I know these have 4 wheels but here's an update on my cars....

I swapped jobs from shift work to Monday to Friday, 9-5  in my last few months at Wincanton, meaning that I was having to commute more often. The Subaru was costing a small fortune to run and my insurance renewal was ridiculous so it had to go :o/

We ended up with a Toyota MR2 hairdresser mobile but were stung as it had engine issues. I ended up selling it on, shortly after buying it but it was a fun little go-kart while it lasted

We then bought a BMW 328i convertible, which was great, cheap to insure and a little cheaper than the Subaru in terms of fuel.

I then got my job at Dematic in Rochdale and worked Monday - Friday for the first few months, meaning that my weekly commute was adding up to over 300 miles a week. The 328i was a good car but the miles per gallon let it down so I decided to keep an eye out for a nice diesel with plenty of poke. After looking at all sorts of cars I ended up going for a BMW 525D SE. I'd owned a 528i a long time ago and loved it. That was modified and ended up featured in a magazine but the 525D was a bit more 'pipe and slippers'. I fitted a nice set of wheels to the car and was surprised with the performance coupled with 43mpg average which was great when compared with the 20odd mpg of the 328i.

 

And then..... The boy racer inside me fought itself out! My latest car, after watching the Top Gear Africa Special and missing my last one since the minute it was driven away by it's new owner, I got hold of a nice Subaru Impreza WRX Sportwagon. It has the Prodrive exhaust and a HKS dump valve (not to everyone's taste, but the boy racer in my likes it!). I work shifts again now so I'm not commuting quite so often and using the bike when the weather is OK, so mpg's aren't quite so important any more.

 

 

I had to replace the radiator as it had actually split along the top. They top and bottom are plastic and tend to get brittle over time. The car is 11 years old, so it's not done too badly really. It also needs a new clutch, but is only showing the early signs of slipping so this is a job for after my next pay day!

 

HKS dump valve

 

New radiator and silicon hose (bottom hose replaced too) 

 

 

A new bike for Gemma

I did a load of overtime in work and decided to surprise Gemma with her own bike. It's no superbike but it's such a clean, tidy example I couldn't resit. It's a 1991 H-reg Suzuki GS500E. It's what a lot of training schools used for Direct Access courses, only the colour scheme of this one is a bit different to the usual blue.

The only modification so far is a set of Renthal bars for a more comfortable riding position...

The only other planned modification is to fit a louder exhaust at some point as it does seem a bit stealthy when riding in traffic.

Bar end mirrors and shorty levers

The standard mirrors on the Triple give you a great view of your own elbows and forearms, but not much of what is going on behind you! I bought some bar end mirrors and also some shorty levers in order to reduce the reach needed for if/when Gemma felt brave enough to take the bike out on her own  :o)

 

Triple with a drink problem

After taking the Triple out a couple of times, it was obvious it had a problem with drink. It would only do 90 miles per tank of fuel, compared with 120-130 miles in my last Speed Triple and the more recent Daytona! The end of the exhaust was also looking a bit sooty.

I plugged the bike into TuneECU and it reported a fault for the Throttle Position Sensor (TPS). TuneECU gives you the option to reset the TPS, which I should have done after having the bike in bits and reassembling it really. While I had TuneECU connected, I checked the fuelling map and found that it was running the standard tune but with the race pipe. I uploaded an appropriate map, reset the TPS and let the bike run for a while. The TPS fault didn't come back so I put the bike back together and took the bike out for a run. All seemed fine until I stopped and the idle speed was sitting a bit high. if I opened the throttle very slightly (barely moving it), the revs would die. If I opened it more, the revs would recover. If I allowed the throttle to snap shut after having it open, all was well. It was as if the throttle was sticking slightly at very small openings. I checked the twist grip and cable and all appeared to be ok. I plugged it back into TuneECU and the TPS fault had come back. Time to pull the bike to bits once again  :o/

After taking the bike apart, I found the problem. To correctly fit the TPS, the throttle bodies need to be removed, the sensor fitted and then the whole assembly re-fitted. Somebody had decided not to do this and had cut off the lugs which secure the TPS in position, so they could slide it down between the frame and the throttle bodies, without removing them!! This meant that the sensor was actually fine, but was able to move on the end of the throttle bodies so was giving weird readings and making it look like the throttle was open/closed when it wasn't! This could have been nasty if it had stuck wide open!!

So, in what was the nicest 2 weeks of 2012, my bike was in bits (again), waiting for a replacement TPS to arrive.

Thankfully, once this arrived and was fitted, the bike ran like a dream and all traces of faults in TuneECU had gone away.

First proper rideout on the Triple

After sorting out the cutting out problem, replacing the fuel coupling that snapped when taking the tank off (another common problem), I put the bike back back together, minus the infill panels below the tank (just so I could check for leaks) and took the bike out for it's first proper rideout to see how it went. It ran really nicely and it felt good to be back on a trusty 3 cylinder Triumph again. The noise from the race can is brilliant.. I missed that triple growl when we got the XJR

Ready to go..

The fuel couplings

 

 

Nuclear red Speed Triple 955i

After selling the XJR1300, we went to look at this Speed Triple which, according to Triumph, is red. Who am I to argue with them?!

The bike was cheap and is very tidy looking. It came with the Triumph carbon TOR exhaust and sounded lovely. It came with a Renthal rack, pillion seat and seat hump. The bike came from a bloke with 4 bikes in his garage. He bought the Triple after his son bought one and let him have a go! Seemed like a genuine bloke but said the Triple wasn't being used due to the other bikes in the garage. We collected the bike from Leicester and it rode perfectly until we got off the motorway close to home. It cut out a couple of times as we approached junctions and traffic lights and I pulled the clutch in. I thought of the IACV hoses that I had to replace on the Daytona and so wasn't too concerned.

After getting the bike home, I took it to pieces and found a number of problems  :o/  It looked like someone had already been under the tank, trying to find the cause of the running problems and hadn't taken too much care putting it back together!

I found that the airbox hadn't been pushed into position properly so there was a good chance that air was leaking in, around where the airbox should have been sealed onto the throttle bodies. Fortunately though, the IACV hoses were intact but I decided to replace them for silicon anyway, while I had the hose and they were a known weak point.

After replacing the plugs, checking the air filter (a K&N panel filter which looked pretty much brand new) and putting it all back together again, the bike ran nicely and no longer cut out at junctions.

Project Golf GTI

After selling Gemma's BMW compact to her mum & dad for whatever we could get for our/their old BMW 320i coupe, we bought an old mk3 Golf. It was cheap to buy and had some issues. I started a blog, just for the Golf which can be found here...  http://projectgtimk3.blogspot.co.uk/

XJR1300

After trying to keep 2 bikes in the shed, money was tight and we had to drop to just one bike for a while. We sold my Daytona and Gemma's lovely SV. As a replacement, we needed something big, comfy and capable of riding two up quite a lot. We looked at all kinds of bikes and after realising that a BMW GS was out of our price range, without it having huge miles on or looking rough, we settled on the XJR1300.

The XJR was really smooth, comfy and had tons of torque, but didn't really feel as exciting as the Triumphs. We kept it for around 9 months and then I decided it was time to return to Triumph ownership!

Some pictures of the Daytona

Temporary fix for the IACV hoses

After finding the cause for the stalling, I ordered some silicon hose, in order to make up some replacement hoses. In the meantime, I used some clear fuel hose as a temporary fix, so I could get my new toy out on the road.

The bike ran quite nicely once these were replaced and the stalling problem went away. Unfortunately, a new problem appeared... It was difficult to start when cold and tickover wasn't as smooth as it should have been. I had the valve clearance checked and adjusted and then I balanced the carbs, before putting in a fresh fuelling map, using TuneECU.

 

It ran lovely after that and, despite being a bit uncomfortable around town or when stuck on traffic, it was a great bike and went like poo off a spade!

Triumph Daytona 955i

After selling my black 1050 Speed Triple, I really hoped to get a 955i Triple to replace it. Ideally, I wanted a Speed Triple as the faired bikes aren't kind to my back. Still, I found what looked like a lovely example of a Daytona 955i on the Triumph Torque forum and decided to bite the bullet.

It was a 1999 T-reg in Tornado Red.

It took some fettling after I got it home from daaarnn saarf! It ran well until warm and then would stall on the approach to traffic lights, tight turns, etc. with the clutch pulled in. I pulled it all apart the day after bringing it home and replaced the plugs and found that the Idle Air Control hoses had split (a common problem on these bikes). Here are some pictures to show the split ends... They were in pretty poor condition!
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Long time no speak....

It's been ages since I last did an update on here so I've decided it's about time I brought it all up to date!

Since my last post, I was unfortunately put at risk of redundancy and so the black triple had to go. I had the bike on finance and really didn't fancy having it hanging round my neck if I didn't find any work. I was gutted to sell the bike and will definitely be looking for another 1050 triple in the future, particularly the matt black model.

Anyway, I found another job, took a small drop in pay and more than doubled my daily commute. Hopefully, it will be worth the sacrifice and I will end up being a qualified Engineering Technician at some point in the not so distant future.

Anyway, I'll gather some pictures of the various vehicles we've had since my last update! (There have been a few, oops)