The screen experiment continues

Living with my Tiger

Aside from experimenting with the screen this month, I've used the bike to commute to work, a distance of 17 miles each way. Not a great distance but it involves country lanes, A roads, duel carriageways and city riding, a nice mix.

On my way home on 16th it was pouring with rain, which showed up a leak in my Hein Gericke jacket around my stomach. This is not that surprising as I've had them for 8 years or so.

When I bought #Tallulah in September 2018, I rode her home 160 miles in torrential downpours and Thunderstorms wearing the same kit and managed to keep dry.

Shortly after that they began to leak, so I bought some Nikwax Tech Wash and re-proofed it. It seemed to work fine and to be fair, the trousers are still waterproof. The Jacket sadly, is not.

I do have a waterproof over suit I can use if I need to, but the idea of waterproof textiles is that they are waterproof. I'll have to think on that one.

That aside, the bike is running quite smoothly, despite coming up to her 1-year service.

The screen experiment continues

I had a bit more time this weekend, being the bank holiday, so took a few hours to make a better job of raising the screen off the fairing. This time, I used my original smoked screen, together with the spoiler.

Using the same bolts as for the first attempt, I've now reused the original washers and cut the bolts down so they are a better fit.

This time I cut the fuel pip which I'm using as spacers to a more accurate 15mm for the bottom spacers and 20mm for the top. The results look much better, but could be improved by using nylon spacers, as seen on the latest Triumph Tigers.

I've yet to test the effectiveness, so will report back when I get the chance.

More fettling

A little while ago, I re-connected the DIN power socket that resides to the left of the Tiger, just forward of the seat. The previous owner had disconnected it to wire in a standard power socket on the dash. I'll get around to wiring this back up later).

For now, I wanted the DIN socket wired up as it can be used to plug in a battery optimiser. I have an Oxford Optimiser and had originally just lifted the rider’s seat off to connect up the battery when I wasn't using the bike for a while. This meant also taking off the pillion seat. Not difficult but a bit of a faff.

So, I connected up the charger adapter direct to the battery & cable tied the bit that connects to the optimiser to the frame (about where the DIN plug is positioned). This wasn't too practical and to be honest looked a bit odd flapping around, so I took it off again.

This is why I re-connected the DIN socket. I've now purchased a plug that fits & will plug the optimiser cable in to the socket. Now when I want to connect up the battery, no lifting of seats, simply plug the bike in using the DIN socket, as long as I get the wiring on the plug right.

FINALLY, for August

I took Tallulah out for a quick ride the other day so I could test the effectiveness of my modified screen and can report back that the changes I've made seem to work a treat. I took her up to 70mph a couple of times & there definitely seemed to be less turbulence. I did have my small tank bag on and had taken off all the other luggage though, so I don't know if that would have had any effect. Keep watching.