Brought to you by the word "Chief" and the number 100

What a feckin fantastic day we had. BBQ at my house, then bike ride, pint on the way home, pint in my local followed by curry and pints and then a long, steep walk home. Sorry Andy, it is the country bumpkins down here.....

Some pictures for you though.
















I wanted to get closer the take off for the old Severn Bridge but it was not possible really, another day maybe.

Was utterly wonderful to have the chaps over though, and I'm so glad Andy decided to stay. Sad to see you ride off without me this morning. Sigh.....

Jim

Ridden, parked up, I'm giggling

Parts list

Growing:

http://motocyco.biz/gaugebracketshop/?p=93



And:

http://tinyurl.com/3ekha3v

Project "Nekkid"

The more I look at the bike, the less i like the bodywork with the bars. So, it is going. All of it eventually, but for now only the lowers.

This guy has done it and it looks great:

http://pbmagforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=23033&st=0

From this:


To this:



And onto this:



To see how my bike will be different, you'll have to go here for my posts:

http://pbmagforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=27332&st=0&gopid=527068&#entry527068

I'll update the blog as we go though, so you'll get to see things first. For the HID, I have found these people, but the items are pricey, especially if you add tax and P+P. It looks like an OEM solution, and will fit the bill nicely, I simply need to find the same thing in the UK, not easy Nik, is it?

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=221

Feeling good about this ocnversion as nothing I am doing is irreversible, and the bike can be put back to standard at any stage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUPb2hW1GE

Disappointment

It comes in many forms.

Got the bike insured with a view to riding it to work tomorrow, but could I tax the fecker? No. DVLA rely on the MID, which is not a true reflection of the ACTUAL state of a vehicles insurance status. My £106 bought me insurance from 1800 today, but I can't ride the fecker cos the insurance DB does not sync with the Govt system. WTF? I work for a company that does this sort of thing for a living, it is possible, it is usual, it is the modern world. Why the fuck should I have to wait to ride my bike cos the systems won't talk? And I have a bike that I am now paying for and legally insured to ride, that I cannot ride cos the Govt have decided not to invest. CUNTS.

Does it boil your piss, or can you afford to ignore it?

So, I'm not going in the garage to finish putting the bodywork back on tonight, I'm not riding to work, I'm not going to be enjoying something I love. All because the freaking government, who I employ, can't be feckin arsed. I'm a tax paying, law abiding, employed person. FFS.

I know a bloke recently widowed, well two years ago now. who spends his life justifying why he does not have to pay his mortgage, his debts, his bills. I hear how hard it is for him to manage. He has not worked for two years. He has a nice house on the local estate, an Audi Q7, and is on holiday in Centre Parks for a week. With his two kids. With a local, recently (2 years ago) divorced woman, qualified as a teacher, who also does not work and has two children. WTF? I can't afford a holiday, at all, not this year. I can't spend a week end on the Isle of Wight with my mates. I cannot got to MotoGP. I cannot do a trackday. My bike wears used (second hand) tyres. I work, I earn >40k a year. I pay my way, and taxes.

I fucking despair.

DVLA? Suck my balls you cunts.

RS

Picture of the day.

I farking love GSX-R's. Nuff said.

A good evening in.

Progress!

Clutch cable routed, but it seems too long to me, so I may have to fix that after the bike has had its shakedown. It is an utter bastard of a job to adjust the clutch cable, but it is near perfect now and can be twiddled from the Pazzo lever to make it perfect whilst out and about. The throttle cables look wrong and I have passed the clutch cable the wrong side of the loom on the right bar. Easily fixed though if I take the cluster off the bar and re route the loom.

So, nose cone refitted. Not until I had hot glued the broken section and shored it up with more hot glue and a clear drawer divider cut up into sections to span the crack. All glued in and it is holding for now. Saved over a hundred quid there! It looks gash and will bother me, but having the section back in meant I could try to refit the mirrors. They will not go on with the screen sandwiched between the mirror the blade and the supporting frame. So I have fitted them without the screen in place and can get the OEM barrel nuts on, just. I've loctited them in place for now and will have to cut the wings off the screen to fit it. It won't matter though as you'll not be able to see the edges of the screen when fitted. I also had to hot glue the mesh back in the ram air intake as it fell off! Oh and hot glued the carbon bracket on the in fill panels to make them a tighter fit and hot glued some foam on the frame rails where the in fills have rubbed the paint. Can you guess what my favourite tool is right now?

So, all that is left to do before I ride it, it refit the fairing, seat, infills and screen. I had the bike run for 10 secs to check all the wiring was good and that all the lights and stuff worked. Fired up first time after being unused for about 4 weeks, thank fuck.

Oh, and the mirrors are going to be fuck all use as they are the same height as the grips now, This means I'll have to junk them (good, they weigh a ton) and find some solution for the front indicators which won't be there anymore due them being built in the OEM mirrors.

What is the weather looking like Friday?

Pictures of the day

I get sent links to loads of sites over a week, so thought I might post them up here so ou can see what has been floating my boat.




Anyone know what the car is? I do, but I'm not telling.

Flat Bar update

I've been busy tonight.

1st job was to remove all of the nose cone, and the fairings. From this:

To this:

Got the bars refitted so they clear the tank on full lock, and mounted the switchgear and grips.

I've been lubing the throttle cables for weeks now, so they got re-routed and connected.

The sprocket cover was removed so I could fit the new clutch cable and whilst in there I removed, Loctited and re-torqued the sprocket nut. The area was a testament to my abhorrence of chain lubes. Nice and clean.

Sorry about the dark pictures, used my HTC cos it was handy and it has no flash...

So, the next job I had to do was refit the master cylinder and fit the longer brake hoses. Not as bad a job as I thought and I'm pleased with the routing of the hoses and cables though I think it might need adjusting after a ride out to test where stuff rubs.

You can see that the m/cyl reservoir needs a bracket making, any ideas or volunteers? Bleeding the brakes was straight forward, much easier than the Phoenix and the lever is now good and hard.

I'll strip and refurb the calipers when the weather has warmed up, for now, WEMOTO will have to wait for the £90 they charge for a seal kit...

It was a bloody good nights work in all. Tomorrow I'll whack the nose cone back on, refit the fairings and see what needs to be done about getting the screen to clear the bars. I know for certain that I'll need some (2) M5x16 cap head dome screws, and some longer M5 barrel nuts to secure the mirrors.

This is a riders eye view:

There is nothing quite like stripping the fuck out of your bike, changing it radically, and then rebuilding it the way you want. I have been asked lots of times why I am doing it, and I'm still not sure myself really. I guess, it is because, I fucking well can.

Right, I'm off for a well earned beer...

Kickstart

So, I thought with all that is happening on PPRS, it might be good to try to relaunch this here blog. Nik created it ages ago so we could keep in touch outside of email, and I'm going to try to keep up my posts this week with tales from Brizzle and the deep south.

Anyone got anything to add?