Winter Is Coming

A wee reminder that you don't have to leave your bike in the shed over the winter months.

 

Never mind, it will soon be summer. Right?
 

Sporting Times

Hard to believe that my Sport was last on the road nine years ago, 2007 if the tax disc is to be believed. I did drag it out and service it a couple of years ago as part of a half-hearted plan to sell it (see here), but it got pushed to the back of the shed afterwards and forgotten about again.

However, I really need to make my mind up whether I'm keeping it or not. It's just going to waste just sitting there. The main problem I had with it was its riding position. While no more extreme than a lot of sports bikes, and a lot less so than many, it still played merry hell with my lower back on those occasions it got any prolonged use.

The current plan is to service it, get it roadworthy and ready for its MOT inspection, with a view to putting some miles on it over the summer before making a decision about its future.

To that end, at the weekend I rolled it out of the shed and into the daylight. I removed all of the fairing panels prior to getting cleaned up and polished. Unfortunately, a couple of the tags through which bolts are fastened have snapped off. I've ordered up some JB Weld and we'll see if they can be fixed.

As for the rest, it needs a good clean, some rusty parts re-painted, and some of the fasteners replaced. The engine and casings have gone a bit 'furry', so those will need attention. The tyres, battery and a couple of the indicators will need replaced too.

I've ordered up replacements, and also a new chain and sprockets while I was at it. Otherwise it's in pretty remarkable shape for a neglected 23 year-old machine.

Xmas 2015

Merry Christmas to you all!

Wall Game

Out shopping for furniture recently and these were on sale in one shop. 
Seems that motorcycling is trendy again.

Dumped

Walking the dog recently I came across these three tyres lying at the side of the footpath.

I know that people are prone to dump old tyres to avoid paying to have them disposed of in an environmentally-friendly way, but these were a good 20 minute walk from the nearest habitation and I was puzzled as to how they got there, also these look to have a fair bit of life in them still.

I certainly wouldn’t like to have carried them there, and the footpath that they were on isn’t really suitable for cars.

I suppose that you could have rode there on a motorcycle or bicycle and dumped them, but that seems to be a lot of hard work there being three of them.

Vicarious Bike Shopping

I went to have a look at a bike today. An MZ RT125 four-stroke single aimed at the Learner market, but a decent wee bike for all of that.

It wasn’t for me this time. A friend had asked if I’d mind giving it the once over as he was thinking of buying it, but it was a bit far away for him to do so himself. He lives in Wales, the bike is in Scotland.

I made the necessary arrangements with its current owner and drove over to have a look. It was everything it was promised to be. On a ’55 plate it is one of the last ones sold, with black bodywork and black wheels. Low mileage, just over 3000 miles on the clock. The engine sounded sweet and it ran up and down the road just fine.

However, on closer inspection it was obvious that sitting outside, uncovered hadn’t done the finish any favours. There were a lot of rusty fasteners, a badly pitted downpipe, and a chain that will need replacing as it was just a mess of rust.

Most, if not all, of the surface rust will polish out, and I’d replace the chain and a whole lot of the fasteners with stainless ones, but otherwise I wouldn’t let the finish put me off. It's a nice little machine, but I'm not the one thinking of buying it.

If he decides to go ahead and buy it the plan is to have the bike collected and delivered to his home in Wales by a specialised bike courier company.