Noojee - Trafalgar with Eastern Sportbike Riders

Manual fuel tap

While my GPZ's fuel tap is working perfectly, I put this in just in case... to avoid flooded cylinders and the resulting hydro-lock plus bent rods!


Edit: Was a bad idea and removed. Rode for 60km and the bike sputtered like running on 2 cylinders!. Spent 30 minutes on the side of the road to remove the tank and run the original setup.

Fuel Economy: Kawasaki Ninja vs Yamaha R6 vs Honda Jazz vs Toyota Prado

Kawasaki GPz900R A7 (year 1990)
Completely stock engine/carbs/pipes
Bonbeach - Gembrook - Reefton
385km / 25L / $28 (ron 95)
= 15.2km / L
= 6.57 / 100km (42.99 mpg UK / 35.8 mpg US)
= $7.27 / 100km

Yamaha R6 (year 2000)
Stock engine/carb, Screaming Demon pipe with noise restrictor
Bonbeach - Reefton - Black Spur
300km / ?L / $23 (ron 95)
= $7.67 / 100km

Honda Jazz GE 1.3L Auto (year 2013)
Fitted with Pivot 3-drive THC throttle controller,  set in EC5 mode
(note that this is a genuine one. EBay versions might be fake and I had to refund it)
Dashboard indicated 5.7L / 100km
Bonbeach - Wilsons Promotory - Inverloch
417km / 25.5L / $28 (ron 91)
= 16.4km / L
= 6.12L / 100km (46.16 mpg UK / 38.4 mpg US)
= $6.71 / 100km

Melbourne - Cann River - Canberra (713km, 10hrs)
Canberra - Adaminaby - Tumbarumba - Albury - Melbourne (1,049km, 11.5hrs)
About 50km of dirt and gravel road, used manual shifter
EC4 setting on Pivot 3-drive Throttle Controller
1,762km / 119.39L / $134.32
= 14.75 km/L
= 6.78L / 100km (dashboard indicated 6.3L/km)
= $7.62 / 100km

Toyota Landcruiser Prado 3.4L Auto (year 1996) 8 seats
Fitted with non-injection LPG

Melbourne - Goolwa (SA)  round trip with Trailer
1,635km / 327.1L LPG / $226.71
= 4.99km / L
= 20L / 100km (14.1 mpg UK / 11.7 mpg US)
= $13.8 / 100km

Bonbeach -Walhalla gravel track/camp
366km / 79.1L LPG / $44.2
= 4.6km / L
= 21.6L / 100km (13 mpg UK / 10.8 mpg US)
= $12.07 / 100km

Using Petrol (91)
Bonbeach - Bendigo via south melb. heavy traffic, strong winds througout
202km / 29L / $33.63
= 6.96 km/L
= 14.4 L/100km
= $16.6 /100km

Bonbeach - Canberra via East coast return trip
Using LPG and about 300km of petrol
2,100km / $375
= $17/100km

The Black Spur and Lake Mountain

297km

Mornington - Arthur's Seat - Flinders

A brief break of the weather in a very wet week.

175km / 12l / $14

CCJMC Ride to Arthur's Seat

Carrum - Arthur's Seat - Flinders

140km / 9.6l / $13

Fork oil change

Fork oil change and shimmed the suspension with 4x washers from Mitre10

Noojee - Fumina - Hill End

Perfect blue sky day, 22deg

24l, $32

The Japanese... they love their GPz900R's !

Reefton to Black Spur and Back

Beautiful day for a ride between jobs...

385km, 19deg,

25litres, $28 (6.57l/100km or 15.2km/l)

GPZ Zone GTG

Last commute to South Melbourne

Lunchtime to Williamstown - Altona

South Gippsland with MSR

Almost 10 years since I rode with MSR (formerly MSTCV). Very spirited ride along very scenic routes. 370km, ~22L, $29.16
16.8km/l (5.9L/100km)
$7.8 / 100km
-----

Leg 1: Back roads parallel to the freeway to Drouin, and then down towards Korumburra diverging at Ranceby and heading around through Nyora to Loch for morning tea (105 km)
Leg 2: Then we'll continue south 16 km before turning off towards Almurta, Glen Forbes, and down to Archies Creek before heading back up the magnificent Loch road to the Glen Alvie turnoff (55km). The next section of road has been recently widened but with no white lines. We'll regroup along here at the half way mark, taking a breather from the continuous intensely twisty roads. Then down to Kongwak and back 18.5km towards Bena before turning right down to Kongwak again on a magnificently wide and smooth road. Finally, Korumburra Bakery for lunch. (99km)
Leg 3: After a leisurely break, we'll head across to Loch, Drouin and Neerim South (75km)
Leg 4: The final leg will see us head around through the Neerims and down through Nayook to finish at Powelltown after the twisties. (65km)

Commute

Another beautiful morning to commute ...

Bike Photography Lens Test

A comparison between 2 lenses. Ignore the brightness/exposure & framing, and focus on the distortion and compression effects of both photographs.

First photo is using 50mm f/1.4 prime lens at f/2.0 (to avoid softness)
Second photo is using 70-300mm lens, set at 200mm f/6.0. Taken from about 15m(!)

In my opinion I like the send photograph, although the first one using prime lens is naturally sharper/more contrast. You can see that with the superior zoom the back seat does not 'fall away'.

Genuine Kawasaki Parts

Purchased from Millway Online Spares

Heated Hand Grips

Beautiful, but cold (9C) Melbourne Morning. Hence the heated grips.

The $24 hand-grip warmer is a pretty good kit from Ebay, even better looking & simpler than $80 Oxford one. As you can see you can operate it without taking your left hand off the handle bar.

Ebay Link
12V 22mm Heated Motorcycle Handlebar Handle Bar Grips Hand Warmers Black

Taking off the bar-end weights were very difficult. For some reason Kawasaki applied red Loctite on them. I had to heat them up using hair-dryer and use an impact screwdriver, with strong bang!

History of the Ninjas

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2015/september/mcn-plus---birth-of-the-ninja/

Start:

Today:

First CCJMC ride

What a fun day. 430km door to door for me of which 27 dinosaurs were consumed. Bright blue sky at times :). The roads we went through seems like a blur to me at times I was wondering where we are! Busy at times trying to keep up with a flying Gold Wing. I can't believe how something that big could be thrown around the corner like that! And a bit of red mist when some rider with a pillion blasted past us around Gembrook. Tried to catch up but the said rider dissapeared in the distance ^:)^. Coming towards Noojee I'm not sure where everyone were... but desperate for fuel I turned left only to be told by the lady she hadn't sold any fuel for 2 years. Can't believe how long since I rode around the area! ... Luckily another servo was available 7km up the hill. Then I head home throught the back roads of Drouin.

GPz900R Commute

After fixing balance shaft oil seal, first commute on the GPZ

GPz900R Detailing

It's quite a lot of work to make an old bike looks new!