Yet More Maintenance!

I think work has finally decided the route for the coming weekend, I am pretty much certain that it will be the one day blast around the Isle of Wight. Two reasons for this, I have a meeting late on Friday afternoon, which means I probably won’t get home until well gone 5pm, so a Friday start is out of the question. Also as I have mentioned before my front tyre is getting very low on tread and is only just above the legal limit so the ride around the Isle of Wight should finish it off.

I am therefore planning to head off on the Sunday morning ferry from Lymington to Yarmouth, I’ll know more once I have made the booking. I am hoping to convince Wightlink to give me a cut price deal, it’s not much but everything helps. I am thinking that if I can get the Ferry before 11.00 am I should be coming back across by about 4.30-5.00pm and at least I can check that one off the list.

The list of maintenance chores on the bike were pretty much ticked off with one exception, the wash and polish and to be frank she needs it, to get the salt off the aluminium even in a week I could see evidence of how it was attacking the sump guard and wheels.

I did however get the other jobs sorted. I re-adjusted the chain again, this time giving it a bit more slack. I checked the oil, the tyres the brake fluid etc, all spot on.

I then sorted out my chainoiler, I have a Scotoiler and it is a brilliant device but I don’t think mine was set up correctly, I had that done by the dealers who did the major service late last year and I don’t think the outlet pipes were sited correctly or the pump adjusted to deliver at the right flow rate. So I have gone back over everything and installed the twin outlet conversion.

I also took my sidestand off and made up a new foot plate, 3 times the normal size and welded that on, it means that the bike will not be in danger of toppling over as the side stand digs in, in future.

Finally as mentioned in my last post I checked out the back brakes, they were adjusted correctly and the pads had plenty of life in them, however they had become glazed and needed to be filed down to remove this shiny layer and allow them to bite on the discs again.
So with that I am off and all plans of removing the internal thermal layer has been put off as it is forecast to get colder by the weekend, sods law. If you ever want to meet up and accompany me at any time, give me a call, I don’t promise the most exciting riding at times, but it is probably places you haven’t even thought about going.

Take care and as Mick says ‘You don’t stop riding when you get old, you stop riding when you don’t look after your bike’