Back in January i bought another MK3 Interstate (the last one i had was back in 1984, lost when I crashed in northern Norway touring Scandinavia) and rode in home over the Pennines, a journey of 120 miles in winter. My son who had gone with me to buy it thought I was mad and although it was a bit cold the weather stayed clear and fine.
Since January i have been gradually going through the bike, sorting out previous owners failings and installing upgrades of my own. The most obvious one being the SU carb and manifold. The bike had been fitted with a single Mikuni. I had fitted an SU to the previous MK3 to increase the range when touring and wanted the same with this one. I finally got hold of an Phoenix Engineering SU conversion from a chap in France, through the NOC.
Back to the ride out. A couple of weeks ago talking bikes with a colleague at work he mentioned that they (the chaps on his shift) were going on a ride out, from Yorkshire, up north to Northumberland for dinner and then back following a set route, No motorways (freeways for our cousins across the pond) just A and B roads. He sent me the route and the start point via email and so I set to getting the bike ready for what turned out to be a great day out, The preparation involved the usual servicing and a load of polishing.
Filling up on the morning of the ride I zeroed the trip. Getting to the meeting point (the Strawberry fields Cafe, just south of York) I realised that my bike was oldest of the group by over 30 years. All of the bikes there apart from the Buell were what I call Spaceships (fully faired sportsbikes) or Transformers (offroad trail bikes ie BMW 1200GS) There were Honda VFRs, at least one Fireblade, BMW1200GS,s Triumph Tigers, a Buell, an Aprila, Kawasakis of various sizes etc etc. A total of twenty one machines, all faster and better braked. Allan (BMW1200GS, the chap who organised the ride) came out with the comment 'when are you going to do the first oil change' (I should explain that the blokes I work with are a merciless bunch of piss takers given the chance) To which I replied "Allan, at the end of the day, my bike will be worth MORE and your bike will be worth LESS" this comment was delivered with the appropriate finger pointing. That shut him up!
Setting off up the road it wasn't long before most of them past me and disappeared into the distance. Upon getting to the first fuel stop/meeting point I realised I was first one there along with the bikes who were content to follow me (I don,t think they knew the route) Ten minutes later the rest of them arrived, victims of following someone using a Satnav. To say I was amused is an understatement. The rest of the day followed much along the same lines. I filled up at Barnard Castle on the way back using 13.5 litres to do 208 miles, thats 70 miles to the gallon (UK gallons) or 58 miles to US gallon or 4 litres to 100kms and that is riding like I stole it!
Quite a few of the other riders were amazed at how little it used and at how well a 39 yr old bike could go. Ha! bring on the next one!
Since January i have been gradually going through the bike, sorting out previous owners failings and installing upgrades of my own. The most obvious one being the SU carb and manifold. The bike had been fitted with a single Mikuni. I had fitted an SU to the previous MK3 to increase the range when touring and wanted the same with this one. I finally got hold of an Phoenix Engineering SU conversion from a chap in France, through the NOC.
Back to the ride out. A couple of weeks ago talking bikes with a colleague at work he mentioned that they (the chaps on his shift) were going on a ride out, from Yorkshire, up north to Northumberland for dinner and then back following a set route, No motorways (freeways for our cousins across the pond) just A and B roads. He sent me the route and the start point via email and so I set to getting the bike ready for what turned out to be a great day out, The preparation involved the usual servicing and a load of polishing.
Filling up on the morning of the ride I zeroed the trip. Getting to the meeting point (the Strawberry fields Cafe, just south of York) I realised that my bike was oldest of the group by over 30 years. All of the bikes there apart from the Buell were what I call Spaceships (fully faired sportsbikes) or Transformers (offroad trail bikes ie BMW 1200GS) There were Honda VFRs, at least one Fireblade, BMW1200GS,s Triumph Tigers, a Buell, an Aprila, Kawasakis of various sizes etc etc. A total of twenty one machines, all faster and better braked. Allan (BMW1200GS, the chap who organised the ride) came out with the comment 'when are you going to do the first oil change' (I should explain that the blokes I work with are a merciless bunch of piss takers given the chance) To which I replied "Allan, at the end of the day, my bike will be worth MORE and your bike will be worth LESS" this comment was delivered with the appropriate finger pointing. That shut him up!
Setting off up the road it wasn't long before most of them past me and disappeared into the distance. Upon getting to the first fuel stop/meeting point I realised I was first one there along with the bikes who were content to follow me (I don,t think they knew the route) Ten minutes later the rest of them arrived, victims of following someone using a Satnav. To say I was amused is an understatement. The rest of the day followed much along the same lines. I filled up at Barnard Castle on the way back using 13.5 litres to do 208 miles, thats 70 miles to the gallon (UK gallons) or 58 miles to US gallon or 4 litres to 100kms and that is riding like I stole it!
Quite a few of the other riders were amazed at how little it used and at how well a 39 yr old bike could go. Ha! bring on the next one!
). I used to regularly grease the cable at the outrigger (I once had a cable entertainingly fray whilst riding & jam the throttle open in the outrigger)
