The Art of Cruising

When I was a teenager, I was a cafe racer with my Yamaha RX 100, had lots of falls but thankfully no broken bones. But with experience learned the hard way, my driving school instructor told me to wipe my past riding experience because the Yamaha and the Bobber have different riding personalities due to their different structural design. The Bobber is longer than a kapchai by half the length of a tyre so turning radius is much wider. It means I have to meander more and slower (due to the Bobber’s weight) than a kapchai. He said whenever I reached a t-junction or make U-turns, I should switch early to the outside lane, negotiate turns slowly like I was driving a trailer as if I wanted to show off my motorbike. It works, cornering is smoother. Tight corners can even be done slowly by lifting up the elbows like a man walks the tight rope. This works too. Because of different structural design, I was asked to sit upright to get better balance but I like to slouch. Experience of failing to cross the narrow bridge for 4 days of training yet succeeding on the fifth day for the B licence test was a result of sitting upright and always looking chin up straight at the horizon. I prefer to cruise lazily on local roads around 70kph but there is no breeze so end up cruising at 80-90kph depending on road gradient. On highways, I cruise between 90-110kph depending on road gradient but rarely exceed 110kph except to overtake a vehicle at 100-110kph. It is also hard to enjoy cruising faster than 110kph because the wind uncomfortably slams the chest. Then there is also the need to be more alert and that takes the fun out of cruising, a style of riding very different from superbikers whose aim is to reach their destination ASAP. How about you?

Cold storage

Within a few days time, I am scheduled for a hernia operation, a result of carrying over-weighed luggages to have them weighed at the airport last year. The luggages had to be reweighed 3 times as the permissible amount was 37kg whereas each luggage weighed about 45kg. To make things worse, the boot level of the Peugeot 407 is a bit high. A week later, I felt a sharp pain at my left groin and a doctor confirmed it was hernia (Her father suffered that too so she is well familiar with it). So far, 3 doctors told me after the hernia operation, I should not ride the superbike for a period of 6 months (ideal situation) to prevent the surgical mesh from falling off. If that happens, I will require another operation. Still, this will be a case-by-case merit and I am expected to visit the doctor again some time after the operation but for the moment, I do not know when. I found this hernia thing out just after I renewed the insurance for my bobber then quickly postponed renewing my road tax until 6 months after the operation. However, 3 months after the operation, I hope to (we'll see later) ride the bobber just to scoot 4 lanes away to the mosque which I frequent. So in the meantime, I took the opportunity to give the bobber a coat of engine oil on the rims, engine block and tyre walls and gave the bobber a wash later before I paln to give her a wax polish.

Fuel consumption

FUEL CONSUMPTION: A topic people like to talk about but shy away from the truth when their ride does not deliver good fuel consumption.

Q: What is the fuel consumption of the Malaysian carburettor-ed Regal Raptor 350cc?
A: Well, better than a car but I think could do better. Still, what do you expect from twin carburettors...excellent fuel economy? Twin carburettors are not designed for that!

Here, a 350cc Johhny PAG (Note that an electronic ignition system gives better fuel consumption than a carburettor version) is compared against a 833cc HD Sportster (http://www.fuelly.com/motorcycle/johnny_pag/regal_raptor_350.) The HD Sportster although much bigger cc (more than double) delivers an average of 44mpg over the years than the PAG (http://www.fuelly.com/motorcycle/harley_davidson/xl883n_iron_883). Her 2017's average of 48.3mpg against the PAG's 51.7mpg is very good indeed. You have to take your hat off to HD for doing a good job in this area.

So now you know the truth!

Psychedelic 60s: The era I grew up ...

This is my new background for my Regal Raptor's Bobber site on Facebook after fooling around with the colour balance of this photograph which I'm fond of ... taken at a time before the Bobber was vandalised.

Project Ignition Cable

  I was so excited after upgrading the original ignition cable core of 0.75mm with the imported  ignition cable core of 1mm. There was more responsive torque throughout the power band. Best part is to use the highest gear over a wider range of speed, going slow no jerking thus no need to down-shift as before. It is experienced on all gears. Engine is less rough noise than before. The exhaust note now sounds slightly deeper. The headlights: high and low beam are brighter. Twisting the throttle all the way back quickly pulls the bobber forward at a rate I've never experienced before.

After 2 years of ownership

You are lucky owning a mass production vehicle or motorcycle that does not give you ANY problem. Even my brand new BMW 320 e46 had a faulty lamda within 3 months of purchase and lamdas are something that hardly ever go wrong from whatever car make. The reality is you get what you paid for. My experience are as follows:

1. Electrical wiring below par: Copper content of wires too basic so electrical related issues are frequent and the Number One problem.
2. Ball bearing below par: I don't expect them to breakdown below 16,000km.
3. Clutch cable below par: I don't expect it to breakdown below 16,000km.
4. Chain is below par: It sags in less than a year even if you don't travel far..
5. It was fitted with an obsolete starter relay and ended with a breakdown.
6. The carburettors pops alot.
7. It's a rough rider's motorbike. The Daytona/Spyder has comfort and carries a pillion rider.
8. Original accessories are quite expensive.
   
9. The original horns do not handle rain well A third-party air horn handles rain better.
10. The Bobber's hardtail frame won a prestigous European award for BEST homologation.
11. The handlebar grips are too soft for Malaysian weather and wear out fast.
12. The Bobber cannot meander well because of the longer frame.
13. I love and many people tell me that they like the deep note of the fishtail exhaust pipes.
14. Many people that come up and snap a photo of my bobber.
15. When parked, it is light enough to be pulled aside in case some idiot blocks the path yet heavy enough to give confidence when riding in the wet.
16. The official fuel consumption of 90km/US gallon is not bad for RON95, probably slightly more than 100/US gallon when running on RON97.
17. The general feedback is the Bobber looks better, more balanced and looks rugged without the rear component which were removed due to vandalism.
18. The grounding exercise, cheap and simple turn the headlight beam from yellowish-white to whitish-white.

Police approved side licence plate holder

This afternoon, I left Petaling Jaya for Subang Jaya then came to a police road block by the motorcyclist lane at the Federal Highway-Jalan Lapangan Terbang roundabout. I am usually not asked to stop but as I was the only one riding, I was not surprised to be asked to stop. One officer looked at my road tax and seeing it was valid, didn't say anything. Another officer at the back of me checked my license plate and caught me by surprise by complimenting for having it clearly displayed. He even took a snapshot to serve as a good example for others. With that, I gave my salam and scooted off. That the license plate holder was attached to the left side of the bobber was not an issue to them. What they were more concern was it must be easy to see, easy to read plus of course, a valid road tax.

Outstanding frame I did not know until I read it here

This Peruvian web site is one of the best sites I've come across that has attractive photos of the bobber (also for other models at their respective page). It also has some outstanding information like the bobber's frame is the FIRST bike with a hardtail frame to awarded the European 3 Certificate of Homologation. That is impressive to say the least yet local retailers do not know how to exploit such information to their advantage.

Passing through... Shah Alam

It's a hot sunny day today, and an excellent time for a snapshot so I decided to scoot off next door and passed the centre of Shah Alam (state capital of Selangor) along Persiaran Sultan with MBSA local authority building in the background.

Zebra Stripe Regal Raptor 2017

This was really a refresher course for self-taught me into the world of Open Source software which I dabble with and which for this clip involved LibreOffice Impress, Simple Screen Recorder, and OpenShot Video Editor. I put a copy at YouTube too.

Facial mask courtesy of wifey

Little things mean a lot to me and here, it's the facial mask bought by wifey when she was in South Korea with the school troupe. Yes! In zebra stripes and now it's my regular facial mask and as it is of good quality, I find it very effective in keeping out the dust whilst making it breathable.