Snoozin

Sorry! Lack of update. I sorta went on holiday, and drove the KP around the South Island for a couple of weeks having the time of my life. A bumpy, noisy, hot time of my life but great fun.

Before I took off however, I bought a seat cover off Trademe made by an Italian outfit called Blackbird Racing. Allegedly the local store on Trademe had been sent it in error, and it was dirt cheap. Their loss, my gain, or probably their gain my gain I guess.... who knows. Anyway, fitted it to the seat and voila! We have a nice fresh looking new seat in some fandangly kind of non-slip material. Closer to how it should look stock, as the seat on it was perished, had gone sticky on some surfaces and was generally gross.

The old boy was kind enough to go and get a WOF on it while I was away, and he secretly-not-very-secretly enjoyed riding it so did about 400km on it over those 2 weeks because he had a blast on it. Perfect! 

Shot out for dinner the week we got home, and ended up taking it on my first ride longer than a few KM... in the dark. So yeah my first ride as a learner was at night, from my folks rural property all the way into town. Then I ended up belting all around town on it, making a pest of myself and giggling at how much fun it was to ride. Exhibit A.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (1)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Also, while I was away, a parcel arrived with my first "upgrade" bit for it. Although maybe the seat cover applies, but anyway... the mirrors, as you'll not on previous posts and pics were awful things. Plus, the RHS one would rattle and vibrate to a point it sounded like the top end of the engine was about to explode through the tank. So I bought a pair of DRC 161 mirrors out of Japan, and slapped these on. Much impruv.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (2) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Then I donned my fresh and some not-so-fresh (thanks marketplace) riding gear and headed out for a bit of an explore on a sunny day. First port of call was heading over the Saddle Road, and up the Wharite Road.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (3) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

I rode to the end of that track above, then hit a locked gate and came back the other way, the made the ascent up to the transmission tower at the top of Wharite. The thing wasn't amazing on the tighter gravel turns with these old, dry rotted and 80/20 road focused tyres. Nearly had a few front end washouts, which kept me on my toes... 

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (4) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Stopped at a little flat section on my way down the hill - this is only just below the tower and you get a great view South West of the windmills, and the mighty Manawatu.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (7) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

After heading down the Wharite Road, I ended up going to Ferry Reserve (no pics) on the Eastern end of the now-close Manawatu Gorge. Rode over some rocks and stuff near the riverbed. Then headed across the Ballance bridge and hooked a right to head up to the windmills. This is the OG wind farm of Manawatu, and you can see some of the original phase one turbines with the big solid white towers, and some of the newer guys with the lattice towers. A bit of 4wd traffic on this road, I rode until I hit a boggy patch then decided it wasn't worth the effort with these crummy tyres.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (10) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (11) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Eventually I made the descent again, I had to stop for a pic with this rando sign. Never seen one of it's ilk before.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (13) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

This is slightly further down the track, overlooking the Tararua region and looking Eastwards. How good are those mirrors though.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (14) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

After this, it was really just tarmac work. Riding along the Ballance Valley and back over the Pahiatua Track to return to Palmy. This was sort of new to me, moving my weight on the bike to corner on tarmac, keeping my head level with the horizon etc. All really new techniques that until now were foreign (and really, still are). I intend to jump on some of the Ride Forever courses and learn more about this!

It didn't really need it, but I'm a weirdo so I gave it a quick spritz when I got home - just beat the rain. Overall, put nearly 200km on it over the day and had a total blast.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (15) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (16) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

I've already ordered a few odds and ends for it. It'll be getting an oil change ASAP, but I have some Mitas E09 and E13 tyres for it (way more aggressive) that should make it heaps better on the loose stuff. Some Renthal RC bend bars, with 26mm offset risers, new grips, Barkbusters etc also en route for it. Can't wait to get into it!

Cheers for looking! Suggestions, complaints, complements welcome.

So anyway, given this thing had been sitting for an age, I figured it was probably a solid idea to drain the tank and see what was going on, before attempting to kick it in the guts. So out with the tools, and lets tear this thing to bits, sorta. How easy are bikes to work on...

20230307_220313 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Exhibit A. Fuel.

20230307_222423 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Hmm, yeah that's not so flash. You can probably smell it from where you're viewing this, too.

To drain the fuel, I had to remove the fuel pump also. This is what I found.

20230308_101611 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Yummo, sweet varnish, and crusty flaky shit in abundance.

So I figured some internal inspection was probably necessary.

20230308_101634 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Shit yeah OK this isn't the best situation to find myself in. So I figured the best solution was to treat and re-line the tank properly, with a POR15 kit. On the shelf at City Honda too! So I was able to crack into this pretty promptly.

This is the result after a clean, and a treat with the 'metal ready' stuff, and a thorough drying with heat and airflow to really get all the moisture out.

20230309_191253 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Actually not bad! I popped the liner in after this, swirled it round, mopped out the excess (it wasn't as simple as just draining it, as the fuel pump flange has a return on it internally, I guess to add stiffness, so it just creates a big dam for the liner spooge to flow around, and not out...). I didn't get any pics of this process, but it spent a solid 5 days curing, while I turned my attention to the pump. 

When I chucked 12v on it, the pump did NOTHING. Like, it was locked solid. Since I had the housing all apart, I popped it in a bath of white vinegar to soften up all the varnish, and left it for a while. Progress photos below of this process.

20230308_170524 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

20230308_170513 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

20230308_170516 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

20230308_164256 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Gross, right. I didn't get any pics of the new pump by itself. But after a soak, the plastic housing and so forth cleaned up pretty well with an easy scrub.

20230310_154941 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

20230310_184857 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

20230311_094124 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Anyway, I got this all installed, and hit the button. Well, firstly, the pump gasket leaked the proverbial. And secondly, the thing would fire, and just not run past that initial burst of throttle. 

It'd just peter out. And on the very rare occasion it did run for more than a few seconds, a little bit of throttle would kill it instantly. 

It was fairly apparent that it was a fuel issue, the ECU has a great feature where you can test relays, sensors etc via a diagnostic mode on the dash. With this, I was able to check spark, throttle position, MAP sensor, fuel pump relay, the injector was pulsing via ECU, as well as pretty much everything on the bike (fan, headlight, you name it... all triggered via the ECU). While it didn't immediately lead me to the cause, it made me confident that everything electrical/electronic was functioning, and that it was likely a physical/mechanical problem causing the drama.

So... with consultation from some of PPSC's finest, I figured getting the injector cleaned would be the best next step. A few days later, and with a freshly cleaned injector in the bike and a non-leaking fuel pump gasket/seal.... it fired up on first hit of the button! A real eureka moment. Unfortunately the injector seal was leaking now, like a bloody garden hose. But Blizz saved the day and popped by with a "maybe it's nitrile, maybe it isn't" Aliexpress O-ring kit, so it now runs and its fluid tight! So a few pics of the reassembled bike to celebrate.

2007 Yamaha XT660R-1 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2007 Yamaha XT660R-13 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2007 Yamaha XT660R-20 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2007 Yamaha XT660R-25 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2007 Yamaha XT660R-28 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2007 Yamaha XT660R-42 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2007 Yamaha XT660R-44 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Yeah. It's not really a serious trail machine, but it should be a neat starter thing to get me enthused and focused on what I might prefer more, something with a more offroad bent, or perhaps a more road friendly bike. But it's first ride was the evening I fired it up, down to the servo for a bit of premium gasoline for a treat.

20230318_223212 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

More to come...

I've been wanting to get my bike license for a decade, easily.  I've just been super terrible about it, lazy, busy, unmotivated, you name it, I found an excuse. Usually i just forgot, but yeah anyway. 

Since both of my cars are in great shape (gone and jinxed that one...) and essentially just need servicing, washing, and WOF-ing I figured I should do something about this long-delayed motorbike license and get it done. So I did. The basic handling was easy, and the written test even easier. Not bad for a bloke who hasn't thrown a leg over a bike in 20 years or so.

The other motivation was the rides @BLIZZO etc have been fanging, I had a bit of a hunger to go out exploring and an adventure bike was the most likely candidate. Although I probably wussed out a bit on the seriousness of it all, as you'll soon see.

So I researched a bunch of options, KLR650, DR650, DRZ400, even toyed with the idea of buying a brand spankers CRF300, but instead a chance Facebook marketplace find led me to this thing, a Yamaha XT660R. 

Here's how the purchase went down, it's a bit of an interesting yarn I think.

I spied this bike while browsing marketplace (during work hours, natch) and it looked pretty tidy. Details were scarce, and it was allegedly in Cambridge. But the info seemed good, km were low at 33000 so I fired a message.

"Oh it's my dads bike, here's his number" was the response I received. No big deal, I dialed the number and got the seller/owner on the phone.

"So those pics aren't actually the bike I'm selling," was the first thing this joker said, literally. "It's a bit hard to get to at the moment, and my son saw this bike just like it so I told him to take some pictures of it so we could list mine. Oh yeah it's actually in Tokoroa, not Cambridge, too." Still, no big deal, I've gotten this far so I might as well find out a bit more.

Aaaanyway. Here's where the plot thickened. "I bought it 9 years ago, I never rode it and I just put it in my spare room, it's really mint though, looks like it just rolled out of a showroom." Interesting, and surely, the bloke's talking shit, right? The phone conversation would go on for a full FORTY SEVEN minutes, I thought I loved a yarn but this chap was the GOAT. Everything from working in the mines. How good is Thailand? Oh the time I owned a Porsche, I just had a big target on my back. And more. It turned out he'd gone to Wellington for some reason or another, and this bike took his fancy, so he bought it, but then he needed to get it home so he bought a Hiace to transport it back North. How good?

As it turned out I was due a trip up that weekend anyway, to go and ride bikes (the kind with pedals) at Redwoods in Rotorua so I figured I could make a detour and check this thing out.

I rolled in the driveway at about midday, and the place looked a little sketchy - you know, the kind with the fence made out of longrun roofing because they sure as hell don't want you to see in. Really, it was obscuring a yard chock full of treasure, and when I got to meet Brent, the owner, it was whilst dodging a a dog that was fairly vocal and upset about my being there. A great start, then.

Brent had obviously been working quite hard that morning, to get the bike to a point where I could actually view it. So like, cleaning it up, or maybe getting it ready for a start-up or something? No. Brent had just been CLEARING OUT the tonnes of crap that had hemmed this thing inside his spare room for some years. "I like to collect stuff," he explained, "I'd rather put my money into things, you know?" Well, he sure had a LOT of things. Enough things, that meant we had to traverse a perilous path carved through the labyrinth of 'things' (oh, theres a couple of postie bikes under all that, and a brand new scooter somewhere under there *gesticulates at pile of stuff*) populating the hallway and entrance of his old mill house, before we entered the cavern of XT660, and the sight below greeted my eyes. Just to the left of this shot is a stack of bric-a-brac and assorted appliances that reaches the ceiling, I almost considered confined space entry gear to deal with this situation.

2023-03-21_11-00-29 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Remember how I was optimistic about it's condition? Well it sure wasn't showroom, but holy shit it was pretty good, especially considering the relatively meagre bucks this thing was listed for. No major paint wear on the pegs or engine cases, all the plastics still glossy and unmarked, it even had it's original graphics still present. Looked like it had never seen any dirt, no major oxidisation on the alloy components, no fluids where they shouldn't be - but I wasn't allowed to fire it up. Whipping off the fuel tank, it had been BRIMMED before it was stored, but Christ it was whiffy in there, and didn't look like it was going to be a great time in steel fuel tank-ville... but I figured this thing seemed a pretty good starting point, it was tidy (and you all know I love my vehicles clean and tidy), had done minimal work and seemed to offer the goods for a capable enough dualsport bike. Reg on hold was a decent cherry on the top, too.

So I made an offer, and we made a deal. The Monday night after that, Markku and I drove up to Tokoroa after work with a trailer in tow, to pick the thing up. The trip was swift but largely uneventful, and we arrived around 8:30pm to find the bike sitting outside, and Brent waiting with a stack of pre-selected yarns. We got the bike loaded, had a quick feed of fresh KFC and hit the road, arriving home at 1:30am, and loading, where Jarvis quickly meowed his approval at my latest folly.

2023-03-21_11-02-35 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

20230307_021343 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

20230307_020302 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Next chapter. Wil it run?!

Not really an update but this thing is going pretty well so far, I've put 8000km on it (more actually as the speedo/odo wasn't working for at least 500km as we couldn't initially get it to read a pulse from the speed sensor - a moderately long story but it's working mint now).

So what's been happening?

I entered this in 4&Rotary Nats show, because I wanted to tick that box really, nothing more, nothing less. So myself and @oftensideways made the trip up, both trailered - in my case now wanting to get it all grubby due to spending hours cleaning and sprtizing. As it turned out, this was the weekend those hectic rains came in and hit Auckland, so we drove up in generally garbage conditions, and the car was coated in a thick film of schmutz when I got theire (engine bay included) which meant a hurried cleaning mission to get it ready. I reckon we presented pretty well though!

KP61 4nR 2023 Show1-2-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 4nR 2023 Show1-5-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 4nR 2023 Show1-3-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 4nR 2023 Show1-11-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Lots of sweet car yarns and hangs ensured throughout the following day, and when prizegiving rolled in I was pretty humbled to receive the Best Toyota trophy, against what I think were some pretty wild cars (Supercharged LS KE70, a big power JZX100 dripping in all the lush Japanese parts etc). So when I got home I wiped it down and took a few pics - note the addition of the limited edition Momo Heritage Prototipo, with a TRD horn button I've been hoarding for some time.

This is likely as good as the car will ever look.

KP61 Orakei Rd-219-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 Orakei Rd-230-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 Orakei Rd-44-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 Orakei Rd-48-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 Orakei Rd-111-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 Orakei Rd-147-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 Orakei Rd-144-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 Orakei Rd-137-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 Orakei Rd-158-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 Orakei Rd-172-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 Orakei Rd-175-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 Orakei Rd-218-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 Orakei Rd-89-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 Orakei Rd-239-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

KP61 Orakei Rd-102-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr