Stripped 749 to get access to belts. Ordered belts. While doing this I remembered fondly the first time I did belts - Crystaljohn came around to watch and provide sage advice and lend me his ducatidiag laptop/microphone and we did it together while shooting the breeze and listening to old cassettes from the 70’s…great stuff.
New rear tyre fitted by Stourbridge Motorcycle Centre, only booked it yesterday and they had a Pirelli Angel GT2 in stock. Then over to Worcester Ducati to book a service, belts are needed this time and also a new fuel sender, going to cost £600 odd I have also booked a courtesy bike for the day, a panigale V4 They had a (sold) Baylis in there, they are very nice, first time I’ve seen one in the flesh
rather than diagnose his blowing headlight bulbs on the lads bike, i quickly fired a pair of these on, ferk me, they is bright. i might put a pair of some of mine. right, only getting 6v at the headlight plug, jumping to 7v when the plug is reconnected to the headlight. it's not the rectifier. so, stator?
I was going to go on a ride all day but I woke at 6.30am aching like a bastard, so I messaged my friends and said I wasn’t going. So instead I’ve done my (first pass) packing for my trip to Ireland later this week and checked how the Kreiga pack (US30) fits on the back, as I normally use the US20. It’s ok if I fit it sideways across the back of the seat but longways it’d dig into my back. Anyhow I’ll have repacked another 3 times before I go :/
An empty shelf fell onto my freshly painted (but un-laquered) tail piece resulting in a nice big scratch that now needs to be dealt with with lots more prepping. Hopefully I can rescue it without too much hassle though as I only have enough paint left for just over one coat and it took the chap in the paint suppliers about 15 minutes to make one that matched the white...
Fixed the water leak from the cylinder head on my lads Aprilia rs4 50, trying to remove two very stubborn brake calliper pistons.
Cleaned the bike, degreased the chain and all the crap that comes on a new bike that had spattered everywhere. Tried fitting the throttle spacer again, but there’s no way it’s fitting, even after I trimmed it down a bit.
Took the wheels out of my superlight ready for new tyres this week. The old ones are 10 years old, but look like new, thanks but no thanks. I've only done 120 miles on the bike before it misbehaved and hasn't been ridden since last July. Thanks to a previous owner greasing all bolts, they all came undone easily, It's off to Baines at Silverstone on Saturday for a light recommision and sorting out. Cleaned the calipers up a bit while the wheels were out. Roll on the weekend.
I saw this today. I blurred out the number plate to save her embarrassment. I thought the position of the tail light was unfortunate to say the least.
Failed R/R on the 900 ss after 67.000 km....Road assistance helped me to get home with the smallest car battery under a net tied to the pillion seat, only 8 km... easy does it, with road assistance riding behind me, worked like a charm. Took the R/R of my 996 and ordered a new Mosfet for the 996.Man are these bikes easy to work on.
Ireland? Pack rain gear, I’m heading south. Over the weekend I got the Panigale out of hibernation and brought it down to The Smoke. Really enjoyed the ride. So nice to be tucked in on a sports bike. No bum ache either from the saddle. Today I enrolled the Mrs to help me bleed the brakes. She did it with no complaints, got to appreciate that. In fact I changed the clutch and brake fluids all round. Then when we’d finished she said ‘oh look, your new Grip Puppies have arrived’. So on they went. Who discovered hair spray is brilliant for sliding Grip Puppies into position? Genius. In return as requested, I put all the fittings on the wall in the downstairs loo afterwards, happiness all round. …. I can feel a proper ride coming on. Can’t wait!
Gently bedded the Pilot power tyres in over the last couple of rides and pushed them a bit harder this morning. Bike tips in nicely and holds a line, seems more grip than I need on the road - except for the centre dotted white line that I just touched post apex on the power which caused the back wheel to spin up. Weird as although the road was cold it was dry so I hadn't expected that to happen....
