Another trip, another exam

Aprilia Caponord Rally-Raid ETV1000 2015 MOTThe Capo and I just returned from the last UK-Italy round trip for this year … as seems the norm, the trip was uneventful and the Capo ran fantastic as always. Just before I left the UK, she had a new MOT – no advisories and good for another 12 months. 48hrs later, she rolled into the barn with the odometer reading 80,892 miles and 37c on the air temp gauge – hot, hot, hot!

The fish-tank line used to temporarily fix the vacuum hose just before I left for the UK worked fine and is still in place as I write ….. the new silicone lines are stuffed away in a box somewhere …. I guess they’ll stay there until winter now!

LEFARSThe highlight of this trip was visiting LEFARS (Loughton and Epping Forest Amateur Radio Society) once again. This time to take the RSGB Amateur Radio Intermediate practical assessment and exam. I had a great day, a mixture of learning, testing and having a good laugh in a relaxed atmosphere all leading to an exam pass and a new call sign next week. Goodbye M6FMZ, hello 2E0??? ……. maybe I can get ETV this time!

Now I can concentrate on the distance-learning course I started in June for the final (Advanced) licence. No more practical assessments, just a 2 hour exam to be sat in December, if everything goes to plan!

On a different note I have to say a HUGE THANK YOU to Andy (Beasthonda) and his employer ABSL Space Products. It seems they decided to give away a bunch of perfectly serviceable bench power supplies they were replacing, rather than scrap them. Andy thought of me and now I have a very nice twin – Thurlby 30V-2A PL320. It’s absolutely fantastic and ideal for the stuff I’m doing with Arduino/sensors and development boards. Andy I owe you a nice cold beer …… ABSL I’ll definitely come to you when I launch my first satellite!

And finally back to the Capo. Well she’ll have a couple of months of light use then a partial strip ready to take a bunch of brackets, plates and tube-work back to the UK for powder coating. Then over winter, for the first time ever, a major tear-down of the steering/rear suspension and quite likely a complete replacement of all the Earth (ground) lines as well. I might even get around to doing the fuel tank lining with Caswells when I replace the fuel filter …… very messy but in the face of the dreaded E10 fuel – neccessary.

Down the tubes

Boy doesn’t time fly. It only seems a few days ago (weeks really!) I got here and already I’m packing again to head back to the UK on the Capo. Other than a check over, the Capo’s as she came back – unwashed even.

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid vacuum pipesBut this morning, with only a couple of days to go, events took a turn for the worse. Off we went for a little run around and suddenly, out of the blue, she’s running rough at idle …. Cough, cough, snuffle and splutter. In all honesty, only one thing came to mind – vacuum pipes.

Anyway it didn’t spoil the day and we got home with no drama (she ran fine at higher rpm) and 15 minutes later the tank was lifted … and here’s the culprit. One split vacuum hose on the front cylinder. So for now a generic bit of fish-tank plastic line has been press-ganged into service and a couple of nice new silicone hoses have been ordered of Ebay – one blue, one red. Colour coded vac pipes for each cylinder!

After 12 years and with almost 80,000 miles now on the clock I guess it’s probably a job that was getting towards the top of the to-do list!