Dave's shonkers - continuing electroshite

[Dave_Q]

Just had my insurance renewal through from Tesco, when I swapped cars they wanted £50, which I thought was a bit steep seeing as there were only a few weeks left. 

 

Anyway they quoted me their special GTF price of £976.39. A hour or so clicking has got that down to £392 which is more like what I paid last year.

 

Also had to refuel, it did 449 miles on 65.85l for 31mpg. Not amazing but not terrible, although about half that tank was motorway, I reckon it will do about 27-28mpg on my normal commute, will be attempting to offset this by sourcing some biodiesel and maybe pedalling in to work more.

[Dave_Q]

Brace yourselves for a thrilling post as MAN BUYS TRAILER.

 

My last few cars (Multipla, C8, Berlingo) have all been pretty large giving the option of tip runs, parts and bike hauling, etc.

 

Now I'm in this Audi, although it has a large boot it's not on the scale of a vancar so I thought I would take advantage of my FACTORY FITTED DETACHABLE TOWBAR (which doesn't actually detach currently) and get me a trailer. 

 

Anyway trailer shopping was a bit of an eye opener, fuck me trailers are expensive, people are asking actual money for stuff that looks like it was dragged out of a canal eg:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Flat-Car-Trailer-Medium-size/233080936094?hash=item3644b4d69e:g:Cp8AAOSwmvpcLyWQ

 

Or 2nd hand stuff is being sold for pretty much new price:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Erde-122-Camping-Trailer/264081330417?hash=item3d7c7950f1:g:HZ0AAOSwOHpcDXHl&autorefresh=true

 

So when one came up locally on gumtree for £40 I went to have a look and ended up buying it. 

 

It was previously used for karting, so had a big board bolted to the top for the kart to sit on. 

 

 

Underneath looks OK and the tyres and bearings etc seem alright

 

 

Does need some attention with vactan or something and a repaint in places.

 

 

All the wood was rotten so I pulled it off. Underneath it's a metal 4x3 trailer similar to an erde or whatever.

 

The load area also has a few bits of rust but I'll clean it all up one day.

 

 

Here it is ready for it's first tip run, just waiting for an adaptor to come from Amazon tomorrow for the electrics as the Audi has 13 pin electrics and obviously your regulation shonky trailer has 7 pin. 

 

 

I reckon I will have a go at turning it into a small box with a lid using some angle iron and ally sheet, I will probably use it for camping stuff when we go on holiday.

 

Update ends, hope you could contain your excitement without slipping into a coma.

[Dave_Q]

Obviously I've made no progress with painting the trailer, but I have now had the Audi for about a month so I've had chance to get used to it a bit, and here is my Parkers style review, with additional categories for AS reasons.

 

I'll start with a bit robbed directly off their website.

 

Summary

The allroad is an A6 avant with raised, height adjustable suspension, a nod to underbody protection for offroading and some "offroad styling". It's BIG, 4.8m long which is about the same as a Vito compact and a tad longer than a SWB Vivaro. Generally quite well specced, most seem to have leatherz and I think all have cruise control. I wish the buyer of mine had ticked the box for parking sensors though.

 

Driving

This part was a pleasant surprise really. Because of the suspension you can kinda choose what sort of drive you want. The suspension has 4 heights and unless you choose a lower one manually it starts in height 3. Above 50 mph it will drop to height 2, then again at 75mph to height 1. Or you can choose with the dash buttons anytime. Height 4 is only selectable by buttons and only below 20mph.

 

 

Even the lowest height is an inch higher than a standard A6, so this means in height 3 it's a bit rolly round roundabouts. I mostly drive round in height 2 which feels better, height 1 obviously has the least roll which is good for a light hoon but seems a bit bouncy on the motorway. Not sure if this is because mine has tired shocks.

 

The engine is pretty awesome tbh, it seems to have a completely flat torque curve from about 2000-4500rpm which makes it deceptively quick. Overtaking is definitely not a long drawn out affair. One thing that is slightly annoying is that the allroad has a shorter final drive than a standard A6, (presumably for offroad/towage) this means that you hit the top of 1st gear very quickly. On the motorway it does about 2300rpm in 6th at 70mph. 

Overall it does that thing where it feels smaller than it is on the road, you can chuck it into a roundabout with a decent amount of gusto and the QUATTRO M8 will do it's thing.

 

Running costs

Erm yeah, this bit isn't amazing to be honest. I've done a few tanks now and got 31mpg on the first full tank which was mixed driving, 28 on the next which was all local and 33 on the next which was 90% motorways at 70 on cruise control. Tax is a CO2-tastic £315 or £30 a month. But I like driving the thing so happy to pay a few extra pence per mile.

 

Buying and selling

There seems to be quite a few broken ones about for under a grand, and some that claim to be not broken around £1500-2000. I think there is a bit of the LCBL about them as the general car buying public think the air suspension is breaky and expensive (it is breaky, but not as expensive as it used to be). As such when I was looking this went for less than similar A6 avants were at the time. If you are going to buy one you can't really test for leaky suspension airbags properly as you need to park it overnight. But you can check if it goes to all heights, it should only take 30-60 seconds to change levels. Other big watchouts are injector pumps and cam wear on <2003 diesels, either of which can give a lumpy idle. And for the love of god don't buy an auto, most of the broken ones for sale are due to borked auto boxes.

 

Features

As I said earlier, standard spec is OK with leather, aircon, cruise control all standard. 99.9% of them came with factory fitted towbars. Other stuff that you could spec were sports seats, heated seats, and front and rear parking sensors. This is the one thing I would like on mine as it is a bit difficult to see where the ends are to park it.

 

So what's broke?

Well so far I have replaced the 2 top control arms on the n/s/f - not a surprise as these are service items on normal A4/A6 as well. Luckily the top ones are the same as non-allroads so were good and cheap, the lower arms are allroad specific so a bit more $$$. Other stuff that needs sorting is a big service, and the pads all round seem low and the warning has just come on for them. Also I need to figure out a way to get DAB on the factory radio as I like the look and sound of it and don't want to stick an aftermarket one in. Finally, and perhaps worst of all, the Quattro badge and the I of TDI are missing off the boot, so tailgating peasants won't know that I have the 180hp version rather than 163 and 4 wheel drive. 

 

What's planned?

Well addressing some of the above, obviously. I've also got a set of the optional "turbine" alloys with a set of "1 more winter M8" winter tyres on thanks to PBK logistics.

 

 

They could do with a refurb but 1, the centre caps are missing and they seem to be very expensive, 2, they look like hard work to refurb as it's basically 2 faces bolted together, and 3, I think I actually prefer the standard wheels so am more likely to refurb them while the winters are on.

 

 

Should you buy one?

Good question. To be honest, unless you actually live up a farm track or do lots of towing, you would probably be better off with a normal A6. Having said that it seems that A6 estates with diesel, manual, and quattro are fairly rare. There are a lot of 1.9 tdi manuals in 2wd but go hard or go home IMO.

 

Soz for the big text wall and hopefully someone finds it of any sort of interest.

[SiC]

I've always wanted an A6 allroad. Nearly plomped on one when they were worth a bit more. I think I'd break it pretty quickly from playing around with the air suspension too much though.

 

At least changing air suspension struts is not a dangerous task, unlike normal spring suspension. Mostly due to the lack of big springs involved. Just needs deflating first and then good to go.

 

For me it'd have to be the 2.7t, no matter how thirsty they maybe.

[Dave_Q]

^Yeah I'd imagine a pez one would be a bit tasty, I'm also liking the thought of a C6 shape 3.0 tdi.

 

Today, bad shit hit the local area in the form of SNOKAOS.

 

 

This is the sort of stuff the allroad lives for.

 

The snow could only be described as "one step up from a dusting" and was drifting as high as 20mm in places.

 

It may not be apparent from the picture but there's quite the slope on my road, probably as much as 0.5m up from my house to the end. After which there is another 50 yards of untreated road before one reaches a mainish road that is gritted.

 

The allroad blasted up it without a problem, laughed it off even. 

 

By comparison, my wife was trapped in the house, at least for a further 15min until she drove the children to school in her Jazz without issue. 

 

 

And that, my friends, is why I need a QUATTRO.

 

Also, I'm taking the day off work on Friday to attempt a bit of actual fixing, updates to follow.

[bangernomics]

Great threadage this.

[DSdriver]

Traditional parking by ear for the win, keep going till you hear smoll cars being crushed

[Dave_Q]

So today I had the day off work, I initially planned to change the brake pads all round, as the light was on and they were deffo a bit low, and those leaky rear airbags. Maybe even have a look at the power to the stereo and amp which seems to be missing.

 

A decent list so naturally I procrastinated by taking the children to school, then going to Halfords to buy a 12mm hex key, as its needed for the top cap on the springs.

 

So I started work about 11, and the first thing I found was that I already had a 12mm hex bit identical to the one I had just bought. I subsequently changed the front brake pads first then moved onto the rear, I won't show pictures of brake pads as we all know what they look like.

 

This is what the new spring looks like.

 

I had previously seen those foamy bubbles coming out of the right hand spring so I was pretty confident the diagnosis was correct.

 

 

The strut just unbolts top and bottom, you also have to undo the airline. The airlines are flexible plastic and attached with a little compression fitting.

 

 

The internet said you have to unbolt the lower suspension arm to get the strut out, I managed it by compressing the old spring with a ratchet strap like so:

 

 

Once the strut is off the car its quite easy to separate the spring. Here are the new and old next to each other, I was slightly concerned that they looked a bit different but ploughed on anyway.

 

 

The new spring was stiffer than the old so I couldn't get it in the same way and ended up unbolting the arm anyway to wrangle it in. Whilst congratulating myself on how well it was going, I noticed lots of brake fluid leaking onto the floor.

 

 

I presume I must have caught this brake pipe, but it must have been rotten anyway as it just snapped.

 

It was getting pretty late by then so I had to effect a repair using only things from Halfords. I will be revisiting this ASAP as I'm sure it won't be MOT approved.

 

 

No more pictures after that as it was late and cold, but by about 11pm I had it all back together.

 

I was pleased to see all the brakes had seen maintenance at some point in recent times as the sliders were all free and greased. The airbags were a bit odd though as one side had an Arnott aftermarket one and the other an Audi one with scrapyard writing on it.

 

The Arnott bag was dated 2015 so I reckon they just don't last whatever you do. With that in mind I'm glad I got the cheapest ones China had to offer as what's the point in spending 3 times as much if you're gonna have to replace them every other year anyway?

[Dave_Q]

Holy shit, not updated this for a year.

Anyway the Audi above did shite it's clutch and was sold to a Romanian man from Birmingham while it was still only slipping on boost and had a couple of weeks MOT.

It never saw a test again so I imagine he exported it/stripped it/is still driving it round Brum on .ro plates. I more or less got my purchase price back so whatevs.

I did then go and buy myself a van, rambling 2 year thought process documented here:

 

It's a 2010 Fiat Scudo 2.0 120 HDi. Amazingly it turned out to be euro 4 so no DPF. It came with 7 out of 8 seats, 5 blue and 2 grey.

I bagged a further set of 3 grey seats on ebay and the legendary chodweaver (assisted by the clearly very patient Mrs chodweaver) not only collected them for me from somewhere not at all on his way somewhere, but also delivered them and refused to take any money for fuel.

I normally run with 5 seats, the 3rd row live in the shed for occasional deployment for kids parties etc. Here is a shot of the "boot" on a typical day. It's desperate for a clean, have been using it to shift trees and stuff to the tip as part of our extension build - windows + seats make it a normal car for tip purposes.

 

To be honest there's not been loads to report since I got it. I did a few bits and bobs to it, sorting out the locking and some coding stuff to make the wipers and reversing sensors work. It needed a couple of tyres and droplinks and a brake hose for MOT. I did also buy some oil to put it in last August and have still not managed to actually change it.

As a car, it's exactly the van I needed. I think it's about as big as you can go without it being a pain to use and park. It's about the same size as a range rover, maybe 3-4 inch longer, and people use those as family cars. I've not yet found a car park it's too high for but I sometimes have to lower the aerial in multi-storeys. It gives me low 30s to the gallon round town and nearer 40 on a run. It drives fine and seems like it wants to live. When the weather gets better I will do the cambelt. I may even keep it long enough to see 200k (currently on 183k). I can really see why they are so popular with taxi drivers, in a less hilly area I reckon you would see 40mpg regularly round town.

It did blot it's copy book last week and I had to actually lift a spanner for once.

On a day when I was planning to pedal to work I had a parcel to drop off so drove up the road to do so. Got back in and no start nothing, not even a click or try. Bridged the terminals on the starter and it started, but the starter stayed engaged. So I cut the battery and called Autoaid.

Once lifted home I whipped the starter off to have a look. I had noticed that it looked new when inspecting it after purchase.

Access was OK down the front of the engine, just one bolt was a bit of a squeeze next to the clutch slave. 

 

I got the starter off and bench tested it, it was fine. Looked new as I said and it had a sticker on suggesting it was a refurb fitted in 2017. Put it back on and replaced a blown fuse for it and it was all fine. 

Fixed for £0 and half a day off work. I was tempted to tear down the starter and clean and grease some shit, will save that for if it continues playing up and sticking.

 

[Dave_Q]

In other news, I do still have my SV650. I did put it up for sale last year but changed my mind. As it's so cheap to insure and not worth much I would only have ended up spending more buying something else in the near future. 

As our garage was knocked down in September or so I actually abandoned it at work for safekeeping. Work noticed around xmas and moaned so I bought it back. Sitting outside has not been kind, the front calipers are sticking again and it was a pig to start, The choke jets have been seized since I got it, I've always managed to start it with a bit of throttle/smoke. May have to bite the bullet and rebuild the carbs soon.

[Dave_Q]

Obviously when you have a van you think about campering it. It's a tricky one as I still need to spend 98% of my time seating 5 with pushbikes and shite in the back. And as our kids are small it would need to sleep 5 as they're not big enough to leave at home.

You can get these pop top roof things which give you more headroom and a bed for 2 in the roof. I could then lash something up out of plywood for a removable kitchen unit / child bed. 

http://www.poptoproofs.co.uk/shop/product-info.php?id=30356

Sadly these things cost more than I actually paid for the van despite being a fibreglass tray with tent zipped to it and a few strengthening ribs, so it ain't happening any time soon. 

[Dave_Q]

Have barely had anything to say here as we've spent the last year building some house.

Van has kept on vanning, no issues since the starter stuff earlier this year. It did have a couple of tyres and front brake pads advisoried at MOT so I did those before we went on holiday.

Also did the cambelt which ended up being a medium-high faff as I struggled to get the crank bolt out, turns out they are threadlocked in and it needed some heat and a new,bigger ugga dugga gun. After all that, the cambelt that was on it was dated 2015 so it didn't even really need doing. My heat gun also did some alarming self immolation in the process.

As the house stuff is starting to calm down slightly I decided to do something about my poor motorbike which had spent several months languishing in the back garden:

I took the carbs off a while ago to try and fix the chokes but never finished the job. One of the retaining bolts for the choke snapped off and I made a poor job of drilling it out.

I did offer it up on here but understandably didn't get much interest as a non-runner. I have now bodged the carbs back together and got it running again, it's booked in for MOT on Friday.

[Dave_Q]

Brakes now temporarily sorted on the SV.

The rubber boot things on the sliders are not in the best state, 2 of them are ripped and not keeping water out and the other 2 are a bit baggy as some idiot (ie me) cleaned them in petrol last time and they swelled up.

So I just cleaned them all up and greased them for now, hopefully that will be good enough for test but I'll order some bits and redo it properly.

Rear brake was a bit easier, I just ragged it on the stand and did some braking and it seemed to free off fine.

.

[Dave_Q]

Before anyone starts, yes this was not essential/advised but not illegal, the man brought the bike out to the van for me (not meeting in a private home/garden) and distancing was observed.

Anyway what did I win?

Look at it man! It's a blue and white GSXR in 750 flava. My mind is basically stuck at the age of approx 19 which happens to be roughly when this thing was new, and I'm slightly amazed I can buy and insure it for such reasonable prices.

It has the obligatory tiny indicators, hack job "tail tidy" and double bubble screen, and the top yoke has been drilled for a bar conversion. Other than that it's standard even down to the original end can.

Here is the seller's description:

Quote

New headrace bearings 

New shock linkage bearing (big one frame end)

New tyres BT016 Pro

New rear pads.

New battery

Everything else is scuffy, cracks everywhere, radiators seen better days the rear shock is like a pogo stick. 

Bogs if you give it full beans

6th gear whines like when you put your foot down in a car in reverse, I'm unsure if thats a fault or if they're like that? 

Slight oil leak.

Standard can on it.

No MOT 40K.miles HpI Clear.

Full V5 here.

Runs and rides fine, engine starts first time and is quiet.

I had messaged him about the running fault and done some research, I thought it was probably the fuel pump. Had a quick diagnose when I got it back.

First, I prepared the dealer grade diagnostic equipment using a measuring jug and an old pot noodle.

The manual says the fuel pump should flow 1200ml in 30 seconds. Due to the size of my receptacle I ran it for 10 seconds and got about 300ml:

Deffo a bit short as should be minimum 400ml in 10sec. The fuel that came out didn't look too clever either:

Also seemed to leave a bit of sediment, not sure if that shows up on the picture.

So that's it for now as I'm meant to be fitting a carpet today. Plan is to clean out the fuel tank and stick a new pattern pump in to see if that fixes the issue.

I've got it booked in for an MOT next week but whether it passes or not I will be pulling the engine over winter to do the gearbox (they are not "like that", it needs fixing)

[Dave_Q]

Made some progress with the bike.

Pulled the fuel pump assembly, tank doesn't look too bad inside and the pez looks fairly clear compared to the stuff that came out the pump:

So loads of Suzukis of this era use the same fuel pump assembly. In what is either a blindingly stupid idea or a clever way to make lots of money on parts, the fuel filter is combined in the pump/pressure regulator assembly in the tank. This mutha is only available as a full assembly for about £350! Number 2 in this picture.

Obviously this means the filter never gets changed and leads to the pump failing due to having to overcome the restriction of the clagged up filter.

Spending this much on the bike was never in the plan but luckily some clever people on the internet came up with a workaround. 

https://www.vstrom.info/Smf/index.php/topic,6105.0.html

In short by drilling a hole in the right place in the filter outlet you can bypass the built in filter and use an external one which you can, y'know, replace occasionally.

I did this and cleaned out the housing as best I could with brake cleaner, rather a lot of skanky brown smeg came out:

Hopefully this means my new pump will last more than 5 mins.

I am still waiting on some hose to arrive to finish the job off but I did manage to get the pump assembly back together and back in the bike.

Will get some hose tomorrow one way or another and will see if warp speed has been restored when I ride it to MOT on Thursday.

[Dave_Q]

It's only gone and passed. DEPLOY MOORS PICTURES.

Slightly along the road from here there is a little car park that used to be the one for this picture with the little lake in the background, but they've blocked it off with concrete blocks and big gravel.

Here is my external fuel filter, it's nice and small and I managed to squeeze it in under the tank so the lines aren't loads longer. 

The fix definitely worked, I am too scared/sensible to redline the bike on the road but I got to 10krpm and no issues.

There is a little stumble/hiccup about 2-4krpm which is annoying as that is where you are riding in traffic, did seem to get a bit better as I rode so will see how it goes, may need to clean the injectors too.

[hairnet]

BOUNCE IT AFF THA LIMITER FFS :)

 

[Dave_Q]

BOUNCE IT AFF THA LIMITER FFS
 

As the limiter in first is apparently 72mph, there is no way I could do this on the road as a responsible citizen.

If I do so, I'll be saving that post and submitting it to the polis for consideration for an SP36 (Inciting an SP30)

[hairnet]

its called a gradual slip road

or a long way from one mway to another east lancs onto m60 north as an example

 

[hairnet]

2 minutes ago, hairnet said:

its called a gradual slip road

or a long way from one mway to another east lancs onto m60 north as an example

 

edit - didnt say it had to be on the road

 

[Dave_Q]

13 hours ago, hairnet said:

edit - didnt say it had to be on the road

 

That's a good point, and if I can find a power ranger suit I can squeeze myself into within my £20 budget I would like to go on a track day next year.

[Dave_Q]

Spent some time this week addressing the rear light situation.



As is almost universal on this type of bike the standard rear lights have been binned and the rear end has been hacked up for a "tail tidy". I glued the £shop quality LED indicators back together for the MOT but it didn't last.

Up close the whole setup looked appallingly shit, the fibregash undertray was all cracked and to top it off there was an oval shape light jammed in a hole designed for 2 round ones.



Even worse, the whole setup encroaches on the underseat butty space where the original undertray is cut off.



The fireblade I had had a similar setup, the whole time I had the bike I was searching for a standard undertray but they all went for silly money. Luckily I found one cheap for this and also scored a back light for a nominal sum off a man on a facebook group.

The lights didn't have the wiring with them so I had to bodge something up with generic bulb holders and hot glue.


All back on and looking good (to me)



A pretty straightforward job featuring only minor ineptitude in that I put the tip over sensor back on upside down meaning the bike cut out and refused to start again when I went to ride it the following day.

These little buggers are next for the chop:


Again I think they look quite shit as they are sort of recessed in the hole that the original would sit in. I have got some genuine OEM style front indicators off AliExpress which I'll put on sometime soon, so I can have proud and bulbous Gingercators there to match the back.

[LostnotFound]

On 11/13/2020 at 9:58 AM, Dave_Q said:

That's a good point, and if I can find a power ranger suit I can squeeze myself into within my £20 budget I would like to go on a track day next year.

 

That back end does look much better. I can see why people go aftermarket for indicators on the front if they've dropped the bike but they're a bit like a carbon fiber sticker on the fuel cap of a corsa in my eyes. Which considering it's a nice bike seems a shame.

I need to get back to searching for the unicorn of a second hand suit that would fit. I was monitoring stuff on Ebay last winter with the aim to look at a road bike track day but as I'm sure you've found out being taller than a spanish moto2 racer rules out 99% of suits. In my case I've got the added issue that 2020 hasn't been kind to my already non svelt figure, so am immensely jealous of normal sized people who have masses to choose from. The chances of me wearing one other than for a one off chance to wobble around a track are non existent so don't really want to triple the cost of a days riding to pick one up.

What track were you thinking of doing? Have you done any track days before?

[Dave_Q]

1 hour ago, LostnotFound said:

 

That back end does look much better. I can see why people go aftermarket for indicators on the front if they've dropped the bike but they're a bit like a carbon fiber sticker on the fuel cap of a corsa in my eyes. Which considering it's a nice bike seems a shame.

I need to get back to searching for the unicorn of a second hand suit that would fit. I was monitoring stuff on Ebay last winter with the aim to look at a road bike track day but as I'm sure you've found out being taller than a spanish moto2 racer rules out 99% of suits. In my case I've got the added issue that 2020 hasn't been kind to my already non svelt figure, so am immensely jealous of normal sized people who have masses to choose from. The chances of me wearing one other than for a one off chance to wobble around a track are non existent so don't really want to triple the cost of a days riding to pick one up.

What track were you thinking of doing? Have you done any track days before?

I have never done a track day before but I have a colleague at work who is bang into them.

He recommended Cadwell or Croft which are semi-near to us here on the M62 corridor.

To be honest I feel I am so shit at going round corners on the bike I will go for a novice only day such as this, although my mate insists I'll be OK in the slow group on a normal track day.

https://www.msvtrackdays.com/bike/products/novice-only-bike-track-days/

The leather thing is a total nightmare, I actually bought a 2-piece set that should have been my size but I can barely get them on. On chest size I am a 44 but I am probably going to buy a 46 or 48 if I can find a set. 

I guess if you can go try some on it's better but I am not going to pay £300 or whatever for something that may only get worn twice.

Seems ridiculous to me that 1 piece suits are only done on chest size, there is no way everyone with my chest size has the same length torso and I'm definitely on the longer side.

[Jazoli]

@Dave_Q If you are near the M62 then Oulton is the only choice for a bike trackday, it is simply the best circuit in the UK on a bike.

I have a set of well used hein gericke leathers you can have for cost of postage, I fell off at the top of clay Hill in them at 110mph so they look like I have been bear wresting with them but they are still in good order, they should fit you, they are red and white and black, drop me a line if you want them.

They are like this but in worse condition

[hairnet]

32 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

 

The leather thing is a total nightmare, I actually bought a 2-piece set that should have been my size but I can barely get them on. On chest size I am a 44 but I am probably going to buy a 46 or 48 if I can find a set. 

slim bassa

I guess if you can go try some on it's better but I am not going to pay £300 or whatever for something that may only get worn twice.

CHORTLE

thats exactly what i did - two trackdays within 3 months and i went and bought a j and s one on clearance - that was 12 years ago not done one since (only cars)

but they do still fit

oh and ive not bought bikes previously for the fact they had that rear treatment done to them

fek all that - car coonts @beko1987 cannut see at the best of times and they cant see elephant ears never mind tiny ones

[Jazoli]

I found the only way to get leathers that fit is to go and try them all on in J&S then either buy new or find someone selling the same ones that fit you that they bought online and get them for half price.

Italian leathers are always too small, German ones are generous in the fit and UK sizes are generally about right.

[Jerzy Woking]

For those that have never done a track day (and even those that have done many) and are in striking distance of Gainsborough in Lincs, I can highly recommend the British Superbike School (britishsuperbikechool.com) that operate at Blyton circuit. 

Instructors are ex or current racers (one a former MotoGP rider) or ACU instructors. Top blokes, all of whom can put into words what to do. Been to many trackdays where all the "instructors" want to do is race their mates all day. 

Tuition is 3 (sometimes 2) pupils to 1 instructor. There are also classroom subjects I  between sessions. It's not a trackday per se, but an instructional day. If you do exactly what they say for each session, you will absolutely love it. You learn at your pace, at what you feel comfortable at. All they want to do is for you to enjoy your day and have learnt something at the end of the day that will help you on the road too.

If you are experienced, no matter, you will learn more and I doubt that you will be quicker around the circuit than any of the instructors.

Get a group of you signed up and you may well get very good discount on the published price.

I am not associated with them at all, apart from being a happy, and much smoother and faster, track day rider.

[Dave_Q]

Thanks all for the tips on trackdays, BSS is a little more than I'd like to spend for a 1st try, I am tempted by the novice days run by MSV.

 

I wasn't impressed with the brakes on this thing, the MOT tester mentioned it too. They were good enough to pass but felt terrible, with a pronounced kind of pulsing, not high enough frequency for a warped disc but maybe sticky pistons. 

Pulled them off and had a look. First thing: pad wear seemed quite uneven on both sides.

The reservoir looked nice*

Split the caliper halves to find there was a sort of grey slime in the bottom port? Algae or something?

Anyway they had also been badly painted blue so once they were stripped the first job was a once over with thinners to get them back to factory* finish:

I did order some new seals but ended up reusing the originals as they were all OK. 

The finished article:

I 

I also upgraded the master cylinder to a modern radial jobber, you can spend £200+ on a billet Brembo item but this is AS so mine is a £45 second hand part off a 1000RR Fireblade.

Went on OK with just a tweak to the reservoir bracket and a new bit of hose.

Got it all fitted and bled up today and feels awesome at pushing speed on the drive, will get out on the road to try the next time it's not soggy and miserable.

[Dave_Q]

PS big shout out to Jazoli who sent me a set of leathers that fit, wouldn't even take any money for postage, what a gent.