Category Archives: motorcycle

Electric offroad motorcycles

Posted on Wednesday, 18 February, 2009 by Jeremy

Many years ago I would eagerly await the weekend to go for a dirtbike ride in the State forests around Coffs Harbour with my brother and friends. Thinking back we would often discuss the future and what we would be riding when petrol became scarce and new technologies had become available. We had decided that electric motorcycles would be the future but thought it would be odd being propelled through the forest on a quietly humming steed. That was going on ten years ago now, I haven’t had my TT600R for going on eight years now and I don’t even live in Coffs Harbour anymore. I happened across a youtube video of an Electric motorcross bike in use (ignore the hooliganism) and looking carefully at the video I saw a website address across the bike Quantya.com. Apparently our dream of … Continue reading →

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All fixed. VTR1000 returns and MX5 makes it home without assistance!

Posted on Sunday, 20 April, 2008 by Jeremy

I picked up my motorbike on Saturday. It sounds very different to before, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing… They had listed on the job card “$500.00 in ‘honda parts’”… I quizzed them on this and they said that the parts list was a mile long and they just summed it up in one line so it wasn’t pages and pages of invoice. I asked to see the parts list and they refused me. They claimed it was a lucky co-incidence that it came to exactly $500 in parts which seems rather unlikely to me but the bike is running again which is a HUGE improvement from before. I also seem to have fixed the MX5 electrical problems. I fixed it by returning the $220 Federal battery to the shop I bought it from … Continue reading →

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11.53 volts

Posted on Friday, 18 April, 2008 by Jeremy

!– @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } –> After a night on the charger I checked out my $200 Federal battery and found it was only 11.53 volts. Straight after a full charge in my experience lead acid batteries hover around 13 volts. I called up about my motorbike yesterday afternoon and was told that it would now be put off another day because they were waiting upon a gasket, (for the third day in a row) and it would deffinately be finished (for the third day in a row) by the followingafternoon. I’m sitting in my cubicle cube by myself today. Everyone else has called in sick apparently. After a whole rash of work prior to 10am it’s been relatively quiet today and I’m just biding my time until lunch. Nothing makes … Continue reading →

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Return from the void

Posted on Tuesday, 15 April, 2008 by Jeremy

This week I made the decision that I really ought to be writing more often. If I did have any regular readers I’m sure I’ve lost you all now through my lack of regularity. The truth of the matter is I’ve been so busy over the last month or so that I haven’t had the time nor the inclination to write much unfortunately. There has been quite a few big changes in my life and I’ve undertaken activities that take up alot of my free time outside of work, and I’ve not at the break time at work to fill you in on what has been happening. I’ve recently changed jobs. I now work in the city, but I have to get up very early in order to make the train (5:30am or so) but when I get home from … Continue reading →

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The sound of a hammer striking an anvil is not a pleasant sound from a motor…

Posted on Tuesday, 26 February, 2008 by Jeremy

After remarking to a colleague earlier in the day at how great my VTR1000 was running with 108,000km on the clock my luck turned south for the second time in four months. At the end of last year the big end bearing let go in my VR6 forcing my hand to sell it and then the VTR had a flat rear tyre on the highway. And on last friday  the 22nd of Feb 2008 my timing chain snapped a few streets from home smacking my valves into the pistons. Early estimates from the local bike shop was “between $1000 and $4000″ depending on how extensive the damage is. I feel like the owner of a horse who has broken it’s leg and I have to make the difficult decision of whether to put down my beloved (but old and worn) … Continue reading →

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xxxxx1th tank of fuel for the VTR1000f

Posted on Thursday, 31 January, 2008 by Jeremy

140km to 14L = 10L/100km. I was getting better economy last year but in my new job my commute is less highway and more gridlock.

Posted in Environment, motorcycle | Leave a comment

Telstra arrives!

Posted on Thursday, 24 January, 2008 by Jeremy

After spending another 25 minutes on hold to iinet last night the support person informed me that he had scheduled for a Telstra technician to correct the ‘fault’ with my connection at 7am this morning. At 7:30am I tried using my telephone and was disappointed to find it still working so I made breakfast and got ready for work. As I was stepping out the door at 8am a Telstra van pulled into my driveway and he called me on my home phone to say he was commencing work and could he come inside to test the connection inside. He asked me about this eye eye net thing and is it true it works without having a telephone number. Does this VOIP thing I’ve heard of have a telephone number too? He tested my 2nd telephone port and found the … Continue reading →

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A near miss

Posted on Sunday, 25 November, 2007 by Jeremy

I was impressed by the large number of people in China who despite the cheap local petrol (which was probably still expensive to someone on an average wage) had chosen an electric bicycle in order to encompass their entire transportation needs. It has to be said though that whilst it had pedals for assistance and shop owners had powerboards for people to plug their bikes into whilst they shopped – the machines didn’t seem to keep up with traffic and were used mostly as bicycles that didn’t require pedalling and were used in the bicycle lanes. When I saw my first electric bicycles and scooters I had visions of people adding batteries with higher capacities and output coupled with high efficiency brushless motors so they could tear around the streets on their eco-friendly racing machines, but in reality none of … Continue reading →

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