The weather this weekend has been goregous. Yesterday it was scorching and I spent it in the garden playing with my kids. So this morning, while it was still cool I set up to do a run I’ve wanted to do since I started to learn to ride.

Up the M1 from J30 to J35a, over the Woodhead Pass, through Glossop and back via the Snake Pass. There was not a lot of traffic, but I’m not particularly fast (bike just about able to touch 100 on the motorway, and I’m about up for 40mph on corners), and it took just over two hours. And it was a bloody great two hours too.

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As I came up to the actual Woodhead Pass proper, I went for an overtake on a big lorry, but there was something coming. I’d opened the throttle right up, and as I shut it off in a hurry the bike hopped into neutral, slight panic later, I shifted gear up (into 2nd of course) which locked the rear as I was doing 40-50mph. Massive panic later, I shifted to third and was ok.

As I came out of Glossop I found the Glossop Triathlon was on, so until I was clear of the Snake, there were LOTS of bikes going up (very slowly) or coming down (pretty fast) and lots of pissed off drivers trying to kill me by overtaking bikes when I was. Bah.

Other than that, it’s glorious to ride down the snake, the smell of pine woods and bracken… You just don’t get that in a car.

I did plan on updating this a lot. But I haven’t. I’ve got some stuff I want to write, but, first, let’s sort out the mechanics.

So, after finally getting my bike, I found that the brake light didn’t work for the rear brake. So I got a bit of help from some really useful people at the Kawasaki Rider’s forum and fixed it myself. That felt great. So when the right indicator also stopped working I got more help there, and ordered a Haynes manual.

The advice was the bulb had probably gone on the rear right indicator. Found out from the Haynes manual that it took the same bulbs as my old Picasso, of which I still had one spare. So I replaced the bulb, and she was back on the road.

Then I decided to try an oil change, ordered my parts from the internet and waited for them to arrive. Of course, when they did arrive I dropped the bike wheeling it down my (uneven, flagged) drive, nearly taking out the neighbours car.

Since it was lying downhill on uneven flags it was a bitch to get it upright again, and when I did I found that the rear brake pedal had been pushed down and bent under the engine, jamming it on. Finally got that sorted out and got the belly pan off to do the oil.

That’s when I found that the bike has a custom exhaust system, and the exhaust pipes have been re-routed over the engine oil sump plug. So I did a partial change only, via the filter.

Anyway, bike was back on the road and the oil was half decent. Only half.

So that was when I found the front wheel slip a bit and heard a huge bang when riding. Getting home I found that the metal tab on the swing arm to which the chain guard was attached had snapped off. Plus the front-forks were leaking oil. Plus the oil light had started to come on when the engine was warm from riding and I was idling at traffic lights.

Sigh.

So I hunted round for a proper mechanic, a guy at work’s neighbour restores big engine bikes, and does other servicing and repairs. Honest contact. So I arranged to send it off to him. I think that was now nearly a month ago, taking the bike up last week. I got it back yesterday.

The front tyre was fucked. The fork seals were fucked. The exhausts were blowing. Something was fucked to do with oil in the engine and some bolt inside the engine had sheared off. Also, some critical frame boltage was dangerously loose.

Scary.

But, it’s all been fixed, I have a new tyre, and it’s had a full service. I’ve only had 20 minutes out on it, and I’m not sure how much is psychological, but the grip is much better, the engine is quieter (exhausts fixed) and smoother. Gear changes are better. The front brake much sharper.

I can’t wait to get her out on the proper roads for a real test.

Only I’ve got to drive the family car (and family) down for two weeks in the sun first.