May the festive holiday season bring everyone lots of joy and happiness! It’s been raining everyday lately – ride safe everyone!
sgBikerBoy travels around Malaysia – Ride Report
Almost 2,000 kilometers over a 4-day trip around Peninsular Malaysia, and what a tour it was! And the attractions that I got to visit could really been summed up in two words – NOT MUCH. Well, if you live in this part of the world, you’ll know that the year end is the north-east monsoon season, and that means rain, rain and more rain. Not a single day went by without the skies opening up and dumping it’s liquid load on me. Well, at least I got to test my Pirelli Angel CT tires throughly in wet weather – and it was good.
Reached KL in the afternoon and checked in to the hotel. I was here to attend Continue reading “sgBikerBoy travels around Malaysia – Ride Report”
sgBikerBoy travels around Malaysia
I’m going on a motorcycle tour (again)! Not gonna do anything too crazy like the last tour. This time, I plan to just circle Peninsular Malaysia. You see, I’m heading up to KL tomorrow to attend an ex-classmate’s wedding dinner. Again, it’s one of those “since I’m already here, why don’t I just head to….” kind of idea. Don’t plan to be away for too long – probably just for a couple of days. But then again…. who knows? =P
Quite honestly, I’ve only come up with Continue reading “sgBikerBoy travels around Malaysia”
Pulsar 200NS Side Stand Replacement
My bike’s side stand seem to have given in to the weight of the bike. When kicked down, it folds forward more than usual, causing the bike to lean forward more than usual. In fact, I was fearing that the side stand will one day reach a tipping point just give way. And if it happen to be in a typical Singapore motorcycle parking lot, it will make for some interesting motorcycle domino scene.
Eventually got it replaced at Universal Motors for S$20. Bike now leans more normal.
My Early Christmas Present – Kabuto Ibuki Flip-up Helmet
The Kabuto Ibuki replaces my Lazer Corsica Z-Line! Early Christmas gift to self – I got me a modular flip-up helmet! I have previously ranted about my deteriorating Lazer Corsica Z-Line helmet, and would really have loved to stick to it, but I needed some parts replaced. I reached out to Lazer’s customer service more than a month ago and I must say that I have been rather disappointed with their responses so far – but I’ll save that rant for another post.
Personally, my riding style is commuting / touring. Without going into the merits of open-faced vs full-faced helmets, my personal preference has always been with modular helmets as it seem to offer a little bit of the benefits of both worlds. Having come from Lazer’s convertible modular, I’ve been looking for a flip-up helmet for awhile now. Continue reading “My Early Christmas Present – Kabuto Ibuki Flip-up Helmet”
Weekend Project – restoring the fuel lid
I spent some weekend time pampering my bike. Pressure washed the engine area to get rid of some built-up gunk and applied a layer of wax (more specifically, a layer of polymer sealant – Autoglym’s Extra Gloss Protection) on the paintwork. It’s been some time since I treated the paint and I thought it was about time.
And since I was on the subject of paint, my fuel tank lid has accumulated some scratches and paint peel on it. Some of which was my own contribution (fuel station’s nozzle hitting the paintwork), but the majority of it was by the previous owner of the bike. You see, when I purchased the bike pre-owned, the fuel tank lid was already quite badly scratched up.
Pulsar 200NS Fork Oil Change
My 200NS has run for 44,000kms and coming to 4 years. And that includes the arduous 2-month SE Asia Tour earlier this year. I don’t think the fork oil on my bike has ever been changed. The Bajaj owner’s manual calls for a fork oil change interval of 10,000km. But this is one of those things that is commonly neglected – and yes, I’m amongst the guilty ones.
You see, I bought the bike pre-owned and I have absolutely no history of its previous maintenance. So I took the bike to Universal Motors and tried to schedule for a fork oil change. But the mechanics there dissuaded me and casually mentioned that “it’s not a necessary procedure unless it starts leaking oil”. And since there was a pretty long queue with 5 other bikes before my turn, I decided to hold out the fork oil replacement for awhile at least.
Just then, it almost seem as if my Pulsar had a soul, it didn’t seem to like the neglect treatment. And in protest, the fork seal start leaking 6 days after my visit to UM. So, now I REALLY have to get it changed. Continue reading “Pulsar 200NS Fork Oil Change”
IU Power Re-wiring – Legal or Illegal in Singapore?
After my IU power re-wiring, my motorcycle could now rest for more than 6 weeks without starting up and the battery is still good for firing up the engine. I’m happy now. However, in the meantime, I’ve received several well-meaning advise from fellow motorcycle riders that such a modification – the re-wiring of the power of the IU to only come on when the ignition is turned on – is not allowed / illegal under the Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) rules.
I tried searching online to find out if there is any truth in this. But search as I might, I couldn’t find any official rule or law stating whether this modification is legal or not. LTA does publish a list of allowable and non-allowable (illegal) modifications one can perform on their private vehicle, but the IU power wiring was stated nowhere. The only “sources” (if I could even call it a proper source) that I found were forum postings of people discussing the legality of the modification. There were even some forumers who claimed that LTA informed them that the modification makes the vehicle illegal and will fail the (required) annual inspection when brought in to one of the inspection centres.
Honestly, unless the government’s goal is to be “big brother” and wants to track the vehicle 24/7 (if that is even possible with the current generation of IU units), I cannot phantom why such a re-wiring – for the purpose of conserving battery on a lightly used vehicle – would be illegal. So, not satisfied and not wanting to get into any legal trouble with the authorities, I wrote in to LTA and enquired.
Quite quickly, I received a response from them – through a phonecall. And this is what I found out: Continue reading “IU Power Re-wiring – Legal or Illegal in Singapore?”
Battery Drain Issue Finally Resolved!
I wrote about my killing of the motorcycle battery by deep discharging it some time ago. I also later found out that it was the IU unit that was eating up my battery juice when the bike is turned off. Previously, it took only FIVE days (5 DAYS!) of not firing up my motorcycle to completely drain my battery to levels where even the instrument cluster refused to work. And it didn’t just happen once, it happened a whole of 3 times before I swapped out the IU power wiring to only power up the IU unit when the bike is turned on.
Now, I’ve been a little busy of late and admittedly haven’t been riding my motorcycle. Boy! I sure missed my Pulsar! Anyway, it has been SIX weeks (6 WEEKS!) since I last fired up my Pulsar’s 200cc engine. So, out of curiosity, and before I fired up the engine again, I removed the seat cover and measured the voltage of the 6-week-neglected battery.
12.57V! That’s a VERY healthy voltage!
So with some excitement, I put the seat cover back, and mounted my motorcycle. I inserted the key and switched it on – so far so good! And then I hit the started button.
Vvrrrrooooom!
Ahh! The sweet roar of my Pulsar coming to life after 6 weeks of neglect was pure music to my ears! Needless to say, I took her for a spin today, with a huge smile hanging on my face.
Glad to be riding again!
You VEP Me? I VEP You!
Two young boys were playing nicely. Sinbad and Malvyn were, in fact, brothers. In the midst of their brotherly play and without realising it, Sinbad’s left shoulder accidentally brushed against Malvyn’s right cheek.. The cheek, comprising mainly of soft tissue, hurt badly for Malvyn. Out of youthful spite, Malvyn raised his right hand and smacked on Sinbad’s left arm. Sinbad was caught surprised. He didn’t understand why Malvyn would deliberately hurt him. So, after a couple of seconds, Sinbad regained his composure and hit Malvyn on his right arm as revenge.
By this time, Malvyn felt really wronged.
“Why was Sinbad hitting me again?”, Malvyn thought to himself. The sense of injustice was building up within Malvyn, and he retaliated with an even stronger blow to Sinbad’s right arm.
Before long, a fight escalated, and Mum had to step in to intervene.
Does the scenario above sound familiar? Yes, that’s exactly what is happening between Singapore and Malaysia regarding the toll and vehicle entry permit charges that both sides have been increasing in retaliatory responses.
