Voyage of the Damned

Well...........

Collected El Diablo at 09:30 in North Shields and set sail for Gods own county. I kid you all not, I think I was tacking across the wind at least a dozen times and was passed by 4 contestants in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.

That is the first and last time this bike will see any rain:bawling

So.... How was it?

In all honesty, Bloody awful !

The Back brake confused me a little when it failed to render any assistance in arresting my progress approaching a swamped roundabout (Braking by ESP), but didn't worry me much, however, in the torrential monsoon style rain, as the Service triangle coming on followed by "SERVICE" IN BIG F*** OFF letters across the clocks did !!!

In the pit of my stomach, that "WHAT THE F*** HAVE I BOUGHT" feeling started to churn.

Anyhoooo........ The bike continued to run, didn't make any funny noises and I made it back faster than my chase car. I did the whole 113 mile hop in 1 go. The bike sounded fantastic, but my *** was in a coma by the time I reached Wetherby.

Docking back at my garage, I tied El Diablo to the jetty and walked away with mixed feelings. I've been out to it since, put the key in and the SERVICE warning has gone off.

I know I'm surrounded by many learned individuals, so suggestions, speculation and advice would be gratefully received, helpful, sarcastic or otherwise........:banghead

I suppose it was always going to happen. The Gods were going to piss on Me:lol

The Bike got the Name El Diablo because the niggles scared me, but the noise and the way it makes you feel means you can't leave it alone. This is going to be like an addiction. (And a wallet emptier).

I wanted a project and something I could put my own hands on, so I suppose they gave me what I wanted. Thanks for the excellent advice. I'll make a start on it. I've got to get It clean. My OCD is tormenting me. Not slept. Oh I've got it bad haven't I?

I'll post a picture of my cleaning racks later (yes, I know you all like pictures). Once it's clean I'll take pictures of the bike. One bonus is the Cans. I've only recently heard of Delkavic when I was looking for a stainless manifold for my old CBR. They seem to be a mid-range option. Not like Akro's I appreciate, but they look well made. Good rivets and clean welds and F****n Hell, they sound really good. Obviously didn't go too fast yesterday or too far up the rev range, so I bet they really sing when I get the chance to give it a real test.

Well onward, will entering the code for service reset clear the fault codes and knock the warning off?

I've read all the brake posts and how too's, but being stubborn I'm going to bleed the **** out of the B*****d and get some Motul fluid in there and see what happens. It doesn't work now, so I can't really make it any worse. Any recommendations for rearsets . Cheap, mid and top quality options. The worry from that is. The bike was only MOT'd last week, so how did it get past them and can I now trust the the service paperwork?

Lastly the levers are totally *****, "TITAN", I take it they're Chinese ? There's more lateral play in them, than a Bangkok whores pleasure pocket. And they're shorter than Star Wars Ewok. I've no doubt this bikes been loved, but there's a few budget items on there that will have to go. Once I get my rainy day slush fund back summat like. :lol

I love a challenge.:lol

Thanks for all the great help. I'm on it. Watch this space. :thumbup

Cleaning kit OCD.

New wallet emptier. :lol

All noted pal.

I'm gunna get into bleeding it all next week (cos am bull headed). Back to work in the mornin. So no time till then. :banghead

Has anybody thought about making a heat shield for the master cylinder?

Either mine is missing or it's *****. :lol