Sagem coil failure ….. inevitable really

It’s official …. Moto-Abruzzo has been bitten by the infamous Caponord coil failure syndrome. It was a lovely day so a spin round the block was on the cards, the Capo fired up sweet enough before starting to flash the dreaded ‘EFI‘ warning lamp. Oh deary me.

Turned out to be a rear coil (Code 36) that had died, no worries I thought, I’ve got a couple of spares on the shelf – although of unknown history. Turns out one was toast and the other intermittent, so both are useless.

This morning I adapted the mighty Moto-Logger to display the coil ‘Dwell’ data in real-time so I could have a look at the intermittent coil in operation. Interesting – but wholly depressing on a nice sunny day when I’d rather be riding the damn thing. Rather strangely, the coil began to work OK once it got hot …. very peculiar! Anyway, new coils are on order so it won’t be long.

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Mileage poll closed, luggage poll open!

Firstly a big thank you to everyone who voted on the mileage of their Caponord. However, not many surprises really ……. 100 owners voted their Capo mileage, 63% have covered between 10 and 40,000 miles with the greatest percentage (25%) in the 30-40,000 mile range. At the bottom end, 8% have barely seen the first service and must be riding the shiniest Capo’s of all, while at the other end we have 4% with over 90,000 miles and and 3% with 100K+ miles.

If the 100K+ owners ever read this, drop me a line would you I’d love to do a post on your high mileage bikes. So now onward to a new poll …… What luggage do you use? …. from bin liners to gold plated titanium panniers hand rolled by presidential candidates, your call!

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Current cool tool

A quick post about a snazzy and useful little tool for the tool box and at £9.99 its not going to break the bank either. The Maplin N48CY current meter will measure up to 20 amps (double most multimeters) and has contacts that simulate a fuse …… simply unplug the fuse from the circuit to be tested, plug the tester in, switch on and activate the circuit – viola, a nice crisp display of the current that flows through the fuse & circuit. I’ve recently run through the Capo fuse block and you can see the table of recorded values here.

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How to make 21 days fly by!

I’m finally back home for a rest. Oh, did I forget to say I was going back to blighty for a few weeks? Well it was three weeks of fog, frost, rain, sunshine and snow! To be fair, the last two weeks settled down to some semblance of normality after mid-morning. While I shivered and cursed the fog and way-to-fast traffic, Jan held the fort in Abruzzo. She did brilliantly and had a fine time in vastly better weather!

On this trip I was primarily tasked by AMI with training Alan, the new instructor. Alan has an impeccable riding CV, having served for many years in the London Motorcycle Paramedic unit and being responsible for rider training. Would he cope well though with the initial learner end of the spectrum?

Well on my last day I was proud as punch to present him with his first DSA qualification, the ‘Down-Trained’ certificate, which allows him to teach CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) and work with post-CBT learner 125cc riders. It’s just the first rung on the long ladder to DAS qualification as he well knows, but his determination, skill and knowledge have set a firm foundation on which to progress. Good luck Alan, your card was well earned and I hope to work with you later in the year, and thanks Jim for the work!

On a Capo note, I finally managed to bring back an AS7 Autoswitch for the fog lights. You can read more about fitting and operation here – it works brilliantly!

I also briefly met ‘Training Man’ and his partner (Paul & Anna) from the AF1 Aprilia forum at a local bike café. His Capo was the only bike in the car park – until our motley group of school bikes turned up! Nice to meet you, maybe see you at Bristol Italian Day next year …….

So it’s back home to nature running wild as spring sets in. Time then to refuel the strimmers, saws and tractor and get stuck in to sorting the land out ……. but first, one little ride out on the Capo, Jan won’t notice!

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Packt full of great information!

After 11 days off the Net and a further week sorting out the aftermath of the snow, I’ve finally got a few minutes to start looking at the Caponord Wiki – or ‘Capopedia’ as it’s now called …. original eh?

Well I’m still struggling with the new syntax and layout of the thing, when all of a sudden help storms over the horizon. You see, Jan has been reviewing books for a UK publishing house and as a ‘thank you’ gets the odd free Ebook. So she rather cheekily asked about a Mediawiki publication she knew would be right up my street.

And so I’m delighted to say a big thank you to Richard Dias of Packt Publishing for not only graciously giving Jan the book, but doing it by return email, talk about quick! And of course Jan, for doing the deed in the first place …. air kisses & über hugs!

It has already helped me out immensely and I’m looking forward to having a rummage under the bonnet of Mediawiki over the coming weeks and getting a look and feel that’s just right for the Capo content.

Ta very muchly everyone!

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Snow fun at all …..

The first storm hit sometime during the Thursday night, the 2nd of February. We woke to the usual picturesque scene, the one that makes you go ‘ahhhh’, then run for the warmth of the kitchen and a hot mug of tea. All day it swirled and battered home and countryside, nothing flew, trotted, hopped or drove that we saw.

At approx. 17:30 our ethereal internet and phone connection to the world outside was unceremoniously cut. Nothing but a deep unwelcoming silence, while the storm raged a little harder just to emphasise our isolation a little more. Over the next 11 days we were to be subject to more snow and blizzards, periodical broken by a splash of sunshine. The first break in the weather gave me a chance to try for the main road ….. two days and three sessions of digging saw the Rangey finally hit tarmac. On Wednesday the 8th, I pulled a sled with Jan’s suitcases up to the old house and the waiting car. We had an uneventful trip to the airport, where I sadly waved Jan off to the UK. Now it was just me and a bunch of hungry animals, time to do some shopping on the way home. Stocked up I drove back to the house and parked the Rangey up in the driveway thinking the worst was now over.

The blizzard that started the following night was as unexpected as it was intense. 36Hrs of  battering  by raging turbulent wind and unrelenting snow … the road disappeared completely under undulating drifts over two meters deep in places, while upstairs windows vanished as the snow clung onto the strained roof below.  Once again, the Rangey had to be helped out on a couple of occasions, but I can’t complain when it only gets stuck in snow that’s deeper than the bonnet!

On the afternoon of the 11th day, the phone and internet came back, our little slice of Italy was neatly plugged back into the daily routine of planet Earth.

What’s the old saying ….‘stop the world I want to get off’? We did for a while, but it sure is nice to get back on again!

So a couple of quick phone calls to let people know I’m doing fine and catch-up on current events. Seems the whole region went dark that Friday night when a tree down by the river, unable to cope under the weight of snow took out the main phone line.

Oh, and one last thing ……. ever heard thunder during a blizzard? I hadn’t until now, seems the snow attenuates the sound so you only hear it when its less than a mile or two away. And its official name – thundersnow!

 

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Welcome to Wiki-school …. day1

Well as part of the 2012 overhaul …. I’ve gone Wiki! Yes, Moto-Abruzzo is moving any Capo related technical info and how-to articles over to a Wiki. A platform better suited to cross-referencing data and being co-written by other like-minded owners.

I think it’s a good move, although a rather tough learning curve. Of course, life with my Rally-Raid will still be a staple part of Moto-Abruzzo, I’m just clearing a little room! So click on the ‘Capo-Wiki’ link on the menu or go to http://etv1000.co.uk to see how we’re getting on – and maybe give us a hand?

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Time to let go ……

Well it’s been almost three weeks now and with each passing day, we have to face the inevitable – Kelly, our faithful stray dog isn’t coming back.

On the evening of the 4th January, Kelly had played enthusiastically along with the other dogs and threw down his evening meal with gusto. Later he’d returned to his bed by the front door – and that was the last we saw of him. Thursday morning he was nowhere to be seen, we thought he’d be somewhere down the woods or in a nice little sun-trap warming himself, no big deal. But when we came back from shopping later that afternoon, he wasn’t there, in the middle of the gateway doing his usual hoppy-wiggly dance, proud as punch that we’d bought him some new stuff to eat, nor was he merrily snoring away in his bed. As the penny dropped, we had a search round the buildings – nothing. It was going dark now, so we could do nothing more until morning. And so the concern set in.

Over the following days, we searched fields, hedgerows and woodlands. We phoned neighbours and talked to a shepherd tending his flock a few fields away. Nothing, he’d simply vanished. During this time, the ‘what-if’ questions begin to make an appearance.

“He was about 15 years old the vet guessed, what if he’s had a heart attack or something.”

“That shepherd has some BIG dogs, what if he got too close in the night, could they have got him?”

“Has he strayed all the way over to the main road? What if he got hit, could he be lying on the verge somewhere?”

And so it goes on, an ever decreasing circle of fruitless thoughts that inevitably won’t bring him back or give us any piece of mind. A wholly depressing cycle to break out of and something we had to tell ourselves when we spotted each other inevitably starting down this dark and destructive path.

Over those three weeks we’ve watched the temperature plummet and the snow fall and each and every day we’ve missed him. At first, his bowl was filled each evening and each morning the contents remained, a dull and listless reflection of its former freshness, a reflection of our feelings and like a child restless for Santa’s visit on Christmas night, so we too sleep fitfully wondering if he’ll visit us under the veil of darkness.

Now, the bowl has been washed and put to one side, just in case. Somehow putting it away is like admitting defeat, that he won’t be back, that we’ve given up on him. So it sits on the drainer, ready.

______________________________________________

Kelly came to us out of nowhere, a bag of bones wobbling unsteadily in the garden. I don’t think he had the energy to move on – it was us or nothing. His left eye resembled a bleached Ping-Pong ball and the injury to his neck looked severe and  old, he’d experienced something awful, survived and made it here.

Over the three and a half years he was here, he suffered twice more with the remnants of those injuries and in 2010 suffered the further indignity of losing one of his back feet to a farmer’s unshielded mower blade. For six weeks I tended to him, four times a day. Of course he pulled through and seemed to blossom all the more! Even on three legs he could out-run the other dogs appearing like a canine ‘where’s Wally’ everywhere you looked, hill-top or valley floor. He always seemed to be there looking back at you, waiting for his photograph.

His temperament was the best I’ve seen in a dog, ever-alert and quick to raise the alarm of approaching strangers,  yet inquisitive and gentle with everyone – person or animal. When he needed treatment, although the pain must have been unbearable, he never cried or lashed out …… something the vet was amazed at. He wasn’t always on his best behaviour though, he had a sneaky habit of trying to commando-crawl through the hatch into the chicken pen to nick eggs and his periodic 4 a.m. barking marathons from the valley below were a particular turn-off!

But ultimately we had the most fantastic time together and we can only hope that the end – if there was an end, came quickly and painlessly. If not, we wish him well wherever he is.

He came out of nowhere, I guess it’s fitting he went back that way.

G’night Kelly-boy wherever you are.

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A mouse in the works

What with the mild winter and the vastly improved road surface, I’ve been lucky enough to use the Capo far more than previous winters. That has meant the Range Rover languishing in the corner. And that has been the cause of yet more trouble.

One man’s car is another mouse’s home, especially when it sits day-after-day slowly dropping to its bump-stops and enticing grass and weeds to grow through the wheels. So muncher-mouse duly set up home under the battery compartment lid and made a comfy nest – from the bonnet liner, cable insulation and some hoses!

The car still started and ran, but what a mess! So I served the little darling an eviction notice (waved a big fluffy chicken!) and took stock of the damage. All this meant a trip to town for spares, so on an obscenely sunny afternoon, I took the Capo for a whiz around Pescara.

Long-story-short, I got the bits I needed AND luck would have it, I got the last bit of aluminium chequer-plate (on sale!!) to finish off the capo pannier lid modifications I started a couple of years ago. I already had the marine grade stainless steel tie-down points and hardware on the shelf, but the plate just seemed to get forgotten each time we’d been in-store.

So the Range Rover got shiny new cables and pipes and the Capo got the topbox make-over I’d waited aeons to get around too. All-in-all, a tidy result.

Oh and the mouse? Last I heard it was doing impressions of a dog whistle at Mouseville!

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Bye bye Shorai

Let me start by saying that the Shorai is NOT a bad battery, it’s just not the right battery it seems for a large capacity V-twin. Yesterday, after persisting with it for several months, I finally admitted defeat – one last baulked start tipped me over the edge. I wanted, no, yearned for the comfort of the old and heavy lead-acid battery and its reliable starts-every-time performance.

So is it a faulty battery then?

The simple answer is no, but it is a battery that seems to be very temperature sensitive. With ambient temperatures over 15c I had no problems, but now with the temperatures waving between 3 and 15c it’s a different story. Stalled starter, slow starts and engine stalling several times before it runs reliably – all after a 5 minute wait while endeavoring to ‘wake’ the battery by burning off some current with the lights on (Shorai recommendation).

The battery was only ever charged on the bike or with the Shorai BMS-01 charger and over the last week or so I conducted a few tests on it. In a nutshell, this is a 6AHr battery that performs like an 18AHr – when warm. In truth it seems to perform more and more like the 6AHr battery it is as the temperature drops, the bottom line is that its internal resistance is very variable and removes any advantage the battery has at low temperatures.

Frankly it’s all too fiddly and unreliable. Of course I can only comment on one battery on one large CC Aprilia, it may be far more successful running  smaller or 3/4 cylinder motors. My guess is that this battery will find its niche in the enduro/track-day sector and not necessarily be suitable in its current form for four-season street riders.

I’m really disappointed this didn’t work out but pleased that Jim at AMI has taken everything I’ve said on board and is even now in constant communication with Shorai to try to improve the product. Let’s hope a Mk3 version is just around the corner.

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