance wise and anything from the Blue factory or Team Orange will set you back $6-8K more and be too hard edged for general trail riding. The only “risk” with the SWMs is that they are a tiny manufacturer with a very limited dealer network. I am taking a gamble with two of them but hope to be able to keep them running sweetly through the power of the internet and international shopping. 😉

Will took a day off work to come with me to pick up the 500 so we could go for a ride in the pine forests of the Glasshouse Mountains, just a 20 minute drive south of the bike shop.

He was pretty excited and a bit nervous. It was his first real trail ride….. and my first since we used to ride these trails way back in about 2006! (Funnily enough, on my 2006 Husky TE510)

This 500, based, as I said on the 2010 TE510 seems less tall than what I recall my 2006 being and the power feels tamer. Not weak, but tamer and more useable.

By the time we got to the Glasshouse lookout Will’s nervousness was gone and he was loving the ride! So was I just quietly. 😎

I have ordered a bash plate and some radiator guards for the 500 to help make it trail worthy and I have just stumbled across the O2 sensor delete plug via the SWM owners FaceBook page so will be ordering one for each bike. The Euro 4/5 rules make the bikes run very lean and consequently fluffy on small throttle openings/sharp openings and the O2 delete apparently fixes this.

Now to just find time to ride these things between work, ADV riding and mountain biking! I think I like having too many hobbies.🤔

Cheers.

Tour Interlude And Catch Up

I feel it is time to interrupt my ongoing “Not A Midlife Crisis, Just An Extended Tour” series of posts with a bit of a catch up on what else has been going on in daily life the last few months. This will be a bit “warts and all”, so strap in.