Tango

I set off this morning on my usual route north of Narbonne and across past the Abbaye Fontfroide. Like last week the wind was howling again. It was partly sunny, but the wind also had a pretty keen edge to it, keeping the temperature in single figures (C) on the way up there.

I'd decided to head through Termenes Villerouge and on to the Château d'Arques, which is on the same road. It is an interesting road, winding though the western edge of the Corbieres, but as the road climbed the temperature dropped a bit, showing 7C at one point, but not really getting above 8.5C. The wind wasn't helping either.  Fortunately,  before I'd set off I had opted to put my winter jacket on, but only had bike jeans and summer gloves to go with it.

Anyway, some of the views towards the Pyrénées were stunning. Unfortunately there wasn't really anywhere to stop on that road to get any pictures.  Coming out of Arques village I spotted the Château.  I  went along to the carpark, but the Château was shielded from view by trees, so I headed back towards the village to get a shot of it across the fields.

I decided to carry on a bit further along that road, as I'd seen on the map that the D14 was on the left only a few more km's along the road and that road went through an old Roman Spa place and then through to more recent spa town of Rennes-les-Bains. It's quite a picturesque town, in a valley between some pretty high cliffs, but there wasn't really anywhere decent to stop, so I pressed on. 

The D14 loops back around and would take me past the Château Peyrepertuse and Château Quéribus,  which is a interesting road. So, as I made my way along there I came to the village of Cubières-sur-Cinoble. Just before getting into the village I spotted a signpost for a road off to my right, which said Gorges-de-Galamus 2km. The gorge was already on my radar as somewhere I wanted to visit and, being this close, it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss! Unfortunately, the photos that I got really don't do the place justice! A lot of the road there is pretty much single track, which has been carved into the cliff face! It twists and turns, following the face of the cliff, with occasional passing places. The wind was howling down the gorge, which made the drops over the low wall alongside the road pretty interesting! There was a café and parking area where the gorge opened out a bit, so I thought that I'd take the opportunity to stretch my legs and have a look back along the gorge. 

After my short stop I put home into the sat-nav,  but the routes shown were dropping down to Perpignan and back to Narbonne via the motorway or the RN, neither of which appealed.  So I decided to head back up the gorge and get back onto the D14, which was the route that is had originally planned on using. The trip back up the gorge was equally as exciting as the trip down, with gusts of wind really moving the bike around!

Back on the D14 the road was really nice, winding its way through the hills and villages. I stopped for a pee and a coffee from my flask just under the Château Peyrepertuse.  A small group of bikes came past and slowed to make sure that I was OK. So I gave them the thumbs up.

The rest of the journey back went pretty well, but the wind was still taking some of the pleasure out of the ride, and I'd realised that I was feeling pretty cold in my hands and feet, so it was definitely time to get back and warm up.

I don't know the distance,  but I'd estimate it was around 220-230km and I was out for just short of 5 hours.

We watched the two Rebel Moon films over the weekend.  They were so bad that they were entertaining! 

"Join our rebellion!"

"Why?"

"Because we want you to!"

"Oh, alright then"

Script- Poor

Continuity- Also poor!

Plot - Predictable!

Acting - Wooden!

All-in-all entertaining in a train wreck kind of way!

1 hour ago, Nute said:

Had that before. My mums car was in the garage for years as she hunt been able to drive for a long time. We decided to try to get it going and on pulling things apart found the air filter compartment full of something a squirrel or mice had spent ages stashing there.

I bought a Triumph Speed 4 from a guy who had bought it new, but barely ridden the thing. It all worked OK, but when I took the tank off to replace the air filter there was the remains of a mouse nest under the tank. The little buggers had gnawed a hole in the airbox too! Fortunately the hole wasn't too big, so I filled it with some plastic repair putty. 

2 hours ago, Nute said:

I have had an electrical fault on my car for months, actually it’s probably a couple of years now, the rev counter only works intermittently. To get it to work correctly I need to turn some lights on, any lights, doesn’t matter which, switch them on and it starts working. It even goes on/off in time with the indicators. 
I keep meaning to get to it to trace the issue but can’t be arsed to pull the dash off. Today might be the day

A bad earth somewhere? 

On 19/04/2024 at 16:35, boboneleg said:

What carbs does it have Bob ?  If they are Mikuni's (BST's) then the o rings perish where the float needle sits.  This causes the float bowl to overflow as the needle can't keep the float at the required level .

Actually,  Bob, I've just checked and it has Keihin carbs on it! CV's. I'm hoping that the problem is just the float height and I don't have to remove the carbs again,  as they're an arse to remove and refit!

1 hour ago, boboneleg said:

The problem I’m talking about isn’t with the actual needles but the o ring that sits in the seat. They fail and let the fuel past so that the float level rises.

If you’re doing the measure with the tubing and you find the level is wrong replace the o rings with viton items as they’re not affected by the shit fuel we have now .

 

 

Do you have a diagram of the carbs Bob? I've been using the Haynes manual, but it's not the most detailed! From what I could see, the float needles have a rubber/viton tip, which seats onto a machined seat? There was no sign of an o-ring in there from what I could see. The kits did have an o-ring of sorts in them, that I couldn't find a home for, these were not normal o-rings, but elongated, like if you stacked several o-rings on top of one another. 

14 hours ago, busabeast said:

i would have been but..... it was hospital time at 8pm and he was delivered at 8.25pm.

Both of them are doing very well, we've named him Leo, now that's enough dustbin lids for us, hopefully we will take him home Sunday morning. 

Congratulations mate. 

On 19/04/2024 at 16:35, boboneleg said:

What carbs does it have Bob ?  If they are Mikuni's (BST's) then the o rings perish where the float needle sits.  This causes the float bowl to overflow as the needle can't keep the float at the required level .

They are Mikuni's Bob, but I've fitted a carb rebuild kit to both, so they have new float needles. I operated the floats with the float bowls off to make sure that the fuel flow stops when I lift the floats, and that all seems to work OK. The floats themselves appear to be ok too. The float needles seem to move ok too, without sticking, so I'll put the float bowls back on and put some tubing on the float drains and see what level the fuel goes to.

Took Mandy's car in for its service today, and did our weekly shopping.

I think that the weekend will involve trying to sort the carbs out on her bike. I got it started last weekend,  but had fuel pissing out of the carb overflow pipe, so I need to faff about with the float heights. I did check the heights against the settings in the manual before I put them back together, but it looks like more work is needed. Mandy got some clear tubing from work, so I'll put the float bowls back on and check the levels with fuel in the system.

Anyone we know?

1 hour ago, XTreme said:

Is their warranty worth anything Bob?

I don’t know, Pete. But, going by your statement it'll be a Honda with the 5 year warranty!

35 minutes ago, XTreme said:

I like variety! 

Also, it's out of warranty now...... so a long manufacturer"s warranty period is great peace of mind. 

Cos this bike will be brand new. 

It's a Chinky! I knew it would happen eventually!

And now......some symphonic rock! 

Another South Wales band! 

A bit more Budgie!

5 hours ago, YamaHead said:

Joe with hair!