A small tale of two Tigers

It seems the lure of a T-plane triple is irresistible...Colin has joined me bagging himself a Tiger to replace his orange bike.  In his case it's the 900 Rally pro in a nice green/black/white and it sure looks good in the flesh.

But it's new and needs running in, so we had to go for a ride.  As it is his gravel bike, you probably won't see it running with my Tiger roadie very often so we thought that for the first ride would should actually do that and get a couple of pics of the two tigers.

When Colin left home the weather was nice but by the time he got here the wind had got up a bit and there was even some moisture in the air - time for a pre-ride coffee then.

Finally getting underway, we headed out up the valley and got stuck into enjoying the delicious Pohangina Valley.  As we'd had a bit of weather lately, we had to keep a pretty good eye out for debris on the road and other winter hazards.  

Keeping an eye out for hawks was a reasonably good idea too as I had a really close call with one who was struggling for lift - it was close enough to smell the possum on his breath I tell ya.  Should have had the camera on - I'm pretty sure it would have filled the screen.

Cruising around the loop I was looking for a place for a photo op so we popped into Rangiwahia for a minute to snap the Tiggers.

From Rangi, we made our way through towards Mangaweka before carrying on up to Taihape on more great back roads.  Just one small herd of cattle to squeeze past and the odd interesting site along the way.

I nabbed a bit of footage of the ride but the GoPro played up a bit again.  Stopping and starting recording all by itself and also not recording video but recording sound (over a frozen image) a few times.  Frustrating.

As you can see from the video, the weather had definitely improved and it was really nice in Taihape where we stopped for a fairly average lunch.

After lunch we fuelled up before catching up with Glen and all his projects and heading back homewards.

On the way back we turned off SH1 just before Ohingaiti to dodge more winter related wreckage through to Pemberton, then Kimbolton before checking to see if my folks had any coffee.  Thank goodness, they did.

Caffeinated up, Colin went one way while I went another to get home after a nice little ride on our fantastic felines.

Carnivore farkles

Having a flash set of Denali's on the T7 seemed a bit risky with the sort of riding I do on it so I started looking at how I might swap them over to the Tiger.

Well, I'm no electrician and the Tiger has a Canbus system that you can't just go chopping into.  But, there is a solution.  An outfit in South Africa makes a dohickey called a ezCan and Denail also sell these with under the Denali Cansmart moniker.

A quick look at NZ (and Oz) retailers and they all seem to advertise Denali stuff but don't seem to stock it (and their prices are eye-watering).  I did a net search and discovered abikething.com and a ton of really helpful videos by the owner including the below one where he kitted out a new Tiger with all the bells and whistles:

His prices were also a lot cheaper (still not a cheap farkle) and he had stock.  A couple of clicks and about a week or so later a box turned up.  Some cheap Ali-express mounts also turned up around the same time so that was handy 😉

I'd bought the Deanli branded unit as the wiring leads that come with it plug directly into Denali stuff.  And this is where I hit a problem.  My Denali's are reasonably old and come with a 2 pin plug whereas the new ones (and the Cansmart loom) come with 3 pin plugs, bummer.

A few emails and I was back in business.  I just had to cut into the super nice Denali lead and wire on a 2 pin plug.  Routing the cables was pretty easy with some of the plastic removed and then it was ready to hook up the laptop to the Cansmart and tell it what it was plugged into it and how I wanted it to work.

The Cansmart uses the bikes OEM switchgear

This ended up being child's play with the only issue being a laptop falling off the bike onto the concrete floor...it seems to be working though...

The video shows most of the trickery that all works from the bike's standard switch gear, but here's a list of how I've set it up (the software allows you to play with lots of things and the Cansmart has 4 outputs for 4 devices/sets of devices):

• the Denali's are not active automatically (good for WOF time), but a button press turns them on
• with the bike's lights on dip and the Denali's active, the Denali's come on at about 30% brightness (adding a second set of DRL's) and the headlight is actually brighter
• hitting high-beam gives maximum output
• flicking an indicator on turns the Denali's off to ensure that the indicators are visible.  I could have actually wired the lights independently rather than as a set and then only the light on the same side of the bike would go out when the indicator was switched on.  I opted for simpler wiring.
• hitting the hazards alternates between spots and indicators - should be fairly obvious...
• flicking the high beam 3 times (actually tricky on the Tiger) causes the lights to flash
• Hitting the horn makes the lights flash

Pretty cool, shame about the video:

You may have also noticed another farkle in the shape of a decent horn.  The Cansmart is setup to control Denail Soundbomb horns too.  These are made of gold too.  So, I found a knock-off on Temu and ordered another, different mount from Ali-express (after watching the first video in this post I had a fair idea what I needed).

I wonder how long it will last there?

A bolt just asking to be trimmed...

The hardest part was getting the horn in place and being able to tighten mounts etc.  I had to try a few different ways but finally got it in and secured.  Routing the wiring was easy and then all I had to do was connect the laptop (no dropping this time) and tell the Cansmart that it had a horn connected.  Done, time to film that video...

Oh, and I couldn't ignore the T7...

These are cheapies like on the S10.  They're damn good though and I won't cry as much if I break one...

Only issue is that they are not hooked up to go on/off with the high beam which is what I need.  The T7 has a weird system where the high beam trigger wire only put's out something like 0.9v.  This isn't enough to drive the relay (well, that's what I think the issue is) and apparently if you tap it and use it for the trigger then you can even damage the electrical system - I'm not too keen on that.

There is however a way to do it which I am cautiously investigating.

And you can get a EzCan/Cansmart for the T7...

I think I like it

 ...two photo stops on a short ride from Feilding to home...

How did this make it in here?

Sunday Saunter

So, yesterday it was raining in Colin's neck of the woods but it wasn't here and I didn't care anyway so decided to zip up to Taihape to catch up with Glen.

After a nice little warm up around the Manawatu Scenic Route (including a couple of lovely sections of un-signposted new seal) I hit the cruise control for the short bit of SH1 and rolled on into catch up with Glen - who wasn't there ☹️.  Oh well, never mind, I grabbed a quick lunch at the Scottish restaurant and worked out a new plan.

After opening all the vents on my gear I carried on North in a reasonable breeze to Waiouru and then turned off towards Ohakune.  Rather than take in the delights of 'kune, I decided to turn down Fields Track and make for the Paras.

Fields Track was a hoot on the Tiger, its great handling did a great job of all the narrow, bumpy and windy roads.  As it was a fairy (ahem) leisurely cruise I made time for a few photo stops.

Popping out onto the Paras, it was time to start making my way homeward.  The Paras were their usual fun (except for the 3 sets of traffic lights still in place) but one bee/wasp spoiled my day a little when he decided to enter my helmet and give my nose a seeing to.  With nowhere to easily pull over I had to put up with him for a while before finally pulling over outside the Kakatahi School.  My crappy eyes couldn't find a sting so I just ignored my nose and carried on.

Just South of Upo I turned off for the normal Okoia shortcut through to Fordell and another quick photo stop to take more pics of the pretty new bike.

From there it was onto Turakina Valley Road to make my way to Marton.  Along the way there was time for some more pics of a crouching Tiger by a bridge.

Just out of Marton the fuel warning came on and the bike informed me that there was about 62km left in the tank.  This would have just got me home but as our servo is currently in pieces, that could of been a problem.  Putting 26L or so in at Marton fixed that little problem and a quiet cruise home via Halcombe and Colyton got me home just after 3pm.  Nice little ride of around 350km with the bike now having about 1,500 km on it and no chicken strips...

Intermission

 While the new Trumpy was getting its first service I had a few hours to kill.  And the bike shop gave me just thing to go for a short pootle.

The tiniest 1200 twin I've ever ridden.  And what a little cracker!

It was easy for short me to be flat footed and the bike was not very long so felt like it wanted to turn in pretty quickly but was actually nice and stable.  The motor was absolutely lovely too - plenty of torque everywhere and I dunno if the pipes are standard but man she sure sounded good!

My pootle took me around the bays to Days Bay where I had an eggs benny, made a couple of calls and generally fended off people drooling all over the bike.

I then carried on a bit further to the end of the road (where I discovered where potholes go to breed) before turning around and getting some more pics of the bike just past the Wahine memorial.

Then it was back to the shop where I had to give it back ☹️

Lovely little bike which was great fun to ride quietly (except for the music it made) around the bays.  I really needed an open-faced helmet and an old leather jacket...

Come on lotto...

Merry Christmas

 to me...

This post starts with me buying my T7 and then kitting it out to be the great long distance adventure bike that it is.  After getting it, my intention was to part ways with the Super Tenere and use the Connie for road stuff and the T7 for adventure riding - including rides like the TT2000 where there is often some Adv options.

Fast forward to October this year and the Super Ten was still in the shed and she ended up getting loaded up for a quick trip South to do our second attempt at this years TT2000.  Unsurprisingly, the bike performed absolutely flawlessly (after all it only has 94,000km on it), gobbling up the big k's easily and in comfort.

Fast forward a few rides, and Colin and I were tackling the shattered roads on Route 52 between Weber and Wimbledon and the same bike was slaying the road, shrugging off the shocking road conditions that would cause a sports bike rider to dissolve into tears and delivering a great riding experience.

Yes, the T7 shines on Route 52 but on those big cruises it's just not quite as comfortable and the brilliant little motor is not quite so effortless as a big bike.  Maybe I need to look at something else...

So, over the past few months I've been looking at all sorts of things, but mostly at the big, more road oriented Adv bikes.  And there's a lot of them out there with more on the way (Suzuki has a nice one coming by the looks).  BMW XR1000's and even GS's, Kwaka Versys (and even the H2-SX), Yamaha Tracers and the like.  None of them really seemed like the ideal thing and most of them still wear chains where I love shafts on tourers.

Eventually, something strange happened and I ended up looking at Triumphs.  Then I started looked harder at them and devouring videos with the 1200 Tiger really starting to look good.  And then I started looking at what was around.  Eventually a very good deal was done on a demo GT Explorer with 74km on the odo.

Last Saturday was pickup day, so Dad and I shot down to the Hutt to pick it up.  I got to ride it home and he had to make do with the ute 😜

To get a few kms on the bike (first service already booked a week later), I met Colin (after me getting lost in Lower Hutt on a busy Saturday morning) at the bottom of the Rimutaka's and we then shot over the hill before lapping Lake Wairarapa and then making our way Northward to Martinborough for a cold drink.

The trip over the hill was a good first taste of the bikes handling and I couldn't find too much to complain about.  The bike was setup in road mode and suspension setup just a little on the firm side of the range.  The rear brake pedal and gearshift were a little lower than I would have liked but I'm no used to them so haven't adjusted them and the motor was very sweet with just a nice little growl when giving it a wee handful.

From Martinborough we carried on North to take in some more nice roads with plenty of corners.  This is exactly how I like to get to know a new bike - working it through corners to get the feel for the handling, engine and brakes.

North of Masterton, it was time to hit Route 52 through to Pongaroa where we stopped again at the pub for another cold drink (it was hot out) and a snack.  The bike looked good outside one of our favourite haunts.

Rather than carry on up and try the new bike out on that really rough section of 52, we turned off for Dannevirke and then headed home via Pahiatua and the bikes first taste of the track, it liked it 😉

Next day, it was time for a little shed time.  With the bike coming with pretty much everything (I do need to find a GPS mount), there wasn't a box of farkles to fit but I did manage to make the bike mine.  I also linked my phone to the bike and then the bike to my Sena - easy as.  This even gives me basic navigation (voice and on-screen prompts) via the Triumph App on my phone.

Sunday's weather wasn't that flash but I did have to get the bike out for a trip to the olds and then another couple of hundred km to get those k's up.  I also did my first fill - 26L...

During the week there was a few trips to work on the bike (22km each way) before an early start on Saturday to pop down to the Hutt for that first service and the installation of the panniers.  There was no big gallivant to get home this time but I did take in the Paicock Hill to confirm the bike's great handling and get a few more snaps.

Then it was time for the second fill (27L) in Paraparam and the reasonably boring ride home.

Well, there'll be more soon and I'd say the bike will get a bit more exercise over the Xmas break before tackling its first TT in February.  Bring it on!