Do you hear me now?

Will fill in later but I needed a place to host the pics of Operation Penta...
The first pic is just after I had stripped the old tweety box off... it came down in buckets.Then as I was about to start with assembly it rained again!



Took a pic of the old box forlornly laying in the puddle. The retaining ring is reused when installing the new pipie!Then I took some pics of the Penta, showing all the adjustment points it has as well as the use of Cap Screws throughout except the two nuts on the sliding adjuster, I replaced them with Nylock nuts by the way.

Now the new pipe!




One can see that my bolts did come loose but I had caught them in time...

The inner mounting is not used on the Penta installation.


Here one can also see the heat shield fitted to the Airbox to prevent burn through if one loses the slip joint retainer bolt. (not if loctite is used!).

Notice my jury rigged header retainer bolt... lost mine cos I skipped loctite on it! Thought it was tight enough! Fitted a new 8mm cap screw while doing the rest.

Note that to tighten this joint it is best to remove the brake reservoir to get at the bolt comfortably.Now I start re-assembly!First I pre fitted the Penta to get al the bits in alignment. Then I tightened the 3 cap screws on the retaining ring followed by the bolt on the frame as well as the 2 adjuster nuts.

Some of the tools needed will be 12mm socket and spanner, 10mm socket, 5mm Allen key, 6mm Allen key, Phillips screwdriver. The nylock nut on the back mounting was 13mm so get out the 13 spanner as well.


The Penta fitted and all fittings tight.

When all bolts and nuts have been tightened one can fire up the motor...

Notice the ripples on the puddle behind the bike... lotta air being moved now!
After that one puts the rest back...

The side cover clearance is a tad eina... I will be watching for any melting but to date the Penta has been cooler to the touch than the old box... so this may not be an issue.

As you can see it kept showering during the whole operation but it did clear up later for me to be able to do a run... and scare the beemer cages... :-)

I also noticed how badly my pillion footrest had been bent when the bike lay down on it's left side last week... will have to take it off and do some re-alignment in a vice using a rubber mallet methinks.

Then I put old tweety in a safe place... just in case...

"Motorbikes, unlike kids, should be both seen and heard." Unknown

By the seat of our pants

The route... Hoggies to Seymour via Mitchell's pass...
The mountain with a heart... just for US!

The pass goes down there.....
Getting ready to mount up for the next stop... one of many for various reasons as well!
Now where did the road go, this looks like the Roof of Africa!
A short while later on a really bad patch we got to test our ATTGAT gear... after getting out from under the bike, dusting ourselves off and checking that all parts both on us and the bike worked we decided to roll the bike over a bad patch...
A noob off roader... seasoned off roaders would have hurtled down here flat out... it did get better later on as I got the hang of gunning it through obstacles... I have more confidence in my gear after dropping Shrek three times... or was it four! So a fall would not be too bad as I kept the speed pretty low, using lower gears to brake downhill and to scoot out of slippery bits. I am getting better at this dirt stuff but without the proper gear it would have been very painful.
Here one can see the busted clutch lever from the last "drop"... need to add that to my carry on spares next time.
and here is a KLR solution... use a tool as a spare part. (axle spanner lever) It works pretty well by the way.
a Much needed respite from a very hot and sweaty decent.
From here the road re-appeared and was quite fun to ride, we decided to return to Hoggies via Fort Beaufort and Alice. I was not up to facing more of this type of road for one day.

Of course we were very glad that we had Guardian Angels looking over us, we will be more carefull next time as I think they worked overtime this trip!
"Remember that nobody will ever get ahead of you as long as he is kicking you in the seat of the pants." Walter Winchell (1897 - 1972)

Happy Valley

No Clouds... Yipee! We ride today.
This bunch of moo's have never seen a KLR before and cam rushing down the pasture as we stopped to take some pictures.
Contented moo's in Happy Vally... a very interesting ride on the way to Cathcart.
a Contented KLR in Happy Vally.
Today we ventured out on a slightly more adventurous trip, taking the R345 to Cathcart and then diverting through the Happy Vally, not a road for when it rains as it had very muddy and clay like sections, but by this time had dried out well and made a good surface. This must be cow heaven, I have never seen so many contented looking cows in my life. Moondancer of course had to check them for ticks... I never saw any by the way...
We had Coke and fruit cake in Cathcart and returned via the R345, catching up with 3 other bikes on the way to Hoggies. This was a great ride and my dirt confidence is growing...
"The ideal life is in our blood and never will be still. Sad will be the day for any man when he becomes contented with the thoughts he is thinking and the deeds he is doing -- where there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger, which he knows that he was meant and made to do."
Phillips Brooks (1835 - 1893)

The Hogs

Geared up for our first ride at Hoggies!
The Hogsback mountains...
a KLR and the Amatolas...
Above Hobbiton on Hogsback.
The lower steps of 39 Steps...
The rest of 39 Steps.
Up the road we go!
First dirt! Now the bike is happy...
And the rain returns!
Our first ride here at Hogsback was all along one of the forest roads, had magnificent views when I stopped, otherwise I was doing my best to keep us on the road. We had great fun and even had to manoeuvre the bike through a locked gate... show me a 4x4 that could do that!
Our hosts M and JD are great by the way so it was a pleasure to help out with some of the maintenance around the place. Got to sing for our supper!Always watch where you are going. Otherwise, you may step on a piece of the "Forest that was left out by mistake." Pooh's Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

Sand in my shoes

At last... here comes the sun!
Shades of Blue, White and Green... on our way to Gonubie for a taste of sea air.
First things first... breakfast!
The beach and lagoon was the place to be...
Then we headed for Haga Haga to hook up with friends...
All the sand made me think of Dido's song Sand In My Shoes...
Two weeks away it feels like the world should've changed
But I'm home now
And things still look the same
I think I'll leave it to tomorrow till unpack
Try to forget for one more night
That I'm back in my flat on the road
Where the cars never stop going through the night
To real life where I can't watch sunset
I don't have time
I don't have time

[Chorus:]
I've still got sand in my shoes
And I can't shake the thought of you
I shake it all, forget you
Why, why would I want to
I know we said goodbye
Anything else would've been confused but I wanna see you again

Tomorrow's back to work down to sanitation
should've run back ?? before I left here
Try to Mama show her that I was happy here
Before I knew that I could get on the plane and fly away
From the road where the cars never stop going through the night
To real life where I can't watch sunset
And take my time
Take up our time

[Chorus]

I wanna see you again
Two weeks away, all it takes to change in time around by falling
I walked away and never said that I wanted to see again

[Chorus x2]

I wanna see you again
I wanna see you again


All in all a brilliant sunny day, hopefully we can get out and about on the bike tomorrow and do some Hoggies exploring.
"The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone." George Eliot (1819 - 1880)

Boxed in

Still no sign of sunshine...
The steps up to the rest of the establishment...

Four days of rain can be a bit much, I am itching to go exploring on Shrek but in the meantime we will chill out and wait for the weather to clear. The quite and peacefullness is what one needs on Boxing day. Most of us spent time reading, listening to music and browsing the web... we are spoiled with having an ASDL wireless network... you could blog from the bath if you wanted to! So being online I was able to look up why it is called Boxing day.
Boxing Day is so called because on this day it was the customary for tradesmen to collect their Christmas boxes or gifts in return for good service throughout the year. Also, it included giving money and other gifts to charitable institutions, and the needy.

The holiday may date from as early as the Middle Ages, but the exact origin is not known. It may have begun with the Lords and Ladies of England, who gave Christmas boxes/gifts to their servants on December 26, or maybe by priests, who opened the church's alms (charity boxes), and distributed the contents to the poor and needy.

I trust you all had a Blessed Christmas out there...
"Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. It falls on December 26th, which is also St. Stephen's Day.
St. Stephen was a little known saint who achieved eternal fame by being the first Christian to be martyred for his faith, and he met his death by stoning."