The rehabilitation of Sir Gustave Sebastian & the Supertanker

Nice photos dude. I must get out one of these days also.

With that sort of fuel economy you need the big tank.

It was running in the 16's last ride. So running in the range 40-50mpg imperial. Not out of wack with the norm for Airheads. I'll get the valves done & see where we are at. Needs time on the dyno to finally sort the jetting, though its running okay at present. Might have a different exhaust can to put on.

I found the copy of the bearings invoice from the Front store. They were very helpful & if you wish to buy from them allow a couple of weeks I think to find the tricky bearing



BTW having a big tank & not filling it up is the BMW equivalent of stuffing socks down your crotch.

no its not...figure out how much it costs to put 30 odd litres in....thats why i rarely fill up.That and you give the guy on the desk a heart attack!

BTW having a big tank & not filling it up is the BMW equivalent of stuffing socks down your crotch.[/QUOTE]
It may not be a sock are you game to find out :eek1:rof:rof

What tyre are you riding on the back at the mo Nutso? My E07 is looking pretty good for the next ten years but looking for something after that.

Tyres:
Changed the T63 (which I bought v.cheap on special). The T63 has given me 4,554 kms of wear, but is now completely stuffed. I've replaced it with one of Igormortis's 1/2 worn E09s. I like the E09's, but the price last time I looked had taken a leap up. Get about 6.5k kms from them.

Maintenance:
218,398 kms. Also did an oil & filter change. Left the gearbox & final drive oils - those were changes about 3k kms ago. Also checked the valves. No adjustment necessary.

yeah I'm so sold on the E07s I am loathe to change. BUT I don't want to hijack this to a tyre tread. You think the CTC will be erasonably roadie & mot gravelly? I have no idea what to expect but prob similar to DB stuff?

I went for a ride last weekend & it felt so cool getting back onto gravel I want to go & practise some skills training.

I'm assuming you've been following the jetting thread. i read thru Robs thread & learnt a great deal. Do you have a AFR meter you use or just trial & error, or have you bothered? Were you talking about a harmoniser a while ago or was it someone else? Voltys magic box I take it just does ignition tuning? Schmidt is running very nicely apart from just off idle so may take the time to try to sort that out.

I will probably put an E07 on for the summer. I haven't tried them yet. I have kept to the off-roady end of the spectrum because I like to retain that capacity.

Gravel is a funny thing, because conditions vary so much. The last couple of rides have taken a while for me to get dialled in. That's partially because of (impaired confidence from) the period not riding, & also because the MT21 front has lost its edges. But when I've done more technical riding it can be a breeze..

I'm expecting the CtC to be mostly gravel.

Didn't get the AF sensor & gauge, though I still may still do so at some stage. My issues were resolved with trial & error. Basically draw up a spreadsheet & make one change at a time. Jot down the results. Rinse & repeat. Mileage is still not that great, so some more work is required when I can be bothered.

No, wasn't me with the Harmoniser. I've got Morgan mercury gauges from the early 90's.

Volty's box is a complete replacement ignition with a laptop interface

Padmei - if I can remember where I stashed the harmonizer, I'll send it down. It's not much good sitting in a box.
I wish I had that half-worn E09 now, rather than the overpriced, too narrow Shinko I just put on.
Also, I think I found Kyrgyzstan's Cnut Hill.

Wow are you home already?

Not even close! But I have a little parts cache in Cambridge, NZ. Johnsonville too, come to think of it...

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk 4

The plan was a ride across to White Rock in the Wairarapa. But I went with majority rules when Eben, Daniel & Chris decided they wanted a ride on the beach. That took me to Otaki Forks. It was a much more relaxed day than I’d originally planned, but in the end, that turned out to be a good thing.

Started the day with a cruise via Paekakariki Hill Rd. Been a while since I’ve gone through there. Spotted where my brother wrote his bike off against a strainer post about 20 years ago.

Coffee at Paekak waiting for the boys

Rolled up to Otaki Forks. Hadn’t been there before. Must go again with Mandy & Katherine, & do some of the walks through there.







Eben bailed at Otaki

We had a short ride along Waikawa beach (also hadn’t been there). It was about then that we found out about the earthquakes, & decided to leg it back to town.



These guys all look pretty responsible don't you think? Daniel, Chris, & Eben..

It's a nice spot that.

The one on the left looks pretty dodgy....

Would you consider Gus to be a 'dirt bike'?

I think that there are grades to that, like MX, enduro, adventure bike, heavy adventure bike. I think of Gus as a 4WD truck. Not necessarily fast, but gets you there in style. Mostly..

Yeah but would you include a pic of it in airhead dirt bikes?

I nearly did in the 'newb with dreams of an airhead dirtbike' thread, only to be trumped by Munsty. It doesn't have a braced frame, but meets a lot of the other 'qualifications'. If GuzziTony's bike excited the crowd, & gsd4me could post his bike, then...

I think that there is an element of 'how much cash can I throw at a bike' in some of the builds. I don't have that sort of budget, & Gus does what I want - for now.

Because I don't own a light weight (or lighter weight) dirt bike I don't have anything to compare it to. But it does everything that I was prepared to throw the 640a at. A bigger issue than weight / width / lack of ground clearance is often tyres.

I wonder if having lots of money to throw at bike builds leads to potentially higher level of dissatisfaction than a budget build because you can afford to chase a level perfection that you will probably never obtain. Plus it seems the more dollars spent generally the more narrow focus a bike becomes - and by definition an adv bike is anything but narrow focus.

An airhead dirtbike is a classic example - thats an oxymoron if I ever heard one. your 'budget build' is probably a heck of a lot better all round adventure bike than any hard core airhead dirt bike.

As works of automotive art an airhead dirtbike can make sense (although they risk becoming a 'wallet wank') but as a practical 80% road 20% offroad adventure bike it makes no sense at all.