I sent my barrels away to be sorted 10 weeks ago. They said it would be about 6 weeks. “About” doing a lot of heavy lifting there. I’ve sent a couple of emails, the latest today, to see how it was getting along, and I finally got a ‘phone call tonight saying the job is done, but the paint has got wrecked by paint and oil. He said he can chemically strip them (£20 for the pair) then send them tomorrow. Probably for the best it came off now. If I’d have rebuilt the engine and the paint had all come off I would have been miffed. He’s told me the right paint to use this time (ordered it of eBay, £38 for one spray can, with P&P!) and told me how to do it. Apparently once you’ve sprayed it you have to bake it in the oven to make it set. Oh. Did not know that.
Today, being my day off, I did a few little jobs. I put the tappets back in, set the switches on the ignition module, took the pistons off and charged the battery. Little jobs that would have to be done at some point but I thought I might as well do them now as I’m all out of proper jobs. I can’t really do anything else until I get the barrels. Which is why I was chafing at the delay. Again, it’s probably turned out for the best. It’s taken me until the end of last week to get all my jobs done. If I’d have had the barrels I would have been rushing. That rarely adds to the quality of a job. I had one moment of victory during the week. Being the genius wot I is, I took pictures as I was stripping the bike. When I rebuilt the bottom end I had a random wire left hanging. I went through my photos and there was a picture of me holding the wire. Not attached to it’s destination location, just holding it. Absolutely useless picture. It’s been a low level worry for a week or two. When I’d finished the bottom end, fitted a new gasket, and filled the engine with oil I got to worrying it fitted beneath the casing. I’d been holding out, hoping it would make sense when I refitted the barrels. Then I had a genius idea. I looked up where the green wire connects on the wiring diagram, -oil pressure sensor- , then looked for it’s location in the book, 5 minutes later it was on, and all of my wiring is done! These are all baby steps towards getting my head around electrics.
Now I’m getting proper anxious/ nervous/ excited. By this time next week the Harley *should* be running. If it is *OMG, OMG, OMG!* If it’s not, *despair*. Deep breaths.
In other news, the Warrington Half. After I did that hard 20 miles and shuffle the next day, then did a test half to see what sort of pace I could maintain over the distance, I was getting proper pains under my kneecap. The infamous Runner’s Knee. I rested from running until the race yesterday. I thought if it was going to knacker up and hurt, best to suffer after I’d finished the race.
As usual it was a 17 mile Half. I always say I’ll walk/ jog the 2 mile to the race, but I’m always late so end up walking 2x 100m, jogging the rest. I got there with a few minutes to spare but they already started lining up in the pens. I started behind the 1 hour 50 pacer. I had to work my way through hundreds of people, all tightly packed, over the first 3 miles. I think I lost a fair bit of time there. I pushed up the hills and sped up going down, and strangely had enough left that I put in a 6.54 last mile. I finished in 1.36:31, fifth in my age group. Considering my appalling lack of training and all of the above, I’ll take that. Huh. Just looked up last year’s time, when I was fit and well trained, 1.40:07! That is weird. Anyway, the good news is I was faster (with the hills and the crowds and the extra 2 miles to get there) than last week’s practice half and, a day on, no knee pains yet. Fingers crossed. Back to training in the morning before work.
Right.
My next post better be awesome or I’m going to blub.
Later,
Buck.