My Ramblings

Whilst waiting for the new brake hoses I thought that I would try to see what was wrong with the front brake light switch, so I took the switch off the bike, put a multi-meter to it (set to measure resistance) and viola, no change when I press the switch, so it's dead. New switch ordered from eBay. I then decided to take the rear wheel off and have a look at the swing-arm. And boy did it need looking at (and some work too, but I'll get to that in a bit). Once I had access to the swing-arm it looked really bad. it was basically all brown (and no the bikes colour is supposed to be black not brown). I got out some 80 grit wet and dry and started cleaning the rust off, and to my relief, it was only on the surface, so I got into every nook I could without taking the swing-arm off the bike, and cleaned it up. Of course there are places I couldn't get to so I will have to re-visit the swing-arm at a later date and finish it off. Once the rust was gone, I cleaned it up and ...

So, I've got the fork legs back with the new stanchions, seals and oil. putting hem back onto the bike went easier than expected. I pushed one then the other through the yokes and lightly gripped them with the yoke bolts (making sure I could still move the forks up/down and twist so that I could adjust them as necessary). Then I attached the mudguard. my reasoning was that it would make sure that both fork legs were the same height and rotated correctly (plus it had to be put on before the wheel anyway). I then checked the top of the fork legs to make sure that they were the same height as before I took them off. I then put the wheel on which went on easily enough, but I can't torque it up as I don't have the right allen bits (more tools to order, oh dear!). Once the wheel was on (which also reassured me that the forks were aligned correctly), I tightened all of the yoke bolts to the correct torque and dropped the bike off of the lift. It's looking like...

So NaNoWriMo has finished, and I now have 50,000 words of a new novel. It seems to be about halfway through the story, so I still have a lot to write, but I am slowing down the writing so I can get back to other things now.

I just wanted to warn everyone that I will not be updating this blog until December. the reason for this is that I will be participating in NaNoWriMo . The challenge is to produce 50,000 words of a novel starting on November 1st and finishing at midnight on the 30th November. I'll be doing some planning in October. I'll be writing up my characters, and trying to get an outline plot so that when I start on the 1st Nov I can hit the ground running. But it does mean that I won't be posting here until December, sorry.

So, whilst waiting for the fork legs to be ready, I started fitting the body panels back on the bike. the rear section is first, and I put that on the bike, then pushed in all the fasteners used to attach it, and the two hex screws. As we have easy access and I can see the seat lock, I decide to check that it's working okay. Funny, I cant get the key in. As I haven't put the rear pod on yet, I can easily see the lock and where the key should go. My wife was still helping me (thank god) and she got down and had a good look from underneath (stupid position for a seat lock) and said that she couldn't see where the key went in, so I took the lock off its mounts and there was the culprit. I had pushed one of the plastic tabs that hold the rear bodywork on, into the keyhole. as these are just push fasteners I thought it had gone home, but actually, I'd put it in the keyhole instead. with that out of the way, the lock worked fine. then the rear pod went on, fol...

Well, I didn't win with my story for Seat 14C, so I'll post it here for people to read. I was dozing when we went through the turbulence, I've been through a lot worse before. I hardly notice it any more. It's part of air travel. I did wake up though, so I asked for a cup of tea and went back to reading my book. This was the last leg of my round the world trip. I had started in London, travelled around Europe, then on to Asia and Australia. Now I'm off to travel across America for a few weeks, then back home to England to my friends and final year of college. I had decided on this trip after a car accident had killed my parents. I don't have any close family left, so after my recuperation, I decided I wanted to make sure I had seen as much of this world as I could before settling down. The sun had come out by the time we approached San Francisco Airport. I was excited to see this bustling, foggy city. A little later the captain announced he had bee...

Well, some good news. the headlights didn't need fixing. they were working all along. My wife helped me diagnose the problem. It was a really tricky one too. She suggested I try the headlights with the engine running, which I knew wasn't going to work as my other bike's headlight comes on when I turn on the ignition, but I thought I'd humour her. So, ignition on and press the starter. Oh crap. nothing. I turn the ignition off and on again (I know it's not a computer, I was listening for the fuel pump) all was quiet. no fuel pump. Here we go again. Tank off again. I feel like I'm going backwards here. I put a battery directly to the fuel pump. whoops, should have put a cloth underneath the fuel hose first. But i don't care about a little spilt fuel. the pump works. So it's the wiring (again). My wife suggested I try the pairs of alarm wires (which again, I knew wouldn't help as they were fine). I wonder if I'll ever learn ...