In comparison with a lot of countries, NZ has so far escaped the ravages of Covid fairly lightly with occasional lockdowns and other restrictions in various regions for varying periods. Whilst there were no outbreaks where we live, travel was difficult on occasions which curtailed going all that far. It was hellish tough on some sectors of the community and small businesses in particular really struggled. Our hearts went out to friends in that position. It's been an uncomfortable feeling that being retired helped us to lead a relatively normal but restricted lifestyle. Motorcycling and other leisure activities such as sea fishing took a hit but we still had plenty to keep us productively occupied. Looking back on the year, there was plenty going on and I've attached a bunch of photos which haven't been posted before. I suppose that it's a good means of raising the middle finger to the effects of Covid by celebrating some of the nice memories.
January
This was dawn from our deck on Jan 1st 2021. NZ was pretty much Covid-free at that stage and the summer weather held a lot of promise.
Coromandel dawn, January 2021
In a past life, I used to sail competitively. Even for people with little interest in sailing, NZ were defending the Americas Cup in Auckland in a new class of foiling yacht and the design captured the public imagination. They are capable of a little over 50 knots and very difficult to sail. Three months of racing and NZ went on to retain the Cup in March. The video below shows the NZ yacht Te Rehutai sailing from their base out to the race area. The buildings and traffic in the background serve to show how awesomely impressive these beasts are.
February
Out conducting potential new member assessments with the Institute of Advanced Motorists. It's always a real pleasure meeting riders who are keen to lift their game but every so often, you get to meet someone a bit special. In this instance, it was Barbara on her Yamaha MT-09. Barbara's partner David had been riding for many years so when Barbara decided to ride, it was a full-on commitment to excellence. Her early training to get a full license was with a riding school run by a former Chief Examiner of IAM. She then worked her way through the NZ-wide Ride Forever coaching programme and the California Superbike School track programme. Not satisfied with that, she has embarked on advanced police roadcraft training with IAM. Now that's dedication for you and boy, does it show in the standard of her riding!
Some old geezer and Barbara
My Shoei GT Air helmet has an internal smoked visor which is quite effective in most sunny environments. Where it falls short is on the coast road home where the reflection off the sea is horrendous and made even worse by diving into shaded areas of road thanks to overhanging waterside trees. From past experience, iridium-coated visors work pretty well, the downside being price. A genuine Shoei is about NZ$200, an expensive mistake if my memory was rose-tinted. Contrast this with an iridium visor ex-AliExpress for about NZ$60, shipping included so the risk was worth taking. Expectations weren't particularly high with respect to quality but what a bargain it turned out to be! Already set up for a Pinlock anti-fog insert, it was a perfect fit and 12 months later, the iridium coating is still in superb condition. Best of all, its reflective qualities work an absolute treat and it works better in low light than a solid tint. The gold coating looks pretty cool too.
Looks cool and works a treat
March
Nothing particularly noteworthy in March, some enjoyable local riding and a bit of sea fishing with Jennie. However, a chance photo taken from our garden turned out to be a particularly pleasing one. It was a hot day and storm clouds were boiling up over the nearby Coromandel Range. The noise of a piston engine from the sky attracted attention and there was an old Tiger Moth biplane flying towards the storm clouds. The pilot must have had second thoughts soon afterwards and changed course but the photo was quite dramatic.
Not where I'd choose to be!
April
The Coromandel Peninsula (The so-called Coro Loop road) is considered to be one of the great motorcycling roads in NZ. It's also a tourist mecca and at peak times, traffic volumes and poor driving standards seriously detract from the enjoyment of riding on two wheels. Weekdays are somewhat different and one of my IAM riding partners, Tony; had taken the day off to celebrate his birthday with a ride round the Loop on his Yamaha MT10 SP. It would be rude not to join him and we had an absolute ball. It was one of those effortless rides where everything clicked and it was like we were on rails. Not going particularly fast but maintaining good corner speeds with an almost complete absence of traffic - motorcycling heaven!
Birthday Boy Tony and me at Whitianga Harbour
We also spent a few days in the Rotorua area doing a few touristy things. With the absence of overseas tourists, the lack of crowds was really pleasant. My personal favourite activity was walking on the suspended walkways in the redwood forest. We did it during daylight hours and at night. The lighting and special effects at night were absolutely world class.
Part of the suspended tree walk, Rotorua
May
Plenty of rain in our district but it allowed me to take an arty photo of raindrops beading on a yucca plant in our garden.
A wet yucca "Sapphire Skies"
June
The start of winter, such as it is. The deciduous trees in the garden look a picture but will soon turn into a soggy mess. Unusually mild which why leaf fall is only just starting.
Early winter colours in the garden
A great day out delivering the first part of practical training for new IAM mentors, including two police officers. It started off in dry, overcast conditions and ended in heavy rain for the 160 km journey home. At least we got a variety of weather to practice our skills!
Some of the IAM team getting ready
July
We celebrated our 49th wedding anniversary at an upmarket lodge and out of the blue, Jennie suggested that we buy a classic car so that we could explore NZ's back roads and scenic spots in some style. Finding something we both liked was a major stumbling block until we found a 49 year old MGB GT in stunningly restored condition. However, taking ownership took 3 months thanks to the monumental incompetence of a government department which deals with transport matters. A complaint was jointly lodged by the vendor and ourselves which finally led to a formal written apology from the department. It's doubtful whether their processes will have changed as a result though.
Puka Park luxury cabins among the trees - bliss!
NZ native songbird, the Tui drinking nectar from our winter flowering cherry tree
August
The Covid Delta variant appeared in NZ for the first time and all sorts of restrictions were imposed as a result. Fortunately, our area wasn't affected and we were still able to travel to some extent. The lack of people from other regions made motorcycling a real pleasure and on one ride round the Coromandel Loop, we passed just 4 other vehicles over a distance of 200 km! I was also able to observe and test one of our IAM Trainee Observers (mentors) who conducted a coaching ride for one of our trainees. Delighted to say that he passed with flying colours. It was also my last official duty within IAM before retiring in December.
Trainee Josh (KTM 390) and a relieved but proud Chris (GSX-S 1000) on passing his Observer Test
September
Sometimes, unplanned events turn out to be the most memorable of occasions. I was browsing through an online NZ buy and sell website and happened to see a rocking chair for sale. It was made from a beautiful native timber called rimu in the 1980's by a craftsman in Northland for a couple who were downsizing and were reluctantly selling it. Showed it to Jennie and as we both loved the craftsmanship, we put in a bid and won it for the ridiculously low price of NZ$175! It was in flawless condition and clearly cherished. We met the vendors at a halfway point between where we all lived and took them to lunch - really enjoyed their company. It now graces our upstairs living area as an art object although it's supremely comfortable as well. Our daughter thought it was hilarious that "the oldies" had bought a rocking chair. Sigh....
Rimu custom rocking chair
October
All the bureaucratic bungling regarding the MGB was addressed (almost) and we finally took ownership - it was worth waiting for! It was also my 74th birthday and my present from Jennie was a robust trolley jack for doing routine maintenance on the car. Hardly romantic but just what I wanted! A fair bit of time since then has been spent on setting up a routine maintenance regime which is now almost complete (we hope). One little postscript about the bungling. When the new ownership papers arrived, the car had been mis-identified as an MGB Roadster, not an MGB GT. Keeping my temper, it took several protracted phone calls to the authorities to get the correct papers issued and they only arrived in the last week of December. Lord protect us from pen-pushers!
The MGB GT at the Firth of Thames, Coromandel Peninsula
November
With neighbouring regions locked down, it was a great time for social riding in our area with virtually no weekend traffic and perfect weather. Getting together with some of the IAM team from our region and riding on uncluttered roads was an absolute dream.
Meeting up with the team in the town of Paeroa
December
Whenever I'm in the nearby town of Whitianga, a quick trip to the grass airfield is often worthwhile as a range of unusual aircraft can often be seen there. A recent example is the De Havilland Chipmunk. Designed in Canada in the 40's and entering RAF service in 1950, it was a popular flight trainer. It was delightful to see the flight instructor swinging the prop to start it, then hopping in and taking off in no time at all. Wonderful to still see old aircraft in regular use.
Going through the starting routine
....and away we go
As of today, I've retired as an IAM Examiner and mentor after 10 years of lifting my riding to a level that I'm quite proud of, having never dreamed of getting this far. Also proud to have coached many others to attain their advanced roadcraft qualification and continue on to become mentors themselves. That's what you call a win-win. Just social riding from now on but also spending more time with Jennie sea fishing and enjoying the MGB GT. As mentioned in the previous post about keeping occupied during retirement, I've got plenty of fallback interests so boredom is unlikely to be an issue.
Who knows what 2022 and future years will bring but at least we can make the best possible use of our time whatever things outside of our control bring us. Every good wish for the future!
Nearly 11 years ago back in 2011, I wrote a blog post HERE which attracted comment from well known US motorcycle author David Hough which lead to further posts and even a chapter in one of his motorcycle books. The topic? The impact of increasing age on motorcycling. We discussed things we could do to safely extend one's riding career and whether we could recognise that it was perhaps time to do something else. There are links to the wider discussion in that 2011 post.
Just before the time of the original post, I was 63 and not really planning to do anything massively different, just to keep riding pretty much the way I'd always done and keep fingers crossed. The only nod towards getting older was to sell my heavy Honda Blackbird and buy a Street Triple. However, the conversations with David prompted me to join the NZ branch of the UK Institute of Advanced Motorists to learn Police Roadcraft. That lead to what was genuinely the most enjoyable 10 years of a 58 year riding career, passing the Advanced Roadcraft Test, Observer (mentor) Test and ultimately becoming an Examiner. It was a genuine shock to discover how little I knew about safe riding whilst making good progress before joining IAM. Made lots of lifelong friends too.
IAM Observer duties on the Street Triple, circa 2014
The other thing which David Hough and I discussed was the need for a fallback interest for when we actually stop riding. That need applies to anything which has been a lifelong passion and even to retirement with little idea of how to spend your free time. Making properly considered decisions about that can have a massive impact on one's mental and physical health. I'm pleased to say that talking with family, close friends and even strangers plus lots of reading has given Jennie and I solid fallback interests in terms of voluntary work, travel, sea fishing and more recently, the purchase of a classic car. With Covid limiting international travel in any meaningful sense for an extended period, the classic car was a locally-based fallback. For the time being at least, I think we've got that side of the ageing equation reasonably well covered and David Hough deserves enormous credit for provoking some serious thought. David and I still correspond and recently, he's also followed the same process by building a beautiful wooden rowing boat (a traditional wherry).
The KTM in 2021 - me at 74 and loving it!
So that's the medium term future reasonably well mapped with a few contingencies but what about now? This month, I retire from IAM. A combination of age and the relatively remote area where we live means that I don't want to spend 500km days in all weathers putting advanced riders through formal testing. Totally comfortable with that. Having been honoured with life membership of IAM means that I can ride with the membership on social occasions and also with other treasured friends which will help to keep standards up. Although there are no immediate plans to stop riding, going through the future planning process has made me comfortable about making that decision with no regrets. Another year will probably do it. No single fallback will replace riding but a combination of things should do the trick. Ceasing the blog sort of falls into the same category. Great fun but it's just about served its purpose.
After 6 weeks or so of owning the MGB GT, Jennie and I have been having a lot of fun exploring the Coromandel Peninsula backroads on short(ish) runs. At present, I've been spending a fair bit of time underneath the thing greasing a myriad of grease nipples, lubricating the steering rack and having smelly old diff oil run down my arm to set up a proper maintenance schedule for the future. The previous owner did a wonderful job of restoring the MG but he mainly used a local garage to do routine maintenance. I use both words advisedly as to be honest, it looks like a lot of things were overlooked; hence the preventive work being done at present. To give another more succinct viewpoint, Jennie calls my diligence "pissing about in the garage".
Waitete Bay, Coromandel Peninsula. Miles of nothing but sand and water
To end on an irreverent note, yesterday saw us make a 320km round trip to join fellow MG owners for the regional MG Owners Club Christmas lunch. We're not big on large gatherings of people but being new to the club, it would be great to meet fellow members. Crikey, except for another couple of people, we were the youngest there by some margin! It was a weird feeling as among my motorcycling mates, I'm totally used to being the Old Fart. A motorcycling friend (and ex-MG Roadster owner) remarked that it was lucky we were in the open air for much of the time as the smell of cabbage water and pee may have been overpowering indoors. Irreverent indeed! Mind you, the local organiser drily commented that he had to organise club events with pee stops for both sexes in mind. I think we'll pass on taking part in those for a few more years!
Alongside a 1952 MG TD and a late 50's MG Magnette
All that remains is to wish everyone all that you would wish for yourselves over the festive season and may 2022 be better for all of us than the last couple of years!
Daytime temperatures of the mid-20's C and minimal rain makes time to enjoy outdoor activities. Sadly, motorcycling isn't one of them at present as my tyres are down to the wear bars and need replacing. I could probably order them online and fit them myself but that involves a hassle and there's plenty of work on the task list already. With lockdown restrictions shortly being lifted where my favourite dealer is located, that problem can be sorted fairly quickly provided that there aren't any supply chain problems for my favourite tyres, the Michelin Road 5's. The KTM also needs a service. Since writing up the end of life review HERE , I've been for a couple more rides and Road 5 effective life is better than 11,000 km. That will do just fine, considering that they haven't had an easy time.
Road 5 front hoop - in dire need of replacement
Owning the MG is still providing a steep learning path. Even with eyes wide open before purchase, routine maintenance is substantially greater than with modern cars; particularly lubrication of engine and drivetrain plus suspension and steering. I'm finding that many automotive workshops excepting specialists aren't keen to work on classic vehicles. There aren't any specialists within a 2.5 hour drive so the routine stuff is down to me. A fair bit of the lubrication schedule involves access to the underside of the car and I haven't got a pit or proper hoist. Fortunately, the car doesn't need lifting very high and jacking it onto axle stands is fine for routine work. Hoisting it with a scissor jack is tedious and time-consuming so a trolley jack was an obvious solution.
Perusing ones for sale at NZ's major automotive parts outlets didn't fill me with confidence. By and large, they looked cheap and nasty. On-line reviews weren't confidence-inspiring either with a surprising number of purchasers mentioning hydraulic failures and other breakages in an unacceptably short time. Purely by chance when looking at a classic car parts website, I found one which was made from substantial steel plate that was CE/ANSI/ASME certified. With a 3 tonne capacity which I didn't really need, it wasn't vastly more expensive than the crappy ones at the main automotive outlets. The only downside was that it weighed 35kg and was too heavy for NZ Post, so had to be couriered to us from Auckland. Service from Hawkswood Classic Car Parts was outstanding with it arriving the day after purchase. As an amusing aside, it was delivered by large truck and the driver wasn't keen to tackle our steep drive. Instead, he left it in a safe place near the bottom. Just about had a hernia loading it into our 4x4 for the trip up the drive as it was in a slippery box with an absence of handholds! In summary, it's an absolute cracker - a quality build. Makes life so much easier and can lift to 495mm. Great to deal with Hawkswood too, exceptional hassle-free service.
A seriously good trolley jack
In a previous post, I mentioned the need fit a USB plug for smartphone charging. The first attempt failed as I'd incorrectly identified an earth return wire. This was easily fixed by earthing it to the body behind the instrument cluster . The blue LED inside the inside the USB plug looks quite pleasing too!
Awww...... pretty!
AliExpress have been good at supplying various peripherals I need at very sharp prices and considering the current world-wide supply chain problems, delivery is consistently good too. One of my most useful purchases has been an extremely bright rechargable inspection lamp. Equipped with a swivelling base, clamp and additional magnets, it can be positioned virtually anywhere. Delivered price to NZ? Around NZ$20 which is great value for money.
LED inspection lamp using a magnet to affix to the bonnet
Currently awaiting a timing gun as I gave mine away at least 2 decades ago, a 500 ml syringe for doing an oil change on the diff and an LED replacement for the standard internal car lightbulb which at 5W, is nigh on useless for seeing anything. All the extras when owning an old vehicle sure do add up. Still, as getting one was Jennie's idea, she can hardly complain!
We've covered around 800km so far and fuel consumption has been about 11.5 lt/100 km or 25 imperial miles to the gallon. This is in line with expectations at moderate speeds and should give a range over 500 km which is quite reasonable. Adding the anti-valve recession additive at the same time as refilling the tank is no big deal.
Pohutukawa tree coming into flower near our house
We also managed to get out fishing in the boat for the first time in months and for once, I caught more than Jennie. It's not so much being able to catch your own dinner as fishing in spectacular surroundings - good for the soul.
Jennie waiting for the first strike
With the summer weather upon us, gardening is the other activity which soaks up time. Most of our property is in trees, shrubs and other plants which require minimal maintenance as we love gardens but not gardening if that makes sense. Here are a few of the items in the garden at present.
Pink Bottlebrush - quite hard to find compared with the red ones
Bougainvillea Scarlett O'Hara - training it up a pergola
Subtropical Bromeliad
Bird of Paradise
One thing is for sure, at 74; finding stuff to keep active isn't a problem!
Well, after 2 weeks of ownership, I must say that I'm loving ownership of the MGB GT and thought I'd document some of my thoughts and experiences so far. Equally, Jennie loves it too which is important for the joint ownership. She finds it more comfortable than her last MX5 too although in no hurry to actually drive it because of the heavy steering at low speeds and the brakes requiring a bit of effort compared with modern vehicles.
Photo op on the Thames-Coromandel coast road
Although the 49 year old car has been restored to close to "as new" condition, ownership of a classic car does require quite a degree of commitment to maintain it in top condition. A lot of my time so far has been spent building up a knowledge base through reading the service/repair manual, watching YouTube videos and joining the MG Experience website and NZ MG Owners Club. There's a massive amount of experience to draw on. Here's a good example.....
For the life of me, I can't remember what the oil pressure was when we first looked at the car but on the delivery run home, it showed 35 psi. This wasn't disastrously low but a good engine should show 50 psi or more at open highway speeds. As it still showed 35 psi at tickover, I suspected that the gauge might be faulty. Closer inspection showed that a small piece of translucent plastic (an illumination diffuser) had partially dislodged and was stopping the needle from going full range. I had visions of removing the entire dash to dismantle the gauge but posting a query on the MG Experience website revealed a fix which only took a couple of hours to do - outstanding! The gauge then showed 55 psi.
Plastic diffuser on periphery of gauge before fixing
I also wanted to do an oil change as the previous owner flagged that it was getting close to time. More reading and watching YouTube! Who'd have thought that changing the oil would have presented any issues? In this case, the oil filter points vertically upwards at the side of the engine. The worrying thing was that the moment I started to unscrew it - where was the filter oil going to go? Trouble is, there was conflicting info about what sort of filter should be used. Some had non-return valves to stop engines being restarted with an empty filter and other sources said it didn't matter as long as you turned the engine over a few times without starting it after the oil change to refill the filter. I chose to buy one with a non-return valve (a Ryco Z38) and fill it before fitting. Unfortunately, the old filter appeared not to have a non-return valve by the amount of black engine oil dumped on the concrete, sigh..... Message to self: make sure that the drain pan is directly under the filter next time! Half an hour spent cleaning up the mess. The rest of the oil change went smoothly and access to the underside of the car was easy with a scissor jack and proper stands.
New (white) filter in place
An interesting observation for the nerdy amongst us! The previous owner used Castrol GTX 20/50 which is an approved oil for the MGB. I decided to go for the Penrite 20/60 Classic Light which has a high zinc content, suitable for older vehicles. On startup, the pressure gauge now reads a little over 60 psi, around 7 psi more than with the old Castrol GTX. It may be that the viscosity of the old oil declined over time, the new oil has a wider viscosity range or some other reason but the anal engineer in me will watch and theorise over time!
I also installed a USB port for phone charging and that's been my only failure to date as the phone doesn't charge. I managed to find a switched power source behind the dashboard but not sure about a reliable earth so a bit more investigation is required when I have time.
Flicking through the maintenance manual, there are a zillion greasing points to be periodically attended to, most of which involve squeezing into difficult places underneath the car. There are also many more maintenance items yet to be discovered which reinforces that with a classic vehicle, you don't just jump in and forget about maintenance apart from an annual service. Then there's adding a lead substitute to the fuel tank every time you fill up although admittedly, this isn't a big hassle. It's mainly supposed to prevent valve seat recession, so well worth it as it's easy to do and inexpensive. The manual says to use 100 octane gas (at the time it was freely available) but 95 octane + additive is ok as long as you don't give it too much throttle in a high gear or load. It will pink if you do that - just a case of getting used to driving a little differently.
Driving the car with no power steering and indifferent brakes requires a different approach but it's surprising how quickly I've dialled into driving it. In many respects, it's like riding a motorcycle as it requires a more dedicated approach with a fair bit of concentration which is no bad thing. In February, we're off to the 3 day British car festival "Brits at he the Beach". This should be a lot of fun judging by the variety of cars at previous events: HERE . (You can avoid 2 minutes of Morris dancing at the start!).
One final thing to add. The previous blog post detailed a 3 month scrap with officialdom before we could take physical possession of the MG. When the new ownership documentation arrived a week ago, the car was described as a Roadster (the convertible version of the MGB), not the GT version. Words fail me! Currently waiting for the NZ Transport Authority to correct the error although addressing it in a timely manner is not expected!
The Firth of Thames - uncharacteristically like a mill pond
Despite spending a bit of time coming to grips with a new toy, motorcycling hasn't been abandoned. With lockdown still in force in much of the Waikato province and also Auckland, the Coromandel Peninsula is a joy to ride. Last Sunday, a bunch of us did both the northern and southern parts of the loop in very light traffic and warm, sunny conditions. Great company, no dickheads to spoil the ride and minimal traffic - what's not to like?
Some of the thirstier bikes filling up at Hikuai - especially a certain Yamaha MT-10 SP!
Jennie and I collecting the car, with owner/restorer Brian in the background
Back in July, I made a post HERE about the trials and tribulations of finding a classic car for my wife and I to enjoy fun outings together. Finding something which we both liked was bad enough but that was nothing compared with the problems we were to face in sealing the deal on the 1972 MGB GT which we fell in love with. Here we are, over 3 months from the handshake with the vendor and have only just taken ownership. The appalling performance by a government department and its agencies which caused the delay defies belief and I'm not going to go into the detail but here's a short summary based on what documentation I've seen and feedback from Brian, the vendor.
When the used MG was first imported into NZ in the 80's from the UK, officials recorded the car i/d numbers and issued new registration plates. The vendor fully restored the car to its current beautiful condition in the intervening period and all was well. That is, until he took it for its mandatory fitness warrant before the sale to us. An eagle-eyed inspector spotted that the paperwork and the actual alpha numeric i/d on the car didn't match. The assumption by all parties was that the official who completed the original documentation decades ago had accidentally transposed two digits. In NZ, annual (originally 6 monthly) fitness checks are required by law and the error had never been previously picked up by the official inspectors. This meant that the sale couldn't proceed without completing some official documentation to address the error.
Brian, the vendor; duly did this and sent it away for processing. Complete silence for over a month - no acknowledgement at all. This was contrary to their stated processing time. Then there was email contact of the barest kind, then another email a few weeks later asking him to send the documentation again. The original was lost. Then another email was received deregistering the MG until it went through a new certification process. No personal call to soften the blow or explain it, just an impersonal email. The system seemed designed to prevent actual verbal discussions between the parties to seek clarity which caused further delays until Brian was actually able to talk to a human being and start to make progress. I'm leaving out details of even more delays which severely tested Brian's sanity and patience. Brian and I put in a joint formal complaint about the delays and process and after yet another delay, we received a written apology although it was hardly fulsome. The whole business was concluded shortly afterwards.
It's only my interpretation but the documented process isn't user-friendly for the average member of the public (a massive understatement). Compounding this are the roadblocks to direct communications with knowledgable people to achieve clarity about what is required. First point of contact is with clerical-level staff who have little technical knowledge and the outcome is predictable! It was only when Brian was able to talk to someone with technical automotive experience that real progress was made.
W Edwards Deming was a US citizen who was widely recognised as the catalyst for getting Japanese industry on its feet after WW2 and becoming manufacturing world leaders. He coined the saying "If you have great people and poor systems, the poor systems will win every time". Ain't that the truth? Having been involved with productivity improvement for virtually my entire working life, it's particularly galling. Not unexpected though when you have an organisation which now has lawyers at the top of the tree. Shakespeare had probably got it right with his line from Henry VI: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". No doubt I'll now be subject to vexatious legal procedings! In fairness, contrast this episode with the wonderful collabaration I had with the same organisation when working on a road safety initiative for motorcyclists (HERE). I presume that the key difference was due to working with a regional, technically competent and highly motivated team; not head office beauracracy and they were most definitely focussed on effective outcomes for all parties.
Anyway, on to happier times.....
The 50 km journey home up the twisty coast road was quite a short, sharp learning curve. A 4 speed manual gearbox with 2 speed overdrive took a bit of getting used to, especially rapid changes when I messed up the late selection for a corner and found myself desperately stirring the box to find a gear - ANY gear would do.... please! Fortunately, the long stroke engine delivers much more torque than expected so poor gear selection wasn't as critical as with lower torque, higher revving engines. The other surprise was the extra steering effort required required in tight bends with no power steering. Seeing old footage from the 50's where drivers of single seat race cars wrestled manfully with the steering wheel, you'd be forgiven for thinking that I was chanelling them on the homeward trip! The Spax adjustable rear shocks noticeably help cornering though. It was a warm trip home and I found a design error when I went to open the quarterlights for a bit of air circulation. They only open about 3cm before contacting the properly adjusted mirrors! Never mind, there are a few other options to get fresh air.
What with coming to grips with the controls of a new vehicle and its general "feel", there wasn't a lot of spare brain capacity for mental math to convert the MPH speedo to NZ's raft of metric speed limits. No sooner than I'd done the mental math for one limit, another one loomed into view and I wasn't sure that I'd correctly remembered the previous ones! Very conscious of the long arm of the law as far as speed limits go. I think what I'll do for the time being to ease mental workload until they're properly embedded in muscle memory is to stick thin slivers of red adhesive tape on the chrome outer ring of the speedo at the appropriate points as a simple visual aid.
Safely parked up at home after the delivery trip
Reversed out of the garage with care!
It's so much fun to drive, very much like a motorcycle in that it rewards precise driver input and fully involves you, unlike most modern cars which are much easier to drive and not so involving. There's only one thing I'm unimpressed with and that's the brakes. No servo assist on the front disc/rear drum setup and it certainly doesn't have the stopping ability of even the most basic modern car. It's tolerable if you really stand on the pedal but it might benefit from better pads. I changed all the OEM pads on my last 4 motorcycles to EBC HH and I understand that something similar is available for the MG.
The standard of finish is flawless and is a tribute to Brian's restoration skills. The use of twin pack paint has really paid off.
On Coromandel Town wharf
Taken on our street
The interior is similarly immaculate. There's nothing to be done other than fitting a USB charging port into one of the blanked-off apertures. I won't be fitting a proper music player and will play music on the phone through a portable bluetooth speaker I have kicking about.
Very tidy interior
Brian is a man after my own heart when it comes to being fussy (Jennie would say anal) and the finish in the engine bay matches the exterior. I'll try and keep it that way. I need to get hold of some original decals that go on the heater box assembly but I won't tell Jennie or there'll be much eye-rolling and sighing! The original points have been replaced by Brian with electronic ignition for the sake of reliability but I want to keep the car as close to original as possible.
Made a dick of myself the morning after the delivery trip. Went to reverse it out of the garage and couldn't turn the key in the ignition barrel. Panic rising, a quick squirt with CRC and no difference. A call to Brian but he didn't answer his phone so sent a text and then back into the car to see if the CRC had worked its magic. No go, but sudden realisation that among the plethora of keys Brian had given me, I'd picked up the wrong one, duhhhh. Much merriment from Brian a few minutes later.
The engine needs a bit of choke starting from cold until it warms up. Unfortunately, the choke lever won't lock in the outward position so I'll have to investigate that. In the meantime, I've slotted a short piece of rubber tube which fits over the choke cable when pulled out and raises the tickover without me holding it out by hand. That will do for the time being.
An extremely clean engine bay
Buying a 49 year old car and celebrating our 49th wedding anniversary was a serendipitous occurence. Jennie and I decided to have a bit of fun and merge a couple of photos in black and white. The one below on the left was taken 3 days before our wedding in 1972, with Jennie sitting on the wing of our Morris 1100. The one on the right is current, sitting on the wing of a 49 year old MGB!
1972 and 2021!
Motorcycling hasn't been forgotten though and I was out recently coaching a farmer and his wife from near Rotorua who are keen to learn Advanced Police Roadcraft skills. However, retirement from mentoring and examining with the Institute of Advanced Motorists at year end will give more time for outings with Jennie in the MG. Fun times ahead!
Tyre choice can be a contentious issue as it's so dependent on intended end use and personal preference in terms of "feel". Add in the other relevant factors such as tyre pressures, weather conditions, ambient temperatures, road surface, bike suspension and geometry, all up weight etc and decision-making can become overwhelming.
Since retirement in 2008, we've lived on NZ's Coromandel Peninsula which is a road rider's paradise with highly technical twisty roads (look up the Coromandel Loop on YouTube!) with a road surface mainly composed of a coarse chip surface on the western side and smoother seal on the eastern side. During that time, I've owned a Honda Blackbird, Triumph Street Triple, Suzuki GSX-S1000 and a KTM 790 Duke. For the last 10 years, I've also been heavily involved with NZ branch of the UK Institute of Advanced Motorists. Being fully retired also means that commuting has been taken out of the equation as riding has just been for fun and advanced rider mentoring with IAM. What I'm getting at is that for a good many years, I've ridden a number of bikes under pretty much identical conditions with different brands and types of tyre which is useful for comparative purposes.
There are numerous tyre reviews in this blog but summarising, my preference has been for sport touring tyres as I ride in all weather conditions and cover up to 20,000 km a year. The Suzuki and KTM came equipped with Dunlop and Maxxis pure sport tyres respectively and they were awful things for my intended use. Firstly, in colder or wet conditions, it was nigh on impossible to generate sufficient heat for decent grip. I had some butt-clenching slides when riding appropriately to the conditions and both bikes were also equipped with traction control. One was when the front end let go and that was seriously scary. The second factor is the life of a pure sport tyre. For the environment I ride in, both brands of tyre were stuffed by 3500 km! A good way of going bankrupt over my annual distance. As long as a tyre delivers around 10,000 km, I'm a happy camper. Actual tyre price is irrelevant as performance (longevity and grip) is the only consideration.
In more recent years and in terms of sport touring tyres, I've used the Metzler Roadtec 01, the Bridgestone T31 and the Michelin Road 5. All of these tyres gave the grip I was looking for over a wide range of weather conditions but it's worth mentioning where there were notable differences.
The Roadtec 01 was a good tyre and the full review is HERE . Two sets fitted to the Suzuki with the same result. Excellent grip in all conditions and a good life. The rear hoop retained its profile well but the front noticeably started to lose its shape from about 7000-8000 km onward, developing flats on the outer part of the tyre. (A triangular or wedge profile). Undoubtedly, countersteering and the type of roads I ride on contributed to this but the bike also had good aftermarket suspension set up by renowned guru Dave Moss so the front end wear characteristic was a little disappointing. I should have replaced the front earlier than my normal habit of replacing both at the same time.
I also had Road 5's on the Suzuki. In terms of performance, they delivered everything I wanted, including a faster turn-in than the 01's due to a sharper profile. Unfortunately, I had a series of punctures including a destroyed rear hoop at 2000 km. I'm fairly certain that it was sheer bad luck as opposed to a tyre shortcoming but as I sold the bike not long afterwards, a longer term evaluation wasn't possible.
After buying the KTM 790 and the poor experience with the OEM Maxxis pure sport tyres, I tried a pair of the Bridgestone T31 sport touring tyres as they had good reviews. Hmmm..... do motorcycle magazine reviews truly reflect everyday road performance over a representative period of time? I suspect not. Again, grip was satisfactory in all conditions but the front tyre developed a pronounced triangular/wedge profile from about 6000 km onwards. At 8500 km, the profile was so bad that handling was adversely affected and both tyres were changed for a set of Road 5's.
The T31 front tyre at 8500 km
The Road 5's on the KTM have just clocked up 10,400 km and although it would be possible to legally squeeze more out of them before reaching the wear bar indicators, I'll get them replaced as soon as the 320 km round trip to my dealer can be made. In a nutshell, they've been absolutely superb. Outstanding grip in all conditions and equally importantly, they have pretty much retained their profile throughout with no noticeable loss in handling.
Front profile @ 10,400 km
In the following photo, the roughened part of the tyre is the outer soft compound and the wear bar indicator is about 0.5mm below the tyre surface. The tread block with the sharp entry just to the right of the indicator is lifting slightly due to tearing. This is occurring round the full circumference of the tyre but is so minor that it doesn't affect the handling.
Front tyre wear at the junction between the softer edge compound and harder centre
The rear tyre shown below has retained an excellent profile throughout the 10,000km+ life. If more time had been spent on straighter roads, the expectation would presumably be for a less-rounded profile.
Excellent profile at 10,400 km
In the photo below, a small amount of raised "feathering" can be seen in the soft compound at the rear of the large rain groove. It doesn't affect the handling at all and has only become noticeable in the last 1000-2000km. The most likely cause is less than optimal rebound damping as the OEM White Power shock on the KTM doesn't have the adjustability features of a high end one such as Ohlins, Penske, Nitron etc. Nonetheless, the bike handles superbly and as the feathering is minor, no action is required at present. For normal road riding, front tyre pressure is around 34 psi and the rear is 37-38 psi.
A small degree of feathering on the rear of the large rain groove
In summary, the Michelin Road 5 delivers everything required for the type of riding I currently do and the next set will be a straight replacement. There are relatively few poor tyres on the market unless we buy some virtually unknown dodgy brand in pursuit of false economy. I'd go further and say that most of us (and most certainly me) will run out of talent long before shortcomings in any of the major brands become apparent. The real trick is to figure out what type (not brand) of tyre you need in the first place. However, as I hope this blog post shows, there can be considerable differences in how long tyres of the same general type (e.g sport touring) lasts overall and how well they retain their profile. I'm just glad that the Road 5 is a perfect fit for the KTM and the type of riding I do.
Oh and by the way, good suspension will really extend your tyre life. I fitted a top of the line Penske on my Blackbird plus upgraded fork internals. Gained nearly 2000 km from a set of tyres.
