I’ve spent much of my day tidying the garage, sold a few things on UKGSER, advertised a mount from my V4S on here, still much to do if I’m ever going to find my bench. I have also fine tuned the tools I intend to catch on this years touring adventures, a week in May enjoying Shropshire and mid Wales in August I’m signed up for the Malle Artic Rally with some mates. Might be some adhoc Euro trips.
1299 back on maintainer. Off next week so this time (!) I will get it insured and back on the road for April!
Got out on the Hyper & Triumph today. Felt good in a sunny, blistering 15C What a difference the sun makes....
Fitted a gold DID vx3 chain to my DesertX. I replaced the factory oem as it had started to get rusty on the sideplates, despite a relatively low mileage and regular lubing. I was prepared to space the clutch slave cylinder out a mm or so as a lot of reports said it would get rubbed when a DID 525 chain was fitted instead of the oem Regina but mine had a few mm clearance so didn’t need to.
Found the streetfighter under a pile of crap in the garage and thought i would see if it would start. Surprisingly even though it had been sat for 5 months without a battery tender it started straight up. I had forgotten how loud it is
Bought a tyre repair kit, hopefully I'll never need it https://www.mandp.co.uk/products/stop-and-go-pocket-tyre-plugger-tubeless-standard-561467
I recommend you actually practice the process of inserting the mushroom on an old tyre. I had little success (and patience) and eventually went with a Dynaplug, https://www.dynaplug-uk.com/. Andy
I've used a stop-and-go plugger a few times, car and bike. Recently had my first failure with a friends S1000RR, tyre was quite thin, end of life. I maybe over reamed the hole too. Plug came out later in the day. Given how thin the carcass was I'm not surprised it failed. Otherwise I've had good results.
I’ve used those sticky twiglet things before to get me out of trouble and they worked surprisingly well.
Not cheap by a long way but I’ve had a lot of success with the kit over the years. The ability to easily insert more than one string in an odd shaped cut has saved the day on more than one occasion. The Scrambler picked up a flint in the rear tyre and it took 8 strings to give a seal that got us home. Andy
Checked the valve clearances on the Darmah and both exhausts were 0.2 mm rather than the 0.15 as shown in the notes I saved... hmmm... coincidence or perhaps I did set them originally to the larger (sometimes recommended) gap but forgot to update me notes? Who knows, least of all me it appears Anyway, had enough spare shims to take 'em back down to 0.15 so at least the notes are now correct
Installed the exact start cables to the hyper. Significant decrease in initial start up. Hopefully this resolves any hot start issues.
Fitted the new fuel filter and tank back on the monster. Sad to report the ‘take it off, leave empty in house temp, shrinks back’ doesn’t work. new battery fitted too, so just need to get some new fuel and give it a start. MOT due 29 March so get sorted for that and start using it again…
Out on Hermann (the German) in this afternoon's cold sunshine Underdressed for 9C but good to get out, especially as it popped into life on the first stab, sounding sweet after months of hibernation
Bought a spare petrol tank for the Nsr, it was only £20. It’s got some serious dents but I’ve been looking for one for 4 years and the only other one I’d found was equally dented and £425! I’ll have a mess about with it and see if I can save it, if not it’s only £20.
Changed the oil & filter and sync'ed the carbs on the Darmah and I took him out for the first biff of the year.... eee, aren't bikes 'kin great It's running real strong at the moment but is still taking a few turns to start... I'm thinking, like others, the battery might be running out of (cranking) puff even though it still shows a good 13v. I've just found the original receipt and it's coming up to it's 5th birthday.
