Well well what a year !! Need to try and update this blog more , and im going to make a concious effort to do so, it will however involve blogging about my other hobbies too, flying RC Helicopters, Making my own beer , and Fishing !!!!

So stay tuned for some more madness from The Navanman

Heres a video from an Irish rap crew from Limerick Citaaaaaaaaay ! Their called the Rubber Bandits and this track is called Horse Outside !! A boy de kid !!

Well were do I begin …. On Tuesday night I rode my present TLR for what will probably be the last time … a friend had an absolutely mint Suzuki GSXR1000K8 for sale ! She is a beauty , we struck a deal, he’d take my TL as a trade in as he always wanted one but never had the chance … Well he has a cracker now I know Len will look after the old girl , and I can take her for a spin any time I might like too, but it’s his TL now and I hope it brings him as much joy and thrills as it did to me. So now I have moved up in the 1 Litre superbike world ! Some might say I’ve now reached the top of the mountain as the K8 is one of the best bikes Suzuki has ever built … We will see – but for now I have no TLR but my love affair with them will never end ….

Its been so long since i updated this blog, my poor TL is still in peices, i have all the plastics now to finish the job and put her back together but ashamedly since i bought the SV back in February i have not spent much time on it at all, other than to start it twice an month and tale it for a spin up the road to blow out the cobwebs. As part of my post germany crash program of learning hoe to ride my bike properly i decided to do a track day !!! This was my first trackday in 9 years, I have been to many race events at mondello park in recent years but I never took my bike out on the track.

We have only one motorcycle closed ciruit in the republic of Ireland, there are some more in the north of Ireland, Kirkistown etc but in the south its Mondello for most of us. Check out www.mondello.ie for more info ont he circuit. Its not cheap at 175 euros for a full day but the international circuit has played host to the British Superbike Championship on 2 occasions and numerous Irish events through out the racing calendar. So on the 26th of September I headed for the Circuit, full of butterflies and apprehension with the mindset of enjoying the day, learning what i could in a day and of course not falling off

I booked into the novice group thinking there would be loads more guys like me who would be finding their feet on track, what i had forgotten waas that it was an open track day hich meant ot was for road and race machines, the mondello masters was on the following weekend and a lot fo the domestic racers were there in force for final setup and practice ! I have a sneaky suspicion one or 2 went out in the novice group as the intermediate and advanced group were fully booked from an early stage. As i sat in pitlane waiting for the marshalls to let us out and the circuiit lights to go green for our first session of the day i was shitting bricks, im so glad my leathers are a one pice suit cause there would have been quite a mess. So off we went, me of course off the racing line going nice and easy to get some heat into my tyres, it was a nice dry day with air temperatures inthe region of 16 Degrees Celcius, so we had 2 parade laps do to speak and then all hell broke loose, i was trying to remember what we were told in the briefing ” dont worry about the guy behind you , he has to pass you safely ..just worry about the guy infront of you ” I was being passed on the inside of corners and on the outside … it was crazy and scary as hell, at the end of the sessin i was lapped by a few of the guys.

The second session was more of the same but i started to find my way around and the speed increased accordingly, i had gotten soem tips from a fellow novice about the my feet position on the pegs, i had my heels ont he tip of the pegs and my toes were scraping the ground on one or two occasions and scared the crap out of me, so i addressed that in this session , and no more toe scraping… event hough my Alpine Stars SMX boots have good toe sliders !  As is always the way with trackdays i really found my mojo in the last 2 sessions, i was not being passed as much and in the last session i even managed to pass another rider – SUCCESS

Imdeifnatly looking forward to doing more trackdays next season, I know they are expensive but if i stay off the beer 2 weekends in the month i will be able to afford one  possibly 2 trackdays a month …who knows by this time next year i might even get the knee down !

Heres a picture of me in one of the afternoon sessions just coming through honda corner at the end of the main straight, i really make my SV1000 look small no ??

Get yer Arse off the seat and Lean Baby !!!!

Look forward to more posts form me now im in a good place and frame of mind to do them ! Im even considering selling off the plastics for my TLR and turning it into a streetfighter TLR, since the ecnomoy turned bad here in Ireland no one has any money and second hand motorcycle sales are abismal ! So it makes no sense to try and sell my TLR and get a younger one , so im going to keep it, this project would be something nice for the winter …. HMMMMMMM Dominator Headlights I hear you say ??? Till the nest time – Ride Safe !!

Gerry

Well I decided to buy this SV ! I had been watching it in the classifed section of  the irish biker forum since october last year, watching the asking price slowly but surely drop ! So when the priced dropped massivly last thursday i made the phone call, went to see the bike and layed down some green backs to secure a deal. George the former owner dropped the bike to my house on friday night

2005 Suzuki K5 SV1000S, Yoshimura 2 into 1 exhaust, Power Commander 3, Double Bubble screen, Givi Rack, Sliders, Braided brake and clutchlines and its in fantastic condition ! Just 10,000 miles on it – im delighted with it , the yoshi can sounds great , it has a real bark LOL

Im still putting the TLR back together, we have had a lot of snow and very very cold weather here in Ireland over the past 2 weeks so it hasnt been weather to be out doors working on a bike, but – we will get there and have the TLR back on the road soon !!!

I Love twins ... Big Rumbly Loud 1 Litre Twins !!!!

Finally I have started work on getting my TLR back on the road, I took me 4 months to find a suitable fron fairing at a non rip off price !!!! a nice man in the UK sold me his for a satifying 50 Euros !!! All Hail Ebay

On saturday I spent a few hours on the bike, I changed the plugs, oil and air filter and of course the Oil ! 3.3 Litres of glorious synthetic Silkoline 10W40 for my baby …. judging by the state of the oil that came out of it it certainly needed some quality Lube and TLC !

I had planned on replacing the front brake pads and front and rear wheel bearings but the weather turned and i had to put the bike back under covers again Im hopefull that this saturday I will get this essential stage of the rebuild completed, Im also going to replace the head stock and top yoke bearings , the bike is now nearly 11 years old and its time to chuck out the old and bring in the new.

Heres a pic of her on the paddock stands !! More updates to follow …also some info of my proposed HID headlight conversion …bye bye shitty night time driving :-)

Cant beat those Micron paddock stands

I have not updated the site for quite a while now as many of you have noticed ! it seemed once I had rebuilt my bike after the fire that that was that , no more mods to do ? Well I thought that too. I was in Sangerhausen in Germany , September 2nd to September 9th on the world fmaous Dutch Afikiktoer 2008 , a fantastic tour organised by 3 great Dutch guys on roads which have been hand picked to provide the maximum riding experience, a wonderful mix of twisties and cross country treks to warm the heart of the hardened Superbike enthusiast. My Journey was a little longer than the rest of the group as I had to first get to mainland Europe from Ireland ! This meant me leaving 2 days before everyone else. I left Dublin Port on wednesday the 2nd September ont he Stena Explorer bound for holyhead in North Wales, I then had to make my way down to Harwich just north of London to catch another ferry late that evening to Hoek van Holland !!! I did over 550 Kilometres in the pissing rain – NOT NICE !!! I was so happy to get out of my wet leathers on the huge Stena Hollandica overnight sailing and get some sleep, not before a few pints of good old fashioned Body Lotion to wash away the grim and smog of over 500kms of motorway bordom …..   to make a long story ver very short on friday the 5th of Septmber whilst traversing the Kuyffhause region near Wippra in old East Germany I had an off, i lost control of the bike turning into a right hand bend and by the time i managed to straighten the bike and myself out I was into an Armco barrier. The barrier was none to pleased with my interuption of it s day and proceeded to tear a large chunk out of my left leg – the bike didnt like this either so it then proceeded to throw me over the barrier in to the gully below the road som 15 metres below the Armco… all i remember after impact was all these green leaves spinning around and around and around as i flew through the air like a leather superman !!  Imidiatly i felt serious pain all over, then within in second i felt nothing … ADRENALIN RUSH BAABY I managed to get to my feet , i could still here the bike running above me on the road, at this stage the person I was following ,Marika from Utrecht in Holland had turned back to find me, she had seen me hit the barrier and go into the trees, she was terrified …. i walked over to the bike and turned off the engine and then she pointed at my leg and there was blood pouring out of it on to my leathers and my boots …. the cut was bad , i had bearly missed an artery but managed to rip part of my leg muscle, then all hell broke loose, cars stopped , ambulance called, a german couple wrapped me in a NASA Space blanket thing, gave me water yada yada yada … then some more guys in the group who were behind me caught up and stopped to offer support and to make sure I was OK, to be honest I got scared shitless … I thought once I had hit the Armco that this was it no more Navanman …. I never felt the barrier cut me, but some discussions with the guys after i got back fromt he hospital having been repaired by a very competent surgeon, 30 something stiches both superficially and internal ones , the guys reckon it may have been a branch of a tree that did the damage as i hit it  …. I have loads of pictures – quite sick i know , of the incident … but here is onei will cherish for the rest of my life … When the paramedics got there the first thing they wanted to do was cut me leathers off – NN NO NO I said and mange to take them off even though they were blood soaked and torn open , this meant that once the hospital was happy enough for me to go back tot he hotel I had no trousers to wear …so we improvised, I have a great pair of legs ( from my rugby days ) and was only to happy to have the nurses fashion me a ” Surgical Kilt ” perfect for an Irish Warrior like me …so here it is, another post will  follow with thank yous and what i need to do tot he bike to get it running properly again – its wrth noting i rode the bike back to ireland to complete the tour, on the way back my holland – harwich ferry landed at 8pm I got off the ferry at 9pm – I had to catch a ferry in north wales at 02.00AM the next morning so I had to do another 550 kms in less than 5 hours , the bike never let me down and i made it to holyhead with 45minutes to spare …and yes my leg hurt like hell !!! Its taken 6 weeks for the leg to heal and i have not ridden the bike since ….

Its a well known fact that one of the biggest design flaws of the TLR was the hydraulic rotary rear damper – this was a complicated system designed by Suzuki as a real alternative to the traditional centre mounted mono shock. A great idea in theory but in practice it just did not work !! With the roatry system and when pushing the bike hard thrrough corners the swing arm had a hard time keeping up. The stock POS was just to slow.

Fortunatly all is not lost, there are a few shock manufacturers who make kits for the TLR, Ohlins, Bitubo and Penske to name but a few. The Penske and Ohlins units are hard to find and very expensive ! A high quality and good performance alternative is the italian made  Bitubo Rear shock. This a fully adjustable shock with a seperate resevoir which replaces both spring and rotary damper unit onthe bike, ohlins and penkse only replace the rotary part.

The Bitubo unit weighs tonnes less than the stock damper and it works brilliantly, set up is real easy and the necessary guide and tools are supplied in the box from the factory !

Heres a pic of the shock on the bike

heres a pic i borrowed from www.tlplanet.com – the bitubo unit versus the stock unit !!!!

This great shock is available in group buys on both www.tlzone.net and www.tlplanet.com

Get yourself a winner !!!

Lets face it – the TLR is an old school machine, and as a result has some old school parts, like the SRAD Gauge cluster seen in older GSXR750′s and 600′s ..One of the coolest mods you can do to your TLR is to swap out the antique instrument panel and replace it with a modern digital panel. I used a panel from a K2 Gixxer 1000. This mod does require some rewiring of the headlight harness as the signals sent from the TLRs ECU are different to that of a Gixxer one. This loom modification takes about 20 minutes, its best fo you aquire a spare loom to do the rewire in case you ever want to go back to the old gauge for fault code reading etc. Everything works as it should ont he Gixxer gauge except for the water temperature sensor, againt his is a wiring issue and hopefully some day i will work it out, for now though i operate my radiator fans on a switch. If im sittign in traffic for a prolonged period i turn on the fans manually.

Check out this picture of the stock POS Gauge and then compare it to the new GIxxer cluster below – Gixxer wins hands down !!!

Very little modification is required to the stock gauge / headlight holder to accomodate the Gixxer gauge !

And now everything back together – looks cool huh ??

You can find Gixxer 1000 gauges on ebay for as little as 100 Euros, a spare headlight harness which will need to be rewired can be had for as little as 20 Euros !!!