F**k It

Holy f**k, the f**k it thread went nearly a week without a post and fell out of the active topics

f**k it, why is one litre the most fork oil I can buy in a single container no matter where I look! And why do Halfrauds have such a crap selection!

Ok, so I get an invite to a free wine & dine at the OXO Tower Restaurant.

Decide that it would be best to book a room at the Premier Inn, Stevenage to save bu@@ering about with transport options.

Get a return (off-peak) train ticket.

Cost = £110.00p. (about the same price as the meal & wine) Therefore cost neutral. However.........

Fell asleep on the 00:50 train out of London!

Woke up just as it was leaving the platform at Royston!!

Got off at the next stop - Middle of nowhere!!!

Got a taxi from there back to Stevenage - £60!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and that was less than the meter price! )

NO FREE MEAL AT ALL!

F**k It F**k It F**k It V F**k It

Moving house soon, so I'm packing up all my stuff. Finally time to face all the paperwork that I've indiscriminately thrown into my desk drawers over the past year and a half. Bike service history is still just a jumbled mess of bits of paper, in the same carrier bag it was given to me in. Well, why not sort through it and put it in the right order, and add in the pages from my time owning the bike.

f**k it, the bike has been clocked twice, not just the one time I was told about. No wonder it's a bit tired out

f**k it, the bike blatantly had an accident with its second owner; clocks, headlight unit, forks and brakes were all replaced within a short span of time.

f**k it, the person I bought it from lied completely about the time they spent on the bike and had blatantly realised they'd bought a wreck, it only did 300 miles in the time they had it.

f**k it, I am far too trusting

Also, turns out the very first owner went through FIVE replacement keys. At least I'm not the only pillock to own it!

Cat has a 'free' bike you can collect - It looks like a prettier paperweight than the one you currently have!

Lost the small 'lid' from my right-hand Givi Keyless Pannier on the way back from Llanthoy today. Ripped clean off. F**k It!!!!

Someone has to keep the "F**k It" thread alive I guess...

f**k it, my tenancy expires on Thursday and I still have a broken down motorcycle in the garage. Tried to rebuild the forks on Saturday but the old seals are well and bloody truly stuck in place and (once again) the Haynes manual did a wonderful job of making it sound far easier that it actually is. Need to take the forks to Motoworks so they can get them out for me, but they aren't open today. So now I have a bike with no front end that has to be fully rebuilt (at least enough that I can push it 4 miles to my new house) by Thursday evening... well, Thursday morning seeing as I have to give the keys back by 5pm. I am the posterchild for shite luck.

Someone has to keep the "F**k It" thread alive I guess...

f**k it, my tenancy expires on Thursday and I still have a broken down motorcycle in the garage. Tried to rebuild the forks on Saturday but the old seals are well and bloody truly stuck in place and (once again) the Haynes manual did a wonderful job of making it sound far easier that it actually is. Need to take the forks to Motoworks so they can get them out for me, but they aren't open today. So now I have a bike with no front end that has to be fully rebuilt (at least enough that I can push it 4 miles to my new house) by Thursday evening... well, Thursday morning seeing as I have to give the keys back by 5pm. I am the posterchild for shite luck.

Can you not sling it in a van with the rest of your gear Ollie?

Woulda been smart, wouldn't it? Already done all the van stuff last Friday when I moved all my other belongings. I foolishly counted on being able to sort the forks so that I could drive it to the new house. Best backup plan I have at the moment (in case it isn't fixed by Thursday) is reattaching the handlebars and getting a couple of my housemates to help me shift it - one person on each side of the bars lifting it and roll it out of the garage on the rear wheel, then chain it to a lamp post somewhere in Orchard Park propped up on a stack of bricks until I can come back with functional forks (and pray that it doesn't get towed or knocked off the aforementioned bricks in the meanwhile)

Let us know how the fork fiasco works out bud - if you can bung the forks and front wheel on then I can swing by with the trailer after work one day.

Cheers, will do. I've been reading and re-reading the FAQ on the F650 forum over and over again and I have something to try when I get home, if that doesn't do it tonight then I'll take them to the shop tomorrow and see if they can do them sharpish for me.

So.....Ollie.......did the forks come apart or will they not separate?.......a bit of heat at the top of the sliders and some good old brute force and ignorance normally does the job....... If you need a hand let me know.....

Didn't elaborate fully in my original post - basically I got one of them out, but the damping rod wouldn't budge for love nor money in the other leg so in turn I can't use brute force to out the seal. Given my limited time frame I've bitten the bullet and given them to Motoworks to (mostly) finish the job - sticking the oil in them myself and reattaching them once I get home. Then I can ride it for one whole day before the MOT runs out, and then it's time to sort the rear brake out and check everything else over... and then it's back to the garage for an MOT, and then it's valve clearance time... still stuck on the decision of cutting my losses and selling it once it has an MOT on it or keeping it because what else can be left to go wrong??

Are the valves noisy? I wouldn't worry too much about clearances right awqy, unless it's a rattly old thing, and even then, there is an old saying that noisy valves are happy valves.

I wouldn't even begin to know if a noise was coming from the valves, let alone the difference between a healthy noise and an unhealthy noise!

Haven't particularly noticed and new and unhealthy noises coming from it, the only reason I was planning to get it looked at was because the Haynes said to have the valves done every 12000 miles. The BMW manual says every 6000, but every single other place says that's bullcrap, so I skipped that one.

Maybe shorty can shed more light on it

But I very much doubt they will need touching at 12k

It's not necessarily 12k since they were last done, is the thing - I've done 12k on it since buying it, so I know it's at least 12k since the last time. God only knows when it last happened before that Guess it can't hurt to stick a post on the F650 forum and see what they think, they're not always the most helpful bunch but they come in handy from time to time.

Then I can ride it for one whole day before the MOT runs out, and then it's time to sort the rear brake out and check everything else over... and then it's back to the garage for an MOT, and then it's valve clearance time... still stuck on the decision of cutting my losses and selling it once it has an MOT on it or keeping it because what else can be left to go wrong??

That's exactly how I felt about my 7R.

I decided to cut my losses

Back in one piece, rode it to the new house! Had to stop at some lights when half way and noticed that it smelt of petrol somewhat... stopped at the new house, killed the engine, tipped the bike onto the side stand aaaaand about half a litre or more of petrol ran out from under the seat

Not another huge disaster though, it turned out that one of the clamps on the fuel hose had come a bit loose. Sometimes I get confused and forget that I own a motorbike, it feels more like an expert level meccano set

20 miles from home and the adhesive on the heated grip let go, no real throttle control having to grip it as hard as I could to get any go

Missus CBF125 keeps cutting out randomly. Bit of googling turns up a possible faulty fuel pump

First day off after doing 8 12's.

Tumble dryer won't work. Very strange motor burning out type smell emanating from within.

ARRGHH.

That's my day off sorted.

In the garage, tools and I. Or bloody Currys for a new one!!!!!

Fitting OEM chain necessitates removing swingarm.

Fitting an aftermarket chain instead... Got two chain breaking & riveting tools, one of them fell out of the box during the house move and lost several parts, the other is made of Chinese bike grade metal.

f**k it

Double f**k it! Chain and sprocket kits out of stock!

Easy fix!

Cut out new sprokets from a lump of Edam and tie some cheese strings together for the chain.

Tempting... but instead I went for a heavy duty x-ring DID chain and a set of Renthal sprockets from sportsbikeshop, because apparently I hate money and want to get rid of it as quickly as I can.