What have you done with your bike/s today?

[RichardL]

...also, amazing work. 

[CheeserBeezer]

You're very kind! I am trying to use as much of the bike's original parts as I can but it is handy to be able to nip into the workshop and help myself to a few small bits!

[Worty]

140m trip round the Yorks Dales and Moors, managed to pick out quite a few roads I've not been down before.  Out for around four hours before a need for beer, steak and chips kicked in followed by a choco ice cream - all possible because the wife's away at the moment.

Wondered why I don't cover the starship mileage that some manage (Musky's 4 day, 715m epic!!).  Just guessing but I spend most of my time exploring tiny backwater roads, often single track and very badly maintained.  Even ran into a dead end yesterday, not for the first time, I think one of them may have been someone's driveway??

Bike ran perfectly, but found a couple of 'issues'.  Don't understand why oil is coming out of one of the screw holes on the top of the primary cover??  Is their a serious reason why the breather keeps spraying a fine mist of oil which eventually ends up on the rear tyre??

Anyhow, the beastie never missed a beat - very satisfying overall.  Looking at going out again tomorrow for the 'standard' 100m run to see if they've fixed the landslide issue on Snake Pass (sounds like something you'd find in Oz or the States, not Derbyshire).

[berger]

 [/quote]
 I spend most of my time exploring tiny backwater roads, often single track and very badly maintained.  Even ran into a dead end yesterday, not for the first time.
wortluck  i also do lots of that around derbyshire even the very long lanes that end up at someones house i see a minor road and think i'll just have a look where this goes and sometimes end up doing 10miles ending up near to where i started.

[CheeserBeezer]

Built and fitted back wheel. I use a magnetic torch with swivel base in two locations, dead handy for alignment and eliminating 'bounce'. Centre marked on masking tape on swinging arm then rim lined up by looking across the edges of the rim, like a laser line but I'm not saying my eyesight is quite that good, but it works! Using this method offset finds itself and checked correct as original spokes should be 2.5 mm longer oh RHS so, when using spokes of the same length you can see how far into the nipples they've gone. Double check with dial gauge on inside lip.

[Worty]

Aye Bergs, exactly what you said.  To be honest, I've no idea where I've been sometimes, but I do have a good memory for roads and often find myself thinking, 'ah, so this is where it comes out'.

[Worty]

What are you CheeserB, some kind of genius??   Tried building a wheel once and ended up using it as a garden ornament - well, not really, but I did have to take it to someone who knew what they were doing!

[RDfella]

Just a tedious operation really. Can get a bit frustrating these days, though, when rim quality ain't what it used to be (cue for a song by Max Bygraves?). Had a few over the years I've had to send back because the kink at the weld was simply unacceptable.
Potential problems only usually arise with non-standard stuff - eg fitting a different hub. Assuming drillings are at the correct angle, spoke length is the next issue. I get tired of suppliers telling me 'just tell us the make/model and we'll sort it out'. Of course, what arrives never fits. My method is to test build the wheel using 8 old spokes to ascertain correct length / bend etc and then place the order. Remembering, of course, that if the thread needs to be run up a little further, it can't be done when a thread has been formed by rolling, because the material is undersize. And why are spokes so expensive? Stainless in the sort of quantity involved in a spoke is next to nothing. The spoke is headed, bent and roller-threaded in a matter of seconds on a machine, so where does the £1+ each come from? Rant over ...
Anyway, I'm feeling old today - 3/4 of a century and still going.

[CheeserBeezer]

What are you CheeserB, some kind of genius??   Tried building a wheel once and ended up using it as a garden ornament - well, not really, but I did have to take it to someone who knew what they were doing!

I learnt how to build wheels when I used to do motocross, bent wheels was a fairly regular thing! Always done my own. As RDfella says, it's tedious but a skill worth learning. The trick is not to get everything too tight, work your way to round slowly and methodically making sure when you tighten spokes you loosen others otherwise things start 'pinging'!

[Worty]

Anyway, I'm feeling old today - 3/4 of a century and still going.

Jeez RD, you're doing well.   I've got about 18 years on you and feel twice my age sometimes.   Anyway, I'm out to check the bike over ahead of another potential ride tomorrow.    Can't do too many long rides in a row at present, would probably seize up if I tried.   Got plenty of beer in the fridge for a chill this evening - know what I mean Bergs?

[Greybeard]

140m trip round the Yorks Dales and Moors, managed to pick out quite a few roads I've not been down before.  Out for around four hours before a need for beer, steak and chips kicked in followed by a choco ice cream - all possible because the wife's away at the moment.

That's my favourite sort of day 👍

[berger]

i have been to the pubzzz! and now i need the bog, 1 minute ----------------------thankyou back now, cat snoring in his primark bag and i am going to beddies. RD fella  nowts made rate nowadays, it's all --it will do, give us ya money..  happy birthday and always turn left at traffic lights , don't ask me why .......worty 

[groily]

Glad you made it back bergs. We do hold our collective breath after 'lates'down your way  . . .

I had a load of black pudding and other dead stuff off the bbq yester-eve so had to get up a bit early for some reason.
Did the necessary and then went for a short ride as day broke. Barely saw another vehicle in 20 miles  . . . Perfect start - and no traffic lights so I could turn right now and then.
Coupla hundred Notrunning km yesterday has set me up just right for the rest of the weekend, just need more petrol when I go out again in a bit to stare at a feast of 2- and 4-wheeled Americana that is apparently massing in the nearest town. The French like that stuff quite well, more perhaps than this anglais, but it's always impressive.

[berger]

i was as ruff as ruff could be yesterday, 2pm until 2am on the lash on saturday. total lunatic!! today i got some primer and primer filler --- doesn't work but they will sell you owt. i even spied a bottle of stuff in halfords that will mend your head gasket, a bit like that tooth paste they want to sell you that repairs your teeth . anyroad the berger build is now ready for the centre stand spring mount to be weldered on , it's  been a fkig nightmare to get it right because things get in the way   there are a few more bits to finish off on the weldering front  then i put it in the garage and bring it out when i want to walk around it doing exhausts fixings and stuff.  my missus is already missing it having wheels on and resting in the kitchen. thankyou for listening have a nice day

[RDfella]

My mom (who lived to 93) told me, a few years before she departed, that she had no friends as they'd all died. Was beginning to feel a bit sorry for myself in the same vein - so many of my pals are no longer here. In recent times, there was my engineer mate George then, this year, another six pals - the most recent Harry (aka Jack Higgins) who passed a few days ago. But today the gloom lifted. Lovely, sunny day and my son was here so he could kick-start my GF after its rebuild (I'd disconnected the electric starter as I wanted to ensure it started OK and didn't kick-back).
Tickled the monobloc and it stated first piston up, steadying to a smooth tickover. Then came the anxious moment - is it pumping oil? Ten seconds, fifteen, twenty - still no return to tank so cut the motor. I'd left the timing side and drive side covers off so I could re-adjust the timing (if necessary) and re-fit the electric starter respectively. My son noticed oil had sprayed from the area of the oil pump so, assuming this was from the main bearing, I went for a second start. Oil return to tank occurred soon after. I then tried a few revs to ascertain (with a strobe) that the timing was as expected, ie 0 degrees at retard, rising to c. 30 degrees. The latter occurred around a guessed 2,500rpm. Next was refit the starter chain and test. Result - immediate start with push of button.
I was actually amazed how easily it started - obviously the GF is a helluva lot easier to turn over than 1,000cc of vee twin with high compression and virtually no flywheel, but the difference was greater than expected. Nowhere near the same strain on components. 

All in all, a great day. And those new conrods didn't escape the cases! All I'm left with now is deciding which oil to put in the primary case. There seems to be no consensus on this, and I've no idea how to set up a vote on the issue (can you help, Mr caretaker?) 
As members will know from my previous posts on this issue, I've not used oil in a primary case for 50+ years (excepting my DOT which, with Villiers cork clutch, requires SAE140 in the primary - tired of topping it up) but it's now required for the sake of the 'leccy starter.