Problems, problems....!

So house moves, Christmas, New Year and sadly two funerals out of the way and the new year Rally season kicks off on Sunday with a road book training session on Salisbury Plain. After all the Tour of Portugal is only six weeks away!

That has been booked, as well as flights and airport parking and all that remains is to ensure the bike and riding gear are prepared ready for transport to Portugal.

The bike is essentially OK but will get an oil and filter change, a clean air filter and a new plug before it goes, all bearings will be checked (and replaced if necessary) as well as cables etc. The problem lies with the navigation equipment….

You may recall that the road book switch stopped working in Morocco and yes I should have fixed it or replaced it by now but as I haven’t needed the road book, it kept getting put to the bottom of the “to do” list. 

The problem doesn’t seem to be the switch itself but appears to be a break (or breaks) in the cable where it passes along the handlebars, as wiggling these wires did get it working again for one day. As the cables are far longer than they need to be, I’m just going to chop out the offending parts, the re-solder them together and seal with heat shrink tubing…. Hopefully job done!

The second problem seemed a bit trickier, my fancy trip meter; an RNS TripMaster had suffered when the bike fell off its stand a few months back and one of the three wires in the back was torn out. I had thought this was the wire to the remote switch so if the worst came to the worst, I could use the buttons on the side of the unit instead. Not ideal but would do for Sunday until I could get something sorted.

Unfortunately it turned out to be the wires to the front wheel sensor… not so good! Without these it simply doesn’t work as a trip meter (although it was a handy to use the clock function on the Hafren Rally).

After taking it apart the internal appeared to be sealed with resin and a small hole was all that remained of where the wires entered! This was not looking good, of course for Sunday I could use the trip meter on the standard KTM speedo. Except this wasn’t working either! Just a matter of replacing a broken connector in the wire from the sensor but another job to do!!!

It's the blue and brown wires on the right that are supposed to lead into the back of the unit like the other two....

Luckily on further investigation the “resin” inside the RNS turned out to be silicone sealant and a few seconds work with a sharp knife and I had exposed the contacts that the wires needed to be soldered on to. So hopefully a quick fix tonight. Just hope I get the right wire on the right contact first time!