Motorcycle to Greece
Busy week getting the bike (and ourselves) ready for our trip to Greece. On Saturday we took at trial run today south of Milan to the foothills of the Apennines. We loaded the side boxes with tent and cooking kit and with some personal gear just to see how it handles. Beautifully, I might add. The bike is a Honda XL600v V-twin engine. I just fitted it with a 12V ciga-plug for charging camera and phone batteries. I am equipped to run our little tiny Sony laptop with our Nokia Cell phone for internet connection but I don’t think I am going to bring it with this time because we’ll only be going a couple of weeks, not long enough to miss it. Plus, it would just be another thing to worry about.
I have been putting together a tool kit. I have been doing my best to compromise between variety and maximization of space but ultimately I ended up packing more than I probably need. This week I changed the air filter. It was obvious that the last person to check/change it kind of bungled the replacement. I also changed the oil and filter and cleaned and gapped the spark plugs. This model has a model-specific spark plug key that we had to have special ordered because the trans-Alp tool kit that comes with it new didn’t come with it used. Being my first motorcycle and being used to working on cars, I found it strange to see that this two-cylinder has 4 spark plugs. I am not sure that is a normal thing. Luci helped me flush the brake system and find a place to get rid of the old fluids.
We go to Luci’s parents mechanic for our mechanical favors. Her mother says they over charge her so we don’t feel bad asking them for help from time to time. I have to say, they have saved us more then once. Most recently with the motorcycle. One of the side bags was missing a piece of the mounting hardware which is no longer available from the company that no longer exists. We knew we were going to have to have it made to order and spent a week looking for a machinist. Ultimately we went to the mechanic who hooked us up with his personal machinist. Plus, he took our old fluids.
All in all a very sound machine as far as I can tell. Sounds tip top aside from a slightly irregular idle when it is cold, which I attribute to either the carbs being a little out of synch or the valves out of adjustment or both. There is also a little bit of brown varnish oozing round the front carb that bothered me at first but after tightening a mounting screw it seems to have stopped.
Tomorrow, we drive to Venice and hop on the ferry for the 31hr trip to the Peloponnesus area of Greece. A deviation from our original plan of going to Sardinia but the Aegean beckons (plus Greece is cheaper than Italy). As some of you are avid bikers, any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Tags: Italia
Luke