Category: Uncategorized

I ended my last blog by saying that I was going to get help for my bike addiction. It wasn’t a joke. Before I’d even collected my latest bike I wanted to get back to window shopping motorbikes. I love looking at them, weighing the pros and cons, and generally enjoying the thrill of the chase. The trouble is, while 98% of them I can dismiss as ugly, meh, too dear, etc, etc, there is a consistent 2% that pop up and are ridiculously good bargains. I know I’m not going to see that bike for that price again. Then I have to try and hold out and prevaricate for the few days until it sells. Or, like the CB550/Four, I will end up buying it. The only way to avoid the trap is to not look. But when I’m bored I love to look.

For a long time it was a joy for me to be able to buy all the bikes I’ve always wanted but couldn’t afford, but this latest purchase, while it is a bargain, and a lovely bike, was done with regret. I felt bad that I’d given in to a symptom of my condition. If I’m too self aware to enjoy the buzz of the acquisition of new bikes, it’s time to quit.

Since arranging to buy this bike I’ve shut the search pages I had open. I am genuinely tired of the cycle. I’ve also found a free online BPD course. It’s called a Dialectical Behavior Therapy. It seems to be about mindfulness and being in the moment. I can only try.

The world is reeling from the bin fire that is the ongoing debacle of President Musk’s AmeriKKKa and social media is just one long doomscroll, so I’ve decided to try to not get dragged into foreign politics, about which I can do nothing, and concentrate on the good things. As I said on the socials, it’s not that I don’t care, consider my pearls clutched, it’s just that I don’t want to drown in impotent despair.

So, good things:

I think I’m finally free of the enervation of the covids. That was pretty bad for quite a long time. I was running scared of triggering it again. I just couldn’t face it. So that is excellent.

I’ve reviewed my running statistics and until the 16th of January I’d done 37 runs in seven and a half months. Two runs since the start of December. I was slack, then I lost my mojo, then got covid, then I was scared of triggering long covid for a while. Very poor.

Anyway, on the 16th I started back running. First week I started sensibly. 5 miles, 5 miles, 10k, then a bit much with a Half. The next week I did an 8, a 6 into storm winds that near killed me, then a 16 mile long run. I felt weak the day after both long runs. I don’t know if that’s because I’m dieting or if I’m triggering the long covid weakness, or a bit of both. It’s not been great but it’s not terrible either, so I’m good to train. I worked out it’s 12 weeks on Sunday until the Blackpool marathon so I dug out my Advanced Marathoning book for the 12 week plan. The plan is structured, with different runs at different paces, all a percentage of my Lactate Threshold. To ascertain that I had to try and do a flat out 10 miles. I did it today. I had no idea what pace I should be aiming for so I just legged it for the first mile, which was a not too shabby 7.03, but I just couldn’t hold that pace. I did well to finish the distance without quitting. I came in at 7.26 m/m average. I could have probably shaved a few seconds off that per mile if I hadn’t gone out too fast, but I had no way of knowing.

My best LT was a 6.42 m/m pace, so after over half a year of hardly running at all that is surprisingly not terrible.

We’ve just had a week long freeze in the weather. Worse, it snowed at the start of it, so it the pavements and the back roads around our house remained frozen into rutted ice sheets. The first day, when it was fresh snow, I was forced to ride in on my pushbike. I just couldn’t risk the motorbike. I made it in, but it was well scary.

I was off the next day. I had been looking at a decent E bike, quite wide tyres, but it was in Scotland. Then I spotted a local E bike, £50 cheaper, 7 hours less driving, and with 4″ wide tyres!

It’s a BEAST!

After watching that video a few times I’m now confident that as soon as my clip arrives (snail mail from the States. Something like $20 fast delivery, or 42 cents slow. For a few bob clip. I’ll wait. Just on principle.) I can strip that side of the engine for the last time, fit the new clip, and set the gears exactly. The instructions say I need a number 32 drill bit. No idea what that is, but it works out as a 2.96mm diameter. I went through everything that could serve, drill bits, nails, screws, etc with my micrometer and found the exact size! Yay.

In my mind that job is done and dusted. That just leaves the ‘only runs on choke’ problem. I was watching a video on that. Some Yank doing a really detailed breakdown of possible problems. He said you go through everything else before you mess with the carb. Good batttery (brand new), charged. Check. Good battery connections. Check. Spark plugs (brand new, gapped) check. Tank not rusty. Check. Fuel filter/ petcock… Ooh, possible problem. Rather than risk it I’ve ordered a new petcock/ filter (it’s only £30 and it guarantees that’s not my problem). Fuel line. I had some new line lying about so I fitted that. Check. Then it’s that carb seal (brand new). Check. And finally the carb (brand new). Check. In passing he did say one thing that really cheered me. “The Chinese (reproduction carbs) are really kicking our ass. Are they 100% as good? Pretty much.” Good to hear, especially so begrudgingly, as mine is a copy carb. The only other variable is jet sizes and when I checked they were the right size for the 1200.

That was a long winded way of saying, once I’ve fitted the new petcock with the new filter, I’ll have virtually a completely new fuel system. Therefore I’ll have ruled out everything except the settings. So it should just be a matter of adjustment then. It’s getting hard to imagine the Harley ever being on the road, but maybe…