Getting ready to role!

A few weeks ago I wrote:Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid 131,313 miles

With the Capo fresh out of its winter slumber, we set off for a quick shake-down before (hopefully) heading back to the UK on Sunday. Along the way the odo clicked over to 131,313 miles and I couldn’t resist taking a quick pic! The ride was uneventful and it now sits in the sunshine waiting to be loaded up ……. but even then it may not turn a wheel. That depends on the weather forecast through Switzerland – oodles of snow and -15C doesn’t float my boat these days, so I guess if push comes to shove, the Capo can hibernate for another month or two until I can get back over here for it. I’ll make the call on Friday evening …. thankfully I managed to snap up a cheap-as-chips return flight for Saturday. Just in case!

In the end, Ryan-Scare it was …… hideous delays and a landing like we’d been shot down included in the discount price! Now the time has come to finally make the run once and for all. Ticket and ferry booked, all docs to hand and weather on  route between 9-20C with a bit of rain in North Italy. Much better than last time! It’s going to be a real whirlwind trip, but worth it to have the old Capo with me once again……

Dodgy solenoid hmmmm?

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid L1 50A starter solenoid burnt pitted contactsI honestly couldn’t believe my luck ….. dozens of perfectly normal starts after the one stuck-solenoid moment during our 10 days away and then, this morning in the comfort of the old barn, first start of the day it stuck again!

So it was off with the seats, top deck and right hand plastics, disconnect the battery Earth (Ground) then snip a few tie-wraps, unclip the two-pin connector and twiddle the 10mm spanner to undo the battery/starter cables from the old solenoid and voila! One dodgy 50A and 14 year old solenoid confined to the bin …… by way of stripping, measuring and knocking up in CAD!

It’s pretty obvious from the picture that one side of the contacts has been burnt and welded together such that the return spring couldn’t provide enough force to pry it apart again – that was the job of a swift whack from the all-powerful 1/2″ ratchet!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid L1 50A starter solenoid cutawayThe new solenoid (AP81129275) was bench tested and shows a coil resistance of 4.4Ω pulling 2.9A at 12.8V – approximately! Now 2.9A is quite a current draw in itself, especially when you take into account the amount of wiring (under specified?) and switches/diodes along the way. The only way the solenoid really has of reducing pitting/burning is by opening and closing as fast as possible – opening is purely by return spring but the closing speed is proportional to the applied Volts/Amps ……. and if this is low then the solenoid will become sluggish and more susceptible to damage. So tomorrows little job will be to look at losses through the entire circuit up to the solenoid. In fact looking at the circuit diagram and simulating it in ‘EveryCircuit’ (Android app) it seems that the best possible current flow path you can give the solenoid is – bike in neutral, side-stand up AND pull in the clutch before hitting the starter … this adds a mighty 0.1V over ‘neutral only’. In comparison bypassing the diode block completely could elicit another 0.55V at a struggle!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid L1 50A starter solenoid exploded parts

Volt of no confidence

It was a little after 1.30 in the morning, warm but foggy. I’d just had a hot drink and bite to eat while reflecting on the 138 miles covered and 1,200 yet to cover. The Capo was running fine but my eyes were already beginning to sting from riding with the visor up because of the fog – hopefully that would clear by the time I hit Switzerland.

So I saddled up and hit the starter ……. In an instant the early morning optimism bubble burst. The starter rolled over, then stalled. The dashboard went dark and as I turned the ignition key off I realised the starter was still trying to turn the motor over. Suddenly it began spinning the motor rapidly, so I turned the ignition back on and the motor fired up and the dashboard lit up like normal. but the battery charging was only showing 12.2V because the solenoid was stuck and still powering the starter motor. As quick as possible it was off with the seats (handy having the spare key in my jacket!) then whack the starter solenoid with a 1/2″ ratchet – and the voltage jumped back up to 14V as the solenoid released.

Now the dilemma …… carry on, turn around and head home or wave the plastic card of defeat and get recovered. In for a penny in for a pound as they say …. soldier on! Today I’m typing this up in warm and pleasant Oxford reflecting on the choice I made. As it turned out a good call, the Capo never missed a beat or hesitated once when starting for the rest of the journey. Fixed? Of course not, maybe that was a warning of things to come, so today a 150A starter solenoid has been ordered along with a replacement YTX14-HBS battery.

My thought is that the stuck solenoid was a symptom not the cause …… the question is, why did the battery voltage fall through the floor as soon as a load was placed on it. Thinking it through, if it were a short at the starter then a huge amount of power would have been grounded and yes the solenoid contacts could weld, however I’d expect the battery to get hot and that didn’t happen. So that leaves the possibility of an internal problem with the battery …. maybe a year of bouncing over a dirt and stone road has caused a crack to develop between plates. All I know is I don’t have confidence in it or the solenoid anymore so out they go!

As well as these two new parts I’ve also bit the bullet and ordered a new set of power/ground cables from John Walker in the UK and figure the old girl could well do with a spruce up of the wiring.

Meanwhile on with the show! 😀 

I love windy days ……. not!

I hate them with a passion, I mean bone-deep hatred. They’ve made me grind my teeth so hard they’ve fallen apart quicker than celebrity marriages – I’m talking about that nefarious combination of plastic (especially plastic bags) and a windy day!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid plastic on road and in the tree

If they’re not pinned to the nearest hedgerow or tree (‘witches knickers’ as they’re called in Ireland) they seem to spend their time floating on, around or above every highway and byway waiting for an unsuspecting biker. Then they pop out from underneath the vehicle in front, wave tantalisingly at you then dive straight for the radiator – or preferably some nice exposed headers to melt onto ….. swine that they are!

I once rode around for ages with OCSET (TESCO for those outside of the UK!) smeared like some naff tattoo across a set of nice new exhaust headers on my old GS550 ….. pissed off or what! That stuff just didn’t want to come off chrome at all. Thankfully the Capo’s headers are protected, so when this baggie set of plazzie-knickers shot out from under a passing car, they slid off the sump-plate and the rear wheel did for them ……

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid INNOVV K1 dual camera plastic debris in the road

…… seeing it float off down the road in the mirror gave me a kind of warm glow in pit of my stomach to accompany the smug smirk on my face. The sheer satisfaction that I’ve once again successfully out maneuvered an amorphous mindless mound of plastic debris. Damn I’m easily pleased these days! 😀 

“And now a word from our sponsor …..”

Firstly, a new page has been added to the menu for the HAAS (Renault V6) coil and the Tech-Auto (Amrish) coil page has been updated to bring that to an end.

catSecondly, I have also added another widget in the sidebar – a PayPal donate button. Simply because for the past six years I’ve been self funding this website and won’t use advertising to clutter it up. Over that time costs have increased and it’s time to ask the Capo lovers among you to consider helping to keep the site running if you feel it is, was or will be of use to you. As they say, every little helps! 😀 

Italy earthquake 07:40 30th October 2016

Central Italy earthquake 30/10/2016Central Italy has been struck by yet another earthquake, this time a magnitude of 6.6. I’d just sat down at the computer with the first cup of tea of the day, when at 07:40 the house began to shake.

Unlike the two earthquakes last week (26/10/2016 – magnitude 5.5 & 6.1) that struck in the evening, this one set objects rocking, pictures and mirrors moving on the walls and all manner of strange noises emanating from the structure. I bolted for the door! It was most surreal to see trees, fences and power/phone lines and poles swaying and the car rocking on its suspension. Likewise, Jan had made it to the upstairs door at the same time having been rudely awoken!

As I write the injuries are few and thankfully no fatalities. Many of the villages at the epicenter were already mostly evacuated from last weeks events. Unfortunately, structural damage has devastated some villages such that they’ve almost been wiped off the map. In Norcia the basilica of San Benedetto has been destroyed. Damage has also been reported in Teramo, l’Aquila, Chieti and as close to us as Brittoli and Civitella Casanova – only a few kilometers away.

Norcia - Basilica of San Benedetto before and after.

Time for a new fuel cap!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid Oberon keyless fuel capOn the eve of another little trip the half-key fuel cap has decided to throw its toys well and truly out of the cot. For the last couple of months the half-key has worked perfectly, but yesterday it just didn’t want to budge but the spare half-key still worked – go figure! Unfortunately I’ve now lost confidence in the cap opening as and when required. So two things happened …. first, out came the security bolt** and second, I ordered a nice silver/silver Oberon keyless cap to meet me at journey’s end. Now at least I can unbolt the whole cap assembly when I need to refuel if I have to ….. tedious but I won’t be left stranded!

**The cap is held on by four screws, three in the top of the cap (the other three are dummies) and one inside the filler neck. So if you can’t open the cap, you can’t remove the fourth screw and you’re stuffed!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid fuel cap security screw

 

Innovv K1 motorcycle ‘dashcam’ system … and a little soap-box time!

bike-close-up1Twitter, Facebook, emails, texts … it’s a fact that the modern driver is ever more distracted and as a consequence, the one thing I hate most – rear end collisions, are on the increase. It’s the one direction I have little or no influence over what the driver is doing. The last incident I was unfortunate to be involved in dates back to July 2005. Sat minding my own business at a roundabout waiting for a gap, when in a heartbeat the day turned to s**t. White-van-man ran into the back of me …… Ripping off the panniers and exhaust of my lovely Triumph Trophy 1200, while at the same time bending the subframe and ruining the body work as it slid along the road. The drivers opening words were: “I didn’t think you were there”.

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid Sony Video WalkmanThankfully he never contested that he was to blame and the insurance paid out pretty quickly. But it could so easily have gone the other way. None of the vehicles in the immediate vicinity stopped – they had a good gawp, then trotted on. If he’d argued that I’d cut him up or some other sob story, I’d have been hard pressed to prove otherwise and the case would have dragged on for ages. This is of course one reason why cameras make mighty useful tools for our defence!

In reality I’ve been using cameras on bikes for about 13 years now ….. First a 640*480 bullet camera feeding into a Sony Video Walkman (digital tape). Nowadays I use the GoPro 3+ I bought a few years ago, but it’s really not suited to the roll of ‘dashcam’ and of course, running two (forward/rear) is an expensive hobby! So I was interest to read recently about the Innovv K1 system.

inovvThe Innovv K1 uses dual cameras (1920*1080 full HD) that feed into a single recording unit and it is designed to be a permanent installation on the bike. Both cameras are recorded in full frame and can be played back as such or as ‘picture-in-picture’ on the recording unit built in screen. It also has a GPS unit that can overlay information onto the footage if you want. What I particularly like is that the cameras are fairly discreet and can be mounted out of the way of prying eyes and fiddly fingers. It has many more features that I’ll not go into here, but are well worth checking out on the Innovv website. Oh and the price is damn good when compared to many single-camera systems.

I really like the idea of an almost fit-n-forget system that starts and stops at the turn of the ignition key. Other than keeping the lenses clean I should be able to go about my daily business, smug in the knowledge that should something untoward happen, the Innovv K1 will have probably captured it and (if it detects excessive g) will have locked the video file to prevent deletion.

duc_instruments

Of course common sense says that if vehicle manufacturers reduced the number of eye-candy gadgets and driver training were improved then the number of distracted idiots might reduce and I wouldn’t have to worry so much ….. but that’s not going to happen any time soon. Unfortunately the same is now happening with bikes, just look at the latest offerings. Colour LCD dashboards with more information, entertainment and interconnectivity than you can shake a very long stick at.

Above is a classic example of the latest sort of offering, also can anybody reasonably explain to me the obsession about knowing which gear you’re in and why it has to dominate the dashboard! It also appears that ‘neutral’ is so important to Ducati they show it you twice…… WTF! 😯

Easy RiderNo siree Bob, none of this information overload for me thank you very much. I’m going to fire up the Capo, fiddle with the GPS for a minute, turn on the GoPro from the wireless remote, plug into the Autocom, kickstart the music and make sure the phone has Bluetoothed itself to the GPS/Autocom just in case someone phones,  then I’m all set to ride around the corner for a nice loaf of bread ……….

……… The new breed of riders just don’t have a clue how simple life is with older bikes! 😉

Italy earthquake 03:36 24th August 2016

I was alone at home and wide awake when the first vibrations were felt. Deep down inside, a weird sensation more than an actual feeling but in that moment all your senses are wide awake. I’d felt it before in 2009 and now here it was back again. As fast as you’re trying to articulate the word, the event happens. We take the very air we breath and the ground we stand on as absolute, like the sun coming up in the morning ….. when that ground begins to shake and heave beneath you, your entire frame of reference is momentarily lost – you freeze.

I am fine and our home has no structural damage, 45 miles away however it was a different story. Amatrice, Arquata, Accumoli and many other small villages were near the epicenter of the 6.1 earthquake. Today the death toll stands at 284 with a further 388 injured. Today, like yesterday, the rescue teams will be working tirelessly to find others.

Our hearts go out to the victims and families for their loss. Our praise and admiration goes to those emergency services both Italian and International who continue to work tirelessly day by day. In a world made ugly by some, it is wonderful to see what can be accomplished when people truly pull together.

Lidl and EN13594:2015 ….

Lidl Level 1 motorcycle summer gloves - 2016The local Lidl had a few bits of bike gear in the other day. Some open-face helmets, casual jackets and summer gloves. The gloves are marked CE and had a symbol on the label that I’d not seen before. Below it is written EN 13594:2015 ……. so when I got home I looked it up.

Most of the information initially came from French websites, where it seems motorcycle gloves are going to become compulsory items to wear in the near future and could well use this as the minimum standard allowed. It turns out that EN13594 involves a bunch of tests – burst/abrasion etc and is graded as Level 1 or Level 2. Level 1 must be abrasion resistant for 4 seconds and knuckle armour (if fitted) absorb 9Kn (5J) of energy. Level 2 doubles the abrasion resistance to 8 seconds and halves the energy transmission. The legislation appears to become mandatory in 2018 but can of course be complied with now, so expect to see gloves appearing throughout 2016 with these symbols on the labels.

EN 13594:2015 motorcycle gloves

So back to Lidl …….. Here’s a budget store selling approved and tested (Level 1) summer gloves for €15.99 ( approx. £13)! OK, they are entry-level approved, but hey at least they are tested to some standard, unlike the vast majority of gloves I looked at on various UK mail-order websites. Who’d have thought it! 😀