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Err... 5 (The Kawasaki continues into 2021)


Sideshow Pob

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So if you look in the LDU2020 section you'll see the Err... 5 being prepped for last years event that I was unfortunately unable to take part in.  Thankfully my wife has now recovered from her broken leg that was the cause for my retirement so the bike is back on the ramp to be readied for action.

Everything is getting a good going over and today I've managed to sort the electrical gremlins that infested the bike and I now have everything working as they should.

There's now just a bit of a coolant leak to have a look at and then refit the bodywork and rear rack and then fit the topbox that I have knocking about.  I've also got some fresh tyres on order.

I can absolutely guarantee that it will pass the MOT because I'm the MOT tester!

The grips had worn out (as was most of the bike to be fair) and I had a pair knocking about that fit the bill perfectly.

Getting a bit scared now... it's actually happening!

 

Pink Grips.jpeg

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Excellent work, it will complement my GPZ450R on the run.

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Do you still require a mahoosive barn door fairing? Full Er-5 fitting kit included.

I still have my 'Best Modification' trophy for fitting that behemoth. It truly is a thing of awe and wonder.

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5 hours ago, Damnthistinleg said:

Do you still require a mahoosive barn door fairing? Full Er-5 fitting kit included.

I still have my 'Best Modification' trophy for fitting that behemoth. It truly is a thing of awe and wonder.

Considering the fact that the colossal, ancient Vetter Windjammer fairing, complete with cigarette lighter, that I bodged onto my GT550 for LDD1 didn't win best modification*, I don't see how your off the shelf Rickman can possibly have won.

* Deemed not quite enough of a bodge due to my use of nyloc nuts, and pipped to the post by one of the Anglesey contingent's domestic light switch box in his fairing.

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7 minutes ago, Mr.Incredible said:

Considering the fact that the colossal, ancient Vetter Windjammer fairing, complete with cigarette lighter, that I bodged onto my GT550 for LDD1 didn't win best modification*, I don't see how your off the shelf Rickman can possibly have won.

* Deemed not quite enough of a bodge due to my use of nyloc nuts, and pipped to the post by one of the Anglesey contingent's domestic light switch box in his fairing.

I'll have you know that the Rickman in question was a new/unused item that an old chap bought for his Triumph 650 some 40 years previously and never fitted. Ten English pounds that cost me!

I can only assume your failure to win the 'big one' was largely due to the lack of welding rusty angle-iron spears directly to the frame spars and the vibration-proof 'gate hinge' headlight mounting system, along with gaffer-taped Roberts DAB radio and satnav.

You've either got it or you ain't. It's not something you can learn.

 

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...but who was it that got the award once for mounting a mirror with a twig and some gaffatape?

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2 hours ago, Mr.Incredible said:

Considering the fact that the colossal, ancient Vetter Windjammer fairing, complete with cigarette lighter, that I bodged onto my GT550 for LDD1 didn't win best modification*, I don't see how your off the shelf Rickman can possibly have won.

* Deemed not quite enough of a bodge due to my use of nyloc nuts, and pipped to the post by one of the Anglesey contingent's domestic light switch box in his fairing.

Modified? Having lived in London during the despatch boom of the 80/90s that sounds pretty much like a standard issue GT550.

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On 5/20/2021 at 7:01 AM, Damnthistinleg said:

Do you still require a mahoosive barn door fairing? Full Er-5 fitting kit included.

I still have my 'Best Modification' trophy for fitting that behemoth. It truly is a thing of awe and wonder.

I'd forgotten about that and it sounds like an excellent piece of kit and a very kind offer.  Unfortunately, I've put a few bits in place now that would make fitting a barn door a bit too tricky.  I feel I may regret this but I'm going have to decline your kind offer.

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  • 3 weeks later...

As can be seen elsewhere on the forum, the Err...5 is just about ready for the trip now.  It took a fair amount of effort to take it from the bike that was donated FREE OF CHARGE' to me to where it is now.  Although it looked ok initially when I collected it, the list of issues appeared never ending.

1. Starter relay corroded which triggered the stater motor whenever the ignition was turned on, regardless of whether the button was pushed or not.  Easy fix really.

2. Exhaust blowing and stupidly loud end can.  A bit of dodgy welding and thanks to @srad34 for the donation of a decent can.

3. A pair of outrageous cowhorn handlebars on risers.  Bars replaced with something a bit more relevant and risers removed.

4. Badly routed and worn clutch cable.  Partly to do with the 'Easy Rider' adaptation above but still an MOT failure so a new clutch cable was fitted.

5. The bike had been used (unbelievably) as a bit of a field/mx fun bike and so was caked in mud and so needed a damn good service with new plugs, filters, oil, chain and sprockets and brake pads.

6. The front disc was worn and would have failed the MOT.  A replacement EBC disc wasn't horribly expensive.

7. The rear shocks were knackered and leaked.  Not much to be fair but probably because the oil was long gone.  A set of YSS shocks have replaced the originals.  These are the very basic YSS shocks and as cheap as I can get but they did still hit the budget quite hard.  They are actually XJ900 shocks which are identical to the ER5 shock but 10mm longer.  So I'm hoping for better ground clearance and quicker steering.

8. Fuel tap repair kit, fuel pipes and carb float needles.  Suffering from old age, these parts together created a bit of a problem involving fuel making a bid for freedom in places it shouldn't.

9. Forks.  I rebuilt the forks and removed what was once fork oil but now resembled treacle.  New seals and bushes and the front end is leaking no more but still feels a bit 'bouncy'.

10.  Extras. I had a Shad top box kicking about the shop which I though could be put to good use as well as a phone holder that was on a bike I bought a while ago.  I've bought a cheap USB power socket to power my phone and I've borrowed a Garmin Sat Nav off a mate and that's one of the last jobs to sort out now.  Also, as a treat, I bought a set of LED flood lights off ebay and after my first test ride, 1 of them has failed.  Buy cheap, buy twice!  Or rather Buy cheap and constantly try to fix!

11. Ergonomics.  I've installed a cheap screen which appears to be pretty good but not as effective as the barndoor fairing that was very kindly offered to me by @Damnthistinleg.  I really wanted the floodlights to stay so I turned down the loan of the Rickman fairing and that might be a mistake, but I've made that final descision now so I have to live with it.  I'm also looking into putting on a set of forward footrests; just a bit of box section should do the trick.

After all that work, as well as setting valve clearances, curing a coolant leak and treating the old girl to a posh set of tyres, we went for our first road test last night.  The exhaust is still a bit fruity and does a lovely 'poppin & bangin' on the overrun.  The handling is 'interesting' but probably miles better than what it would have been like before the forks were serviced and the shocks replaced.  The fuel guage is hilarious!  With around ½ a tank, when you hit the brakes the fuel guage goes to EMPTY and then back to FULL as soon as you tap on the power again.  Other than those extremes it just randomly wobbles around somewhere in between.

But I was dead impressed with the fuel range.  Having ridden it last night for 165 miles plus another 12 miles this morning to get to work, I still haven't flipped it onto reserve and so I'm hoping for around a 200 mile tank range.

I had a quick stop at Skeggy Pier last night and here is the Err...5 outside.

432483136_SkeggyER5.jpeg.19f728dd39ca6c4c6f83abccc9b77bed.jpeg

And finally, a photo of the highly entertaining and optimistic rev counter.

1680000537_ER5revs.jpeg.cc75a8631ea961538c39fde0baf3ae2e.jpeg

So, with about a week to go, it's time to sort out all the other stuff like route planning, what cloths to wear and pack etc.  But I think I'm in reasonable shape for my very first LDU

The bike will be going up for sale afterwards and I will be using the funds from the sale to add to my donations and hopefully get passed the £1000 target.

https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/a-long-ride-on-an-inappropriate-bike

A mate of mine is loaning me a very trick GPS tracker so I hope to be able to put up a link so you can see exactly where I am at any time during the trip.

I'm getting nervous now but also looking forward to it and I hope that everyone involved has a wonderful experience.

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I had a second little run out this evening and I gave up when the trip meter hit 220 miles and I hadn't even switched to reserve.  I only managed to squeeze 10L of fuel into the tank so either the trip meter is totally talking bollocks or I have the most economical bike on the planet.  There has to be something wrong because that equals 100 mpg.  Maybe it's running really lean with blocked up jets which would account for the pops & bangs on the overrun.

What the hell, I can do the 1000 miles with 4 or 5 fuel stops at this rate!

Edited by Sideshow Pob
daft
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Well... me being a bit daft and not looking carefully enough was my downfall.  I suppose a 19,000 redline should have been enough of a clue that something wasn't right with the clocks.

Although the speedo is in MPH (and appears to be reasonably accurate - bonus) the odometer is in KM.  So my run the other night was in fact only 140 miles on 10L of fuel but that still means I'm getting around 60mpg and I should have a tank range of over 200 miles with a bit of luck (which will be 320km on the clocks, or there abouts)

Nice to get to the bottom of it.

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You'll do that easy. First fuel at Exeter, second at that raven place on the a49, third around Halifax, penrith, Gourock,  Fort William, Inverness, jog. 

That's quite the conservative estimate assuming you're twatting it. 

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9 minutes ago, hawkati said:

You'll do that easy. First fuel at Exeter, second at that raven place on the a49, third around Halifax, penrith, Gourock,  Fort William, Inverness, jog. 

That's quite the conservative estimate assuming you're twatting it. 

That's 8 fuel stops if you're counting JOG.  If I can do it in 6 or 7 that will save me a bit of time.

Oh yeh, it's not a race!

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18 minutes ago, Sideshow Pob said:

That's 8 fuel stops if you're counting JOG.  If I can do it in 6 or 7 that will save me a bit of time.

Oh yeh, it's not a race!

nah - don't be including JoG - Wick is 16 miles south again or Thuirso 20 miles west so last fuel at inverness should do it...:D

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747005787_routemap.jpeg.7d92da6d9aff615c4e9c2e6d41451fb2.jpeg

A mate of mine loaned me a tracker and this is the plot of where I went on Monday.

1023 miles

49.6mph average speed

23 hours and 10 minutes

20 hours and 3 minutes spent moving

99.4 mph top speed (detour via private airfield of course)

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13 minutes ago, Sideshow Pob said:

747005787_routemap.jpeg.7d92da6d9aff615c4e9c2e6d41451fb2.jpeg

A mate of mine loaned me a tracker and this is the plot of where I went on Monday.

1023 miles

49.6mph average speed

23 hours and 10 minutes

20 hours and 3 minutes spent moving

99.4 mph top speed (detour via private airfield of course)

Glad  to see that you made it . When you pushed it into P2  with the mystery electrical problem I didn't think you'd make it. 

Did the electrics play up again or did @Phlik cure it with his healing hands ?:) 

Edited by Husky
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A-ha!!!

This must be your good self, then?

205003270_1892360057591085_8475896166444

A man so keen to give the thumbs up, he had a spare thumbs up ready to go! :D

 

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1 hour ago, Husky said:

Glad  to see that you made it . When you pushed it into P2  with the mystery electrical problem I didn't think you'd make it. 

Did the electrics play up again or did @Phlik cure it with his healing hands ?:) 

It was fixed for the whole way up to JOG and then returned in anger on the A9 on the way home. As well as the fuel pipe falling off (sorted with cable ties).

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1 hour ago, heds954 said:

A-ha!!!

This must be your good self, then?

A man so keen to give the thumbs up, he had a spare thumbs up ready to go! :D

 

That’s me, struggling to smile 😁

Its not a thumbs up, both digits by that point were locked into position 😉

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2 hours ago, heds954 said:

A-ha!!!

This must be your good self, then?

205003270_1892360057591085_8475896166444

A man so keen to give the thumbs up, he had a spare thumbs up ready to go! :D

 

No, that’s Jim Davidson

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I can promise you that I am the antithesis of Jim Davidson but unfortunately can occasionally look a bit like him.  He is a cock and should  be put down.

Anyway, put that to one side and let’s talk LDU, ER5 and old gits who should know better.

Carry on...

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10 hours ago, Sideshow Pob said:

747005787_routemap.jpeg.7d92da6d9aff615c4e9c2e6d41451fb2.jpeg

A mate of mine loaned me a tracker and this is the plot of where I went on Monday.

1023 miles

49.6mph average speed

23 hours and 10 minutes

20 hours and 3 minutes spent moving

99.4 mph top speed (detour via private airfield of course)

Brilliant, well done 👍 

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On 6/23/2021 at 9:57 PM, Sideshow Pob said:

I can promise you that I am the antithesis of Jim Davidson but unfortunately can occasionally look a bit like him.  He is a cock and should  be put down.

Anyway, put that to one side and let’s talk LDU, ER5 and old gits who should know better.

Carry on...

Soooo....

 

 

How's yer brakes?😛😂😈

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10 minutes ago, hawkati said:

Soooo....

 

 

How's yer brakes?😛😂😈

Actually, do you remember that crocodile at Pit Stop 2?

Well due to the Err..5 having sh*t brakes, I nearly ran him over! :)

You probably wont be surprised to hear that they didn't get any better after another few hundred miles.  There were some particularly scary moments with the lever back to the bar, my foot hard on the rear brake and my trajectory not favourable. 

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