winter basic maintenance (Part 2)

[Meesh]

Well what a great weekend! A big thank you to Sean for organising this... and a thank you to Whealie for being my personal electrical and mechanical Guru!! In fact, thanks to all of you that helped when I was just too much of a weakling to undo/do up some of those bolts and things! I feel completely confident now that I can give Ben a thorough service in future... and I promise to check his oil frequently.

BobA - you were right to say I was the luckiest girl in the biking community. When we started Ben up I gave a huge sigh of relief as he ran sweet as anything!

He ran beautifully all through London (despite a naughty bus who tried to squeeze me off the road!) and was excellent on the Motorway. And he is nice and shiny and clean thanks to Sean's excellent work.

So here are a few pics..

















More to follow....

[Meesh]

Here they are...





Oh! look what happened to poor Ms O'Hara!!!





Did anyone get any pics of Yen Powell.... I think he must of left before my camera came out? (thanks Dr Law for taking the photos )

It was great meeting new people this weekend and seeing old friends again. Hope some one else managed to get a few extra pics too.

[jarl]

No pics, but muchos thanks to Phil and Wheelie, made it home safe and sound and the brakes were cold the whenever I stopped . Also thanks to Sean for organising it, and also for the wash- my bike is unused to such love!

[YEN_POWELL]

Did anyone get any pics of Yen Powell.... I think he must of left before my camera came out? (thanks Dr Law for taking the photos )

I ticked the no publicity box on the basic maintenence form.

[Whealie]

Great and productive weekend. Just wish I'd been able to ride one of my bikes there then I could have done a few jobs myself.

Sean picked me up just after 8am and we were in the warehouse having a coffee before 9am. Jacqueslemac arrived with Meesh on pillion arrived soon after 9.30. He bike was already there.

Meesh's bike was where I started. Meesh was supposed to be doing all the work under supervision but the blokes all got carried away and almost stripped the bike bare before Meesh had her overalls on.



In the end Meesh had a go at everything, changed the plugs, the fuel filter, the oil filter and so on. She also changed her reg/rec and I wired in heated grips - I am hoping they only did not work because the battery did not have enough juice (otherwise I'll fix them next weekend).

Meanwhile Yen Powell had helped do at least two bikes' valve clearances and Sean was busier than a very busy person with an over-busy schedule.

We welcomed newcomer Martin (or Marty?) who is readying in his RD07 to ride it to Australia next year. Sticky choke cable and possible broken choke springs were causing him problems. Sean and I also suspected that the previous owner had had it dynojetted with a different exhaust and then refitted the original before selling it. The air filter box had two huge holes cut into it.

I then moved on to Doctor Law's BMW - a whole new world to me. I have never seen so many Allen key bolts required to be removed. Must have been 30 just to get the fairing off.



That left the headlight dangling loose, so the trusty gaffer tape came out to strap it up to the fairing and clocks.

Fork seals was the job. None there had ever done it before but what the hell?

Oh boy had we bitten off more than we could chew?

One fork came apart with three gentle tugs with just me pulling both ends. But the other one? Sean and I were yanking, belting, strapping to railings, playing tug of war, heating to burning point and tugging some more, but could we get the bloody thing apart?

Then we discovered that, even with the one I had separated, we could not get the new seal in without a special tool.

It was gone 6pm by then, so we decided to tackle it Sunday.

We had a great night out, scaring the teenagers (Jarl and Gnasher 123 - who is just 17) by going to a restaurant that sold foreign food .

The night out was rather spoiled when we arrived the next morning to discover the gaffer tape had failed to hold the weight of the headlight all night and it lay smashed on the floor.

This was doubly frustrating because Dr Law got her forks to Chas's bikes and had them finished for just over £30 (I was pleased to hear they had trouble separating the stuck one as much as we had).

This meant we put the forks back, slightly lowered, lowered her suspension, changed the oil and oil filter and fitted heated grips, but we could not put the bike back together without the headlight.



Meanwhile there were other jobs to be done, and the admirable PD Squire had dragged himself out of his sick bed and arrived with a dozen delicious Portuguese custard pies (guess who ate them all?).

He also ran errands for Dr Law and others, and later, when Adam's bent rear brake bolt was proving impossible to sraighten, rode to my house, let himself in to my garage and removed the bolt from the Zebra (unused as I cannot rise yet) and brought it back to enable Adam (Jarl) to get home.

There were too many other jobs done on various bike. Tools and experience were shared. Questions were answered (and some left hanging).

We finished about 4pm on Sunday. If we had been able to source a headlight (or the gaffer tape had held) Dr Law would have ridden her newly lowered and refurbed bike home too.

Big thanks to Sean and to all who made me the endless cups of tea.

Must do it again soon.

[BobA]

I'm gutted I couldn't come, I was really looking forward to it.

Finished work in Brighton at about 13:00 on Sunday, but couldn't bring myself to do a last minute dash! Sorry!

I'd just like to say that there are some very special members on this forum, and it is great to see the goodwill that flows between them.

Another brilliant day arranged by Sean, and some fantastic spannering by some top people. It's especially nice to see experienced eyes making sure the girlys bikes are safe and helping them find their way around some of the major tasks.

WELL DONE EVERYONE


Bob

[Whealie]

I'm gutted I couldn't come, I was really looking forward to it.

Bob

And I had those spare bits from Alan with me for you too.

You must pop up sometime to collect them. We can tinker on the zebra, specially if you bring your endless bounty of keys.

[samwise]

Sounds like a good weekend, very productive.

Did a service myself down here on Saturday morning, before the rains came, with my dad (after putting the centre stand on the weekend before) - I don't mind the spark plugs on the right hand side, but those ones on the left can be a bit of a bugger! Still all done, everything buttoned back up, and it even started!

I wondered why it took ages to start first off when I was warming the oil - next time, a bit of choke might help, I suppose

I only have two bolts left over, too

[Dee Duble Yuh]

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It was nice that the Parole Board let you keep those overalls. Looks like they came in useful.

[Meesh]

It was nice that the Parole Board let you keep those overalls. Looks like they came in useful.

Aye! That's right m'lad! If you bump into me on a dark dark night - you better be afraid... You see I got me new rubber gloves on - means I leave no finger prints! he he he he he!!!