Andymann

So at the risk of sounding like a stuck record, back in the 80's and 90's they were very accurate - but funny enough, they used to be different as you moved from Natal to the FS and then Gauteng. And telephone poles used to be very accurate too - across all provinces. But you never needed to rely on them because all the roads had clearly visible km stones. Now not so much - very few district roads still have km stones and if they do, they are hidden with long grass. Even in the Western Cape! The big problem we have now unfortunately, is that its very easy to quickly check your speed on a phone or a Garmin - yes, it's not only in Zwift where people do electronic doping!

At the top of the Rally box you have a scroll of speeds - like the picture below. At 70kph, 1km will take you 51s, 2km 1:43, 3km 2:34 and so on. So you start, get yourself up to what you think is about 70kph and then find the nearest km stone and start timing - don't change your estimated speed. If you find you are riding say at 50s per km then you know you are doing 71 and the next km needs to take you 1:46 - so you are then at 68kph - get on time and use the second stopwatch to time again. If there are no km stones, at 70kph 21 white lines will take you 12.9s - counting white lines is tricky though. And dangerous. Once you get to know the bike you actually can get pretty close - that's why on day 1 I thought I was doing 60kph, couldn't see any km stones, had a solid white line so rode on feel. I was way too slow and lost 96s in 4.4km. Day two I got much better - my total error was 135s - on day one it was 306

Yup - you need to tape up all the instruments - nothing is allowed on the bike that can give you any indication on how fast or how far you have gone. So you have two options for the start of regularity - ride to the the start as quickly as you can, and then leave on time like you suggested, or ride the entire rally as best as you can on time, so that you are always within a few seconds of where you need to be. My Dad was a top rallyist when he was younger - I think he still holds the record for the lowest error in the DJ - thin k it was 98secs over two days if I recall and he taught me a few things - one of them was to try and ride the entire rally on time and then ride the regularity sections exactly on time - the reason being is that sometimes the start of regularity is at an undefined point - like a farm gate or overhead wires. you get to a gate, start and then presto, there is another gate 500m down the road and you are stuffed for that section. Kevin 81 409 -3 3 -77 -62 -53 -53 -15 60 -13 -9 19 18 8 -10 -6 Andy 82 306 -96 1 -25 -8 2 -15 13 -10 -2 24 18 63 -7 -1 21 Have a look above at my Dad's errors and mine - he was 3sec late at Marshall one, 3 sec early at Marshall 2 and then didn't practice what he taught me and raced to the the next start of regularity which just said "Farm Double Gate"- he started at the wrong one and carried the error over to the next 4 marshals - -77, -62, -53, -53 I knew I was badly out right from the start (-96) so I couldn't do that - I rode as best I could and actually got to the right gate only 25s late - then got back on time. -25, -8, 2, -15 So to answer - I prefer to ride the entire Rally as if I am riding regularity - it adds a bit more stress, but chances of cocking up are a lot less! It depends on how good buddies you have! The top guys will not stop - but those riding at the back will just do it for fun - I would have definitely stopped to help my Dad. Last thing - have a look at the top 5 times - Position Name Comp No Day 1 Day 2 Final 1 Gush - Ron & Pam 3 68 71 139 2 Walton - Gavin 52 104 47 151 3 Murphy - Andrew & Annelie 57 106 56 162 4 Ward - Mike & Glenda 83 106 58 164 5 Greyvensteyn - Colin & Megan 80 80 87 167 6 Rupert - Mark 77 72 107 179 7 Metcalf - Harvey & Tess 58 119 61 180 8 Van Blerck - Johann / Craig Molver 103 161 22 183 Johan van Blerk and Craig Molver were only 22secs error on day two - crazy stuff!

Yup - it's a regularity run so you aren't allowed to use any form of speed or distance measuring device - you get a route schedule that is put inside the Rally box and then you are allowed to use stopwatches. On the more modern bikes you need to tape up the clocks. The first pic is the route schedule - the blocks marked in blue are the regularity sections - there you have to ride as accurately as possible - there are marshall points in those areas and they check to see if you are arriving early - (positive) or late (negative) The second pic is of my results on day on - I really screwed up at the first marshal - I was 96 seconds late - still getting used to the bike! It got better as the day went on!

I did get a bit of admin from the older crowd about it not being a real classic etc, etc, but the rules state the bike needs to be older than 26 years and the Tenere is 29 years so it's perfectly fine. There were two guys rallying a 1990's era Toyota Corolla - the original 16v one and no-one was too critical of them so tough - I had fun and I only had to fill it up once!

And the two I will cherish the most - My Dad and I at the bottom of Bains Kloof Pass after I had to chase him down - still a teenager at 86 and then the start of Day 2.

Back from the Fairest Cape! I'll load a few more pics during the day

It depends if the Model was originally introduced into NATIS - getting a model code loaded is very difficult but just adding a bike to an existing code is a little easier.

Thanks for all the info! I haven't see the bike physically yet, but there are a few things I have spotted off the pics - the tailpiece is definitely not right - something odd going on there because there is that gap at the back of the seat. From what I can see from online pics, the rear mudguard and light on a V50 look to be very similar to what was fitted to my 850 LM3 so I'm guessing those will need to be found. I also see the light switches are from a Yamaha. I remember the side stand on my LM3 was very sketchy - what I did was I took it off and then filed the stop on the frame slightly so the stand went past the 180deg mark - that helped a bit, but if I had a choice I would always use the center stand. Finally the one side cover has been modified - apparently it's cracked and the guy repaired it with a piece of Aluminum. I'll need to source a side cover too I guess. As far as I know, the bike was brought in from Italy to SA by an Italian who then sold it here. It's never been registers on the NATIS system so we have a small issue there - but luckily not as bad as something which has been archived on NATIS. That's a nightmare. I'll have a close look for you so see if there is overspray, but from what I understand, that red is the original colour. I'll check on the ignition for you.

My Dad is 86 and has been a biker since he was 15. As he got into his late 70's the three Sons have kept an eye on him because he still wants to ride like he is 15. He finally got to a point where he felt he couldn't ride anymore as the old Velocettes were getting to heavy and difficult to start. We all breathed a sigh of relief as it looked like the he had made the decision himself, rather than us having to make it for him. On Wednesday he arrived home with this on the trailer. It's a classic and it has electric start he proudly proclaimed..... Here we go again....

Did the final work on the XTZ this weekend for the Rally - new spark plug, bled the brakes and the big job fitting a rally box. I'm actually beginning to get quite excited now - looking forward to giving the bike a nice long run!

My wife pointed at a Harley a few weeks ago and said Hmmmm, that actually looks quite nice..... Do ladies also go through a crisis when they turn 40?

Years ago a mate of mine had a Lancia Beta - It gave him endless ****, but he loved it and he used to tell me how when he drove past a shop window or parked it outside a club he would always look back and think what a great looking car it was. I thought he was a bit biased but I find myself looking back at the TRX more often than not and thinking wow, that's a great looking bike....

Been down that road. The minimum distance for the bike is 25km and the minimum distance for the run is 5km. The Prime View Sprint Tri's are a 12km MTB and a 3km run which don't qualify according to Discovery as a Triathlon.

I tried arguing in the beginning but their solution was to just not use the multisport function on your multisport watch and record one continuous activity. The irony of not being able to use the Triathlon function on a watch while doing a Triathlon was lost on them. But again, I'm not the person they are targeting so I just decided to work the system. My Dad has a great saying - teach me your silly rules and I'll play your silly games.

I often have to remind myself of this - I'm not their target market. Did the Prime View Sprint Triathlon this weekend - used the Multisport function on my Garmin because that's what a Triathlon watch is for right? 600m swim - 10mins. 12km MTB - 27mins. 3km run 14mins. Total time - 53mins. Total points - zero. 3 activities, high HR but all under 30mins. Luckily I'm an old hand at this and cycled with my Bike Garmin which I left running in Transition for an hour to get 300 points. Crazy that you should have to game the system, but yup - not their target market. Crazy how you can do a sprint triathlon which is proper exercise and get Zero points, yet you can eat KFC sitting on the couch watching TV at a Virgin Active Gym and earn 100 points.....

Took the XTZ to work on Friday - a nice 140km round trip from Pta to Krugersdorp. I got to experience a little bit of why big trail bikes are so popular - you sit nice and high in the traffic and even though they are big and heavy you still get to filter through traffic easily. Well easier than the TRX. The 660 is not going to win any races - it's very comfortable at 100kph but you can't get past the fact that it's almost 200kg - so acceleration is fairly leisurely. But for a 29yo dirt bike it's very solid. Nice and smooth and winds hardly affect it. The previous owner fitted some MITAS Enduro trail tyres which I believe are very good off-road. They didn't feel too bad, but are noisy as hell. My offroad riding is going to be limited to gravel roads so I will probably change them in time for something a bit less aggressive. Other than that, it's a typical Yamaha from the 90's - feels like it's going to run forever. I'm really looking forward to November when I use it on the Fairest Cape - we're based in Rawsonville and apparently the roads they take us on are beautiful. The 70kph speed group might be a bit slow but I'm riding behind my Dad on an old Velocette so I'll just have to chill!

Well there we go - in all it's odd blue front mudguard glory. It's actually been quite fun just slowly getting things back to standard without going overboard. And the nice thing is that with genuine Yamaha parts everything fits perfectly. I do however have a whole margarine container of odd bolts, roof washers and Walmart screws - perfect for my spares tin. The only thing I need to do now is just try and clean up the Yoshi silencer - I was told it was a full system but clearly it's been cobbled together with crap welding. Other than that, time now to enjoy it!

Haha. But you can't buy it, because apparently you have now bought your last bike 😉 The funny thing is, I actually was considering selling it because it isn't that comfortable for my wife on the back, and it was very unpleasant in town due to what I thought was just the nature of the engine below 2000rpm. But since I put the new system on, well wow. I think I might just hang on to it for a bit

So the only thing I have heard about the T7 is that he silencer bracket is a bit soft so if you unintentionally bump it, it moves the silencer inwards and then can wear a lovely mark on the swingarm......other than that, it's a winner that bike

His price for my system was very reasonable hey - under R10k for everything.....

And finally it would be remiss of me not to mention the SM610 which I finally got running really well and I'll be damned if I have grown a bit attached to it. It's still on the market, but lets just say I haven't been entertaining any time wasters!

As for the XTZ I've committed to riding it with my Dad in the Fairest Cape Rally on the 5, 6 and 7th November so while he will be on a Classic, I will be on the XTZ. Definitely not the roads it was designed for, but still going to be fun. So the last month has just been getting it neatened up a bit and just replacing a whole bunch of non-Yamaha stuff. The most expensive being the choke. There was something not quote right with the choke - really tight, hardly any movement and the position on the dash surround seemed right but the plastic had no support which was very unlike Yamaha. Anyway I suspected the cable was wrong so ordered a new OEM cable and then saw that some of the choke mechanism bits were missing so just bought a whole new choke kit. One of the parts I ordered - a bracket is discontinued and I figured that was probably the support under the plastic so wasn't too stressed because I figured I could make a plan. When all the stuff arrived the new cable was way too short so after some Googling I realised that the cable goes nowhere near the dash and actually mounts on the handlebar saddle. Which is where the bracket was needed. Anyway I had to make something out of SS plate for now, but today I ordered another random piece of Yamaha exotica off ebay - a R500 piece of metal......

An update on two of my bikes - the first being the TRX850. I've never really been happy with the silencers on the bike. They had nice Akrapovic stickers but were definitely just stickers and the system was still the OEM system. A new OVER racing system from Japan was R30K and I definitely wasn't going to spend that. A few months back I ran past a house near to where I stay and saw the guys were working on bikes. Turns out the Stealth Exhaust guys now work from home. Got chatting and Jaco reckoned if I could get him dimensions of the OVER system he could build me one - those were easy to get so dropped the bike off last month and got it back on Friday. What a difference - it's a completely different bike. I can only think that at sometime in it's life it must have had a full system on because the jetting is spot on - it runs so well and really sounds great. Even more like a 748 now than ever. Just missing the Ducati the rattling clutch!