Notes from a biker

The damage done

2011-03-09T06:56:00.000-08:00

So I thought as I was taking bits and pieces off the bike it would be easier to sort out the blowing exhaust at the same time. Or so I thought. In order to get to the exhaust manifold and get the old exhaust off and the new one on I had to remove the radiator. Once I had done that I found out that the rattle that I had thought was internal was actually external as one of the pipe collars had broken. Getting the manifold studs out wasn't too tough and the new ones went in fine, the new downpipes looked great when they were on.

New Years Eve Blues

2011-01-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

As I have done a few times before I went into London for NYE for this year to see a mate and also go out to a club to celebrate the new year in. As usual I rode my bike into London and parked in the usual spot as I had done a dozen times before. When I walked past with my mate and his girlfriend heading for the club five hours later, the bike was on it's side in the bike parking bay, clutch lever, indicators and screen all broken and that was just the obvious stuff. Not a great way to start the new year but I didn't let it stop me having a good night out after my mate had helped me get the bike back up on the side stand. After thinking about it for a bit I think a car had reversed into it, whether the driver had been pissed or not I don't know but it was certainly some crap driving. It's a busy street so they musn't have either cared or realised. I reported it to the police but didn't think anything would come of it. New Years Day saw me riding back from London in an RAC van thinking of how long it would take me to fix all the bits and get it back on the road.

Front calipers and pads

2010-03-06T14:30:00.000-08:00

It must have been all the riding through winter that had worn my pads down so much, i had popped them out as I thought they were rattling a little and was going to grease the backs to try and help them out a bit when I saw how much pad was left I was a bit surprised:

Admittedly the second pad along still had groves on it...

So I thought "that's no problem, i'll just whack some new pads in and off we go". Ah no. Again when I came to do anything it's all seized. The cylinders in the calipers wouldn't move back far enough to let a new pad in on any of the sides. When I got the calipers off I could see why.

I was surprised that they had been working at all. It took me a few hours to work the cylinders out and then to sand them and clean them up, get them all back together with the new pads in, back onto the bike and bled. It was like doing the rear caliper last year only 12 times over. Hopefully that would be it for another year.

And a merry xmas to you too.

2009-12-31T12:00:00.000-08:00

So it turned out to be the coldest winter in 30 years and I was in some of the heaviest snow fall in that winter. I missed some of it by a day or two but when I got up to Scotland for the wedding I was caught in the middle of it. Lovely scenery for the photos but not for me. When I got out to the bike in the morning after the wedding it was under about a foot of snow. When I got back I wrote into Superbike magazine to tell then about the long trip including a photo, lo and behold they printed my letter in the mag!

The trip was the longest I have done so far through the worst weather I have been through. Temparatures were down to below freezing, wind chill on the bike was below -20 on some days, meaning I could only do about 50 miles at a time without stopping. The snow at the wedding meant I got blocked in and had to go to Edinburgh and then Glasgow to get onto the motorway, between the scottish cities is where I couldn't stop due to solid ice on the road and had to ditch in the snow bank in the slow lane. Even with a clear motorway later on, service stations were a nightmare as there was solid compacted snow, slush or holes and the front wheel was all over the place. By the time I got to Wales I was really tired and overall my 10 days off didn't feel like much of a break. Still it proves i'm not a fair weather rider...

Reasons to be thankful

2009-12-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I last wrote something, I haven't had much wrong with the girl for a while *touches wood*. I have however been clocking up the miles and have just passed 34,000 miles. Considering when I bought the bike she had only done just over 20,000 I think I can safely say that I have used it more than any other owner. Now it's in the middle of winter you would think I would be taking things easy and not clocking up the miles, oh no, not me, I have a 1000 mile trip planned for this xmas. Ho ho indeed.

The dates aren't accurate just a rough idea. So lets hope there aren't any worn out bits or broken parts waiting to stop me in the middle of nowhere, especially on xmas eve.

A few notes from Dublin

2009-10-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

Due to a stag do I found myself heading over to Holyhead and getting the ferry over to Dublin for a couple of nights in the fair city. I was there a day earlier than the rest of the party so had a night on the town on my own to have a look around and chill out as I have been really busy the last few months. The ride there wasn't too bad, setting off was in mist and cold but it soon warmed up and by the time I got into Wales I was making good time and enjoying myself. The roads in North Wales probably aren't that great for cars as there's a lot of normal road with no dual carriage way but for a bike it's great, I ended up getting to Holyhead and the ferry a little early and had a nice crossing over to Dublin. I meant to get a picture of the bike strapped into the ferry but completely forgot in my excitement...

Above was the only bit of "crap" I had all weekend, I parked the bike in the bin/bicycle storage which was open to the sky but more secure than the street. When I got out of the hostel, which in all other respects was really nice and even gave you breakfast (as much toast, fruit juice and coffee/tea as you wanted) and there was a nice American guy in my dorm that had nasty feet but was really interested in what I was up to, I found the above on my seat. It was wet. It was green. It soaked through toilet paper like no pooh should.

After cleaning my seat I was off to the airport to meet the guys (everyone else had got the plane, wusses), Karting and then much guinessness into the small hours. Was a very cool, if expensive, weekend. The ride back was not so great and much of it in the dark once I got off the ferry but I couldn't really complain for this time of year.

Hated rust

2009-08-02T13:59:00.000-07:00

I have been looking down at my clocks since I got the bike thinking that there was an ugly bit of rust there spoiling things, I finally got around to getting the clocks off and then the bracket, giving it a quick rub down and spray and then popping it back on. It does look a lot nicer but it's just making me want to sort out more of the bad bits, it will end up with a complete respray I can see it coming.

Some rear caliper action II

2009-07-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

So there I was flying up and down the A4 to work and back, which by the way is not a nice ride and I have grown sick of it fairly quickly, anyway I was running up and down and everything seemed fine. I was just on my way home, about 100m from the house and heard a "pop" and then lost all rear breaking. After another quick swearing session I got off the bike and looked, the bleed screw had completely come out and had barely clung onto teh top of the caliper. The threads in the caliper were completely stripped and there was no way of getting the bleed screw back in without retapping the hole and getting a bigger bleed screw. The only thing to do was get another caliper, ordered on ebay a few hours later. At least it had got through the MOT though and it didn't stop me riding to work.

The caliper from ebay wasn't exactly as described, it was in gold for a start and didn't exactly look in good condition. After a bit of polishing and wire brushing it didn't look too bad though although I will have to spray it at some point before the winter otherwise it will be furier than a fury thing.

MOT Pass!

2009-06-09T04:40:00.000-07:00

Heard this morning that all my work was not in vain and they have passed the bike on the retest. There were a couple of things that I was worried about, I didn't think the rear brake was as good as it could be and after going to the expense and hassle (I had to get it delivered to my old work and then pick it up by bicycle) of buying a new exhaust I then find out that the exhaust that is on there isn't a standard one and the link pipe is welded in place, the end of which is too large to fit the new end can. I will probably keep the new end can though as it was cheap (relatively) and the bike will probably need some new downpipes before too long anyway, hence a new link pipe and end can. So how did I get the exhaust through the MOT? I just ground the writing off. I think I made a fairly good job of it considering I only had a grinding stone in on the end of my drill. Not sure if it's going to rust now I have taken the finish of, i will wait and see. At least it solves my immediate problems of getting to work and back without a long and expensive train journey.

Some rear caliper action

2009-06-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

It hasn't passed my attention that I seem to spend more time on my knees at the side of my bike than actually sat on it. Yet again I start a job that should take about half an hour and then end up spending an extra 2 hours because everything is seized and rusted and old and hasn't been off since the bike rolled out of the factory. Today's entry comes courtesy of the rear caliper. So I thought to myself "Oh yeah I'll just whack the two new rear pads in and that's another thing off the list for the MOT" my bike said "let's see how long this one takes him". I understand now why most bikers are heavy smokers, it's not the riding that's the stressful part, it's just trying to keep your bike on the road.

The first problem I encountered was that the pin that keeps the pads in had seized in place. In the end I had to take the caliper off the bike and hit the pin with a chisel to get it out. I was reluctant to take the caliper off as it would mean messing about bleeding the brake, something I had never done before and didn't want to cover new ground with so much to do to get the bike back on the road. As it turned out I would have had to take the caliper off anyway as there was more afoot than a simple seized pin....
You can see the left end where it was seized into the caliper and the right end where I chewed it up with pliers and chisels. Great fun. So I put the two new pads in and low and behold the caliper wouldn't go back over the disk. The piston wouldn't go into the caliper far enough. This resulted in lots of swearing and stripping the caliper down, furious sandpapering and then putting everything back together again.

It's pretty clear how bad it was one you look at the before and after. There was some pitting on the cylinder but I didn't think that it would make a huge difference.

It really was only when I took the old pads out that I grudgingly admitted that the MOT guy was right about that bit of the MOT, the pads were nearly down to the metal, especially the outside one:
My first attempt at bleeding the breaks wasn't great. As usual the bleed screw, although not seized in the caliper, had lost it's dust cap some time ago and there was loads of rust and gunk in the hole where the brake fluid was supposed to come out. I gave up for the night, the pads were in, the caliper was back on and I hoped that it was now just a simple case of bleeding the system a bit more and we would be back with rear wheel skids.

New tyre

2009-06-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

Woot!

MOT Failure :-(

2009-06-01T17:28:00.000-07:00

8 counts of failure. Oh crap.

A couple of them I think the guy would have let go and the fact that the rear brake was below the legal limit of pad meant it was a failure (it is working fine however).

What failed I hear you ask, well if I could hear anything over the top of my own swearing.

1. Brake light doesn't come on staright away when the pedal is pressed. (Now fixed and was the result of the swicth becoming slightly siezed and sticking)
2. Cable snagging on the fork when you turn left. Will be sorted with a cable tie.
3. Loose left foot peg. This was a tenuous failure point at best (Now tightended).

4. Front tyre low on tread. As I then pointed out it wasn't at the markers and I had planned on replacing this soon, I'm not some chav monkey who runs on bald tyres (not any more anyway). See what you think:

5. This one had me confused at first as it said the back tyre was showing cord or low on tread and I only had it replaced abotu 6 weeks ago. It was actually another nail. 3 in a month, surely that must be my years quota? These last two points will get sorted when I got to the tyre place tomorrow.

6. Headlight aim, nothing major and the guy said they would do it when I went back in. I thought it was probably off.

7. Rear brake pads low, I was going to replace them before the MOT but just didn't have the time. They were working fine though so thought it might go through.
8. The end can. Oh dear. This was the single thing that pissed me off about the whole MOT, the fact that he failed the end can because it said that it wasn't for road use even though it isn't loud at all. I have just put an order in for a brand new end can, it will look lovely but I didn't really want to spend £150 on my exhaust when there wasn't anything wrong with it.

Hopefully I will be back on the road again in a week or so depending on how long the end can takes to arrive. Thankfully I am only on short hours this week so it gives me a bit of extra time to get it sorted although getting to work is going to be a real problem.

Rear Hugger Update

2009-06-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

Looks like I was lucky and the rear hugger I bought from ebay was actually the right one. I resprayed it yesterday and put it on today. I'm not sure about how it looks though, I think it may be because it looks so black compared to the other bits of fairing and seat cowel. Still if it saves the suspension a bit of grief then it's worth it.

Rear Hugger

2009-05-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

%$£&%! I think I just bought a rear hugger for a C model ZX9R not a B. And I thought I was getting a bargain. I guess I will have to wait till it turns up and see if it fits otherwise it will be back on ebay for it. I have been looking for a cheap one of these for ages too...

New chain and sprockets

2009-05-24T17:31:00.000-07:00

So the latest in the on going maintenance of the Ninja has been to replace the front and rear sprockets and the chain. I did this because after getting the rear tyre replaced the guy that did the work said that the adjusters were siezed and so he couldn't take up any of the slack that was in the chain. When I took the slack up there was a slight grinding sound from the chain and sprockets, checking the front sprocket revealed that it was slightly worn:

The nut was pretty chewed up as well, someone before must have had some fun with a chisel. I tried and tried but couldn't budge the thing. After several attempts somone offered me the loan of a nifty impact drive. Stick the socket on one end, hit the other end and it worked it free. After a few hits and thinking nothing was happening I then tried the long handled ratchet and off it popped. I had to buy another nut to know for sure which way it screwed off though, I had read in a few places that most sprocket nuts have reverse threads on them, not apprently my ZX9R or GPZ 900 for which the new sprocket nut was intended but fits my bike fine. The washer didn't however as there are a different number of splines (and hence different spaces). I will sort out a washer at some point if I plan on taking the sprocket nut off again.

I found the difference between the nuts funny, it was a long afternoon after all.

I had made sure that I had read the procedure a couple of times and I had teh time to do that too as I sat thinking about how to get the sprocket nut off. Once I had the nut off it was a fairly easy process to get the front sprockt off and put the new one in place, ditto for the rear although the whole process involved getting the rear wheel out, something I am getting used to now. The new rear sprocket was so shiny it kept blinding me in the sunlight...

I will say I think the only thing that went wrong was putting the new chain together, there was one point when I thought I had totally stuffed if. The instructions said "tighten very hard" I guess they didn't mean THAT hard. I broke the "anvil" piece of my chain riveter and striped part of the thread of another part. Note for the future: motorbike chains are not so different from bicycle chains.

After a quick panic and swearing session I wiggled the chain pins back a bit and everything seemed fine. I finished off by grinding the rivets and put the back wheel in. Quick spin up the road and back to check the chain tension and everything is looking fine.

Nailed it!

2009-05-04T18:02:00.000-07:00

:-(

New bike

2008-07-15T23:59:00.000-07:00

So anyway after I sold the virago I started looking around at what I would get as it looked like there were a few problems with Dad's Suzuki and I was going to be stuck without transport. I started reading around as I wanted something bigger that would sit at 80mph on the motorway without rattling my teeth out. In the end, after watching some VFR800s go for silly money I came across the humble ZX9R. I think it's a combination of a few things that make the older Ninja less desirable to most people, Kawasaki updated it to the 10R a few years after mine was made, it's heavy compared to other bikes in it's class of the same age and it's not a 'blade. I wasn't bothered though, the general consensus was that it was more of a sports tourer than a sports bike which was fine by me as I would be making a big step anyway from the virago to a 900cc sporty bike. After watching and even bidding on a few on ebay I got a lovely one in black that was a relatively short distance away in Hereford for £1300.

I got the train to Hereford on a Tuesday night after work. I was really nervous, it was a big bike and i had found out after I bought it that it would put out an amazing 145bhp and get to 175mph. What had I done? This thing was an animal.

The guy I bought it from was a nice chap and picked me up from the station and took me back to the house where the bike was. When I first saw it I was amazed by it's physical size. It was HUGE compared to my little old Virago. Exchanging the money and documents quickly I rolled it down the drive (I was too nervous to ride it straight off) and swing my leg over. The only thing that I kept thinking was "just get round the first corner without stalling or making a tit of yourself" just to get out of the sight of the guy as I had told him that my old bike had been a Virago and I think he was a bit surprised that I had bought the Ninja.

So I got round the first bend and round the next. Stopping to catch my breath and get my nerves back under control. That done I set off, getting out of Hereford I go to the first national speed limit sign and thought to myself "let's see what we can do then..... OH MY GOD". With a quick twist of my wrist I was away, 30 to 60 in a few seconds with a massive smile on my face. This was an amazing machine!

I took the ride back to Reading fairly easy, I didn't want to mess up on my first run out and it was late and dark. I was certain I would be out on it tomorrow....

Saying goodbye to the Virago

2008-07-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

The exahaust has ben slowly getting worse over the last few months and although it passed it's test it's now bad enough that it would fail. I have checked out new exhaust prices and it's hideous, at least £250 to £300 for a second hand one from ebay and a new one is aover £400. I thought the bike was only worth about £800 so it's just not going to be worth it, especially as I want a change.

After I rode to Wales and back I though decided that it would be best to get it on ebay and get it sold. The pictures that I got of it made it look great and I would have been happy with anything over £600, after all I only paid £1040 for it from ebay nearly 2 years before and I had put a lot of miles on it since then.
I was surprised when it got to £600 and really happy when it went over £800 and when it finally went for £1030 I was amazed. There were better examples of the bike on ebay and I had made all the bad points clear about the bike, including the exhaust. I was just worried that they wouldn't pay up and it would have to go back on ebay. As it was two Polish guys turned up with a van and paid up and then off it went. I was a little sad to see it go as it had been a really good first bike but it did leave me free to get something else, something a little faster and that would cope with long distance better.

Possible new (old) bike

2008-03-16T15:08:00.000-07:00

A possible solution to the impending replacement of the Virago might be my Dad's old bike. It's a 1984 Suzuki GSX 1100 EF with only about 6000 miles on the clock. As you can see from the picture though there are several problems with it at the moment, it will start but cuts out when revved. Dad is having a look at it though so he shoudl be abel to sort it out eventually if he gets the time. It's got a lovely big fairing although the overall look is very retro. It should go quite well though and I think it's probably fairly comfy for long rides. Hopefully it will be the solution to my problem of having nothing at all to get around on.

Replacement filter

2008-02-24T12:18:00.000-08:00

Overall I haven't really had that much bother with the Virago although the exhaust is now starting to blow a bit and the cost of buying a new one makes me think that it may be time to start looking around for something else. Exhausts for Viragos are about £450 new and £350 plus from ebay, for a bike that may now only be worth £800 it doesn't make much sense. I will have a think what I want to do.

For now I have replaced the air filter which was interesting as I expected it to be the kind of shape you get in a car, this one is like a canister which you drop into the frame near the front. The old one doesn't look like it had been changed for a long time (if ever).

Winter riding

2007-12-23T16:30:00.000-08:00

So..... cold.....

I don't know what Viragos were intended for, cruising around on a warm summers day? Riding around California with a blonde chick behind you? Or slogging through a British winter in fog, rain and sleet? Fair weather rider I am not and I dont think Viragos were intended for anything but that.

Chrome work

2007-11-03T16:54:00.000-07:00

I know the Virago wasn't a new bike but trying to keep all the chrome polished and looking nice was a nightmare. Some of the bits were corroded and the crank cases had lost their finish (apparently very common for Viragos like mine) but after spending a couple of hours on it I could still make it look shine and did get the odd compliment from people. To get it to shine like it does above I used a lot of autosol and an old sock wrapped around a drill bit. The problem is getting into all teh little nooks and cranies without taking the bike to part completely. I think it's what non bikers think a bike should look like. I'm surprised I could get it to shine the way it does at the moment considering all the rain that I have been through over the last few months. One things for sure I am going to have to give it a really good polish in the spring when the winter's over. I think the next bike I have should have a fairing. A nice warm cosey fairing with an open hearth fire and a comfy chair ;-)

Rain soaked

2007-07-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

I would say that my first yaer of biking has been fairly trouble free, I had to leave the bike at my Dad's for a little while while he found out why it wasn't starting right, he replaced the rectifier which seemed to sort the problem out. Some of the winter was quite harsh and I now fully understand what "cold" actually means, my hands and feet have just thawed out. I did a lot of miles this winter as I have family in Lincolshire and Wales which involved the usual christmas visits. Overall I have been loving it and am looking forward to getting some good weather and riding through less rain in the next few months.

Bikes are dangerous.

2006-06-03T08:46:00.000-07:00

They are. Just look at what mine did to my face! I was just attaching a bag to the back of the Virago and the bungy cord slipped out of my hand and hit my eyebrow, it was just before I was due to head off to Wales on the first big ride of my life to go on holiday with the family. I slapped on a plaster to stop my helmet catching and set off. It was going to be a surprise for my mother, she didn't know that I owned a bike yet and that I had passed my test. I though it would be easier to tell her after I had done it all....

Fame and no fortune

2006-06-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

I was at work one day and it was one of the few times that I had taken the Virago in as I normally cycle. The IT guy was doing some updates to the website and wanted some arty ones of a bike. He took a few and put them in the banner on the website, they would be there for years....

My first bike

2006-05-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

So there I was. On my way to the south coast to pick up my first bike (well the first bike I could ride on the road). There were loads of things going through my head as the train rattled its way through London and then heading south. I hadn't ever bought anything this big from ebay, what if it turned out to be a fraud? What if the bike was shit? I hadn't seen it before apart from the pictures. What if I didn't like it?

When I got out of the station it didn't help all my fears that I was stood waiting for about 15 mins for the guy to turn up with the bike, his wife driving their car behind him. As I walked over I thought it looked lovely. My first bike. Wow. She was beautiful and had times when I would just stand there and look at it and think that I had finally achieved something that I had been promising myself I would do since my brother passed his test 12 years before. Things were going to be different for me though, I had got rid of my car and now would be relying on the new bike for transport around the country.

The bike was a 1996 Yamaha Virago XV 535cc with 30,714 km (19,084 miles) on the clock, not bad for just over £1,000 I thought. When I sold it nearly 2 years later the clock read 49,211 km (30,578 miles) over 11,000 miles and over a third of it's lifetimes mileage!

Passing the test

2006-05-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

I finally got round to getting myself booked onto a DAS course and getting through my bike test. Check out the results sheet from my test! Only two minors, I was well chuffed with that. The whole test just reminded me of being 17 again. I was amazed I passed, I think the tester may have been generous as I think I made more mistakes than that. I remember sitting in the office after the practical and he asked a couple of questions, I felt so tired and didn't answer them very well but he congratulated me and told me to take it steady and that was it.

The only downside to the whole experience was that the riding school that I had used and who had got me through sucessfully then proceeded to fob me off when I asked for the deposit back on the bike I had hired to practice on. It was £200 which I lost and will never see again. It was cheao training anyway and i was happy to pass in the end but it did put a cloud over the whole experience when there shouldn't have been any at all.

Notes from a biker

2006-05-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

I have been threatening myself with sorting out my website properly for a long time. After years of it looking crap and having updates so infrequently it made me ashamed to even look at it I have finally decided to take a quicker and easier route to just have something on the web. So here it is. I will try and update this regularly but not fanatically as I don't think my biking experiences are that interesting to anyone but myself.