So the week before last was a study in dodging the weather as I did 850 miles up as far as Barnoldswick via the Welsh borders, Shropshire, Staffs to see relatives, with a stop at Manchester Airport to see some old colleagues (well they're all younger than me but you get what I mean) thrown in.
The good bits were I did actually have quite a lot of enjoyable riding over 3 days, the Kahedo seat proved eminently comfortable on the long motorway drags, and the upside-down blade on the MRA screen really worked well.
The less good bits were: Manchester Airport coffee (I use the term loosely); getting a blown headlamp bulb in the dark and it starting to rain; dropping the black rubber seal for the headlamp cover on black tarmac under a black bike in a dark pub carpark; almost running out of fuel in that petrol station wilderness between Stoke and Crewe; and filling the radiator with Shropshire mud. Being well trained by the forum I had a spare bulb but had for reasons best known to karma had changed where I had packed my headlamp so couldn't find it. The spare was an original 55W H7, and God how did I ever think these were good headlights.
It was grey up North, but I was happy as long as it stayed dry, and very glad the heated grips worked
On the way up I had passed phmode in his car (how very dare he) (I hasten to add he was going the other way otherwise how could I have passed him) after deciding very late on to dodge the rain by going up the A49 thus had not called in advance, so I dropped in on the way back. Shortly thereafter 106,000 popped up as I pulled in at Gloucester Services.
The radiator blockage was causing me to go relatively slowly as anything sustained over 80 resulted in the temperature display making a bid for freedom. The rest of the bike wasn't exactly clean either
Last week's weather hasn't exactly been conducive to working outside so it was Tuesday before I started cleaning. I got the worst off before getting driven back indoors. Next day I decided to pop the LEDs into the K12 ready for the next trip up. Silly mistake. The LEDs have a collar to suit the H7 fitting in the reflector. Butterfingers here managed to drop the collar in between the reflector and the surrounding housing. Fishing with a hooky bit of wire proved very frustrating as i could hook it, could see it at the front of the headlight, but couldn't pull it back through the gap it had fallen through. Sometime later I was mad (in both senses of the word) and decided to dismantle the front fairing to get the headlamp unit out and retrieve the little bar steward. Never done this before so starting in the dark at 7pm was obviously a great plan. so after a blur of torx driving later there was a large pile of fairing parts, a pot full of screws and a sealed headlamp unit. I say sealed because although it had originally been clipped together, after 14 years the plastic had decided it wasn't for bending and the first clip i undid snapped off. Also one of the the bolts in the indicator stalks on each side had been threadlocked in harder than the sleeve in the stalk had been threadlocked into the stalk, so the bolt and sleeve had come out as one. At this point i piled all the bits into the porch, covered up the bike, and went to the Coop for more wine.
Next day while the weather raged, I hunted on Amazon for either very bright H7s or LEDs without fitting collars. I ended up buying these
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BFHFXHVN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1When the weather eased, I reassembled everything, finding more bolt holes than bolts. At some point in the dim and distant past someone had dismantled and reassembled the fairing without bothering to worry about the left-over parts. However, years ago Brian had given me a set of fairing screws that someone had ordered in a forum bulk order but never collected. So that solved the bolt problem. While all the lower fairings were off, I started cleaning the radiator. It's in a pretty sorry state, some area will not pass any water through even after 2 days of cleaning and scrubbing with the usual concoction of cleaning agents. It'll be a while before it comes off for a major service and I can get it in the dishwasher, so I am going to have to start looking for a spare I suppose. The original radiator did 60k miles and this is at 46k so it might last a bit longer. That was another weather window gone so covered it all up again and hid from the weather again.
Day 3 started with the Amazon Prime delivery of the LEDs so we got those fitted straight away. Nicely made, no fan so less bulky, sensitive to +ve and -ve so you have to get the connector the right way around, no canbus issues, but occasionally a LAMPF signal. Haven't been out to see what they are like but will report back. Everything now back together and coated with WD40 and ACF 50, ready to do it all again in a couple of weeks. Must be bonkers. Reminds me, must take the LEDs out ready for the MOT next week...
