2016 National Meet

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Day 1 Adelaide to Warrnambool


The day started stinking hot, it was over 25 degrees when I left Adelaide at 6:00am, the first few hours where boring main highways but good road surface, onec I crossed into Vic the scenery was better, a few corners but the roads were shit, ruts over a foot deep in some places. By the time I got to Warrnambool I was riding in light showers, soon after I checked in it rained steadily for a few hours

Well the last of the travellers made it home to Tassie this morning at 8am.  



Little bit of overheating that was solved by blocking the bypass tube of the expansion tank and a new radiator cap, but decided to keep it on the flat instead of doing the hills with Madmax and Chook, so scooted round the bottom of the Grampians and did a bit of touring of coastal SA and Vic.



Traveled some rough roads and by the time I got to Apollo Bay had some pretty strange noises - ended up lost the seal on my newly installed Busa rear shock, the tail had dropped over 100mm.  Travelled all the way home with the rear end bottoming out on every bump, luckily I still have the original Bandit shock to put back in whilst this one gets a new seal kit and re-gassed.

But the last night under the stars at Apollo Bay Caravan Park ($25 for unpowered site) calmed the nerves until I had to travel through Melbourne traffic.



Thanks to all those we met along the way, particularly Chook and MM for the help and organising everything, now to start the repairs......

A couple of non race shots from the Island:




(This speaker mysteriously developed a fault after an unnamed Forum member was admiring the scenery)

Great stuff Barry, glad to hear you and Willow are home safe.

Good too hear you got home safe, reckon that busa shock was failing some time earlier as the rear end was very soft.

So no more fluid loss after the "fix"?

Well done Barry and Willow. Hope you had as good a time as we did. That was one hell of a trip..

ps.   Did Willow notice anything different when she got home. I imagine she would.

Yes it is a little strange here without the big grey fellow, but mum and Leroy had big smiles as we drove up the drive - Leroy appreciated the odor of Willow and I but mum was a little unsure of the smell.

The overheating fixes seemed to work well, no more loss of green fluid, topped up with 150ml in the expansion tank just to get it to the low mark, but the radiator was full. Don't know why the Suzuki engineers thought it was a good idea to bypass the expansion tank, at least they put it right for the latter models. Pretty sure the main issue was the cap - being 9 years old the rubber looked a bit compressed to me. Mind you, after the last two weeks I reckon I can whip the tank off in under 30 seconds.

I think you were right about the softness in the rear end MM, it should have been much firmer - live and learn as they say, now to find out how to refurbish it. Speaking with the Spares Part fellow at Stephen's in Geelong he said the shocks can be regassed and seal kits put through them. He also mentioned they can also be shortened, so that would solve the problem with getting different dog bones.

A shame you had a few problems Barry. How did the new light upgrade go?

Worked a treat - until the rear end started sagging, then the local koalas had to start wearing sunnies   They survived better than the rear shock, nothing came off and they still work so that's something, great cutoff line, no splash over or light spill.  Other on here that were at PI might want to give their impressions of them, I'm a little biased having worked on them for so long.

Ended up wiring them up so only having the top projector on during the day, and having the second on at night via a dash switch.

Got a bit of moisture on the inside of the lens because the reseal didn't line up too well as I rushed it not wanting to get too much heat on the lens.  I was thinking of reheating the assembly and trying to reclamp it tighter for a better seal, but then realised the assembly is not totally sealed anyway with the rubber boots on the back.  So I think I might just try one of those silica gel desiccant packets in the back.  The hot weather got rid of the moisture in a day or two anyway (or maybe it was the HID heat ?).

Barry, the publican's wife and the cleaner were both devastated they didn't get to see Willow in the sidecar, glad you had a good time in Robe though, it's a beautiful part of SA

barry_mcki wrote:Worked a treat - until the rear end started sagging, then the local koalas had to start wearing sunnies   They survived better than the rear shock, nothing came off and they still work so that's something, great cutoff line, no splash over or light spill.  Other on here that were at PI might want to give their impressions of them, I'm a little biased having worked on them for so long.

Ended up wiring them up so only having the top projector on during the day, and having the second on at night via a dash switch.

Got a bit of moisture on the inside of the lens because the reseal didn't line up too well as I rushed it not wanting to get too much heat on the lens.  I was thinking of reheating the assembly and trying to reclamp it tighter for a better seal, but then realised the assembly is not totally sealed anyway with the rubber boots on the back.  So I think I might just try one of those silica gel desiccant packets in the back.  The hot weather got rid of the moisture in a day or two anyway (or maybe it was the HID heat ?).

well...at least with the lights pointing to the tree tops, you can watch for the drop bears, which are rife through out OZ, you know how they`ll rip your throat out if they fall, and land on you!!!
(this is a word of warning for our international guests)

Can I ask how well you secured the projector lights??

The reason I ask is, as the Gen2`s have projectors, they have had their fair share of problems..
One being: (which you shouldn`t have a problem with, in your set up) is they are/were renowned for getting a film of dust on the glass lens, due to them microscopically vibrating over time, and due to this, caused wear on the mounting surfaces creating dust. I`ve had mine pulled apart so many times, I`ve lost count, but ended up putting a film of silicon on the mating surfaces to stop this, and it has finally stopped the dust.
The second problem I`ve encountered is: The screws holding the projectors in place, were coming loose, as projector units themselves, are a relatively heavy thing, and vibrating loose.  I had to use a medium strength Loctite to stop them coming loose.
You may have already secured them well, but just a thought if you haven`t done that. Not saying your going to have them come loose but possible.

The Projector bodies are relatively heavy as you have indicated, and I wasn't that sure myself about the silicon grommet and large nut holding everything in place over time.  

Because I'm not securing the projectors to the plastic reflector there is no micro-vibration that causes that fine dust you mentioned, so hopefully that will not be an issue.  

As you can see in the photos I also installed two long screws from each projector body through the alloy plate, this has 2 advantages, it provides extra support to carry the weight, and it also allowed me some minor left right/up down calibration.The alloy plate is also quite thick that adds in the stability.  Once I was happy with the alignment the three nuts (one either side of the alloy plate and one at the back of the projector) on each long bolt was loctite'd in position.   I also used three black self tapping screws to hold each silver shroud to the projector body as I've heard these can come off if just glued/press fitted.  Here are some other views of how the projectors are mounted:




I ended up using straight D2S bulb connectors instead of these red & Black 90° units, they allowed the original rubber boots to go back on without too much hassle.

The area I was unsure of was how good the original three Bandit adjusting screws would be at holding the complete assembly, but I did put in new nylon block nuts that these screw into so there was a tight fit. Seems to be okay so far and it's been through a pretty rough testing regime without any movement of parts falling off.

Well done Barry.
I`ve been procrastinating so long to do my mod, but happy with the Gen2`s Hid conversion as is.
I guess I`ll procrastinate a bit more, with both my car and my bike.

PS..I`ve re-read about the micro-vibration, and I was referring to the "glass lens itself", and the way its mounted in the projector body,
not the projector body mounts. The glass lens vibrates against the projector alloy body, creating fine dust. I put a film of silicon on the body mating surface, to act as a damper, and allowed it to dry, then put the glass lens back in place.

BMW Barry's only memory of thew whole week! And no wonder he missed the shot on the 8 ball to win - he never had a chance. 

And then drowned his sorrows with a nice glass of cheese juice and went to bed 

Ewok1958 wrote:

BMW Barry's only memory of thew whole week! And no wonder he missed the shot on the 8 ball to win - he never had a chance. 

This rates as one of your best posts ever.  

Yeh that's my excuse too   BMW Barry is a top guy no matter what anyone says. Even if he doesn't ride a bandit

reddog wrote: BMW Barry is a top guy no matter what anyone says. Even if he doesn't ride a bandit

x 2, enjoyed his company (I'm sure my snoring was as bad as his  ) at the Island and also the 1st Day and a half of the Alps tour.

His "not a Bandit" is a nice bike for something Bavarian, even the other "not a Bandit" grew on me over the 5 or 6 days

Chook wrote:

reddog wrote: BMW Barry is a top guy no matter what anyone says. Even if he doesn't ride a bandit

x 2, enjoyed his company (I'm sure my snoring was as bad as his  ) at the Island and also the 1st Day and a half of the Alps tour.

His "not a Bandit" is a nice bike for something Bavarian, even the other "not a Bandit" grew on me over the 5 or 6 days

 Just wait till you ride one