London To Highlands on a shagged bike?

[TheDonUK]

Hi all,

I am currently in the middle of my exams, they will be over soon, one way or another, as a reward at the end i want to visit family i have up in the scottish highlands (Bonar Bridge/Lairg). I have done the trips in a car no prob, 600 ish miles.

Now i was going to take the girlfriend but i have scrapped that idea due to not wanting the hassel of keeping someone else "warm" and "happy".

I have a GS500E... The bike has something like 84k on the clock (and the speedo wasent working for a couple of months so go figure...)

Piston rings are worn, and at the moment the steering head bearings and fork seals are shot (bearings and fork seals have been ordered and will be sorted... the piston rings i cant afford)...

Basically i am planning on getting up say 3.30AM ish and riding hard all the way up along the a-roads (Cant deal with the motorway boredom, especially on a naked...)and hopefully arive by evening time...

I DO have AA cover, and panniers and a good working knowledge of the joys of cargo nets... And >>i<< have no problem with the mileage...

But as you can see from my breif description the bike is a bit of a shed, it drinks oil (i would need to carry a couple of liters with me, and my tools/haynes, and some chain lube). And just the getting there and back would be 1200 miles, and i would have to do a couple hundred miles up on those lovely highland roads... so in total it would be 1500+ miles most likely in a long weekend maybe 5 days...

Should i get it serviced (bare in mind i am poor, could afford the petrol to get up there and would bum of family while there...) The air filter is new, the spark plugs are new, the tyres... well they probably have about that mileage left in them so it would be a good sendoff.

The bike runs ok around london, but it seems everytime i ride it hard something on it goes wrong, for instance today i was riding sharpish around london and the gear change lever started slipping cogs from the shaft (tightened it now and its sorted)... Its like the bike is giving me signs or pleading with me "i was designed to commute you bastard, i am not an R6"

I would like some opinions/advice on if i am being foolish thinking it will make it up or if you think theres only one way to find out

Also sorry if this whole post is a bit all over the place, but thats how the planning is in my mind...

[EuropeanNC30R...]

When you say get it serviced, don't really understand what you mean? If it's had a recent air filter, plugs and oil what more does it need, apart from maybe a quick going over to check for loose stuff.

One thing I would say is there is a hell of a difference between 600 motorway miles in a car than 600 a-road miles on a bike.

Take a bunch of tie-wraps, some chain lube, a roll of gaffer tape and a basic toolkit so you can tighten up stuff that loosens and you should be fine.

If it blows up it blows up, sounds like the engines fucked anyway, may aswell send it off in style

[loply]

Your bike sounds like mine, and despite bleeding everywhere it goes, it always gets me there.

The engine is reliable as hell, its just little perhiperal bits that go wrong (which arent usually critical).

Up to you to decide if your bike has the same properties
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Yamaha SZR660 Caution to the wind, the throttle pinned!

[NSR Mick]

If it dies near Preston I'll offer you a cuppa.
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If you dont like the way that I ride.......Stop trying to keep up!!!

[Stevie GooGs]

If you coming up north in Scotland make sure you got a new set of tyres, a few bikers came up from Glasgow with tyres they thought would be fine, they had to find a garage on sunday to get new tyres fitted ( not worth the risk) the roads up here are nice but the roads can be like sand paper.
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Current: 2019 Yamaha T7 -> 2015 KTM Superduke R | 2000 Yamaha R1 Past -> 2009 KTM 990 SM -> 2005 kawasaki ZX10r -> 2000 Honda CBR 600 FY -> 2002 Honda XLV 125 Varadero
Bike Pics! -> My Photography Website

[TheDonUK]

When i say serviced i mean exactly that, the vibes on this bike have a horrible habit of loosening everything, it could also do with an oil/ oil filter change and maybe the carbs looked at...

Would be taking all those things with my toolkit... and i was thinking that the whole send off in style thing

As for the tyres, its not exactly a ZZR1400, its pretty easy on the tyres, But as i say i cant afford £125 for a new set (thats without fitting which i could get quite cheaply done)...

Wing and a prayer i think , mick, if it dies near preston you will have to slip some valium in that cuppa

[TheDonUK]

Just done the fork seals and head bearings, will be leaving at 6am tomorow morning, wish me luck all...Will post photos if/when i get back

[EuropeanNC30R...]

Good luck

[Al]

[TheDonUK]

Funny enough you say that --> https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=87999

[Al]

Excellent sounds like it all worked out well in the end.
A very inspirational story