A Little Tinkerin', A Little Drinkerin'

What a top lazy day I had.
I wandered out to the shed just before lunch and tinkered around all day.
Polishing a little bit here, sanding a bit there.
Nothing definite, or defined, just a day to be had.

I bought myself a little brake bleeding kit and got the fronts up to spec. Maybe.
The lever still comes halfway back, but it's enough to get me to the bike shop and they can pressure bleed it properly for me.

Then it was off to the back end of the bike.
I managed to get it up onto the centre stand by myself today. A sure sign that the broken collarbone is on the mend. I didn't hear any clicks or cracks coming from within, so that was good.

With the front of the frame brushed and painted I got busy on the back half.
Again it was only light surface scaling and it fell to the nylon brush with ease. A couple of coats of the flat black and it was looking pretty cool.

I reassembled the tail light pieces and put the tail piece on.

I looked at the tank and the tail and figured I might as well put the other body pieces on too.

Then it was time for the wheel to come out.
The split pin through the cotter nut was new and shiny.
I took that as a sign of recent servicing. Good.
The axle was heavy with grease and slid out nicely.
That was followed by a the dual *ting* of metal hitting the floor.
Bloody spacers! I forget them every time I do a wheel.
So, a question for the brains trust..
From the left of the bike to the right, are these in the right order and the right way around?

I mean :
Swingarm-spacer-wheel-spacer-brake-spacer-swingarm?
The middle on is my main concern. Is that the right way around?
Anyway, the chain is in great condition. No signs of stretch and the thing is covered in chain wax. Good again.

The sprocket doesn't look that old either.


The wheel and cush drive rubbers are in good nick too.


A quick regrease of the wheel bearings and a check of the swingarm showed it all to be rather good.
I think the old girl has been looked after properly.
A lot of the electrical connections have been replaced by newer looking spades.

Anyway after that it was time to wander on in for the evening.
One last parting shot as she stands, with her bum in the air..





Please excuse the crap I am passing for photos. I only had the phone with me and it doesn't handle fluoro lighting too well. I'll take the big camera out tomorrow and get some in daylight.
I promise.

[pete]

Read in AMCN yesterday (I'm an issue behind) that Pedrosa has finally signed with HRC and it's looking very much like Pedrosa + Stoner in Repsol colours and Dovi back with Gresini but on a factory bike.

Rossi's also been released to ride the Duc in the post season tests which is probably why he's not getting his shoulder surgery done yet.

We shall see...

Thought I'd squeeze one more post in since notice has been given

The Yammies will move forward a bit.
The Duc will end up sorted by 1/3 the way through.
Dovi will level out the Honda, if they don't loophole him to the satellite team.

Moto2 has been the greatest thing. Elias has handed out a lesson on what racing should be. All elbows and scrape marks. Good close racing.

NOTICE: Normal service will be resumed to this thread as soon as I do something else to the bike...

[pete]

Yeah I'm hoping for a big mix up next year, Jorge certainly isn't going to have it so easy as this year! Seems like as soon as someone challenged this year they'd either fall off and injure themselves or the bike would magically turn to a Moto2 bike... or at least it seemed that way, and I mean no disrespect to Jorge's talent by saying that either, coz he is damn quick!

If Stoner gets on the Honda and goes quick like Pedrosa can occassionally do, and Rossi can get the front end of that Duc sorted (Burgess and him should make it handle like the Yammie), then the aliens should be back to flying form.

I agree on Spies as the dark horse though, won on debut in Superbikes, beat Mladin in AMA, and adapted the best of all the recent ex-Superbike riders in his first year on the *satellite* Yammie, so he will be quick next year on the factory one.

Dovi I'm not so sure of, I liked him in 250's and he has moments of quickness but just hasn't got that consistency happening, sort of like Pedrosa...

Big question though... can the Yammie development keep up without Rossi/Burgess doing it??

However it turns out, surely it can't be as dull and boring as most of this year has been can it? I'm glad the Moto2 is there for the entertainment factor at the moment!

Anyways... enough hijacking of this here thread... unless of course we all like the new direction

I think you may be right, Simon.
George The Janitor may be the one.
The Brat will be fast on the Honda and get faster as the year goes by.
Rossi will be a force to reckon with, as usual.

I reckon the two to watch for will be Dovi and Spies.
Dovi is getting better each lap and Spies will go like a cut cat on the full-spec Yamaha.

Did you see him fight off Dovi a few weeks ago?


p.s. Roll on the 1000s in 2012.

[simon kuether]

There was a lot of GOOD racing "back in the pack" .
I think everyone is just doing time now , until NEXT YEAR .
Who's your money on for next year's championship ?
I'll stick my neck out here , and go with Jorge .

Cheers , Simon .

[pete]

Yeah that's the impression I got from the TV, they didn't show the incident just the aftermath and I thought "you arrogant little s*&t"... I have a feeling he may have just cut his international career opportunities...

Now don't be like that... Stoner's the guy you only see the rear end of as he disappears into the distance... or the gravel trap

That battle was good stuff indeed! I really enjoyed that, and it's something that's been missing big time this year which is quite sad really.

Maxwell was taken out by the other rider sliding out.
Personally, I thought he was childish and petulant.
He is a wildcard rider looking for sponsorship and a factory ride. I don't thinking smacking him in the face was the right way to reach those goals. It was plain embarrassing.

Stoner? Who's Stoner? Did you see the fight between Rossi and Hayden for the last 10 laps? Wow!
0.0038 of a second between them as they hit the line.
If the finish line was 20 metres further down the straight the Duc would have over run the Yammie.

[pete]

Nice! Lookin' real good now...

Now as to the real stuff... did you get to see what caused Mr Maxwell's bit of biffo in the sand pit? Should he have taken his bat and ball and gone home? Or wasn't he as much of a spoiled brat as he sounded on TV?

And I bet watching Stoner out of the last corner would've been a blast...

Rightio, where were we?
Master cylinder, I think.
29 years of fresh country air is good for us. Not good for cheap little screws.


That rubbishy piece of rubbish was replaced with stainless, Allen headed goodness.

Yeah, I got the bling now!
I picked up 4 of these from the local bolt shop. How much? A shrug was the reply and he handed me the bag.

Onto the dilemma of the muffler..
I dropped it to the little workshop on Thursday arvo and told him I'd be back Monday.

After dropping a friend at the airport today I scurried back down to the shop to see how it looked.
Jeez, you can't tell where the bracket used to be.

I took it out to the shed for a dummy fit up. It's snug. The bracket was on a slightly wrong angle to clear the axle, so off it came again.
A couple of quick persuasions with the hammer and it fits like a glove.


It's tight up against the footpeg brace. So what? It's not going to do any harm there.


Plenty of clearance around the back end too.


I must add that the exhaust is nicely clear of the frame and centrestand now.


Yes, I know I still have to polish it more. But once it was on it was going to stay on.

Next episode : The Bum End.

[pete]

Now that sounds like a plan! And photos are definitely compulsory for this one

Sorry, no photos. I've slacked off for a few days.

I was on my way to the exhaust joint to see what they could do about making up a short hotdog type can for me when I rolled the dice and stopped in at a little bike workshop.

I explained the issue and the bloke said "Bring it in. We'll move the mounting tab for you. I have mig, tig, aluminium tig, whatever you need."

I explained how it was on the axle nut and centre stand. He said no worries, he will knock the end off, shorten the can by an inch or two and re-weld the cap on.

He showed me a couple of cans he had made up for customer bikes. Very slick work.

He reckoned $50 for the mods and linishing/polishing.

There will be photos after this.

I think it's more a case of me not measuring the new pipes properly.

I'll throw some photos up tomorrow to show where I'm at.

[pete]

Nicely done!

Can it be as simple as sticking on a rubber stopper underneath the muffler or a frame rail to stop the stand hitting it? Or is it such a weird angle it needs to move?

I have discovered that the stock exhaust mount on mine also acts as a stopper for my centre stand, so at the moment with no exhausts it just whacks straight up onto the frame when retracted, so I need to do something about that.

Success!
I've had a win.

The reshaped pipes have seated beautifully.
Not a puff from around the ports.

Unfortunately the muffler sits oddly.
The centre stand hits it when it's up and it's really close to the rear axle nut.

This will the dilemma for this week.