Goin on...and on.. and on...

From 33333.3 to 44444.4 in about 10 months... not so bad considering the fact that I was not riding much this year.  

Thanks a lot buddy - you mean a lot to me and each and every passing kilometer makes me 

happy that I chose you.  

a random update...

Yesterday was Jeevs 3rd b'day - itz ben theree yers since we have met each other and we have been through thick and thin, and 3 years and 43,000+ kilometers later, when I look back, I am glad that I have him besides me, ever ready to whisk me from this world to a place where I am free, where I live a life of no worries... where nothing else matters...

From Jeevs @ night

I have been to kerala for a short visit and this time, me and 2 of my friends drove down to kerala - we took my friends Hyundai i10, and man, it is a nice l'll car for some nice highway jaunts - nimble, fast and surefooted, the l'll car is sure fun to drive. 

The NFS Undercover have been released.. thinking whether to get it now or not... if any of you have tried it, temme howz the game...
ps: if any one out there want to tag me, most welcome... :) 

Carburetor tuning - a detailed picture

Dont read it - it is nothing but some tech rant, which will go over your head unless you love your bike and love getting your hands dirty...

I am posting it here to preserve it.

Before I start, one word of friendly advice - more often than not, carburetor is best left untouched. If you really want to play around with your carb, make sure you have the required knowledge, and tools. Carb is a very vital part of your bike, and properly tuning it is no Childs play.

 

Unicorns use a Keihin CV carburetor - in a CV (Constant Velocity / constant vacuum) carburetor the throttle cable is linked not to the throttle slide as in a conventional carb, but it activates a butterfly valve, and when you open the throttle, the air pressure difference between the sealed chamber above the vacuum slid and inside carburetor venturi forces the slide up and down. the slide is located in front of the butterfly valve. A CV carb gives good mileage, and adjusts better to altitude changes, but the throttle response is not as fast as of a conventional carb.

In a CV carb, the amount of air is controlled by the butterfly valve and the amount of fuel is controlled by drop in pressure, and the jets.

 

In a nutshell, to tune a carburetor properly, you need most suitable main jet, proper needle height / clip position and optimum float height.

 

The carburetor has a number of different jets, passages and orifices to control the precise amount of fuel and air flow into engine. Engine idle, part throttle, full throttle and acceleration uses different passages, and are referred commonly as 'circuit'. Practically, more than one circuit will be functioning at a time.

 

the basic circuits are - choke, idle circuit, midrange/main, high-speed/power enrichment and accelerator pump. Though these circuits overlap, all of these have their primary functions.

 

Choke helps is cold start and warm up.

 

Idle circuit controls the idle speed and some low end throttle response. The main function of the idle circuit is to control the idle circuit. It is controlled by slow speed jet and air fuel mixture screw.

 

Midrange - as the throttle is progressively opened, the flow through idle circuit gets reduced. In this range, the most effective component is the jet needle. Midrange is characterized by steady throttle and light acceleration. Generally the throttle opening will be from a quarter to three quarter of the full range. If you feel your mixture is rich when you are at a quarter throttle, and as you open the throttle further, if you feel the mixture is becoming lean, then you need a jet needle with larger taper. If the feeling is the opposite, then what you need is a small taper jet needle. If the mixture is lean throughout the range, then you need to raise the jet needle by lowering the clip position, and vice versa. From the moment the throttle is opened, till you open it really wide, it is the jet need which controls the flow.

 

High-speed/power - it is controlled by main jet. A rich mixture will provide more power, and will keep the engine cool. If you have tuned your carburetor lean, then don’t ride with throttle wide open much - it is not good in long run. so, the safe practice is to install a main jet which is one size higher than the one which offers best performance - it will help the engine in long run.

 

Accelerator pump - usually, this needs no adjustment. If you feel a stumble (a temporary lean condition when you suddenly open the throttle), you can widen the gap on the pump linkage, to delay the timing.

 

The simple and best way of setting a carb is to set the different circuits with ideal conditions for their primary functions. So, set the air fuel mixture and idle jet for best idle, set the needle for cruising at a steady speed (midrange) and set the main jet for wide open throttle.

 

Remember - carburetor tuning is and art, compromising lot of experience, lot of science and a bit of black magic... :)

 

(I express my gratitude to many websites which taught me the basics of carburetor tuning.) 

trail rats...

Itz been long time since I have actually done some dirt/slush bashing, and was itching for a trail ride for long time.
Tarmac will never satisfy the nomad in me all the time - i love tarmac - the straights and the twisties, but trails have a beauty which haunts me all the time.

This weekend was a relatively free one, so I and Vicks decided to make most of it. We met by 8.30 pm Saturday night, and it was pouring. We rode out from the town and Jeevs made most of his new twin spotlights to make way through heavy rain. It was pure fun filled water splashing ride and by the time we reached Vicks home, we where dripping like anything. This ride also rain baptized my new leather jacket, and it didn’t allow a single drop of water inside. LJ, the jack is really good:-D I clearly got more than I paid for.

Sunday morning we sat through the F1 race - not exactly a good race for us Ferrari fans, but the fight Kimi showed was great.

After race, we decided to hit trails, but Vicks Yammy has developed a leaking oil tank, so we decided to take only Jeevs.
I am not at all new to trails, but it is the first time I did a trail with a pillion, and I am sure if the pillion was some one other than Vicks, he/she would have called it quits before half way.

We forked off the main road and entered a field through a tractor trail and hit a jeep trail soon. After a couple of miles through the jeep trail, we saw a walkway, and decided to go ahead - and we hit pay dirt. It was a dream come true - there was no road - a trail of mud, slush, sand and loose gravel. Just to make it a complete package, the trail threw in a couple of swaps and water crossings - man, it was FUN. Once Jeevs got stuck in mud while I was trying to steer an almost 40 degree incline, and I had to get down and push him with the help of Vicks.

After a long ride, we took a breather in the middle of nowhere, and decided to practice some target shooting (I was carrying my .22 along). After an hour of fun hitting tree trunks, we started riding back, but more dirt beckoned us, and soon we started more and more trail instead of coming back. this time, we went over rocky patches, bushes and more and more swamp and sands. We hit an almost dried water trail and followed it till we came across a marshy swap which can swallow us :-D

After all the riding, we where thirsty and hungry, so we head to Sports bar @ cosmos mall for a very late lunch. Caught up with a couple of other friends, and sat there chillaxing till the sky started opening up. Came home, took a bath and fixed a dinner of rotis and aloo methi, and spend rest of the evening with Hitchhikers guide to galaxy, listening to Avial.
The weekend was pure Bliss....

Bylakuppe - Madikeri - Thalakaveri ride

itz been long time since we - me and Jeevs tasted some serious tarmac. When Balu asked me about planning a trip to Coorg, i didn't think twice. After some planning, we five guys - Me, Jubish, Balu, Arun and Abey and three bikes - Jeevs, Shadowfax (Arun's bullet) and Balu’s Unicorn set out to Coorg on Saturday early morning.

Our plan was to ride leisurely and see places. But it was just a 'plan'. Balu was on lead, and the moment he reached Bangalore Mysore highway, he opened up his throttle and set a blistering pace. Arun was not behind, and Shadowfax started devouring the almost deserted road with aplomb. I was the tail; I kept up with them, enjoying the cool breeze and wide, smooth roads. We passed Mysore by 7.15 and stopped for breakfast by 7.30.


After a filling breakfast of dosas and pathal (don’t ask me what pathal is - itz first time i see that, but it tasted good) we set out towards Kusalnagara. Me and Arun exchanged our steeds, and by 11 we reached kusalnagara, after taking some photo session stops.


We visited the golden temple and had authentic Tibetan food from kusalnagara.




After taking ample rest, we set out to madikeri. This time I took the lead and took an alternate route - the route which goes to dubare elephant camp - and we got rewarded with lot of twisties. After lot of side stand / foot pedal / break pedal scraping, we reached madikkeri by 3 and took a home to stay. We spend evening loitering around, and watched the musical fountain at Raja seat.



Sunday early morning we started from madikeri to thalakaveri, and this time also I was leading the pack. Jeevs was performing at his best, but was not really at the pink of his health, and his alternator decided to pack off. So i had to lead without headlight ( my pass beam was working, but in thick fog, too bright a beam is seldom useless) and by 8 we reached thalakaveri, after stopping at two places for photo sessions.





While riding back, I took Shadowfax and was in the mood for total ghat banging - did the whole stretch in just one hour; and both unicorns almost kept the pace but where panting. But tell you what - ghat banging on a bullet is simply a level apart. After a marathon session of ride, we stopped for lunch by 2, and reached outskirts of Bangalore by 4.30.
From there, I took BMIC corridor till bannerghatta road - arrow straight road with no traffic - it is like a race track, and Jeevs enjoyed his home stretch. To top it off, the approach road from BMIC to bannerghatta road is kind of small off-road with lot of sand pits. I really enjoyed taking Jeevs through sand and gravel. All in all, a nice ride - 2 days, five guys, 3 bikes, and 700 odd km.
click here to see the pics. (I am teh guy wearing Green nd Black T shirts)

Carry on, Jeevs

One more milestone passed, on the way to home from work yesterday. Clicked it using the VGA cam of grey wolf.

Itz been almost 27 months since I met Jeevs. When i first met him, he was sitting in the showroom, waiting patiently to get his first taste of asphalt.

I took him out, gently showed him the way around, and got him acquaintance with the tarmac for the first 3K km. After that, he was ready to take whatever came - from ghat sections to drag strips, from smooth curves to trails, he never whimpered or even battled his eye.

I hope and wish we will see lot more miles together. Carry on, Jeevs.

Mistakes...

When do mistakes happen? Either when you are unaware of something or when you are overconfident that you overlook things. And when you realize that you did a mistake, what is the best thing to do? Learn a lesson and move on.
I have been riding for quite some years and after lot of kilometers of riding, i want to share two stupid mistake i did recently - the mistakes which happened as a result of sheer carelessness and overlooking of trivial facts.

Some months back, me and my friend Vikcs decided to take a breather from the hectic city life, and decided to camp out in the wilderness. Vicks was carrying the tent, sleeping bag and lot of stuff, and i was carrying knickknacks, camera and lot of other stuff. Among all these, the main stuff was water - I took two big bottles of water - around 4ltr, and without much though, I strapped the two big bottles on to Jeevs sari guard with the help of a pair of bungee chord, and I was feeling pretty smug about the carrying solution i found out.
We set out from Bangalore by 2 and on an intersection, a Tata safari guy cut the lane, and to avoid him, i braked hard. And boy, Jeevs did a dance there, and i was like 'what the hell'. I thought my rear break got locked and didn’t give it much thought at that time. Soon we found us on the highway, and we both where happily zipping at triple digit speeds. I was leading and took a wide turn at about 110kmph to found that my side of the road is blocked by a traffic barricade. The road is wide enough and under usual circumstances, a barricade like this is not at all a problem. But not that day. as i braked and tried to change my direction, i felt the rear going loose and jeevs was behaving liek hez strapped with a skateboard instead of the zappers ( Next day after the ride, I got him new Michelins instead of Zapper) .
Somehow, I managed to bring him back to the course, and then i stopped to check the rear for any wear and tear. after a through checking, i was going to start the bike and then suddenly it dawned on me - the reason of fishtailing - the culprit was the two big water bottles strapped so low - the shifting mass of water and the position of the off set weight was affecting the center of gravity. and stupid me - didn’t even think about it before smugly strapping it on.

The second incident happed before first, but it was more foolish than the first incident.

My everyday commute to office is about 15 km one day, and one stretch of it is inner ring road (IRR) from Domlur to Koramangala. Now, those who know the section will agree to me that it is a very inviting road to ride if there is no traffic. One day i was really early, and the road was almost deserted. When you enter the IRR after the Domlur flyover, you get the first turn - a lovely left hander which is followed by a wide right hand turn. After the turn, the road is straight for almost a kilometer and then you get a beautiful right hand turn and some more straight road.
On that day, when after leaving the first right hander, i saw the empty road, soon Jeevs was doing triple digit speeds.
Before I entered the last corner, an idea struck me - why don’t I try my hand at drifting Jeevs. I applied my rear break, locked the back tyre and produced a nice drift - I was happily drifting along the curve at about 80-90 kmph and suddenly the car in front of the braked hard. There was practically nothing much to do - it is stupid to break when you take a curve, insane if you are leaning, and here, I was drifting away to glory and the guy in front of me is slowing down.
I shifted down a couple of cogs, made my bike straight and squeezed past between the Ford ikon and the side wall of the road even before the ikon guy realized what is happening. Man, that was scary, and if something would have happened, it was because of my stupidity. That was the last stunt I did on a road.

Always check your basics. And don’t get comfortable – no one is invincible. Practice makes you perfect, but perfection doesn’t guarantee invincibleness. Don’t get yourself fooled by the thought that you are an expert and nothing will go wrong. Something will go wrong at some place, and it may be too late to realize it. Always have your feet in ground. – Lessons learned from my mistakes.