Quick update on my cat Ruby. She is still desperately ill but is showing signs of responding to medication. I had the thought of putting her to sleep yesterday but I am so glad I didn't. I want to give her this last chance. I owe her that. She has been my best friend for the last 6 years.
Anyway, back to bikes. My Corsa is due it's annual inspection and I had known for some time one of the fork legs was leaking. So, today I decided to replace the full fork assembly with another freshly rechromed pair I built up last week. Forward planning. This will give me time to investigate the issue and send the fork back to Maxton, as it had been leaking since I received it from them.
To do anything much on an RGS you need to remove the fairing, which is a pain at the best of times.
I took this opportunity to remove all the touring gear I had fitted to it last year ahead of it's pilgrimage back to Breganze in Italy, where it was born. That was a hoot. 1850km (1150 miles) from Madrid to the town square in Breganze in a non-stop overnight blast which took 18 hours. I left the house at 8:30pm on the Thursday and arrived in time for an ice cream in the piazza at 2:30pm the next day. Other than the weeping fork seal the bike ran without missing a beat. Me, on the other hand, I was walking like John Wayne for the whole weekend, with the lovely thought that I was going to have to do it all over again on the Monday morning.
So, fairing off, tank off, sidepanels off, seat off. I removed the GPS mount and USB power point first, including the wiring which lived under the tank. Next was the pannier frames, indicators and rack. I then refitted the original indicators before starting work on the forks.
Mudguard off, calipers off, wheel off, forks out. Then new forks in, wheel on, mudguard on and calipers bolted back in place. Sorted.
I gave it a once over and found an intermittent fault with the tail light bulb so that got replaced as well.
I'll take it next week for it's inspection.
The bike as it returned from Italy
Anyway, back to bikes. My Corsa is due it's annual inspection and I had known for some time one of the fork legs was leaking. So, today I decided to replace the full fork assembly with another freshly rechromed pair I built up last week. Forward planning. This will give me time to investigate the issue and send the fork back to Maxton, as it had been leaking since I received it from them.
To do anything much on an RGS you need to remove the fairing, which is a pain at the best of times.
I took this opportunity to remove all the touring gear I had fitted to it last year ahead of it's pilgrimage back to Breganze in Italy, where it was born. That was a hoot. 1850km (1150 miles) from Madrid to the town square in Breganze in a non-stop overnight blast which took 18 hours. I left the house at 8:30pm on the Thursday and arrived in time for an ice cream in the piazza at 2:30pm the next day. Other than the weeping fork seal the bike ran without missing a beat. Me, on the other hand, I was walking like John Wayne for the whole weekend, with the lovely thought that I was going to have to do it all over again on the Monday morning.
So, fairing off, tank off, sidepanels off, seat off. I removed the GPS mount and USB power point first, including the wiring which lived under the tank. Next was the pannier frames, indicators and rack. I then refitted the original indicators before starting work on the forks.
Mudguard off, calipers off, wheel off, forks out. Then new forks in, wheel on, mudguard on and calipers bolted back in place. Sorted.
I gave it a once over and found an intermittent fault with the tail light bulb so that got replaced as well.
I'll take it next week for it's inspection.
The bike as it returned from Italy
Bodywork off
Freshly rebuilt forks waiting to be fitted Leaking fork on left
And all back together. Beer o'clock now.