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...It's about bikes... and travels... mostly on bikes!
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Andy's Local Ride
Feeling a little better Andy's having an easy day exploring The Pyrenees. Scenery aplenty while dodging some rain.
Choo Choos And The Yorkie Disaster
Today is mostly steam powered with a little motorcycling to one side. Sharon experiences another personal loss, a terrible tragedy.
Poor Poorly Andy
The sun is shining, the air is warm, the surroundings are lovely. Andy is rather under the weather himself, it's not the best couple of days.
Prologue And A Rough First Day
Prudent as ever Ren accidentally stumbles into a super cheap static caravan north of "Skeg-Vegas". All that remains to be done is getting there. If previous experience of heading east is anything to go by - it might not be that easy.
Frolicking In The Flattish Lands
Title page for a midweek break in Lincolnshire.
Getting To The Static
There's the odd minor hiccup but the first day's ride to Llwyngwri (I have no idea how to say that...) is an easy one. Ren is struggling with parking.
Chillin' In Mid Wales
There's sun in the sky, the roads are good, the surroundings are pleasant, and Ren is having a terribly non-Ren moment. His wallet saw the light of day...
Stuck In The Cols - Painful!
Andy is enjoying all the mountain passes on the French side of The Pyrenees - until he's "Route Barre" from getting back to the campsite. He's got the sniffles too.
An Easy Day Around The Pyrenees
Andy is taking it easy today. Just a casual bimble around The Pyrenees, across mountains and valleys, you know, the sort of easy ride we all do on a lazy day. Ever more delightful images too.
The Excuse This Time Is 2 Deaths
They're off back to Wales. The reasons this time are unusual and some might say quite sad. Fear not, Ren's prudence will make a mockery out of respect.
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Choo Choos And The Yorkie Disaster
nab301 said :-
Bogger , I'm sure Ren would be more of a Golden Retriever animal lover .. although then he'd need a sidecar rather than a handbag to transport it .
Nigel
09/12/2025 14:42:01 UTC
Andy's Local Ride
nab301 said :-
The quiet roads look enticing !
Nigel
09/12/2025 14:38:49 UTC
Andy's Local Ride
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
He is rather handy with a camera ain't he.
09/12/2025 12:52:24 UTC
Andy's Local Ride
Upt'North ¹ said :-
Nice pictures Andy.
Upt.
09/12/2025 12:08:49 UTC
Choo Choos And The Yorkie Disaster
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
Well it suckered you in Bogger so my clickbait worked...
08/12/2025 07:58:36 UTC
Choo Choos And The Yorkie Disaster
Bogger said :-
Mwah, the railway children ride again.
I was also beginning to fret that a loved pet dog had gone missing.
Click bait, I think they call it.
Bogger
06/12/2025 05:43:57 UTC
Choo Choos And The Yorkie Disaster
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
So Upt. Presently appearing on this site is - Ahem - The Kilmarnock trip, the trip to Dad's, Marlboroough, and Elan Valley, Andy's trip presently in the Pyrenees, this trip to Tywyn, AND the Skeggy one. AND AND AND Bogger has furnished me with a trip to France so that'll be coming soon too!
You think you're confused - I have no idea what's going on.
nab301 - go on, treat yaself, grab a Yorkie. This comment is brought to you by Rowntree, or Nestle, or Cadbury, I can't recall...
Nestle, Wiki sez it's Nestle.
05/12/2025 15:05:22 UTC
Choo Choos And The Yorkie Disaster
nab301 said :-
For some reason I've developed a craving for a Yorkie bar...
Nigel
05/12/2025 14:13:07 UTC
Choo Choos And The Yorkie Disaster
Upt'North ¹ said :-
Wales! Wales? I thought you were in Skeggy. I can't keep up. You must have toooooo many holidays. Not Sharon though, she deserves her time off.
Misogynistic pig!
You're welcome.
Upt.
05/12/2025 11:14:26 UTC
Poor Poorly Andy
Upt'North ¹ said :-
Especially with a curry.
04/12/2025 21:20:38 UTC
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nab301 said :-
Ian , if all else fails fit a capillary action water temp gauge...
Nigel
09/12/2025 16:46:44 UTC
Ian Soady¹ said :-
That resistance is constant regardless of needle position so another dead end.....
09/12/2025 16:11:13 UTC
Ian Soady¹ said :-
I think it's between the junction between W/Y and brown and the B/Y. What has struck me is that the resistance there may be a potentiometer so I need to check whether it varies with needle deflection. It's so long since I've looked at Wheatstone bridges and the like that I'm a bit uncertain about what I'm looking for.....
I assume that somehow resistances are balanced to give no voltage at the coil when the needle is at an appropriate position for the sender resistance. I'm expecting the (generic) sender to arrive shortly so will measure its resistance at different temperatures (well ambient and boiling at least).
If all else fails I'll just fill the hole with a clock!
09/12/2025 10:09:55 UTC
Glyn said :-
Where is the coil connected into the wiring diagram Ian? Is it possible to see?
08/12/2025 18:45:29 UTC
Ian Soady¹ said :-
A quick sketched diagram of the guts. There is a coil arrangement inside and the external wires connect as shown below. I suspect that w/yy and brown are positive and negative and that black/yellow goes to the sensor (which has a resistive path to earth varying with temperature). So that is effectively a modified Wheatstone bridge setup. Or that's my theory anyway.
Speedo cable interface solved with a drill and cutting disc in the dremel.
08/12/2025 14:04:32 UTC
Ian Soady¹ said :-
Many thanks Glyn, that makes some sense. I've taken the bezel and glass off as the needle seemed stuck at the top of its range so may just have a look at the guts to see what's going on. I have measured internal resistances (written down in the shed so exact values not available) but they were in the tens of ohms IIRC.
I've ordered a sensor from alibaba but have no idea what the resistance range is - but at 3 quid I'm sure I can do something to make it work.
Now to work out a way of stopping the speedo cable colliding with everything else....
08/12/2025 09:57:11 UTC
Glyn said :-
The only reason I can think of for 3 wires would be;
a positive 12v
a negative 12v
a wire to the sensor.
Possibly, the needle rises until the sensor wire is connected to neg 12v by the resistance of the sensor itself. It might be worth a resistance measurement through the sensor to help determine if this is the case.
I’m back in the UK on Tuesday and , if you’re no further, I’ll take a look through my many wiring diagrams of Japanese bikes. I’ve never found any wires with similar colours in bikes even from the same manufacturer in the past though. I would hazard a first guess as Brown 12v+.. black/yellow 12v- and white/ yellow as the sensor. A 12v filament bulb in series would possibly prevent any internal damage..
07/12/2025 18:29:02 UTC
Ian Soady¹ said :-
A question for Glyn (or anyone else who may have an idea). You may remember we had a discussion about clocks etc for my B'Zuki. I bought a cluster which purported to be from an RF600. Now I'm trying to wire it all up and mostly succeeding but can't for the life of me work out how the temperature gauge is connected. It has 3 wires apart from the face illumination: brown, black/yellow and white / yellow. The only wiring diagrams I can find for the model, which are all pretty illegible, seem to show orange and 2 other indecipherable colours. Any ideas?
I've tried connecting a battery via various resistors to emulate the sender but get varying results, often with the needle continuing to rise - I suspect there must be some interaction between the three but can't work it out and don't want to fry it. To be honest it's not a priority but would be nice to have the gilt on the gingerbread.
07/12/2025 17:07:02 UTC
Glyn said :-
The Triumph has only had one previous owner so I asked him about the sealer / liner I found all broken up in the tank. He said he didn’t put it there and so it must be standard factory item. Now I have the dilemma of putting in a replacement or not. I’ve used Kreem sealer in the past with good results but don’t know if it will last. Triumph must have had a good reason to spend money on sealing their fuel tanks, perhaps they were poorly welded but I can’t see any evidence of that.
03/12/2025 15:07:10 UTC
Ian Soady¹ said :-
Looking brilliant. Speaking of liners, the Francis Barnett I ill-advisedly built a couple of years ago had a tank full of bits of what looked like fibreglass resin in big lumps. Some were so big they wouldn't fit through the filler and it took me hours with a hacksaw blade cutting them small enough to come out. I suspect that the 2 stroke mix had stopped the liner from adhering properly.
01/12/2025 12:32:20 UTC
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Henrik said :-
nab301: I use Insta360 X2 recording 360 film on a stick on the roof, everything, "shot now point later", from this film I grab frames for stills, the 360 5.7K format will deliver film or photo in HD resolution, this can be further enhanced in Topaz, for 4K, but the ones you see here is just HD. I link a film framed from a 5.7K 360-film to give an idea what is possible. Generally it all ends up in wide-angle, there is not enough resolution for Zooming.
https://youtu.be/WnoJmpFOQZU?si=mZhsbIRbLhsOf2kC...
09/12/2025 17:49:35 UTC
nab301 said :-
Excellent photos , what sort of camera are you using on the move?
Nigel
09/12/2025 14:59:05 UTC
Upt'North ¹ said :-
Thanks Henrik.
Upt.
09/12/2025 13:06:50 UTC
Henrik said :-
For MC, and hike, July/August is normally the best, Juni is a bit to early, I did a solo-trip on MC to Lofoten back in 2018, first half of june, and there was cold, constant raining :-)
09/12/2025 08:58:12 UTC
Henrik said :-
A little two-wheel still, Electric MTBs, we use these for small trips at location, going to the supermarket, and getting out where the hiking-tracks starts, etc,..
09/12/2025 08:52:38 UTC
Henrik said :-
Ren: We traveled September, as the Norselight starts here, and that was the theme this year. Starting out at Senja 8 days with 16-20 degres celcius in the daytime, then 12 days at Lofoten ranging from 9-15 degres in daytime, no frost at night, but sometimes only a few degrees. BUT, we was EXTREMELY lucky with the weather, extremely unusual for september weather, and in the hole of September we only had 4 days with full rain, two of these we used to travel long distance, the other two we spend in the Caravan looking old videos like King Kong, edit photos, cook food, and relax,... When at the same location for many days, (camp-size), we expand with a front tent
09/12/2025 08:48:55 UTC
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
WOW! Senja/Lofoten looks absolutely stunning. From the images you seemed to enjoy good weather Henrik but what sort of temperatures did you have when you were there - and what time of year were you there?
09/12/2025 07:47:58 UTC
Henrik said :-
Been a little busy since our Senja/Lofoten tour ,..
Right after we returned we collected this litte Jack Russel Terrorist ;-) ,.. (puppy)
Anyway a little collection of photos like prommised ,.. link to gallery
Lost track about whats already posted, as my photos seems to be gone when I scroll back
So sorry for any doublets in advance ;-)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/kCmAYCXbDUoDX99g9...
08/12/2025 23:50:42 UTC
Upt'North ¹ said :-
I wonder if the owner has been dead in their apartment for years. Just sayin.
And what ate the seat.
Upt.
08/12/2025 12:45:05 UTC
ROD¹ said :-
Glyn, you could try adding a litre of petrol.
That would double it's value!!
08/12/2025 12:39:51 UTC
Random Link - The Beginning Of The Misery