sgBikerBoy

Motul C3 (Off Road) Chain Lube Review

Some of you would know that I have been using Motul’s very popular C2 (Road) chain lube for a very long time. It was also my primary chain lubricant when I did my 11,000km over 49 days SE Asia Tour in 2016. While the topic of chain lube – like engine oil – is very much a controversial subject when it comes to “which one is the best”, everyone has their own favourite lube. Personally, when it comes to chain lube, my opinion is that as long as you clean and lube frequently, I suspect most brand-name chain lubes would work well to protect the chain and keep it running.

But of course, there are differences.

While I’m pretty certain that the Motul C2 Chain Lube kept my chain well lubed, it also tend to attract A LOT of gunk. A HELL LOT!! I’ve previously blogged about the gooey mess that have accumulated on my chain and front sprocket after I returned from my long tour. Yes, admittedly, I had traveled on some challenging terrains – including the dusty roads of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. But I suspect the accumulated gunk might have somewhat contributed to accelerated wear on my chain – leading to an eventual uneven distribution of wear along the chain length.

Notice the gooey paste on the chain and around the sprocket? That’s a concoction of Motul C2 + lots of dirt.

Continue reading “Motul C3 (Off Road) Chain Lube Review”

Long Weekend Ride to Betong, Thailand

It’s the Good Friday long weekend and we decided to ride up to Betong, Thailand. The distance between Singapore and Betong, Thailand is approximately 740km, and the plan was to start riding through the night and arrive at the Malaysia-Thai border by morning.

The 740km route from Singapore to Betong in Southern Thailand.

DAY 0 (13 Apr, Thu) – overnight ride.

We rendezvoused at Petronas Gelang Petah on Friday, 0000h-0030h (Thursday night, really) to gather for a pre-ride briefing. At 200cc, my Pulsar was the only “small capacity” bike with the rest of the bikes (2A and CL2 big bikes) having multiple times my engine displacement, and so, the plan is for me to push off first as an “advance party” with Sufi and Siu Hon with their Honda CB400X and Yamaha XJ6 Diversion as my riding buddies (aka “escorts”). The plan was to link up with the rest of the group at R&R Sungai Perak (approximately 580km) in the morning. The big bikes will be traveling at a faster pace and should catch us up as we near Sg Perak. Continue reading “Long Weekend Ride to Betong, Thailand”

sgBikerBoy Reviews Pinlock Ear Plugs

So, it’s been awhile since I got the pair of Pinlock ear plugs. Since then, I’ve taken it on short rides, on longer rides, through city rides and even on the Malaysian highway run at triple-digit speeds, and I thought I’d pen my thoughts on this set of ear plugs.

First, a little bit about Pinlock – the company. Pinlock is a pretty recognised brand in the motorcycle industry and are very well known for their excellent anti-fog visor inserts for motorcycle helmets. So when they came up with the ear plugs, I was pretty confident that it would be a quality product too.

I’ve always believed in hearing protection during motorcycle riding. It’s not that motorcycles are noisy – it’s the WIND NOISE when riding at highway speeds that can cause irreversible hearing damage. I used to ride with cheap, disposable 3M foam ear plugs and love how it makes the ride just feel more comfortable and pleasant. Continue reading “sgBikerBoy Reviews Pinlock Ear Plugs”

Pulsar 200NS Engine Oil Anomaly

This is crazy… At the Sunday Morning Ride, I was just talking to a fellow biker about carrying an extra bottle of engine oil for a long trip. And when I returned home after the ride, washed and waxed by bike, I realized that my oil inspection window was… EMPTY!

I had initially thought it was still “warm” after the ride and allowed some time pass to allow the oil to flow back down. But checked the oil window the next morning, still empty – no matter how I tilted my bike. 🙁

So I thought the high RPM run on Sunday might have something to do with it. No external oil leak was observed. So my worst fear was an internal engine oil consumption – aka oil “burning” up. Was it an engine gasket issue? Perhaps a valve oil seal failure? But it was only 17,000km since my engine was rebuilt in Chiang Mai, and I’d be very disappointed if an oil leak or oil consumption occurred.

As a temporary measure, I added Continue reading “Pulsar 200NS Engine Oil Anomaly”

Sunday Morning Ride to Ranggam

Woohoo! Another Sunday Morning Ride! This weekend, we headed to Renggam in Johor! It was the same three bikes of three different license classes again – my Pulsar 200NS, a Honda CB400X, and a Yamaha XJ6 Diversion.

As usual, we met up at B-Point for breakfast, geared up, set our GPS’es to avoid motorways and toll roads, and off we went!

And we all agreed that this was one of the nicest ride we had together as a group. It had everything – from the cold morning, to foggy roads, to nice scenic fields, to train crossings, to some easy twisties, fantastic straight roads, factories, prison, army camp, and a beautiful weather!

Some nice straight roads enroute to Renggam.

Oh…and the train crossing…

The 3 bikes stopping for a cuppa teh-o-ice and some roti kaya after a nice morning ride.

Dead 200NS with Strange Error Code

A trip to MotoWorld earlier today proved to be more eventful than expected – unfortunately not of the pleasant kind. Nah. It has nothing to do with MotoWorld per se.

Just when I completed my shopping, I decided to head home. So I geared up and inserted the key into the 200NS and turned the bike on. The LCD cluster did its startup initialisation routine as usual, and then I hit the started button.

(Soft) Click!

The entire cluster went dead!

Yipes!

Repeated hitting on the starter button yielded absolutely nothing – not different from when the key was in the OFF position. Cycling the key between ON and OFF resulted in nothing too. My first thought was – did I blow the main fuse? Continue reading “Dead 200NS with Strange Error Code”

Sunday morning ride to Sungai Rengit

Another Sunday morning ride! This time, we headed to Sg Rengit – near Desaru. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful! As usual, we rendezvous 7am at B-Point, JB, for a light breakfast before the ride.

There were supposed to be 4 bikes this morning. But at 6:30am, I got the following message:

“Sorry bro, cannot join you this morning.”

Okay, 1 down – 3 to go.

And then, as we were about to finish our roti prata breakfast, another message came in at 0720h:

“Broz, just woke up. Sorry”

-_-

So it was just 2 of us left…

Continue reading “Sunday morning ride to Sungai Rengit”

Detailing the 200NS Exhaust

Yes, I’ll admit it. I pamper my ride. A lot. And it isn’t just my motorcycle. I do that on all my previous cars too.

The 200NS comes with a black-painted exhaust header instead of some shiny stainless steel. It’s been some months since I painted the exhaust header on my 200NS, and there are some new signs of very, very light corrosion. I’ve had good experience with Rustoleum’s High Heat paint on the exhaust and still have more than a half-can remaining.

Rusty exhaust header on my Pulsar 200NS during my 2016 SE Asia Tour.

I recall someone asked me if the exhaust stays black (forever) after the Rustoleum High Heat paint treatment. While I would love for it to be the case, the truth is that I will have to periodically repaint it. Well, that person subsequently mentioned that it was too much of a trouble for him and he was really looking for a more “permanent” solution. Dude! It doesn’t exist! Even polish and wax have to be periodically re-applied! Unless, of course, your machine is a showpiece and remains perpetually in display and not used at all. Continue reading “Detailing the 200NS Exhaust”

Sunday morning ride to Kota Tinggi

3 crazy guys with 3 motorcycles of 3 license classes decided to do a wet Sunday morning ride. My Pulsar 200NS was joined by a Honda CB400X and a Yamaha XJ6 Diversion and we rendezvous 7am at B-Point, Johor Bahru for a quick roti and teh (tea) breakfast before we made our way towards the Kota Tinggi waterfall resort.

Our goal wasn’t the destination. It was the ride. And despite waking up to a raining sky before the sun was out, the only person who backed out was a planned pillion.

The 3 Sunday Morning Riders in their wet gear. The smiles on their faces suggests that the wet weather did little to dampen the riding pleasure.

Continue reading “Sunday morning ride to Kota Tinggi”

WD-40 as a motorcycle chain cleaner

Motorcycle chain cleaning is an essential maintenance procedure on all chain-driven bikes. While everybody have their favorite chain cleaner, the topic of the suitability of WD-40 as a chain cleaner (and as a chain lube) is amongst the most controversial ones in chain maintenance chats. Some swear by it, while others swear at it.

The biggest concern motorcycle owners have on the choice of cleaning fluids on their o-ring (or x-ring, or z-ring) sealed chain is the effect of the fluid on the o-ring itself. The 0-rings serve as a seal that locks lubricating grease between the pin and the roller of the chain, significantly increase the chain’s useful life as compared to non-o-ring chains. Any deterioration of this rubber o-ring will allow grease to escape and contaminants such as dirt, mud and other yucky stuff into the tiny crevices inside the chain, leading to a drastically reduced chain life.

The idea that WD-40 reacts with rubber, swelling, softening and making it brittle has been debunked. MC Garage produced an excellent video to demonstrate this:

Still not convinced? Continue reading “WD-40 as a motorcycle chain cleaner”