Hi all, just finished a tour of 2600km, alone on my Skorpion Tour. Belgium, France, Switserland and Italy until the Chianti area, 30 minutes below Florence.
3 days up, 2 days rest in Greve in Chianti and 3 days back. about 400-500 km a day. Quality time on the bike and in the stop places.
It was a great experience. I can recommend it to everybody. My machine and I....
In the preparation of the trip, there were some adaptations done to the motorbike:
- Rearview mirrors mounted to the handlebars. Best mirrors I had.
http://www.benl.ebay.be/…/Lenkerendenspiegel-…/311592261373…
- Front sprocket size increased from 15 to 16, new rear sprocket size 43 and a new chain
- Silent hektik coil
- PUIG windscreen to protect the gauges and GPS
http://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/401039254629…
- Hepco& Becker rack and cases (expensive but good)
- OXFORD First Time Luggage Tankbag Strap-On 18L (cheap and good)
- new rear tire diabolo rosso 2
- Tomtom one GPS mounted on the glass of the rev counter. the top of the needle stays visible this way in the area that counts.
- brakefluid was replaced
- rear indicators replaced by led
- New horn. http://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/371473434942…
- Cigaret lighter installed, directly connected to the battery (via a fuse) Handy for powering GPS and for charging the battery...
Others:
- personalised earplugs
- MJK black leather trousers and jacket.
- Daytona boots
- UVEX helmet
During tanksstops and breaks, the tankbag proved very usefull. It contained stuff I needed for having a coffee ot lunch, the GPS and mobile phone, small change and a wallet and a fleece coat.
The rest of the stuff was safely in the cases. the tankbag zips off easily. I sound like a marketeer of Oxford stuff. I am not.
What went wrong during the tour?
1. Rear brake locked up in a decent before the Grimsel pass. I had never driven a bike in these mountains and learned the hard way better not to touch the rear brake. After a cooldown of seconds
it freed up again, but felt spongee the rest of the trip. Didn't touch it anymore, or hardly.
2. I tanked "bad" fuel, Engine started to run erratic 400 meter after a tankstop, I immediate suspected the fuel, but before contaminating the earth by trashing it, I checked the ignition, the
carburettor (Could not drain the floatchamber because the philipsscrew was worn out) . It was raining so also water could have had something to do with it. I checked the fuel filter at the tap:
Clean. After these checks, my last chance was bad fuel. I dumped it and did a refill. And bingo. Engine working again. Still wondering whether I tanked diesel in stead of petrol. I will never know.
Apparantly diesel would sink, so the smell in the tank would still be from the remaining petrol. So confusing.
3. Battery went dead. After the 2 days of rest, the battery was not able to start the engine. I started it using a battery of a car and went of. Same problem the day after. I parked the bike on the top
of a slope, so I could start it rolling down. Looked for a motordealer in Locarno. I found a honda dealer. I went by the place and I had the battery replaced in 30 minutes. Very friendly and helpful
guy of Ranzoni moto. http://web.ticino.com/ranzonimoto/. He confirmed that the charging system was still ok and that the problem was the battery. (still wondering whether the key contact switch
is leaking current ....)
4. Right front indicator broke off due to the vibrations. Ductape fixed that.
So basically no big issues. The battery problem could have been avoided because I knew there was something wrong with it before taking off for the tour.... I was too optimistic. And Murphy is
everywere.
Fuel consumption: about 5.2l/ 100km, improving when I started revving the engine higher (advise from William Jurgenson). I basically came back in 4th gear. 5th gear as overdrive in long downward
pieces of highway. Driving through Italy in 4th gear was very relaxing. Speed about 110 kph. Going up and down the hills without having to switch gear. And the power going up was sooo good. And so was the braking power going down .
Oil consumption on the complete trip: 0,5 liter
Coolant: stable.
Vibrations. We all know that a monocylinder vibrates. But the vibration depends on the RPM. I avoid the RPMs were vibration is higher. (Resonance?) But somtimes vibration was bad all over the RPM range. I don't know what was causing this. Bad fuel? Running too lean for some reason? I can imagine that at low fuel levels in the tank the engine starts running leaner and "harder". In any case, after a refill the vibration problem went away. Advice from the experts is appreciated.
Wind: Because of the cases (especially the top case I reckon), more sensitivity to heavy crosswind.
My tour in short. We like to discuss technicalities here, not so much tourist matters I suppose.
Day 1: Antwerp - Liege- Luxembourg - Metz - Nancy - Gerardmer - Col de la schlucht - Munster. The Ardennes and the Vosges are fantastic to drive trough. Plenty of possibiities to refuel.
Day 2: Munster- Mullhouse - Basel - Luzern - Grimsel pass - Simplon pass - Lago Maggiore (Arona). Grimsel pass was in rain and on on the top there was fog and rain (visibility about 50 meter). But Simplon pass was perfect. Nice road on the Suisse side, not so good road on the Italian side.
Day 3: Arona - Milano - Bologna - Florence - Chianti. Absolutely boring road between Milano and Bologna. I would take an alternative next time. Nice little roads between Florence and Greve in Chianti. Fun!
Day 4 and 5 Resting near a swimming pool with the family. Very good!
Day 6: Chianti - Florence - Pisa - Genova - Alessandria - Arona - Connobio. Beautiful road. Bit of traffic on the Florence ringroad. Beautiful scenery. On the road to Alessandria and Arona the white Alp tops are visible and inviting.
Day 7: Connibio - Locarno - Gothard pass - Luzern - Basel - Colmar: Just an amazing day. Perfect weather and visibility. Impossible to describe.
Day 8: Colmar - Saint-Die - Nancy - Metz - Longwy - Arlon - Brussels - Antwerp. Queues on the Brussels ringroad. Very little tank possibilities between Metz and Longwy.
Happy to have done it and back home in 1 piece and with the bike in good condition.