Mostly lemon based

Category: Bike

Posts related to the MZ collection

  • I’ve nearly not done anything today

    I tried, I really tried – and frankly the period of time when my body was informing me that I was freezing cold, followed by the later period where my body was telling me that I was insanely hot; yeah, they made me think I shouldn’t really do heavy lifting and working.

    So I’ve mostly sat around, slept, kinda stared faintly at stuff on the laptop; listened to more WW..Dtm. I’ve also done some useful things – e-mailed a bloke about a potential interior for the Viva (I did say I’d tidy him up); and paid for the electronic ignition – it doesn’t look like my mileage is likely to drop in the near future; and the Viva needed new points 3,000 miles ago. So, yeah, let’s get that in and in, hopefully I’ll get slightly better starting with it :-)

    I also paid off one card, the other one though is starting to scare me as it’s getting out of hand. I need to get some bank work sorted, quite urgently. All I can do this month is pay off the minimum. Last month I paid off a lot less than I put on it. I’ve kind of accepted that there’s jobs which I’m going to have to do, but it’s somewhat scary at the moment.

    On the plus side, my friend Dave reckons the ‘zed can be MOT’d sans wingmirrors; I can’t *see* anything about wing mirrors in the MOT testing manual. So anyway, that would be good. Tyre, MOT and Tax (since I’ve accidentally renewed my insurance) and I should be able to rat about on my zed. And Dave reckons he has a suggestion for making my ‘zed run better – apparently the standard ignition unit fails to give enough advance for the 251 – it can be tweaked though with a dremel…which apparently gives vastly better performance and economy…

    My one exception to my resting was while I was cooking dinner and the, uh, box of kitchen stuff magic’d itself into the lounge. Yes. And that dishwasher, I never touched it m’lord, it just shuffled itself across to that other wall. As did the bookcase. I was astonished. *looks sheepishly at Kathryn*

  • The crackling is the static in my life

    Some days you just think ‘oh for goodness sake’, don’t you? I got up this morning, struggled through my morning routine a bit quicker’n normal so as I could pull on my bike gear. Hopped on Cherry and headed out, filled her up with petrol and got to work. Work, fine (Foot still hurting).

    Headed home, and y’know what? Everything was fine…but you know how this story ends. Last set of lights before my house, I filter round the cars, shoot through the lights as they change to green and as I’m riding, I think ‘hrm, the back end is getting awfully squirrelly, I wonder if I’ve hit some oil’. Over the next couple of seconds it gets worse, so I pull over and look round and lo, I have a puncture. Glass? Nail? Who knows, it’s nearly flat. Tubed tyres do not maintain their state well when they have a hole. I did *try* and gently ride on, but it was somewhat like having a sumo wrestler leaping about on the pillion seat as I attempted to make forward progress.

    Admitting all forms of defeat I pushed my sad little cherry red bike back to the house. It was not fun. My bike remains ‘heavy’ – especially with a flat. However, it was good that I rode the bike to work. Why?

    Well, obviously the flat tyre puts the bike out of action until at least the next early, so I looked at the ‘new noise’ situation on the moglet.

    The starter motor, the one that had inconveniently cracked the cast metalwork? Well it’d managed to work loose, so it was more sort of decoratively hanging than actually attached. I’m shocked that it worked, and shocked that it didn’t fall off. Very lucky is what I am.

    I’m a bit nervy now though, the moglet is obviously not a happy creature if she’s shaking ancilleries loose, and the bike is out of action for another couple of days. I may, if I’m feeling enthusiastic and it’s dry, attempt to get the wheel off tomorrow, then I can run it to a tyre place. I am however in another ‘argh’ type situation – the tyre’s not worn out – it’s probably got a good few hundred miles in it… ‘cept… well, if I’m paying for someone to remove the tyre and put a new inner tube in… well, aren’t we into the arena of ‘might as well replace the nearly worn out tyre’. Hrm. I guess I’ll see – if they’ve got something nice and mid-range in stock then it’s probably replacement time, otherwise we’ll go with the tube.

    My life is just too exciting for you all I expect…

  • Most accidents happen within 3 miles of home

    So, it snowed. I took my motorcycle to work… to say something suprising, I did not freeze to death. No, really. I wasn’t even very cold. I was pretty chilly coming back, to be fair, but I think that was more down to poor preparation on my part. At any rate, there I was doing my best michelin man impression, wearing Thermal top (Canadian), Thermal longsleeved T (Alaskan), Hoodie (cheers Trey!) and my motorcycle gear in it’s winter configuration (extra layer of insulation). My fingers, they got quite chilly; my toes were cold, (only can squeeze two layers of socks in there). The ride, though, was not nearly as bad as I was expecting – and my little Cherry Red Zed, she took me all the way to work without missing a beat. Leaked oil everywhere, but ran like a little ‘zed should.

    I sat in an interesting course about wound management all day. Should you be feeling particularly keen, I’ll tell you about it :-)

    And then at 4:30 I put my bike gear back on and headed off, by now the snow which was covering the ground and making things a bit dicey this morning had gone. Gone gone gone. So I pootled. At the first corner, things nearly went sideways. The bike slithered slightly on the (presumably diesel soaked) road – gently backing off very slightly we made it round, and I flew down the M25. A bit of filtering in some stationary traffic and I was off, onto the M4. It was about halfway down the M4 that a thought hit me. It was the kind of thought that made me as paranoid as the devil in god’s hottub.

    I’d left a rather important piece of my safety gear propped at the end of my bed. Where I’d moved it so it’d not be ‘as cold as the wall’ in the morning. My back protector. My favourite bit of motorcycling kit. After this revalation I rode like a saint. Unfortunately, these revelations have a tendancy to wear off, especially when spurred to forget (as I was) by the bike going “…and no”. Which it did, when it ran out of fuel. Fortunately I was in the slow lane and headed off the highway onto the hard shoulder. I wasn’t quite quick enough switching to reserve, so had to hop off and re-kickstart the bike (you loose these skills). After a brief interlude we were back and back protector all forgotten, filtering like a demon. Well, a very civilised, quiet demon; the kind that still sticks to rules like ‘no more than 15 miles an hour faster than the surrounding traffic’ and so on.

    I came off the motorway, made it through Slough and up to near my house, where there’s a motorbike overtaking lane (or hashed area) and almost always a queue. Taking advantage of this lane I trundled up the queue and indicated left as I approached my *KEEP CLEAR* junction. The lights ahead were red as I drew level with the car at the head of the queue, stopped for the ‘keep clear’ zone. Some part of my animal brain alerted me, the driver had started to move, my left-turn, dubious as it was before hand was now going to be a left turn into a moving car…

    …I braked hard, and sometimes luck is your pillion, despite the front wheel locking and me having to release some braking effort I came to a stop. The driver carried on, unaware, because he didn’t bother to check his mirrors.

    Fortunately, the driver behind let me through…and I made it home without further incident. I fully admit, I should not have done that left turn, tiredness and a desire to be at home in the ‘warm’ overrode very basic bike skills. I am, as I would say, a dumbass. But it underwrote the importance, to me, of wearing my bike gear… and when I’m driving, of checking those mirrors and blind spots, because while I only do it when I’m dumb, couriers and take-away delivery guys, they do it all the time…

    So yeah. Safe, but very lucky.

  • ’tis the end of another week

    And I’ve got my ‘zed back; well, one of ’em. Cherry (or ‘the red one’) is back outside my house, covered by a tarpaulin (sp.). She’s not a happy bike, with a top speed of 100km/h; Dave reckons I should change the base gasket again, but the whole tedium of the job fills me with a longish dread.

    Of course, Rebecca needs a new exhaust, which is rather more pressing, ‘cos her MOT is due the week after next. Despite her leaky exhaust, she managed to pull me, my mum, and what appeared to be the entire contents of Ikea back down the motorway; Ikea now being a distressingly long distance from my house.

    And next time I will be paying for delivery. Hearing the cheery thunk of bookcase-on-roof for the first ten miles as I repeatedly pulled over to retie things and re-arrange things was painful. Getting sprayed with road-muck, stood on the side of the M25 in the rain, retying stuff again (the wind was wrenching things off the roofrack), and so on was really not worth it. Although seeing my books on the bookcase… Hrm. But hey.

    So I assembled part of it. The kitchen, incidentally, wasn’t on sale, so we didn’t bother getting it now. So yeah. I got my tickets though, or ticket, for Metric. Anyone else going? Anyone…?

    What else. I spent far too much in Ikea; or at least, I spent what I intended, but as usual came out with more things than I was intending to buy. Technically, I guess, only the one thing. But…

    …it’s a light, to go on the stairs.

    Unfortunately I need to drill a hole in the ceiling to allow the light cable to go the roof, and across, to join the stair light. I want them both to come on at once, I think.

    And in other, other news… err… I forget. Apparently one bottle of cider, plus incredible tiredness, takes me to drunk much quicker than I’d expect.

    No, yes, I got rid of – or at least, selected for disposal, about half a box of books, from the 4 boxes I unpacked. Which isn’t too bad. I think there’ll be more, later.

    Oh yes, we ordered the Sofas for my lounge, I need to organise delivery (not ’til mid feb); and presumably removal of my old sofas… So, that’s news.

  • Another day of painting and music

    So, the door frame by the front door is now painted in undercoat. Hopefully I can throw a couple of nice coats of white gloss on, so for the party I can throw the door back on quickly. It won’t shut, but it gets it out the way. Then it can stay on until I’ve decided what I’m going to do with it. I’ve also thrown paint onto the last bit of wall which had escaped painting. It’ll get it’s final coat tomorrow, yeah. I think. Argh. It’s all a bit of a logistical nightmare, the housewarming approaches and I’m totally trying to schedule every task I can get in beforehand without bodging anything. The kitchen doorframe won’t be done, but I will put the door back on; or upstairs. I may put it upstairs, actually…

    No, so, yeah. I am pretty wrecked, I did supermarket shopping today, and my shift, obviously; and then some prep work, and then some painting.

    I also painted the first wall in the corridor; the dark blue one. Seeing it on the wall it may actually be ‘too dark’. We’ll see. Unlike the red which as soon as I saw it I knew I’d made the right decision, the blue is possibly too dark given the nature of the space.

    Anyway, enough house stuff; should I slap a house filter on? So people don’t have to endure my house rambling?

    So – there’s a shiny new Best of Bootie CD for 2006; I’ve not listened to it yet, just bits and pieces; I don’t think it’s hit me the same way as the Best of Bootie 2005, it’s still got some interesting stuff; and the Bonus Tracks are pretty entertaining.

    In other news, the BT HomeHub continues to suck. Although, perhaps it’s the wireless card also sucking slightly.

    In other OTHER news, The L word Season 4 has started! Why did no one tell me! ARGH! I can’t get behind already…

    And in finally other news, I actually mailed someone off OKCupid; so yeah, wish me replies :-)

  • Screaming silently at the wind

    It’s been a tiring few days – what with the Starter Motor on the car failing at the least opportune moment (I’d just finished a shift and was about to head home having parked in a ‘quite dodgy area’ when it decided that it’s raison d’être was to be a giant power consuming magnet instead of a motor. This was just before the police arrived to have a chat with a lovely group of people screaming at each other in the 5th / 6th floor flat – which you could hear quite clearly down inside my car). Still, that’s in Warranty.

    Which is good.

    So is the fact that the clutch *finally* arrived for Cherry, who is *finally* back on the road – and being lovely to ride. I must, however, go buy more two stroke oil as I’m fearing the stuff that I poured out may have bits of shite in it, and therefore is only suitable for premix.

    Unfortunately, the goodness ends there. My mum – who I argued the case with about her continuing to pay me… and said she shouldn’t. Well, it seems that the bank saved her the hastle – because my dad presumably set up the direct debit / transfer to stop in July. So I didn’t get any money in August. So the fact I’m still in credit is… shocking. Of course, the fact I’m only notionally in credit – the money I owe to Lauren for rent, and for council tax, is yet to come out. The money I owe to the credit cards is also yet to come out – astoundingly my bank loan has come out. Oh, and because it took them so long to process my timesheet I’m now not getting paid for work I did on the 17th until… wait for it… the 7th.

    *sighs*

    And my PC is still defunked. I am starting to run out of ideas – James suggested that maybe it needs the Inno graphics card drivers; because it’s an Inno card (rather than the nVidia generic drivers). So I’m trying that now (but I’m downloading them on the laptop because I don’t trust the desktop to stay running that long). Or the processor could be sick. Or… well, that’s it really. Graphics card and processor are all that remain that haven’t been eliminated as the cause of the problem. If it *is* the processor I’m going to cry, because having bought a new motherboard… well… I’d rather have bought a step-up board rather than the same S754 thing, and if it’s the graphics card I’m also going to cry because it’s new-but-off-ebay. So the word guarantee doesn’t apply. But hey. I can’t really afford any of this now anyway. Right at this moment I’m feeling a little bit fed up, really, to say the least.

  • More Pink Bike Shots

    Real progress today, she’s starting to resemble something that might become a motorbike

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  • Coming Shortly, the new “Jesus Christ That’s Pink” MZ

    So, I found lurking in the garage the precise right colour for spraying my bike. Pink safety paint.Anyway, my frame’s all shibby and I’ve put the first coat of “Jesus Christ That’s Pink” paint onto the tank… Clicky for more bike-in-bits Pr0n. One thing though, is it just me or does the bike frame look like some sort of prehistoric creature waiting to eat people?

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  • Progress on the Bikes

    So, I’ve been pretty busy today, I’ve completed the occy health forms and organised getting my vaccination results back from the occy health dept at UBHT. I’ve ironed my clothes (although I’ve noticed a stain on my posh shirt, so I need to clean it again tomorrow). I’ve (like I mentioned) been packing up books and uni stuff, and got pretty much all of them boxed up. But the main thing that’s got me feeling a bit better is progress on the bikes.

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  • Me and MZ Clutches

    We have a history me and MZ Clutches. On my 125 I managed to snap the clutch bolts and destroy a clutch basket. I think about the third attempt I managed to actually assemble a clutch that worked. Not well, but it worked. I’ve tried several times on the 125s since and I think maybe succeeded once?

    So when I looked at the clutch on the 251 I thought ‘do I need to do this’? And thought, well, I’ve bought the parts, Dave’s lent me a clutch compressor bolt, I may as well. This was what we term ‘a mistake’. Disassembly went perfectly, I was left with a clutch in pieces. I carefully reassembled with new plates, alligned everything, turned it over and placed the six springs in the wrong place. After about an hour of cursing and a loud ‘crack’ when attempting to tighten things up it became apparent that I was a complete and total moron. It’s blindingly obvious – if you open your eyes and look at the thing, that the springs did *not* go where I’d put them.

    So, I took it apart, undid my stupiditiy and put it all back aligned right this time and started tightening the compressor bolt – with the little nuts all ready to go back on. The small crack in the pressure plate that had been there at the start of disassembly worried me, but I studiously ignored it.

    However, as I neared the point of putting the six dinky little nuts on that hold it all compressed, I looked and thought ‘it doesn’t look right – the clutch plates haven’t been drawn together tightly’; with that crack on the pressure plate I was particularly wary about using the nuts to tighten it up – ‘cos it might be uneven, so I gave another tweak to the compression bolt.

    *CRACK*

    Fuck.

    The pressure plate bearing and the pressure plate parted company… the alloy that held the bearing fracturing (I’d probably damaged it when I’d attempted to assemble the clutch wrong). I rarely reach the point of crying over frustration, but today it was just a bit much. I’m so close to having my bike back, I’d paid for new pressure plates, I owe Dave postage and whatnot for the new bits, and I really felt like a fucking idiot. I was *so* angry at myself for not taking care when I’d put it back together in the first place.

    Dumb, dumb, dumb. I’m meant to be good with mechanical stuff. Scratch that, I *am* good with Mechanical stuff, but sometimes I can still be mindblowingly stupid.

    It’s also rare that I give up on something, but I decided I was just sick of it. I just ordered, from burwin, a complete – assembled – new clutch. Next time I’ll know how to do it, but this time I just can’t face it again.

    In other news Aisling is visiting. I’ll write about that *after* the weekend.