Because of the school holidays, I’m the only one who needs to get out bed at a specific time. Waking up is not something I do well. I have three alarm clocks, which have never been any use. They usually ring until either someone pushes me out of bed or the batteries go flat. This week everyone else has ignored the alarms and I’ve just been left lying there, comatose. As a result I’ve been late for work at least three times!
My friend Paul and I are off on a biking adventure next month and it has suddenly occurred to me that I’m far from prepared. I drew up a list of ‘Things to Do’ this week and it seems to go on for ever. Having made a good start of the planning side I’m now looking forward to it as opposed to the previous feeling of abject fear and my usual Ostrich impression.
Yesterday I have ordered most of the parts I need to service my bike, which I plan to do next weekend. I do as much of the maintenance as I can, because the bike shop charges £50 per hour. My time is free, when I can spare it. The service will involve an awful lot of bike dismantling and no doubt gnashing of teeth. One of the items I have to replace is a worn-out cam chain tensioner, which should be the most fun. The valve clearances also need adjusting, but I’m not brave enough for that, so she’ll be off to the bike shop. After all, they have all the right tools and do this sort of thing everyday.
I recently replaced my chain and sprockets. The bike shop wanted £250 for parts and labour. It cost me £96 for the bits and my time was free of course. The down side was that it did take me 3 days. Most of that time was used up cleaning off the build-up of old grease and crud. The degreaser I bought for the job was useless and I discover WD-40 was much better.
BTW - My Broadband has behaved itself nicely this week. Fingers crossed it will stay that way.
Adios Amigos
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What bike do you have? Valve clearances aren't actually that difficult to do - though you're right about needing good tools to do it. Valve clearances cost a lot in the garage because they're basically a pain in the arse to get to - you have to take a lot of the bike off to get to them. If I ever take my bike in to the shop, then I tend to remove all the fairings and as much as anything else as I can 'cos it saves a bit of time!
ReplyDeleteWhat's the plan for your bike adventure? Thanks for visiting my site. Good luck with the CCTL.
Actually I see you have CBR6FX.... awesome. I put up a guide to the CCTL here: http://www.matt-thornton.net/blog/archives/cbr600-fx-cam-chain-tension-lifter-cctl/
ReplyDeleteIt really is a piece of the proverbial.