Okunojima War Memorial

< Gas Weaponry >

Went to the Okunojima Island yesterday. It is very famous for being the production site of gas weaponry from the turn of 20th century until the end of WWII.

After the Japanese army surrendered to the US forces the island was de-militarized and decommissioned of all her fire power and production facilities. Nowadays the island is a museum itself and it is also a wild life sanctuary (although only rabbits are seen in abundance) that attracts tourists from all over Japan.

The island was wiped off the map during the days when it was used to produce poisonous gas. However it has since returned to the map after the Japanese lost the war and all weapons were destroyed.

I hope no one would have to suffer from this kind of weapon in the future anymore. Actually, I hope no one would suffer from war anymore, although I know it is not going to happen...

Cheers,

CK

A Quarter Review Of My Biking Life

The First Three Months of 2017

Hi everybody! I haven't been updating the blog often enough, but I have not forgotten about my very own blog. Like you, I have been busy with life and riding. :-)

It's not really there yet but I guess it wont hurt to make an entry summarizing my rides so far in the 1st quarter of the year.

<The Biggest Changes In My Bike Life>
Jill joins the family. Jill is made by Honda, she has a 100cc 4-stroke air cooled, carburetor and a 5 speed gear box. She has only kicker but no starter. Hell she doesn't even have a battery. I got her because I had to have her. Since the joining of Jill I have been spending quite some time with her because she is very small and easy going places.

<Going Places>
I said I wanted to visit nuclear power plants and I managed to visit one in the 1st quarter. I don't have any dislike for nuclear power - in fact I am awed by it. Don't have to tell me about the danger of nuclear power though, I live close enough to a nuclear power plant so I will be the one who dies first if anything happens, so i know what's at stake.

I have also developed a routine of going to an island nearby having picnic and also go see the japanese navy on my way home. This gives me peace of mind.

Of course the infamous Kawasaki museum as well. A must-go place.

Going to a war monument.

Ride a ferry.

There are also many other places that I have been to in the 1st quarter but I figure these are the ones worth mentioning.

<Getting My Hands Dirty>
I promised myself I will be doing more bike maintenance to gain experience and knowledge. So I did oil change and cable lubing last year, and in the first 3 months of this year I learned on how to perform chain adjustment on Jill, how to change jets on a carb and how to adjust air screw on a carb. Not much technical knowledge per se but I am glad that I did it nonetheless. No knowledge will go to waste so I am going to build more upon this.

I guess this is it. Okay so what lies in the future? I don't know. But for the next quarter this is what I have in mind.
1. Ride more than 1000km to go see a friend, then ride another 1000km with him.
2. Do bike camping will Jill.
3. Adjust chain on Lara.
4. Perhaps cleaning the air filter and change oil for Jill.

Cheers,

CK

The Kind Of Must-Do Motorcycle Touring in Japan

<Top 3 Japanese Motorcyclist To-Do List>

Hi there! I know motorcycling is a very personal thing and nobody gets to tell you what to do with the bike. Nevertheless, in the land of rising sun, there seems to be a certain collection of activities that  most of the riders will agree to. Here they are:

1. Ra-Tour. (A short form of Ramen-Touring)


Japanese likes Ramen big time. Ra-tour means riding your bike going to a place that you like or finding a place you like, cook a meal of instant noodle and enjoy the time. Most of the time the location would be by the seaside, a river, a lake, a forest or a dam. Ra-Tour has since evolved to Coffee-Tour and Tea-Tour.








2. Food-Tour.



What this means is the destination of a certain ride is set to be a restaurant, and having the lunch or sometimes dinner is the ultimate goal of the ride. Naturally the restaurant couldn't be just any restaurant. It has to be famous for some reason or it has to offer some unique menu, like the photo shows.
photo credit to https://www.bikebento.jp/旅の土産

photo credit to https://tinspotter.net/saitama/299/

3. Onsen-Tour. (hot spring tour)

photo credit to http://www.back-off.jp/bo/?page_id=1759

Onsen is the Japanese word for hot spring. And Japanese just love hot spring. I guess it didn't take long for the riders to combine these two elements in one go. An Onsen-Tour is basically a ride that has the hot spring as destination and the bath taking would be the goal of the ride.

Of course there are many more type of riding that the riders will do and are doing. What I did was just trying to show you something that you might not have known. If you do, well then, please look forward to my next blog entry! :-)

Cheers,

Regards.

ps/ one thing that most Japanese riders don't do is ride down to the Starbuck's and spend half a day sitting there

First DIY oil & oil filter change with minimum tools

<Beggars Can't Be Choosers>

Disclaimer: This is a record of my first DIY oil & oil filter change. It is by no means professional work and strictly for the purpose of record keeping only. Lengthy post and photos intensive.

And so it goes, one of my objectives in riding is to be able to do as much maintenance on my bike as I could. The reason is obvious: I will be on my own during my trip and there's only me whom I can depend on. (of course, it would help me to cut down the running cost of owning the bike as well)

The very first step would be the very basic oil change. And so I got myself these tools and replacement parts.

 An oil change pack. Basically just a carton box filled with waste paper, could have made one by myself but since this is the first time I figure I would just buy one. In Japan waste motorcycle oil could be discarded as combustible waste. (it does burn don't they)

 An oil filter for the BMW F-serires. This is labelled as for F650GS but there are a countless of number of users in Japan who replaced this on their F700GS so it should not be an issue.

 This is how it looks inside the package.

 Oil filter removal wrench. Hope this will remove the original filter fitted on the bike.

 The drain nut seal. I have no idea if this is the right one but based on the knowledge shared on the internet among the Japanese users this little ring does the job well. So here it is.

The back of the package tells the measurement of the seal.

I know I should have a socket wrench with an adaptor socket that fits the drain nut on the bike. Well beggars can't be choosers. This is all I have so it will have to make do. I will use the 10mm hexagon wrench. I tried to fit it into the drain nut, it does give some slack when turning the wrench. Does a proper socket wrench have the same issue? (if someone can point that out that would be helpful, thanks)

And I should have a torque wrench as well. But then again, I don't have that so will have to improvise. What I did was to put a line across the nut surface and the engine block, so that I can later use it as a guideline to know how much I should turn the nut when tightening it. Not accurate I would say, but well it will have to do.





And the job begins. Lifted the bike on center stand and warmed it up. Unscrewed the dipstick to let air in, then unscrewed the drain nut with the L-shape hexagon wrench. And the oil came pouring out. While waiting for the oil to drain, I tried to open the oil filter with the oil filter wrench. Guess what? I failed to do that..... The filter wrench wouldn't fit into the filter. So I need another solution. Anyhow, I guess Lara can't wait for another 3000 km before the next filter comes along.

 And now filling her up with new oil. Replaced the dipstick screwed tight and warmed up the engine. Checked dipstick to see if the reading is correct. Yes it is! Total oil filled in is about 2.9L.

And now the dreaded part of maintenance. Oiling the clutch label.
I don't know how to do this really. I searched on internet and went fishing for the relevant youtube clips showing the how-to on the topic.

First, I loosened the clutch cable adjuster. Then, I removed the side mirror and the clutch lever assembly as per photo.

I do not plan to clean the cable as I did not know how to do it properly, so I just took the short cut by spraying the chain oil inside the clutch cable hose. The oil worked its way down out at the other end, and once I confirmed that I stopped injecting chain oil.

And then I fix everything back the same way, just the opposite of I took them apart.

The clutch pull feels much smoother now, although not necessary lighter.

Here is my first oil change and cable oiling! I am glad that I did it. The next step would be chain adjustment and air filter cleaning.
















Wish me luck!

Cheers,

CK