cakeman

The final picture is of Carole having a quick nap while we waited for our friends to recover 200 euros from the motorway in France after it had flown out the tankbag of his TDM900 at 80 mph, still can't believe he actually found it..... here's afew more pictures from around France and Bruges.

Managed to get a short 4 day break recently to France and Belgium. The better half and myself decided to try and track down the grave of my great uncle Thomas who was killed at the Battle of Paschendale in 1917 whilst serving with the Grenadier Guards. We tracked his grave down to a small community cemetry in Wimeraux near Calais, it turned out that he had been wounded at Paschendale and died a few days later of his injuries at the military hospital in Wimeraux. It's a beautiful cemetary overlooking the coast, it's also the same place where John McRea is buried who wrote "In Flanders Fields". Anyway here's a few pictures from the trip and one of me signing the memorial book...... Incredibly moving experience.

Got to the dealers for when they opened this morning, handed the bike over to the mechanic and a few hours later it's sorted........two new genuine coils fitted to the rear cylinders and all seems good.

Cheers Steve. You are spot on about the location of the coils, reminds me of a CBX1000 a owned years ago with the spark units mounted under the swingarm where they used catch all the crud. Rich

I hear what you're saying guys and I did appreciate the way the shop put itself out to get me back on the road when I took the bike back but how did the mechanic miss that the other coil was mounted incorrectly (by only one bolt, and that's the one that appears to have failed now) when they are situated right next to each other? Also this machine was supposed to have had a complete service before I collected it. In their defense I've had four bikes from them in the past and never had any problems with them......Oh well, suppose it's just one of those things...

Sorry...it's a 2008 RSTD, covered just over 13,000 miles.

Picked the new bike up from the dealership on Thursday, on the ride home I thought it was running a bit on the lumpy side but put it down to not being run much since it was imported from the US. When I got home I checked the temperature coming from the header pipes and the rear left was a lot cooler than the other three so first thing Friday morning I rang the dealer who told me he had no vans in the area to pick it up so I offered to ride it back for them to have a look at (only about 25 miles from me). On inspection they first reckoned it was a spark plug breaking down under load, then after further investigation discovered it was an intermittent fault with the coil, so after nearly three hours hanging around the shop they fitted a new ignition coil and handed it back to me, was I annoyed? Naaah, these things happen. Anyway the bike ran ok on the way home, it just felt like it needed the carbs balancing......you know, a little hesitant on the throttle and a little vibration through the footpegs, I wasn't too worried as the dealer wanted me to drop It back the following week as they had to fit a non genuine coil to get me going and were ordering a genuine Yamaha part as soon as the Easter holidays were over so I thought they could sort it out then. Didn't get a chance to use the bike yesterday because of work but I'd arranged a breakfast run for this morning, so I went out this morning to start her up and she's sounding a bit rough, so I ran her round for about 15 minutes and when I get her back guess what? The rear RIGHT cylinder is stone cold........am I annoyed now? Oh yes I sure am......So I get underneath the bike to have a look and make sure the connections to the coils are ok (which they are), but I notice that that the coil for the rear right cylinder is only held on by the bottom mounting bolt.....the top one is missing because the coil doesn't fit the mounting holes correctly and there is a gap of about half an inch. So thats where I am up to now, stuck at home on a lovely spring day. How is Royal Star ownership going so far? You don't want to know http://www.venturers.org/Forum/images/smilies/icon_censored.gif If the dealership is open tomorrow (public holiday here) he's not going to know what hit him. http://www.venturers.org/Forum/images/smilies/icon_mad.gif Starting to wish I'd kept my Roadliner now. Rich http://www.venturers.org/Forum/images/smilies/soap.gif