There's some good looking moggies! Well I had an awful day today, last time I went over to the self storage place where I keep 4 of my bikes, the battery on my VFR750 was so discharged that it wouldn't accept a charge from the alternator, meaning that the engine was fighting the headlights for enough electricity to keep the ignition sparking. I ordered a new battery, but in the meantime (because shipping is so slow at the moment) I managed (with Dave and Ken's advice) to breathe new life back into a battery that was still sitting in my garage 3 years after I pulled it out of my RC51 SP1. I wasn't totally happy this morning when it was only showing 12.5 volts, but I figured that I could at least use it and jump start it with my Triumph Rocket III's new battery.
The weather this week has been sh1t. Cold, wet, and windy. Good weather for staying indoors, but like so many other folks here, my days have consisted of going to bed late, sleeping in, then staring at a computer screen for 8 hours, (working from home) snoozing, eating, and drinking too much, if that's possible.I needed to get out of the house, just for a sanity check. I took my batteries and 10 litres of fresh fuel over to the storage place, and got stuck in. I put 5 litres of fuel in each bike, installed the Triumph's new battery, and swapped the batteries over in the VFR. I had enough juice in the battery to power the lights, but not the electric start, so I tried push starting it (in the rain) but that didn't work, so I went back to the Triumph, took the battery back out, and jump started the VFR, it fired right up. I re-installed the battery back in the Triumph.
The rain had pretty much stopped, so I decided not to put on my rain suit, instead, I put on a pair of old Army wet weather pants, and my old Marlin Brando jacket. It was 11 deg C (52 degrees) but the wind chill factor was much lower. I immediately wished I'd grabbed my "Turtle neck" neck warmer thingie from out of the car, every other part of me was quite warm, except my neck, which was freezing. About 5 minutes up the road, the rain crashed down. I didn't care, the little VFR's gear driven cams were whining, and the remus stainless pipe was sounding like a MotoGP bike at full song. As much as I was loving it, the water was creeping into my clothes underneath my jacket, into my boots, and as I'd forgotten to close the vents on top of my new helmet, water was dripping into my eyes, and down my glasses. I decided to pull up in Wandong, 20 miles up the road, for a break so I could close the vents on my helmet. Luckily there was an old deserted gas station with it's verandah intact.
Saturday fun and games 2 May 2020 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I had to take a pic of myself in my soaking wet leather jacket, it hasn't been this wet in many years.
Saturday fun and games 2 May 2020 1 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Anyhoo, for fear of the bike cutting out and not being able to start it again, I turned around and rode back. The ride back was uneventful, apart from the electronic tach and speedo giving up the ghost. The engine was still running strong, and the lights were working. I got to the intersection of High Street and O'Hern's Roads, waiting to turn right into O'Hern's road, when the engine conked out. Fcuk. I hit the button, nothing. OK, time to start pushing, as it was only 2 miles back to the storage place...... in the rain.
After the first mile, I had a green light so pushed it across an intersection,lost balance and dropped it on it's right hand side. The inertia picked up my skinny old body and threw me over the right side of the bike into oncoming traffic that thankfully stopped, and a couple of guys got out and helped me pick it up, which was nice, but then I had to keep pushing it uphill in the rain. My clothes were soaked, I've barked my left shin, and I was so stuffed, I was shaking. The bike was hardly marked thank God, this bike has been well looked after by it's too previous owners, so I didn't want to be that guy that wrecked such a nice survivor. Bent rear brake pedal, scrape on the fairing, and a scrape on the bar end. I was lucky.
VFR750 Scratched but not hurt. by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
The final insult was pushing it up the ramp into the shipping container. Usually I have the engine running and just plonk it in gear and walk it up into the container, but not today, I had to push the 540 pound beast up a wet aluminium ramp. I really struggled with it, but I finally got it into the container, safe and sound, thank you Lord.
Anyhoo, I'd seen a Z1 ducktail (incorrectly advertised as a KZ1000 ducktail) for sale cheap on Facebook last night, so I'd sent the seller a message not expecting much, but when I looked at my phone at the storage place, there was a message from him saying he still had it, he was home, and he sent me his address, woohoo! We did the "Social Distancing Tango", money was exchanged, and I had a ducktail. Really good plastic repro ducktails are quite expensive, and with shipping it's both really expensive, and really slow. I don't necessarily need one right away, but it is a nice part to have, and one less thing to have to order.
Saturday fun and games 2 May 2020 2 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
When I got home I was surprised to see that my new metal cutting bandsaw blades had arrived, it's unusual to get parcels delivered here on a Saturday, but anyway, I was happy, I wandered out to the garage and installed one on my poor old overly abused bandsaw that was never designed for cutting metal, and I was impressed that it happily sliced through the 6061 T6 plate I'm using to make the brake caliper brackets. Emily, our big Fluffy Maine Coon cross has decided that I need to go to bed. More tomorrow.
Emily 2 May 2020 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
