in order to do this you need the following. memory map installed on the computer.map source suitable for the quest installed as well. The quest needs configuring differently .

If you have a route or track on memory map, all you need to do is to save it as a GPx file. You have to give it a name suitable and in the drop-down box below it you will see that you can save it in many formats. The one you want to use is GPX exchange file.

You then open map source. Go into the open file menu. go to the folder where you save the GPS exchange file, you will see a drop-down box at the bottom where you will be able to select the format. Again select GPX exchange file. This should open a page showing all of the relevant files. Simply click on the file you wish and it will be loaded on the map source map. Then put it on the quest the usual way.

The quest has to be configured differently by going into route options (double-click the menu button) then on the drop-down box for automatically recalculating, put it to off. If you don’t do this, as soon as you deviate from the route, it will change everything. As the quest will only route on the road, all further byway tracks will be removed.

There are a few other wrinkles that you need to know about. I have yet to find out how to move the tracklog from the quest to the memory map. I’m sure it can be done I just don’t know how to do it. This means that I use my off-road GPS to record where I’ve been when riding with others. If you are using one of these track logs, you need to first, change it to a route (easily done by right clicking and selecting from the options) making sure they it only has 250 waypoints. This can involve changing the sensitivity of the track itself before converting it into a route. I’m sure there’s an easy way but I haven’t found it yet. If you cannot shorten it to 250 waypoints, split it into two or three routes. On the memory map this is easy as you can alter the specification of the GPS, by clicking on the GPS toolbar then on the GPS setup. You will notice in the bottom there is a maximum waypoint box, I have set mine to 49 waypoints. This means when I download a route onto my GPS 72, it splits the route into as many as it needs, renaming them as Route 1, route 2,etc. I cannot do this on the quest has this does not seem to be supported or on mapsource.

you can see from the picture that the ground was absolutely saturated.it was like this everywhere we went.  The rain was a constant all day.

these pictures all come from the same lane.  It is TRO’d to four-wheel drives.  It starts uphill and and only levels off for a short while before continuing uphill again.these pictures were taken on that level area.

it was a really good day, we all finished, nothing was bent/ broken including the riders and I think most of us would do it again.  Hopefully with better weather.

The reason for the visit was to take advantage of my Trail Riders Fellowship membership.  Sue, my wife, had holidays that had to be taken before the end of the year, normally we would go away on our Buell’s, but the weather was against us.  There were weather warnings from the Met.  Gales, rain with the possibility of flooding.  The warmest place in Britain was supposed to be Cornwall or Devon.  This meant that, if we travelled on Friday, four days of riding, returning on the Wednesday.As we are members of the TRF it seemed sensible to take advantage of the local knowledge and expertise available to us.  We rang a contact in the Cornish TRF who was happy to let us joining in a run out arranged for the Sunday.  From the list of members they have on their website I contacted Tony Stuart who agreed to lead us on the Saturday.  Another member was available for midweek rides and was available for the Tuesday. with Monday as a rest day, this seemed to be perfect.

With everything seemingly arranged perfectly we relaxed and made ready to leave.  On the Thursday night, I got a phone call from the farmer on whose land we were to park our caravan .  He was extremely worried that we would not be able to park on the field, it seemed that the torrential downpour of rain had saturated the land and we would not be able to drive on it.  He also questioned whether we would be coming down at all given the weather warnings.  Having made arrangements with three sets of people I felt obliged to travel down there anyway.  I assured him that I would be there and he made arrangements to take the caravan onto the field with his tractor, but my transit van would have to study on hard standing off the field.

The journey down was easy, quick and painless.  Having timed the journey to avoid the rush-hour, we had no hold-ups or delays and arrived at the promised time of 4 p.m. as arranged the farmer (Bill) was on hand to help move the caravan on the field.  He was however surprised to see us.  His comment ” are you mad?” probably showed what he thought of us.  Given the gale force winds, rain lashing down and the  forecast of more to come , he was probably right to question us.  Things were better then he thought though, as there was hardstanding for the caravan if we didn’t mind the view.

not the best of views to one side and the chickens to the left could have been a problem but we didn’t care.  The beauty of being in a caravan is that you can shut the door and leave everything like that outside.  The view to the other side was much better.  These pictures were taken on the Wednesday morning just before we left.  As you can see the weather had much improved.

Bill had arranged that we could get electricity from an extension lead and the water to fill our water tanks was close by, . As it happened, because we were out every day it proved ideal.

On the Saturday it seemed as if the weather forecast was accurate.  It had blown a gale all night with extra lashings of rain.  It was dark and gloomy at 8 a.m. with the promise of the same rain and winds all-day.  Sue decided that she would stay in the caravan, a day of rest and relaxation.  Having arranged the day with Tony I felt obliged to turn up.  The meeting no more than a mile away at 10 p.m. even before I left it was obvious that the weather was taking a turn for the better but Sue decided that a rest was what she needed.

I had agreed to meet Tony at the local rugby club.  I could see the clubhouse from the main road but could not find the entrance to the car park.  It was lucky that one of the other riders on the day I arrived at the same time as I did and I was able to follow him in.  Tony was already there, just waiting to see if any other people turned up.  His bike was on a towbar rack on the back of his car.  One of the advantages to having a gas gas Pampera is that they are extremely light.  They weigh less than 100 kg and can be easily picked up by two people or one strong person.  They are little more than a push bike with an engine.  With an engine from a trial’s bike  and a very short wheelbase they are extremely manoeuvrable.  Tony explained that he had wanted to do long distance trials and felt that this was the best bike for them.  He then found that it was also a good bike for green laning.  There proved to be only four of us.  There were me on a KTM 450, Tony on his 250 Pampera, Paul on a Yamaha Ttr 250 and somebody else on a gas gas 300.  Unfortunately my notes that the day got wet and I cannot remember his name. to further shown my incompetence  I also forgot my camera.  The track log on my GPS  shows that I did 86 miles on that day.  The most memorable lane was at the end, Tony stopped us and explain that there was a difficult bit at the top of the hill and you must not shut the throttle off.  He also said the mustn’t go too fast as there was a water tank at the top and he did not want to pull me out of it.  Judgement of speed is not one of my strong suits.  However I was very lucky and managed not to hit the watertank.

When I got back from the ride out, after having had a nice cup of tea on the way, I had to tell sue that she had missed a really good day.  Luckily the GPS use had saved it as a track and I knew I could travel again over the same lane’s.

Sunday was an even better day.  We all had agreed to meet outside a pub in Saint Ann’s Chapel, Gunnislake. we were to join a group of TRF riders from another group.  I hope you will forgive me if I don’t mention their names, the usuall excuse, bad memory. sue and I fitted in quite well with the group and enjoyed the whole day.  Little bit shorter in miles but still took all day.

Monday I lead sue on the same tracks as I had done on Saturday  .  It was very strange trying to remember the tracks and read my GPS.  I have never used the GPS to follow a track before.  In the past I have come home, downloaded the track on to my memory map program.  Then I have converted the track to a route, tidied it up then saved it for the future.  The problem with using the track log without going through my usual procedure was that it selected the waypoints to use.  This could sometimes me that the route seemed to go straight on through fences, Walls, houses or just fields.  It sometimes didn’t show that first you had to turn right or left go 50 yards and then go straight on.  This caused a certain amount of confusion on my part as I would indicate that she should stay and wait and few seconds while still I tried to find the track.  Once or twice I did not manage to find the track.  Even though the original track log showed that I had travelled only 86 miles we managed to do 97 miles on what was supposed to be the same route.  It was a very steep learning curve for me and an enjoyable day for sue (or so she said).

On Tuesday we met up at the Morrisons supermarket at Liskeard .

as you can see there were quite a few of us.  By the way it doesn’t include the Suzuki SV 650 , he just happened to pull up for a chat.  Adam had planned a fairly full day and having set off to fill up I realised that I forgot to lock the van.  Knowing where they were to fill up with fuel, I said I would meet them there.

Fitness is very very important.  On the Wednesday, which was the hottest day, the dropout rate was horrendous. The speedo problem was sorted with the unit from a company called Trail Tech .  Called the ” vector” it has an adjustable trip facility which can be operated from pushbuttons on the handlebar.  This is extremely important as when following the road book the distances are quite exact.  You might be travelling down a dirt track, whilst looking for a track to the left at 103.03 km.  If at the same time you are travelling, you are trying to work out the difference between what your speedo actually says and what it should say, it can be very distracting.  To give you a good example, imagine that at 85.4 km you take the right-hand fork, you then have to turn left 160 m later.  Perhaps you might be travelling too fast and you’ve overshot the left-hand turn.  By the time you get back to where you should be your total trip might be reading 86.2 km.  You now have to reach the next point on the road book remembering that you are over reading by .46 km.  If five or 10 km later you make a similar mistake the amount you have to remember will change.  I can guarantee, having experienced this last year, that by lunchtime, your brain will be leaking out of your ears.  This problem can be sorted with an adjustable trip.  The experts use instruments that are called,ICO’s or IMO’s. the major difference between my adjustable trip and them is that they can operate off the differentials not the total trip.  That is to say instead of working off the total, you can work of the difference between the last waypoint and the next.  You then zero the trip as you pass over the waypoint, this means any errors are very small and can safely be ignored.  It is a much quicker system. The other major difference between my adjustable Speedo and the professional systems is cost, about £200.As I only use the adjustable facility once a year, the extra cost would be a waste. The road book  problem was sorted with a unit from Acerbis.  It is a manual unit which has a mounting for the cross brace on the handlebars.  I decided to fabricate some aluminium brackets to hold them and the speed in plain sight.  The experts use an electrically operated road book.  This operates off the bikes battery and can be an advanced and rewound from switchgear mounted on the handlebar.  This is a very useful feature and I may invest in one for next year. here are some pictures from the DVD I received from the organisers.

this is me on Friday on one of the hard sections Here is a link to a Dutch competitor’s  picture site http://picasaweb.google.nl/niek.ronde/2009AltoTuria?authkey=Gv1sRgCOuqv8XooeGKNw#

I planned it so that the longest day would be on the Friday.  We journeyed from my house to my brother’s house in Lincoln on the Thursday night.  This was a journey of only 145 miles.  I don’t get the chance to see my brother very often so it was nice to drop in and see him.  It was the first time that Mark had visited his uncles house, since the move four years ago.  We left the house at about 8 a.m. Friday morning and just followed the GPS route to John O’Groats.

On a long journey like this, to be honest, it tends to pass as a blur.  I don’t mean that it was boring, or that I wasn’t paying any attention, just that only certain things stand out.  Some beautiful bends in the first hour or two, Mark’s jubilation at achieving 50 mpg out of his VFR at the first stop, or the number of speed cameras when crossing into Scotland on the A9.  Purely as an aside, does Scotland really need to have 15 speed cameras in the first 19 miles.  It wasn’t even as if the road was especially dangerous.  Perhaps more time or money should be put into training drivers and riders in order to avoid accidents instead of trying to slow the accidents down.  The only other point of interest on the journey was the last 160 miles riding through some gorgeous scenery.  Whilst filling up with petrol at Wick we met up with some fellow riders.  There was a group of about eight Buells filling up.  They left before us but must’ve been held up as we caught up with them pretty soon.  It was nice to arrive at the  ” Seaview Hotel” together.

on arrival

I have just replaced the oil pump gear on the Buell.  This is not a major job, in fact it is quite easy.  You simply remove the exhaust, side casing to expose the gear.  This also entails removing the rocker cover and tappets on the rear cylinder.  It is a simple case of undoing ain’t that sliding off the geared drive then sliding on the new one.  It fits on the rear cam, this is why the tappets have to be removed as this takes the pressure off the pushrods.

I took the Buell for a test ride and it rode absolutely brilliantly.  However a week later it wouldn’t start.  After much pushing and use of battery leads I got it to run.  It still wouldn’t charge.  After much testing I decided it was the alternator stator.  It had a leakage to earth which indicates a coil had burnt out.  This would tie in with me having to replace the battery a few months beforehand.  I ordered the item from me Harley dealer in Jersey.I then got on with the job of removing the stator, along with the clutch and everything else in the primary drive.This was when I then discovered that the cause of the problem was me.  When I had put the gear casing on, I had accidentally trapped the main feed from the alternator. it should be an easy job to just join the wire together again,seal the join with heat shrink, then put it all back together. Sometimes it is just not worth getting out of bed that day.

front forks and rear shock need shortening by 40 millimetre and revalving.  This work will be carried out by Dr Shox.

It will need a recluse clutch fitting.

It still has the original steel handlebars, so they will have to go.  A set of Paris Dakar highs from Renthal will give her the right position and from experience be virtually unbreakable.

If I can remember, or be bothered I will take photos of the recluse clutch installation.  It should only take an hour or so and as it has already arrived will be fitted tomorrow night (27th of March).

It wouldn’t turn over on the starter so I went back for my van.  A quick jet wash later, it was up on the engine stand and the dismantling started. taking off the generator cover gave access to the crankshaft nut.  Using a 17 mm Spanner it would turn 180° one-way then no more.  Thinking it might have dropped a valve I took the head off.  Everything looked fine until I pushed the piston which had been at TDC.  It dropped an inch in the bore without the crankshaft turning.  It was only a couple of bolts to take the cylinder off.  The full horror was then revealed.  The con rod (only fitted 20 hours ago) had snapped just below the small end.  The big end,end, had rotated at speed and come to rest wedged against the  crankcase.the crankcase was damaged at the back badly enough to warrant a new crankcases.  The barrel had part of it broken off.  The piston rings had no scuffing on them, but the top ring appeared to be trapped in its groove.  Presumably where the piston had impacted the head.  No damage to the valves.  Below is a series of photos showing the damage.

Notice the broken out section at the rear of the barrel opening

Almost all the cylinder

An all too familiar sight.

I have been in touch with our local dealer, he will be taking the whole engine to Husky sport for their verdict on why it happened.  We’ll see.

Back in the garage I stripped the top end hoping that it would be a piston seizure.  There was a lot of wear on the piston,  fair amount of scuffing on the skirt, no real signs of seizure but I thought/hoped that that was what it was.  The piston ring when measured was below the service limit .  It all looked rather good apart from that.  There was plenty of oil, the radiator was full of water, there was no obvious cause of a seizure.  I fitted the new piston (with new gaskets it came to a total of £220 ).  I pulled the rags out of the crankcase mouth (to protect the con rod and stop dirt going inside the crankcases) which is when I felt the notching in the big end.  I swear it wasn’t there before.  That’s when I realised it was the big end that had seized.  The notching that I can feel in the big end is not consistent, that is, at different points it feels normal then all of a sudden it feels very stiff.  To my mind this means that the bearings or a bearing have broken up inside the race.  Only a full strip down will tell.  That’s the next job.

On a lighter note the replacement stainless steel valves have been perfect.  They have done three races now without any change in the valve clearances.  This means that one problem has been solved.  I can heartily recommend using stainless steel valves in the head.

I will try to post some pictures and some more details in a few more days.

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It is, perhaps not easy to see from the pictures, which is the new and which is the old valve.the new valve has a thicker stem just before the valve head. You can see the wear on the seat. The new valve seems to be worse than the old. This could be down to the increased weight of the new valve, which is 1 g more.

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The picture above just shows the new stainless steel valve compared to the old new valve. you may notice that the stainless steel valve doesn’t have the bulge just before the head.  Perhaps it does not need the extra strength.

Fitting the new valves was not difficult and did not involve any extra engineering.  I measured the new springs and they were 2 mm longer than the old.  I thought this may mean that I would have to to machine the head to avoid the coil springs becoming coil bound .  This proved not to be the case but may need checking on other machines.(Coil bound  is a term used to describe when a coil is compressed to the point where the coils touch each other and the spring may not be compressed any further.)

Sue competed at whashbrook farm and upon examination there was no wear detectable. that was after only 3 1/2 hours use.  Only time will tell if the problem has been solved.the next time it will be used hard is at the dawn to dusk in Wales, where Sue will be a travelling marshall.that usually means 12 to 14 hours use.  I really hope I don’t have too removed the head again this year.

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