Mississippi Bullfrog

I suspect that is something determined by accountants and salespeople rather than engineers. I will stick to 6,000 mile oil changes and run my engines until the car falls to bits around them.

Oil may lubricate to longer mileages but the detergent properties get exhausted much sooner. The extended service schedules are ridiculous. A mate used to be a Vauxhall workshop manager when they did 100,000 mile warranties. Vauxhall were replacing so many engines that had been serviced according to their own schedules that they had to scrap their warranty.

The replacement brake pads and pin arrived so all is now sorted. I obtained the new bearings and brake parts from a company I've not dealt with so far. Motorcycle Products. Ordered Sunday evening, arrived Tuesday morning via Royal Mail. I'm very pleased with their service and quality of the parts. I shall use them again. The original bearings are on their way back to the sellers.

18000 mile oil changes? Surely not.

That's very poor on their part. I hope you get it sorted.

I've been riding the Bobber instead. So long as there's no salt on the roads it's fine. But cleaning salt off it isn't much fun.

I don't know much about the Orkneys, what kind of roads do you mostly ride?

I got the rear wheel bearings installed, came to put it all back together and realised I should have checked the brake pads whilst the wheel was off. And of course they are getting low. Still usable but no point refitting them. So replacement pads ordered meaning it's still off the road for another few days. When will I learn?

Hope you have great day

Happy birthday. Have a great time

Well done. Now you are hooked. A suggestion....when an engine has had dirty oil in it I never use a flush. They are too aggressive and can dislodge chunks of dirt which then block oil ways. My preferred method is to change the oil more frequently. Oil contains detergents which clean the engine. The detergents are exhausted long before the oil stops lubricating. So on an engine with an unknown service history I do a few oil changes at somewhere between 1-2k, then extend the intervals until the oil is staying clean for longer. On bikes I tend to change the oil every 3k regardless. On one my cars I changed the oil every 5k and at 130k decided to replace the timing chains. A mate who was a workshop manager gave me a hand as we needed to use a 4 post lift to raise the engine slightly. He commented that the interior of the engine looked like a brand new engine. Everything was clean and golden, not a trace of carbon deposits anywhere.

Give that man a biscuit.

Inspired by a few large helpings of Laphroaig....a very bad pun which on a few sci-fi needs will appreciate: Garibaldi....isn't that taking the Michael?

I thought it was a UFO.

We ignore it entirely.

Thanks. I'm sure they sell some good bearings, but in this case the bearings sent were their "budget" bearings. At under £4 listed price I'm not fitting them to my bike. I'll probably need to sell it soon due to hoping to retire and I'm not selling a bike with dodgy bearings installed.

We have one day off a week which is classed as "24 hours undisturbed". I don't think I've had that in the past 40 years. When you live on the job and are working in your garage people wander up the drive saying, "I know it's your day off but...."

Motor traders will tell you that full dealer service means not serviced properly. Independent workshop servicing means it's probably been done better. The last time I had a car serviced at a dealership they told me all the brakes were 80% worn. They turned out to be 25% worn at the front and 10% at the back. The workshop manager explained that since they don't remove the wheels they judge the brake wear by "guessing ". Needless to say I was not pleased. I didn't pay over £300 just for them to guess what was needed.

Assuming the clock doesn't go back that weekend.

An album we used to listen to at college. We'd go to the pub at lunchtime, then back to our flat and lay into the home brew, put Meddle on by Pink Floyd and watch the room spin round. Occasionally someone would try to stand up and kick the beer jug over. Eventually the folk downstairs reported a brown stain coming though the ceiling. Havent played it in 40 years.

A wet belt is still a crap design though. Honda must be mad to start using them given what is known about their problems.

Last time bought new boots I had the same issue. The new boots were thicker than my previous pair. As @RideWithStyles says, you can adjust the lever on the splines. It's usually only a very small adjustment needed.

I did precisely that and asked the manufacturing provenance of the bearings. No reply...hence I went looking myself. Rather cross because the seller had very good feedback and listed the sale as Koyo bearings which are fine.

On the other hand ...they might not be OK. I tracked the specifications of the unknown bearings and found they sell them for £3.83. Quite a bit less than I paid for Koyo bearings.

That's one option. But I'll have to cover postage. We live some distance from the post office. And they may be perfectly OK. Just worth asking if anyone has had bearings from them as they're a big supplier. Just that I've not used them before.