Being so pi$$ed of the weather at Kemora, we decided to go to Ahvenisto on saturday. Excellent decision. Free practice for the whole day, just a handful of bikes and cars attending, perfect weather. All this for 40 EUR. Approx. 150 km’s of riding done during 5 hours.

We were so fast, we didn’t get any pictures. ( or somebody forgot the camera..)

Time to ride on a track again, this time 2 full days!! and on a track where I’ve never ridden before!! and we’re going on a trailer, so we can concentrate fully on riding and not be tired from the ride to the track, which is nearly 300km. (or was it even more?)

Here we are, the usual suspects, waiting to get on the track.

…and here’s the result next morning.

$hit, it rained the first day on and off, I got to ride a total of maybe 15 laps. Bugger. the next morning the weather wasn’t getting better so we decided to call it a day, at 9:30 in the morning.

Maybe we’ll have better luck on saturday at Ahvenisto? I’ll have to replace my rear tire before that, it’s finished.

Oh, you guessed it, no sign of any new battery, yuasa or other. What do you have to do these days to get service?? geeez!!

I know Italian bikes are known for bad electrics. This is getting on my nerves… Finally I thought I would get to the bottom of this bad starting stuff, so I had my battery checked by a batterydealer, diagnose: bad battery. When under heavy load, the voltage dropped to 10V and under… Battery was under 2 years old Varta. On monday I’ll have a new Yuasa.

If that doesn’t help, next stop is the alternator/generator and/or the rectifier/regulator. —> $$$$!!

Other maintenance news: changed oil in the Öhlins steering damper.

Here’s how you do it; Unscrew all the three caps that can be opened, pour out all of the old oil, or what’s left of it, pour in new oil (I used ATF) from each hole (one at a time…) and check for sounds of air bubbles during piston movement. Once you get no sound, there is no air.

The trick to get the seal off the shaft’s open end is to increase the damping to max and pushing it out with the piston and the pressure generated by the oil. At least that’s how I got it.

No other pics, except for this, from the Öhlins www-site.

Here’s a link to the pdf.

Took her out for a ride today, damn it was hot! +26C, maybe even more in direct sunlight, virtually no wind.

all waxed up and posing

ready to go.

Maybe I should take pictures from the left side too?

Oh, by the way; the odo passed 35,000 kms today. Is it time for engine overhaul yet? (oops, now I’ve done it…. )

Added a new connector with longer cables and here it is.

Now that the cables are longer, the connector doesn’t lie behind the battery anymore, now it sits nicely on top of the belt cover.

You should have seen the mess att my yard… luckily I have no pics of it.

Waxing and test drive still to be done. And maybe secure the connector with a cable tie, just to be sure?

Yesterday I checked my clutch, swapped places of a few steelplates and turned the frictionplates around.

Today I decided to check, just for the fun of it, the belts. They are already 15,000 km old. ( and because of Ben’s [ http://www.powerwheelie.de ] bad luck..)

As you all know, the battery and the battery tray have to be removed, in order to gain access tot the front cylinder’s belt cover.

Well, here’s what I found:

WTF?

Check the frame!!

One of the wires is cut, pointing towards the camera.

I guess this is one of the infamous things that should be checked on all 916/996 bikes. But I only thought this problem is with the 2-phase alternator, not the newer 3-phase? Oh, well. I’ll swap the connectors to sealed AMP’s.
In early spring I did check these connections, sprayed connection cleaner and so on, but it seems that it wasn’t enough. Better check your stuff mid-season as well.

The belts were looking great, by the way…

To check the rear belt, I only removed the middle cover and everything looked fine there, too.