buying bike gear off ebay

I checked my transaction records on eBay and found that I haven't purchased anything in 1.5 years!

Anyways, I bought myself some gear for my Honda. I needed a replacement Voltage Regulator/Rectifier as the OEM part is toast. It won't charge the battery anymore, so eventually the bike will splutter to death again like it did last Christmas. I also bought a set of wing mirrors as my current items are scratched (due a drop when when I first bought the bike). Hopefully it will make the bike more appealing as they're probably the most scratched items on the bike.

I also bought an Evo-tech fender eliminator for my GSX-R600. The stock fender is massive and cumbersome looking. Frankly, it's ugly. The new fender will help to tidy up the rear-end of the bike heaps.

serviced the Honda; new oil in Suzuki

I was able to service the CBR250RR with Chiev's help on Friday night. We changed the oil, changed the spark plugs, changed the coolant, bled the brakes and put in new brake fluid. We couldn't change the oil filter because the bolt holding it in was rounded. Even if we could get it off, we probably couldn't get the plug back on afterwards. I did not like the prospect of fuel leaking onto the rear tyre will riding.

Most of the work was fairly straight-forward. Take the side fairings off and all the plugs are pretty much at hand; except the spark plugs. They are right in the bowels of the bike (under the radiator). Curiously, and annoyingly, the spark plug arrangement is grouped by sparks 1-2-3 and the 4th spark is on its own. The number 3 spark plug is a bastard to get to. I'm not sure what it is, but there's something dividing spark 3 and 4, so the only way to get to spark 3 is to reach right in from the spark 1 side. Given that there's not much space, it's quite a challenge undoing the spark with 5/8th spark plug socket, socket extender and ratchet. Let's not forget that you still have put the new spark plug in. After the service, I took the bike for a quick spin around Chiev's area. The gearbox felt a lot smoother than before. I'm not sure if the engine revved smoother (it felt like it did), and the brakes felt about the same. On the whole, it was a good exercise and I learnt a lot from it.

I bought all the gear during on the Friday (while I was at work) from Peter Stevens in the city. The gear included 2x 4l bottles of Motul 5100 10w-40 semi-synthetic oil, 2x 500ml bottles of DOT5.1 Motul brake fluid, 4x NGK spark plugs, an oil filter for the 250RR (which we didn't use), and Motul Inugel Ultra coolant (also didn't use, as I forgot to buy distilled water).

On the Saturday, I changed the oil out of my 600. I bought a Suzuki OEM filter from Peter Stevens the day before, and used the left-over Motul oil to do the service. Let me say, this was far more nerve-wracking than working on the Honda as the bike is only 3 weeks old and the last thing I wanted is to scratch-up the fairings. Thankfully I got some help from Chiev (again), Adrian and Jack. The left side fairing proved to be a difficult one to get off. There was one fastener that just wouldn't budge, but somehow Adrian managed to pop it off.

Before I got started, I dropped into Bunnings and bought myself a nice 43 piece Kincrome socket set to do this work with. Sure, I only needed the 17mm socket, extender and ratchet; but it's nice to have a good complement of tools, and I'll look to do more of the work myself in the future. I'll need an oil filter wrench eventually, as I had to get Chiev to get the oil filter off with his own home-made 'seat-belt' contraption. I also dropped into SupaCheap Autos and picked up a oil pan and some funnels.

So we drained the oil, changed the oil filter, tipped in new oil, put the bike back together and fired it up. After firing-up the bike a couple of times to check the oil level, I decided to jump on the bike and take it for a quick spin around my area. The gearbox felt a little smoother but I think the engine might have idled a little better. Could be placebo. But I think it was worth changing the oil, even though it's only 550km till my first service. I'll bet the old oil had been sitting in the bike for ages before I bought it.

the Honda CBR250RR lives!

I got some help this weekend with my broken CBR250RR. Chiev was good enough to drop by and then go over to Adrian's place to scope out the bike. The first thing we did, aside from wheeling it out of the shed, was to take the seat off and have a go at the battery. With Chiev's multimeter at hand, we tested the voltage of the battery and found that it was down to a hopeless 5.5 volts. The battery is probably past it, so we pulled it out and swapped in a spare that Chiev brought along. It turns out the spare wasn't in good health either, as it had spent a full night recharging but could only manage 11.5 volts out of a normal 12.4 volts.

So we upped ourselves over to a1 Motorcycles in Ringwood and bought ourselves a new sealed battery. After grabbing some lunch (fresh home-made hamburgers!), we headed back to Adrians to setup the new battery. First we put the acid into the battery, and then we waited 30 minutes before we could use it.

After connecting the terminals to the battery, we switched on the ignition and got headlights and the 'idiot' lights on the instrument cluster. Pressing the starter button, the bike fired to life without any struggle. Needless to say, I was very happy. The quote that I got for a gearbox replacement is ~$1600! It's easier to replace the engine and gearbox as a unit, rather than fiddling with the delicate parts of the gearbox. Thankfully, after wheeling it onto the road and giving the bike a shakedown, there wasn't anything else wrong with the bike. Looks like my initial dismay over the suspected broken gearbox was completely off-the-mark.

We now suspect that the regulator that recharges the battery may be past it's life. So I'll test it out next weekend. After a full service and clean, I'll look to sell the bike.

being promoted

It was communicated to me verbally this week that I am being promoted. Today, I received an email confirming that from March 1, I will be promoted to Consultant and I will have my renumeration adjusted accordingly.

prognosis of a broken CBR250RR

I am confident the gearbox is royally shagged on the bike. I went to Aidz's place, as the bike is stored there, and wheeled it out onto the road. I checked all the important bits prior to starting it with a rolling-start. There was plenty of fuel in the tank (near full), the position of the fuel petcock was set to On and the Kill switch was set to Run. I had Jack push me down the road and I clutched-out and gave it gas. The bike spluttered to life, but it didn't rev-out as you normally expect. It just sounded like someone going "Ahhhhh" when a doctor sticks a paddle in the patient's mouth. The rear tyre locked-up immediately and I was skidding along the road. As soon as I clutched back in, the engine would cut out. Looks like I will have to take it into a service shop to get the bike assessed.

Anyways, on a happier note, Aidz installed his new Akrapovic under-tail exhaust on his CBR600RR. It sounds great, with a nice bassy idle and plenty of volume. It makes me want to ditch my stock exhaust for something nice, like a Taylor Made shotgun-style exhaust.

sore foot, and blisters on my forearm

Adding to my health woes is my really sore foot. It's not the entire foot; just the ball (joint) of my right big toe. I can't really walk properly at the moment. This happened about 2 weeks ago, but then it went away. Unfortunately, it seems to have flared-up again. I hope I'm not get arthritis or something.

I also have blisters in the middle of my right fore-arm. I'm not sure how they developed. I suspect it was all the riding I did on the weekend. It must have been the armour/kevlar in the jacket for the right elbow rubbing against the skin. This has never happened to me before on my old CBR250RR, but I suspect that the new bike's bigger engine is the partial culprit. Since the engine it bigger, there's more vibrations through the handlebars. This obviously transfers up my arms and into the jacket. I just hope that these blisters are not the result of my health woes/anomalies or something else sinister.

a thorough weekend

The weekend that just past was a fairly busy one. Saturday morning was spent mowing the lawn (yay, not!) and I went to see the doctor to get my blood test results. Aside from high enzymes in my liver, everything else was within the recommended ranges. I think the high enzymes were due to me being on antibiotics. Surprisingly, my cholesterol was low. There was nothing in the results to explain why I've lost so much weight. I will be following-up my blood test with another blood test in one month to see if anything has changed.

I spent the rest of my Saturday afternoon riding my bike. The weather was warm but my friend Adrian was more than up for a ride. He had just gotten his bike back from repairs (thanks to some idiot running into him). We cruised around town and just enjoyed our time out on our bikes.

Later that night, I went out for dinner with a close friend for Shabu Shabu at Kura. Shabu Shabu is basically a Japanese style steam-boat, but the spread was distinctively Japanese and yummy. We ordered some Kim-Chi and Chicken Yakitori to go with our Shabu Shabu, and we finished off with Sesame ice-cream. On the whole, a very nice dinner!

My Sunday was spent mostly riding my bike. Well my morning and afternoon was spent entirely on the bike. I met up with Adrian again and we cruised around some more. We initially went down to Metro Honda in Ringwood to check something, but the store closed. So we continued onto Mt. Dandenong Tourist Road and headed up the mountain. This was a good chance to break-in the engine some more and to vary the revs. I've managed to scrub my rear tyre to within 1/2 an inch of the edge on both sides. We did lunch at The Glen after coming down from the mountain, and we finished up cruising around some more before heading home.