Post by damon80 on Oct 11, 2014 23:32:14 GMT
Well folks, conscious that I ain't been around much of late - long story short, we recently moved house and it's a heck of a lot more work than we expected - and requires sorting out a lot more than the supposedly "full structural survey" picked up on..
Anyway, since the move, it's effectively trebled my commute time, due to traffic as oppose to distance. We moved when the weather took a turn for the better, so I pressed the oil' SD into daily commuting duty. God bless her, she never missed a single beat doing a 50-mile return journey all week long. Testament indeed to Japanese reliability, that you can expect a 35/36 year old bike to rack up 250-miles a week after being a strictly Sunday-only bike.
But, since the weather started turning (I never use her if there's even a sniff of rain forecast), I decided to get myself a daily rider to use in all weathers, and ended up with an 05-Bandit about 3 wks ago.
All was going great guns, till on the way home from work one day last week I noticed a grinding coming through the brake lever for the first second after pulling it in. Defo brake pads, as they were looking a bit thin, so I ordered a set for a tenner delivered (bargain!).
A 15 minute job to change em, no problem. However, since changing them, the lever came back to the bars despite carefully "pumping" them into place... Tried bleeding them, but to no avail. So phoned my friendly bike MOT chap to see if he knew anyone local who does mobile stuff (given it can't be ridden safely).
This chap was an absolute gem, said straight away that caliper on the off-side was FUBAR'd, he took it back to his workshop and said it was goosed. He came back round this morning to give me the old caliper back, and sorted out ordering a refurb'd one. Then he spent more time looking at my SD, said it was absolutely mint, and said I should take it to classic bike shows. Got into a good conversation with him, and he said he had a few 250's back in the day, and a couple of 400's - I fired it up for him, and he couldn't believe how quiet The engine runs, he reckons it's quieter than when his were a couple of years old!
So that took a bit of the sting out of the fact that I'm back into sitting in traffic jams for the next week till next Saturday when he comes to fit the recon caliper...
But it did reinforce how much attention the humble ol' SD's get, and it made me feel really happy that I decided to keep her when I was thinking about selling about 6 months ago. Especially given that a modern machine 30 years her junior currently has her front end stripped down rendering it immobile, whilst she (the SD) is sat poised ready for duty... If I didn't know better, I'd say my SD poured some salt in the master cylinder of the Bandit in retaliation!
Anyway, since the move, it's effectively trebled my commute time, due to traffic as oppose to distance. We moved when the weather took a turn for the better, so I pressed the oil' SD into daily commuting duty. God bless her, she never missed a single beat doing a 50-mile return journey all week long. Testament indeed to Japanese reliability, that you can expect a 35/36 year old bike to rack up 250-miles a week after being a strictly Sunday-only bike.
But, since the weather started turning (I never use her if there's even a sniff of rain forecast), I decided to get myself a daily rider to use in all weathers, and ended up with an 05-Bandit about 3 wks ago.
All was going great guns, till on the way home from work one day last week I noticed a grinding coming through the brake lever for the first second after pulling it in. Defo brake pads, as they were looking a bit thin, so I ordered a set for a tenner delivered (bargain!).
A 15 minute job to change em, no problem. However, since changing them, the lever came back to the bars despite carefully "pumping" them into place... Tried bleeding them, but to no avail. So phoned my friendly bike MOT chap to see if he knew anyone local who does mobile stuff (given it can't be ridden safely).
This chap was an absolute gem, said straight away that caliper on the off-side was FUBAR'd, he took it back to his workshop and said it was goosed. He came back round this morning to give me the old caliper back, and sorted out ordering a refurb'd one. Then he spent more time looking at my SD, said it was absolutely mint, and said I should take it to classic bike shows. Got into a good conversation with him, and he said he had a few 250's back in the day, and a couple of 400's - I fired it up for him, and he couldn't believe how quiet The engine runs, he reckons it's quieter than when his were a couple of years old!
So that took a bit of the sting out of the fact that I'm back into sitting in traffic jams for the next week till next Saturday when he comes to fit the recon caliper...
But it did reinforce how much attention the humble ol' SD's get, and it made me feel really happy that I decided to keep her when I was thinking about selling about 6 months ago. Especially given that a modern machine 30 years her junior currently has her front end stripped down rendering it immobile, whilst she (the SD) is sat poised ready for duty... If I didn't know better, I'd say my SD poured some salt in the master cylinder of the Bandit in retaliation!
