Electric Windows - on a bike ?

There a a few features of the GP800 that I thought were a bit "gimmicky" when I bought the bike. The obvious one is the handbrake - completely pointless as far as I'm concerned as I always use the centre-stand (in fact, I consider the lack of a centre-stand on many modern bikes an absolute dealbreaker for me but that's another story). To be fair, owners who don't habitually use the centre-stand may find it useful when parking the bike on a hill. Without the ability to leave it in gear, 262kg of expensive Italian metal and plastic could very easily take a tumble.

The other apparently unnecessary feature is the electric screen - but in the last few weeks I've had cause to be very glad it's there. The benefit is certainly marginal with the completely useless standard screen but with the Givi it's an absolute boon.

I generally ride with the Givi screen in it's highest position for maximum protection from the wind- that's why I fitted it after all. It works well and has the added benefit of improving the looks of the already beautiful GP800. In the last few weeks, it's been pretty hot and muggy in London and even wearing an "air" suit, progress in the London rush hour has been stifling. A quick flick on the switch and the difference is immediately noticeable - in fact with the Givi the difference between "up" and "down" is far more marked than with the standard screen.

It even works at higher speeds - drop the screen while filtering up to the toll booths on the M25 at the Dartford Crossing and even if you forget to raise it immediately, the mechanism copes with raising the screen at 70 (ish) mph.

A genuinely useful feature after all :-)

Chain oilers again – what goes around……..

If you look at the “Tutoro” tag, you’ll find the old post where I fitted the chain oiler in the first place. As an inveterate “fiddler” I wanted to improve it somehow – and I have always been drawn to the other inexpensive chainoiler, the Loobman. As it is sub £20 I bought a Loobman anyway. As many reviews will confirm, the delivery method to the chain is a little “Heath Robinson” but the way the bottle delivers a measured amount of oil is quite neat. The Tutoro reservoir was fitted quite high on the bike so I fitted the Loobman bottle low down behind the passenger footpeg giving me a much shorter “run” of tubing. What’s more, as the Tutoro delivery system was working fine I left it in place and ended up with a hybrid system of Loobman reservoir and Tutoro pipework.

This was my working system for a month or so and it was fine – at least until the bottle fell off to be lost forever somewhere between Dunstable and Newbury. Rather than returning to the Tutoro reservoir, I decided to give up on chain oilers and simply reverted to spraying chain lube at intervals. I had plenty of the white chain wax from before I'd fitted the Tutoro so that was sprayed liberally over the chain

One of the things that has always plagued me with my GP800 has been “noises off”. However sweet the engine is, I have always suffered from driveline noises of one kind or another. There was the dreaded “Strangled Sealion” noise ( I credit the X9 Owners Club for the phrase – I note a post on Modern Vespa forum that failed to do so !) which in my case was caused by a loose clutch nut and there is also chain noises which have been the bane of my life.

Soon after the events above, I noticed more driveline noises. It was a graunchy rotating noise and quite frankly sounded expensive and definitely mechanical – like a bearing about to give up. I posted on a thread on the GP800 sub forum at X9 Owners Club and found that the final drive pinion oil level may not have been topped up properly at service (thanks JimC). A quick removal of the passenger footrest and a squirt of gear oil from a childs medicine syringe cured that one (the level was a little low) but the graunchy grind was still present.

In a fit of desperation, I slackened the chain (way more than recommended) to see if reducing the strain on the driveline made any difference to the noise – surprisingly it did, but not by a lot. By now I was resigned to taking it somewhere with a blank cheque but as a final thought, I completely cleaned the chain removing all the white chain wax and manually lubricated the chain with Scottoiler oil that I used in the Loobman. This time I re-adjusted the chain correctly to spec.

Result – silence J

Well almost – it still clanks a bit when being pushed backwards but the horrible mechanical grating has gone. Even now, a few days later, I struggle to comprehend how something as basically simple as a stiff chain could make such a terminal sounding noise. I’m guessing that over time, the chain has stretched slightly unevenly and this will be cured by the (scarily expensive) chain replacement at the next service (18,000 miles).

Either way, I should have listened to myself by re-reading my earlier post (18^th Feb 2009) when I recommended against wax type chain lube – So here it is again – for me as much as any other GP800 owners out there

DON’T USE WAX TYPE CHAIN LUBE ON A GP800

Of course, YMMV, FWIW, IMHO, IANAL, ROFL, ETC and I may not have helped matters by either using too much of the white chain wax, or layering it up over time by not cleaning off the old wax before re-applying- but the advice above stands.

So, it's back to the Tutoro reservoir. fitted lower down where the Loobman bottle lived - which gives a much shorter tube run an d reduces the headache of priming. Even if you allow the oil to run out, the total amount of oil in the system is much less and just refilling the reservoir self-primes quite happily.

Listening to a GP800 provides the best way of knowing when it’s “right and tight”. If you close the throttle from about 35-40mph, as the speed falls away, between 30mph and 20mph the engine becomes almost inaudible and the only noise you can hear sounds like a coasting London Underground (tube) train. Of course if you’re not a Londoner that will be meaningless to you – but the noise is quite distinct, a comforting “whirring” sound.

As an aside, the noises from the rear were so severe that they masked another new noise that I’m ashamed to say I missed. I had always been surprised by the fact that my rear pads had never been replaced as I tend to favour the rear brake (despite it being the naturally clutch side for me). I had even unequally adjusted the lever reach to try to force me to split my braking in favour of the front brakes.

The pads have been replaced now !

Although I was concerned at the possibility that the allen keyed pins might have seized necessitating calliper replacement (eek – thanks again JimC) the task was remarkably straightforward – especially since I was suffering from “Housemaids Knee” at the time. I guess that’s testament to the original Thomsons quality of PDI which involved a great deal of dismantling and Copaslip before I took delivery. Not quite “BMW Brembo” simples but no real grief. The only problem was that the hole in the inner pad for the pin to slide through was slightly too small (probably by the thickness of its paint) requiring a simple ream out by hand with a drill bit.

Whew, that’s a long entry. I really must get round to updating this blog more often.

Testing - mobile blogging

If this works, I'm now blogging from my mobile. Dontcha just love Android. All I need now is a handset with a hardware qwerty keyboard to replace my otherwise excellent HTC Tattoo

Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.5

GP800 - Seat Lowering

Although I am a shade under 6 feet tall, I am somewhat short in the leg and long in the body. Combine this with the width of the GP800's seat, and I have often been left with one leg dangling when "paddling" in heavy traffic.

I have previously had a custom seat made for my R1100RS by Melvin Hunter and he was my first (and only) port of call for the GP800.

http://www.zen113982.zen.co.uk/mysite/mods.html#seat

The R1100RS seat foam was simply "dished" slightly and a "gelastic" pad inserted - and a new custom cover was made. This time I was looking for as much lowering AND narrowing as possible - and the narrowing was more critical than the height.

One of the problems of having a seat conversion is the small matter of despatch. Not only do you have to pack a large seat (suitably protected), you have to get it to a post office and pay Postman Pat an inordinate amount of money to take it to Coventry. Then of course, you have to pay Melvin a similar amount of money to send back to you.

Something of a "result" presented itself to me when I realised how close to the NEC that Melvin was based - Once I knew I was attending this year's Motorcycle Expo (trade show) I arranged to drop the seat off on my way up - and Melvin agreed to provide a same day service and I collected the seat the same afternoon.

This timescale prevented the fabrication of a completely custom seat and cover like the R1100RS - but it did allow for a comprehensive re-shaping and "pulling" down of the existing cover together with the fitment of a "Gelastic" pad to provide additional comfort given the amount of padding which was removed.

These days, Melvin has handed over the fabrication to his son Ross and I am please to say that he has obviously handed down his skills efficiently as the job was clearly a top quality piece of craftsmanship. When I collected the seat, I did have an initial reaction of disappointment as it didn't seem as if anything had changed - but feeling the seat contours made me realise that the sides had been gently "scalloped" and the seat lowered very neatly and subtly.

Riding the bike with the new seat is excellent - although it doesn't seem much narrower, the combination of scalloped sides and reduced height means that I can have both feet flat on the floor - I am certain that once I'm back on the daily commute this will be a godsend in really heavy traffic.

It was only when taking the "after" picture and montaging it together with the "before" that I realised just what a comprehensive piece of work had been carried out. You can click on the image to see a larger version but the points to note are the significant reductions in "meat" above the solid plastic nose section as well as above the seam that follows the line of the riders leg. The narrowing is evidenced by the lack of a "ridge" along the lower edge of the seat base (much more obvious in the "before" picture by the shadow below).

Without having to pay for shipping, the cost was £95 including the gelastic pad. Worth it ? - I think so. Highly Recommended

You can find Ross and Melvin at http://www.motorbike-seats.co.uk and their website has an image gallery of some of their work.

GP800 Speedo - The Final Solution

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This time the solution IS definitely final.

Having identified that all the last update provided was some legible MPH markings, without addressing the speeometer innacuracy isssue, I decided to do the job properly.

I cleaned all the markings from the dial - easy enough with a spot of nail varnish remover on a cotton bud - then went out with the trusty RoadPilot MicroGo. I marked the speedo at the significant "GPS correct" MPH speeds then cut out and applied the speed markings from one of the spare MPH stickers from the original set.

Here's the result - neat enough but more importantly GPS correct all round.

Is this the perfect solution - in a word no, but it is final as far as I'm concerned. The downside is that you can't clearly see the markings in the dark - only now evident as the nights are fair drawing in (and it's also dark in the morning when I head in to work) but this is countered by the fact that the Roadpilot's illuminated readout is hightly legible in the dark.

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GP800 Rear Sprocket Problem (loose)

So, the cause of my clanking is confirmed as a loose sprocket – as it was when I had the tyres fitted. One of the bolts had sheared off at the head. This time it was worse and the bolts simply didn’t want to tighten up in situ.

I removed the rear wheel (a relatively straightforward job) with the intention of removing and refitting the sprocket (replacing the sprocket if the holes had elongated in any way).

This is where the fun started. Despite being loose enough to allow a degree of rotational movement in the sprocket, the bolts were simply too difficult to turn in either direction. Remembering that the are already weakened by the action of the rotating sprocket, I applied localised heat and very gentle (but maximum) force with the result that a further three sheared to go with the one that had already done so.

Only one came out cleanly. This revealed the cause of the problem as well as a paradox. The entire thread had been liberally coated with enough threadlock/superglue to keep the propeller on the QE2. I still can’t figure out how they became loose in the first place. This was of course compounded by the natural action of a steel bolt to seize in an aluminium thread.

As the wheel was already out of the bike, I lifted the carrier off the cush rubbers and headed for my mate in Potters Bar who is equipped with a bench, a sturdy vice and a set of “Easy-Outs”. Even with further application of maximum heat, and being drilled clean through these bolts were not coming out – with the inevitable result that the Easy Out snapped.

The carrier then went to CAM Engineering in Potters Bar http://www.camauto.com/cameng.html – it would have been fairly straightforward for them to drill out the sheared bolts – but the broken Easy Out added another dimension to the problem and increased the estimated cost to “up to” £75.

I checked with http://www.gileraspares.co.uk/ online and a new carrier assembly is £74 – but delivery time is “up to” a month (there’s that “up to” again !)

So, CAM Engineering sorted the original carrier – after removing the broken bolts and repairing the damage, the carrier was drilled right through to allow slightly longer bolts with Nyloc nuts to secure the sprocket - there’s plenty of room behind the sprocket so I can’t understand why it wasn’t made that way in the first place.

If there’s a small crumb of comfort in all this, there’s absolutely no discernable wear in the original sprocket – even after 10,000 miles.
Of course in hindsight it might have been better to have taken it in under warranty with a "loose sprocket" but any workshop would have faced the same problems - it would have been their problem not mine and I might have been without the bike even longer (let alone the inconvenience of taking it there in the first place). This way although it cost money I was back on the road more quickly. At the end of the day the fault lies with Piaggio for supergluing the bloody bolts in the first place.

MPH Speedo - again !

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The final speedo solution - probably not.

My need for a clear legible and accurate speedometer for the GP8000 is starting to turn into an obsession. I found these on eBay and thought I'd give them a try.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300322400500
They arrived promptly and certainly seemed neatly made. 100mm is the correct size for the GP800 so after a little bit of trimming, I offered it up to the Speedo. This is where we found snag #1.

The GP800 has a 100mmm diameter speedometer but the cowling makes it fairly deeply recessed - and the cowling encroaches on the speedo by a couple of mm all round. I didn't think that trimming by that amount would be a particularly neat solution so I decided to (gulp) remove the speedo.

This involves a considerable amount of bodywork removal. If you've ever wondered what a GP800 looks like naked, here it is in all its glory. Dismantling to this degree is not difficult but it is fairly time consuming. You will definitely need the workshop manual(thanks Jim) to find all the various screws and the correct order to remove them. Even then there are two screws not mentioned in the instructions (although they are fairly obvious). I can also pretty much guarantee that at least one of the trim clips will fall into the void somewhere. Once the body panels are removed, taking the speedo out is a little fiddly as the electric screen mechanism gets in the way. A degee of leverage on the "dashboard"helps.

With the speedo removed the job is now looking much easier. I did consider stripping down the unit itself in order to scan the dial face and make a proper job of it - but to be honest it looked a little scary - and I'm sure that water ingress would be the inevitable result. Perhaps when the bike is out of warranty in another years time I might give it a go.

Fitting the sticker is very straightforward. I debated trying to set the numbers correctly for "real speed" as opposed to indicated speed but I decided that would potentially compound any errors and anyway the GP800's speedo gets progressively more innacurate as the speed rises so it would ony be correct at one speed. I decided to stick to marked speeds as I have the GPS speedo for accuracy anyway so I just lined up the 0 position. Once fitted I was left with some sticky residue from the tape I had used to hold it in place while lining it up. I tried simple cleaning but here is where I made my mistake. When cleaning things like this, they always say "try a little on a small area first". I can see why ! If you're planning to do this, remember that nail varnish remover will take off ink from speedometer conversion stickers. You can see the evidence of this (and my attempts to rectify the problem) at the 100 and 110 mph positions - thanks to "write all" CD pens.

In use it's fine - it's aesthetically OK but obviously not matched to the GP800's instruments. Most importantly it gives you the "quick glance" indication of speed so essential on todays roads. The degree of error in the GP's speedo means that an indicated 30mph is about 29, 40 is about 36-37, 50 is about 44-45 and by the time you get to 70 your actual speed is bareley over 60 - but that's the GP800's problem not the speedo sticker.

In all, recomended to all GP800 owners in the UK.

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