THE GOOD BUCK

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.

After 3 weeks of no money, and me ringing the agency every few day to be told “You’re definitely not sacked, we are just waiting on a date for your retraining.” I got a text. I’m sacked. Well, I’m agency, they don’t want me back, same thing. Super. They did do a follow up text though, saying they only deal with Royal Mail, ring a different branch and see if they have any local jobs. They gave me the number so I rang it straight away. I asked if they do the contract for Sainsbury’s, he said they did, so he’s getting me in for assessment next week, he said.

I’ve seen multiple adverts from different agencies for Sainsbury’s. I got the distinct impression it was back to the old bullshit. Them hammering you with shifts, at the time and pattern they choose. I asked what the shift pattern is and he said “It’s whatever you want, really.”

I’ve got a good feeling about this. All the other agencies treat you like their property, ‘you are doing this shift, or else’. I thought the deal with this agency, where you tell them when you are available, at what sort or time slot, was just down to RM making them treat you fairly. If that’s the company-wide agency ethos, I am laughing. He asked what sort of start times I was after, I said days, preferably. He said they have a few, but they have loads of agency lads wanting them. The start time they were always looking to fill was 01.00 – 04.00. Which is what I was expecting when I asked about the gig. The only good thing about 01.00 starts is all the road closures will already be in place and the traffic will be minimal. I hate the 21.00 chaos as they try to close lanes on still fairly busy motorways.

Since I got the Bonneville I’ve been loving it more and more. It’s just a joy to ride. You don’t have to be going for stupid speeds or scary lean angles, just open the throttle and hear the roar, it’s gorgeous. I’m actually enjoying tootling around just for riding’s sake. I don’t have to have somewhere to go, I just want to be out on it. I took it to Lymm Dam the the other day for a picture.

It says AI generated content because I used the amazing software on the ‘phone to remove some posters from the railings and the arse end of a car that was in shot. I should have then cropped it, but here we are. Random guy gets to stay in the shot because he’s echoing the blue of the bike.

The Bonnie is not without faults. The seat is too thin and uncomfortable. I’ve ordered a second hand one off a different model of Bonnie. The handlebars feel too high. and the bike is too small. I’m hoping the bigger seat will lift the feel of the bike. I’ll see what acer bars would feel like when I’ve fitted the seat. The bars are only £62 and are a straight swap. Then, instead of a sit-up-and-beg position, you’d be leant forward over the tank. I think that would feel more natural, give a better feel for cornering, and it would allow you to lie over the tank, out of the wind, at motorway speeds. The only other thing is the cramped footrests. Again, I’m hoping a taller seat will cure that. If not, somewhere down the line, fit a set of rearsets to move my feet back.

It’s been an interesting fortnight. I took my Harley into the shop and I was all set. Money in the bank, Harley to be fixed, Honda to be my reliable bike. The Harley shop still haven’t got back to me. Then I clipped a road sign in my truck at work, so I’ve been off work, without any pay, for 12 days while I wait for them to put me in with the driver trainer for retraining. Then we had a beastly hot heatwave, so I wasn’t sleeping and I was tired and grumpy. I got bored and started perusing bikes again. I saw a (modern, -2010-) Triumph Bonneville for sale. Only 22 miles away. £2,650. Over a grand cheaper than similar bikes. I was up after 3 or 4 hours sleep on the longest day, reading bike reviews for models of Bonnie. Everything said this was the one to get. It was so cheap because it had done 54,000 miles, but everything I read said that as long as you changed the oil and checked the valve clearances on time, modern Triumphs are good for well over 100k. They are a well engineered bike, that is under very little (67bhp) stress, so they keep running. This one had a full service history, so it met the criteria.

I was losing sleep obsessing, so I tried to convince myself my VFR750 was a superior bike. I was awake from before 03.00 so I got up at ungodly o’clock and rode to Keswick (230 mile round trip) for some pasties.

The bike was awesome and the pasties were nice, but they didn’t remove the taste of Bonnie obsession from my mouth.

We’ve been having a bit of a nightmare with Wendy. She was off work for months after being diagnosed with a knackered heart valve or something. It was a bad time for her as she was bored witless, just sat on the sofa all day long, or scared by nasty chest pains every time she did anything to break the boredom. It was a long 3 months for her. She finally got the operation date, 14 weeks after the diagnosis. They said it was go in, 45 minute procedure to insert the stent, wait 4 hours to check everything had settled, go home. Should be over the operation in 3 days, don’t drive for a week. All good.

We went in, they did her without any painkillers of consequence (just paracetamol) and it took them 2 hours. It seems like they were training up a new guy. So two hours of agony. At least they did it, so she just had to get over the severe bruising and pain.

They said 3 days, which is what I’d booked off work, then I had my normal 2 days off, so 5 days. She was still in a bad way after 5 days and had to go to the doctor. He said the nausea and bad back pain was a kidney infection, so gave her antibiotics. “They will clear it up in 3 days”. I was back at work, doing long shifts, leaving her on her own. Less than ideal. A few days later she was still in such a state she had to go back to the doctors. This time it was a woman. She said Wendy definitely didn’t have a kidney infection. Super. She said her back was badly tensed up. She sent a urine sample to the hospital, they confirmed no infection, and arranged for a blood test and kidney function test. We did that today. As she said “we have to relax that back” to Wendy, I’ve been giving her massages morning and night, which is providing temporary relief and making it bearable. Hard to think what it could be. If it was a damaged kidney you wouldn’t think massaging it would ease it. If it’s muscular you’d think the massages would stick. But the pain and stiffness keep coming back. I don’t understand.