Bike bits

My goodness, has it really been over a week since I last posted? Time flies.

I am now sitting happily on the sofa with a large G&T (the second since I got home) on the table next to me. The back door is open and the cats are romping around outside in the sunshine. I don't have much planned for the weekend except relaxing, and at the moment all seems right with the world, more or less.

So what has kept me from Blogging this past week? Lethargy probably! That and a few hours overtime at work.

So, what's happened since the last post?

The bike was booked in for an MOT (Ministry of Transport test, for any overseas readers, where bikes and cars over 3 years old are tested annually for roadworthiness and a certificate issued without which it is illegal for them to be driven/ridden on the road) but I left it to the very last minute before realising that the tread on the rear tyre was fractionally on the wrong side of borderline and therefore illegal, so I had to find somewhere who had the correct size tyre in stock and could fit it that day so having travelled to Hamilton for the MOT (the tyre garage in Hamilton I had hoped I could turn up unannounced at an hour before the MOT elsewhere in Hamilton was rather inconveniently closed for a holiday so that scuppered my ill-laid last minute plans) so after much calling around I found the only place in the west of Scotland who could fit a 160/60 ZR18 70W tyre that day was North Harbour Motorcycles, about 40 miles away in Ayr. So it was a sunny day as I set off for the seaside, having agreed with the MOT garage that I could bring it back later that day when I had a new tyre fitted.

North Harbour were very helpful, and offered to MOT it for me once the tyre was fitted, so I dropped off the bike around quarter to one and was told to come back around 3pm. I have to confess that, particularly when still very much limping from my tendon injury, walking around Ayr in blazing sunshine while wearing biking leathers is no fun at all. Eventually I got a call from them to tell me that they had changed the tyre OK (£120, if you're interested) but hadn't MOT'd it because if they had it would have failed because the rear brake pads were worn amongst one or two other things the mechanic noticed when he had the rear wheel off.

So to cut a long story slightly shorter, I have in the boot of my car a small box of bike bits, including a new rear brake disc, brake pads front and rear, and a new front wheel bearing, all of which cost me £290 off t'InterWeb and the bike is parked in a secure yard at work awaiting a friend of a friend who is a bike mechanic to do all the required work next weekend prior to putting it through the MOT.

So I'm looking forward to getting back onto two wheels as soon as possible. No doubt it'll rain!