What did you do to your bike today?

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

47 minutes ago, S-Westerly said:

Haven't yet but will be prepping bike for trip up to Northumberland tomorrow.  Currently sleeting heavily  but tomorrow is supposed to be fine but cold. It'll be a thrash up the motorway as interesting roads may be icy etc.

Take care out there. It's been snowing heavily here which is rare. Our drive is quite a steep slope so there's no chance of getting the bikes out of the garage this morning.  The CBF has to be pushed out backwards which when the slope is covered in snow  is dicey. 

[S-Westerly]

That is why unfortunately I'll be doing the M5, M42, M1, M18 and A1M. Boring but mostly low and most likely to be snow free.

[Mawsley]

We’ve got no snow, we never get snow. And if we do get snow it doesn’t hang around. And if it does hang around it’s only the kind of light dusting that closes schools for a week and causes employees to spend an additional hour in bed, blaming the lateness on the weather conditions.

 

So, I can see the garage from my bedroom window. A garage containing the bike. At least I could if I could be arsed to confront the cold hanging around menacingly outside of my duvet. It needs a wash and ACFing. It can damn well wait.

[Old-codger]

9 minutes ago, S-Westerly said:

That is why unfortunately I'll be doing the M5, M42, M1, M18 and A1M. Boring but mostly low and most likely to be snow free.

Safe journey S-westerly its grim out there and there will be a lot of morons in there insulated boxes taking no notice of the conditions.

[Ian Frog]

1 hour ago, Mawsley said:

We’ve got no snow, we never get snow. And if we do get snow it doesn’t hang around. And if it does hang around it’s only the kind of light dusting that closes schools for a week and causes employees to spend an additional hour in bed, blaming the lateness on the weather conditions.

 

So, I can see the garage from my bedroom window. A garage containing the bike. At least I could if I could be arsed to confront the cold hanging around menacingly outside of my duvet. It needs a wash and ACFing. It can damn well wait.

Less than 10 miles away we had a dusting of wet slimy snow which is disappearing fast.

Do you find that washing and ACFing your duvet helps?

Cheers

Ian

[KiwiBob]

Woke up to this this morning!... I won't be going far today!

 

[Mawsley]

39 minutes ago, Ian Frog said:

Less than 10 miles away we had a dusting of wet slimy snow which is disappearing fast.

Do you find that washing and ACFing your duvet helps?

Cheers

Ian

 

No, my peni...err, yes, duvet. Definitely my duvet.

[Ian Frog]

weather is horrible so decided to start the service stuff on the ZRX. 

Oil and filter today fork oil change when Wemoto delivers the 10W hopefully tomorrow so I will strip front end down and get ready maybe leave legs to drip out overnight. 

Cheers 

Ian 

[Throttled]

Annual service for mine, which meant a ride out in -3. It has been very dry, so not much grit on the roads and I got in winterised with ACF50 last week.

[Ian Frog]

progress ! 

Fork oil arrives this afternoon and query about calipers in new thread on old bikes and restorations.

Cheers 

Ian 

[S-Westerly]

Rode it 298 miles to Northumberland. Wasn't a bad run really weatherwise apart from being cold. According to bike the coldest was -2 C. "Ahem" speed windchill probably made it worse. Heated grips, gloves and vest were a definite plus. As for the actual riding - see Nob of the day.

[S-Westerly]

Hey ho. The weather forecast for the weekend is utterly dire. So as I need to be home by Monday morning I'm leaving Morpeth late this afternoon to beat the weather. On a plus note at least I won't have the sun searing my eyeballs all the way south. Sometimes I wish I lived somewhere with less weather.

[Fiddlesticks]

21 minutes ago, S-Westerly said:

Hey ho. The weather forecast for the weekend is utterly dire. So as I need to be home by Monday morning I'm leaving Morpeth late this afternoon to beat the weather. On a plus note at least I won't have the sun searing my eyeballs all the way south. Sometimes I wish I lived somewhere with less weather.

Agreed. We had pencilled in a ride to Aberdeen, I don't think so!

[Ian Frog]

Front end reassembled just got fork settings to put back to my preference and the brakes to bleed.

Quite pleased with the calipers but I think a better coating to match the Dymags is in the future . 

Cheers 

Ian 

[Simon Davey]

@Ian Frog

I'm finding that quite satisfying, and it's not my bike.. 

[Fiddlesticks]

Never been super happy with the sound of the Thunderbird, so for the price of two 45 degree mandrel bends I thought I'd have a go at de-catting it. She's no V-Twin Harley, but it seems to have given it a deeper rumble. Obviously shorter pipes would help, but I don't want it too obnoxious.

 

 

[Bianco2564]

Bolted this rats nest of parts back on the RGV.

Throttle cable junction box, power valve servo and cables, thermostat housing and hoses, all squeezes in there somewhere.

Junction box has 5 cables going to it, 1 from twistgrip, 2 carbs, 1 oil pump & 1 servo. The servo cable is designed to hold open the oil pump in the event of closing the throttle from high speed and load ,to prevent seizure.

 

[Simon Davey]

Looking very clean and tidy. 

[Nick the wanderer]

23 hours ago, Ian Frog said:

Front end reassembled just got fork settings to put back to my preference and the brakes to bleed.

Quite pleased with the calipers but I think a better coating to match the Dymags is in the future . 

Cheers 

Ian 

Yeah I would have given the calipers a paint after all that cleaning.

[Ian Frog]

17 minutes ago, Nick the wanderer said:

Yeah I would have given the calipers a paint after all that cleaning.

I don`t tend to use paint on calipers as they have a hard life.

I will investigate powder coating at some point, I have heard good things about the guys at Redditch Coatings and if I am not in any rush I will give them a call.

Alternatively Cerakote is available locally so I have options.

Cheers

Ian

[Tinkicker]

Its been a bit of a cold, snowy week.  So I once again took a look through the shed window at the bike battery voltage.  12.8v.  Goodo.  No need to do anything drastic like unlocking the shed door for further investigation.  I did get my slippers wet though...

 

What would the 19 year old, leather jacketed, denim cutoff over the top, beer towels sewn to my jeans for extra crash protection and iron maiden patch sewn on my back think of my approach now?

 

Not much.  He'd think I was a wuss, and what the hell happened to you?  You have a bike and lock it away for six months of the year?

 

Then again, in those days I did not spend five times the money restoring a bike than it cost brand new.  I also kept a bike in those days an average of about nine months before I swapped it for something more interesting.

Edited November 24, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Gerontious]

Prepped the bike for, what is likely to be my last long day out of the year. Cleaned and oiled the chain and checked the tyre pressures. I’ll sort out a route later tonight.

[bonio]

Nice weather for you @Gerontious 

[S-Westerly]

Rode mine down into Somerset but the low sun is a bit annoying combined with the muck thrown up from the road makes visibility occasionally challenging. 

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

Got it out after a lot of very wet journeys recently and found the front brake light switch has done its usual trick of seizing up. On the CBF is it very exposed and regularly fails which means no brake light. Fortunately if it's checked regularly and given a dose of GT65 it frees itself up. If I don't spot it in time then it means dismantling it.