I’m not keen on cheap plastic goggles but leather and glass ones are expensive, so I looked up sports sunglasses and found some neat snow ones with flaps round the sides, for about eighty quid, also out of my price range. More intriguing still, a pair with a discrete foam rubber glasses-to-face gasket glued to the inside of the ocular part of the frame. ‘Perfect’, I thought, but a hundred and twenty bucks! Then I remembered the onion goggles I got from Jane’s sister one Christmas.
They look pretty ridiculous, I have to say, but for the time being the ultimate ‘no tears’ onion chopping glasses are my new best friend. What a winner and a hundred-odd quid saved, so thank you Julia and TJ.
Rob came over to help me replace the fuel filter, which is choked with rusty sediment from the tank. It’s good to have a buddy to bounce your crazy schemes off and go for a pint with and gently cajole the pointy pliers off the child while you’re in the process of pouring fuel all over yourself. Rob has helped me build a bed, erect a bookcase, make a desk, you name it. We work well together and his assistance is invaluable.
That’s what the press release would say. Typically, when he's not holding the thin end of the wedge, he looks on dispassionately with a roll-up clamped between his fingers while I fanny about posing endless rhetorical questions, laying a smokescreen, if you like, for ongoing fatuous ineptitude.
We started with the front sprocket cover which I wanted to remove to see if I could find the source of the oil leak. I detached the footrest and undid a nut which turned out to be a drain plug. It was a Laurel and Hardy moment as the thick oil spewed gently out. I thought it was just a cover, why would it be full of oil? That’s all I can say for now. Enduring ignorance ensured we made no progress at all on this issue before we switched back to our primary purpose.
The old fuel pipes came off easily enough although they seem to have gone off, turned yellow and gone hard. Perhaps lawn mower pipe isn’t really up to the job after all. Hitchcocks have supplied an altogether meatier grade of pipe with the same bore and Jubilee clips to match. We installed a piece of this on the reserve side however the pipe is too thick to make the required arc on the main tap side, which it has to do to accommodate the inline filter. So, I’m sticking with lawn mower pipe on that side until the fuel comes up clean and I can forgo the filter. To accelerate this end we sluiced the tank out, again, and recovered another tablespoon of rust particles.
There were some teething troubles with everything back in place, a leak, a split pipe, fuel overflowing from the throttle chamber (?) but a few tweaks and test ride later it all seems sorted. The rear footrest and sidestand bracket had come lose again, access to the nut is awkward but I tightened it as best I could, and the spark plug nipple came off in the plug cap. These are clearly vibration issues and so, note to self, a regular visual and tactile check of components is recommended during any trip. I could also make good use of some thread locking compound.
Poz protested at being left out by covering himself in his mother’s best lipstick. It’s difficult, I try to include him but not when I’m splashing petrol about the place. It was like a scene from a horror movie when he appeared at the back door, plastered in shiny red emulsion, smiling guiltily (see photo).
