March 05 Happenings

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28/03/05

The clocks have gone forward so summer must be here, right? Well we had some sunshine this weekend but not enough to be a harbinger of the season. We went to Brands Hatch for the BSB, Round 1, I went for Sat & Mon, but Mikey went for all three days to give himself plenty of time to take pics without spending all of raceday fixed to the camera.

Dennis has been in touch, all my panels are ready and Mikey's new nosecone should be ready for Thursday so it looks like we have a journey to Cirencester on Friday.

25/03/05

Easter is here, and thank the heavens above! We have next week off so no more work until 4th April! The first break since Christmas and boy was it a long time coming.

Got some brake seals on the way for the GPZ (front) and ZZR (back) and for Mikeys ZX6 (back). My panels are done and drying out over at Dennis's, so we just need to arrange a meet to swap money for shiny bits. More soon.....

20/03/05

Saturday was the finest day of the year thus far. Warm enough to put aside Gortex and air my vented leather jacket. We headed out early over to Sandwich in Kent, a place I once lived for a short time. A quick tour of old haunts and a satisfying lunch in the village before heading back to Surrey along the coast.

My riding was a little unpredictable for most of the day, some corners just didn't want to be taken neatly. Sometimes its extremely difficult to relax properly, and although I always enjoy my bike, it can be much harder work than I want it to be or indeed should be. Still, it is all coming back and the skittishness is under control.

Sunday was a grey but pleasant day, a quick run out to meet Mikey at Broadbridge Heath (he was out early to catch the action of the Pioneer run from Epsom to Brighton) and a leisurely ride home via a roundabout route through Billingshurst, Midhurst, Godalming & Abinger Hammer. After Saturday's sunshine I had decided to see if I still fit into my one piece leathers that morning, and while I did get them on, riding was not the most comfortable of pursuits. I'm not sure whether I've grown (lengthways, not out!) or they just need a good stretch, but I was quite glad to get off the bike when we got home.

Following all that exercise (more for the bike than for me but hey who's counting) it seemed fitting to pop over to our local for a nice roast dinner and a few drinks, before heading back home and spending a few hours working in the garden (trimming the forest of bushes!).

13/03/05

Well got both bikes out on Saturday, washed both, filled up the coolant res on Zed as it was nearly empty, swapped the clutch gear over on the Geep - it had a silver lever which wasn't really the correct kind, so I picked up a whole new clip-on from a chap on Visordown for a tenner ages ago. A fair amount of rust appearing on Geep. Not having been out of the garage it was extremely stiff to push about, so when we headed out towards Redhill for Mikey to get his MOT done at Fins I decided to take the Geep out for the run to loosen it up.

I didn't realise however quite how stuck it was, it was like riding along with one or both brakes on! Getting away from standing was the worst, on one occasion even with full clutch out and a handful of revs the thing wouldn't move. As time was tight Mikey went ahead to Redhill and I took a little run down through Fetcham and up to Leatherhead by the back roads and back down into Dorking, by this point things had loosened up enough that I didn't have to fear pulling away from lights so headed down the A25 and met up with Mikey in Reigate before heading back to the garage. Finally got around to fixing the tax disc onto Geep as well, although as with my Zed its just a black & white copy in the holder while I keep the original under the seat. Having had Zed's nicked last year and paid £9 for the privilege of a copy I'm not having that again in a hurry. I discussed what I was proposing with a police officer who said he completely understood and didn't think I'd have a problem with it, although he did say better to use a b/w copy instead of a colour copy so they didn't think I was trying to forge it, just protect it from being stolen.

08/03/05

Had Zed out on Saturday, felt so good to be back on board. Fixed my LH front indicator (which is still smashed up and wasn't working) with another old one, still only taped in place, but works, so was feeling good about my bike and myself (Hey I can fix things!). Pride cometh before a fall so they say and boy is it true! Decided I was going to fix my RH heated grip (went last year and I've had the replacement since about Sept!). So I starts off OK, plug it in, test it, yea it works... get the bar end off, tug the old one off, no big deal. Try to put the new one on... bearing in mind I'm basically twisting the throttle tube as far as it will go one way, twisting the grip further and pushing at the same time, turning it all the way back to the stop and twisting it again... well it wasn't working. So I tried a bit of WD, thinking that at least it would evaporate and then it wouldn't slip whilst the throttle was in use... no good. So I tried some grease (getting desperate now). Got it 3/4 way on.. wouldn't go any further. So I'm giving up, trying to get the damn thing off again now to think of a new idea... my hand hurts from the twisting and its a real effort... SNAP... my heart fell through my chest, that horrible feeling, when you know you just did a bad, bad thing.

Not good. I took the switchgear apart and sure enough, where the cable ends slot into the tube, I'd broken the housing. I felt like the biggest idiot in the world. It got worse when I tried to get the damaged tube out of the grip... I broke the top of the tube off...

So, being an adult an all, what did I do...? I put it all in the garage and went into the house and refused to come out for the rest of the day!

Thank goodness for Mikey or I would have sulked for a week, as it was, a whole day was sufficient. I spoke to my favorite supplier on Monday (Cradley Kawasaki) and ordered a replacement tube. It arrived this morning, complete with a new grip on it. We managed to get the new grip off it (after several; attempts tugging and trying to slide off) by coating it in washing up liquid and sliding it down over itself.

Getting what was left of the old tube out of the heated grip was rather more difficult. In the end Mikey bashed it (carefully) with a hammer, breaking up the tube and dug the remnants out with a screwdriver. I tested it once again - it still worked (amazingly!) and after coating it in Fairy liquid (I reckon it will eventually dry a bit like glue) the new tube slid in with zero effort.

Not content with that, I parked Ethel in front of the garage to provide light and refitted the tube to the throttle gear. It's not that I'm committed to taking Zed to work tomorrow, but that I now CAN. It's the choice I think that does it. When you can't have something, you want it, when you can, it's not that big a deal.

So at least I have two working heated grips and can have warm handies when I want them. I also have two fully working bikes (OK, only one has heated grips!), both insured, both taxed. I feel a tad wasteful and spoilt. Its great!

Of course, because of my strop, he didn't get the clean that was supposed to follow repairs... but I will do it eventually!