As reported earlier. I've been having a fiddle with my clutch. I replaced the original cable before my trip to France and I can't say that it looked any different in length or action. So the old cable has been kept in stock as a spare.  I did about 1200 miles throughout the French trip and the clutch cable did need adjusting again, but I have to say that the adjuster positions are pretty much where the old one was. Once back home I took fresh look at it. I've returned the cable to full slackness and adjusted the actuator instead. There seems to be a fair amount of slop in this. To explain, you have to move the actuator arm a fair amount before the push rod starts to push on the clutch plates. So a fair amount of adjustment on the cable was just to take up this slack.

With no pressure from the cable on the actuator, the return spring pulls the arm back to it's rest position. I loosened the lock nut and rotated the central screw until it felt it engage with the push rod I then wound back a 1/16 of a turn and tightened up the lock nut. I then adjusted the cable as normal.

None of this explains why I keep adjusting, it simply be that vibration is loosening the adjuster at the bar end. There's certainly no slip and I've even tried to provoke slip, but nothing. I did all this a week or so ago, no adjustments since.

As for the French trip. I'm still in the process of writing that up. So bear with me.

I bumped into my ex recently in town. It was a bit of shock as I hadn't seen her for a while. I have to say that it brought a tear to my eye, the years had not been kind and she'd let herself go a bit. I didn't stay long, I didn't really know what to say to her. I just hope that someone shows her a little bit of TLC before it's too late.

June 1st - Summer time

Well the dry period seems to lasting, even though it has gone a bit cool and windy. 

Well I'm off with some friends down south for a return to Normandy at the back end of June. It's been a few years since we last went to France mainly due to the strong euro, so I'm looking forward to this trip. This of course means some prepping of the SV. The clock hit 28K miles last week, so oil and filter was replaced, as was the front tyre, which might have lasted a bit longer, but the MOT is due in a few weeks, so I bit the bullet and paid up. Whilst sodding around I managed to break my previous repair on the fairing inner. It obviously wasn't strong enough so a slightly different approach was required. See here for details.

The annual bike tax bill hit the door mat with a thud this year, £74!!!!!  Are they having a laugh, jeezo, I don't even ride the bike for 2 of those months.  Also taking the mickey are Suzuki, £30 quid for a clutch cable. I'm not paying that and went to Busters for pattern part instead for £10.  The cable is a bit of insurance. I've had to adjust the clutch twice since resuming my riding in Feb, which is very unusual and usually a sign that the cable is fraying and about the break. I had a good look at the weekend, disconnecting both ends and checking for wear signs, but nothing was found and the cable operated nice and smooth. Maybe the clutch plates are worn, but I'd be surprised as I've never worn a clutch out in my life and that includes cars too. So maybe its just cable stretch.

All for now

John