Yeah, a wee hobby lathe has been on my wish list for years now. ...but there's always something more entertaining to drop the cash on. A new lid/pair of supermoto wheels/computer/canoe/pair of speakers.... One of these days.
Fitted a set of heated grips last year that my flatmate had been given yonks ago and had been lying around unused. They're great but didn't have a relay in the kit so i spent the winter constantly wandering back to the bike to check that I'd switched them off. After using them for the first time again on the Oban run last week I decided not to risk another year of potential flat battery moments so rigged them up properly. Grafted in a couple of wires off the number plate light circuit. Should have really taken another pic after I found the chunk of minicell foam that I used to wedge the relay in place. Then went to change the indicator bulb that appeared to have blown yesterday going to work. ...and what I reckoned would be a two minute job turned into a mini saga. Took off the lens and this little bit fell out. It's the flange the screw goes through. Turns out it had broken ages ago and the only thing holding the lens on was the semi-rotten rubber gasket. Water and road crud had been seeping through the crack and the bulb/socket interface had turned into a manky mess causing it to eventually stop working. Cleaned up the bulb and made a little flappy affair from some 3M pad to jam in the socket and give a whirl. Glued back on the wee broken bit and while waiting on it setting thought I'd check how much Honda were asking for a new unit. Some of you will know where this is going but for those of you as naive as I was an hour ago... That's per corner! FFS! No wonder they've none in stock. I can't imagine they sell many at that price. Anyway. All good to go again and should last long enough for a pattern set to arrive. Will probably last ok to be honest DC4'd the socket and red rubber greased what's left of the gasket. ...but I'll pick up a pair and bung them on the next time the tail is off.
Tail end all apart - without snapping any bolts. (I do wish factories used grease) Washed out all the nooks and crannies. Gave the rusty old bracket a wire brush and lick of paint. Shiny new indicators and the cherry on top - a new number plate to replace the cracked and flaky old one. It's all so clean and lovely - almost a shame to bolt it back onto my grotty old bike.
Had a great spin today once sun came out ....16c mid November it would be rude not to have gone out ..hopefully may get one more in although colder weather on way ...once they start gritting it will stay in the garage...going to bike show on the 24th...
Reassembled footrests after powder coating, came out mint, all Titanium hardware including clevis pins and some proper R pins rather than them 2 bit slit pins
Decided to get the wheels powder coated to match the fairings. Wheels off, bearings out, tyres off etc. Saw on the forum some had recommended ral 2003 as a good match for repsol orange. Powder coater gave me a hook to make sure colour matches, but its nowhere near a match... Not too surprising as they are not oem repsol fairings, but it does mean I need to find a ral code which matches better...
The places available to me only offer ral code matches unfortunately. In the process of trying to find the closest match with the stock they have... Would welcome any recommendations for other places that can do it in the Midlands?
Took the bike for its MOT. Apparently the exhaust could be louder even though I forgot to put the baffle back in, and I need to spend less time with the front on the ground. Not sure what else they could mean
Forecast looks good for washing salt away this week. Just got to hope they don't spread any more now and might get some days out soon.
Got 80 miles under my tyres today. Didn’t notice much salt but due to the rain yesterday/overnight, a lot of the roads were covered in an inch of mud, salt was probably buried under it!
