Woke up to a pitta-patta of rain and someone farting on the tent nextdoor and then springing away with a chuckle as the surprised sleepers inside alternatively cheered and revolted at the pranksters antics. Camping while touring, certainly an experience.

My tent? Mmm.. . . it’s orange,  I think .. .

We’d been to the south-west tip the day before and had quite an eventful day. Dodging and weaving through traffic, running a great skyline and dissapating a hangover. It ended poorly with a rider from a late arriving group making a REAL impression in the back end of a mini-van. Spent a good part of dusk and evening at the hospital seeing he was ok. Being a good, if often throttle demented mate, I’m glad to say he is still with us.

Back to the soggy tent, the reving of an FJR in the distance told me FB (suspected windy prankster) was hitting the road with Gord and Shelley in tow. My bag o bones is always willing if the riding is good but the rain which had persisted from the night before, was not encouraging. Never the less the road was waiting in some compacity and we were here to ride. So, reluctantly, I rose from the safety of the tent, donned the riding gear, grabbed the mappple and staggered off in the direction of the steeds.

Cracking open the pannier in the soft rain, fished around for the poncho, rain proof pants and gloves and then snapped it closed before the dry resembled a coconut. Seemed a few of the others were floating around between the carpark, toilets and undercover refuge of the main shop and office of the campground.

Volker made me chuckle in his stylish half leg tracksuit, sandles and umbrella. Looked like a rich designer floating aroundthe GP pre-race grid. He’d actually spent the night sleeping under a sunshade in the rain in his leathers begging for a sunshining morning. To his credit, he was full of beans and ready to ride. I like riding with him! Simon, Ant and Tony were soon on the scene with Richard. As we cursed the rain, threw up ideas for the day and basked in the rider’s atmosphere a lone rider came waving out of the campground – iphone in one hand, luggage in the other. Colin was ready to roll. Not quite but he was out of bed and seemingly had the key to forcasting an end to our weather woes with his iphone.

We soon discovered, wih the help of said iphone, that the weather was coming on thick and fast and the end of the riding world was nigh! Not quite but it did look pretty dismal with rain streaking north-westerly everywhere across all the weather maps. Seems there were a few typhoons down south responsible for our evacuation to and loiteing about the front of the dry main shop. Not stylish but we’re dry

Colin and Volker took the opportunity to take another dip in the nearby onsen and most of the crew disapppeared for breakfast at Joyful too.

We had to finally make a plan and everyone was bouncy ideas and switching ride groups like zombies in search of a feed. After a lot of Mapple browsing, some zumo plotting and the rain easing up we headed out in 2 groups. Richard and Phorest heading for the big smoke. Volker, Tony, Ant, Mike and I on our way to the hospital via some twisties. Damn the rain, we wanted some good riding and we were gonna get it!

Ant , Richard , Simon & the fleet

Boy did we get it! Only a short run north and then swung right leaving Phorest, Simon and Richard to continue north while we headed inland on rt4. Ant had raved about it, Egon had backed him and an Osakan mate had said not to miss it either. Glad we didn’t. What a ripper of a road. Started off a bit dodgy with a lot of tight and house lined roads but it had good views. Then the narrow licorice strips sprung up between homesteads. Tunnels encased in spring green trees with white edged blacktop snaking away around tight blind corners all the while following a river to our left. Sparodically wide flowing dual lane tracks began to pop up in front and thankfully they became less sparodic and longer as we floated further south.

Brilliant

The race replicas had streaked on ahead and when I thought I had mysteriously caught Richard with Phorest in tow(the big twin silver cans?) and was winding up for a blow by I saw the 3 speedstars in a rest area waiting for us to catch up. Not used to arriving when others had already had time to take off helmets, I focused on the pawns in the Fazer’s sights. Rounded them up and gunned it down the wide open road and onto the best piece of riding road I’d seen all day. Long wide open sweepers with no traffic, plenty of vision ahead, great views down the swollen riverside across to the mirror road on the other side of the valley and it was bone dry! The Fazer was finally getting to breath a little. Admittedly it was packing weight like a 70’s Elvis but like the King, it still sung a good tune and had some moves.

Plan was to swing south-west onto the 353 before jumping the 56 west to the hospital.
I arrived first this time and it went something like this in synchronised stereo. Blip-blip, blaaaa, blit-bla-blit-blaaaaaaaaaaa and Volker came around the bend with Tony roasting his rear tyre. They almost over shot the turn off but had seen me trying to get there attention, waving my arms about like a banana starved monkey, from the scenic bridge top I’d stopped on rather than waiting on the boring but logical corner. Anyway they saw me last minute and only marginally overshot the corner.
Next came Colin with Mick in tow at a reasonable pace and then this BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA as Ant pulled out and tore up the right lane burning past both of them. And he just kept on going, straight past the turn off. We all had a chuckle and then saw the brake lights but he was just setting up for the corner ahead, banking it in to the right and tracing the gaurdrail out of sight. Well, 5 minutes later we heard him howling back and gotta say his race style turn and run onto the bridge was cool!

At the hospital, Jeff(crash tester) looked a damn sight better than the night before and told us to get on the road and not to worry about him. Hard to do both but we did manage to get back on the road, if only so briefly, after Ant and Tony had a ‘Nihongo-booking of a hotel-face off’. Ant sweet talked his way onto the podium this time.. While planning the next leg’s stops we found out Mike had a thing for the Sanuki Udon and was gonna lose a finger or two if he returned to Kanto without getting his fill. So we headed out in search of great roads and some Sanuki udon.

A bit torn between it being lunch time and wanting to ride, I’d hoped for a restaurant about an hours ride away but wasn’t sure if we’d find anything offering sanuki. First stoplight turn left and then suddenly Colin, in the lead, is on the anchors haphazardly beaching the FJR and pointing to a sign. May your wish be Shikoku’s command Mike! Low and behold, not 100metres from the hospital, we had stumbled upon Sanuki udon. Was pretty good too.

Back on the road with Mike’s 10 digits secure for a while, we were in search of rt50 and then a long run up the 441. 50 was cool but the 441 was my kind of road. They are all over Japan’s hidden valleys and if you’ve ridden a bit out there you’ll know what we were riding. 100km of ever changing blacktop entertainment.

Swinging off the 50 the Fazer was leading the pack and the Touge-Express was ready to roll. We flowed, glided and generally got comfortable with each other. As the road opened up so did the throttle bodies and the smiles. As it tightened the gap between each of us closed along with the furrow in a few brows as slipping thru traffic on tight single lane touges (panniers?) is a testing experience. But as much as we drifted apart, the slowdown for towns always bought the lead pack back together. Mike and Collin were back there somewhere taking the memory snaps.

We stopped about every ‘break a sweat time’ for various reasons. For some the rain pants were a sweaty nuisance that needed airing while another was learning not to eat curry udon before riding. Entertaining and generally harmless stuff which made us all glad to be there.
But blessings were certainly being counted at being let loose on this road with almost no rain or traffic to complain about. There were some turns missed, shortcuts found and the waiting at T-junctions was cool with many a passing rider giving a wave. Memories of Hokkaido. Surprising how many dirt bikes there were belting along too.

Well, back on the 441, a few spits of rain here and there and a couple of hairy moments with roads trolls not allowing us to pass. But the Touge Express rolled on and I became very comfortable with the 70’s Elvis-Fazer’s rear end grip and planted feeling. It had put on some stylish rear end weight.

with the addition of the Givi panniers, 5L jerri-can and compulsory beer. Needed a change in riding approach that had me thinking back to the CB days. Easy on the brakes-alot of rear-keep the chain driven and then kick it in guts only when your exit line is clear and relatively straight. The tight stuff was a joy with a little navi-guided assistance. Guess a few following were wondering what the hell I was thinking when I backed down a couple of gears and wrenched it over into unmarked hairpins. hehehehe!  Atleast they had fun trying to keep up with Elvis.

The troupe ascended and descended a few good hills and ran the vistas in between before finally getting close to an expressway and the quick shot to our Hotel in Niihama. Well, we got to the end of the 441 in time to see Colin, who was to zumo-guide us to our hotel, sailing overhead on the expressway leaving us behind. No problem, just call him up and he’s taking calls from the USSFJR on the starcom. He says: ‘Dude, I think I just got on the expressway! Where are you guys? I waited at the Cosmo gas stand but you guys weren’t around’ We agreed to meet at the first PA after we all gassed up, which we did and quickly set off in pursuit of our hare.
Caught him at some PA after shuffling down a single lane expressway moving at a crawl. We didn’t join the crawl. Heading out of the PA, the light rain was back and so was the Touge Express but we had to improvise without any twisties. Man I dig riding with Tony!

Around 7pm we met up just off the expressway and only a few kms from the Route Inn. Quite an appropriate name and not only a favorite stop over for me but also a few of the others. With comfy, clean (not love hotel) rooms, breakfast buffet and internet it was a welcome respite from the rain and highway fever. We all took a scrub and then met back in the lobby before heading out for a great meal and many beers.

Akio did well putting up with the Yabanjin

The walk back was jovial and the drinking and joking in the foyer was cool too.

That was a good day.   Thanks to Colin, Volker and Tony and

the Blues Brothers -aka
Ant & Mike

See you on the road

Shunning the tech, thinking it was all a bit too complicated and distracting (which it is), it’s made itself useful in ways I’d never taken seriously. I mean I knew it had these functions and they were useful when in the car but, being the intellectual Honda cub that I am, never realized how well it would complement my wanderings. The mapple has been my spotty but mostly brilliant guiding light till now and the Garmin is filling in the voids. Here’s how:

1. it’s great for finding fuel when your running on fumes. Unless the Gas stand has been pushed down in the past 2 years, as the Garmin streetpilot riding my bars lead me to on Sunday.

2. excellent for getting back on track when you’ve been turned inside out on unknown sections of road after trekking into the suburban wilds in search of fuel.

3. clocking top speeds. Doesn’t work in tunnels though, unfortunately.. .

4. finding food you want to eat

5. marking points of interest that would usually be forgotten until you rode past them again.

But best of all, it has been finding the hidden link roads that take you from one great road to another without having to go the long way around and pay the piper. Yep, I’m addicted to finding the road less travelled more than ever.

Garmin Streetpilot 2610, Mapsource version 7

What is the best mod you’ve done to your bike?

Some would say tires, others suspension and the odd lunatic would praise the 50horse shot of NOS he just strapped on the rear seat of his tire melting, soon to detonate road monster!

Recently some donor suspension from the R1 has rocked the FZ1’s world and changing to HID headlights certainly saved my skin a few times but there is one mod that just keeps on giving for no additional outlay(unlike tyres). The Dynojet – Power Commander 3 – or electronic piggyback fuel controller.

Q: A little background?

A: Ok, so here is the sales pitch from Dynojet

How much additional power will it give my motorcycle?

There are many variables to each application. The Power Commander allows for tuning to the perfect air/fuel ratio will ensure that the engine can produce the maximum possible horsepower for that given combination.

Consider that a typical street rider spends a great deal of time riding in part throttle conditions. Shown below are two graphs of a motorcycle before and after installation of the Power Commander. The top graph line shows the horsepower curve accelerating and the lower graph shows the corresponding air/fuel ratio. You can see a large horsepower increase between the two. The red curve shows a typical stock motorcycle with minor performance modifications (slip-on exhaust).

The blue curve shows that same combination with the Power Commander installed and you can see that the line is nearly straight. Consequently, the rider will feel a large improvement while riding the motorcycle. It is very possible that the peak wide open throttle horsepower is unchanged. The correct air/fuel ratio number (say 12.9:1 or 13.2:1) depends upon many factors like combustion chamber design, but what we want is that figure at every point in the curve (straight line).

In general we have found that a typical stock bike has areas in the fuel curve that are far from optimal for drive-ability and performance. We could say that they are typically 70% optimized in stock condition and 60% – 65% with minor performance modifications. After installation of the Power Commander with the base map, we would expect to see 85% – 95% optimization. Power Commander Alternate Maps – Each Power Commander is supplied with a number of alternate maps on a CD-ROM and all the maps are available for download on our web site.“

The bit that got me was the last paragraph. I like to tinker with stuff to get the best from it and enjoy showing up seemingly better competitors after my efforts.

When the FZ1 first rolled out of the showroom it had a mototune debut and was a smooth tractible mule that performed it’s duties well. It has had a storied life since then, for good and bad. But through it all the mighty FZ1 has ridden on from Satamisaki to Soyamisaki and has never missed a beat.

The tinkering started with a slip on exhaust and I can fairly say the mods just kept on coming. The FZ1OA rider’s forum didn’t help eradicate the bug much. Come to think of it, that’s where most of the tuning tips have come from and where I found out how to best utilize the PowerCommander3’s abilities to unleash the FZ1.

The theory being bandied around was that freeing of the exhaust had the engine running a little lean so an aftermarket fueling controller would be needed. With the additional fuel to richen the Air/fuel ratio came an increase in power. Furthermore, an optimization of the air/fuel ratio helped to inrease power further whilst also smoothing the power delivery, reducing vibes and improving economy. Was it all possible? The dyno’s around the world were saying “YES!” To the power part atleast.

Here’s a chart showing the difference between a fully modded(red) and stock(blue) FZ1.

Seeing this, a PC3(power commander 3) was ordered and a set of smaller secondary butterflies(quicker throttle response), Fuelcut eliminator(smoother on/off throttle) and free flowing air filter(to breath) were soon installed along with a matching map. With a good airbox cutting the FZ1’s litre bike potential was unleashed and it felt, sounded and responded like a different bike. A better beastier bike.

Since then a few different bits of hardware have been added and subtracted but there has been one constant. The PC3 community of map makers and sharers. Whether I be off for a torquey touge assault somewhere, a high rpm day at the track, an economy sipping ironbutt or something different,  there has always been a myriad of maps available to try. All just a 5 minute download/upload away.

I recently stumbled on a map to replace my downshift special(previous map had a cool power bulge around 7k that gauranteed a broad smile on my dial every time). The guy who was sharing it had the same year bike as me with almost identical mods and ran the same kind of fuel. He reported 149hp at the rear wheel with very smooth power delivery and minimal vibes. I took it out for a spin on Sunday on damp roads and I’ve found something new to smile about, the rolling burnout! anything above 75% throttle and the rear was just floating around back there. I tried softening the rear to no effect. So, I just resigned to the fact that this map is not good in the wet but I can say it performs well when the road is dry and twisty. The downshift special required some respect coming outa corners but this is smooth. Can’t wait to try it on a warm smooth day. May even be a good one for the circuit.

So where does one go from here? Well, I’m hearing good things about the Ignition module which is one of the accesories which plugs right into the PC3 and allows manipulation of the ignition timing in a similar manner to the fuel mapping. The benefits of it are supposed to be reduced vibration, optimized fuel economy, cooler running temperatures and crispy throttle response. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? That’s what they said about the PC3. But this is supposed to be the another 5%. Ah the tuning bug again! Is 5% worth 30,000yen though?

Q:Then after the Ignition module comes what?

A: Ok, so here is the sales pitch from Dynojet

” “Expansion port” for upgrades and accessories – The “expansion port” allows easy connection of accessories such as our new ignition module, Quick shifter, Multifunction Hub, Pressure Sensor display and LCD display unit. Automatic map retrieval upon connection – As soon as you connect the PCIII USB to the computer and launch the software, the map installed in the PCIII USB will be displayed.“

Oh no! There goes that mod bug again, nawing away at my wallet!

Here it is under the rear seat

So today it’s the sunday-squirt write up.

All of us have a favorite road, set of roads or a route that includes some cool roads. Kantonians know the Izu skyline and most know the west Izu run or the Doshi-Fuji Skyline-469 trifecta and I had a great run around the back of Asama-yama, in Nagano, on a seemingly endless roller coaster of bitchin backroads a few months back. The unfortunate thing is some of these roads are too far away and others are just too well known by all the wrong people.

So, where do you go for a good Sunday ride? That navi has been helping me dig up and log some of the rippers I’d previously staggered onto and proceeded to forget as they were more than several roads into a circuit and my skull sponge has a problem holding onto more than a few facts at a time, especially when flooded with adrenalin. But there are a few favourites and I’d be happy to share with any who can make the Sunday morning meet up here if you can rise with the sun.

The past few Sundays have been great. 3 weeks ago it was actually warm up on the skyline (it is meant to be winter, right?) and the bikes were out in force. The roads are still quite winter empty, and being warm, the ice hasn’t been a problem in the higher areas. Take care on the north side shaded areas though. Gas is cheap and the great thing about riding this time of year is the minuscule presence of posers and wannabe riders. Yep, plenty of real riders who are looking in their mirrors, being realistic toward other road users and willing to give a nod or have a chat at the rest areas. And most of them are out there alone, like me, on their Sunday squirt.

Had a cool experience last Sunday banking the hairpin 1/2 way up the Tsubaki-line. Taking it easy and floating through the corner, didn’t bother to slide a cheek which had the FZ dragging a peg quite a way, I was almost blinded by the flashes of more than a couple cameras just as I was getting on the gas mid corner. Had to take a look over the shoulder to make sure those cameras weren’t connected to uniforms and was delighted to see a few guys in leathers giving me a wave. Later saw them on the skyline where one gave me another wave. Kind of felt like Hokkaido. That’s the spirit!

The Sunday squirt is what riding is all about for me. Take off early for half familiar roads,find a few unknowns, scare yourself shitless at least once and soak in some cool scenery. All before lunch!

So, see you cats on the road.

Well it’s 7am on Sunday(1/3/09) and the weather is crap! Was really looking forward to a ride before the WSBK. These things happen I guess. Next week.

Welcome to the Touge-Express

In search of touring, hidden back roads, great scenery and momentous ride experiences.

Having toured from end to end on the main islands , Honshu-Shikoku-Kyushu-Hokkaido, it has been a blast and blessing. With a touring Mapple in the tankbag, a reliable stead under the rump and a wrist full of enthusiasm, this country has delivered!

Read on and join the ride .. . .