"Goose & Grizz's Punt-Innie-Wind Tour" - France & Belgium........

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Goose

Grey Hound
Joined
Aug 10, 2007
Messages
8,346
Reaction score
131
Bike
BMW R1200GS Adventure
France & D-Day......... let's check out what the fuss is all about!   :mwink:





alizee381280x960.jpg


Grizz's impending Memorial tour to South Africa (https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=106063.0) had us chatting about fitting 2-way radios on the bikes in SA to allow comms between their bikes.

Now any decent, intelligent biker knows that ANY excuse is a good excuse for a ride...... so a ride around the block/area is definitely NOT good enough if you have access to some of the best biking roads in Europe for a mere £16.00 ticket price away. P&O Ferry's have a great 2 hour service from Dover to Calais at 6am .....  which allows a full day's travelling on French soil!

Grizz managed to get hold of a Kenwood 2-way radio and early this morning he arrived at our place to start the installation.

We also needed to visit Halfords for some goodies to comply with the new French touring laws....... a spare set of Bulbs & 2 'orrible Straws that one has to blow into to prove to the Gendarmes that we can still ride a bike....

photo16.jpg


..... just love the Wilddog Paws!!!   :thumleft:

photo6.jpg


Remember to look out for the "Goose" and "Grizz" stickers on our tour...... with special guest and a "Cling-on" (Morgie's Wilddog's brother)

(Nicola - Grizz's better half had these specially printed for him.... cute... she's also the one sending him to Africa - so she can have a break!)

photo20.jpg


"Cling-On" the Wilddog groupie!  :mwink:

photo19.jpg




I must say that it's an absolute pleasure spending time with another dude that can "Maak-'n-plan" ........   as we had 1 x Autocom system + 1 x Kenwood, 2 x Other radio's and a kak-huis full of cables.....!  :mwink:

photo15.jpg



Well Autocom installed - we found that there was no way we could get the two smaller radios working - the Kenwood was ok - but powered off the Autocom - however no PTT was in the bag, so out came a set of Sharman headphones......

A quick installation of the Headset and we were ready to connect the radio.... or so we thought  :eek7:
Two small 1,5mm screws were needed to allow the Kenwood to be connected via cables to the Autocom... but we had none - so off to Maplin and their wonderfully skilled Electronic experts to assist!

:dousing: :dousing:

Hier kom kark.

I watched Grizz's stare and if he could have BLIKSEM'd the salesman - he would have..............  the DUDE insited on ïnserting" the screw himself and after 2 turns both of us could see the thread was wrong into the aluminium housing. Before either of us could blurt out a word... the bliksem forced the screwdriver and snapped the head of the screw off............   :eek: Dom twatwaffle (sorry hentie)

Fortunately.........  I'm used to working on radio equipment.. so with the salesman realising he was in deep kark......... (he would potentially be liable to replace a 70 quid radio) we were given carte blanche to open and use ANY of the tools and equipment in the store to rectify the situation!

photo.jpg


So on the Maplin counter top.........  we did a strip & repair........... but not just ANY repair... (as the old screw was totally jammed) we promptly proceeded to strip the unit, drill a new hole (check the size of the hand-drill)

photo2.jpg


..... the drill-bit being so thin & flimsy - required Grizz to stabilise it with his farmer-brown "vingers" .....

photo5.jpg



and as a first ever.... used a nifty miniature Tap & Die set to tap a new thread for our fastening screw!

photo3.jpg


Finally we were given the screws by the salesman after being more than grateful that we were not holding him liable for the stuffed screw.
Amazingly he commented on how he found it fascinating to watch us with the inhouse repair as he'd not realised what some of the tools we used were for..... :patch: - he works there... but no clue!

The Autocom connector had rust and some broken wires inside the power lead sheath... causing intermittent functionality that really screw'd us around.... but nothing a soldering iron would not sort out!

Eventually a whole rewire of the cable system was required to get it working........... using old dvd power lead (recycling's big here you know!)

photo10.jpg


photo11.jpg


EUREKA!!!!  Comms finally working.. a quick test and a blast up to the M25 was needed to make sure it works. (another excuse for a spin on the boney  :mwink:)

Interestingly we had 9/10 reception at speeds approaching  "license threatening"  with a distance of close on a mile (1.5km) and no signs of any break-up at all.
Needless to say - we are really chuffed with the performance and this adds a new dimension to riding with your mate!

SUNSHINE!!!!!!!!!!!  Check the LED Lights that we got on the group-buy!! Seriously NICE!!!

photo13.jpg


damn.......... we have fork'd off the main route/reason for this report........... have to concentrate.... erm.... waar de donner was ek nou weer??   :sip:



..............



.....................





P & O Ferries were contacted and our tickets booked for the Sailing on Tuesday morning at 06:00 ............  ONLY  3 more sleepies.........   :peepwall: :peepwall:


So who's coming with us.........  :mwink:




 
Top