The Road Trip From Hell - Still Alive to Tell the Tale

Are you sitting comfortably. Where shall I begin? Well, spent the last few weeks making sure the bike is tip top for my first biking tour. The better half's old man suggested a few days in scotland so I was exited at the prospect of quiet roads and the v twin getting a good workout.

6am Friday morning we set out, all kit on the other bike:thumbup Having a few issues starting up, then hear some clanking from the top end. Shut it down and sit on the kerb, well pissed off. Bit of head scratching later I decide to get the AA to take it to Griff as it would need to go in anyway. Well, the legend sorts it and diagnoses a broken oil pump drive gear so no oil is getting to the top end.



4pm we head off to Glasgow. There at nine. Sleep. All is well, so i thought!!

Saturday head up to Fort William, bike is sweet, roads brilliant. :doug Get to B&B and have few celebratory beers.:doug

Sunday, weather is horrendous but we decide to do a big ride. Got my wet weather confidence up until I locked up front and nearly dropped bike as some ***** came round island with indicator wrong way. Confidence shot! Pootle back to drown my sorrows, piss wet through!!

Monday. Heading to Yorkshire to stop off for night, taking in some excellent roads. Blasting over Ranoch Moor from Glencoe. Best road ive ever ridden:doug:doug:doug

Get to bottom and a guy points out the rear tyre. Down to the metal banding. I knew they were going but I **** myself when I thought of how fast I was going and what could have gone wrong!!



Recovery by AA (AGAIN!!!) to Glasgow for new tyres. Sweet. Took 5 hours to sort but fresh rubber tramsformed bike after last owner had flattened the others so badly and the front was like a 50p. Tracks like a dream and steers super quick. Looking forward to Yorkshire now (although very late!!) Off down M74 and feel a clunk. Pothole I thought so carry on. Pull off at J44 Carlisle onto A6. Brake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Banging and clanking. Brown pants



Caliper bolts have come out. Pikey fix. Took one bolt out of other side and rode home. Nervous wreck!!! Took forever, worried about every noise, no front brakes, only using the rear and engine braking. Took from 10am to 1:30 am this morning to get home with all the ****.

A good story to tell the grandkids in years to come. Hope my luck improves. Cleaned her up today and got some bolts to fix caliper. I still love her:inlove

Nice one Chris, sounds a good exploit mate ! :thumbup

souds like a good trip and a very good tale to tell its what makes it all worth while:doug
when you get back in one peice:thumbup

Now that's what biking is all about:thumbup

Lessons to learn!:confused

If you're going touring you need plenty of wear left in your tyres.
Never trust tin box drivers to indicate, look or even be breathing!irate
Complain and threaten to sue garage that changed your tyres and didn't tighten the caliper bolts properly :jack(or give yourself a smack if you did it yourself)!:rant

Glad you made it home in one piece, keep the faith.:thumbup

Some lessons learned there i reckon mate:thumbup

If you liked the Rannoch Moor road, you would be blown away with them further up northirate

chris13 said:

Got my wet weather confidence up until I locked up front and nearly dropped bike as some ***** came round island with indicator wrong way.

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Reminds me of a cheeeeeesy old piece of advice

" A car with an indicator flashing only tells you one thing for sure ..... the bulb works "

As I said cheesy but thats probably why I remember it and never ever take the 'winker' as a guide to what the ****** is likely to do

holy crap dude!!!

as you said thats a roadtrip to tell the grandkids!!!

glad your safe!!

catchya soon!!

Griff

Cheers guys. Despite all the misfortune I would do it all again. Hindsight is wonderful and I do wish I had done the tyres before I went.

Im onto the garage at the moment so will let you know the outcome.

Glad you had a goodtime doing the trip...and arrived back home safely. Nothing like a sense of adventure matey

**** Chris, you were lucky mate, could have been disastrous!

The same happened to my REAR caliper (think I told you at Griff's?) but it actually came away from the disc and had a chunk missing by the time I got home!

So what did the garage say?? :dowhat

50Nm torque for those brake caliper bolts. They do stretch over time if they're taken on and off quite a bit but they still shouldn't work completely out. New genuine ones are only a few quid from Aprilia

Cheers mate :thumbup

Not heard back from garage yet but I was on phone twice yesterday and laid it on the line. Think ill be getting some cash my way. To be honest though I am just glad it did not swing into the wheel. It **** me up big time and the 200 miles I still had to do were so draining

Yeh did new bolts to 50nm. Thanks

Moggi said:

**** Chris, you were lucky mate, could have been disastrous!

The same happened to my REAR caliper (think I told you at Griff's?) but it actually came away from the disc and had a chunk missing by the time I got home!

So what did the garage say?? :dowhat

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To be fair Moggi you should have probably upped the torque settings or something on yours as you're prone to Motocrossing the Tuono aren't you and wouldnt expect standard settings to cope...... :devious:devious

Not in any position to joke myself - I'm the daft tw@t that last year only finger tightened me rear caliper - completely forgot to tighten them - remebered quickly when I heard it bashing lumps out of my wheel rim ukeuke

beechy said:

To be fair Moggi you should have probably upped the torque settings or something on yours as you're prone to Motocrossing the Tuono aren't you and wouldnt expect standard settings to cope...... :devious:devious

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It was a zx7r! :nana

Moggi said:

It was a zx7r! :nana
Quote:
Originally Posted by beechy
To be fair Moggi you should have probably upped the torque settings or something on yours as you're prone to Motocrossing the Tuono aren't you and wouldnt expect standard settings to cope......

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It was more like a micro-light from what I heard about the 'air-time' you got