A Little Tinkerin', A Little Drinkerin'

[pete]

Sounds like the way to go, sometimes it's hard to see how it goes until you actually try it.

[GS750cafe]

I'd love to talk motogp smack... is there a thread already for this??? Hate to highjack.

Rossi seemed a bit desperate last few races!

[Leigh]

Get out of here with your "Rossi seems desparate" nonsense.
Having a 3/4 healed leg and a wonky shoulder wouldn't help.
Still, it's better than taking off half a season for being lactose intolerant..

[spyug]

Get out of here with your "Rossi seems desparate" nonsense.

Exactly. He may have been down this season but just wait 'til he suits up in red and climbs aboard the "rocket". You think Stoner was fast on that bike? Look out Casey, Jorge, Nicky, Danni and all the rest. The Doctor is far from done my friends. Still a lot of life left in the "old man".

I predict another world championship for Vale in 2011. Climb aboard, strap yourselves in and hang on.......its going to be a wild ride!

Sorry for aiding and abetting the hijacking.

Cheers,
Spyug

[Leigh]

You and I, Spyug, will sit and drink beer and laugh like men who know things whilst the GOAT adds another crown to his hoard.



Re-hijack : All I did to the bike yesterday was run the tyre and rear wheel down to the shop for fitting. I got mugged by the Ex and the neighbours to help them out with stuff.

[GS750cafe]

I thought that might stir things up!

Don't get me wrong, Rossi is the GOAT and I commend him for coming back after injury so quick... but Rossi's passes on Hayden at Phillip Island seemed, well, desperate. Nicky followed and followed, finally outbraking him and made nice clean passes. Mean while Rossi, bumped Nicky out of his line, forcing him wide. It just wasn't that clean style of riding like we're use to seeing from the Dr...

As for Stoner, I don't think he's got it in him for another Championship run... he doesn't have the stamina!

Spies on the other hand!!! Can't wait until Spies is on the factory ride! He's got to learn to get a good start and put his head down early in order to create a gap. Too many times he gets bumped around or goes wide and looses several spots early in the race and then has to work to make them back up. But 6th in his first year?!!! WSB Champ in his first year! AMA Champ!

It's so great to see all 3 Americans in the top 10!

We'll see what happens next year...

[Leigh]

Rossi and Spies will be the two I will be watching next year..

I think Rossi's "desperation" may have come from the knowledge that the Duc would run him down if he didn't get through early enough.

[simon kuether]

You poor misguided fools .
Jorge is the man . Same team , quicker version of the same bike , bigger goolies than the others put together .
You reckon he's going to be any slower next year ?

I picked him for this year (before the start) and will put my money on him again for the next .

Twill be a good year .

Cheers , Simon .

[Leigh]

You better stay out of the sun a bit, mate..
George will be re-educated next year.
Do you think Honda have been sitting on their bums?
Spies will show him how to do it.
Anyone care to bet how long before the Wall goes back up in the Yamaha pit?

[pete]

I read somewhere (AMCN I think) that the wall's not even coming down...

All I want next year is some exciting racing.

I'll take either Rossi or Stoner winning, but I do expect big challenges from Spies and Lorenzo. I expect Pedrosa once again to have some brief shining moments but not much more...

Unfortunately I see Hayden becoming the newer fresher Edwards for Ducati; nice blokes, funny as hell to listen to in interviews and a great asset to the paddock, but just missing something that takes them to the top.

Of course, I don't want to be too crytical here because even the slowest rider in that field is about 1000 times the rider I am

[Leigh]

Oh look.. Leigh has actually done some work on his bike. Will wonders never cease?

Pfft. It's been one of those weeks, ya know?

So this is how it's gone.
(shakes head sadly at this point)

The back end was stripped.
I took the wheel down to the shop and they swapped old Shooda Bin Hung tyre for the freshly buffed Metzeler.
One of a pair that a mate has kindly donated to the project.

I got back the next day to pick the wheel up and the mechanic grinned in that "I know something funny about your bike" kind of way.
"You know that Chinese piece of crap was a tubed tyre?"
"Yeah", says I.
"No tube" he grins back.
"Maybe he likes filling tyres a lot" I offered by way of explanation.
$22 later and I wandered out with a modern looking tyre on an ancient looking rim.
Plus I got to keep the old Chi Pee Shi Tah.
I wouldn't even use it to make a swing.

Fast forwarding a few days, well, to tonight exactly.
As a distraction from the iron fist of the last week, I toddled out to the shed with cans and a plan.

I had already removed, greased and replaced the swingarm.
It hardly needed it. There was plenty of good grease in there and no slack in the arm. A win!

Time for those beaut black shocks to go on.
The problem was the eyelets, they are a lot bigger than the mounting stud.
Great..
Thommo suggested punching the rubbers out of the old shocks. I had already thought about that.
The mechanic at the shop agreed too.
So that was the plan.
After banging away on a socket into the rubber for a while I realised the rubber was halfway out and not going further.
Did you know the inside of the mounting eyelet on a Showa shock is tapered from both sides into the centre?
I didn't.
A smaller socket, one tap and it fell out.
Eventually I found it and opened the Progressive box to compare eyelets.
Hmm. That wasn't going to work.
I checked in the box to find some instructions for a clue.
The paperwork was under a bag with some washers, spacers and small metal tubes.

This is where the rest of you can start shaking your heads too.

The final result?
Sexy blackness holding my bum off the floor.

Plus my first poser sticker for the bike.

[pete]

Aaaaaah nice work!

Don't worry, I've had many d'oh! moments over time... always the simplest things are so obvious, but always looking for the hard way because it can't possibly be that easy...

I had an impact driver for years that I never knew you could pull the tip off to convert from screw driver bits to a socket driver... turns out I never read the little piece of paper provided with it...

Now you can say you've got a nice pair

[Leigh]

If I go around claiming to have a nice pair there's going to be some trouble..
Yeah, ok, why not?
I might get a t shirt made saying "I have a lovely pair"


Nice work on the impact driver, too. Hehehe

[pete]

Yeah yeah, didn't have the slightest bit of embarrassment when I found that...

I found you a couple of shirts...

[Leigh]

Hahaha.
Can we get that in Suzuki blue please?