schrimy
New member
I write this for a little light entertainment for you peoples, who might be sat at home nursing injury, or sat at home looking out of the window thinking ‘I wish it would rain just for once, I’m fed up of all this overwhelming heat’ or those just sat at home, or indeed for those just sat.
One or two of you on here may be aware that I had a little coming together earlier in the year between myself, the lovely ST and a ‘grassy knoll’ resulting in a bit of a cosmetic rebuild. The ST needed some work doing to it as well.
Now I have really enjoyed taking the bike to bits, cleaning and greasing relevant parts, resprays and the inevitable trawling of fleabay for parts that no one has any longer. All good fun. I love it when you take stuff apart and find something that needs fixing, even if its just making a couple of Bowden cables work better. I decided to free up the throttle and fast idle cables as the latter seemed only to function in a jerky sort of fashion rather than the smooth action required of it, so I thought the throttle cable would perhaps be the same. I used that age-old trick of using a small no longer needed plastic bag with the corner snipped off through which you poke the Bowden cable and secure the bag in an oil tight manner to the outer of the cable. Then place a couple of mls. of oil in the bag suspending it from a suitable high point so that over a couple of hours, or in bad cases overnight, the oil seeps into the inner of the cable and makes it work like new. So I did he above with both cables and in a couple of hours oil was seeping through the lower ends of the cable, so I knew all the cable was well lubricated.
Good I thought, all I need to do is put them back together. The throttle cable went back no probs, and the action was as smooth as silk. So then to the fast Idle. I struggled for some time trying to hold the cable end in the leaver bit whilst holding the cable guide into one half of the bar mounting clamp with the switches on. However after several attempts and using all twelve fingers to hold the bits together and using my left foot to place the switch unit on the handlebar. I managed to begin to screw the two halves of the bar clamp together. Now try as I might I could not get the two halves to match up and I dare not over tighten the screws for fear of breakage or thread stripping so I took the bits off the handlebar and of course it all fell to bits again. I could not see anything wrong, I thought the cable or leaver bits might be fouling the bar, so put it back together this time using all sixteen fingers, now greasy and oily, and still they would not fasten up properly. I tried again and again, all to no avail. Now not once did I utter any foul language, no not once!! But I did glimpse out of the corner of my eye my seven pound lump hammer on the workbench and I did begin to think…………………… anyway.
I sat on the bike seat looking in dismay at the two halves of the switch unit/ bar clamp dangling from the cable, then and only then did I notice the small hole in the handlebar, ‘what’s that for?’ I wondered, I looked at one half of the switch unit and then I saw it, a Fr…..g big sticky out nipple thing that obviously fits into the hole on the handlebar. Now of course I could see why it wouldn’t screw back together, I had not got the nipple into the hole. Stupid bugger that I am. All that bloody time!!!
However, it then went back together no probs and works really well.
I am now on the lookout for the following, a large conical hat with a large ‘D’ printed on the front. If anyone has one I could perhaps borrow it whilst I sit on a small chair in the corner of the room.:lol2:
One or two of you on here may be aware that I had a little coming together earlier in the year between myself, the lovely ST and a ‘grassy knoll’ resulting in a bit of a cosmetic rebuild. The ST needed some work doing to it as well.
Now I have really enjoyed taking the bike to bits, cleaning and greasing relevant parts, resprays and the inevitable trawling of fleabay for parts that no one has any longer. All good fun. I love it when you take stuff apart and find something that needs fixing, even if its just making a couple of Bowden cables work better. I decided to free up the throttle and fast idle cables as the latter seemed only to function in a jerky sort of fashion rather than the smooth action required of it, so I thought the throttle cable would perhaps be the same. I used that age-old trick of using a small no longer needed plastic bag with the corner snipped off through which you poke the Bowden cable and secure the bag in an oil tight manner to the outer of the cable. Then place a couple of mls. of oil in the bag suspending it from a suitable high point so that over a couple of hours, or in bad cases overnight, the oil seeps into the inner of the cable and makes it work like new. So I did he above with both cables and in a couple of hours oil was seeping through the lower ends of the cable, so I knew all the cable was well lubricated.
Good I thought, all I need to do is put them back together. The throttle cable went back no probs, and the action was as smooth as silk. So then to the fast Idle. I struggled for some time trying to hold the cable end in the leaver bit whilst holding the cable guide into one half of the bar mounting clamp with the switches on. However after several attempts and using all twelve fingers to hold the bits together and using my left foot to place the switch unit on the handlebar. I managed to begin to screw the two halves of the bar clamp together. Now try as I might I could not get the two halves to match up and I dare not over tighten the screws for fear of breakage or thread stripping so I took the bits off the handlebar and of course it all fell to bits again. I could not see anything wrong, I thought the cable or leaver bits might be fouling the bar, so put it back together this time using all sixteen fingers, now greasy and oily, and still they would not fasten up properly. I tried again and again, all to no avail. Now not once did I utter any foul language, no not once!! But I did glimpse out of the corner of my eye my seven pound lump hammer on the workbench and I did begin to think…………………… anyway.
I sat on the bike seat looking in dismay at the two halves of the switch unit/ bar clamp dangling from the cable, then and only then did I notice the small hole in the handlebar, ‘what’s that for?’ I wondered, I looked at one half of the switch unit and then I saw it, a Fr…..g big sticky out nipple thing that obviously fits into the hole on the handlebar. Now of course I could see why it wouldn’t screw back together, I had not got the nipple into the hole. Stupid bugger that I am. All that bloody time!!!
However, it then went back together no probs and works really well.
I am now on the lookout for the following, a large conical hat with a large ‘D’ printed on the front. If anyone has one I could perhaps borrow it whilst I sit on a small chair in the corner of the room.:lol2:
You will know next time and maybe your story will avert someone else reaching for the 7llb lump hammer
