Weekend debrief

[guest7]

Well... not much bikey stuff happened.

Saturday morning was spent in the company of my youngest and we had a laugh whilst his brother and mother were at tennis.

Saturday afternoon was earmarked for fitting a new downpipe to my neighbour's guttering. All went well with removing the old cast iron pipe, but then it began to rain. This meant that all subsequent work was done under the torrent of water cascading out of the gutter spout   However, all went well and with the job completed it was time to knock up a tasty spag bol for the adults and something less sophisticated for the boys.

Today I looked after the boys whilst Mrs Onepot went to work. BJ called in and we discussed the Dragon Rally. I served up some bread, chorizo and some stilton that we were bought for chrimbo. The cheese is a car tyre-sized lump and very very very smelly. I'm not sure BJ was too delighted    Only another 145 servings left and then it will be all used up.

Later on I tootled over to Furry John's place to examine his GB500. I had forgotten the arrangement for the tank fixing bolt and I needed to see what to look for in my messy garage. To my delight when I got there John produced a fixing bolt that he had turned up for me, thus saving me a huge amount of hassle. What a star.

Feeling a bit under the weather atm, so may miss the pub tonight.

Planning to get out to the garage tomorrow to get stuck into the sidecar build.

Shock news of the weekend was that my brother misses his sidecar and is going to start keeping an eye out for a lightweight chair. He's after something like my Velorex, Smudge's Squire or even the Watsonian Mitzi he now regrets selling last year. He also wants a Diversion 600 to pull it with. Everyone told us that the 600 was a gutless waste of time and for some purposes it may not be a great bike, but Gareth found it very comfortable and it easily pulled a very heavy Briggs sidecar at 70mph, returning 45mg, Here it is at the Tauerntreffen:


The thought of how quick it would be with a lightweight chair is a bit scary...

GC

[guest18]

Friday phoned work and said I wouldn't be in at the weekend  , built an led flasher kit 

Saturday waited in all morning for house viewers who failed to turn up ( ) helped swmbo recce a Guide Camp upcoming in a week or so, visited the folks and built the second kit  also collected the MZ 

Today, let (other) people view the house, sorted out the heated grips on the MZ (a plug had been knocked loose during all the electrickery work) and tidied the routing of a couple of cables I wasn't quite happy with, checked fuses and generally gave it a bit of a once over. Went to fit new chain and discovered it is the wrong length, ho hum, will sort it tomorrow  had a look at the indicators.. I reckon I can probably squeeze the led's in but I'm not sure yet how easy the cable routing will be, I have a memory I saw mirrors at some point with indicators built in, as the MZ mirrors are too narrow (unless you like looking at your elbows) I may have a look and see if I can find a cheap set if they look ok... or maybe not... time will tell!
Now time for a glass of port and online correspondence chess  (cheers Pat  )

[guest7]

I fully intended not going to the pub last night (see post above), but in the end I sloped down around 10.00 and had a Guiness or three. We had a very amusing time teasing one of locals who took his family on a holiday to Florida last week, only to find the temperatures hovering around freezing  

Today, in an attempt to chase up a chair for my brother, I left a note on a Jawa/Velorex outfit that has been parked in a sidestreet in Penarth for some time. It obviously hasn't turned a wheel for ages so fingers crossed.

Whilst I was in Penarth I visited a little bike shop and they had a Sachs Roadster 800 for sale. I really like these, they have a Suzuki VX engine in a much better chassis with uppy-downies, etc. It's a shame I'm about £1,990 pounds short of the £1,995 asking price  


GC

[mini-thumper]

Mucho bike bashing this weekend. RS coped easily with the crepe weather but was brought down but the right-hand foot rest falling off. Had intended to sympathetically re-engineer (ie. bodge) when I got home but the alloy plate that carries footrest, brake pedal, and exhaust was bolloxed! Typically these plates turn up on ebay often when I didn't need one and, after annoying anyone I knew that has/had an RS, I ended up paying over the odds for as replacement. The bracket under the plate had also thrown-in-the-towel and that needed welding as well. Spent a fruitless afternoon trying to bodge the now welded bracket in order to use the bike for work this morning when the exhaust decided it wasn't getting the attention it deserved and promptly fell off. The flange that the exhaust clamps press into the exhaust gasket had been burnt away by the 50k of abuse the motor has probably received; meaning that, for God knows how long, the downpipes were being held in place only by road filth. Luckily a basket-case I bought a while back has decent downpipes and they will be pressed into service as soon as the new exhaust gaskets arrive.

As a respite from the RS grief I decided that work need to be started on the SR500. The first of several major jobs was getting the sparkplug helicoiled as it was badly knackered but the previous owner. I consulted the Haynes manual and noticed to my astonishment that one of the procedures listed as only being able to be performed with the engine removed was 'head removal'. For f**k sake now I need to take the engine out of a bike that I was told was, and which even appeared to be, in good useable condition. As it turned out it wasn't as difficult as I first thought and after about an hour the lump was free; I do take umbridge with Mr. Haynes assertion that 'being a relatively lightweight engine it is easily removed by one person'. Thankfully no further damage was done as everything seemed surprisingly loose, but even more alarming was the total lack of oil in either the gearbox or header tank - Thank Christ! I never actually managed to be the ba**ard thing started. I think I must have had those rose tinted specs. on again the day I bought it. I hope, all fingers crossed, that it makes a good bike fairly soon.

So as it stands at the moment I have no working bike of the three I actually own, have to beg lifts to work, and I'm looking at a sizeable job, both money and time wise, to get mobile again. But given the 'doom and gloom' pushed out by the s**t pump it could be much worse......

Stay Lucky

Boyd

  

[squirrelciv]

Saturday started with me and Wifey dispatching the children at their respective mates and tootling off to look at front doors/kitchen units. Managed a trip to 'Go Outdoors' for a bit of a mooch and light relief from the budget setting exercise prior to the extension build.

Jobs done it was a dash to Swansea for lunch at Verdi's before picking up the XT from JT's Motorcycles. Very nice spoty of grub and the icecream was to die for, but getting caught in a horrendous downpour put the dampeners on things.

I was running late by the time I got to JT's and only had a quick  ;Dglance around the bike before having to set off for home. the salesman assured me "it's been through the workshop and everything's been done. Oil/filter's been changed and she's ready to ride away." Ride home was pleasant enough and I got back into the way of the thumper.

Sunday was my first chance to properly look over the XT which I did after scrubbing the VX ready for her Pre-sale photo shoot. VERY, VERY DISAPPOINTED! Not with the bike, but with the dealer. If it had seen the inside of a workshop, they should sack the mechanic! Judging by how hard it was to remove the oil filler and the fact the level was off the dip, they'd never checked that. Looking at the filter cover screws also suggests that's not been changed either. Play in the throttle/clutch cables, tick-over set at 1600rpm, battery terminals not greased, dash back light bulb blown, chain cacked and dry. All easy to do and none of it spoiling the purchase, just another case of a garage pissing off its customers. Weren't we discussing 'supporting your local dealer' in another thread recently?? Anywho, all the jobs were done on Sunday afternoon in time for tea, with an evening of surfing the web for XT luggage systems to finish off the day. Bliss. 

[guest27]

Weekend spent sorting stuff for the week and entertaining Sister and her brood.

Off weekend - into hospital on Tues to have knee op. Home now, sore and hobbling and (bugger) no driving for 14 days - have not told Mrs Rog cos it is going to cause some real problems...

Discovered a bid I had written for a company was not submitted because they were busy - tey wondered why I was cross - they get paid each month I get paid by the job, they had thrown away the cnce of me earnign some income - bugger! Cannot even kick them!!!

R