(02-10-21, 10:31 PM)b1k3rdude link Wrote: [quote author=FazThou link=topic=6412.msg327378#msg327378 date=1633192407]Looking good mate but you could have painted them bolts
+1 and dem bolts :-D
[/quote]
The replacement bearing / inner bush arrived and got installed this afternoon. I cleaned up the bolt heads and applied zinc primer. All looking a bit better but still some 5mm free play at the swing arm. I thought I could feel slight play at the bearing in the swing arm and as I had a spare, I replaced that too. I compared the new bearing and new inner bush compared to the items removed from the swing arm and really not that much difference. A little bit less overall free play so I guess they must all be like that. Next time I am in the bike shop I will feel a new bike to compare.
I finally got to pay the Cliff Top Cafe a visit yesterday. For some reason this is only open on Saturday to Monday, so was somewhat disappointed a month or two back, when I turned up midweek to find it closed.
My Tracer GT riding pal and myself had quite a pleasant two hour ride to the cafe at Capel le Ferne, between Folkestone and Dover, taking in A and B roads that we often use through Kent.
I must say that the cafe's breakfast was a disappointment, being quite small, very expensive and no choice, just the set breakfast, which with a tea came to £9 :eek , a complete piss take. The view on the other hand was outstanding. I will go back next summer, but just for a drink and the view. The Airport Cafe is not that far away, mileage wise, and serves excellent food with many choices at very reasonable prices.
This part of Kent must have its own micro climate, as within seven miles of leaving perfect blue skies and sunshine, raindrops started to appear on my visor as we approached Street End and our turning that would take us to the Chilham Bends. Convinced it was no more than "mental rain", we attacked the bends section with our normal gusto, with no ill effects. As we descended the hill towards Charing the rain ceased, giving us a totally dry run to the pub near Headcorn Aerodrome, where over a few shandies, we watched the local Spitfire perform its magic.
Getting petrol was next on the agenda for me, which took visits to four garages before finding one that sold E5. Duly gassed up, it was then a quick cross country dash towards Brands Hatch and home, clocking another 199 of our lovely English miles on the Fazer.
.
Whizz kid sitting pretty on his two wheeled stallion.
(08-10-21, 08:18 PM)notsofast link Wrote: [quote author=b1k3rdude link=topic=6412.msg327383#msg327383 date=1633210301]
[quote author=FazThou link=topic=6412.msg327378#msg327378 date=1633192407]Looking good mate but you could have painted them bolts
+1 and dem bolts :-D
[/quote]
The replacement bearing / inner bush arrived and got installed this afternoon. I cleaned up the bolt heads and applied zinc primer. All looking a bit better but still some 5mm free play at the swing arm. I thought I could feel slight play at the bearing in the swing arm and as I had a spare, I replaced that too. I compared the new bearing and new inner bush compared to the items removed from the swing arm and really not that much difference. A little bit less overall free play so I guess they must all be like that. Next time I am in the bike shop I will feel a new bike to compare.
[/quote]
Removed the regulator / rectifier mounting bracket to clean it up and repaint. Installed a helicoil type repair to the radiator side cover mounting hole which had been stripped out previously.
Also removed the R/H footpeg to sort out the wear in the clevis pin bores that was causing the peg to hang below level. Used a Durafix rod to braze up the peg ears that bear on the mounting clevis and then filed them back to shape. Peg now hangs level and straight.
Rode up to Winchester from Portsmouth to join a Group Ride that went up around the Oxfordshire area and had a lot of fun on roads I'd never ridden before.
Fortunately, despite the forecast, there was almost no rain until the end of the return leg back to Winchester where we had a lot of that nasty fine, misty drizzle that isn't proper rain, but just hangs around and makes for miserable conditions
After we'd finished, I rode a few extra miles around Winchester to pick up a board game that someone was selling, but wasn't willing to post, which was convenient.
On the way back home, fortunately, the weather improved, but I noticed that, on the M27, the signs that used to say "Upgrading to Smart Motorway" had been edited and it now just says "Upgrading to [blank] motorway"!
Obviously someone's decided they weren't as "smart" as originally made out...
A few more aesthetics today. Received the new (Chinese) headlight to replace the yellowed existing item that was also losing chrome from the reflector along with new side light bulb holders to replace the poorly fitting previous items that the last owner had siliconed in place. Also fitted a LED ring main bulb that has a little fan in the end to move air over the heatsink. Lastly, replaced the front mini indicators with OEM style clear lens items (also Chinese).
All work's fine and freshens up the front of the bike a whole lot.
27-10-21, 05:55 PM (This post was last modified: 27-10-21, 05:57 PM by notsofast.)
Had a run up my favourite local road before the council resurface it with loose chippings which is scheduled to start this weekend. Strange warm (16 deg. C.) weather with high humidity preventing a lot of the roads from drying out completely but still good for late October.
So, I've got one more surfing session at Bristol Wave Pool this year (a freebie tomorrow morning as a thank you to the crowd funders :thumbup
As I'm staying over at my sister's in Yatton (North Somerset), this gave me the chance to try a ride I'd wanted to do, but never had the time.
Go from Portsmouth to Stockbridge, then take the A30 to Shaftesbury and pick up the B3081 which eventually gets you to the Cheddar Gorge Road.
Thankfully I missed most of the rain (although there was one place where there was supposed to be a bridge over a river, but there was actually a river over a bridge!)
Apart from that and a few showers, it was a really good ride
04-11-21, 11:03 PM (This post was last modified: 07-11-21, 07:41 AM by notsofast.)
In the past week, trued up the slightly bent handlebars, painted them and refitted along with a new throttle tube and grip. Ordered a new clutch cable as the lever end was a bit beaten up. Changed the coolant and took the opportunity to remove the radiator for better access to replace the air solenoid which was rather rusty and also cleaned up the exhaust headers. Cleaned up and painted the two lower water pipes. Refilled with coolant and on testing I noticed that the R/H fan did not kick in. Fuse blown. Removed the fan to check it on the bench and it seemed ok. Resistance was higher than the L/H fan. Hooked it up with an ammeter and only 9 amps start current and 3 amps running so refitted it and it tested out fine on the bike so will keep an eye on it.
All minor and mostly aesthetic but freshens up the bike.
Well, that's two things ticked off the "To Do" list (from the "What will you do with your Fazer" thread) in that it got a good wash and a spray with ACF50 :thumbup
I was planning on putting a new RH blind spot mirror on it too, but by the time I'd finished with the washing etc, it was getting dark, so I left that for another day...
After a ride over to my local Yam dealer for an oil filter and washer, dropped the oil out and left it to drain, whilst I caught up on today’s MotoGP qualifying.
Whizz kid sitting pretty on his two wheeled stallion.
Took apart the right grip and cleaned up and lubricated the throttle mechanism and cables to get rid of the annoying slightly sticky section so it now moves smoothly.
Bled the brakes. Not really necessary, there were only a few tiny bubbles in the fluid, but it's always good to check.
Lubed the ends of the clutch cable.
Tightened the chain which was a little too loose and then checked the rear wheel alignment (which is a bugger to try and do on your own!)
Fitted a blind spot mirror to replace the one that fell off the right mirror.
However I've also added a few more things to do, which I'll put in the other thread
I was due for a whizz out to Sussex today, but a late change of plan, meant I was billy no mates, but didn't want to waste the dry day opportunity., so I decided to have a venture out into Kent, just to make sure it was still there.
A combination of A and B roads got me to The Airport Cafe, between Ashford and Folkestone, in around 2 hours. After a tea and a snack, it was back on the bike heading for the wicked uphill bends on Dover Road, on route to the Battle of Britain Memorial. After a quick photo stop at the memorial it was onwards to Wingham and Canterbury, before turning for home taking in the Chilham Bends, which were as good as ever.
I got home just as it was getting dark, so for a "make it up as you go" sort of day, it worked out fine, with another 192 of our lovely English miles clicked onto the mileometer.
Whizz kid sitting pretty on his two wheeled stallion.
Replaced the rear sprocket, cleaning up all the nuts and wheel axle as I went. Also found the source of the noisy rear brake during inspection - The inner pad was not positioned properly and was hanging down on the pivot pin running on the wheel hub......I don't really use much back brake other than to keep the front end down on acceleration over bumps but still a shocker. Also have been experimenting with ACF50 but after managing to get it on the tyres have decided that I will only use it on bolt heads and such like - nowhere near any rubber or brakey bits. It seems to just keep running with gravity. Regardless, will see how it protects the cleaned up sprocket nuts and wheel axle. Bike back under cover now. Thinking about trying the ACF50 on my skis edges to keep them rust free.....
Yesterday I rode up to the dry ski slope in Southampton to get in some practice (first time in two years!), although I probably still won't get to go abroad this season, even if I wait until March
The trip turned into a bit of a palaver, unfortunately...
Firstly, a few weeks ago, one of the pins on the connector to the Optimate charger lead broke. "Oh well," I thought, that shouldn't be an issue.
Wrong!
I switched the bike on, pressed the starter: Chug, chug, bzzzt! The dreaded sound of a flat battery :rolleyes
Ok, into 2nd gear, let's try bump starting it... let's try again... and again...
Finally, after half a dozen attempts, it finally fired, huzzah!
Except then, as I'm riding off, the oil light came on :eek
Now I was going to replace the oil and filter anyway, and I knew the level was down, but I decided to give it a little longer as, at one point, when I braked, it went out, so it couldn't have been critically low.
However, as I was on the road leading to the bottom of the M275, it was still on and I was just deciding to head back and top up, when it went out again and, this time, it stayed off (phew!)
So I kept the revs up higher than normal to make sure the battery got a good charge and got to the ski slope without further incident (except I had to take a break from skiing after 30 minutes because I was knackered through the lack of practice and having to bump start the bike).
Fortunately, after that, I got back into the swing of things and the ride home was uneventful with it starting on the button and the oil light staying off.
Today I decided I'd fix the Optimate lead which involved a lot of faffing around to get at the Tamiya plug, then cut the old one off and solder new connections on.
Except that, having finally got it sorted, one of the pins was off centre, so I decided to use a pair of needle-nose pliers to straighten it out, unfortunately, because I was tired, I carelessly got one jaw of the pliers into each side of the plug and ZAP! a nice big spark appeared and a check with the multimeter showed that I'd managed to blow the fuse... :'(
So now a new set of fuses is on order and that's another job to sort out. :rolleyes
The whizz down to Sussex that got cancelled last week, got rescheduled for today. Made an earlyish start going the long way to The Chalet via the A272. Not the nicest of mornings to be out, but hey, it wasn’t raining.
Met up with Flooky, who’s now gone over to Honda’s dark side, for brunch and a pre Christmas catchup. The cafe was relatively busy with maybe ten bikes calling in for a tea and a bite to eat, during our time there.
When it was time to go our separate ways, I chose an alternative long way home via Ditchling and the Ashdown Forest. Home in daylight, with only a paltry 120 miles covered, but still enjoyable especially with the Gerbings doing the business.
Whizz kid sitting pretty on his two wheeled stallion.
I had a few minutes to spare this afternoon, so a quick warm up of the engine, then drain the oil, new filter, new oil and a top up of the Scotoiler for good measure.
Another couple of jobs ticked off the list :thumbup
31-12-21, 06:32 PM (This post was last modified: 31-12-21, 06:33 PM by robbo.)
Had the last whizz of the year around Kent today. Stopped for a late breakfast at the Blue and White cafe, then up towards Capel le Ferne before picking up a knarly little farm access road that I'd spotted on Google maps. Then on to Wingham before cutting back on more nadgery roads to bypass Canterbury, heading for this years last dose of the Chilham bends. That's when I spotted the pub Christmas tree, thus completing the years last photo challenge.
More B roads got me to the outskirts of Headcorn, before a quick nip south then west and past the site of the long lamented Oakdene. My last ton+ of the year up Wrotham Hill and home. Although the roads were mainly wet, the day was quite mild and stayed rainfree, so glad I made the effort, racking up another 177 of our lovely English miles. However, I don't relish the chore of cleaning the bike in the morning. Happy New Year all, ride safe. :thumbup
Whizz kid sitting pretty on his two wheeled stallion.
Capitalised on a dry forecast and got out for my first rideout of the New Year. Added a few more gnarly sections onto the loop of Kent that I did the other day. Knowing that the Blue and White would be open, made that the obvious choice for a breakfast stop, before heading for the Askham Valley and the gnarly lanes which turned out to be covered in mud after some tractor activity. Oh well, more cleaning tomorrow. I'd hoped to stop for a pint near Headcorn and watch the planes, but my first two choices were closed, so pressed on to The Peacock, just before Goudhurst, which didn't disappoint. It was dark by the time I got home, but all in all a very enjoyable day, with another 203 of our lovely English miles passing beneath the Fazers wheels.
Whizz kid sitting pretty on his two wheeled stallion.
