Suzi.... Awaaaay!

Today the weather did the opposite to the forecast. Instead of rain in the afternoon it has been ☀️!

So rather than slog about on the bus, I went on the bike. I pulled the Kettle out and she started second press on the button. I am sure it would have been first if I had forgotten to depress the choke lever.

The bike is lower than the V-Strom and I can get both feet flat on the ground. 

Once on the move with the BT46 tyres it steers very quickly. The first time out I tended to oversteer a little until I got used to the balance and steer.

So today it was like a dream. Just a short ride to Folkestone Invicta for the football. 

After the last longer ride to Gibson's Farm Shop, today was very short. 

I decided to put some fuel in to see what mpg I was getting especially after the "spirited" ride the other day.

An amazing 38.2mpg..... Maybe as it frees up....

Fuel Stop - Murco and Tesco

I should have guessed that 44mpg was wrong!

What happened is that I typed the wrong reading from the odometer the last time. I even wrote it down at the fuel stop, and still got it wrong.

So tonight when I filled up the calculated mileage was much less than it should have been. Fuelly calculated consumption at 24mpg!

The calculated mpg after six fill-ups is 34.7.

It will all sort it out for itself.

With 327 miles on the clock since the total rebuild I have started to push the revs a little higher and that's gone from 3500 revs to 4500 revs in 3rd and 4th.

Suzi still feels a little sluggish in top gear once the 60 to 70mph mark appears on the speedometer. maybe it still needs to loosen up.

Fuel Stop - Murco

I'll have to stop going to the Murco Garage as they only do diesel and 95 Unleaded. The latter now E10 and I don't know how that will be in the Kettle. Looks like I will have to move to the less shitty E5 Super at other stations. The Strom and Juke both run on E10.

The reason I went out is that on Saturday, we have an informal meeting of Kettle Club members at Rye Strand.

It was planned then we got informed that there was an official club run the week after.  I can't go on the 11th and so stuck with the plan to go on the 4th.

See who turns up.

Anyway I entered the details into Fuelly as usual and was amazed to see  over 44mpg to that last tank.  I can't remember where I have been for 88 miles since the last fill-up but there you go, the computer never lies.

Suzi is Home Again!

After her spa break with Vince at Cheriton Motorcycles I brought Suzi home at around 5pm today.

The work done has cost me another £110 on top of all bills that I have covered since August 2020 when we trailered her up to Phil in the Midlands.

Vince has cleaned the rust out of the tank, ultrasonic cleaned the tap and the carbs. fitted an inline filter and replaced the original super fuel in the tank after filtering the crap out of it. Carbs rebalanced...

When I went to get her, Suzi was ticking over outside the workshop. A regular beat at 1400 revs. She rode like a dream all the way home.

I am dubious about E10 fuel and so I filled the tank with E5 Super Uunleaded.  The oil companies taking the piss with this grade selling it at 7p a litre more than 95 E10 Unleaded. Odometer reading 75752.5.

Even with tall the fuel draining and running onthe bench Fuelly still worked the mpg out to 32!

She is back.

End mileage:

Once back I moved Mr Baloo onto Suzi. 

He has been with us from 2004 when he crossed the Channel illegally from France, stowed away on the beak of the GS.

Suzi is only the fourth bike he has been installed on in a place looking where we are going.

Tuesday Ride

I finished work at 4pm and went out for an hour or so. 

As I expected the battery wasn't very healthy and so I had to use the dbPower unit to give it some charge and it started on the electric boot. With the choke engaged it starts but it needs clicking off quite quickly.

I went up to Hythe and to the A20 and then over the M20 towards Canterbury.  I kept to the speed limits and also a 3500rpm maximum.  This equates to about 60mph in top gear.

I only rode as far as the garage near Stelling Minnis and then came back to the motorway. I decided then to head to Tesco at Cheriton to fill the tank and see what the first few rides had achieved.  The tank took 6.68 litres of Unleaded 95 with no added oil this time.

On the ride along the Canterbury road I got up to 60 and the bike felt pretty stable.  The Bridgestone BT46 front and rear seemed very good. Encouraging.

The problem with the lights and indicators looks to be fixed.  No problems on this ride with the engine cutting out with both in use.  With all three and braking.... No problems.

I came back up the M20 on the "bikers road" section of the A20 that runs pretty much alongside the M20 in  places. It has some sweeping bends and ups and downs to have a bit of fun.  Once again, I kept to the 60 limit. The bike felt quite taut on this section.

So what next.  I think setting the tick-over at around 1200rpm is too slow. The starter clutch doesn't rattle but when stationary in traffic the engine bogs down. Might adjust to get it up to more like 1500 until the engine is fully run in.

At home I entered the odometer reading (I had noted on my phone) and the litres I had  bought into Fuelly and got the first calculation - 37.1mpg.. I had thought it might do a bit more as I have been pretty good at keeping the revs down.

End mileage today: 75667.5. Total mileage: 73.0

Ride Mileages and Fuelly

I had already set up Fuelly to expect a new bike in the stable.  So once I had noted the mileage on the odometer at Tesco and took a receipt from the pump, I was able to enter the details into Fuelly.

As this is the first entry it simply makes a note of start mileage. On the next fill-up it will then start to calculate miles per gallon etc.

As I have said before, with a Kettle and a Rocket III, the petrol/gas mileage is not too important!

I also need to start recording start and end mileages of rides out.  This is simply to ensure that I don't exceed the 6000 miles I have set for my insurance.  Oddly enough, they never asked for my start mileage!

The first fill up will be worth waiting for!!!!

Fuelly!

I decided in my down time from riding (knee!) that I'd add Suzi to the Fuelly website and app on my phone..  

Each time I fill the tank I enter the mileage from the trip meter and the amount of fuel in litres  The app logs it and gives me the miles per UK gallon.  

I do this for the car and the Rocket, so why not add the Kettle too?

The problem I will have is that the trip meter on the Kettle doesn't work. In an accident decades ago the knob on the side of the speedo detached itself and although I pushed it back in, something is broken inside. I should have got Phil to have a look when he had the bike in his workshop.

So I will have to make a note of the mileage on the odometer when I do the first fill and then from then on make a note of refill odometer mileage and let the app calculate the distance travelled and mpg.

I posted on the Fuelly forum and it's suggested that entering the first full up will set the starting mileage.

It's just for fun. It's not that I worry about what the mpg will be. When you have a Kettle from the 1970's when fuel was cheap, you don't worry about such things!

And having a 2300cc behemoth Rocket III is the same kettle of fish.