Tinkicker

Got a vehicle tax reminder for the DT. Applied online, declared it not to have been modified and smugly taxed it for a further year for £0.00. Bout time I got something back from the thieves in government.

Ducks all in a line and first ride out this morning. Just 30 miles or so to ease myself back in. No speed limits were broken, not by much anyway. No overtaking or knee down antics. Just a sad old git reliving his youth with a sedate ride on his 25 year old bike. Ride only marred by a 10 mile long diesel spill on every left hander, rise and dip. Very fresh, it still smelt very strongly. Much care exercised. Following that, a 3 mile long patch of loose chippings. If you were planning to ride from Snaith to Selby, through Carlton and Camblesforth today.. Don't. Otherwise, all idiot lights stayed out that should stay out, the ones that should light, did in fact do so and all the gauges behaved exactly as expected.

Indeed. Back in the early 1990s I used to be the mechanic for an amateur racing team in the Auto 66 125 superstock club series. We were running a Cagiva Mito 125. Ported this, polished that, gas flowed the other. Stock Cagiva squish clearance was 1.2 mm, so we ran that. Rider and team owner said more power required scotty. Squish reduced to 1.0 mm. More power required scotty. Squished reduced to 0.7mm with advice given that it was on the verge of becoming a handgrenade on pump fuel. Advice ignored. More power required scotty, getting 1st and 2nd place podium finishes was not enough. He wanted world domination. What a conundrum. Rules stated that cooling system must have water only and only standard pump fuel could be used. I told the owner he needed to run glycol to carry more heat away and run avgas if he wanted more power. Getting rid of heat was becoming the major problem, despite every available cooling passage being widened with a dremel and the thermostat removed. Without these mods the thing would overheat in minutes. More power required scotty.. Oh hell. Took it to 0.4mm squish and well into detonation territory on pump fuel. Asked the owner if he had his avgas... Err no, I have decided to stick to the rules..... All I could do was advise that it needed nursing carefully, just enough abuse to stay out in front, no more and pull on the choke at the end of the full throttle straight to cool the piston a little. At least it was early spring and cool weather. Results came back in after race. Bike went through the speedtrap at 108 mph and blew the 125cc lap record at Elvington into the weeds. Wealthy owner peeled his rather nice wristwatch from his wrist and gave it to me as a reward. I reckon it was putting out 35+ bhp. Unfortunately the weather heated up and the owners ego took over. He did not just want to win, he wanted to rub everyones noses in it. He used new tyres every race weekend, and the other racers used to come by his caravan and buy his old rubber for £20 a set. It was like he thought he was Team Harris or something. He stopped nursing the bike and it needed a new piston after every weekend. It was detonating badly at full throttle and it was also showing signs of heat seizure because he kept forgetting to pull the choke lever out. Because we were running no thermostat, as soon as the throttle closed and the engine was producing no heat, the cylinder cooled faster than the almost glowing hot piston and nipped it. We had words. I told him if he did not nurse the bike, I was out. Next race, watching him pull 25 yards in front on the back straight, I was seething. Next lap it was 50 yards. Next it was 75 yards. Next it was 100 yards. Next lap the rest of the field came around and he didn't. Engine had blown big time. It was toast. I refused to rebuild it and walked away. I heard he rebuilt the motor, but the next race at three sisters circuit was a wet one. He binned it on the first lap, broke his leg badly and totalled the bike. Last I heard was it was sold cheap to another racer who was going to try to rebuild it. The owner had a lot of problems with bone infections with his broken leg and gave up on motorcycling. There endeth my chance to earn a good reputation in racing circles, leave the motorcycle workshop and become a racing technician. Total wages for a couple of hundred hours work. One secondhand watch.

Well. Auction ended. Zero interest. It seems that entry level secondhand bikes are completely out of fashion again. Nothing seems to be selling. Maybe its the cold spring we are having. Perhaps it is time her Halfords bike shaped object suffered some kind of mishap? But no, I would be shooting myself in the foot. I would be called out of the house to see her holding the bike. Three words would fly across the ether.. "Broken - mend please".

Big Ted says we are to look through the square window as it suits his personality; but Jemima is getting a bit pouty about it, she wants the arched window as she appreciates the symbolism. Humpty of course prefers the round window as it is the only one he could squeeze through if the studio caught fire. Little Ted when asked his preference, was heard to ask "wots a window"? When the camera panned round to ask the presenters to explain what a window is to Little Ted, the presenters were in fact, not present. The pretty girl in go go boots, it being the summer of love, was giving the long haired bloke in platform shoes a quick hand crank round the back of the set. When asked what she was doing, she said she was just showing him a new trick. I await the next episode of John Cravens Newsround with baited breath....

Every picture, every layer of paint and every mental process behind any particular communication tells a story to the interested observer of the human psyche.

Don't waste your breath. Another entitled type that came on here without so much as a how do you do, rocked up with his question, returned a week later to look at his trawl of answers and never returned. Hate this type that expect everything and contribute nothing.

Changed the oil on the VFR this afternoon. A simple task made stupid tricky by an aftermarket exhaust collector designer that made it too close to the plug for it to be fully able to screw all the way out and conversly, to line back up and screw back in. My views on his parentage and mental accumen are better left unsaid...

It is on the bay for £100. This is at the lower end of the pricing of others which seem to be around £150 to £175, but nothing is getting bids. The only one getting bids was started at £10. I bet that will be broken for parts. I am shocked at the prices asked for my old Voodoo Bantu mtb. I was expecting them to be up for £40 or so, but many are in excess of £200... Shocking.

Rust duly cleaned off..

May be a modulation valve problem. Is the ABS light lit on the dash. If not, is there a bulb in it?

Wow. I was thinking maybe 75 quid. Thanks MB.

Pulled the cycles out of the shed this morning and languishing at the back was the Wifey's Giant Cypress "hybrid" bike that I bough a few years ago for her birthday. Trouble is that she is the sort that would rather drive an old banger, rather than a new car and has not used it. She always pulls out her Halfords Bike Shaped Object to ride. I doubt it has done 10 miles from new. Decided to put it on fleabay, but I am not a keen cyclist and really have no idea how to punt it. Anyone care to hazard a guess on a reasonable auction starting price? I know it was over £500 when new. It is not pristine, but not far off and I have taken pics for the ebay. All I have done to it is pump the tyres and wash the dust and cobwebs off it. Protective film still on pedals Paintwork is very good. Again, protective film intact. Zero brake wear and pips on tyres fully intact. Handlebars have fared less well. Bit of shed rash on derailier. Absolutely no idea how/

The "heavy metal blows" you are talking about are just the starter clutch disengaging and reengaging as the motor fires. Normal. You are not getting enough fuel. It may be the cold starter mechanism in the carbs stuck (assuming you have pulled the choke on), blocked carbs or a bad fuel pump / blocked fuel filter.

Got a bit closer to riding than the norm. Pulled VFR out of shed, started her up, pumped up the tyres and washed all the silicone winter preservative off her. Waiting for engine oil to arrive for a pre season oil change. Starting her up and running her to operating temp regularly over the winter will have diluted the oil quite a bit. Hoping next weekend will be the first ride of the season.

Indeed. Well done.

In the piccy..

Incredible detail in that map, right down to litter in the streets. In a minute I will see if it downloaded overnight. I am not an avid combat ace and DCS for me is primarily just a flight sim featuring complex high performance aircraft where I just use the combat portion as a reason to go somewhere on a long mission and drop some bombs/ launch missiles. Meantime I sit in the cockpit looking at the pretty scenery going by. Unless I am in a structured campaign and that can get a bit graphic, as at one point in the vid. Been there many times.

Fell victim to the air coolled two stroke tickover rattle. Fired up the DT and it sounded horrendous. Last summer at about 150 miles since rebuild and 10 or 15 heat /cold cycles, I deemed it time to do a full throttle run to check the carburation at full chat. An artfully carried out bodge by the previous owner made itself aparent as about a mile into my full throttle run, a large piece of sculpted exhaust filler blew out, the bike went immediately lean and lost 50% of its power. New exhaust found and fitted and another 50 miles under its belt before getting put away for winter. So full consternation mode. Did it sound like that before? Have I blown the piston? Is the crank ok? Pulled the barrel. Light scoring present above the ports and heavier below. The upper scoring will clear with a couple of minutes with the hone, the lower probably not. Not too concerned though. I was expecting the piston to have showed signs of a partial seizure, but no, no scores or marks of any kind. The ring gap on the original rings was about 20 thou, above max allowable, but visually looked ok. I have a new, japanese oem quality piston in stock, so tried the new rings for gap. 12 thou, the minimum allowable. Crank is fine. So looks like the rings got too hot when it went lean and gripped the cylinder wall. Subsequent running has polished away the damage to the rings, leaving them excessively worn. Of course, since I have the new piston ready, I will fit it. My hone, bore gauge and micrometers are at work, so I can't measure piston clearances, oval and taper till Monday. Hope everything is still in spec after the hone.

Nice. Can never go wrong with a ride in Gods own county.

Yes. The bolt should clamp the inner bush tight. If it pivoted on the bolt it would introduce potentially dangerous wear.

Surprised it got through its MOT.

These days all I have are squared off tyres. My chicken strips have gradually turned into chicken fillets. Horses for courses, if you ride steady enough to square off a tyre, then you will be good down to around 2.5mm tread depth. Just don't suddenly decide you are Marc Marquez. It will fight you if you are suddenly looking for high speed pinpoint precision on your cornering lines.

I do a bit of watchmaking. An hours worth of elbow grease will see it right. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Polywatch-Acrylic-Plastic-Scratch-Remover/dp/B07F2QGVXG

Heard a song on the radio and was transported back in time.. Cannot believe 40 odd years have gone by. Vividly remember stood in the doorway at my mates house, looking at my new to me bike, while listening to his new album. Just had to put my earbuds in and listen again while looking at the pic. Mine had an aftermarket Dunstall silencer and a two four racing seat with the hump at the back. Wore a hole in the original silencer grounding it out on Haigh roundabout not far from woolley edge services on the M1. Nostalgia.. Is it as good as it used to be?