Oct. 25th, 2006 11:58 am
Aging Motorcycle
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vin_petrolThe other thing that has been "ill" all year and particularly bothersome has been my motorbike. Although I may *ahem* go on about Honda reliability, it appears that only really applies to the first 70,000 miles of its life.
Y'see, there's a fundamental problem with my motorcycle. It's mostly made out of these elements called iron and aluminium, and used in an environment full of oxygen and water. Can you see the problem here? Stuff just rusts and corrodes away. The radiator rotted from the inside out and started spurting coolant all over the floor six months ago, just before April Whitby Goth Weekend.
Some components have a defined life span. It's very long, but they do wear out. I had to replace the front brake disks earlier this years, as after 70,000 miles of being regularly gripped between abrasive pads they were covered in scratches and grooves and in imminent danger of cracking. The car drivers amongst you may have no idea how much motorcycle components cost. They're stupidly expensive, as they have to be small, light and handle more stress than car components. To give you some idea, a while ago my Honda Civic Type-R (hardly a low performance vehicle) needed new front brake disks. They were £37.50 each. New front brake disks for my VFR 750 were £140 each!
I had all manner of charging problems with the battery over the last few months, which eventually turned out to be a burnt out alternator. The connections on one of the indicators rusted away, causing me to have no indicators and blowing fuses at regular intervals.
The bike (finally) seems to be working fine now ... just in time for winter :-( Running it through the winter doesn't do it any good, and Trash has declared a preference for my NOT riding in the winter. Therefore, for the first time ever in nearly 20 years of riding (eek!) I'm going to be something of a fair weather rider, and lay off riding over the winter. I shall cycle to the station and take the train to work, starting on Tuesday next week. The clock change makes a convenient point to swap, as rides home as of next week would be made in total darkness.
If I had known at the start of the year what the VFR was going to cost me to keep running, I probably would have sold it and bought something else with a much lower mileage. I may well do that anyway next spring. Which leaves me with a dilemma over what to buy. I had always wanted a VFR 750, but mine was one of the last years they made them. The current incarnation, the V-TEC VFR 800, has nothing like the love and respect the old VFR used to command. I don't fancy changing gear four times to go round a corner, so a modern CBR 600 is out. I'm slightly worried that I keep looking at the ST 1100 Pan European and going "ooh, nice"
Y'see, there's a fundamental problem with my motorcycle. It's mostly made out of these elements called iron and aluminium, and used in an environment full of oxygen and water. Can you see the problem here? Stuff just rusts and corrodes away. The radiator rotted from the inside out and started spurting coolant all over the floor six months ago, just before April Whitby Goth Weekend.
Some components have a defined life span. It's very long, but they do wear out. I had to replace the front brake disks earlier this years, as after 70,000 miles of being regularly gripped between abrasive pads they were covered in scratches and grooves and in imminent danger of cracking. The car drivers amongst you may have no idea how much motorcycle components cost. They're stupidly expensive, as they have to be small, light and handle more stress than car components. To give you some idea, a while ago my Honda Civic Type-R (hardly a low performance vehicle) needed new front brake disks. They were £37.50 each. New front brake disks for my VFR 750 were £140 each!
I had all manner of charging problems with the battery over the last few months, which eventually turned out to be a burnt out alternator. The connections on one of the indicators rusted away, causing me to have no indicators and blowing fuses at regular intervals.
The bike (finally) seems to be working fine now ... just in time for winter :-( Running it through the winter doesn't do it any good, and Trash has declared a preference for my NOT riding in the winter. Therefore, for the first time ever in nearly 20 years of riding (eek!) I'm going to be something of a fair weather rider, and lay off riding over the winter. I shall cycle to the station and take the train to work, starting on Tuesday next week. The clock change makes a convenient point to swap, as rides home as of next week would be made in total darkness.
If I had known at the start of the year what the VFR was going to cost me to keep running, I probably would have sold it and bought something else with a much lower mileage. I may well do that anyway next spring. Which leaves me with a dilemma over what to buy. I had always wanted a VFR 750, but mine was one of the last years they made them. The current incarnation, the V-TEC VFR 800, has nothing like the love and respect the old VFR used to command. I don't fancy changing gear four times to go round a corner, so a modern CBR 600 is out. I'm slightly worried that I keep looking at the ST 1100 Pan European and going "ooh, nice"
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no subject
I was getting through a set of brake discs, pads and four tyres a year in my twin turbo Legacy - which at £110 a tyre (trade), and £200 a disc is a pain. That's doing about 18,000 miles. High performance 4WD turbocharged cars tend to be that way.
On the other hand, my 17 year old Renault 5s are rusting slightly, but still solid. They tend to eat front tyres due to excessive torque - but 13" tyres aren't expensive.
None of my four cars is under 100,000 miles...
no subject
I've refined the aversion therapy technique. They won't just be spiders, they will be French spiders.