Noticed it was harder to pull 600 onto stand than my thou. Noticed the stand feet were out of line and then saw metal of bridge piece was paper thin & holed!   The only evidence of winter use is on the front & underside of bike so looks like the combination of 10 British winters and road salt has triumphed. Will NOT be using stand until welded/replaced. So.... might be worth having a close look @ yours to avoid any disasters!

Wednesday took the gear pedal & footpeg to my local friendly "old skool" engineer who is going to fit a bush to pedal to eliminate all the nasty side play due to wear & lack of lubrication by previous owner. Meanwhile I have been waiting for braided hoses to arrive & now they've just turned up.   Yesterday removed bars, masked up surrounding area & repainted top yoke to get rid of key scratch marks- also while I had fuel tank elevated I delved into plastic box with electrical connectors inside & cleaned up same.
Some of the alloy components like rear footpeg hangers look a bit distressed- whats the best way of restoring finish on these?-have always used Solvol Autosol & old toothbrush in past but not getting all the marks off-there is no pitting-just discolouration. Any ideas welcome.
PS If sun shining tomorrow  "Big Red" is coming out to play!

There is considerable side play between the pedal & footpeg shaft. Havent yet removed footpeg from alloy holding plate as bolt is corroded in. Does anyone know if  the pedal hole is fitted with a bush or just steel drilling operating on steel shaft? Have looked at my thou and there is hardly any lateral movement of the pedal resulting in nice slick changes.
Guess I will be trawling ebay for a replacement as I cant stand a sloppy gearchange!

Left "big red" @ dealers last week as was away in Cornwall til this Tues. Had phone call to say bike was ready to collect yesterday so got a lift over with friend. The difficult starting was easy to sort. They cleaned plugs & added some "Forte Gas Treatment" to some fresh fuel & rebalanced carbs which I hadnt done since 2011. Apparently they had quite a job removing the Datatool Duo Immobiliser but at least its not there now to cause probs in the future. It was getting pretty cold as I left with strong icy blasts of wind but the first thing I noticed was how smooth running she is again-so came home the "long way round" and what did I wake up to this morning-SNOW-like everyone else north of the M4-but at least we left Cornwall before the flooding! Can anyone remember warm sunny riding days?

As of 0900hrs I join the ranksof theOAPs. I get my state pension tomorrow & have a free bus/rail pass. looking forward to getting reduced price entry to shows etc. Not quite ready to go to CO-Op in slippers & dressing gown however, as the big red job winks at me from the shed. Hope we will still travel many happy miles together & look forward to meeting up with someof you at the NMCM this year. Yes its great to be called a SILLY OLD FOCCER!

wishing you all a very happy Christmas & may 2013 bring plenty of sunshine & dry smooth tarmac. Go easy on the turkey or youll be playing around with your suspension settings or struggling into your leathers come New Year!

Asked my local main dealer cost of this & was told approx £300! That was the motivation for me to do it myself and it wasnt difficult-just time-consuming and the AIS system was fiddly to remove/refit. I can see why people remove it altogether now! It was a good chance to check condition of all hoses,jubilee clips,rad etc. Cost of job/ £4-36 for new oil pump cover gasket and slight backache from leaning over & under bike. Sorted

Price in Birmingham 139.9ppL to 142.9ppL this week        (supermarkets slightly cheaper)

Reading all the posts on "When/Where?What did you learn on, I forgot to mention my actual tests. First occasion 1965 9am Monday morning Exeter test centre on really tatty Lambretta LD 150 (only 10 careless owners & well battle-scarred). The most nerve=wracking part was waiting in the room to be called out by examiner with clip board. Long story short I FAILED(cant remember why now) but I do recall feeling very depressed riding home with the L plates still on.
Second test 12 months later on smart Lambretta TV 175 and timed my arrival just before due time. This time I was confident having just come back from touring holiday 2 up with mate who had full bike licence so I was used to riding fully laden & I had built up experience/confidence so recall doing the circuits & emergency stop/hand signals/observations-it was literally 3 times round the block & a couple of Highway Code questions-then joy of joys-"Pink Slip"-and straight down County Hall to get the proper Red licence [size=78%].[/size]
Have a friend (born again) who is currently going through the procedure-has done his Theory & CBT just waiting to do his on/off road at beginning of Oct.Glad I did mine when I did!

Apart from the few times Ive dropped the bike because my foot slipped/ground sloped away when putting on side stand. usually with an audience!...The MOST EMBARRASSING & POTENTIALLY LETHAL was when I forgot to turn my left indicator off and then made a digital gesture to some poor old fella who started to pull out from a side turn into my path. Guess the moral of this tale could be "This is going to hurt me more than you!"

Reading thread re French Police got me thinking about speed and the use of......The message from government is usually along the lines of "Speed Kills" but surely its the inappropriate USE of speed that is a factor in many so called accidents? They are legislating for all of us and  because the AVERAGE standard of driving is poor as we witness daily from our position of increased vulnerability, those road users with above average abilities have to obey the same rules as everyone else.
If these guys choose to break the speed limit then they must be prepared to take the consequences if caught.
If speed kills then why would those in power consider raising the limit on our motorways to 80 when many accidents on these roads are due to poor lane discipline,lack of observation and tailgating-usually in lane 3?
I have no argument with speed in the right circumstances, but I can only think of a few car drivers that ive been a passenger with who ive felt safe with under all conditions-funnily enough they were all motorcyclists as well so THOUGHT and READ the ROAD like bikers have to!
If Im batting down the motorway @ 100plus in lane 3 and mr Magoo or the guy twiddling with his mobile pulls into my lane because he hasnt looked or failed to judge my approach speed am I going to blame him for his stupidity or accept that I played a part in the situation for making ASSUMPTIONS about others abilities/intentions?
If I get clocked by a speed camera (I did once & that was enough!) whose fault is that?
If we are intelligent beings surely we can find opportunities to  "make progress" without drawing attention to ourselves? and let the "boy racers" do trackdays to show us how good they are.

Remembered 2 separate occasions years ago. Firstly approaching green traffic light(my right of way) and suddenly felt need to slow and sure enough car crossed my path over red light & traversed junction @ speed limit (30mph). Second time was waiting @ (blind) junction for green light. Lights changed green but had "the feeling" and as I  slowly rode forward to line  lady driver  on  intersecting road drove over her red light saw me & panic braked & stopped. Ever since Ive always checked the junction R & L. The green light doesnt mean its safe to proceed.   Noticed recently there are more amber gamblers and red ones thats apart from the texters & sat nav slaves!