Rage!! (or sentimentality?)

[andy230]

Hello all,  I have not posted for a while, but thought I had to share a bit of this, to vent my spleen if nothing else...  It has become a bit long.  Sorry!!!

Anyway, if you are sitting comfortably, I’ll begin.

Given the continued threat of summer, I thought I had better get the skorpion back on the road (having had the tyre dramas recently sorted).  Also time to ditch the GoreTex, and get the leathers dusted off!  Yay!!   

I just checked it over yesterday and really enjoyed my ride into central London today.  However, one thing I had not done was change the oil.  And having wrecked an engine or two in my time, that was tonight's job.

For those not familiar with the skorpion lube system, it is a faff.  Like all the Yam singles, its a dry sump system and it never seems to be very sure about what the level is.  You need to check the level after its been running for a bit, so that the oil has all pumped back into the tank.  Simple enough huh...??  And to drain it, you need to drain the engine, and the tank.  And on the skorpion its even worse than the XT, as the drain plug for tank is in the line.

(As an aside, the oil tank was originally designed to be in the frame, as designed by Dave Pearce for the prototype.  However, this was deemed too expensive for mass manufacture, and with nowhere to put a tank, the MZ bods put it…. under the seat, and above the back wheel.   

So you see where this is going.

First of all- not that impressed at Halfords- they’ve put the prices up, and my mate with a trade card wasn’t about.  27 quid for 5 litres….   

Back at home, drain the oil.  But no!  Big puddle of dirty oil as I miscalculate the amount of oil in the sump.  OK, hopefully the neighbours will be cool with that.   

Anyway, plugs back in.  Bleed plug open.  Do not remove bleed plug completely, as it scoots up 4 feet, usually into my eye.

[ha!  Not this time!!  Getting smug now]   

Fill up *tiny* oil tank, and begin to run engine.  At this point, all the oil disappears into the motor.  Note oil bleeding merrily from the filter chamber, and tighten it up.

So bar the slight oil stain, all is well till this point.  Not for much longer.

Stop engine, and top up oil tank.  The oil in there promptly disappears into the motor again.

So why oh why, did I keep pouring it in, despite knowing that these motors only take 2 to 2.5 litres??   F u c k  knows, but I did.  Soon it overfills, and pumps oil out.  All over the back tyre.

Gaaaaahh!!   ::)Quick, quick, clean it off!  The tyre’s quite new.

And now there’s a second oil stain!!

So, not that happy.

And now I am using a syringe to remove oil from the tank.  Nowhere clean to put it, but its only about 50 mls, so I’ll just dump it.

10 minutes later, tyre now clean, slabs now clean.  Lets fire it up again.

IMMEDIATELY  pumps more oil all over the back of the bike!!!

So I get it cleaned again, and drop about a pint of my 27 quid oil into the drain pan.  Not happy about that.

But it will be ok now.  No?   GAAAAAHHHH!!!!   3rd time, but at least its only a little.

Hot water, fairy liquid, scrubbing brush.  Tyre, wheel, slabs.  Absolutely livid by now, and starting to throw things around.

Been there?? 

I was cursing (in no particular order)

Halfords, for their oil being too dear
My mate for being out when I wanted to use his trade card
Me for having done this 3 times (unbelievable, really), having (yes) previously done it on the last oil change
MZ for being too cheap, then putting the EFFING TINY OIL TANK ABOVE THE REAR WHEEL!!!!
Yamaha for their uncheckable, constantly variable oil level
MZ again, for the max and min marks on the dipstick being about 3mm apart.

Oh yeah, then I noticed the nail in the rear tyre….

And then (this is finally the point of the rant) I had a thought:

“Life’s too short for this sh1t”.

And you know what?  For some reason, and I know not why, I thought of Bruce.  And my (late) father.  Life really is too short.  Too short to be getting worked up when (actually) nothing is wrong.  I’m just a bit daft.  That’s not exactly news to anyone on here, me included.

And I’m not sure about Bruce, but my old man would have given anything for an extra day to fettle his bike.

Here I was, playing in my shed.  A place where I am happiest.  Getting pi55ed off.  For no reason.  And I have somewhere to live.  And people who I love, and they appear to love me.  And a bike.  And even a (stupid) car.  So what is really wrong??

I have (give or take, hopefully) maybe at best, 15,000 days left.  Not really that many!  As many, maybe, as crystals of salt in a teaspoon?  (…man! And no, no additional thought provoking substances used for a while now…)

So why let this one be ruined??  After rationalising this, I decided to drain another further pint.  Into (behold) a clean pint glass.  So that I can cleverly pour it back in if it was too much.

An hour later, I had adjusted the previously dodgy clutch cable, ridden a couple of miles, cleaned the tyre, ridden a bit more, cleaned the rim, ridden a bit more, cleaned up the back end.

I decided I had to post this rather cathartic, and slightly sentimental rant.  Cos I also thought of Pat’s tag line: “Live long Live well Live happy”

That sounds like quite good advice.

See you!   

Andy

(and….. relax) 

[guest1155]

here endeth the lesson. amen to that brother

[Steve Lake]

Andy... your maintainance strategy has always been suspect...

Great topic, I thought the SRX oil change/bleed/level detection was bad enough!

[guest18]

Indeed!
But the sun is shining, the bike runs, and I'm about to take my Skorp into work this morning, I think I shall take the country roads and count my blessings(!)

Stay safe all, and enjoy 

PS. Andy, get a measuring jug (what swmbo doesn't know wont hurt!) and pour 2 litres in... close up all the system and run it up... then stop, then check and add *up to* half a litre, hard to go wrong
ymmv, and damhikijk etc!!

[Steve H]

PS. Andy, get a measuring jug (what swmbo doesn't know wont hurt!) and pour 2 litres in... close up all the system and run it up... then stop, then check and add *up to* half a litre, hard to go wrong

Spot on

[andy230]

Yeah, you know what?

What I omitted to say was that I checked the manual to see how much to put in.

And I have a measuring cylinder in the garage for just this job.

"naaaaah!,  it'll be fine"

eejit !!!   

However, I did feel better when I rationalised it all, and thought about the fact that I was getting worked up about.... nothing!  By the time I finished, I was actually cleaning up the back of the bike feeling completely happy.

And its fine this morning.   

Tho no parking places        But then I thought "oh well, keep looking"      Nothing is wrong!!!

Cheers guys

a

[Steve H]

Must admit when I start getting wound up I now just walk away, I have wrecked far too many things by taking hammers to them. Must be an age thing.

[guest18]

This morning I read Andy’s post about life, motorbikes and absent friends.
So I jumped on the bike to go to work, and instead of thumping down the motorway I cut through Linlithgow, where my late Grandfather was born (he owned the first alloy Triumph 500 in Scotland I’ll have you know!) and then up through the countryside towards Livingston/Pumpherston.
The cold was stinging my legs but the sun was glorious and my shadow flitted over grass verges and raced along drystane dykes as the MZ growled away, as I crested hills I could watch the mist starting to burn away as the pale spring sunshine reached across the rolling hills of the Forth Valley.
I wondered how many times my Grandpa, and indeed my old man had watched the same views, and if they wished they could see it one more time.
Up through Pumpherston where I used to visit them as a kid, past the bowling green where I used to watch him play. On up past Kirkliston and the sun strobed through the trees as the road curved up towards Kirknewton airfield and onwards still on to Edinburgh, passing the haunts of my childhood, every one with memories attached.
I arrived at work over forty minutes late, but I don’t care. They were well spent minutes.

A glorious morning, cold, sad in places, but glorious.

Thanks Andy.

[andy230]

Good Smudge!

I suppose it sometimes takes the absent friends thing to make you realise sometimes that things like (for example) parking tickets and spilled oil dont really matter.

No tsunami, nuclear disasters or other terrible losses to contend with, so what is really wrong??

I had a similar experience last week when I was up re-visiting some great roads well-travelled by my father and grandfather, albeit in my car.  Being "indoors" does rather distance you from the experience, but at some points I really (really!) felt like my father was sitting next to me...  It was quite weird...

a

[beeman]

Lifes perspective, picked up Bruces passing on monday, made me think about life etc only knew him from rallies, met him about 6 times enough to make a mark on me.
Yesterday up at 5am locked the caravan up just after 6 and rode the 90odd miles over a and b roads from alford lincolnshire to sheffield. With my 11 year old son on the serow. At the van bluebells were out woodpeckers could be heard in the woods. The road were empty and about 2 hours later arrived home.
I thought about bruce and others like him I have known and have now died but I was not sad but felt elated in someway. Life is short and none of us know whats around the corner. So to Bruce I have learnt live life and celebrate what we have not what we haven't.

May the road forever continue its winding path and we enjoy the ride.

[johnr]

andy i dont think ive ever met you, but i read your thread and it made me think, about how we all fail to see the obvious sometimes and how we sometimes make a bit of a fuss over something thats really nothing, and it made me think, i'll buy that man a beer one day, and we'll drink it talking bollox about bikes and how it will all be better when we run the world.

[andy230]

I would like that very much John.

I may even buy one back....   (may!!!)

I plan to go to the Annual, maybe there?  Cheers for now

a

[squirrelciv]

Andy mate, I must remember to read my own signature. Too be honest, I've had it tattooed around my right wrist to help remind me that all we really need to do is follow those little rules.

It is very easy to get lost in the minutiae and miss the bigger picture.

[Steve Lake]

andy i dont think ive ever met you,

You don't know how lucky you are John  

But he is rather good at this...

talking bollocks

possibly not so good at this though.....


'MAY buy you one back (pint) '  

[themoudie]

  Having had a LOT of days like this recently, 2 bereavments since Xmas, potential redundancy, a continual stream of people who were colleagues and friends taking 'early retirement' and a manager close to 'the edge', the ability to  is stressed, somewhat!

The solution(s) would appear to be, chill, smile  , speak to others as you wish to be spoken to, get the bike (or pushbike) out and go for a long donder about.

Tonight the adopted feral moggie kitten got locked in the garage! We spent over an hour 'playing' hide and seek between the bikes, boxes, stash of wood, across the rafters and around the eaves, all to no avail. The place needs 'mucking out', as a lot of it just makes my head nip (What to 'do' first?) and a smile at the merry dance a wee grey dodger can lead you! A bit of "C'est la vie", seems to be the way to go. 

A drop of rain to sort the tatties and seeds we've sown would be just bootiful!

Thank you Andy and everybody else for a touch of perspective and balance.

Slainte, Bill.