Like Champ, I too spent the weekend fettling the bike. Saturday was spent doing the front wheel bearings... a surprisingly painless job considering my mechanical fuckwitedness on occasion.. Flushed by my success with that job, I decided to do an oil and filter change, and also change the spark plugs, which to my knowledge had also done 37 thousand miles.. Spark plug replacement is a slag, unless you have a childs hands. End of story. Bike fired up nicely afterwards, so was all in all well pleased at having saved cash on the labour front. Then I get an urgent call to come into work early as MD's PC is shagged and hes having an embolism. Jump on bike, get 300 yards down road, and think to myself "balls. seems to be missing on one cylinder. wasnt doing that last night.. never mind, Ill get to work and jam the HT lead back on, probably just come adrift" Then, having travelled all of half a mile, bike clonks and dies. Totally. "Odd, Ive got half a tank, yet thats just as if I had...run..out..of..petrol....." Can you see whats coming boys and girls? Yes, fuckwit here had removed the tank in order to change the plugs, and upon replacing said tank, had not turned the fuel petcock back to On. The petcock is under the tank. The tank pivots up nicely, but only if you have removed the allen bolt at the front... which of course I couldnt do, as the toolkit that normally lives under the seat was sitting on the bench at home.. So 1 incredibly sweaty walk home for tools, and another sweaty walk back to bike and all was well. And of course it wasnt missing, but the no4 carb had emptied over night on the sidestand into the lower carbs. MD wasnt too pleased either, but I just couldnt bring myself to care... Lesson very sweatily learnt!
