Some Motorcycle maintenance

The clutch on the Honda XR125 has been a bit hard to use lately, so I had a look at the clutch cable and found…

Some broken strands in the cable. these will slowly unwind themselves, and make it harder to use the clutch.

Plan A
no problem I thought, just buy another cable off Trade me (similar to Ebay), fit the new one and all good.

Except that the new one has a longer inner cable and I can’t get it to work..

Plan B
Buy an original cable through a Honda dealer. I contacted a dealer down country, and the new one arrived on my doorstep 2 days later.

To change the cable is a fairly simple task.
loosen off the adjusters at each end, so the cable is real loose,
Pull the cable out of the clutch lever, then pull it right out of the bike, taking note of where it ran through the frame, etc.

it’s sometimes worth looking at the manual to see how the cable was run originally.

The old one was installed incorrectly, and used to catch on the steering lock.

It should be adjusted as below according to the manual

It’s normal for the cable to stretch a bit in the first few weeks, but it’s only a five minute job to readjust it.

happy riding!

An update for May

We took the girls off road motorcycling on a wet weekend to get them used to riding around in slippery conditions, I rode the trusty Honda, while they rode a pair of proper off road bikes. The Honda’s dual sport tyres weren’t up to it, which meant riding rather slowly to keep it going in the right direction and then paddling my way up the hills with my feet.

This set up the situation where the kids took great delight in passing me as often as they could. I didn’t mind this, as it inspired the kids to push themselves and ride faster, and out of their comfort zones.

It then became a competition of who had done the most laps, so I just kept going and going, in a turtle vs hare type of race.

In the end, my youngest managed 32 laps of a 1.2 km track, before she called it quits for the day.

Come Sunday night, Dad’s got a very dirty bike and boots, etc, to clean, and dry out

My regular skateboarding sessions have now gone on hold with the somewhat regular rain we are having, because skateboarding in water can ruin a good board (they can warp).

This leaves me with work, work, work, which is going well at the moment.

The kids are now back at their after school activities, but are still attending an online school as they are now quite settled there.

On the C front..

The mandates are mostly gone, but the battles continue..

Steve Oliver owns a gym that refused to discriminate against the unvaxxed and was taken to court by Worksafe over the covid laws. The court case is still going, even though the covid narrative has collapsed.

Steve is one of those Christian characters who contributes so much for the community as described in the video link below.

On another front… The Government has abandoned it’s appeal to challenge the previous ruling that mandates were unlawful for the Police and military. This hasn’t been reported in the MSM as yet.

Restarting life, Lessons for the kids on motorcycles

It’s been about a month since the mandates ended, and we are headed towards winter, which is why I’m trying to get as many things done with the kids while the weather is still good.

It’s normally raining in April, so it’s a bit of a miracle that the local off road tracks are still dry and mud free.

It was my youngest daughter’s second day on a motorcycle, and she spent the day going round the learners track. She did 35 laps in total, before she called it a day. She was riding very consistently all day and is starting to get confident with changing gears.

My oldest didn’t do so well.. We had brought the Honda XR125 along for her to use, which she did, until coming to grief at the start of the B track (a cross country track 6km long (3.75 miles)).

Some other riders helped her out, and got her going again and she rode the rest of the track without a working front brake.

She got a few bruises from the accident (mostly to her pride), which put her out of action for the rest of the day.

The bike itself was OK once I straightened the front forks and unbent everything that was bent… It was still missing a working front brake though, but this isn’t a big problem when riding off road.

Our Honda XR, the other bike is one we hired for our youngest to ride for the day

It turns out I’m 3 minutes slower around the B track on the Honda compared to our Suzuki. This makes sense because the Honda XR125L is a farm bike, and the Suzuki DR350 is a 22 yr old 350cc Enduro weapon. Interestingly, both bikes weigh almost exactly the same. (129kg vs 130kg)

In the end it was a good day and we accomplished quite a lot, tomorrow is Easter Sunday, and the easter bunny (my wife will be leaving easter eggs all over the house tonight..

A Fun day out motorcycling with the kids

It’s been a long 18 months since we have been able to get to this off road track, so we were back with a vengeance in the weekend.

It was my youngest daughter’s first time here, so we organised a hire bike and some lessons from a tutor on site.

She then spent the day on the learners track.
Like her older sibling was, she’s reluctant to use the throttle and initially took over 6 minutes to do one lap around the 1.5 km (0.9 mile) track. That time steadily decreased to about 3 ½ minutes, as she got more confidence during the day.

Meanwhile, my oldest daughter and I went off to try out the ‘B track’ this is a cross country track which is about 8 km (5 mile) long.

She usually leaves me for dead on this track, especially if it’s been raining. She has a natural talent for riding a bike when it’s sliding all over the place.
However, it’s been a while since we have been here and she’s naturally very cautious, which meant a slow start.
That all changed when I over took her, and then she kept up despite my best efforts to get away.
The lack of decent rain around here was a blessing for me, because my front tyre slides around very easily in mud, while the back wheel stays firm. To get around this, I just slowed right down for the occasional puddle.

I spent a bit of time on the B track, and quickly got close to my best time. I can’t go much quicker though, without changing that front tyre to something more suited to off road riding.

That front tyre is good on the road, but not so good off road. It’s designed for 50% road, 50% off road use.

The back tyre is for 10% road, 90% off road. (It’s one of those compromises you get when the bike is used on the road as well as off road).

All in all, it was a good day, and the kids enjoyed themselves.