Well, we're back at home now & have totally got back into our lives... more's the shame...
The XT's got back to the UK OK, Geoff went down to Portsmouth to collect them about two weeks ago, I picked mine up from him last weekend & dropped off the final paperwork that we needed to send back to the US Customs. The shipping company, Kingstown Shipping, charged us £500 only for each bike & it took about 6 weeks, cheaper than the original outgoing shipping fees & with a lot less hassle/costs at the port to collect them!! Remind me to think again about shipping into Baltimore next time!!
So when I arrived at Geoff's, there was a table full of his bikes engine bits in his garage, all laid out ready to rebuild...
It turns out the cam chain & it's tensioner had failed, the chain was a rigid ring of metal, which had scored the inside of the casing with plenty of deep grooves as it had jumped it's way around the cogs. Geoff had got the replacement parts there already & was looking to rebuild the bike that day.
I collected my bike, which despite a jet spray from Geoff was still looking a bit sorry for itself, sand seemed to be everywhere, now mingled with sea salt & the bits of scratched &/or broken fairings just made it look a proper tatty wreck.
I got my bike home & gave it another jet spray with some good old mountain bike cleaner, (that stuff is expensive but ace for cleaning grubby bikes!), it looked a bit better straight away, but as I checked it over before taking it out for a quick spin to change the fuel etc, I found the rear brake light was blown, the battery was a bit flat & tyres were pretty soft, so I sorted this all out, (there was a load of sand in the light fitting which was why it had shorted & blown the bulb!!). Then went out for a longish ride to get the engine hot & put in some fresh fuel. The bike ran pretty well, the little ride brought back loads of memories of the trip & I was even tempted to get it off road onto some of the local trails near me, but work called & I ended up commuting to a hotel for the night to get ready for the following day.
Once back at home, it's time to get the new fairings fitted, once I've stripped the whole bike down & scrubbed everything to get rid if the sand & sea salt, the TKC tyres that I had in the garage will go back on & the bike will be used as a road bike for awhile before I sell it to buy the KTM 690 Enduro R I have my eye on for our next trip.
Matt has already bought a 640 & has been out playing, so we'll have a body of information to chat about at some point, plus there are loads of parts out there for them... check out my page on our new blog for more info...
Coming up next will be an overland trip to Australia, dates & route yet to be determined but as a sample have a look at a couple of these vids on YouTube to whet your appetite...
MADTV - London to Oz
Some guys wreck several bikes going to the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan
In the meantime if your interested in other biking adventures from us, have a look at:
The Turtle & the Chicken Go Riding blog...
Have fun all & stay safe out there!!!
:-))
The XT's got back to the UK OK, Geoff went down to Portsmouth to collect them about two weeks ago, I picked mine up from him last weekend & dropped off the final paperwork that we needed to send back to the US Customs. The shipping company, Kingstown Shipping, charged us £500 only for each bike & it took about 6 weeks, cheaper than the original outgoing shipping fees & with a lot less hassle/costs at the port to collect them!! Remind me to think again about shipping into Baltimore next time!!
So when I arrived at Geoff's, there was a table full of his bikes engine bits in his garage, all laid out ready to rebuild...
It turns out the cam chain & it's tensioner had failed, the chain was a rigid ring of metal, which had scored the inside of the casing with plenty of deep grooves as it had jumped it's way around the cogs. Geoff had got the replacement parts there already & was looking to rebuild the bike that day.
I collected my bike, which despite a jet spray from Geoff was still looking a bit sorry for itself, sand seemed to be everywhere, now mingled with sea salt & the bits of scratched &/or broken fairings just made it look a proper tatty wreck.
I got my bike home & gave it another jet spray with some good old mountain bike cleaner, (that stuff is expensive but ace for cleaning grubby bikes!), it looked a bit better straight away, but as I checked it over before taking it out for a quick spin to change the fuel etc, I found the rear brake light was blown, the battery was a bit flat & tyres were pretty soft, so I sorted this all out, (there was a load of sand in the light fitting which was why it had shorted & blown the bulb!!). Then went out for a longish ride to get the engine hot & put in some fresh fuel. The bike ran pretty well, the little ride brought back loads of memories of the trip & I was even tempted to get it off road onto some of the local trails near me, but work called & I ended up commuting to a hotel for the night to get ready for the following day.
Once back at home, it's time to get the new fairings fitted, once I've stripped the whole bike down & scrubbed everything to get rid if the sand & sea salt, the TKC tyres that I had in the garage will go back on & the bike will be used as a road bike for awhile before I sell it to buy the KTM 690 Enduro R I have my eye on for our next trip.
Matt has already bought a 640 & has been out playing, so we'll have a body of information to chat about at some point, plus there are loads of parts out there for them... check out my page on our new blog for more info...
Coming up next will be an overland trip to Australia, dates & route yet to be determined but as a sample have a look at a couple of these vids on YouTube to whet your appetite...
MADTV - London to Oz
Some guys wreck several bikes going to the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan
In the meantime if your interested in other biking adventures from us, have a look at:
The Turtle & the Chicken Go Riding blog...
Have fun all & stay safe out there!!!
:-))
