Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything of significance, so I figured this post could just be an update on everything that’s happening, however long it turns out.

First things first: my bike. Yes, the thing that has been the subject of the vast majority of my posts, thoughts and topics of conversation (is it annoying yet?). Well as my previous post mentions, I did get my bike back last Friday — accompanied by a veritable horde of problems. Dragging brakes discs, spongey brakes, non-functioning speedometer, non-functioning trip meter, non-functioning temperature sensor, mis-aligned petcock, incorrectly mounted exhaust, loose mirror, very dusty/dirty internals, various paint and body work problems, bike pulls to the right, and finally the thing that set me off… a jammed throttle cable.

I did rush them to have it reassembled by Friday so most of the problems I could deal with and were fairly minor but the jamming throttle cable just made me angry. It’s not very cool when you’re trying to turn a tight corner and your throttle just gets stuck, or turning the clipons full lock causes the engine to rev. Or turning the clipons causes the cables to rub against the tank, triple tree, and fairing; the last thing I need to do is have a cable break off a chunk of my brand new fairing — I did end up splitting open the insulation on my throttle cable as the fairing cut it open. So on Saturday I pulled the bike apart to try and reroute the throttle cable; this involved removing part of the fairing, the tank, the seat, the airbox (I have a K&N air-filter — that’s pretty cool), and about 6 hours of wasted time. It was impossible to correct without removing the triple yoke or one of the forks, and with the tools at my disposal this would be an impossible task. I also attempted to disassemble the switch/cable cluster on the right clipon, but one of the screws is impacted and I couldn’t get enough leverage to remove it.

Then I took my bike for a ride, and it barely ran, so again on Sunday I pulled my bike apart (this time it only took me abt 1h30). It turns out I had kinked the breather tube for the tank when putting it back on, as well as knocking a pipe loose (I have no idea what the pipe is for… the manual calls it #8 :/). So after putting it back together it was running properly again, which was quite a relief.

Back the bike goes; getting up early Monday I took the bike back to them along with a cable & harness routing diagram and a list of issues that need to be sorted. I got it back on Tuesday; the speedometer was working again, the temperature sensor is working (but displaying the wrong value, not such a crisis since I know the thing is working, it’s just displaying wrong), the brakes no longer drag, the bike doesn’t pull to the right, and a correctly routed throttle cable. I refitted my exhaust mount myself, as well as tightening the mirror on Saturday morning. The bodywork, paint, dirt, dust, and misaligned petcock I don’t really care about, I will sort all of that out myself eventually. The brakes came back even more spongey so I will have to bleed those properly — I reckon some of the pistons are jammed in the calipers as well — though my back brake works better than it used to. My trip meter is still not working, I’ll probably take my instrument cluster apart and fix that myself. My bike is still missing a front fender, but that doesn’t affect anything really, except maybe dirt getting thrown up into the bike.

Even though the throttle cable was routed correctly it was still jamming (I suspect they didn’t pull the whole airbox off when sorting it out), so on Tuesday night, off comes everything again. I pushed the cables around a bit (they were getting caught underneath one of the screw mounts on the airbox) and suddenly everything just fell into place. The throttle control is smooth, no jamming whatsoever, the spring action is working perfectly, so I’m quite happy with that now. When putting the airbox back together I dropped a screw into the guts of my bike :(. That was a rather angst filled 15 minutes while I sat there wobbling my bike around trying to see if the thing would drop out the bottom — it didn’t. So then I got a torch and sat there for another 15 minutes looking for the damn thing (I’d hate to have a screw get sucked into something, or jammed in my rear shock, etc.). I eventually found it and with the help of a magnet attached to long piece of wire I was able to retrieve it.

This whole situation is quite ironic now, I’ve finally got my bike back to a stage where I want to ride it but I’d rather not because it runs like it’s got snot stuck in the carbs or something. It’s been standing around around in a workshop for over 3 and a half months, so I’m not really suprised that it’s not running too well, there’s probably all sorts of gunk inside the carbs. It doesn’t have the same low down power as it used to, and is just lacking in power overall. Unfortunately I don’t have the tools to clean, balance, and adjust the carbs myself, so I basically need to take the bike in for a full service: oil & filter, carbs, plugs, clean, everything pretty much — but I don’t have the money to do so :).

Otherwise the handling is absolutely superb, I’m pretty sure that that’s a result of the rebuilt forks, considering how bent they were as a result of the accident I’m really quite surprised. My helmet is great, fits nicely, doesn’t budge at all and is starting to break in and become more comfortable.

I guess that’s it for now regarding my bike. There’s more to the whole deal, but I’m sure everyone is bored by now (that’s if anyone even gets as far as reading this).