Fine & Dandy

Yep, that all worked, still VERY fiddly, but at least I found something good about having two front teeth missing - I needed two hands to get the cable aligned & fitted, I also needed to see into the dark recesses of the bellhousing & found that a mini Maglite (2 AA size) just fits comfortably in the gap. I'd like to be able to say that I lost them in a fracas with a jealous husband, but the mundane truth has more to do with tripping over in the playground when I was twelve.

The split nuts worked perfectly & are now wire-locked in just the right place & the tyrap kept the cable in position.

Oily Rag

For those of you without a technical bent – look away now, today’s update is grubby.

Below is the sad tail of how my last blat ended 40-odd miles short of a cooked breakfast. Well after a week in the sun (Mallorca) I removed the clutch cable to find as suspected, the nipple had come away from the clutch fork – so I hadn’t connected it properly.

In my defence, hooking the cable on is an EXTREMELY awkward job, best accomplished by one of those lemurs with the one long spindly finger. Pity there wasn’t one to hand really. So, how to make sure it didn’t happen again? The simplest solution is to fit a tyrap round the clutch arm once the nipple is in place, but that’s even more fiddly than fitting the cable because the plate that the cable butts against (actually a cut-down Harrier cold-air-unit mounting) prevents all but the nimblest of Lemurs from gaining access. I set about re-engineering it.

I enlarged the hole in the plate so the cable outer could fit through it – that means I can slide it right out of the way while struggling to hook up the cable (assuming I remain Lemur-free of course) but doing that also prevents all the locking & adjusting nuts from being fitted. I also realised that the alloy plate was wearing where the nuts rub it, & the alloy plate was wearing away the cable outer – it’s a strange fact that aluminium is one of the softer metals, so wears easily, but when it wears, the dust is aluminium oxide, one of the hardest & most abrasive materials on the planet.

Among the accumulated detritus in the garage, I found a steel bush, slit it & then slit the adjusting nuts, I also drilled them for wire locking. It should now be a simple matter to fit & tyrap the cable end, slide the aluminium plate into position, fit the adjusting nuts & bush over the cable inner, fit the cable at the pedal end & adjust, then wire lock the nuts together for security & Robert’s your Mother’s Brother – Hopefully.

Of course I shall look a pillock if it does it again at Lands end.

Marmite Toast Is No Substitute

Wa? ........ Wassat? ........ Wa - alarm, oh yes blatting. 05:20 is no time to wake up - unless there's something to wake up for. I had allowed myself 20 mins to get up, dressed & up the road. I was ready in 15.
Mr Mango had suggested he might join me for the run across to Sevenoaks, so I loitered in the garden feeling the early morning stillness, listening to the doves cooing & such, but at the allotted departure time I had not seen or heard from him, so set off solo.

I would've gone cross country, but a cycle race in practise for the Olympics meant the roads were closed, so I chugged along the M25, which was dull, but got me to the meet point just as a guy in a Cateringvan R300 arrived. Over the next few minutes reverberating roars & snorts heralded the arrival of SKCC members, among them Matt who I'd given a test ride to a couple of weeks back in his newly purchased Tiger. We numbered about nine or ten, with another two due to meet up on route.

This was the Fury's first blatting venture to the east, & the roads were top notch, twisty & undulating with little traffic. However dear reader, this story has a tragic ending (OK, maybe a bit sad rather than actually tragic). Before I reveal all, let me take you back to 2003(ish), the last time I did the London to Brighton cycle ride. It was at the top of Turner's Hill that my bike lost drive because one of the cranks came off, I pushed it to Ardingly service point, but the floppy-haired Halfords folk in attendance had no idea what a crank bolt was, let alone provide same.

This was all flooding back as we drove that particular road this morning, & shortly afterwards fate struck again. This time the nipple at the lower end of the clutch cable parted from the fork, leaving the pedal up against the bulkhead. There was nothing to be done. A couple of co-blatters (Mango & Bi22le) came back to see if they could help, but with a theatrical swoon I said "no - just leave me - I'll only slow you down" (actually, no I didn't). Fortunatly we were just off the A23, so once turned round & with a bit of a push I got the car started in 1st & changed up to 2nd clutchless, & so on. As long as I didn't have to stop I'd be fine. And so it was, again I chugged along the motorway, ending up back at home - & ravenous, I'd been looking forward to my full English - about the same time as the rest of the assembled crew were tucking into their "healthy option" breakfast.

Oh well. there's always next time.

It's Big & It's Black & It's Shiny

After a false start I took delivery of the Fury's new engine today. This is an exciting thing.

I've never had a NEW engine before, but this was delivered on a pallet to my door.

After a frenzied tearing of plasic & cutting of sticky tape which would have put a three year-old on thier birthday to shame, my new 2 litre Zetec was revealed in all it's glory.

After removing three-score screws holding the crate to the pallet, I slid it onto a wheeled trolley (actually the remains of a kitchen cupboard scrapped at the weekend) & with trembling hand, fitted the Powerspeed exhaust manifold & motorcycle throttle bodies - just you understand to ensure they fitted.

Oh how they fitted, & they looked magnificent though I say it myself.

OOoooooohhhh!

Now, when I've calmed down I'll need to write a list of the things I still need to buy to make it run.