Fun and frustration

Summer (meteorologically speaking) starts in NZ today and in our neck of the woods, the weather has been glorious for the last couple of weeks with temperatures in the mid-20's C or a bit above.  Perfect for motorcycling.  Truth be told, we could do with a spot of the wet stuff as cracks are appearing in the garden.

A week last Sunday, I took part in a social ride with members of the Institute of Advanced Motorists from our region.  We all converged on the tourist town of Rotorua, known for its bubbling mud pools and geysers.  However, it wasn't to see the natural wonders.  A Rotorua resident called Sue runs a sideline business called Plugz 4 Lugz making custom moulded ear plugs.  One of our members had arranged for her to run a production line for our members.

About 4 years ago, Sue had made some plugs for me because off the shelf plugs always seemed to work loose and weren't particularly effective - must have weird ear canals.  The plugs which Sue made were just fabulous but were getting a bit ratty with use so it was time for new ones.  The plain ones actually improve the quality of bike-to-bike comms by reducing wind noise.  She also makes them with in-built speakers.  The round trip for me was a little over 400 km but we all know, it's about the journey, not the destination.

Bikes lined up in Sue's driveway

It was really well-organised with Sue working round everyone and injecting coloured silicone of their choice into ears and leaving them for a few minutes to set.  Once that was completed, we all headed for lunch at a local cafe whilst Sue trimmed the plugs and sealed them with a clear coat.  A thoroughly enjoyable ride and great to catch up with members from various parts of our region which covers some 40,000 sq km.

Sue, with Rex waiting for his plugs to harden

Nice, pristine ear plugs

That was one of the fun bits, now for a frustration.....

Doing a job at home (hanging out the washing actually!) and I noticed some odd-looking "floaters" in one eye which had just appeared.  To cut the story short, we ended up making a 350 km round trip to an eye specialist who diagnosed a small retinal tear which bled into the eye and it was fixed with laser treatment which took all of 10-15 minutes after a thorough examination.  Only pain was to the wallet.  There was one lighter moment though.  In the hope of helping with the diagnosis, I sketched what the floaters looked like and also took a graph of my blood pressure over the last year in case it had any relevance (it's pretty good for my age by the way).  When I handed them over, the specialist put her head in her hands and said, "Are you an engineer?"  I asked her how she knew.  She replied that her husband was an engineer too and he once took along a spreadsheet when he visited his doctor.  I replied that it seemed  like a perfectly normal thing to do which caused much laughter and eye-rolling between Jennie and her, sigh.....

Having got that out of the way, the next job was to take an IAM member for his Advanced Police Roadcraft Test.  It involved sitting a theory paper, then taking a practical ride of nearly 2 hours covering city and expressway work, followed by a spell on rather challenging country roads.  It also involved him giving commentary of what potential hazards he was observing and how that was impacting on his actions.  I'm happy to say that it was immensely pleasurable for both of us as he absolutely aced the test - a considerable compliment too to his mentor.  To see the massive improvement in riding skill and personal safety since him joining IAM last year is more than ample reward for doing what I do.

Bruce at the end of his Advanced Test

An interesting observation which won't come as a surprise to adventure bike riders......

Bruce rides a Triumph 1200 Explorer.  One country road on the test was exceptionally twisty with limited sight lines and the sealed surface was pretty rough.  The torque of the 3 cylinder motor coupled with compliant suspension meant that he could safely maintain great progress in those conditions.  On the Duke 790 with sport-oriented suspension and less torque, I was having to work a lot harder than Bruce.  I rarely use my quickshifter for up-shifts but was certainly doing so on that part of the ride to get constant drive out of corners.  Clear proof that a well-ridden adventure bike is quite a weapon, especially on less than optimal road surfaces.

The final frustration was that on the way home from the test, my eye started bleed internally again.  Negotiating the twisty coast road with effectively one eye called for a fair bit of care through losing my depth perception.  Yet another 350 km round trip the following day to the specialist with Jennie driving.  So much crap in the eye that the specialist couldn't make a diagnosis.  A further trip is scheduled in a few days when things have hopefully settled down.  Not a smart idea to be driving or riding in the meantime but Jennie has a few menial tasks lined up to keep me out of mischief.  Let's hope that I can continue my motorcycling career for a while yet!

An interesting couple of weeks

Riding on two wheels has been a bit patchy over the last two weeks.  Firstly, it was tropical cyclone Debbie which hit NZ after causing extensive flooding and damage along the eastern seaboard of Australia.  Our village escaped the worst of it but we were cut off for a couple of days due to landslips on both exit roads from the Coromandel Peninsula.  Places a few hundred k's south east really copped it.  Being stuck caused the cancellation of some IAM training in Auckland but delighted Jennie because I got leaned on to attack the backlog of jobs around the house!

With the weather clearing, I arranged to take the Suzuki GSX-S1000 for its 24,000 km service and an updated ECM/ECU to be fitted (That's the brains of the bike's engine management system).  More on this later.  Then unbelievably, the weather forecasters announced that Cyclone Cook was coming out of the South Pacific to hammer us, Coromandel was square in its sights and things were looking grim.  Hurried tying down of deck furniture and securing garden art, followed by an anxious wait.  Fortunately for us, it tracked further east at the last moment and all we got was some heavy rain for a few hours and moderate winds, but the south-east of the north island bore the brunt of it.  Unfortunately for us, the cliffs which run down the western coast road of the Peninsula were still soaked from Cyclone Debbie and another drenching brought down dozens of slips, cutting us off for another week.  One of the few penalties of living in a remote, unspoiled area!

One of the massive slips on the Coromandel coast road

(source: Thames-Coromandel District Council)

These delays were knocking my IAM coaching schedule around and although the western coast road was still closed, the eastern one had opened, the weather was good and so it was off to Auckland to resume coaching.  The only downside is that the eastern route adds 100 km each way to the journey. Shouldn't really complain about extra distance on two wheels but 600+km days including an intense coaching ride do tend to get a bit tiring so I stayed with our Auckland-based daughter overnight.  Well worth the effort as Lloyd, my trainee Observer (Instructor) did a magnificent job of introducing a new IAM member to the first stage of Police Roadcraft advanced riding.

Lloyd (R) debriefing new member Chris (L) mid-point through the ride

Having a bit more time in Auckland was quite handy as I organised to have some custom silicone earplugs made.  I normally use foam plugs but must have weird-shaped ear canals or something because they always seem to work loose. Had 2 pairs made which took about 40 minutes overall.  What a difference!  They work incredibly well, are supremely comfortable and would be great if you're a light sleeper.

Custom ear plugs - seriously effective

The other thing I did whilst in Auckland was get my hands on a little gift for Jennie for upcoming Mother's Day next month (A guy being organised in advance??? Amazing!).  A fellow IAM member is a trained cabinetmaker who has just started his own business.  Jennie and I both love items made in wood and on his website, I saw some fully-functioning wooden padlocks he'd made in different designs.  The one I chose is shown below.  The craftsmanship is superb using two different woods on both the key and the lock.  Instead of a business card, he uses a curved wooden leaf with his details on - clever and ultra cool!  Jennie doesn't read my blog so we're safe!  Also, Graham makes the most exquisite all-wood skeleton clocks.  Take a look HERE .  The world is a better place for having craftsmen like Graham in it.

Gorgeous functioning wooden lock - smells wonderful too!

Right, back to bikes......

About 3 weeks ago, I spoke with Simon Meade, G.M Marketing of Suzuki NZ.  Regular readers of this blog may remember that I've described the Suzuki as a good bike, but not a great bike.  It does its job well, but doesn't make me feel passionate about it.  One of the niggles is that it's pretty snatchy and hunts at low throttle openings, or off a trailing throttle.  If I was using the bike for city commuting or similar, it would have been sold by now.  However, as much of my riding is on open roads, it's only really irritating in traffic and in greasy conditions at low speed.  I'm given to understand that the root cause of the fuelling problem is to meet emission compliance testing in the European Union.

Talking to Simon, he said that a new ECM was now available and I could have one fitted at no charge. All that was required was having the ignition key and its spare reprogrammed.  Just like that, no fuss, no arguments, just "we'll send one to your dealer" from Simon.  That's what you call service!

With the coast road now open, albeit covered in clay in a few places, it was time to re-schedule the Suzuki service so I headed off at the crack of dawn yesterday to my favourite dealer in Hamilton, about 160 km away.  On picking up the bike a few hours later, the ride through Hamilton traffic to get to open country was a revelation!  All the snatchiness had gone, just leaving a slight lumpiness which wasn't intrusive, just a reminder of the sporting heritage of the powerplant.  It's transformed a good bike into a great bike and who knows, maybe I'll develop an emotional attachment to it like I had with the Street Triple!

One final amazing thing.....

Whilst I was talking with Simon, he asked me what I thought of the Suzuki performance and I mentioned the track day I did on it last year.  He doesn't know me from Adam but floored me by offering a ride on their race-prepped version which they sometimes take along to track days!!!!  This is the bike which U.S - based journo Don Canet from Cycle World successfully raced at NZ's premier street race in Paeroa last year! (Cycle World article HERE ) . The excitement was quickly tempered with a bit of sanity and I politely declined.  The combination of slicks and racing brake pads which need to be hot to work effectively could well be a recipe for this old fella to go skating along on his bum in front of lots of track day enthusiasts - not a good look.  Incredibly generous and unexpected offer by Simon though.  Nice to know that Suzuki NZ have great people at the top.

As I said at the start, an interesting couple of weeks!

Don Canet on the Suzuki NZ race-prepped GSX-S 1000

(photo: Cycle World/ Andy McGeehan)

'ear ye, 'ear ye!

I might just be sounding like everyone's mother here, but I've worn ear protection on the bike for open road riding for years, simply because working in heavy industry pre-retirement; it was a sensible habit to maintain.  This was reinforced about 5 years ago when a UK bike magazine tested a range of both cheap and expensive helmets and not one of them was less than 100 dBA at the ear entrance.  Dunno whether things have improved since then but why take the risk?  Most motorcyclists are concerned about safety in terms of buying good quality riding gear, yet a significant number of riders I know do little or nothing to protect their hearing.

I started off by "souveniring" yellow foam plugs from work, as per the picture below.  They were effective but the dense foam pressed hard on the inside of the ear canal and became a distraction on longer journeys.  A different brand were in use at another branch of the company and in the interests of safety research (errr... and comfortable motorcycling), a handful were liberated.  These are the green Max Lite plugs shown on the left of the picture and they work a treat.  Softer than the yellow ones, easier to insert and just as effective as far as I'm concerned.

Of course, foam plugs are supposed to be disposable for sanitary reasons.  For any number of other reasons however, they tend to get used multiple times and it wouldn't be surprising after day one if whole colonies of hostile microscopic life had set up home both on them and in them.  I'm sure I've seen some of my plugs move under their own steam on the garage bench ;-).

The quest for reusable ear protection lead to plugs which are extensively used in the music industry, or so the marketing blurb assured discerning buyers.  Unlike foam plugs, they are supposed to allow the full spectrum of frequencies to pass through, just at lower volumes.  Resembling mutant rubber mushrooms, they're inserted into the ear canal with a short hollow plastic rod.  In the end of each mushroom, there is a removable plastic insert with a small hole. Three sets of these come with the kit, each set having a different diameter hole to allow differing volumes of sound through.  Here they are:

Wasn't all that impressed with them actually and there are probably an awful lot of deaf musicians about if my experience is anything to go by.  The biggest problem was that it wouldn't take long for them to work loose.  My right inner ear must go through a series of U-bends or something because it's a complete bastard (a technical term) to get a plug of any description to stay in.  Foam plugs had to be compressed to a few microns thick and rammed in at the speed of light to have a chance.  The musician's plug had often popped out by the time I'd buckled the helmet up.

Now, in NZ and elsewhere, there are companies that make custom-moulded ear plugs.  They even make ones with MP3 player speakers in them.  Trouble is, being a country hick, it's a long way to reach anyone who provides this service; so a purchase has been on the back burner for a while.  However, when we were on the recent Raglan ride-out, my mate Richard mentioned that the Hamilton Triumph dealer stocked D-I-Y kits for custom-moulded earplugs for NZ$50.  The typical male love of cool stuff prompted a call to the dealer on the Monday morning and the kit arrived in the post next day!

The kit consists of detailed, clear instructions, 2 pots of  silicone, (one with a hardener) plus a carry-bag for the finished articles.  There is sufficient silicone for 3 plugs.  Following the instructions and pictures, I kneaded enough for one plug which took less than a minute, rolled it into a ball and with some trepidations, proceeded to gently work it into my ear canal and also shape a little flap to locate under one of the external ear folds to hold it in place.  The instructions say to leave it for a minimum of 15 minutes to set and I left it for 30.  Didn't have to extract it with pliers or a drill thank goodness, so the process was repeated for the other ear.

The photo below shows the kit and the two finished plugs.  Now I know that from the picture, the plugs resemble something blown into a  handkerchief but the weird shape is the profile of part of the external ear surface and ear canal!  They are perfectly smooth on the outside and look fine. Washable and hypo-allergenic too.

A loud hi-fi test with both plugs inside the house (accompanied by much eye-rolling and sighing by my Chief Executive) revealed a greater noise attenuation than with either the foam or musicians plugs, but how would they be on the bike?  Well, I went for a local open road run to test them out.  Had a bit of difficulty getting them in place first time but it was just a matter of technique and didn't have any subsequent problems.  In terms of noise reduction, they work superbly but interestingly, you appear to be able to hear across the full range of frequencies, just at a significantly reduced level which is great.  One exception is that wind roar seems to have disappeared completely, I don't know why.

For the 80 km round trip, they were perfectly comfortable on the inside of the ear but there were a couple of slightly raised bits on the outside of the plugs that the helmet seemed to press on.  This caused a localised pressure point just above the ear lobe.  It was easy to see where a spot on each plug sat slightly proud and was quickly fixed with the aid of a craft knife .  So all in all:  yep, they work well and they'll be progressively tested for comfort over longer distances.  The manufacturers are a Scottish company and this is the link to their website: DIY Ear Plugs.

No more riding or blogging for a couple of weeks as I'm surprising Jennie with a trip to a secret destination to celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary - leaving early next week.  As far as I know, there's no motorcycle or scooter hire there, but it should still be fun!