Caponord | Moto-Abruzzo

28/03/2012

Mileage poll closed, luggage poll open!

Firstly a big thank you to everyone who voted on the mileage of their Caponord. However, not many surprises really ……. 100 owners voted their Capo mileage, 63% have covered between 10 and 40,000 miles with the greatest percentage (25%) in the 30-40,000 mile range. At the bottom end, 8% have barely seen the first service and must be riding the shiniest Capo’s of all, while at the other end we have 4% with over 90,000 miles and and 3% with 100K+ miles.

If the 100K+ owners ever read this, drop me a line would you I’d love to do a post on your high mileage bikes. So now onward to a new poll …… What luggage do you use? …. from bin liners to gold plated titanium panniers hand rolled by presidential candidates, your call!

27/03/201228/04/2019

Current cool tool

A quick post about a snazzy and useful little tool for the tool box and at £9.99 its not going to break the bank either. The Maplin N48CY current meter will measure up to 20 amps (double most multimeters) and has contacts that simulate a fuse …… simply unplug the fuse from the circuit to be tested, plug the tester in, switch on and activate the circuit – voila, a nice crisp display of the current that flows through the fuse & circuit. I’ve recently run through the Capo fuse block and you can see the table of recorded values here.

02/02/2012

Welcome to Wiki-school …. day1

Well as part of the 2012 overhaul …. I’ve gone Wiki! Yes, Moto-Abruzzo is moving any Capo related technical info and how-to articles over to a Wiki. A platform better suited to cross-referencing data and being co-written by other like-minded owners.

I think it’s a good move, although a rather tough learning curve. Of course, life with my Rally-Raid will still be a staple part of Moto-Abruzzo, I’m just clearing a little room! So click on the ‘Capo-Wiki’ link on the menu or go to http://etv1000.co.uk to see how we’re getting on – and maybe give us a hand?

21/01/201226/05/2016

A mouse in the works

What with the mild winter and the vastly improved road surface, I’ve been lucky enough Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid good times! to use the Capo far more than previous winters. That has meant the Range Rover languishing in the corner. And that has been the cause of yet more trouble.

One man’s car is another mouse’s home, especially when it sits day-after-day slowly dropping to its bump-stops and enticing grass and weeds to grow through the wheels. So muncher-mouse duly set up home under the battery compartment lid and made a comfy nest – from the bonnet liner, cable insulation and some hoses!

The car still started and ran, but what a mess! So I served the little darling an eviction notice (waved a big fluffy chicken!) and took stock of the damage. All this meant a trip to town for spares, so on an obscenely sunny afternoon, I took the Capo for a whiz around Pescara.

Long-story-short, I got the bits I needed AND luck would have it, I got the last bit of aluminium chequer-plate (on sale!!) to finish off the capo pannier lid modifications I started a couple of years ago. I already had the marine grade stainless steel tie-down points and hardware on the shelf, but the plate just seemed to get forgotten each time we’d been in-store.

So the Range Rover got shiny new cables and pipes and the Capo got the topbox make-over I’d waited aeons to get around too. All-in-all, a tidy result.

Oh and the mouse? Last I heard it was doing impressions of a dog whistle at Mouseville!

07/01/201226/05/2016

Hyperpro ho ho!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid - Hyperpro rear spring If you do nothing else to your Capo this year, do this. Fit a Hyperpro spring, you won’t be sorry! The RR got this upgrade back in September and frankly it’s been smiles ever since. To top it off, Jan and I recently took the RR shopping … not in itself the most interesting of pastimes, but it’s how the Capo fared that was the real eye opener.

This was the first time I’d run two-up and with full luggage, 52Kg of luggage to be exact – and I didn’t have to adjust the pre-load. The bike took everything in its stride, including the obscene gale force winds that brewed up in the afternoon. It was also a real pleasure that the side stand could still be extended and retracted while fully loaded something that was impossible with the old spring, while using the center-stand doesn’t induce a popped hernia anymore. Absolutely fantastic! Excellent, balanced suspension with good ground clearance maintained …. can’t be bad for £80!

Hyperpro spring fitted – typical side stand clearance with the bike upright

Unloaded: 70mm Rider only: 50mm Rider+pillion+50Kg luggage: 20mm

30/12/2011

Time for a change – 2012

It’s that time for reflection as one year fades into another, time to take stock of Moto-Abruzzo and in what direction I want to push it in 2012. Well to start with, I guess I have to think back to exactly what got me motivated enough to start the blog in the first place. It was (and still is) my Caponord Rally-Raid of course. I had this idea to write-up my own experiences, nothing anecdotal from others, only what I knew and experienced first hand. To that end it’s been quite successful – but limited, if nothing needs tinkering with, or breaks … what do I write? And that’s the Achilles heel of the blog.

So for 2012 I need to expand, to keep the blog fresh, to introduce a little pace …. but I don’t want to lose the essence of what I started. After plenty of dog walking and time to reflect, these are the meager ideas that popped into a tired mind.

Abruzzo: More content, but from the perspective of a bikers eye. Abruzzo websites/blogs abound with more general info than I could, or want to accumulate …. but none are from a bikers viewpoint as far as I can see.

Caponord: I’ll stop taking the mundane jobs for granted, everything is questionable to someone. So I’ll cover the basics with text/photos/video/3D to add more depth to the Capo content. Simply put … more detail.

Blog layout: Devote a little more time and effort to increasing the blog look and speed for mobile/smartphone use. The technical content may be useful when you’re stranded by the side of the road! Mobile content is where it’s all heading I guess.

Mystery project: Yep, the one and only. The dusty canvas draped over the mysterious artifact that gently pulses and hums hypnotically in the shadowy corner of the barn may well be pulled back to reveal ………… all in good time!

So I hope dear reader, you’ll still pop by now and again and see what’s new, maybe drop me a line – good or bad. Constructive feedback can only help move the blog and it’s content forward. Layout or display issues would be very useful …. I’m no internet wiz-kid. I’ve an ageing laptop running Vista and access to a couple of old clunkers with Windows XP. Combined they let me see the site in Firefox, Explorer and Opera but I’ve no idea what it looks like on Windows 7 or any other browser. Time to upgrade? Yeah, you may well be right…….

$The Capo on \'Cold Road\'$

A warm, windy and atmospheric December day, that was ideal for a nice ride out and few moody pics dropped to black and white. Picture 2, looking over the saddle …. I can see my house from here!

02/10/201111/10/2022

Shorai batteries now in the UK

It’s a lovely warm afternoon and I’m stood holding a little lightweight box with two terminals …. It’s a fake, a toy, it has to be. This simply cannot be a real battery!

Some sleazebag once tried flogging me a wooden camcorder in bubble wrap at a French fuel station, luckily I rumbled him. I’m starting to have a sinking feeling, maybe I’ve been stitched up like a kipper this time. No way is this a battery, no siree Bob!

The thing is though, the Shorai LFX18A1-BS12* is indeed real, and yes, it does only weigh 0.96Kg against the portly 4.6Kg that the YTX14 tips the scales at. It can weigh as little as a budgies fart and pack more punch than a high power version of the standard battery because of the lithium-Iron technology it uses, frankly it’s way over my head but if it works, I’m all for it. Here’s the bullet points the technology is supposed to offer:-

Fraction of the weight of traditional batteries
Faster cranking for better starting
Faster charging
No lead or explosive gasses
Twice the service life

What’s in the box? Firstly, a neat carbon composite battery with a measured floating voltage of 13.36v – that’s about 90% charged, exactly what the website says it should be. The box also contains an instruction leaflet, stickers (ooo!!) and lots of adhesive backed foam strips to pad out the little darling to fit your battery bay nice and snug like. It only took a few minutes to match up the foam to pad out the Shorai to YTX14 dimensions, then ease it into the battery bay and begin reconnecting the cables. One nice touch is that all the terminal nuts have a piece of foam pre-attached to hold them in place and hence, make bolting the wires in much easier … a simple thing, but much appreciated!

So the proof of the pudding, the first start. Nothing much to say really …. It started up nice and strong like it had always been there, absolutely amazing! It settled down to a normal 14.2v charge at idle and I left it for about 10 minutes and then turned the bike off. I went back the next morning and measured the floating voltage – 14.04v …… about 95% charged! So even in the few minutes I ran the bike, it had taken charge and dropped nothing overnight. This is looking promising!

The YTX14 that came out is about 3 years old and a quality make, but has started to show signs of distress over the past few weeks. So I think it fair to consider it life-expired and so use its cost/life as the yardstick with which to measure the Shorai unit.

This then is day 1, I’ll write periodically over the coming months about its performance, especially on balance with the YTX14 it has replaced. Hopefully in the next few weeks I should be getting the Shorai SHO-BMS01 charger to use directly into the batteries own port and then I’ll see how it fairs in ‘storage mode’ for the winter period.

The Caponord (all years) can take either the standard fitment LFX14A1-BS12 or the higher powered LFX18A1-BS12, they are both the same case size.

UPDATE 2014

Shorai have now replaced the original battery model for the Caponord/Futura with the LFX21A6-BS12.

20/08/201120/08/2011

Motolombia – Colombia Motorcycle tours … on a Rally-Raid!

Occasionally I get emails asking for info or help and I’m more than happy to assist if I can. Frankly, I’m flattered that people think I have something to offer. The other day, Mike from Motolombia contacted me about his Rally-Raid ‘Bella Donna’ ………. and frankly, it knocked me for six! For the past couple of years or so, I’ve followed the adventures of Mike and ‘Bella Donna’ – their highs and lows as he travelled extensively, finally planting roots in Columbia. Now married with two children he’s the owner and driving force behind Motolombia Adventure Motorcycle Tours.

It’s been a real delight for me to make this connection across the continents and I hope that if all things work out, next year I can visit Columbia and we can sink a cold beer or two. Mike and ‘Bella Donna’ have proved beyond a doubt that the Aprilia Caponord is as capable as any bike out there at this over-landing lark. Please, take a moment and have a look at his site – especially the videos. What a beautiful country! www.motolombia.wordpress.com

08/08/201108/08/2011

Quill Exhausts – new straps in a Jiffy!

It’s nice to write something positive especially when it’s a British company involved! Some of you may remember that I didn’t have the best of dealings with Quill Exhausts in 2009. Well last month I contacted them again by email and this time – wow, what a difference! I enquired about a new silencer strap as I lost one and have been using a flimsy ‘universal’ one since. In the end I got two …… free ….. yes, free! Just send a pre-paid jiffy bag and we’ll have them in the return post, I was told … and sure enough, a couple of days later they arrived. So firstly, thank you James at Quill Exhausts for your exemplary customer service and quick email replies, I’m very impressed, thank you. And secondly, thank you to Jim Smith (Abbey Motorcycle Instructors) for sending the Jiffy bag on my behalf, you sir are a star!!

29/07/201129/07/2011

The Nautilus pays for itself!

Years ago I was reversed into …… a HGV stopped on a main A road, we and the traffic behind us stopped as well. Then he reversed. Instinct 1 – horn, instinct 2 – bale out, or be crushed. As accidents go, being reversed into is quite a slow affair, time enough then to process the outcome, time enough to let the dread take hold. My step father and I were lucky, trapped by the car behind with nowhere to go, a quick thinking German jumped the line of traffic and drove alongside the tractor unit with his horn blaring.

Role on to yesterday ……. heading back home on the heavily laden Capo. I take a right turn onto a decent section of road I know well. Ahead is a HGV. He’s moving at a reasonable speed and I’m in no hurry, so I settle on the crown of the road about 100m behind. In about 2Km I’m turning left (pic. above), about 75% of traffic turns there …. So it’s quite conceivable this chap will as well. In my mind I’m setting up for the overtake once we’ve settled down after the turn.

We approach the junction doing about 70Kmh and his left indicator starts flashing. A second later I indicate as well. He starts braking and I back off the gas. I’m thinking he’ll shave off 20-30Kmh to make the turn. As you can see from the picture above, it’s a wide open junction with good visibility.

Then things rapidly unravel.

I’m still at the crown of the road, so I can see his mirror clearly …. And the fact that he’s scrubbing off way more speed than I’d anticipated – he’s stopping! I’m now about 30m behind.

He stops …. I stop about 15m behind, in clear view of his mirror. He’s still indicating left.

Then it happens. The engine revs, the reversing lights go on and with a lurch he’s accelerating backwards towards me.

It takes 0.7 seconds to process and react so they say.

14m, 12m, 10m ……..my thumb hits the horn button …… and the Stebel Nautilus sings out. It echoes off the back of the truck and floods through my earplugs, it gets the job done. Sleeping Beauty is awoken from his afternoon siesta by the 139db kiss on his delicate eardrums.

And just like that, the situation is defused, my pulse falls as I ride away and I realise my tongue is well and truly stuck to the top of my desert-dry mouth. The weak knees and tremors take a bit longer to fade away.

Why this muppet did what he did I have no idea, the nearest entrance behind us was about 400m and anyway, the junction is so spacious and quiet he could have turned around easily. I guess I’ll never know what thought was crossing that barren wasteland called his brain.

The question is, would the situation have had the same outcome if I hadn’t recently fitted the Nautilus …..