Author: Buck

I tried. I did two weeks of nights. It was stupid start times, but that is the shift they recruit for, so I was trying to show willing, and see if I could do it. I couldn’t. 23.30 start, 01.00, 00.01, then one day 21.30. That was the final straw. I’d only got to bed at 13.00. I was either working (11 to 12.5 hour shifts) or trying to sleep. It was miserable. Then they did that 21.30 thing and I’d had enough. I asked if I could move to day shift. They said I could, which was a relief because I was going to quit if they’d said no. Then the next shift the sleeping tablets (antihistamines) gave me a massive tachycardia attack. It was awful. It lasted about 40 minutes and I couldn’t stop it. That was when I was absolutely sure I’d made the right decision. If I couldn’t take sleeping pills I would have been on about 2 to 4 hours sleep a day. That is a recipe for falling asleep at the wheel and dying. I finished my last two shifts on nights, I’m supposed to be on days after my days off. Another good thing about it is Wendy has gone loony again, so she was suffering really badly with me leaving her alone all night. She seems to be a lot better while I’m here, so it’s worth it for that. The job itself is a mixed bag. It’s physically extremely easy. And seems to be very laid back. But the driving to get to the stores, and to deliver to them, is next level tough. I’m not looking forward to seeing what the deliveries are like when the stores are busy. Yesterday, for instance, I had to deliver to a local (small shop) in Salford. The route plan said you had to reverse (a rigid truck) the whole length of a residential street, with cars parked on either side, around a corner, between cars, bins and concrete posts, to get to the drop. That was focusing. And that was at 05.00 on Sunday. I can’t even imagine what that would be like at a busy time. I had a moment of stress this morning. I looked at the agency app to try to work out roughly what I’d be getting paid. I worked out my hours for the week and it came to 69 hours. That’s well over the 60 I’m allowed by the Working Time Directive. 60 in a week, 90 in any consecutive fortnight. So I was screwed for next week as well. I was mentally taking off breaks and Periods Of Availability (as they don’t count to WTD) but I was still over. Luckily I keep paper records for myself. I had a look, and one of the shifts was technically in the previous week for WTD purposes. That was a huge relief. I don’t need a bunch of infringements on my first weeks. Henceforth I’ll batter POA. It’s […]

The Bonnie is done! I fitted the fender extender yesterday and that’s it. Job’s a good ‘un. It should just be putting petrol in it for the next twelve months. I took the Harley for another spin after my last post and it was running weird again. The speedo still wasn’t working and there was a weird spluttery spot in the rev range and backfires on deceleration. That sounds like a fuelling issue. The carb intake didn’t have a filter (it’s got a big arse metal cover, I thought that would be enough to stop it sucking in crap) and because I panicked last time I fuelled up I just put standard 10% ethanol petrol in, so that wouldn’t have helped. The replacement speedo cable has already frayed so I bought another new one. Today I took the clock off to have a look. The original speedo cable had snapped inside the clock, so it was preventing the new cable from seating. I cleared it, fitted the new cable and it works now. The air filter arrived today as well so I took the opportunity to take the carb off and clean the jets, then fitted the new air filter and took it for a test ride. It was running fine. Which is a relief. Up until now I’ve been doing quite small runs to see how far I can go without blowing up. The last time out I did 12 miles, which is significant because it’s the distance to work. So I now have a spare bike, in case of emergency, to get to work. It would have to be a pretty dire emergency. If I fired that up at midnight or so the neighbours would not be happy bunnies. It’s still got the fully baffled stock pipes, but bloody hell it’s loud. Anyway, today I wanted to use up the crap petrol so I took it for a spin. 32 miles, with 10 or so of them at (Harley) white-knuckle speeds of 60 and 70 mph down the motorway! It was fine. I fuelled up with 5% ethanol petrol and I’m hoping that’s it for the Harley. It’s no longer a project, it’s now a ride-able motorbike. There are two things that need sorting, the riding position (I’m hoping the new bars will do that) and I need mirrors. Thinking about it, I’ll look and see what the new bars I’ve ordered are like. If they have open ends I’ll order some bar end mirrors like I’ve got on the Bonnie. Live action blogging here. I looked, the bars are indeed open, but virtually all the bar end mirrors are for 7/8th inch bars. The Sporty is 1″. I finally stumbled across a pair, specifically advertised for Harleys, and they come with the grips. The grips on the standard bars are closed at the ends, so to fit the mirrors I thought I was going to have to chop the ends off, now I don’t have to bodge […]

I had a series of problems with the Bonnie. My new chain and sprocket set arrived, then the new back tyre, so I whipped the wheels off and fitted it all at the same time. The front sprocket! It was like it was welded on. It was a big nut so I wasn’t too scared of applying force, but I had the breaker bar with an extension, about 5′ long in all, and it looked like my bar was bending and the nut was stubbornly intransient. I applied coats of penetrating oil and smacked it with an impact driver. Still nothing. I was at a bit of a loss. Then I remembered I bought a high torque electric impact impact wrench. It’s not that it applies so much more torque, it’s the fact that it applies it so many times per second. The nut came off. Yay! Once I’d been reminded of what a great tool it was I went back to my rear brake caliper. The workshop manual says to loosen two allen bolts before you remove the caliper. I’d been applying as much force as I dared but I was scared of snapping the bolt. With the impact wrench I span them out in seconds. Truly great tool. Then I cleaned my brake pistons, then fully compressed them with a C clamp. I think they are properly fixed again now. The mudguard was a bust. After waiting ages for it, it was the same length as the one on it, but had stupid long fitting arms. The mudguard would have been about 4 or 5 inches off the tyre. I’m trying for a refund. I’ve bought a stick-on fender extender. I’ll add that to the standard mudguard. Still not as long as I’d like but it seems to be as good as I’m getting. I fitted the M bars. They are the business. I’m very happy with them. Before and after. I did an oil and filter change, and spent two days stressing over the engine remapping. I finally got it to install today. That’s it. The bike is done. Stick on the fender extender then it’s just putting petrol in it for the next year. Happy days! Other winning is, after stressing, thinking the Harley was a piece of crap that wouldn’t run, I took it out for another ride and it was fine. Odd. I don’t know if it really was running rough as rats the last time, or if I was just expecting it to feel like the Triumph, but it was fine. I’m having minor issues with the speedo cable, but I took it for a 12 mile ride, including a blip on the motorway, and the engine was fine. Now I’m thinking my priority for that bike is to change the handlebars. The riding position is so cramped with the bars pushing you back and the seat feeling really far forward. I’ve tried my position if I had lower, flatter, bars and that […]

I’ve been waiting on the call from the agency to do my assessment. The money was running low as it’s been over 4 weeks off work. Then I killed the Bonnie and the Harley was running crap, so I was looking at cycling in, and being a sweaty mess, if they called me. I was pretty stressed. The spacer arrived for my back wheel, so it was a quick job to slide that in and fit the last bearing. Then I had big issues with the back brake. When the light was stuck on I did a test of all my electrics to see if everything else was working, I pressed the back brake pedal to test the light, forgetting my wheel was off, so there was nothing to stop the brake pistons from pushing right out. I forced them open and fitted the back wheel, which is a bastard of a job by itself, but then the back wheel was stiff. I tried a quick lap but my brake disk was hissing when I splashed water on it, so I had to take brake caliper off and do a proper job on the pistons. I was elbow deep in grease and sweat finishing that off when I got a call from the agency, asking me to go for an assessment on Monday (today). I’ve taken the bike for several long-ish spins and the disk is warm, but you can hold your hand on it. I’m hoping it will bed in. We’ve been going through a heatwave so I’ve not done anything else to the bikes. I went for my assessment today, thinking I knew the roads around there, (literally across the road from where I used to work), so no worries. Ha! The test route is hellish! So many tight bends, traffic-blocked roads, and almost impossible turns. Kudos to the driver trainer who worked out that route. Awful. I passed, but it was bloody focusing. I’ve got my induction on Friday, then I should be earning big bucks again. I’ll be commuting 100 miles a week so I’m trying to finish off the Bonnie jobs before I start. I’ll take the front wheel to fit the new tyre tomorrow, and fit the M handlebars. When the rear tyre and chain and sprocket set arrive I’ll fit them together. I’ve ordered the lead to plug into my bike’s computer, when that arrives I’ll buy the engine remapping software and install it. I’ve just ordered a long front mudguard and new oil and oil filter for a service. Apply all that and that’s it then. The bike should be good for years. Interesting development with the Harley. I thought it was possibly running awful because it was low on petrol, but when I took it to the petrol station it only took 6.8 litres of petrol. I ordered some SeaFoam to clean out the carbs and such. I read how much to put in the tank. It said 10ml per litre, […]

After me banging on about how faultlessly reliable the new Triumphs are, and how I’m waiting until we have money before I do the other upgrades, I decided to start the upgrades. And killed my bike. I thought I’d just do the donkey work while I’m off. The hard bit is removing the air intake baffle, the rest is 2 minutes to swap a part and then follow the instructions to apply a software update. To remove the air intake baffle I had to remove the back wheel, seat, tank, side panels, rear mudguard, left hand side foot peg and silencer end can. Just to get the air box out. Then it was undo a few screws and it just pulls out. I did all the donkey work, got the baffle out, rebuilt the bike, but could not get the spindle through the back wheel. It was a nightmare. I finally forced it through, but it looked wrong so I took it off again. The goddamn cush bearing had fallen apart. I ordered a new set of bearings and seals. I tried to knock out the other bearings in preparation for the kit’s arrival. Nope. There is a long spacer tube between the two bearings. I ordered a puller but there is insufficient gap between the spacer and the bearing for it to grip. I tried battering them out. The spacer get half destroyed, but again I couldn’t get any purchase on the bearings to move them. I’ve ended up taking the wheel to the shop for them to get them out. That was unnecessarily stressful. The other thing was the back light. To remove the air box you have to unplug the rear light while taking the mudguard off, unplug the electrical connector to the tank, and remove the battery. I put them back and the back light was on. With the ignition off, key out. All the other electrics were working, and turned off, but the light was on. 2 connectors and a battery. I just couldn’t understand why it was doing it. I was awake for literally hours in the middle of the night stressing out. I thought I must have shorted a wire out. I sold one bike because I couldn’t find a short. I thought I’d totally killed my beautiful Bonnie. The next day I took the mudguard off and examined the wiring (good job, there was some cowboy wiring that needed sorting) but the light stayed on. I tried the battery charging thing on different terminal, then removed altogether, the light stayed on. I took the cable for the heated grips off… SUCCESS! The light went out! I was giddy with joy. I put the wire on the other terminal. My heated grips worked and the light was out. So, so happy. Hopefully I’ll get my wheel back from the shop tomorrow. The bits should arrive over the next day or two, I can pop the new spacer and bearings into place, put the […]