THE GOOD BUCK

After the test ride, just to Birchwood and back, at speed, on the motorway, I checked the front cylinder heads. Everything seemed to be fine. No oil showing, the exhausts are properly seated and sealed, the bike didn’t blow up so the valve timing and such must have all been right. I patted myself on the back thinking it was job done.

I rode to work, 12.5 miles, mostly motorway, and when I parked up a puff of smoke came up. I panicked. I had a look and there was a little bit of oil dripping from the back of the engine onto the exhaust. All I’d done at the back of the engine was take off the valve/ rocker box cover. So the floppy rubber seal mustn’t have sealed properly. I’ve ordered a new seal and taken the cover off again and cleaned and dried all the surfaces. When it arrives (hopefully tomorrow) I’ll clart it in silicone sealant and fit it. As it’s the rear cylinders I didn’t have to take much off. I should have it back up and running in an hour or two.

I initially had another problem as well. One of the cylinders wasn’t running on tickover. I think the pilot jet must have been blocked. I’ve ordered some Seafoam carb cleaner (just pour it in the tank and it de-gunks everything) and a new jet. I’ll use the Seafoam anyway (no harm in cleaning stuff out, seeing as I’ve already bought it) but the last time I started it it was firing on all four again. If the problem comes back I’ll strip and clean the carbs when I do the valve timing.

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I was very positive last post, thinking I’d managed to bodge the stripped thread in the cylinder head with helicoil and metal paste. Not even. I left it overnight, but when I came to tighten the nut the post just span. I gave it another go, but no.

I went online to get that £30 cylinder head, but it was from an earlier model. The next best one was £70, with all the internals coming with it. I ordered that and a gasket. Then I thrashed the workshop manual, and it’s a good job I got the dearer one, apparently the cams are specific to the heads, you have to buy them as a unit.

Today I had to get up early to wait for a ‘phone call from the doctors’. They’ve doubled my dose of loony pills, yay! I was already a ton better, that should finish the job off. Then I had the guy coming around to buy the Bonnie at dinner time. That was a farce. Because he was an old guy his banking app stopped his instant payment as a potential scam. But didn’t say that that was what it was. After many attempts to get it to work he finally rang and had to jump through all the hoops to get them to clear it. He was grumpy when he got here, by the time he left he was jumping. It was funny. Job done. Money in the bank. Then I set to work on the VFR. There is so much donkey work to do just to get to the cylinder head. Tank, seat, airbox, carbs, radiator, fairings, downpipes, engine bolts, all had to come off. Lots of the little jobs were just fiddly and time consuming.

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I’ve been quietly falling out of love with the Bonnie for a while. Well, no. I’ve been pining for something else. The Bonnie is really good for what it is, compared to, say, a Kawasaki W650. That’s a beautiful retro looking bike, like the Bonnie, but absolutely gutless. You twist the throttle in anger and … that’s it. An angry twist and a lethargic plod forward. So, the Bonnie is fun, and comparatively lightning quick, but it’s still a naked bike in winter. And I don’t like the feel of it if you try and throw it into corners with gusto. And it’s going rusty. Winter is cruel on a naked bike.

I’ve been torturing myself looking at SV650s’, then changing my mind and thinking about a VFR750 again. We’ve not really had the money to buy one though.

I bid on a SV650 that was going cheap. I put my maximum bid at £750, but I put it in early, someone bid £770, which I thought was the start of a bidding war, so left it. It sold for £770! Dammit.

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I try to just post about my life on here. I don’t think it’s appropriate to tell other people’s news.

But…

Bit of a biggie.

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I’ve been applying for other jobs after the last one was an ungodly o’clock start. I saw a good one, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, £23 p/h, etc. Usual agency nonsense. I rang, “No, we aren’t doing the weekend shift, it’s any 5 from 7 (so less money) start times from 02.00”. sigh. All the ones that aren’t insultingly low paid seem to be ridiculously early starts. I’m not doing it.

I’ve been putting off changing the throttle bodies on the Bonnie because I’ve been worried about setting the throttle position sensor (TPS), but I read a really good article by some Triumph guru. It’s not such a big job. Then I discovered that software and lead I got to plug into the bikes ECU has that feature. You just run the bike with the lead plugged in, slightly loosen one bolt and delicately move the sensor until it reads 0.67 volts. Then tighten it up, run it for 15 minutes, key off, key on, and it’s reset.

Hmm, I was going to do it in the morning, but it’s supposed to be raining all day. Not ideal for a laptop. Meh. We’ll see.

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