I've just added another service to our Services and Offers page, this time it's Gear4Gears run by Matt (forum name matt_rehm_hext). Discounts vary between 5-10% for forum readers depending on the product. I'm sure Matt will appreciate your support

John

Whilst working on the front wheel it seemed a good idea to check the front brake calipers over. Nothing much to note, just a clean and re-assemble. I thought I ought to look at the rear too, as I can't recall the last time I checked. The pads still had plenty of meat on them but the shims and packing plates are well rusty. One of the rubber boots was torn and the plug that allow access to the single pin was frozen. I was able to remove the plug by tapping it around with a centre punch but that wrecked it. So onto the Robinsons website to order spares. It was cheaper to buy a pad service set than just the shims and packers, so I did that. Interestingly the new shims are plain metal, no paint and hopefully corrosion proof.

I wasn't happy with the feel of the front brakes, a touch spongy I thought, even though I bled them to death last year when I installed the brake lines. So I bled them again on the off chance that some trapped air might have moved. I saw a couple of tiny bubbles on the right caliper, but not much else. This did transform the feel though. Sponginess has gone and response is immediate.

It's now just turned April and the SV has hit the magic 32k miles. So time for some more servicing. Nothing too exciting here, oil was drained and refilled with fresh Castrol GP1. Spark plugs were replaced too. Due to my laziness these hadn't been replaced since the 16k service. Whilst changing the front plug I looked at the the front exhaust retaining bolts. The thought occurred to me that these had never been removed and what were the chances of them being corroded solid, thanks to the battering they get from the front wheel. I used a good quality Allen (hex) socket and did the trick of tightening the bolt first. This is a good technique as it gives you a chance to test resistance without burring off the bolt head. I got a nice 'click' as the bolt gave up its resistance and I then easily removed both bolts.

Putting them back in was another story. The right side bolt was very tight and I was worried about cross threading and buggering up the internal thread. This is another good reason to have a tap and die set to hand. As well as cutting new threads they're also very useful for cleaning up corroded items such as this. Most sets come with pitch key that looks like a set of combs. You use this to work out the pitch of the thread. Mine was 1.5 (turns per mm). The bolt size was 8mm. This is not the spanner size, but the width of the bolt body itself.  So I selected the right tap (taps cut threads in holes, dies cut threads on bolts) and gently wound it in and pulled out all the crap. Fitting the bolts after that was easy, along with some copperslip to prevent further corrosion.

Whilst working on the bike in the garage in February I noticed that the front tyre was pretty flat. Enough for me to start looking for screws and nails, but nothing obvious was found. I always buy my tyres from Autotyres in Frankwell, Shrewsbury. A nice bunch of lads and one of the few places that although geared up for cars will also look after bikes, provided you can give them a loose wheel. So I dropped of the front wheel with them and picked it up a couple of hours later. Puncture was fixed as expected, the cause, bird poo apparently. They put the wheel in the water tank and air was escaping between the rim and tyre. The tyre was removed and offending excrement was discovered. My bike is parked outside my house most of the year and mostly covered, but we have a large population of Blackbirds leaving in our hedges and trees so I wasn't entirely surprised. Best bit is that Autotyres charged me nothing, good service still exists.

My winter lay off is now over and I'm back riding again. Such a great feeling to be back on the SV. Absence makes the heart grow fonder as they say. The commute to work along the A5 is also a lot  more pleasant, no getting stuck behind artics.

I did some work on the SV over the course of February. You can read about it here.