Karl Bianchini | Moto-Abruzzo

11/09/201209/09/2017

Continental blast and re-reg at last!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid - Passo del Gottardo

It’s 24hrs since the Capo and I arrived home from our 3,500 mile, three week trip to the UK and bits of me are still aching in new and novel ways. It’s not the Capo’s fault, the day after the trip over to the UK I was up and running around like a spring lamb with a caffeine boost. The return trip was different though, maybe not enough rest prior to the trip, I don’t know. I felt fine throughout the ride, just tired when I arrived. The next day was a different matter. My old right wrist injury, dormant for the past few years, decided to make itself known by swelling nicely and hurting like hell. So I named it ‘Paracetamol Monday’ in honour.

The trip went like a well-wound Swiss textbook, the Capo averaged 48mpg with a gold medal peak of 51mpg and a bronze medal low of 45mpg on the homeward leg – nice.

The tyres (Michelin Anakee 2) are wearing brilliantly, now with 7,500 miles under them, they still have 2.8mm front and 3.6mm tread left to the 1mm wear limit, that’s 25%/45% part worn from new. At this rate the projected life is well in excess of 12k for the rear, unbelievable. The amazing thing is that with so much profile-killing motorway work, they haven’t started to square-off, only the front shows early signs of ‘cupping’ on the rear edge of the central blocks. On paper, tyres that last this long and hold on to the profile would be so hard as to have sod all grip – not the case with the Anakee’s ……. have I really stumbled on the nirvana of long life and high grip in these tyres? Looks like it!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid - back on UK registration The trip was for multiple reasons, friends, family, a little rider training and not least because I’d decided to return the bike to UK registration. I couldn’t believe how quick and easy it was. One MOT (cheers Dave Clarke Motorcycles – Oxford), Insurance cover and one simple form. Pop into the local DVLA office and 10 minutes later and just over a hundred quid lighter I had a tax disk and a V948 authorisation certificate so I could go and get a number plate made. I had this done by North Oxford BMW (thanks Matt) as they could do it with the ‘GB’ logo. The day I was leaving the V5C registration document turned up to complete the set, so FX**G** and I were good to go.

So by the statistics on ‘howmanyleft.com’ there are currently 6 Rally-Raids declared SORN (off road) and 9 taxed and presumably rumbling around our fair green land …….. as of 2012 Q3, make that 10 on the road!

Finally a few thank yous …….. Jan for holding the fort and doing an amazing job, to Jim at AMI who again managed to keep me topped up with some CBT & DAS rider training, to Lucy and Emidio my in-laws who looked after me, the chap who parked the grassy-Smart car and last but not least there was to be a sarcastic ‘thank you‘ but Jan censored it! Damnation ……

21/06/201226/05/2016

A grand day out

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid - Lago di Capotosto Yesterday we went for a picnic. I loaded up the sandwiches, Spanish omelette, water and squirrelled the nibbles and ground blankets away in military fashion, so that by 10am the Capo was fit to burst and ready to roll. We’d decided on a nice lakeside lunch at Lago di Campotosto with a side order detour to the top of the Campo Imperatore and a look at the observatory and cableway as well. The return would include a little light shopping excursion for Jan at Castelli and hopefully home in time to watch the sunset. All very nice.

As always the Capo performed flawlessly despite the humid 36c as we left. The miles rolled on and the GPS rhythmically counted up the altitude as we headed up the Gran Sasso. Here it was a far more civilised 24c with a nice breeze, smashing! On the way, Jan had plenty of opportunity to practice the royal wave as a steady precession of like-minded bikers passed the other way, no doubt heading for lunch at Santo Stefano or a fountain side coffee in Castel del Monte.

We topped out at 2,150m as we parked up at the end of the line – the car park at the Observatory. Built in 1951 it now runs the CINEOS program (Campo Imperatore Near Earth Object Survey), started in 2001. Standing next to the observatory is one of the oldest ski hotels in Italy. Built in 1921, it was used to imprison Mussolini and in 1943 saw him rescued by German commandos without firing a single shot.

We then headed the last 30 miles or so to Lago di Campotosto, a man made lake built in the 1930’s. It sits at about 1,300m above sea level and is used for hydro electric power generation. The road that runs around it is about 23 miles long, but you can cut that significantly if you use Ponte delle Stecche – The Bridge of Sticks. The road to the North is fine, but to the South, water frequently drains across the road carrying silt and sand with it. I could see clear evidence of bikers pushing their luck in bends and ending up with intimate knowledge of the unforgiving nature of crash barriers, trees and very big rocks!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid - panoramic of Lago di Campotosto

We finally found a nice little spot that suited us just dandy. Amid the periodic calling of frogs or toads down at the waterside and a cool breeze, we nibbled and munched our way through a king’s dinner. After a couple of hours rest we set off back down the way we’d come until we intercepted the SS80. Here we turned towards Teramo and hopefully a fuel station! We eventually stopped off at Montorio a Vomano for a refuel – bike and us as the temperature was back up to the mid 30’s again. Next, we swung South East back into the mountains and Castelli, home of ceramics.

While Jan scoured through the acres of shop shelving, looking for that just-right little something for the house, I caught up with events back at the training school in the UK, then sat and sipped water as the sun dropped behind the mountain and the forest took on a whole new darker and foreboding mood. Time to move on. Finally, with a big smile and a small package beautifully finished with a gold ribbon tucked safely in the top-box, Jan hopped on board and we set off home.

At about 7.30pm we rolled into the barn, cut the motor and sat for a moment exhausted as we contemplated emptying the bike, getting changed, washing all the stuff and putting it away ……. but that’s after the sea of expectant little faces, feathery and furry get fed!

All together we covered about 170 miles between 350m and 2,130m above sea level and with wholesome home produce, a frugal Caponord, Jan’s present and a couple of pit-stop coffee’s, we did the lot for less than €60! Bargain.

15/06/201226/10/2016

Ultimate Parts (UK) discount offer

I’ve just been given this heads-up from Aussie Capo rider and all-round good egg Steve (Precis) about discount offers from those awfully nice folks at Ultimate Parts in Nottingham (UK), take it away Steve ……

Martin at Ultimateparts (http://www.ultimateparts.net/Aprilia-ETV-1000-Capo-Nord-2003-parts.php) can supply sprag clutch parts with massive saving to forum members, e.g. sprag clutch bearing down from £334.00 to £169, alternator windings £169.00; they must email him [[email protected]] and mention my name (Steve) to qualify for the discounts.

Cheers for the info, hope someone finds it useful.

11/06/2012

Fire sale at the lost and found

After a bit of time mulling over the computer problem, I decided to buy an external housing for the poorly Sony SATA hard drive and see if it was still readable from Jan’s XP machine or the Capo’s Asus notebook. Would it be possible to recover the data? Both machines recognised it, but that’s as far as it went … they couldn’t read a thing from it. One last thing to try, then I would have to admit defeat and start over from scratch. Not a happy thought.

I loaded a demo copy of a program called ‘Recover my files’ …… a bit of a naff name I know, but it worked! It read the disk and recovered 95%+ of the data over 24 hours. I happily paid to unlock the demo version and within 48 hours had everything backed up to a new external hard drive. Things were looking up!

I reformatted and checked the hard drive for errors, then loaded a copy of the new Microsoft Windows 8 Release Preview – figuring that if the disk is suspect, it can’t do any more harm to play with a new version of Windows for a while. Somewhere along the line I’ll have to buy a new copy of Windows anyway, so why not see if the new version is any good …. it can’t be worse than Vista can it?

Well here I sit writing this post on a happy stable Sony Vaio with Windows 8 purring along smoothly. The system is faster and more stable, most of the programs I use have loaded with no issues and those that did were an easy fix. So fingers crossed that this little drama is over for now. Slowly I’m picking my way through the stored data and adding it back to the laptop, but it’s a slow old process ……

…… now to start doing regular backups!

11/06/2012

Snap-crackle-pop ….. no, not the Capo!

Well I have to say it’s been quite a stressful few weeks ….. a Capo coil failed just before I left for the UK, but as it fed a side-sparkplug the bike ran OK and so it had to languish at the airport while I wandered off to rainier latitudes in search of parts and a little work. The stay in the UK was pretty uneventful, quite nice actually, except for a Sunday morning psychopath using a 40 ton articulated lorry as weapon. Very unnerving.

Time flew by as it always does and I’m soon back at Pescara airport uncovering the Capo in the dark, will it start? Of course it does bless it, and we enjoy a nice moonlit ride home. Jeez the Capo feels BIG after riding a Honda Hornet 600 for a couple of weeks!

The next morning a new coil was fitted (more here) and shortly after, while basking in the warm glow of a job well done, my computer decides to crash! Total meltdown … it’s thrown its metaphorical electronic toys out of the pram, 360Gb of digital mush. Bugger!!!

So now I’m relegated to a teeny-weeny 9″ screen on the notebook and a overwhelming desire get more than one podgy finger at a time over the miniature keyboard. As a part of the Capo’s tool kit it’s the business, as a day-to-day work tool it sucks big time …… sorry Asus.

Now my heart is well and truly sinking as I take stock of all the stuff that’s possibly lost.

03/05/201226/05/2016

Sagem coil failure ….. inevitable really

It’s official …. Moto-Abruzzo has been bitten by the infamous Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid Sagem coils Caponord coil failure syndrome. It was a lovely day so a spin round the block was on the cards, the Capo fired up sweet enough before starting to flash the dreaded ‘EFI‘ warning lamp. Oh deary me.

Turned out to be a rear coil (Code 36) that had died, no worries I thought, I’ve got a couple of spares on the shelf – although of unknown history. Turns out one was toast and the other intermittent, so both are useless.

This morning I adapted the mighty Moto-Logger to display the coil ‘Dwell’ data in real-time so I could have a look at the intermittent coil in operation. Interesting – but wholly depressing on a nice sunny day when I’d rather be riding the damn thing. Rather strangely, the coil began to work OK once it got hot …. very peculiar! Anyway, new coils are on order so it won’t be long.

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.

25/03/201226/05/2016

How to make 21 days fly by!

I’m finally back home for a rest. Oh, did I forget to say I was going back to blighty for a few weeks? Well it was three weeks of fog, frost, rain, sunshine and snow! To be fair, the last two weeks settled down to some semblance of normality after mid-morning. While I shivered and cursed the fog and way-to-fast traffic, Jan held the fort in Abruzzo. She did brilliantly and had a fine time in vastly better weather!

On this trip I was primarily tasked by AMI with training Alan, the new instructor. Alan has an impeccable riding CV, having served for many years in the London Motorcycle Paramedic unit and being responsible for rider training. Would he cope well though with the initial learner end of the spectrum?

Well on my last day I was proud as punch to present him with his first DSA qualification, the ‘Down-Trained’ certificate, which allows him to teach CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) and work with post-CBT learner 125cc riders. It’s just the first rung on the long ladder to DAS qualification as he well knows, but his determination, skill and knowledge have set a firm foundation on which to progress. Good luck Alan, your card was well earned and I hope to work with you later in the year, and thanks Jim for the work!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid AS7 Autoswitch On a Capo note, I finally managed to bring back an AS7 Autoswitch for the fog lights. You can read more about fitting and operation here – it works brilliantly!

I also briefly met ‘Training Man’ and his partner (Paul & Anna) from the AF1 Aprilia forum at a local bike café. His Capo was the only bike in the car park – until our motley group of school bikes turned up! Nice to meet you, maybe see you at Bristol Italian Day next year …….

So it’s back home to nature running wild as spring sets in. Time then to refuel the strimmers, saws and tractor and get stuck in to sorting the land out ……. but first, one little ride out on the Capo, Jan won’t notice!

23/02/201201/05/2015

Packt full of great information!

After 11 days off the Net and a further week sorting out the aftermath of the snow, I’ve finally got a few minutes to start looking at the Caponord Wiki – or ‘Capopedia’ as it’s now called …. original eh?

Well I’m still struggling with the new syntax and layout of the thing, when all of a sudden help storms over the horizon. You see, Jan has been reviewing books for a UK publishing house and as a ‘thank you’ gets the odd free Ebook. So she rather cheekily asked about a Mediawiki publication she knew would be right up my street.

And so I’m delighted to say a big thank you to Richard Dias of Packt Publishing for not only graciously giving Jan the book, but doing it by return email, talk about quick! And of course Jan, for doing the deed in the first place …. air kisses & über hugs!

It has already helped me out immensely and I’m looking forward to having a rummage under the bonnet of Mediawiki over the coming weeks and getting a look and feel that’s just right for the Capo content.

Ta very muchly everyone!