Fozzie

I did have a glass of red last night, I must admit, there wasn’t much else in Talked about it all with my good lady, watched a few episodes of Shogun, and went to bed. Woke up feeling right as rain.

Good afternoon! Been a weird week so far, feels like it's going slow, but also too fast. Also, life is a bit of a TV show recently. An old friend got in touch to tell me a girl I dated very briefly years back was, in a word, pulverised by her most recent fella. It kicked up a lot of drama as other people she dated came out in defence of the fella who assaulted her. A real mess of a situation. I think I was only contacted as there's some damage control going on by her friends. Some pointed questions have been aimed at them over few claims that have been made. And these friends know I had a scrape with some of the things they are describing. I don't think there's a right side to the situation if I'm honest... Woman on the ground floor on my flat building faked a heart attack. It's a bizarre mix this situation, as she's antagonising the elderly lady in the flat above by playing her radio at silly hours, then denying she has a radio (I photographed it through her window). I told them both to pack it in as there was a bit of retaliation. The woman on the ground floor clearly has some significant mental health issues, and paranoia is a big part of it. She worked herself up and called the ambulance, claiming to be having a heart attack. But there's reason to believe it was performative, as she's claiming she's being persecuted, and it came a few days after the management company sent her quite a firm letter. Nothing threatening pulling her lease, just that they had found it was her, and urged her to stop before it escalated further. Then the last one, I'm in a race to get DIY done on my flat before I have to go in for an operation. As I won't be able to do much until after Christmas and I'm trying to sell the flat early in the new year. I'm going to be escorted back home by my mum, and my dad will be on standby for a few hours, but has to fly off to Australia to help my sister move from Perth to Sydney by driving her car 3000 miles, all loaded up. If I'm in a bad way, he has to race down and throw me in the car, get me back and then jump on a plane. Probably too much for it to be an episode of Coronation street, but Hollyoaks, or The Bill... Maybe.

Doing interviews... Interviewing for positions at work is just sapping my energy. So many people lying on their CV's, and you ask them to answer a few scenarios and they just come to pieces. Expert on PLC's and variable speed drives? Excellent, explain how you would repair and improve an old climate control system. Really basic, PLC switching a fan on and off based on a temperature sensor reading. I want one of two answers, a good answer, or a great answer. Replace the PLC for a modern equivalent and look at also upgrading the fan for a more efficient motor, good. Replace the PLC with a VSD drive accepting a temperature sensor and driving the fan based on a temperature setpoint, great. Relatively basic stuff, but no one got it... Not one. I get the impression people are copying other CV's of people who got the job. It's for an intermediate role, so maybe it attracts some chancers. But even the senior roles recently left me a bit deflated. One chap had a PHD and seemed to be unaware of some serious issues relating to power quality that affect every project.

My girlfriend. For wanting to spend £80 on bedside lamps to "stage" the flat for when we put it up on the market. I've so far spent hundreds on fixing small things around the flat, and giving it a full re-paint in preparation for this, and I think she's going a little bit far. She ended our little bicker with "you just don't get it", and marched off. Also me. Later she asked me for a bit of chocolate I was eating. I looked at her and said "you just don't get it". And stuffed the last pieces in my mouth and smiled. I don't think the slap I got was deserved. But it was still funny.

I already said I prefer Jaffa cakes, you don’t need to sell it to me!

With the price of food these days, you may as well buy the new tool and save some money And wagon wheels taste like cardboard now anyway, it's all about the Jaffa cakes.

It's the actual head of the device which I find most obstructive due to the internal mechanism driving the ratchet. Mine isn't the short reach version, it's a slightly longer length, and I just found myself regularly switching between the hand tool and electric depending on access. They are absolutely perfect for when you get under a car though, as I found out when repairing my mrs's cars heat shield a couple of months back, but a bit niche on bikes. But that's just my experience, and to be fair, I tend to work on smaller/more compact bikes. I know times are tough, but not even a packet of crisps to sweeten the deal!?

I have one, and I have to be honest, I barely use it. I have the Milwaukee M12 version. They seem like the best idea ever, and they are when it comes to working on cars where there is more space to get them in places. But on bikes, I find I just stick to the regular manual socket sets.

Happy birthday! What I’m hearing is you are home alone? Peace and quiet is king; you get the tv to yourself and no one complains if you crack open a beer.

Usually, you're right, I wouldn't care. It was knowing I felt bad about it at the time, that has miffed me I like to give things to people in a better condition than I got it, when I can. And sometimes this blinds me to people trying to pull the wool over my eyes. The buyer tried to knock the price down, and I declined as when it went up on sale there was a bit of a pile on. They later took a "friend who is a builder" to inspect the flat part of the roof, and said it needed doing, trying again to knock the price down, so I presented the 15 year guarantee from the company that last repaired the flat dormer rooftops that had 8 years left on it, and again said no. So it just dawned on me that this gossip was likely just typical shit talking people do when things don't go their way. And now I feel daft for feeling bad!

The person who bought my last house. She gossiped to a neighbour that the house I sold her "needed a lot doing" and apparently disparaged my DIY skills, she apparently rectified it all and implied it was at quite a high expense. This neighbour told me and at the time I heard it I sort of agreed, as while I lived there for just shy of 3 years, around 1 year after the move in date a lot happened and I realised I'd be selling up when I could. But this took nearly 2 years to happen, during which I was just doing the basics to keep the house water tight essentially. It irritated me a bit as this person knew I'd inherited a bit of a mess from the last owners. Just before the handover, I'd been out of the house for 4 months or so, and returned to find the garden overgrown half way up the windows, and cut it all back, and I sort of looked around the house and felt a bit bad for the new owners. As there were so many botch jobs by the previous owners that irritated me, but I never did anything about, and I almost felt a bit grubby handing it over that way. She's on a group I'm part of, whacked up some pictures today to sell stuff and I see the same kitchen, just with painted cupboards, bit of new carpet and a colour change, and a step put in at the front door. And in short, mostly just painted over or hid the other defects, I'd be surprised if this cost more than a couple of grand. In my view it needed a good £20k putting into it. But, needed a lot doing? I have bad DIY skills? Pah! Nob.

My old man has a RD400 from the late 70s he restored. Beautiful thing, and I love a 2-stroke. I’ve had a couple of rides on it. But comparing their peak power and using that as a measure of how far we’ve come is flawed. The RD has very old tech on it, and needs upgrading with the electronic ignition to run anything resembling the word “well”. It makes its peak power for a split second and it’s considered more linear than other 2-strokes. The brakes are weaker than things found on a modern bicycle, and the suspension seems to have been put together by the guy who invented the pogo stick. The fuelling is forever keeping you on your toes. The Triumph 400 makes similar power, that will undoubtedly be more linear and useable. It has modern brakes and suspension, and I suspect it can be relied on to cover bigger distances with much greater ease and comfort. And it doesn’t need to burn oil to churn out a similar peak horse power. So on the contrary, the new Triumph is in many ways a good example of how far bikes have progressed.

Got it for just shy of £400. Confirmed it ran, and sank another £400 into it thinking it wasn't likely to cause my issues, then had to get the second hand engine and gets it to £1050 currently. Not including sundries though. In theory, if I get it done up for £1500-2000, as it's on a fresh frame (no write off) it will possibly pay for itself back.

Been a minute since I've updated this. But a lot happened. I sent the crank off for reconditioning. New big end roller bearing, and new case side bearings. The chap called me to say he'd done a few of these before, and they aren't very well designed. They were meant to be thrown away and replaced, not reconditioned, so he did his best but there was some distortion. The picture directly below shows the damage, and while the distortion is only 2mm or so, it was enough to stop the engine sitting back together. I ultimately ground off the raised lip, which I didn't like doing, but there was no other viable crank I could buy online to replace this one. Then I discovered, even with this issue resolved, the engine wouldn't slot back together. I could write an essay here, but after several hours of trying, going away, thinking, coming back and trying various other methods, I couldn't do it. The new bearing, freshly pressed on won't fit inside the left hand casing. The cases came apart relatively easily but in the end needed a 10 ton press to get the new one back in. I checked all numbers on the bearings, and it was correct, and when measured with a micrometer, was dead on. But the casing? Too tight, and I have no idea why. Researched the engine numbers, made sure the right part was bought, and all signs pointed to "All parts correct". Contacted those who raced these, and got some indication that these engines can be difficult (but nothing conclusive). So I chose in the end to give up on it. And buy another engine... I won't share all the outer casings that I painted, I was so annoyed. The new engine has 35k on it. I worried it would be more worn than the 20k one I had. But, rather happily, it was spotless inside. Apparently owned by a careful owner for its life. I was doing a teaching session with a young lad, so I didn't get many pics, but here is the "after" picture and me replacing the top end and cam shaft/rockers, as I had them anyway. All done and dusted. Fresh camshaft, but old one shows little wear. Full assembly, with new rockers. rings installed, all ready to go back together. Fresh cylinder, cleaned and oiled the bore before install. Valves timed up. Old piston also seen next to engine, looks in good shape and it appears original to the bike. Turned it all over a number of times. And no problems. I've just ordered some rust treatment for the frame, some paint to cover the bits that no one sees (but I want to seal), and I plan on installing what bits I have currently. Wheel bearings, steering stem bearings, and fork seals. Then I'm putting it back together and trying to do the minimum to get it started. If the engine runs sweetly, I will progress, if not, project over, I'll be selling it as a project as I've gone over £1000 into it now. It won't be worth saving if this engines bottom end/gearbox turns out to be knackered.

Hastings direct insurance. I have both my car and bike insurance with them this year, bike was easy. Car, not so much... They send me a renewal for £398. A £30 rise from last year. Not too bad given what has happened with the industry. I check online and find that my renewal is good. So I move to proceed with it. Their online system stops me in my tracks and tells me it has detected me looking for a quote elsewhere, and that one of my details was wrong, the mileage. I check, and that's not correct. The details match on both sites, must be a glitch, so I click the proceed button and it put £30 on the quote. Cheeky f**kers. I click the "not happy?" button and it gives me a chance to enter details where I've seen cheaper. I enter their own reference from the gocompare site, which matched the renewal roughly at £398. It comes back and says "good news, we can beat those guys!" and offers me a renewal for £388. I accept. And I think I've beat the system for a minute, but then I start to think that it possibly worked as designed. It tried it on, seeing if I would just pay the extra £30, and when I didn't, and put in details of a quote that would flag as being from their own system, it offered me £10 off the original renewal price as a bit of a "sorry, we thought we'd try". It's something along those lines, or genuinely is a glitch, but either way. Nobs.

Good morning, officially 12 minutes into the day (2 hours since I actually started) and I feel exhausted with this week already

@Tinkicker is correct, the holder is a press fit. The cam shaft comes out quite easily. I wish I kept my old scrap engine now, as the old camshaft was toast, absolutely buggered. And my theories on it were that it had either starved of oil, the clearances set *way* too tight, or the bearings had failed. As the original engine I had did have a lot of glitter and more sizeable chunks in the oil, which I assumed came from the cams/rockers. The holder isn't making me suspicious though, unless the camshaft sits in it loose. That is dirt cheap, but I've never heard of it failing on the other 125cc based forums, which I've read over a lot. But I wouldn't rule it out. If you do strip it down @VigilanteofLight, you need a couple of special tools. A 40mm long allen head 3mm bolt (removes the oil jet once the head/cylinder have been removed). A tool for removing the generator. And a tool for removing the oil strainer. They are inexpensive, and the engine comes apart quite easily, just make sure to picture everything and note how some bits come apart. Then you'll be looking for scorched/failed bearings, and any components that appear to have shed material. If you buy a new engine, you may as well do this first to work out if it's salvageable. But I would try to prove the injector and if check connections around the bike like with the ECU and the earth. Cheap, easier stuff, before doing the open heart surgery. That said, the glitter makes the open heart surgery inevitable, I'm just interested to see if you have 2 problems, rather than 1. As if it can be made to run, it might help hone in on the other issue.

Hmmm it looks cleaner than the 20k mile engine I had, which was thrashed. But worse than the 35k mile engine I got to replace it, which seemed to have a mature owner. That said it’s not that much worse. It looks fairly clean from that photo. The oil seals on the top of the valve cover are fairly cheap, I think it’s about £10 for a full set for the engine. Before delving deeper into the engine, are you sure it’s not fuel pump or injector related? Or perhaps even a failed ignition coil? I’m not seeing the usual things that usually indicate you need to tear the engine down. Other than the glitter anyway, which does seem excessive, but I’d expect a big engine noise if anything was gone.

Take the valve cover off, and the two inspection caps on the left side of the engine (on the casing). Get a socket on the nut in the central hole and turn it anti-clockwise. Theres a T mark next to a pair of punched lines on the rotor rim, visible through the higher/smaller inspection hole. When those punched lines just past the T mark line up with the notch in the inspection hole, look at the cam shaft gear at the top of the engine. A horizontal line on the gear should line up flush with the top of the cylinder head. The rockers on top should have some play and not be acting on the valves, if they are, spin the engine 360 degrees and line them up again, and check. If you can’t get the lines on the generator rotor and the camshaft gear, it’s not in time. If you can, it is. Check the condition of all parts while you’re there, look for worn teeth on the gear, or gouge marks on the camshaft/rockers.

If the clutch failed due to a bearing failure, that would itself have been a likely result of low oil. Trouble is, if someone replaced just the blown bearing and clutch, there could have been significant damage to the others that wasn't dealt with and something else is now on its way out, causing things to grind as it develops free play. But there's usually a rumbling sound when one of the main bearings goes bad. Are you thinking the last owner started having problems and wanted rid? Is the engine in time? Cam chain tensioners are another problem child with these bikes. And even worse, I've known amateur mechanics install them without winding them before they bolt them down. So they get installed at full extension, over tighten the cam chain, which just chews the sprocket and itself up. Another project of mine, an ER5 had this issue, and it caused the engine to run really badly. And it wasn't until I tried to turn it over by hand that I noticed it was extremely tight.

I've had an older version of this engine apart recently, split the cases. I seem to remember it had a few weird gouge marks in a couple of places, the inside of the clutch cover being one of them. The clutch clears it by a healthy margin so I couldn't tell what did it, but it's weird yours has similar marks. Firstly, metal fragments in the oil is not good... The picture where it's on your finger, where did this doom glitter come from? Was it from the end of a magnetic sump plug? Did you scrape it out of the filter? How much was in the oil you drained? If you've proven fuel/spark, and it's not a weak battery (Honda's often suffer with the generator/regrec/battery) I'd start looking into what is causing the glitter a bit more. Have you checked the condition of the cam shaft and cam followers? Mine was scraped up badly from oil starvation, which moving down the engine, also caused the small end to wear and the piston/rings were eating into the cylinder wall. This could cause some glitter in the oil. Do a compression test as well if you can.

Good afternoon A long week this one, working late most days, and got a bunch of interviews to do next week for new contractors. Quick question another donator or mods can help me with. The forum subscription. Does it auto-renew if you take out a sub? Or if I pay £10 for the 5 months subscriber status, do I need to manually pay another £10 every 5 months? Cheers

Good night Got into a training session where 3 black belts of varying dan grade took me for a session to prep me for next week. Black and blue is an understatement, I was absolutely battered

Good evening! Stuck in a training course all day today, very ready for ju-jitsu now, got my grading in a week. Going through my defence work, which I find oddly fitting, as todays date sticks in my memory for being the day I took a knee to the face about 8 years back, in an unprovoked scrap. Got them restrained, but in future, would prefer to get to the restraining bit done with more technique!