Houston, We Have A Problem...

I have been in Jakarta for a couple of days and Bumblebee had been resting next to my neighbour's Beemer GS1300 over the time. After I settled down, I thought that I might have a short spin around the condo after the brood has gone to bed.

And so I sneaked out of the house and then walked to Bumblebee with the swagger that only a biker possesses. And uh huh, I couldn't get the bike to fire up.

"Houston, we have a problem..."

 
The bike felt like it was going to start up but then the engine would rumbled back to silence. I checked the carb, the fuel gauge (to ensure that it was not at a locked position), etc. The only recent change that I have made to the bike was the installation of the LeoVince exhaust but it was working beautifully the last time I had it on the road.

All my previous bikes had started at the first ignition consistently, so it was a tad disconcerting that this very new bike was having problem starting, and at 2,500 km on the odometer only.

And that was when I glanced at the odometer and found that it was registered as 2,630 km on the odometer.

"Surely that rather big tank can't be good for just 130 km per full tank?", I wondered aloud as I checked the tank.

And sure enough the tank was empty. Looking through the external tank carefully, I found that the hard plastics on the left and right sides, which made the tank looked bigger, were purely for looks.

And the fuel gauge at the engine  should be turned to 12 o'clock ("on" position) while 3 o'clock meant "off" and 6 o'clock meant "reserve".

I had inevitably turned mine to 6 o'clock as I was riding, which meant that there wasn't any reserves for me to get the bike out to a petrol station.

So I hopped in my car and went to pump some petrol into a lubricant bottle; afterwhich I fed the precious liquid into Bumblebee. I pressed the ignition button again and voila, the bike came alive with a roar.

"Houston, we have lift off..."

You could be sure that I'd be looking closely at the odometer from hereon, and a visit to the petrol station every 100km would henceforth be a common norm for this bike.

"Fuel on the go? But is that RON97?"

When Harry Met Sally

I wanted to pass some bike stuff to Joe, the owner of my ex-Aprilia and arranged to meet up with him at 10.30 pm. What was supposed to be a teh tarik session between current and ex-owner became a lengthy support session that lasted till almost 3.00 am now.

It seemed that Joe was having a problem with the bike. He had problem starting the bike sometimes, and just faced the problem that the RPM would not go past 7,000 RPM. I had initially thought that Joe was not gunning the bike the way that 2-strokers needed to be coaxed with.

But once we exhanged bikes and I rode the Aprilia for quite a duration, I found that the bike was displaying symptons of water in its carburetor as per the following :

1) Won't start or run : If there is a large amount of water in your carburetor your engine will not run at all. Engines require a combustible substance in order to start up and fire; since water is not combustible, too much of it will completely prevent the motor from operating.

2) Rough Surging : The carburetor's job is to create the ideal fuel mix for your motor and supply your vehicle with the proper amount of fuel. If the carburetor is supplying your vehicle with watered-down fuel, or just has small droplets of water mixed in occasionally, your vehicle will be getting a mixture that does not burn effectively in the motor. It will cause the motor run badly, bog down when accelerating or surge as the vehicle alternately receives good fuel and fuel with water mixed in.

My diagnosis would be water in the carburetor, which reqires a mechanic to clean and flush the water out of the system.I would contact the mechanic tomorrow and appeal for him to assist in the carburetor job soonest possible.

However, despite this "teething issue" as Joe called it, the rest of the bike performed beautifully. The gear changes were swell, the brakes were great and the overall package warrant s 90% mark, let down by the erratic RPM.

 

I hope that we could settle this matter and have Joe having fun on his Aprilia again soon.

Banksy Renamed As Bumblebee ("BB")

Banksy would henceforth be renamed as Bumblebee. Not that it has anything to do with the Chevy from Transformers, but simply because its transformation programme has its yellow-and-black scheme becoming more and more obvious. Hence the Bumblebee.

Haha, the sting looks like the current mudguard.

Now, this Bumblebee is fierce-looking.

I went about polishing Bumblebee between 11.30 pm - 12.30 am today, after the brood has gone to sleep. I collected Bumblebee from the mechanic's place at around 7.00 pm, and there it was in all its glory but with oily hand print stains all over its body and all. And I couldn't stop wanting to look at her, so off I went with my polishing cloth and all.

Anyway, back to the mechanic's place, with the stuff that I ordered duly-installed, it really changed the whole outlook of the bike. She looked so much meaner and fiercer now, but that could be just in my eyes. You decide for yourself when you look at the pictures later.

Before and...

After.

The LeoVince Cobra looked so beautiful perched at the side of the bike. And when I started it, the exhaust bass was so strong that even the few Versys and Shiver owners servicing their bikes at the workshop came over to check out Bumblebee.

The exhaust note was oh-so-beautiful it would also attract too much attention from the authorities, so I had the silencer installed and thereafter, it was just-a-tad muted down. Just-a-tad.

The ProTaper cushion bar and hand guards added a touch of zesty yellow to the front of the bike, and it really added to the whole character of Bumblebee. No longer does the front looked dull and average-looking, now it exuded a sense of wilderness and danger.

Looks like an elk from this angle.

My riding view.

Looks good to me.

Right side, external.

Right side, internal.

Left side, external.

Left side, internal.

Add in the motard seat net and Racing Boy reflective sticker for sports rims, and the whole bike really looked the part. The Hella BM dual-horn improved upon the safety aspect while riding. However, the mechanic was unable to modify the footrests though, so we would have to go through other channels.

Spot the horn.

The ride home felt really good. Bumblebee's street cred and presence improved ten-fold at the very least, and other vehicles moved to give her space when I revved the boomy LeoVince to let them know that I needed to go through.

The bike's pick-up improved tremendously and there was a surge that was non-present previously. All in all, the LeoVince  really changed the nature of the bike.

And here she is in all her glory.

More to come, perhaps.

And for comparo purposes, here she was in stock form earlier the year as seen from the showroom.

Stock platform good to begin with.

Going forward, I am toying with the idea of changing the 2008 Kawasaki ER6N headlamps into Bumblebee. There are a few selling on Mudah now between RM350 - RM550 per piece, and I believe that the headlamp would change the whole outlook of Bumblebee all over again. Of course, the year 2011 ono Kawasaki ER6N headlamps would look even better given its more aggressive stance.

However, my mechanic has cautioned that those headlamps were quite heavy and that may affect the motard's agile riding experiences. Hmmm... let's sleep over it further.

24/9/2013 : Birthday Treat

Today are the birthdays of 2 of my dearest family members, so it's a great day to say the least. Happy Birthday to both my love ones!

Plus the fact that I had yesterday surrendered my bike to my trusted superbike mechanic since the early days, to work on a few improvements and I can't wait to have it back to see the stuff in person.

The pictures of the bike after I have taken back receipt of the bike should include yellow ProTaper handle cushion (already installed when taking its picture yesterday afternoon), yellow hand guards on the handlebars, yellow rim stickers from Racing Boy, LeoVince Cobra duly-installed with re-tuned carburetor, footrests, etc.

This project bike is moving along smoothly into the envisioned picture. Nice!

23/9/2013 : Givi Purchases

While killing time at the Benelli Keeway service centre, I strolled over to Givi to take a look. Lo and behold, I made some purchases which amounted to RM110.00 as per the following :

1) Givi storage base : The outside bike shop quoted RM55 for purchase and fixing the box on the bike, and I postponed it last week as the mechanic told me that it involved drilling mods and would take approximately an hour. At the Givi centre, the same base inclusive of a 5-min installation cost only RM35! Thereafter, I could then attached the Givi MotoGP LE storage box and it did change the looks of the bike somewhat.

2) Riding gloves : Givi had a new pair of gloves design that was quite soft and comfortable to wear, with silicon gel inserts and grips. It felt different compared to my leather riding gloves; and since it was a combination of yellow and black, which matched the colour of Banksy, I decided to get the pair at RM75.00.


Nice!

23/9/2013 : Servicing and Tuning at Benelli Keeway (M) Sdn Bhd @ 2,500 km

I went to BK on 21/9/2013 to service the bike but it was pretty packed; so the service representative informed me that it would be easier to go on a weekday. I made reservation for today and when I arrived at 8.45 am, there was another biker waiting for the centre to open at 9.00 am for the registration. I queued behind him and was the second customer for the day.

Besides the 2,500 km servicing for change of engine lubricant, I also requested for them to look into the following :

1) Hard to change to neutral gear : This was a common problem and was easily rectified.
2) Brakes : The slow brakes were due to brake dust build-up and a clean-up got it working fine again.
3) Chain tensioner : The chain was tighten.
4) Tappet sound : The tappet sound was quite loud, which again was a common problem but this was easily rectified.
5) General check on the rest of the bike.

The service centre was quite comfortable with free coffee, tea or Milo, air-conditioned with leather seats, TV, etc. Services however, were quite slow and my bike was finally pushed in at around 10.45 am. Gasp!

I passed time by chatting with other fellow bikers, and generally most of the people there were servicing either their TX200G or TNT600. Looks like these are the bestsellers for Benelli Keeway at the moment. One could also use the door linking to Givi shop for retail therapy while waiting for the time to pass by, which yours truly did too.

The bike was serviced after a long while; and riding it thereafter revealed that the riding experiences were indeed enhanced and the bike felt so much more smoother with improved running and idling conditions.

Total servicing cost was affordable at RM27.00 only. Great!

Dual Exhaust, Dude!