http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/ TRC is a UK motorbike forum community, it also provides motorbike blogs, free uk motorbike classifieds, motogp discussions, motorbike reviews, motorbike articles and much more en Sat, 18 May 2013 12:03:31 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/customstyles/default/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/ http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/1165-s-here.html Fri, 12 Apr 2013 07:57:06 GMT No batteries supplied >Instructions for...]]> The BP machine is mine for a week.
And already it's pissed me off :wtf: ;

>No batteries supplied
>Instructions for another model
>Cuff that only just squeezes over my guns ;D
>Out of date calibration

Christ on a bike that lot alone would send my blood pressure through the roof.

Hey ho, lets see what we see. ]]> mrlongbeard http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/1165-s-here.html http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/1155-booze.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:23:27 GMT That's my problem I like a drink of an evening.
My current alcohol intake for 1 week is;

1 bottle whisky
2 bottle of wine
12 bottles of Hobgoblin

That probably accounts for loads of sugar, loads of calories and loads of units :whistle:

So I reckon a bit of cutting down is in order, not quitting it all together, that'd be daft. So from Monday I'm limiting my weekly booze shop to;

1 bottle whisky
4 bottles of hobgoblin

Which should help with my BP, and with the money saved I can afford a decent drop of whisky O0 ]]> mrlongbeard http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/1155-booze.html http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/1154-results-in.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:20:51 GMT And they're a bit, well, meh nothing life threatening, yet, but the normal stuff most folk know about.

Kidney function; Normal
Liver; Normal
Cholesterol; 5 - 6
BP; 140/100
Weight; Too much, OK OK 130Kgs
Smoking; Quit it
Alcohol; Half it

OK so my BP is high, and my cholesterol is borderline, although he did say my lipoproteins were slightly elevated but probably down to the booze.
He's given me a month to straighten up & fly right, after which I borrow a BP monitor for a week to see if it's come down, if not time to get with the pills.

And that is my big motivator, I've been a wheezy asthmatic since way before it was trendy to have an allergy, which means I've been on 2 - 3 medications a day since I was 5ish.
It has given me a deep seated loathing of medication and I'll do almost anything rather than pop pills, so I think I will.

Goals;
Short term (1 month), Get BP down.
Medium term , Sort diet out, I don't mean go on a diet, just get a better food intake cycle going.
Long term, Loose 30Kgs and quit the smoking

Today has been somewhat anti climatic, I've abused my body to hell and back with my current lifestyle, and I'm ruddy surprised I only need to make some small changes. hey ho live and learn ]]> mrlongbeard http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/1154-results-in.html http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/1152-calories.html Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:48:18 GMT Funny little buggers ain't they?

Bloody things get everywhere, well except black coffee :smoke: can you live on coffee alone, it'd save a whole heap of hassle down the road?

In preparation for tomorrow I've been playing with an app on the old mobile http://www.myfitnesspal.com/apps to see what my intake is :o

432 Calories in a jacket spud, a small one mind
240 in a milkshake
700 in a bottle of vino :-X fuck my boots

It appears as though the app is pretty decent / accurate to my eyes, and if it only achieves one thing it makes you sit up and notice food, good food, bad food, all food and what's in it, you end up running round like a headless loon scanning every bar code in sight to see if you can fit it in today's calorie quota.

I blew today's target by a whole 375 ending up at 2350 calories for the day, not to be sniffed at (I bet snot has a ton of calories too ???) it's not a real target yet, still just playing, but in the old adage of eat less move more, the eat less bit should be a doddle ]]> mrlongbeard http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/1152-calories.html http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/1151-before.html Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:28:30 GMT Hullo everyone :) Well time has caught up with me, 40 this year, and the doc is worried about pretty much every... Hullo everyone :)

Well time has caught up with me, 40 this year, and the doc is worried about pretty much every aspect of my general health. :(

To this end I was shipped off to have an armful drawn and get to have a full run down and results on Thursday.

I'm not looking forward to it one little bit, I smoke what I like, drink what I like and haven't sought out exercise in many a year.
What he will tell me probably won't come as a surprise, but we shall see, and what we shall see will make it up in here.

I have the wonderful luxury of anonymity on here and am blessed with a thick skin yet can tap into a vast wealth of knowledge and experience.

So choose to read now or look away, we'll have diet, smoking, drinking, getting fit, food and all with my own personal take on every matter coming from a card carry salad dodger..;D ]]> mrlongbeard http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/1151-before.html http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/415-intolerance-polarized-light.html Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:35:45 GMT Yep not only has god struck me down with Mr. Magoo eyesight but he thought he'd have a laugh and chuck this in as well. :ranting:

Well that's the conclusion of the optician fella after getting headaches from sunglasses and from using LCD screens >:(:'(

Looks like I need to start stock piling CRT monitors for when they stop making them as it's the polorising filters that some LCD screens that screws me up, and i'll need to retire my uber cool Oakley shades 8):( ]]> mrlongbeard http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/415-intolerance-polarized-light.html http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/355-jam-toast.html Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:37:34 GMT Just had a couple of rounds for the first time in years. O0 :burp::burp:

Don't get me wrong I am deffo a fully cooked breakfast kind of fella, but I had a hankering for some seedless strawberry jam on cold toast last night and I couldn't resist any longer.

I now have sticky fingers, a sticky keyboard, a sticky mouse and a very sticky moustache :wtf: someone pass me the pelican bib ]]> mrlongbeard http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/355-jam-toast.html http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/318-drop-link.html Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:59:35 GMT So you need an M14 bolt to pull in the drop link spindle, which I didn't have and didn't get round to getting for a couple of weeks, only to have purchased the wrong thread pitch. Doh....

But all is well, if you need the bolt to slide the spindle out use your swing arm pinch bolt as rather handily it's the right size and everything ::) if I hadn't had so much hassle so far I'd swear Triumph designed it in as a feature.

Just because you've got a bolt dosen't mean it's a slide out job, you may need a slide hammer or if you haven't got one this lot will come in handy;



Once the bolt was in the spindle wasn't coming out, so with at least 2 spanners on the bolt I placed a screwdriver between them and twatted it with a big hammer opening the gap between the spanners, it's then simply a case of selecting spanners that'll fit tightly and repeating until it slides completely out, and as you can see in the end I used 6 spanners, 1 mole grip, 1 pair of pliers and one super wrench thing before it came out.

Special tools? I don't need no stinking special tools :smoke:

All 4 drop ling bearings are shot, I reckon the grease monkey at the Triumph factory was having a day off when mine was put together because they're rusted solid without a drop of grease remaining :ranting:

Photo's of the spindle can be seen here in mechanics;
http://www.therevcounter.com/mechani...k-spindle.html

One of 4 buggered bearings;



Time to spend some money on bearings and seals :-X I was hoping to get it all back together this weekend as a local pub is having a charity raffle next weekend, but that looks unlikely at the mo. ]]> mrlongbeard http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/318-drop-link.html http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/289-rear-supension-pt-1.html Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:38:30 GMT Yep I'm still playing about at the arse end of the bike, don't say I didn't tell you this is the long haul, I'm in no rush and between financial constraints and work commitments I'm only finding an hour here and there instead of spending full weekends on it :(

So it was time to remove the rear shock, as 12K miles of wd40, chain wax, salt and road crud had taken a toll on the wee thing;



Removal is fairly easy if not fiddly, annoying and time consuming, all you need to remove is 1 T55 torx bolt, and allen bolt at the top and a jubilee clip to remove the compression fluid reservoir do dad.

Here's were it gets annoying, to remove the Torx bolts you need to remove the exhaust :wtf:, removing the end cans is a simple case of loosening off the connection clamps (10mm) and the hanging bolts (14mm), Removing the Y piece is also simple just whip of the connecting clamp (12mm?) and lambda sensor.
Now I hate removing these sensors as they are exposed to a lot of heat and combined with being open to the elements it is my experience they they prefer to snap off in the exhaust than come out cleanly.

So I thought I'd try and find t'other end of the sensor and un-clip it from the loom ::) except it's just out of reach of my podgy fingers, so the fuel tank has to come off.

Again this is dead easy, 1 bolt at the back and one allen screw at the front, disconnect the fuel pump power feed, 2 breather hoses and main fuel line and it simply lifts off, 1 word here though, according to the manual the fuel tank is self sealing, however it was nearly full and I didn't fancy dumping 10 liters of unleaded on the floor so it got siphoned off, a step I would recommend to anyone trying this.

So all of this just to whip out a rear shock and the bike is slowly starting to resemble a collection of parts more than a bike;



I still need to get the drop linkage off (the bit tied up with blue wire) as this is the part that needs inspection and re-greasing, at present it's stuck fast and I don't have a M14 bolt to hand to thread in and pull on, once off and checked it should be a simple case of greasing up all the bearings, cleaning up that general area and reassemble the rear end.

Oh nearly forgot, to undo the jubilee clip I spoke about earlier I also had to remove a chuffing large heatsink with wires attached (I'm assuming it's a regulator / rectifier).

These bikes really are a jigsaw, in order to go one step forwards you have to spend time going 2 steps backwards removing stuff to get at your target part, which is a tad annoying if not enlightening.

A bit cleaner;
I think the reservoir is going to have a red bull can cover to protect it before going back on, and I might look at getting a shock sock to cover the rear shock, of course this is dependent on them being cheap, fitting and being effective.

]]> mrlongbeard http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/289-rear-supension-pt-1.html http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/275-rear-hub.html Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:51:38 GMT "Un spike and loosen final drive nut"

Sounds simple, but fook me it ain't.
OK I could of loosened it whilst the rear wheel assembly was still attached but I didn't, and it wouldn't of worked anyway.
After reattaching the rear brake, putting the rear wheel back on, and front the bike to a wall, I couldn't get enough weight over the back wheel and all attempts to remove the final drive nut only lead to the rear wheel spinning.

So back up on the stand, re-remove everything, and think of an new strategy.
In the end it was a case of the breaker bar with a 6' length of scaffold bar on one side and a large spanner jammed in through the rear brake disc, all in all an hours work to undo one sodding nut :bangheadonwall: must remember to put some copper slip on that one when it's put back together again to aid removal next time.

A quick wipe over with an oily rag and he rear hub assembly looks in good enough nick, just need to remove a final circlip so I can re grease the roller bearing that's in there.



Even though the jamming spanner was rubber handled and the swing arm protected with a folded T-shirt I still managed to take a gouge out of my swing arm (I would insert a pissed of smiley here, but I'm limited to 4 images per post)

I'm not best pleased with that, but a fill with chemi-metal, file down and a quick couple of dabs with hammerite will fix it, given its location it'll be hardly visible once everything is back on.
I might even polish up the brake caliper hanger to draw attention away from it, but I'll see how I go on with everything else first.



Drive shaft looks OK, but there is a strange heat mark on one end ?!?, the surface isn't pitted or concaved in any way and the bearings run free enough in the hub and their faces are unmarked, maybe happened during manufacturing the shaft ?!?

It certainly looks as though I've either been way over liberal with the chain waxxing with a hell of a lot of over spray or my cleaning routine isn't up to scratch as the rear sprocket and rear of the cush drive rubbers are caked in it, I think I'll look at putting a lubeman on when I put it back together as this wax crap covers everything and gets everywhere.

]]> mrlongbeard http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/275-rear-hub.html http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/273-rear-end-pt-i.html Sat, 23 Aug 2008 19:38:14 GMT Firstly I have to comment on Abba Stands, they are fabulous :smoke:, after messing about with paddock stands this thing... Firstly I have to comment on Abba Stands, they are fabulous :smoke:, after messing about with paddock stands this thing is rock solid and fills you with confidence that the bike won't be heading south whilst your swinging off stubborn fasteners.



I hadn't planned to get much done today, as I was expecting the rear wheel to be a total sod to remove, with a seized nut, brakes locked on, and the bike being dragged backwards whilst the wife stomped on the breaker bar.

I couldn't have been more wrong.
Me on the front applying a bit of front brake and the wife on the breaker bar and it just spun off easy as pie, which was nice.
I was also slightly concerned that my £1.50 46mm car boot sale socket wouldn't be up to muster, again I was wrong, so money well spent, especially considering the amount of use it'll get (not).

Hmmmm bit crappy back here :o



Bit of a clean up and de-grease session needed me thinks!!!

Well one of the rear bearings needs re-greasing and the rear suspension linkage needs removing and checking, which'll be the next jobs so it can have a proper clean up when all of that lot is off.

On closer inspection it looks like I need to remove the exhaust to get the linkage off, a job I hadn't planned for and am not looking forward to, lambda sensors and I don't see eye to eye and I guessing this one isn't going to be any different. ]]> mrlongbeard http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/273-rear-end-pt-i.html http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/272-so-begins.html Sat, 23 Aug 2008 19:12:00 GMT And I'm not in a mad ass rush to get it finished, so this make take me a while.

First thing to address was space, I haven't got much, and what I've got was a tad crowded.
Patient hiding it the corner trembling with fear;



Bit of a clear out an rearrange, along with an ebayathon cleared some more useable space.

]]> mrlongbeard http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/272-so-begins.html http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/231-speed-trip-12k-servce.html Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:54:14 GMT To blog or to not blog? that is the question dear boy. :burp: It would be nice to have all of the info in one place... To blog or to not blog? that is the question dear boy. :burp:

It would be nice to have all of the info in one place for easy linkage when I'm screaming for help, and it may be handy for the next poor sap to have a go.

But it'll either go swimingly and be as interesting as reading the 300+ page service manual :shakehead: or it'll go down hill faster than a fast thing in an aerodynamic swimming suit covered in goose fat and end up with me more likely to launch the laptop at the bike :-X

But then the Blogs on here have been a tad slow of late.

Meh me thinks I'll have a drink on it :burp: ]]> mrlongbeard http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/blogs/mrlongbeard/231-speed-trip-12k-servce.html