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November 19th Good Service Deserves Promotion Dear John, This sounds like an exception garage and worth checking out if you're in the Bristol area. I assume Nadine has no connection with the owners other than as a customer.
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November 19th Cyclepedia This site is worth a look. The photos cover service tasks are very crisp and clear
John, --
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November 19th Sticker The new scorpion end can sticker has not fried to a crisp and still looks good.
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November 19th 59 club down under Just in case any of our readers are from Australia, this email arrived the other day. Just letting you no there is a 59 club in Queensland now . We go Harrys dinner on the 2nd 3rd and 4thFriday of the month and do weekend rides all welcome go to www.the59club.org.au.
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October 9th Stickers and Cans I hope you're all enjoying the extended summer. I took a rare weekend break the other day and went for ride for the hell of it, imagine that! It was a lovely Saturday afternoon and my 14 yo son was needed cheering up, so Dad took him for spin down to Brignorth and across to Ludlow and back again to Shrewsbury. He loved it, though he had cramp in both his long legs. I must teach him the subtle art of riding pillion though, he loves hanging off and launches himself with glee at the tarmac. This obviously has an unsettling affect on the bike. It came to my notice that the Scorpion sticker on my end can was looking a bit sad. The heat had cooked the rubberised material that it's made from and cracks were appearing. The colour had also faded and the glue was about to give up. Not a problem thought I, I'll just pull it off and remove said glue. But it occurred to me that the can would look a bit plain without the Scorpion motif, so I dropped an email to their service department and asked if I could obtain a replacement, hoping they would send one for free. And guess what they did. It looks nice too, though it does look like a bumper sticker and I suspect it will end up looking like a small toasted slug after my first ride. I'll let you know. John 
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September 5th MPG and Clutches Dave wrote to me in response to my item in Summer2012 about constant clutch cable adjustments. Hi John, I have also had to adjust my clutch cable on a fairly regular basis. One thing I did find though was that the adjuster lock nuts (threaded sleeve) on the gear box had vibrated loose. I used that fix up to readjust the cable. I have been looking to fit a clutch lever that has a retention spring/clip (much like you see on some Yamahas) to prevent the bar end adjuster from vibrating loose but have not found one that is reasonable in price. The SA SV now has around 30 000 miles on it and is still going well. I average about 70 mpg on my 50 mile round trip to work. It is due a set of tyres shortly and I am looking at the new Bridgestone 023’s which I see have had good reviews. They retail for around £200 a set. I finally managed to sort out my front paddock stand and now use both stands when the bike is washed. Regards, Dave Loubser Since my last update on the clutch cable, things have been fine and I haven't fiddled with it once. I had to ask Dave about the MPG figure of 70mpg, I've never managed more than 55 but I know other SV riders, especially on later models who do better that I, but 70!!!! John, I checked the mileage to work and back with my Tom Tom so I know that the odo is reasonably correct. 70 mpg equates to around 25 km/ltr which is close to what I used to get in SA. My route is 90% highway spent mostly at a steady 70 mp/h. I had the fuel injection system checked a while back when I thouht that I was not getting enough mileage and they found nothing. I have changed the plugs recently and noticed that the heat range they gave me was a 9 whereas my old SA spec plugs were an 8 range. I do not suppose that this has had too much to do with the consumption. I had better check that my front stand does not do the same as I am planning to pull the wheels off the bike in winter to service and clean the brakes. You may have to remove the front mudguard to get the wheel off. Regards, Dave So there you have it. I'm very impressed. In case your wondering about Dave's last comment, I found that my front paddock stand doesn't lift the front wheel high enough. With the axle removed the mudguard get's in the way when trying to extract the wheel.
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September 1st Another season rolls by, I can't believe it's September already. So what's new, on the biking front not a lot. Apart from the big trip to France in June I haven't used the bike for pleasure much at all, just the daily jaunt to work. It's not a lack of interest, far from it, just a lack of time. When I do get the odd spare moment, I'm usually asleep in front of the TV. Don't laugh wait till you're in your fifties. I do have some plans though. I've decided I've had enough of the bike alarm. It serves no purpose other than to annoy the hell out of me. When you want it to go off is stays silent, then at other times a small moth lands on the wing mirror all hell breaks loose. It bugs the life out of me that you can't chose to turn the thing off permanently, unless you put it in "maintenance" mode and the thing bleeps every 5 minutes to remind you. My alarm is a datatool 3. It's never let me down in the sense of stopping the bike from starting, and I'm grateful for that, but I live in a low crime zone and my idea of security is a bloody great lock and chain. The datatool is well integrated into the wiring loom. All the cable colours are black. Bit's of the loom (I believe) get chopped out too. So whilst I'm more than capable of ripping the thing out and joining wires back up again, I somehow feel that it won't be as reliable. The answer was more obvious, and came from a thread on the forum, buy a second hand loom from ebay. And that's what I've done. I've not fitted it yet, I'll save that as a winter job. Another bike related repair was my Sidi boots. I was just bit pissed off to notice that the sole was wearing through on the ball of the left hand boot. I wouldn't mind if they were old, but I've only had two or three years out of them and the uppers are spotless. So I bought some stick on soles from the cobblers. So far, so good. I got and extra 2-3mm of rubber and when that goes I'll do it again, as least till the uppers fall apart, tight moi! By now the 2011 AR would have taken place. Once again it was the weekend that I went off on my hols to Wales, so a no show from me again. Sorry about that. I hear that it was well organised and went without any major problems. I have to confess that it worries me that one day something tragic will happen, especially with so many taking part in the rideout. Fingers crossed it never happens. Rictus has written a great write up here. I think I'm finally getting to end of the DIY work on the house. There's been a lot of changes here to adapt it to suit my wife's increasing disability. An extension was added last year and this summer I added a deck, very nice it is too. She can now get into the garden in a small way. Meantime our old room was gutted (including the plaster) and redecorated for my teenage son. And the last few weeks I've been digging out rotten wood in the facia board and painting that before the weather turns. The football season starts again too, so that's my Sundays screwed too. So enjoy what's left of the good weather and get out there and ride. All for now John
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