Hi everyone, it's my turn to introduce myself as I've been lurking for a few weeks. I'm 57 and I've been riding bikes for 40 years, at the moment I've got three, two Moto Guzzis, a 1977 Le-Mans and a V650, and a 1994 900 Monster which I've had from new. I ride all year round apart from when there's snow lying or it's too icy. I use my bikes mainly for commuting and do about 5,000 per year which I know isn't a lot but I also have to fit work and family into my life. There's a lot of great roads up here, in fact I took the Le-Mans out on Bank Holiday Monday for a quick blast along the Military Road from Newcastle, the bike is 36 years old but still goes well. I bought the Monster in January 1994, the only new bike I've ever had and probably ever will have. It's only got about 40,000 on it and it's been quite reliable apart from eating rear shocks, I'm on my 4th, and snapping cylinder studs. At the moment it's in a million bits as I'm doing a refurb. The frame is away being powder coated, the engine is adrift as I want to recoat the cases, heads and barrels. It was burning a wee bit oil, hopefully just the the valve stem seals, and I want to investigate the big ends as I found what looked like small fragments of metal in the gauze filter screen the last time I changed the oil. I have a sneaky feeling that it's fragments of big end shell, with a bit of luck I've caught it before any major damage to the crank. Anyway, that's enough from me. I always find these forums informative and interesting, no doubt I'll be posting questions in the tech help section when I come to put the Duke back together. Regards Doug
Hello again and thanks for the welcome. I'm in Sunny South Shields, or not so sunny as the case may be. Just about to formulate my first techie question.