....is how I can best describe my morning. I wandered into the garage with my snag list of things on the SZR, all lthose silly but time consuming jobs I'd just been putting off... Off came the plastics, all the bolts that needed tightening got tightened, all the electrics got tested, and after 15 minutes of stamping on the back brake pedal the pressure switch now works every time.. must have just been sticking from lack of use. The carbs are running sweetly too, and the bike starts on first go most times.. occasionally second go when totally cold. So on to the oil leak, Replacing the wrong washer with a copper washer cured that. Then I got it running... running very noisily, and hot. 120C hot so the fan kicked in..And the coolant leak became visible.. tiny, one of the pipes and jubilee clips wasn't quite on perfectly.. A bit of screwdriver wielding and the leak was dispatched... Nice to know the fan comes in properly too, at least the thermostat works properly. So, with just a little bit more fuel spashed in for good measure I've been whizzing round the estate checking everything.. for such a tiny bike it's incredibly well planted. Now to finally go back and get that MOT. Hurahh! -- Ginge [at] stopthevoices [dot] org [dot] uk - ZRX1200R, SZR660 Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal: my strength lies solely in my tenacity. - Louis Pasteur.
I can also add a positive tale of home-mechanic-ing. One set of steering head bearings tightend - check. One very loud clunking noise when riding bike - absent. One set of bled front brakes - check. However, I may need some new pads. These got a little brake fluid on them, and they're not quite as powerful as they were. As they're due replacement that's next on the list. Hopefully for one nice evening next week. Many thanks to Bonwick for help and not taking the piss too much when I thought it was all going wrong.
Mine's not quite so spectacular - fitted new waterproof tax disc holder and new exhaust clamp to replace the jub-clip. Washed bike, pissed of neighbours with loud exhaust - job's a good'un -- Dan L (Oldbloke) My Bike 2000 Honda CB500 M'boy's Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Heavily fortified) BOTAFOT #140, DIAABTCOD #26
Um, I rode to the bike shop, stood around and chatted while some of bridgestone's finest were fitted and rode home again. Does that count.
Why green? On a different but semi related note I'm giving serious consideration to re wiring the Guzzi. This has nothing to do with the intermittent ignition drop out since I disturbed the wiring loom this morning. It's 25 years old, been hacked about and is threatening to be unreliable. I also want to change the headlamp shell for something (a) deeper (b) less rusty. As the two main loom junctions are part of the headlamp shell (both known failure points) and would require major modification it would make sense to do the job as a whole.
Yay! -- Alex BMW R1150GS DIAABTCOD#3 MSWF#4 UKRMFBC#6 Ibw#35 BOB#8 http://www.team-ukrm.co.uk Windy's "little soldier"
I just went out for a ride. Then had some dinner. And just went for another ride and had a peaceful time watching the sun set over Earlswood Lakes.
Champ says... Yesterday I pulled the swing arms out of two of my Hondas and swapped them over, because the bushes in the bike I ride to work were utterly fucked. Once I'd done that I turned my attention to the steering head bearings, which were swapped out of the other Honda I keep for spares. New swing arm bushes are 4-50ukp a side, but the ones in the other swing arm were like new so I did a swap over instead of buying new. I know robbing a bike for steering head bearings is pikey, but I don't see the point in spending 30 quid on a new set when I have an unused bike sitting there with good ones in. A very industrious day, which ended in me getting shitfaced at a friends party in the evening.
Only if I find the time to get it MOT'd, and the V5 changed to a UK one, and get it taxed. So probably not, as it isn't even run in yet.
Are green ones faster? I went for a long pushbike ride. Made dinner, went for a ride on the turbo, and got "entertained" by the shake from the rear over every white line whilst overtaking...
I shall wait for the independent verification of lap times... Does squared-off count as fucked? ;-) I can't even claim that motorway miles have done it, because I haven't done a significant amount of motorway miles on it... I'm just a ham-fisted arsehole who can't ride for toffee.
There are a couple of things to do to make it easier to sell (although it seems I'd get a decent amount on ebay!), but it's fairly low down that list... Unless I crash it again, of course.
I've been tempted to post this question in the past... Why is it that squared off tyres get jittery on white paint? Is it 'cos it's going over the edges due to the less even surface?
I don't know. I suspect it's something to do with camber/bump steer, and the area of tyre the bump has to work on, and the effect it has. So, wibble flip etc.
It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like: I'm going to spout bollocks now... Possibly because of the greater contact patch of the worn tyre allied with the smoother surface of the paint. The unworn tyre, having a narrow contact patch is easy to steer, and is also easy to continuously correct. A worn and squared-off tyre, once it's pointing in a direction, is less able to steer away from that direction, especially on paint. This leads to a feeling of nervousness from the bike because the continous micro-corrections of natural bike steering are inhibited. In the wet, on paint, all of the above might change for the worse, or perhaps just feel worse because of the sudden relatively glossy surface the tyre is now running on, restoring micro-correction without any input from the rider. That, and the slight aquaplaning effect that is present because of the lack of narrow contact patch. Otoh, you might just fall off on your arse. -- Dave GS 850 x2 / SE 6a SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3 FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19 COSOC#10
