SometimesSansEngine

Yeah, I paid a hundred and eighty quid the other day to remove one bolt

As I took delivery of a pet vacuum yesterday for drying the motorbikes, I took part in the "cheese on toast bike cleaning challenge". Could I wash and dry [mention]Magpie84[/mention]'s Tiger in the time it took her to make me some cheese on toast.

Happy to report it was a success.

Spring that a fellow IAM group member posted me arrived this morning, popped it in my lock cylinder, lock now no longer comes out with the key

Cheers [mention]onesea[/mention], chatting to many of my (mostly more mechanical/maintenance/engineering background) friends I'm beginning to learn that just like "dropping your bike" stories many seem to have one of these types of tales. Does make me feel a bit better about it all!

Yeah same reason I don't declare the factory fit alarm....

I view Datatag as a sticker at least. It's not on there at the mo but was just thinking forward to the renewal. But I'm reasonably sure the premium reduction over a few years wouldn't cover the admin fee....

Datatag.

Whilst I have limited faith in its ability to actually really prevent my bike being stolen and any parts identified, it's in my nature to try to keep paperwork up to date.

BUT

2. You have to complete a paper form to do the change of keeper
   
4. They want you to either send a cheque (a what) or HANDWRITE IN ALL YOUR CREDIT CARD DETAILS INCLUDING YOUR CARD SECURITY CODE ONTO THE FORM AND POST IT TO THEM. I guess I then trust they receive it safely and also dispose of those details securely ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
   
6. For all the above, they want to charge the princely sum of £15.50 for someone to update the record. Can I haggle that down to three quid and we're all good?
   

I wouldn't be surprised if they chuckle with glee every time a new keeper can actually be bothered to send them such a exorbitant amount.

Now... does anyone know if you declare Datatag on your insurance if it's actually a condition that you keep the registered keeper details up to date?

Those tyres look grippy as @geofferz

 

Yep - the tc hasn't kicked in once! Except in launch control. And I ride it quite hard. They are so soft though - I only got 1500 miles out of the rear

I was more impressed by how they hold the bike at that angle with no drive.

(Although 1500 miles, I think that's about 2 fuel fill ups on the F800 )

now thats a word

 

I'm not clever, here is a squabble with the missus a few weeks ago squabble.png

Landed that on a triple word score and a double letter score, good work. Because otherwise it's barely worth the points.

My vote is an erroneous bolt

My retired neighbour used to work in this sort of field and looked at it today and made some noises and then went on about the material used, the way it had split and what that meant. But a lot of odd words were used that I can't remember. But I think the summary was "that was possibly an erroneous bolt". But maybe he was trying to make me feel better and he thinks that I'm an idiot.

Follow up questions.... too brute force and ignorance? Shitty faulty bolt? Threadlock? Dunno. Trust me all these thoughts and more have gone through my head.

The bolt was a touch on the stiff side as I started removing it, but having taken engine bolts out before to fit crash protection I know they are often threadlocked in.

A couple of reasons really. I just didn't want to risk it. The local bike shop said it would be fine for a short journey if I was careful. But this place was a good hour away (is that short? I dunno), coupled with the fact that I'd need to ride it there and get a lift home. Since my wife was working most days my dad would be next best bet, but he was away for the week. The van got it to them quicker and therefore onto the fix quicker.

Also known as "gather round kids and listen to SSE's tale of woe"

Decided to put this in the pitstop area, even though it's all sorted now. Truth be told I didn't want to talk about it until it was resolved. As you may imagine I was sick as a parrot at the time.

So two Saturdays ago I picked up my new bike and rode it home. I wanted to fit the crash protection ASAP, knowing that it would be just typical to have a slow speed drop before fitting them. Took the fairings off, cut the bits I needed to in the inner fairing, then started to take the first engine mount bolt out.

Started to undo it, it was a touch stiff but nothing too bad... turned it a few times.... GEDUNK

Arse. An interesting noise emanated from both my mouth and rear end

For the avoidance of doubt, the bolt is meant to be this long

So where's the rest of it? Oh, just having a snooze deep in here

Well crap. What a great way to ruin a perfectly good day. I categorically did not get a good night sleep on Saturday. Sunday was a write off, everywhere was of course shut and the best thing I could do was research who locally may be able to help. I've extracted studs before but not on anything I massively cared about. I knew I'd rather throw some money at someone who knew what they were doing then attempt and fail myself, making things worse in the process.

Fast forward to Monday and I nipped to my local bike place. They wouldn't be able to see it for a good week, but mentioned a local machinist. Headed there, guy wasn't interested unless I took the engine out for him. Told me I'd just as well do it myself but "go in straight or you'll make it worse". Thanks for the advice

Call a relatively local company on my list who specialise in diesel glow plug and injector removals, but also stud removal. No answer (and never did return my voicemail or email). Call the second company on the list. They pick up and after I explain my predicament he says "Well I bet that ruined your day didn't it?" For some reason that instantly made me think "these might be the ones".

They're an engine repair and rebuild company, and he says based on the description they shouldn't have to drop the engine. So if I can get it on a van and to them, they'll have a look. Didn't even bother asking for a possible cost. What was the point? It needed doing. They also assured me that the bike would be kept inside at all times.

Booked in some transport and two days later waved my bike away (side note: if you ever need a bike transported, Dave at Ace Services Bristol is brilliant https://www.aceservicesbristol.com/)

Fast forward to yesterday, and I get an email to say all done, and they'd also removed the engine mount bolt on the other side and fitted the brackets for my crash bungs. £183.50 all in, which truth be told I was overjoyed with. I'm still glad I didn't attempt anything foolhardy myself and just handed it over to someone to deal with. Couple of hours labour, including removing and refitting the fairings, drilling it out and fitting the new bolts and brackets for me.

So if anyone finds themselves in a similar predicament, I'm more than happy to suggest Price Bros Auto Engineering in Bristol http://www.pricebrosengineering.co.uk/

I never leave mine if I can't lock it out of sight or to something solid with a cover. Kind of restricts where I can stay these days

Bet people really kick off as you chain it to the foot of the bed and throw the duvet over it.

Finally finished fitting the crash bungs. Glad I did paint the silver bits before fitting.

Why has it taken so long....? There's a separate post being written for that

Those tyres look grippy as [mention]geofferz[/mention]

A day late, but I'm nominating my insurance company.

[....]

Don't get me wrong, I think it's as simple as the whole thing relates to my last bike, but the fact she was so adamant that it was about my new bike does make me worry that I have a whole new ballache to deal with next week.

Well, as an update, they don't appear to have cancelled it yet, so touch wood.

I think you had to go around the block twice .. Once clockwise then anticlockwise. On one of them the examiner jumped out in front of you to test your emergency stop!

Well that's the thing. That was the test he was expecting, but after once around he was surprised to be told that as he'd made it around all was good

its a complicated palava now it wasn't like that in 1980 when i took mine

My old boss told me his test was once around the block, examiner said as he'd made it back that was fine, test complete

Oh! Yes please! My new tiger only came with a small rubber one but this would be amazing.

 

You may be glad of the small rubber one

I was about to call you out for an inappropriate comment directed at my wife. Then read the rest of what you said. As you were.

[mention]Magpie84[/mention]?

Like I said, if it helps anyone I'm sure I could get stuff in a large letter or small parcel and send on. Just the cost of postage and the jiffy bag

Everyone raves about this local company, especially if they don't have quite what you have in mind (they'll source it). Not sure if it's better if you can visit vs them posting it mind

https://www.nutandboltman.com/

Depending on what you want mind if it's cheaper to post using an alternative method I could look to pick up and post on.

Got to be a complete admin cock up, since I'm guessing it wasn't your licence that they received.....

I’m 5’ 7” and own a Versys 1K that weighs 250 kilos.

I don’t walk the bike vertically. I have one hand on the left grip and my right hand on the pillion grab rail. I then lean into the bike and have have the bike lean into my hip. There is no way the bike is going to fall. The max the bike leans must be 2 degrees.

I’ve done this with all my bikes and have never dropped them using this technique. I basically wedge myself against it.

I've generally used this technique too, but did struggle with Magpie84's new Tiger which also has bar risers, so the bars are quite high. Once I realised this (alongside the top heavy weight of the bike) was why the bike felt so clumsy and awkward for me to move around and stood further out it was a lot easier to manually handle.

Is your V5C for all vehicles definitely the correct address? And your licence?

And yes, you're correct, a S172 charge for failing to name a driver when requested carries more points and would also make getting insurance tres expensive.

I thought the driving licence check at https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence displayed the offence code and court that issued the points?