On this last day of 2020, Mr. Sandi and I rode our bicycles for about an hour on our local bike path. When we got home I turned right around and went back out for a solo ride on my H-D Low Rider S to bid goodbye to this strange and challenging year. My plan is to take my Speed Triple out tomorrow on New Year's Day to welcome in the new year and pray that things around the globe improve in 2021.
Well, it was rather chilly on the motorcycle, DCS. The sky kept getting cloudier and darker (the pic was from early in the ride) and the temperatures kept dropping. Or at least they felt like they did. I really needed another layer under my leather jacket but was only out for about 30 miles. Plus I was riding in town so not much wind chill factor at work. But I know full well how crummy the weather is in many other parts of the world so I'm certainly not complaining! Just "describing".
I'm sorry to read how crummy your weather is, @littleade. Truly. Having grown up in Minnesota I remember well how salted roads wreak havoc with vehicles. I also recall sliding right through intersections on several occasions when hitting ice patches hidden by a layer of snow. We certainly weren't anywhere near a large body of water there in southern Minnesota so at least we didn't have that moist air that you do. Sometimes Mr. Sandi lobbies for us to move back to Minnesota to live on the farm with my brother and his family and I gently (not!) remind him that we'd only be able to ride about half as much as we currently can for the rest of our lives. Fortunately those reminders help him come back to his senses. He brings up making a move back there every year come about September, right on cue, when he's sick to death of multiple days of temperatures well over 100ºF. I'll take the hot weather. Even at the height of summer, we can at least we can get up early and get in a short ride or a walk or a bit of yard work before the day really heats up.
Believe it or not, you do get used to it, Sprinter. During the height of summer, 100º is fairly common and normal and doesn't feel that bad. But when it starts to hit about 110º it does start to feel a bit toasty. And, as we here in Arizona say, "But it's a dry heat!"
Definitely beats humidity, but 110f/43c is getting to unbearable. I remember that being a top temperature in OZ 30 years ago, but they have increased by more than 10c
Trying to do some work on the Suzuki GS750, again.The weather is freezing, so not in any hurry. I wanted to service the forks and fix a strange customization by one of the POs. Got the forks off, but had to remove the top bolts to get em through the triple tree, cos the PO had installed his own hand made, Air Assist, to the forks, Here is what has been removed. This was pumped up with a bicycle pump, I believe later models had these for a year or two. and here's the old,verses the OEM fork top bolt. waiting for Automatic Transmission Fluid, ATF. to mix 50/50 with 10/30 engine oil, as stated in manual.and having looked at two o rings and being asked for 12 quid. I am going to try and use the old ones. I also have new trims for the top of the forks, and this is a good chance to tidy up wiring also a new gear change indicator from China, that should fit in to the speedo bezel and replace the OEM one that gave up after working for the first week I had it on the road this summer. Edit. Managed to buy this for 7 quid so, should be good for a while.
Forks rebuilt, if the weather is not to cold tomorrow I'll do some of the other jobs round the head and should get em back in. Slight marking at the clamps only, and you cant feel it on your finger so not too bad for 43 years old.
Glad you managed to get the forks done, I bought one of those kits of 'O' rings and find that often the one in the kit is not quite the right size!! either it's a fraction too thick or too thin, good job you managed to get some near enough!!
I reused the old ones. Yes, Samsgandad, I have a kit of small ones and find that to be the case regularly too. I had to send to America a few months ago for a set of notoriously hard to find o-rings for the fuel air screw on the 750's Mikuni ss26 carbs, I had the size, only not the thickness and payed through the nose for them. Its a hobby.
James if you want spares for Mikuni carbs try http://www.motocarb.com/. Steve the owner certainly knows his way round Mikuni carbs and stocks a large number of spares. A few years ago I wanted a set of o rings for the air screws on my Yamaha RD250 and Steve sent me a set of Suzuki o rings which fitted the air screws perfectly.
Well today was a real adventure. I went all the way to the garage which is 25 paces from my armchair and checked on my bikes. I posted in the “What have you been doing with your Triumph “ section what I did with the Speed Triple. I got more adventurous with my other bike and even uncovered it..... I have not ridden the MV since I got the RS and have decided that this spring it will get ridden. Me having the mechanical nous of a hedgehog, I have got an independent mechanic collecting it in the next few weeks to fiddle with it fully. It won’t be cheap but to be fair , I have not looked after it as well as I should and these can be a little fickle, being Italian... . So best let an expert deal with it and I will hopefully enjoy riding it at some stage in 2021.....
Not to say that I love MV''s but I bought one 14 years ago with some redundancy money. Was aiming to keep it for just a year so I could say I owned my dream bike, just once. 14 years later and I still can't bring myself to sell it!!
I am exactly the same, exactly. I never ever thought I’d see one, let alone own one. But times go along and finally I got myself a few bob and thought if I don’t do it now, I never will. That was 2004. Still love the bike and don’t know if I can ever sell it. What MV do you have ?