have you had one of those journeys where you wished you hadn't bothered.......
today I needed to do a little bit of local running around, and as it was dry and sunny, I thought sod it i'll use the bike, I haven't ridden it for over a week. and i'd just fitted my asv brake lever.
I went to start it up but the battery just didn't have enough go in it, no biggie seat off jump start pack attached, it started straight away.
so I set off needing to put petrol in, there's a BP not more than 300metres away,
as I pull into the petrol station the front brakes seize on......
I pushed the bike the last couple of yards to the pump, put some go go juice in, went and paid, I thought i'd push it out of the way, get my tools from under the seat and do some investigation.
put the key in the ignition and it jams half way in....
now i'm fooked, I can't get the key in or out, luckily the steering lock wasn't on.
but now I can't get to my tools under the seat, and I can't walk back home to get my tools and spare key, because I don't want to leave the jammed key in the ignition.
but just next door is my local bike garage....pole position.
now all I had to do was push the bike 100 metres with the front brakes seized on, after 50 metres I was done for....
in the end I ask a passer by to help, once in the garage court yard I went and got the mechanics, they got to work straight away, I went home and got the spare key.
30 mins later they managed to yank out the ignition key, which as it turned out the key was very distorted, the spare key worked fine, no damage to the ignition barrel.
to fix the brakes they had to grind off part of the new asv lever, as a part of it was constantly hitting the plunger part of the brake master cylinder, wasn't best pleased about that, but it can't be seen, so no biggie.
the next part wound me up a bit, I was charged £20 for 20 mins work, some will say that ain't bad, but in the past I've helped this garage out with firestorm parts and sent them lots of bikers wanting dyno runs. the owner even tried to give me a drink a few months back in recognition of work I'd put his way.
I didn't accept it thinking he'd do me a favour in the future. but when it came to paying the owner hid in his office, well within ear shot of what was happening.
I paid the £20 and didn't cause a seen, as it's better to have them on side in the future. maybe i'm to soft.
so off I set to my local post office only a couple of minutes away.
parcels sent, back on the bike, it fires up first time, I then had a quick 5 min ride to drop off another parcel, did that all's well, then to Halfords(another 5 mins away) for some black paint for carls fairing. once out of there I jump back on the bike, go to start it, and battery has died again....ARGH!!!!!!
I managed to bump start it on my own...
only for it to cut out 10 sec's later...
after 5 more attempts I get it started and get the hell back home before anything else goes tit's up..........
I now have to get another key cut and programmed, put my battery on an optimate and hope the adjustment made to the asv lever continues to do it's job properly.
all in all I wish I hadn't bothered.....