I bought some SW Motech engine bars for the GS from Nippy Normans. They were a good price compared with other makes and they arrived swiftly. Both left hand and right hand bars went on the bike easily enough although the lower bolts must have been made from putty as the hex key started to cam-out of the mushroom headed 8mm bolts as soon as any torque was applied (In fact it was at about 10NM torque -19NM being the amount specified in the BMW service manual for fitting BMW crash bars to the same mounting points) I replaced these bolts with decent socket head bolts.

Problems started when I tried to fit the cross piece between the side bars. Brackets welded to the cross piece and designed to bolt to the front of the engine were too close together with the result that the bolt holes in the brackets and the threaded holes in the engine did not align. I telephoned Nippy Normans to explain the problem but was taken aback by the tone of the response which suggested (a) it was my fault and that I had to use the correct spacers and (b) if I sent a photo they could diagnose the problem. I explained that it was not a problem of spacers and a photo would only demonstrate what I had said. NN then said if I returned the cross piece, they would check it against their stock and if it was faulty, they””””d send me another. I bit my tongue because it is obvious the thing is faulty and I don””””t expect that checking against their stock will alter the fact. I really don””””t believe my BMW engine is at fault!

This is what I am supposed to bolt together…

I posted the darn thing off to NNs with this photo and will have to wait and see what they say.

Got down to Metal Mule today and had these beauties fitted. It”””’’s two 38l side panniers and a 45l topbox. To get the balanced set-up the standard exhaust was replaced with a slimmer Scorpion exhaust. It is no noisier than standard but sounds quite different - better I think.

I got fed up with not being able to sync the Tomtom Rider 1 with my Scala Rider bluetooth headset and also with the somewhat flaky track recording that depends on a third party app that I installed to the Tomtom. So after swearing to avoid doing business with Touratech if I could avoid it, I went back to them for a bracket and cradle for the Garmin 2820 that normally lives on the Goldwing. Initially. following the TT instructions I found that the 2820 competely obscured the speedo and the rev counter from view. However, after reversing the handlebar brackets I am now able to see the speed and the top half of the rev counter which is acceptable.

Now all I need to do is to get a pair of specs that will enable me to see the thing clearly. After some experimentation using reading glasses I am going to get a pair of bifocals with a smallish area devoted to the near focal length - large enough to cover the instruments and nothng else basically and have booked a sight test for tomorrow.

I have been awaiting the arrival of BMW crash bars for the GS since I ordered the bike. The last news I had on these was that there were “production problems” with no further news on a projected delivery date.

What these production problems might be in something as apparently simple as a set of crash bars is a little hard to figure but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were one of these things where Touratech have designed something for BMW’s use and now want to produce their own label version with some sort of resulting conflict with BMW.

In any event I have decided that I might as well get a set of Givi bars which look pretty good so I’ll cancel my outstanding order and order up the Givi bars instead.

Tim Cullis fixed these on his 650

If you wonder why there are quotation marks where there should be an apostrophe, you are not alone, I am as puzzled as you.

It started when I “upgraded” to Wordpress 2.5.1 and I started to get a couple of lines of php warnings before the blog proper loaded. I also couldn`t access the blog`s admin area. I haven`t yet tracked down a proper solution but I found that if I replaced a file (widgets.php) with an older version, I could at least suppress the garbage and get into my admin area.

I also find now that editing an entry causes any apostrophe to “attract” another quotation mark so we end up with something like can”"”t when trying to write the abbreviated form of cannot.

I am temporarily getting around this by using a backward facing apostrophe like this ` which looks a bit awkward but better than a set of quotation marks.

I ordered some of these for the GS quite a while ago - in late April if memory serves - at which time they were awaiting delivery of the new Scorpion exhausts which are needed if one wants a balanced pannier set up with no exhaust cut-out, as I do. As I was going off to Italy, I reckoned I could happily wait for the exhaust and on my return I had fixed up to go down to Hassocks last week but then Paul at MM phoned to tell me he is still waiting for the exhaust. OK, I rearranged the date for tomorrow but then this afternoon another conversation with Paul took place - déjà vu all over again as they say..still no delivery date on the Scorpion.

I shall go for a ride in any case. I got myself a little Action Cam today and have fitted it to the bike, so I hope to have fun tomorrow recording some nice lanes

It came with a mount designed to fit something like a bike’’s handlebars plus a couple of straps to fix it around a helmet or one’’s arm. I couldn”t use the handlebar mount as it was so made up a fixture to sit in my RAM mount (good job I had a bit of ally rod and plate as well as a lathe handy!)

Another neat thing I have come across is a plugin for my Tomtom Rider - I did not even know it could use plugins! This one is called Event Logger and amongst other things, it can record a track log on the Rider. The program is free and on a short test seems to work as advertised. I shall try a longer test on my ride tomorrow.

It just happens to be blocked by a rather large tree root..

Turning six bikes round in a lane narrower than the bike is long necessitates some rather hard work..

It was a brilliant day, organised by Mike Wilson at South London BMW. Six brave souls, including Mike - bravest of all for looking after us! - took to the Surrey hills and encountered most kinds of terrain from loose rocks to deep pools. Here is Mike showing the rest of us wimps how to do it..

I only fell off once which is a great improvement on my last outing! I had taken some precautions such as removing my mirrors - this made me realise just how much I use them as I felt completely blind for a while - and taking some spanners and the Torx keys on sockets. As luck would have it, the only thing that was right was the spanner for the mirrors. I could have done with a couple of other things after my “little off” but naturally, they were at home in the garage..

For some greenlaning tomorrow that is. Recalling my last outing, a few precautions have been taken, such as to have had a bashplate fitted and I have removed one mirror from the bike - the other will come off before we hit the dirty stuff. One problem is deciding where to put stuff like an essential toolkit and the mirror. The F800GS”’’s toolkit is like a poor joke and there is no room under the seat for much extra although I have managed to secrete a tupperware box of torx keys there. The mirror and a ratchet spanner for the torx bits will have to live in a tool roll strapped on the back seat.

The problem with stuff on the back seat, as I found out last time, is that in my riding suit and motocross boots, I can””t easily lift my leg high enough to clear the extra height - I am not Darcey Bussell! - still I think I can just about manage to clear the tool roll. This problem is of course much amplified when one can””t stand on a piece of level ground or is up to the knees in mud. Both these situations also preclude use of the sidestand and then the problem is compounded by having to keep the bike upright and by the time this becomes necessary, the bike weighs a ton because one is absolutely knackered. At least, I am knackered. This is partially due to my advancing years but mainly because I am out of conditon and haven””t yet been back to the gym since my Italian trip - or if I am honest since Patagonia, apart from a few forays that didn””t translate into peak condition… Only those who have ridden off-road know how much hard work motorcycling can be!

I had a great ride yesterday with guys on the UKGSer forum. We started and finished at Newlands, taking in three counties in a 120 mile loop thorugh some very pretty country side and along a fine mix of roads including some gravelly muddy stuff that almost threatened to become off-road, shady country lanes and some faster stuff with nice sweepers. I was pleased with the road going performance of the TKC80s although rather cautious when it came to exploring their full potential in the bends - which often had gravel just waiting around the bend - I wasn”t desirous of finding their maximum lean angle the hard way but I suspect it is quite a bit more than I was prepared to try.

Yesterday I went off to North Walsham to pick up my new trailer at Freewheel and also got a trailer towbar fitted at the same time. The weather going up was horrid - a grey murk that resembled a London smog in many ways, except for the foul smell that used to accompany those. It took longer than expected to fit the towbar but when I left, everything seemed fine until about halfway through the journey home when I noticed that my Garmin 2820 stopped working. Being suspicious of this and feeling that it must have a cause related to the recent fiddling with the bike’’s electrics, I pulled into a lay-by and discovered that my trailer lights had also stopped working. I called Alan Young at Freewheel who made some helpful suggestions including an offer to put me up for the night if I wanted to return to Norfolk. However, being closer to home, I decided to get home, using hand signals in place of my trailer lights and sort the problem out there.

This morning, the cause of my lights failure turned out to be a simple fuse. The extra lights (in addition to those installed in the panniers, plus satnav plus CB radio were just too much for the 5 amp fuse safeguarding the accessory terminal. After debating with myself the wisdom of installing a 10 amp fuse in place of the original 5 amp, I decided in the end to power the trailer relay directly from the battery using an in-line fuse for the trailer. This seems to be fine, at least for the moment although I may have to check battery condition more regularly.

I am pleased with the trailer. It looks good and the Bordeaux red gel coat, whilst not a perfect match for the Cabernet red of my bike, is reasonably close and I certainly have no urge to get it sprayed to match exactly. The trailer is well shaped with plenty of storage for all the stuff I can imagine wanting on a camping trip plus a lot more besides. I am really looking forward to using it for the first time.

Before my return journey, I was a bit nervous about towing the trailer, never having done this on a bike before. I am happy to say that I really didn”t notice it was there unless I looked in my mirrors for it. I actually did this quite a bit at first to check the turning circle as I went around corners. Cornering presented no problems, I didn”t have to take them especially wide at all.