Richy's Mid Life Crisis, Season 2, Episode 1, "Shit, another motorcycle!"

[flyingbrick]

Thats a pretty decent upgrade!

Did you manage to get both static and loaded sag set pretty good? 

[Snoozin]

Yeah everything is well within where it should be, prior to getting KSS to supply the shock and spring I took a bunch of measurements of where it was sitting with me on it, geared up with the original spring - they specced the new rate pretty good based on my info supplied.

[Snoozin]

So, this thing's currently sitting in the shed gathering dust because I'm an idiot/terrible at riding these things, and I fell off it and broke something important.

But first, a wee yarn about the some misadventures.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (145) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

About 3 weeks ago, I went for a skid to see @oftensideways up the line. I mainly wanted to hoon on Turakina Valley Rd as I'd been told the gravel bits were pretty rad. So I did, but to get there I did a pretty convoluted loop, taking in Zig Zag Rd, Ridge Rd, Peep O Day Rd, Sandon Block Rd and then doubling back to Turakina Valley Rd before running that all the way to Tangiwai. I made the journey to get to Sean's place about 280km in total (whoops) and did 450km by the time I'd gotten home. Big day for a rookie, bike ran flawlessly and I didn't fall off.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (148) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

The next day though, didn't end so well (this isn't me breaking the thing, though, really). I tagged along on a loosely organised ride with a Manawatu Adv Facebook group (Blizzo went too, and Simon) which took in some roads/trails over Tararua way. All good on the gravel, zipped through Tararua Rd (I think it was) after a run over the Pahiatua Track on the tarmac (getting more and more comfortable on the road but still not totally confident to push hard), then the group headed further East to Puketoi Rd, which starts as a gravel road then turns into an unmaintained paper road/farm track basically.

Anyway, I struggled keeping up (a lot) on this one, mostly due to being inexperienced on what is a relatively hefty piece of gear (and probably, in retrospect not the best bike for tackling this sort of stuff, but here we are). It can be a bit demoralising when you lose contact with the group, but I soldiered on, concentrating on looking ahead, picking my lines and doing the best I could. Then the front end started shaking a bit at 30km/h and faster... shit, a puncture. Of course, I had a tube and some tools. BUT I was missing the 14mm hex key to remove the front axle. I turned around and went several KM back on a flat front tyre, and left the bike at the last farm house we'd encountered. A couple of the other blokes helped me out, and I got a lift back into town on the back of an Africa Twin (DCT gearbox is nice!) before hauling the trailer out and picking it up. 3.5hr round trip!!!

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (146) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

So that was a bit shit really. But I fixed it the next evening, threw a new tube in and all that, and decided I go for a burn later that week after work. I also fitted up some spare plastics I got from Japan, wrapped the minters with the nice stickers up in bubble wrap and stashed them away for selling time. Looks all right all naked and stuff I guess.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (151) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

And so off we went on a Wednesday or a Thursday night or something. Off, back up the Pahiatua Track and this time turning off to the left at the top, and taking in North Range Rd. It starts off nice and smooth, as an access road mainly for the wind turbines, but quickly deteriorates into a 4x4 track, which posed some challenges to the novice rider.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (153) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Nice views before it got a bit bumpier, though!

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (155) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

I went for a short walk to check out what I'd gotten myself into, before actually proceeding on the bike down some of these sections. They were relatively slippery clay-ish sort of stuff, but I managed all right, albeit at a leisurely pace. Thankful for a good tyre on the front!

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (157) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Plenty of rutted out areas. This one was extreme, and I didn't ride through it, but did some others... water in some cases was thigh-deep (I waded into a couple just to check first).

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (159) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

And this is probably indicative of most of the track, some of these holes/puddles were deceptively deep so I didn't risk hitting everything with lots of speed. 

But then I fell off (the first time). One particularly gnarly looking rut looked a bit daunting, so I chose to go around on the outside, following some bike ruts along a narrow ledge to the left of the big 4x4 hole. Was going OK, until I had to give it some throttle to get enough drive through a boggy spot, then the rear tyre jumped out of the rut I was riding in, and spat me and the bike off the 'ledge' to the right hand side, and into the mud hole. The bike went competely upside down dangling over the half meter or so ledge (it has an inertia switch to cut power thankfully) and I ended up in the mud. Lol. I laughed a bit to be fair, and then quickly focused on the "how the fuck am I going to recover the bike" task at hand. Turns out you can shift 170kg of bike pretty easily when you have to, and it wasn't as difficult as I feared to stand it back upright. We got out of that one OK.

Closer to the end of the '4x4' section though, I binned it again, just hit a submerged rock and got all out of rhythm - again, in a muddy/wet hole. I think this is where the damage occured, although it didn't make itself known to me until later.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (161) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

This is just out the other side, at this point I was ignorant to the problem that would befall me only a few minutes down the track...

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (162) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Here's the last pic I took, descending back down to Gorge Rd at the other end of the track. You can see the muffler has been tweaked slightly after taking a hit. I have ordered an additional bracket/clamp for it and will improve this. While taking this photo of the lovely golden hour views, the temp warning light came on.... bit odd, I thought, but didn't think anything of it and coasted downhill until it switched off before making my way down under power. Until it came on again.

I wasn't far out of Woodville when I thought I'd take a look and whoooops.... the somewhat vulnerable hose from water pump to the radiator had holed, I think mainly because the hose was old and brittle. I patched it with tape as best I could, and filled up a small amount of water from what was left in my bottle and continued home. The light came on again, the tape didn't do a perfect job.... so I pressed on. 

Hopefully no damage was incurred to the engine. It ran fine all the way home, and I figured as long as the temp light was on, there was still water in it... presently waiting for a hose from Yamaha and I'll have it all patched up and ready to go again. 

If you've stayed with me, thanks for reading. It's probably not that interesting to the experienced riders here, but very much a learning curve. I'm wondering if I've over-invested in a not very suitable bike, it would actually be nice to have a bit less weight to deal with and I think would help my confidence a bit. So the XT's future is in the balance. It's a wonderful gravel bike, but leaves something to be desired on the tight stuff, despite the list of upgrades it has. First though, fix it and hope it's all OK after running hot for a little while.

Thing is, what to replace with if anything? Limited budget here... maybe 8 or 9k tops if it sells for relatively OK money.

[Willdat?]

42 minutes ago, Snoozin said:

So, this thing's currently sitting in the shed gathering dust because I'm an idiot/terrible at riding these things, and I fell off it and broke something important.

But first, a wee yarn about the some misadventures.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (145) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

About 3 weeks ago, I went for a skid to see @oftensideways up the line. I mainly wanted to hoon on Turakina Valley Rd as I'd been told the gravel bits were pretty rad. So I did, but to get there I did a pretty convoluted loop, taking in Zig Zag Rd, Ridge Rd, Peep O Day Rd, Sandon Block Rd and then doubling back to Turakina Valley Rd before running that all the way to Tangiwai. I made the journey to get to Sean's place about 280km in total (whoops) and did 450km by the time I'd gotten home. Big day for a rookie, bike ran flawlessly and I didn't fall off.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (148) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

The next day though, didn't end so well (this isn't me breaking the thing, though, really). I tagged along on a loosely organised ride with a Manawatu Adv Facebook group (Blizzo went too, and Simon) which took in some roads/trails over Tararua way. All good on the gravel, zipped through Tararua Rd (I think it was) after a run over the Pahiatua Track on the tarmac (getting more and more comfortable on the road but still not totally confident to push hard), then the group headed further East to Puketoi Rd, which starts as a gravel road then turns into an unmaintained paper road/farm track basically.

Anyway, I struggled keeping up (a lot) on this one, mostly due to being inexperienced on what is a relatively hefty piece of gear (and probably, in retrospect not the best bike for tackling this sort of stuff, but here we are). It can be a bit demoralising when you lose contact with the group, but I soldiered on, concentrating on looking ahead, picking my lines and doing the best I could. Then the front end started shaking a bit at 30km/h and faster... shit, a puncture. Of course, I had a tube and some tools. BUT I was missing the 14mm hex key to remove the front axle. I turned around and went several KM back on a flat front tyre, and left the bike at the last farm house we'd encountered. A couple of the other blokes helped me out, and I got a lift back into town on the back of an Africa Twin (DCT gearbox is nice!) before hauling the trailer out and picking it up. 3.5hr round trip!!!

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (146) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

So that was a bit shit really. But I fixed it the next evening, threw a new tube in and all that, and decided I go for a burn later that week after work. I also fitted up some spare plastics I got from Japan, wrapped the minters with the nice stickers up in bubble wrap and stashed them away for selling time. Looks all right all naked and stuff I guess.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (151) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

And so off we went on a Wednesday or a Thursday night or something. Off, back up the Pahiatua Track and this time turning off to the left at the top, and taking in North Range Rd. It starts off nice and smooth, as an access road mainly for the wind turbines, but quickly deteriorates into a 4x4 track, which posed some challenges to the novice rider.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (153) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Nice views before it got a bit bumpier, though!

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (155) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

I went for a short walk to check out what I'd gotten myself into, before actually proceeding on the bike down some of these sections. They were relatively slippery clay-ish sort of stuff, but I managed all right, albeit at a leisurely pace. Thankful for a good tyre on the front!

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (157) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Plenty of rutted out areas. This one was extreme, and I didn't ride through it, but did some others... water in some cases was thigh-deep (I waded into a couple just to check first).

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (159) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

And this is probably indicative of most of the track, some of these holes/puddles were deceptively deep so I didn't risk hitting everything with lots of speed. 

But then I fell off (the first time). One particularly gnarly looking rut looked a bit daunting, so I chose to go around on the outside, following some bike ruts along a narrow ledge to the left of the big 4x4 hole. Was going OK, until I had to give it some throttle to get enough drive through a boggy spot, then the rear tyre jumped out of the rut I was riding in, and spat me and the bike off the 'ledge' to the right hand side, and into the mud hole. The bike went competely upside down dangling over the half meter or so ledge (it has an inertia switch to cut power thankfully) and I ended up in the mud. Lol. I laughed a bit to be fair, and then quickly focused on the "how the fuck am I going to recover the bike" task at hand. Turns out you can shift 170kg of bike pretty easily when you have to, and it wasn't as difficult as I feared to stand it back upright. We got out of that one OK.

Closer to the end of the '4x4' section though, I binned it again, just hit a submerged rock and got all out of rhythm - again, in a muddy/wet hole. I think this is where the damage occured, although it didn't make itself known to me until later.

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (161) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

This is just out the other side, at this point I was ignorant to the problem that would befall me only a few minutes down the track...

2007 Yamaha XT660R Phone (162) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Here's the last pic I took, descending back down to Gorge Rd at the other end of the track. You can see the muffler has been tweaked slightly after taking a hit. I have ordered an additional bracket/clamp for it and will improve this. While taking this photo of the lovely golden hour views, the temp warning light came on.... bit odd, I thought, but didn't think anything of it and coasted downhill until it switched off before making my way down under power. Until it came on again.

I wasn't far out of Woodville when I thought I'd take a look and whoooops.... the somewhat vulnerable hose from water pump to the radiator had holed, I think mainly because the hose was old and brittle. I patched it with tape as best I could, and filled up a small amount of water from what was left in my bottle and continued home. The light came on again, the tape didn't do a perfect job.... so I pressed on. 

Hopefully no damage was incurred to the engine. It ran fine all the way home, and I figured as long as the temp light was on, there was still water in it... presently waiting for a hose from Yamaha and I'll have it all patched up and ready to go again. 

If you've stayed with me, thanks for reading. It's probably not that interesting to the experienced riders here, but very much a learning curve. I'm wondering if I've over-invested in a not very suitable bike, it would actually be nice to have a bit less weight to deal with and I think would help my confidence a bit. So the XT's future is in the balance. It's a wonderful gravel bike, but leaves something to be desired on the tight stuff, despite the list of upgrades it has. First though, fix it and hope it's all OK after running hot for a little while.

Far from being uninteresting, you take great photos and tell a story of adventure with humility.

I never rode a motorbike until I was ~25 (I'd been pillion with Dad but my unclle had died after a crash, so I wasn't allowed my own until I left home). I've been a mountain biker for a long time, but the weight, especially downhill on gravel I still find unnerving at times.

I've usually been on the smallest bike in the group. It's great when things get a bit wild to have something more manageable.

Last year I sold my WR250R to fund my NBC110 tweaks and that has worked pretty well. I still get to get places that are out of the way, but there's no pressure at all.

[Snoozin]

Time to change the title to something involving a plural, I'm due back in the North Island shortly with a new toy after a bit of a drive...

TBC...

 

[sheepers]

is that a Gozzoomy?

[Snoozin]

7 minutes ago, sheepers said:

is that a Gozzoomy?

Go to bed/what now?

[peteretep]

DRZ400E? with a big tank/maybe some mods?

[Snoozin]

On 10/01/2024 at 15:39, peteretep said:

DRZ400E? with a big tank/maybe some mods?

Yep. 2015 400E, Safari 17l tank, assorted B&B shiny things, FMF pipe, Renthal bars, risers, Barkbusters, MSR shifter, tail tidy etc etc.

2015 Suzuki DR-Z400E-28 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2015 Suzuki DR-Z400E-34 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2015 Suzuki DR-Z400E-44 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2015 Suzuki DR-Z400E-53 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2015 Suzuki DR-Z400E-2 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Grabbed it off marketplace, was for sale in Cromwell and a mate of mine based in Wanaka made the pick up for me.

A few days down South visiting people and doing a quickfire road trip saw it back home in the shed. It was pretty bloody dusty, so I spent last night cleaning it all up.

Not too many plans - maybe full black plastics, a screen, comfort seat, suspension re-spring and a base to suit my Kreiga bags and we should be humming along. Probably wants a new front tyre soon too.

It's so light and easy to manouvre compared with the tank that is the XT, although that is ultimately quicker and feels more stable on the road.

[Snoozin]

Old tutu fingers can't help but fuck around with perfectly fine vehicles.

Black plastics added. Aftermarket sides and rear guard, aftermarket RMZ front guard and a genuine DR-Z400SM headlight shroud.

Hooned it over Ridge Road on the weekend and had a total blast, it's so nimble and responsive compared to the XT albeit less grunty. Still gets off its arse pretty well and it's a lot more confidence inspiring to push a little bit harder on loose surfaces, but nowhere near as composed on the road.

Plans include a fan kit, comfort seat and a new front tyre at this stage.

[Snoozin]

Story time. The TL;DR version - really enjoying this thing, and once again I made a regular adventure ride turn into more of an adventure that it should have been, thanks to my idiocy.

But yeah, this thread is likely to be more of a "sharns about stuff Richy attempts on bikes" as opposed to a proper project, as these things are pretty well just ride, maintain and occasionally modify.

Apologies if it's a bit wordy.

So I took the bike on it's second ride a week ago, a bit of a trip around the coast from Martinborough, via White Rock, then through a private station, to Cape Palliser and Ngawi thanks to @BLIZZO and a bunch of his mates on flash as KTMs mapping out a future rallye route. 

We kicked off on gravel roads, the road out to White Rock isn't bad at all, and I'm gathering a bunch of confidence in using my brakes and weighting the bike to get it to turn a bit better on gravel. Net result, getting a bit quicker which probably means it's just going to hurt more in the future.

Ripper time. A couple of the challenges made me think twice, I dropped the bike once on an awkward, slower turn in some sand but got through and was chuffed I managed it without having to palm the bike off to someone more skilled than me to get the job done. However, first to admit I'm not the fittest, or the most elegant at getting through some of the stuff so I was a bit pooped early on, however once the trail flattened out a bit it allowed a bit of recovery. I also didn't take any pics because admin, and there wasn't a huge amount of faffing around with a bit of a schedule to keep to. Would trade again!

The weekend just been, I decided I'd join up with a group doing a ride around the Wairarapa/Tararua region on primary gravel roads, culminating in Puketoi Rd, which if you've been following along, is where I punctured on the XT and had to turn back.

2015 Suzuki DR-Z400E Phone (4) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

This is the group at the end of Bartons Line, the first stretch of gravel we encountered after leaving Masterton. Yes, I rode the bloody thing to Masterton... bit buzzy at cruise RPM but bearable. A range of bikes, erring on what I'd call the larger side with myself and a guy on a DR-Z400SM the smallest of the lot. The fella on the T7 with all the stickers on it, could PEDAL though and was fun to watch as he overtook me, and proceeded to powerslide like a boss through multiple corners. The road was relatively narrow and tight to begin, but opened out into some pretty cool sweeping corners, and fast switchbacks. I couldn't keep pace with the 3 fast guys but managed to acquit myself all right I thought.

2015 Suzuki DR-Z400E Phone (5) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Still looking fresh as after the first road!

So after this, we trekked to Pori Rd, which would then lead on to Puketoi Rd - the rougher of the surfaces chosen for the ride. Again I lost sight of the quick fellas, but stopped to take a quick shot. 

2015 Suzuki DR-Z400E Phone (6) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Pretty good nick roads, minimal corrugation. I rejoined and again found myself effectively riding alone, and when I arrived at the Pori Rd/Puketoi intersection continued straight as I figured the lead groupd would have. However, I didn't see any tracks (and T7s seem to leave hectic skiddies!) and got to the first gate, which was closed... and this struck me as a bit odd. Nevermind, on we go, and I'd go on to ride the entire length of Puketoi Road, not get a puncture, and end up waiting for over 30 minutes at the end for the group to arrive. Turned out they took the wrong turn at the intersection...

2015 Suzuki DR-Z400E Phone (8) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2015 Suzuki DR-Z400E Phone (9) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

I figured instead of taking Route 52 back to Alfredton, and then onto Eketahuna, the most direct route for me to go home was back via Puketoi Rd, in reverse. No problem then, off we go, having a blast and being a hooligan. I took in Tararua Road on the way, another flowy gravel road effectively between Pahiatua and Ballance.

Arrived home happy as you like, until I looked down and noticed my tank bag was unzipped and... and... hell I was sure I popped my phone in there. Whaaaamp whaaaa. The Puketoi Road curse strikes again. 

Thankfully, technology is wonderful and Samsung helped me find it. The problem was, it was here.

2015 Suzuki DR-Z400E Phone (10) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

OK cool. At least it's alive. But 1.5 hrs ride away. Logic said 1.5 hrs of riding was cheaper than a new phone, so off we went. Back to Puketoi we went, only this time it was raining and the terrain had changed somewhat!

2015 Suzuki DR-Z400E Phone (11) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

OK past the first gate.

2015 Suzuki DR-Z400E Phone (14) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

And then we arrived at approximately where the phone was. I'd grabbed the location and added a pin to Google maps, and used my work phone to GPS me to the rough spot. The phone was about 5m away from where I'd stopped, face down in the mud. I reckon it fell out when I'd given the front a good old heave to wheelie over a hole, while I'd been having a grand old time roughly 3 hours earlier...

2015 Suzuki DR-Z400E Phone (12) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

No harm done, and time to head back...

2015 Suzuki DR-Z400E Phone (1) by Richard Opie, on Flickr

And as you can see, it's not like conditions got any better. That's about where our adventure ends, with retrieval of a slightly mucky but perfectly functioning Galaxy A54 5G, clearly the IP rating on these is worth it's salt.

But the real victory is more KMs under the bum, more grins and on the DR-Z I'm feeling better and better about riding off road (on the road is still scary tbh).

Thanks for reading! No doubt more stupid yarns to follow, about riding a bike badly and falling over, getting up, having a giggle and continuing to the next low-speed mishap.

 

 

[Snoozin]

Well that's the end of this era, departed as it arrived into my life. Back down to just the one bike, well, sort of anyway. Something else is sitting in the wings that's been waiting for me to pick up for a number of years.

[sheepers]

Is it a gofasteradi?