It's been a while since I've done any kind of work on a motorcycle - I'd forgotten what a satisfactory way of passing the time it can be...
Phil, (brother of Jacqui) has hankered after a begginer's motorcycle since passing his test some years ago, (but couldn't be arsed to do anything about it).
Paul (www.rcpsolutions.com) was looking to sell his 1980 Yamaha TZR250. The briefest of discussions and a pint later and the deal was done. Phil now owned a bike that ran a bit rough at low throttle openings, but was otherwise an ideal tool to get reacquainted with the joys of powered two wheelers.
I declared that it was 'probably some shite in the pilot jets - an hour to fix, tops', so I was enlisted to prove my diagnostic powers.
Later that weekend ...
Several hours later, we were still struggling to remove the float chamber from the bottom of the RH carb, having quickly cleared the aforementioned shite from the pilot jet of the LH carb. Why do the Japanese insist on using screws which transmute over time from steel into plasticene, where stainless allen screws are called for - accountants should NEVER be allowed to design a motorcycle - that would never happen at Ducati :-).
Finally tried heating the (petrol filled) carb with a paint stripping gun, causing the carb to expand (or the plasticene to melt) and happily not causing an explosion. A large plug of denatured, petrol additive based excressence was duly removed from the RH carb.
As Mr Haynes used to put it "assembly is the reverse of disassembly" (except in the case of my old 500 Four, where he neglected to mention replacing the clutch anywhere in the book.)
It worked swimmingly!! started first kick, ticked over nicely and ran sweetly (for a stroker).
We celebrated with fish and chips that tasted faintly of petrol and WD40.
A small but significant triumph of man over machine.
Unfortunate child gets lured into a European jaunt as a result of chatroom interchange with a sicko. Cue Carol Vorderman, and a host of other idiots ranting about controlling the interweb thingy - this makes me cross.
Perhaps we should have a parliamentary committee look into banning any activity that carries with it any risk of bad things happening.
OR
We should sterlise people who don't understand the internet - problem solved in 1 generation
OR
We should shoot people who seek to re-allocate the blame for their inadequacies on technology they haven't bothered to try to understand, but are happy to allow their children to use
OR
We should force children to use CB radio instead of chatrooms - that was a much safer way of communicating with strangers
Apparently the manufacturers of SPAM, the ground up pig sphincter meat-a-like product are suing people who sell spam (of the email kind) killer products and use the word SPAM in the name.
The imminent launch of be-Arsed's new product 'SPAM Is An Inedible Tin Of Shite, for Windows XP (tm)' may need a bit of a re-think.